Jameson Taillon went over the 50 inning mark last night, meaning he is no longer considered a prospect. Our cutoff for starting pitchers is 50 innings and he is the first player this season to graduate from the prospect guide. We first put out the guide in 2011 and he was the top ranked player back then. Over the next four seasons, he fell one spot to second best, listed behind Gerrit Cole twice, Gregory Polanco once and Tyler Glasnow once. In the most recent guide, he was fourth behind Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Josh Bell.
With Taillon now out of the 2017 guide, that leaves us with one other player who has made it every season into our top 50 prospects. That is Nick Kingham, and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say he will be rated highly in the 2017 guide. As mentioned below, Kingham is scheduled to start today in the GCL and go five innings. That could obviously change, since he hasn’t pitched since last Monday. He was given a little breather, as is common with Tommy John surgery during the first year back.
If all goes as planned, he will go from the GCL to Bradenton, where he will be on a five inning limit. Nothing has been planned further than that point. If everything goes fine from here on out, he would finish with 46 innings this season. Good chance it will be less, since one high pitch count in an inning would keep that from happening. Kingham could then add more innings during the Fall Instructional League, so he then has a higher number to build off of next year.
That’s all based on everything going perfect. We saw last year with Clay Holmes that doesn’t always work out. He was shutdown late and didn’t get any innings during Instructs. He was putting in some innings in Extended Spring Training before the GCL season started though, so that’s where he had the advantage over Kingham. We have seen with Holmes, who is also scheduled to pitch tonight, that he has been basically able to pitch full-time this year. He skipped one start back in June, and then took a few extra days after the All-Star break ended.
Holmes is up to 112 innings already, so I could see him being scaled back a little to end the season. It may not happen because he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down recently. His control has been fine and the velocity hasn’t gone down. On the other hand, we have Mitch Keller also going tonight. In his last three starts, he has a 5.68 ERA and hasn’t made it through five innings in any of those games.
As far as innings, you would think that last fact would help his case to remain in the rotation until the end of the season, but he has thrown 265 pitches over 12.2 innings in those three games. In his prior three starts combined, he threw 246 pitches over 17 innings. So while it seems like he was getting less work, he was actually throwing a lot more stressful pitches. On the current schedule, he would have six more starts (including tonight), and the only way I see that happening is if they limit his innings/pitch count. Just letting him run out the schedule normal would be a huge increase over last year and the Pirates are usually very careful about not doing that with younger pitchers.
Those were some pretty nice segues that got you from Jameson Taillon losing his prospect status, to Mitch Keller’s recent struggles and him nearing his innings limit this year, which could be related. As long as Kingham goes this morning, it’s a loaded day for pitching prospects, as shown below in the schedule.
PLAYOFF PUSH
Indianapolis is in second place in their division, trailing by five games. They trail by 10.5 games for the lone wild card spot.
Altoona leads their division by a 1/2 game. 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 in sixth place in their division, trailing first by six games.
Morgantown is in fourth place in their division, trailing first place by 12 games. They are eight games back for the lone wild card spot.
Bristol is in fourth place, trailing by 5.5 games. The top two teams in each division go to the playoffs.
The GCL Pirates are tied for the lead in their division. This is the only league where you have to win your division to make the playoffs.
The DSL Pirates trail their division by 18 games. They trail in the wild card by 17 games.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates won 3-2 over the Reds on Friday night. They will now send Ivan Nova to the mound to make his debut for the Pirates. In 15 starts and six relief appearances for the Yankees, Nova had a 4.90 ERA in 97.1 innings, with 75 strikeouts and a 1.36 WHIP. He gave up five runs over 4.1 innings during his last start, which was on July 29th. The Reds will counter with Homer Bailey, who has pitched just one game this year in the majors. Against the Padres, he allowed two runs over 5.2 innings. Bailey was out due to Tommy John surgery, though he did make seven minor league starts. He faced Indianapolis twice and gave up five runs over 7.2 innings.
In the minors, Nick Kingham, Chad Kuhl, Clay Holmes and Mitch Keller are all listed as probables for today. That’s quite a talented group, with all four of them ranking in our top 13 prospects at this time. Kingham is scheduled to go five innings for the GCL Pirates, then should move on to Bradenton for his next start. Kuhl threw six shutout innings in his last start. Keller was just named the best pitcher in the South Atlantic League according to managers and coaches in the league. Holmes has allowed two earned runs or less in eight of his last nine outings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (54-53) vs Reds (44-64) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Ivan Nova (NR)
AAA: Indianapolis (58-56) vs Toledo (51-63) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Chad Kuhl (2.37 ERA, 16:66 BB/SO, 83.2 IP)
AA: Altoona (61-50) @ Reading (75-37) 6:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Clay Holmes (4.34 ERA, 49:81 BB/SO, 112.0 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (56-53) @ St Lucie (57-50) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: JT Brubaker (5.17 ERA, 16:28 BB/SO, 47.0 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (54-56) @ Delmarva (59-51) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (3.02 ERA, 14:103 BB/SO, 101.1 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (20-27) vs Williamsport (28-19) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Danny Beddes (2.32 ERA, 13:32 BB/SO, 42.2 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (17-24) @ Greeneville (23-19) 6:00 PM (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (16-21) vs Phillies (25-11) 10:00 AM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (20-33) vs Yankees1 (26-26) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is a no doubt grand slam off the bat of Danny Ortiz, his 14th home run of the season. He leads Indianapolis and trails only Eric Wood and Tito Polo among Pirates.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
8/4: Ryan Vogelsong activated from disabled list. Max Moroff optioned to Indianapolis.
8/4: Pirates release Wilfredo Boscan.
8/4: Kelvin Marte placed on disabled list.
8/4: Henrry Rosario promoted to Bristol. Sam Kennelly assigned to GCL Pirates.
8/3: Chris Harvey promoted to Indianapolis. Trey Haley sent to Altoona.
8/3: Elvis Escobar promoted to Altoona. Justin Maffei assigned to Bradenton.
8/3: Erik Lunde assigned to Bradenton. Jose Regalado activated from disabled list.
8/2: Wilfredo Boscan placed on disabled list.
8/2: Tomas Morales assigned to Altoona. Chris Diaz activated from temporary inactive list.
8/1: Pirates trade Francisco Liriano, Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez for Drew Hutchison.
8/1: Pirates acquire Ivan Nova from New York Yankees for players to be named later.
8/1: Pirates trade Jon Niese to New York Mets for Antonio Bastardo and cash.
8/1: Blake Cederlind placed on disabled list. Evan Piechota assigned to Bristol.
8/1: Edgar Santana promoted to Indianapolis.
7/31: Pirates recall Max Moroff. Steven Brault optioned to Indianapolis.
7/31: Erik Lunde assigned to GCL Pirates.
7/30: Pirates trade Mark Melancon to Washington Nationals for Taylor Hearn and Felipe Rivero.
7/29: Pirates recall Steven Brault. A.J. Schugel optioned to Indianapolis.
7/29: Austin Meadows assigned to Morgantown on rehab
7/29: Jin-De Jhang sent to Altoona. Tomas Morales assigned to Bradenton.
7/28: Frank Duncan activated from disabled list.
7/26: Eric Fryer reinstated from paternity list. Elias Diaz optioned to Indianapolis.
7/25: Ke’Bryan Hayes placed on the disabled list.
7/24: Tyler Glasnow placed on disabled list. A.J. Schugel recalled.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Seven former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, two of them played for World Series winners and one was related to a Hall of Famer. Starting with the most recent first.
Stan Belinda, relief pitcher from 1989 until 1993. No comment
Steve Nicosia, catcher for the 1979 World Series champs. Played with the team from 1978 until 1983, which was when he asked to be traded because he wasn’t getting playing time behind Tony Pena.
Clem Labine, pitcher for the 1960 World Series champs. Labine lasted until 1961 with the team. He had a 1.48 ERA in 30.1 late season innings for the 1960 Pirates.
Bud Hafey, outfielder for the 1935-36 Pirates. His brother Tom played two years in the majors and his cousin Chick Hafey was a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Reds and Cardinals. Bud played 97 games for the Pirates over his two seasons.
Bud Sharpe, 1910 first baseman. After winning the World Series in 1909, the Pirates moved on from first baseman Bill Abstein and had an open competition between Sharpe and John Flynn. They kept both on Opening Day, but Flynn soon took over full-time and Sharpe was traded away at the end of April.
Brownie Foreman, lefty pitcher during the 1895-96 seasons. He had a 3.22 ERA during his first season with the Pirates, which was one of the best years for offense in baseball history, so that ERA was actually much better than it looks. He didn’t last long with Pirates the following year due to poor performance.
Jim McDonald, 1884 utility fielder. Back in 1884, teams didn’t carry many extra players, sometimes only one position player and a couple pitchers. McDonald played five positions that year and hit .159 in 38 games.
