I will admit that the Juan Nicasio project has, to this point, gone better than I thought it might after his first few starts this year. He obviously hasn’t dominated the way that he did in spring training, but he’s more or less kept the Pirates in games and turned in an occasional very good start. I don’t know what his long-term future in the rotation is once the minor leaguers start coming up (especially because I will maintain the opinion that he has more value as a swingman than the two lefties at the bottom of the Pirate rotation that are struggling), but he’s certainly making a case for himself.
One of the jobs of the bottom-of-the-rotation guys is to beat the cupcakes on the schedule. The Braves are as bad as any team the Pirates will play this year. It’s Nicasio’s job to keep them off the scoreboard tonight, like Niese did last night. The Braves are starting “Aaron Blair,” who I am assured by Baseball-Reference is a real Major League pitcher. First pitch is at 7:05.
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