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First Pitch: The Week That Could Make or Break the Pirates

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The Pirates swept the Oakland Athletics this weekend, and have now taken seven of their last nine games in order to pull to 41-41 on the season. Heading up to this point, there has been a lot of discussion about how they could be sellers at the deadline.

I really don’t see them being traditional sellers, since they’ve got a team that can contend next year, and might have a shot at contending this year. That said, if they’re out of it by the deadline, I could see them selling off a few short-term pieces, such as David Freese or Matt Joyce, and that really wouldn’t impact them in the long run, since those guys would be free agents at the end of the year.

The Pirates’ fate will probably be largely determined this week. They have four games on the road against the Cardinals, and three at home against the Cubs, leading into the All-Star break. After that, they’ve got an easier schedule on paper, although that comes with the thought that they could beat the Brewers and Reds consistently, which hasn’t always been the case in previous years.

Any chance of winning the division is pretty much out the window. Even with the Cubs struggling a bit lately, and the Pirates performing so well, they’re 10.5 games back from first place in the NL Central. They’re only 11.5 games ahead of the Reds, who have the second worst record in the NL, and the third worst in baseball.

But the Wild Card is within reach. They’re 3.5 games back from the second Wild Card spot, and 5.0 games back from the all-to-familiar territory of hosting the Wild Card game at PNC Park. The only downside to this is that they’ve got a lot of tough competition, with the Cardinals, Marlins, and Mets ahead of them for the second spot, and the Dodgers sitting in the top spot.

They’re currently one game behind the Cardinals. So the four game series this week will either allow them to take the lead, or push them way back in the standings. Meanwhile, they were swept the last time they faced the Cubs, and another performance like that will either kill any progress they made against the Cardinals, or help to further bury them in the standings.

After the break, there would only be two weeks until the trade deadline. They could pad their win totals against the Brewers, Phillies, and Brewers again, but if they can’t beat the good teams, then how much of a realistic shot do they have this year?

A week from now, we’ll be getting the first half recaps. After all of this season, the upcoming week could set the tone for those recaps. They’ll either be talking about a team that struggled most of the year, but is turning the corner, and could compete with an easy schedule ahead. Or they’ll be talking about a team that struggled most of the year, had a good stretch, but went back to struggling against good teams, and could be preparing to sell off a few pieces by the end of the month.

As usual, on Sunday we recap all of the big features from the week before. This week, we had a lot of articles, so it was easy to fall behind on a few of them and miss some bigger articles. Today alone, for example, there were eight articles, not counting this one. Check the “Latest” tab on the right for the most recent articles. As for the bigger articles this week, here they are. If you aren’t a subscriber, you will need to be in order to read these. And that $2.99 per month will be well worth it to get the information that we bring, which you can’t get anywhere else. Subscribe today to read the features below.

Weekly Recap

10. Mitchell Tolman is quietly putting up some good numbers in West Virginia, increasing his production as the season goes on. Abigail Miskowiec wrote about Tolman this week, looking at how much he has boosted the West Virginia offense this year.

9. The International signing period began on Saturday, and while the news was slow at first, there were a lot of signings today. John Dreker wrote about why you shouldn’t worry about the slow first day, and all of the signings that have been reported are on our International Signing Tracker.

8. We named our Player and Pitcher of the Month for June. Tyler Glasnow was the pitcher, and Austin Meadows was the player. Check out both articles for a breakdown of how each prospect performed.

7. The Rule 5 draft isn’t really a big issue, and it’s several months away. However, looking at the Rule 5 eligible players gives us an idea of what could happen the rest of the year with those players, which is why I broke it down this week.

6. Chad Kuhl had a great outing in his second MLB start this weekend in Oakland. Prior to that, Ed Giles broke down his sinker, comparing it to the two-seam fastballs of other Pirates pitchers, and of other starters around the league.

5. Clay Holmes had a bit of a rough start in Altoona at the beginning of the year, with a lot of inconsistent performances. That has changed lately, and he’s looking a lot better the further he moves from Tommy John. Earlier in the week, John Dreker broke down one of his starts, looking at how impressive he looked. And that wasn’t even his most impressive start of the week.

4. Gage Hinsz has a lot of upside, but up until this year he had been held back by injuries. He’s now starting to see his pitches develop, and Abigail Miskowiec looks at how much he has improved now that the injuries are behind him.

3. Will Craig has been off to a slow start in Morgantown, although that’s not uncommon. This time last year, Kevin Newman was also struggling at the level, and we see now how little that said about Newman. In Craig’s case, it could be due to a slow transition back to a wooden bat, as Abigail Miskowiec writes.

2. Harold Ramirez got off to a slow start, but has since been one of the best hitters in the Eastern League. Sean McCool looks at the reason for the slow start, and the adjustments Ramirez has been making ever since to lead to this success.

1. He’s not the top prospect on this week’s list, and he hasn’t pitched a game yet (which will change tomorrow), but I talked with second round pick Travis MacGregor, and learned a lot of interesting details that weren’t previously reported, and which probably made him the second round choice for the Pirates. I’ll have post-draft reports on Braeden Ogle and Max Kranick this week.

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.

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