The Pirates got beaten soundly 6-1 last night due to some timely hitting from the Rangers and some shenanigans that have continued to the plague the Pirates during the season. Bubba Chandler was chased early after an unfortunate inside-the-park home run in the third and a 3-run bomb given up to Corey Seager in the following inning. The Pirates attempted to mount rallies but Jacob deGrom shoved and the defense flashed its leather, saving a Konnor Griffin ball from going into the corner. The Pirates are now 14-11, and are on the way to Milwaukee for a 3-game set at the house of horrors. Here are our three takeaways from last night’s loss.
Bubba’s Walks Finally Burned Him
Entering last night’s game, Bubba Chander had been pitching well and rocking a low ERA, but his walk troubles led to a lot of situations where he had to labor to get out of it without allowing too much damage. Thursday was not one of those days, unfortunately, as Chandler saw trouble from the beginning of the game. His first inning saw three Rangers reach base, and his struggles didn’t end there. Evan Carter hit an inside-the-park home run, which was a tank of a shot, but you do feel that Ryan O’Hearn could’ve caught the ball. But ultimately it was the 4-run 4th inning that was his undoing, as he let many hitters reach base before Seager nuked a hanging changeup into the seats, putting the game out of reach for good. Chandler is a very young and relatively inexperienced full-time pitcher, so these struggles are to be expected. The Pirates have to live with these growing pains, as he has ace-level stuff and needs time to adjust to MLB hitting.
Konnor Griffin’s 2 Red Flags
For me to be concerned about Griffin’s ability to hit MLB pitching, I need to see at least 300-400 at-bats with very little improvement in results. He only turns 20 Friday, and seeing guys like Kevin McGonigle and Sal Stewart mash immediately naturally causes anxiety about the number one prospect in the sport. However, those guys were in A ball when they were Griffin’s age, and so he has arrived much earlier than anyone expected.
From a pure eye test, his at-bats look solid, and he looks like he belongs and isn’t getting overwhelmed. However, there are two causes for concern as I watch him hit: his strikeouts and ground ball rate. When Griffin first came up, he did a fantastic job mitigating strikeouts and working counts. Unfortunately that luck hasn’t continued, as his strikeout percentage has ballooned to 30% as of last night. When he is making contact, he is also putting it on the ground a lot. With the bases loaded, Griffin killed the baseball and was deeply unfortunate to not have a double in the corner. However, one of the reasons he was out was because it was yet another groundball. Of his batted balls, he is hitting grounders 54.5% of the time, which is double-digit numbers higher than any of his stints in the minors. If Griffin is going to break out of this slump and succeed, he needs to put the ball in the air.
Why is Joey Bart?
Joey Bart got yet another start, and went 1-for-3 with a bloop single and nothing else of real value. Bart’s value as a backup is he supposed to be a guy who can mash lefties, and that is something the Pirates desperately need with three of their best hitters being lefty. However, as things stand on April 24th he is batting .171, his OPS sits at a cool .517, his OPS+ is 44, and he isn’t really bringing value. He is currently hitting worse against lefties than he is righties, posting a meager .458 OPS against southpaws. Henry Davis isn’t lighting the world on fire with his bat either (though he does have promising underlying metrics) but he provides elite defense that Bart doesn’t. There simply is not point in rostering someone who provides no value behind the backstop or at the plate
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