30.5 F
Pittsburgh

First Pitch: Thoughts on Glasnow, Polanco, Hanson, Pitching, Castro

Published:

Last week when I looked at the schedule, I saw the opportunity to cover six games in three days. I didn’t have to cover six games. I could have taken a break from the minor league coverage for three days while the Pirates were in Tampa. But it sounded like fun, and almost a reminder of the first few years running this site, when I would go on a season ending tour at the end of the year, stopping in a different minor league city each night.

Today ended up being a pretty busy news day, plus there were the final two games to cover. The coverage for the games doesn’t just involve watching them. It involves showing up a few hours early, doing interviews, generating story ideas, and writing, of course. As a result of the last few days, I’ve got a lot of great article ideas lined up for the next few days and the next week. But also as a result of today’s busy day, and getting those articles ready, I don’t really have it in me to think up something new tonight. So we’ll go with a “thoughts” column, recapping all of the stories from today.

**Prospect Watch: Harold Ramirez and Josh Bell Extend Their Hitting Streaks. I’ve got a live report here on Orlando Castro, which I’ll expand on in the next few days.

**Tyler Glasnow is Somehow Repeating His 2013 Success at a Higher Level. One of the games I covered this week was Glasnow’s start on Tuesday. I recapped that start here, along with pointing out how dominant Glasnow has been this year. I’m guessing he’ll have just a few more starts in Bradenton before moving up.

**Prospect Highlights: Video of Tyler Glasnow and Nick Kingham From Tuesday. Here was video of Glasnow’s sixth inning, along with a video from Kingham’s start on Tuesday.

**Pirates Still Discussing Extension With Gregory Polanco. A report from Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes. It makes sense for anyone who doesn’t believe that an extension is dead after the initial offer is rejected.

**The Mystery Surrounding Alen Hanson’s Time Off. A “he said, she said” situation here. I really don’t think this matters in the long run, as long as Hanson is better off at the end of the day.

**Gerrit Cole Will Return From the DL and Start For Pirates on Saturday. I think Brandon Cumpton should be the odd man out in the rotation. He deserves to be in the majors, but (surprisingly) the Pirates have a lot of good pitchers in the big leagues right now.

**Starling Marte Clears Concussive Tests. No word yet on when he’ll return. He’s also dealing with a swollen finger.

**Minor Moves: Pirates Acquire Minor League Pitcher John Holdzkom, A.J. Morris to the DL. Information on the new guy, and not encouraging news on Morris, who was having a nice season.

**Minor League Schedule: Luis Heredia Has Struggled on the Road This Season. Heredia hasn’t been having the best year, and didn’t have a good outing the last time out.

**Just a random thought, with no article attached (yet), but I’m starting to think the Pirates aren’t so desperate for pitching. I’ll be writing more on this later (and I’ve already written a bit), but I think Jeff Locke and Vance Worley are the real deal. They’re not top of the rotation guys, but with the way the Pirates’ offense looks, I don’t think they need a rotation full of top of the rotation guys. They just need a rotation with guys who constantly give you a chance to win, and it’s looking like they’ve got that now — especially when Cole returns.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

Related Articles

Latest Articles