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Morning Report: A Big Day on the Schedule for Pitching Prospects

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It’s a big day for prospects on the mound today. A total of five pitchers in our mid-season top 30. I’ve included some minor league playoff notes, plus thoughts on Tyler Glasnow’s outing last night. The pitchers are covered in the schedule section.

**Sean McCool provided a live recap of Tyler Glasnow’s start in Harrisburg last night, which can be read here. It has quotes from Glasnow and pitching coach Justin Meccage. I just wanted to give some quick thoughts on the game. While he didn’t allow any runs, giving up two hits and three walks in three innings means it wasn’t a great outing. That’s especially true since he was given 65 pitches to get through four innings in Double-A and he only went three innings. He did finish his last eight pitches in the bullpen, but that’s because of how many pitches he threw in the first three innings. He shortest inning was 16 pitches, which was the third frame.

Despite the high pitch count and five runners, Glasnow definitely had some positives from his second rehab start. He and Meccage mentioned afterwards that they were happy with the changeup and I saw some really nice ones in there. Definitely better than any outing I’ve seen recently. The curve also looked strong last night. He didn’t hang any and it had nice downward break. Some of the ones he threw in his brief Major League time looked like he overthrew them and they didn’t have that big break that makes it a plus pitch.

While he said he backed off a little on the fastball, he was still doing a better job than normal of hitting his spots. Sometimes he will throw strikes with the pitch even though it wasn’t near where the catcher called for the pitch. Last night he just barely missed on a lot of outside fastballs, but he wasn’t missing his target by much. As far as stuff, and having all three pitches working, it was actually an encouraging outing. The results just weren’t there as far as limiting runners and keeping his pitch count down.

**Not including the playoffs, there are only 92 minor league games left this season between the eight affiliates, and that’s including the eight games today. The minor league season has felt like it has gone by quick. If you watch the Pirates regularly, you’re probably saying the exact opposite as you hang on every pitch.

**Keep in mind when you look at the Playoff Push section that each of the top five affiliates have 13-14 games left, while Bristol and the GCL both end on September 1st. Indianapolis could be eliminated by Wednesday night. Morgantown could be eliminated from their division race by Wednesday, but they are slowly creeping up the wild card standings. Bristol has lost five straight and they could be eliminated today if they lose to Elizabethton. Altoona took another step towards a playoff spot with a win last night.

PLAYOFF PUSH

The Pirates trail the second wild card spot by 3.5 games.

Indianapolis is in second place in their division, trailing by 12 games. They trail by 12.5 games for the lone wild card spot.

Altoona leads their division by 3.5 games. The top two teams in the division go to the playoffs, with the first place team getting the home field advantage in the first round.

Bradenton won the first half title. They have home field advantage in the playoffs.

West Virginia is tied for fourth place in their division, trailing first by five games.

Morgantown is in fourth place in their division, trailing first place by 12 games. They are six games back for the lone wild card spot.

Bristol is in fourth place, trailing by 10.5 games. The top two teams in each division go to the playoffs.

The GCL Pirates are 3.5 games back in their division. This is the only league where you have to win your division to make the playoffs.

The DSL Pirates have been eliminated from the playoffs. Their season ends August 27th.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates lost 3-1 to the Astros on Monday night. Ivan Nova gets the ball tonight, making his third start since joining the Pirates. He has yet to allow a walk in his 16.1 innings. Nova gave up three runs over seven innings in his debut. Six days later in Los Angeles, he allowed one run on nine hits in 5.1 innings. The Giants touched him up for four runs over four innings in his last start. The Astros will send righty Joe Musgrove to the mound. He has a 4.18 ERA in three starts and one relief appearance, with 23 strikeouts in 23.2 innings. He pitched well in his first two starts, before giving up eight runs on 11 hits over 5.1 innings against the Orioles five days ago.

In the minors, it’s a good day for pitching prospects, with five of them listed among our top 30 prospects. Frank Duncan could qualify for the ERA title after tonight’s game. He is about seven innings short, although that would only get him on the list briefly. His current ERA would lead the International League. Clay Holmes looks to bounce back from a rare shaky outing in which he gave up three runs over five inning. He went into his last game, allowing two runs or less in ten of his previous 11 starts. Gage Hinsz tries to comeback from his worst career outing last time out. He gave up eight runs over 3.2 innings, which caused his ERA to go up 81 points. Nick Kingham threw five shutout innings in his first start with Bradenton. He hasn’t walked a batter since his first rehab game back on July 8th.

Braeden Ogle is scheduled for the GCL Pirates. He has allowed one run or less in all six starts. The DSL Pirates will finish yesterday’s suspended game before playing their regularly scheduled game. The suspended game is 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth. Bristol has a doubleheader.

MLB: Pittsburgh (62-60) vs Astros (65-60) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Ivan Nova (4.41 ERA, 0:12 BB/SO, 16.1 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (64-66) vs Columbus (76-54) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Frank Duncan (2.06 ERA, 22:81 BB/SO, 96.0 IP)

AA: Altoona (70-57) @ Harrisburg (64-63) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Clay Holmes (4.08 ERA, 56:96 BB/SO, 128.0 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (65-59) @ Jupiter (62-63) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Nick Kingham (0.00 ERA, 0:3 BB/SO, 5.0 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (64-62) vs Lexington (48-78) 7:05 PM  (season preview)
Probable starter: Gage Hinsz (4.12 ERA, 19:56 BB/SO, 74.1 IP)

Short-Season A: Morgantown (29-33) vs Williamsport (32-29) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Matt Anderson (4.35 ERA, 9:32 BB/SO, 20.2 IP)

Rookie: Bristol (22-35) @ Elizabethton (32-25) 6:00 PM DH(season preview)

GCL: Pirates (20-29) vs Phillies (37-14) 12:00 PM (season preview)

DSL: Pirates (26-40) vs Mets1 (41-25) 10:30 AM (season preview)

HIGHLIGHTS

Here are two highlights from Erich Weiss on Sunday. The first is a home run, followed by his seventh RBI of the day.

Seventh RBI

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

8/22: Kyle Lobstein activated from the disabled list.

8/21: Evan Piechota promoted to Morgantown.

8/21: Yeudy Garcia activated from disabled list. Henry Hirsch placed on temporary inactive list.

8/20: Jung Ho Kang placed on disabled list. Josh Bell recalled from Indianapolis.

8/20: Stephen Alemais promoted to West Virginia. Alfredo Reyes placed on disabled list.

8/20: Ke’Bryan Hayes assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.

8/20: Pirates release Edgardo Leon

8/18: Pirates release Josh Outman.

8/18: Juan Diaz assigned to Bristol.

8/18: Jeremias Portorreal and Gabriel Brito promoted to GCL Pirates.

8/17: Josh Smith assigned to Indianapolis.

8/15: Yeudy Garcia and Chase Simpson placed on disabled list.

8/15: Hector Garcia assigned to GCL Pirates on rehab.

8/15: Nick Kingham and Justin Topa assigned to Bradenton.

8/14: Tyler Glasnow assigned to Altoona on rehab.

8/14: Jason Creasy assigned to Altoona.

8/12: Chris Stewart assigned to Altoona on rehab.

8/10: Christian Kelley promoted to Bradenton. Raul Hernandez assigned to West Virginia.

8/10: John Kuchno assigned to Altoona.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

One former Pittsburgh Pirates player born on this date, plus the second no-hitter in team history. Guy Bush pitched for the 1935-36 Pirates. He was part of a five-player trade after the 1934 season that included Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom. Bush was part of  strong Pirates’ rotation that included HOF pitcher Waite Hoyt, as well as Cy Blanton, Red Lucas, Bill Swift and then Mace Brown getting long relief duty and some spot starts. Bush threw 204.1 innings in 1935, posting a 4.32 ERA. The next year, he was only used out of the bullpen, getting released in early July.

The first official no-hitter in Pirates’ history was thrown by Nick Maddox at the end of the 1907 season. That’s only true because MLB changed the definition of official no-hitters for some strange reason. Before Maddox threw his game, two Pirates’ pitchers threw complete games with no hits, yet for some reason, they took them out of the record book because they didn’t play nine innings. Regardless of what MLB says, Lefty Leifield threw the first no-hitter in Pirates’ history back on September 26, 1906 when he no-hit the Phillies for six innings. The game was called due to darkness, so Leifield gets punished because the ump decided it was a good idea to stop playing once the teams couldn’t see the ball.

The next year on August 23,1907, Howie Camnitz threw the second Pirates’ no-hitter during the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants. This game wasn’t even called due to weather or darkness. The two teams played extra innings in the first game, then decided the second game would be a five inning game, so Camnitz couldn’t have went any further unless the score was tied. He was far from perfect in the game, allowing four walks, but the Giants were unable to collect a hit and the Pirates won 1-0.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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