RECAPPING THE WEEK THAT WAS
Skenes Start Pushed Back
Following Saturday’s loss to the Red Sox, the Pirates finally made a decision that addressed Paul Skenes health for the first time this season:
Pushing Paul Skenes back to Wednesday’s game against Detroit gives him seven days of rest between starts. We will see on Wednesday afternoon if they extra rest helps Skenes at all and makes a difference in his pitching performance. I still stick to my earlier speculation that he has a dead arm, in which case I would sit him down for another week and give him two weeks rest in between starts. But either way, this is the first time the Pirates have done something to address it.
The timeline we’ve seen from Skenes this season looks like this:
- Pitched in WBC in March
- Rough Opening Day in New York where he recorded just 2 outs
- Dominant Skenes over the next 8 starts (1.09 ERA in 49.1 innings)
- Declining velo
- Team goes 0-9 in 9 starts (5.36 ERA in 47.0 innings)
- Laboring through starts
- Pulled after just 65 pitches during his August 11 start
- Backed up in rotation to allow for more time to recover
Obviously the declining velo is a major red flag, but Skenes and company still insist that it’s be design. Sure 97-98 mph could be by design on the four-seamer, but 95-96 like we’ve seen in more recent starts? It’s a concern. Ben Cherington was asked yesterday on his radio show about it and saying he’s had “an excellent year.”
Yes Paul Skenes has set the bar really high for himself, but I wouldn’t call this season excellent by any means and I’m sure Paul wouldn’t either. He was asked about the decision to pull him after 65 pitches against the Marlins:
Between this and his “it is what it is” quote after being pulled early from that game, Skenes isn’t exactly acting like some fiery competitor right now. This is just my opinion, but he seems like a defeated man. Where’s the killer instinct? I think they all agreed to tweak something with him in the offseason either to try and be an more efficient pitcher or try and stay healthy or both, but I think he’s lost at this point and knows it’s not going to be fixed this season. This is something they need to go back into the lab for in the offseason and hopefully fix it that way. And then there was this photo following his start in Miami:
Tough week for Paul Skenes lol.
This decision to bump him back and finally give him some extra rest is just the latest piece of evidence proving the Pirates needed another starting pitcher. They ignored picking up an extra one this offseason because low risk signings of Mike Clevinger and Jose Urquidy (both are no longer in the organization). And then Ben Cherington had a chance to fix that wrong at the deadline and chose not to, focusing solely on acquiring bullpen arms instead. This team has always signed a veteran SP to help eat innings during the season in recent years and then just didn’t in a season where they knew they had a bunch of young arms that would be on inning limits (Braxton Ashcraft and Bubba Chandler) and pitch counts (see Jared Jones coming off injury). And that was before Paul Skenes had these issues. There’s just no way around it—The Bucs needed another SP arm and didn’t bother. Now we’ve been treated to multiple bullpen games because of it.
All eyes will be on Skenes Wednesday afternoon to see how the rest effects him and if he can right the ship and put together a solid start that he hasn’t been able to do recently. I will be there in attendance Wednesday as well for an up close look myself.
Jim and DiNardo talked about this as well on Bucco Brew this morning so take a listen here:
And in today’s episode of OffBeat, Alex Stumpf wonders if the Pirates should just shut down Skenes for the rest of the season:
3-3 Week
The Pirates went 3-3 this week and won their first series since the Cleveland series in mid-July. They defeated the Red Sox two-out-of-three to snap 7 consecutive series losses. And a 3-3 week when you’re playing two potential playoff teams isn’t bad, but the Pirates are in such a hole that they need over .500 weeks and sweeps to get back in this thing. And the schedule doesn’t get any easier to finish August. They have the Tigers at home this week then head to the west coast to face the Dodgers and Padres for six games. Then to St. Louis where they always struggle against the Cardinals and once again, you’re still behind the Cards in the standings like always.
The schedule does lighten up in September, but they need wins now and lots of them.
NEWS & NOTES
Will We See Oneil Cruz This Week?
Cruz started his rehab at Triple-A Indy then went to Double-A Altoona and Sunday he was at PNC Park, but still not activated.
Let’s hope the evaluation went well and he’s activated this week. We are sorely needing Oneil Cruz in this lineup. This injury of his has been a bit bizarre because there were some mixed reports and it started with a confusing IL stint. One minute they had him back in the lineup and then he was scratched and then a day later hits the IL. His last game was June 7. It’s been a while. Hopefully we see him activated at some point this week and back in the top of the Pirates lineup. That will be a big boost for this offense that has struggled as of late. I can’t wait…I need it.
Mason Jar on Lock Down
I talked about this on the takeaways after Sunday’s win, but I have to repeat—Mason Montgomery has been so good recently. Since July 1st, here’s his numbers:
15.2 innings
1.15 ERA
0.78 FIP
32 strikeouts
5 walks
.077 opposing batter's average
55.2 K%
18.38 K/9
These numbers are bonkers. He’s faced 58 batters during this stretch and only four have gotten hits off him. He’s striking out more than half of the batters he’s facing…that’s Mason Miller video games numbers. In yesterday’s game, he threw 11 pitches and 9 strikes and had a 71% whiff rate! No one can touch him right now. Just an insane run he’s on as he has dialed it in and is becoming that dude for the Pirates. I’m salivating thinking about him and Luke Weaver in the back end of this bullpen next season.
Speaking of the Bullpen, They’re Suddenly Good!
Sure, Ben Cherington ignored the starting pitcher position at the deadline and didn’t feel the need to pick up a bat that could hit lefties, but at least he did fix this bullpen. It’s been two weeks now since the deadline of August 3 and this bullpen is no longer a problem.
Since August 3, the Pirates pen owns a 3.35 ERA good for 7th in the Major Leagues. Their expected ERA is even better at 2.88 (4th in MLB) and they are first in all of baseball in K% with a 29.9%. Batting average against is just .207, also 7th in MLB. Not too bad from where we were. And that includes Weaver giving up three runs the other day in a 4-0 loss to the Red Sox. The pen was basically fixed over night. Yohan Ramirez was away on paternity leave this weekend and should be back sometime this week as well. Here’s how the current bullpen looks coming out of the bullpen game yesterday…
Lake Bachar will be unavailable for a couple games and Hunter Barco will likely go back down for Yohan once he returns, but everyone else should be good to go. They go right into the Tigers series today and then have an off day Thursday.
Santana Up With the D-Backs
One of our former bullpen arms was picked up by Arizona after being released by the Pirates.
Now that he’s on the Diamondbacks active roster, Santana will be pitching for his 6th MLB team once he makes an appearance with Arizona. I’m hoping he figures it out and finds success in the desert. Santana went on one hell of a run in a Pirates uniform to help his career.
Walk This Way
In the 103rd plate appearance of his career, Billy Cook finally drew a walk…
Nick Gonzales Hit in the Head
During Friday’s game, Nick Gonzales was hit in the head with a fastball and left the game. It’s a tough watch as he was hit in the extension flap that protects hitters face and jaw…
He left the game as a precaution and was cleared from a concussion, but he didn’t play the past two games nor has he hit the IL. I’d imagine if he missed anymore time, he may get put on the IL, but hopefully we see him this week and he’s not feeling any effects from that HBP. It was definitely a scary moment.
THE UPCOMING WEEK
The Pirates jump right into a series with the Detroit Tigers at PNC Park tonight as the homestand continues. The Tigers are fighting for a playoff spot as well in the weak AL as they are 5.5 games out of first place in the AL Central, but just one game behind the third wildcard team despite trading away Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize at the deadline. How bad is the AL this season? The Orioles currently are the third wildcard team at 61-63. Yikes. Where would this Pirates team be if they played in the AL Central?
The Tigers were playing well, but are coming into Pittsburgh following a three-game sweep by the White Sox in Detroit. After the Tigers, the Pirates have Thursday off to fly out to Los Angeles to start a series with the Dodgers and then Padres. It’s going to be a tough week, but this team needs to finish strong. I’m looking forward to see how Ashcraft pitches coming off his sterling complete game performance in his last start. And of course a lot of attention will be on Skenes start Wednesday.
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That’s all I have for The NS9 Report this week. I’ll be at the game Wednesday afternoon versus the Tigers. Let me know if you’ll be going to the game as well and maybe we can meet up.
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