I mentioned last night in the Prospect Watch about how many outs the West Virginia Power gave away early in their 14-5 loss to Lexington. I was watching the game to see pitcher Oddy Nunez for the first time. We got some strong reports about Nunez early this spring and then he made the jump from the Gulf Coast League as a reliever last year, to a starting pitcher for West Virginia this year. The Pirates will have to be careful with his innings this season because he only had 34.2 during the regular season and likely about the same amount between Spring Training and Extended Spring Training, giving him around 65-70 total innings last year. He might get limited, but it’s still a jump that gives an indicator that he’s a prospect to watch this season.
Nunez has the frame to eventually be a workhorse starter. He’s over 6’5″, which is his listed height, but I’m told by multiple sources that he is taller. At 20 years old, he already looks like he’s filled out that frame and that could explain how he’s going longer in games this year, yet he added about 4-5 MPH to his fastball over the winter. Watching the outing, I really liked how everything had nice downward action, which resulted in some swing and misses, and a lot of soft contact. Unfortunately, the Power defense wasn’t his friend on Thursday night.
Nunez allowed at least one run in each of his three innings, yet a decent showing on defense could have resulted in zero runs and a longer outing. That brought up an interesting thought while I was watching it. He gave up two hits that were struck really well, but both were after there should have been three outs. The second one was actually after I counted five outs that they should have had in the inning, and then for good measure, Carlos Munoz misplayed another grounder into a hit afterwards. What I was really watching in that second inning was two full innings worth of outs (assuming routine plays were made) condensed into one inning. How harshly do you judge the damage done 10-15 pitches after he should have been out of an inning?
It wasn’t just the second inning. The first and third each had double play balls that turned into no outs. Again, assuming they made the routine outs, Nunez would have recorded 16 outs in three innings. That was because he kept getting ground balls when he needed them. It made it very hard to take the pitching line seriously when I watched this unfold, but without seeing it myself, I would have assumed he got hit around pretty good in this game. Even the game log had a tailor-made double play ball described as a line drive into right field. The ball was actually just a three-hopper to Trae Arbet at second base and he missed catching it.
Nunez threw three innings and gave up six runs (two earned, but only due to generous scoring) and nine hits. Nunez also impressed on the mound. Those are two things that shouldn’t go together, but it happened. I thought three of the hits should have been errors, but the Lexington hitters got some home cooking from the scorer. There was also a sacrifice bunt that ended up as a hit and a bloop over first base that fell in between three fielders. Nunez got swing and misses, he pitched down in the zone, he didn’t walk anyone or get flustered at everything going wrong, and he kept getting ground balls. That’s everything you want to see in an outing and under normal circumstances, you’re talking about a pitching line to match the pitching performance.
I plan on watching Luis Escobar pitch tonight for West Virginia. He may want to try to replicate his 12 strikeouts over five innings in his debut, just to avoid the defense playing a role in the game.
** A footnote to yesterday and today’s action. I thought it was pretty cool that the Pirates were playing in Fenway Park and Wrigley Field on back-to-back days. That got me thinking about that trip though and I came up with this interesting note. The Pirates have never played back-to-back days in Boston then Chicago. They spent 66 seasons in the same league as the Boston Braves and Chicago Cubs, but that never happened. I had a feeling it didn’t happen because travel was by train, so that would have involved a straight trip through to Chicago from Boston. From what I read in an 1898 newspaper (see below) it sounds like that wouldn’t even be possible to do in the allotted time, even if they played a morning game in Boston and a late afternoon game in Chicago.
The interesting thing is that the Pirates have only made that trip from Boston to Chicago twice, both times with days off between games. The first time was in September of 1898 and the next/last time was June 1935. As a side note, the Pirates went from Boston to Pittsburgh during the 1898 trip, ate dinner, then boarded another train for the rest of the ride.
The Pirates usually played another east coast team after games in Boston, as they had the choice between Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia and for a short time, Baltimore and Washington. Sometimes they would even stop in Pittsburgh for one game on their way to another city. So basically, what you’re seeing between today and yesterday has never happened in 136 seasons. As I write this, there’s a good chance for rain today in Chicago, so it still may not happen, in which case it would still be just the third time they Pirates played back-to-back games in Boston then Chicago.
** Andrew McCutchen tied Barry Bonds for the fourth most home runs (176) in Pirates history on Thursday afternoon. Once he takes over fourth place, then he’s just trailing three people and they are some of the titans in team history. Roberto Clemente is up next with 240 homers, trailing Ralph Kiner with 301 and Willie Stargell leads with 475 homers. There is a good chance that the top three stays the same for a long time.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 4-3 to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon. They now travel to play the Chicago Cubs in a three-game series. Gerrit Cole gets his third start for the Pirates, while the Cubs will counter with 27-year-old right-hander Kyle Hendricks. It’s a strong night of starting pitching in the minors, as Clay Holmes, JT Brubaker, Taylor Hearn and Luis Escobar all get their second starts. Escobar had 12 strikeouts in his debut, while Hearn threw 5.2 shutout innings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (3-6) @ Cubs (6-3) 2:20 PM
Probable starter: Gerrit Cole (6.55 ERA, 3:6 BB/SO, 11.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (3-5) @ Toledo (5-3) 6:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Clay Holmes (9.00 ERA, 3:4 BB/SO, 4.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (5-3) vs Akron (2-6) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: JT Brubaker (6.75 ERA, 4:3 BB/SO, 5.1 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (8-1) @ Tampa (5-4) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Taylor Hearn (0.00 ERA, 3:5 BB/SO, 5.2 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (1-7) @ Lexington (3-5) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Luis Escobar (1.80 ERA, 1:12 BB/SO, 5.0 IP)
HIGHLIGHTS
From Tuesday night for Altoona, Jordan Luplow connects on his second home run of the game.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
4/13: Julio Eusebio added to Bradenton roster. Pedro Vasquez assigned to Extended Spring Training
4/11: Albert Baur placed on disabled list. Ty Moore added to West Virginia roster
4/11: Cam Vieaux assigned to Extended Spring Training. Mike Wallace added to West Virginia roster
4/11: Jordan George assigned to Extended Spring Training. Trace Tam Sing added to Bradenton roster
4/10: Victor Fernandez placed on West Virginia disabled list. Carlos Munoz added to active roster
4/7: Junior Lopez suspended 25 games
4/4: Pirates sign pitcher Yoandy Fernandez
4/4: Pirates release Francis Rodriguez, Adrian Grullon, Robbie Coursel and Nestor Oronel
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
There have been five former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, including an outfielder/pitcher for three straight NL pennant winners. George Merritt is one of the more obscure Pirates players, but he played for the team during the best three-year run in franchise history. Merritt started three games on the mound in 1901 and all three were complete game victories. The next two years, he was an outfielder, pitching just once. Over those three seasons, he played a total of 15 games, which represents his entire big league career. His minor league career consisted of 15 seasons, where he also split his time between pitching and playing outfield.
John Van Benschoten was born on this date in 1980. He was the first round draft pick of the Pirates in 2001, known as one of the better two-way players in college. He hit 31 homers during his junior season, but the Pirates drafted him as a pitcher. Three shoulder surgeries derailed his career and he ended up winning just two games in the majors, while posting a 9.20 ERA in 90 innings.
Other players born on this date are Chris Leroux, Kyle Farnsworth and Bill Luhrsen, all pitchers. Luhrsen had the nickname “Wild Bill” and he walked 16 batters in his 29 Major League innings.
On this date in 1925, the Pirates opened up their second World Series winning season by losing 8-2 to Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Alexander. The Pirates lineup that day included three future Hall of Famers, Pie Traynor, Max Carey and Kiki Cuyler. That season, Pittsburgh began the year with a 3-8 record. You can see the boxscore here.
