One of the Pirates’ key starters feels like his body is no longer attached to his arm. I find that mildly problematic.
Two other rotation pieces, plus the likely first Triple-A call-up, have long since succumbed to long-term injuries. Staff ace Mitch Keller has surrendered 21 batted balls of 95-plus mph in his past two starts and just got blown up by the worst team in baseball history.
OK, maybe the second-worst, if you include the 1899 Cleveland Spiders — and no, Rich Hill did not pitch for that club, although a man named Crazy Schmit did, posting a 2-17 record with a 5.38 earned-run average. Crazy wasn’t exactly foolin’ em that year: 24 strikeouts in 138 innings.
Meanwhile, the Pirates’ farm system does not appear to be stocked with high-end pitching prospects, and the one who figured to provide the most immediate help (Quinn Priester) has been alternately excellent and dreadful — like the time three starts ago when he surrendered six walks, five earned runs and four hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Call me Crazy, but I’m not overly excited about a guy with a 4.63 ERA at Indianapolis jumping to the big leagues.
If an image could encapsulate the current state of the Pirates’ rotation, it might be Roansy Contreras sitting in the dugout Wednesday with his head buried in a towel. He never made it out of the first inning, managing one out while giving up seven runs, six hits and two walks against the aforementioned A’s, who raised their record to 14-50 with the win.
Contreras’ ERA for the day was 189.02. I find that mildly problematic, as well, and I wouldn’t expect him to make another start anytime soon. The following postgame quote sure didn’t inspire much hope.
“I felt like my body wasn’t connected to my arm,” Contreras said through a translator. “It was hard for me to make pitches.”
Things change fast in a baseball season. The Pirates are proof. All the hope and goodwill generated by that sweep of the Cardinals vanished over a horrendous three-game showing against the A’s. The Pirates probably should have been swept but managed an ugly win only to be outscored 20-7 over the final two games.
Could it be the Cardinals series was a mirage, and maybe the Cardinals are just awful this season?
We’ll find out more in the coming days and weeks as the Pirates still find themselves just a game-and-a-half out of first place in NL Central. Their fate, like every team’s, hinges largely on starting pitching. Even in the age of five-inning starts and booming bullpen arms, that remains the case, and it was the main reason the Pirates got off to such a fabulous start.
The first order of business is for Keller to regain his mojo. He was a true stopper for most of May, rescuing his slumping team with one brilliant performance after another. He looked like a candidate to start the All-Star Game. But his ERA has ballooned from 2.44 to 3.60 over his past three starts, in which he has allowed 25 hits and 15 runs in 17 1/3 innings.
I wouldn’t call it a crisis by any means, but a few more starts like that would push the arrow in that direction.
Secondly, Johan Oviedo has suddenly become a central player in this drama. I like him. He seems to have the correct bulldog mindset. He has delivered five winnable starts in a row, though his command comes and goes.
Hill had a 5.47 ERA in May but was very good in beating the Cardinals on Sunday. They could use a stabilizing stretch from him. Some good news on Vince Velasquez would be heartening, too, but that would be a surprise. His injury was a critical blow and the second big injury to the staff, coming after JT Brubaker’s. Top prospect Mike Burrows also went down long-term.
Outside of an outlier start against Texas, Luis Ortiz hasn’t been the same guy as he was late last season. Something doesn’t seem right. His strikeout rate has plummeted at both the major league and Triple-A levels. Maybe the move is to see if Priester’s wicked overhand curve can play for a bit up here. Or maybe GM Ben Cherington, if he believes this team is worth helping, can trade for a dependable veteran arm.
Contreras was supposed to be a major piece this season. Possibly the staff ace. He’s still young at 23 and obviously has adequate stuff. Sometimes electric stuff. Maybe another trip to the bullpen can help turn him around the way it did Keller last season.
First, the Pirates should see to it that his body gets reattached to his arm.
That would be helpful.
