Yesterday’s Morning Report was a look at the team-by-team hitting stats. It was a follow up on an article from late April and it showed that all four affiliates of the Pirates had either improved their hitting over the last month, or in the case of West Virginia, they were almost the same, but still well above league average.
The day after I wrote that April article on the team hitting, I followed it up with the team-by-team pitching for the first month. Those results showed that the Pirates had four teams that were basically average, though in the case of Indianapolis, Altoona and Bradenton, they each had their share of prospects and they were young for the league. So now we compare how those clubs have done over the last month and where they stand in their respective leagues.
Indianapolis ranked eighth in ERA at 3.68 in April. They had the fourth best WHIP and 12th most strikeouts in the 14-team league. I noted last month that they led the league in hit batters and served up the second fewest homers. A month later, they rank fourth with a 3.40 ERA, but dropped to seventh in WHIP, which went up six points to 1.29. Indianapolis gained six spots in strikeouts, so that was quite the jump. They remained second in fewest homers and now sit second in hit batters. They are the sixth youngest team in the league.
Altoona is the fifth youngest team in the 12-team league. Their ERA has gone up the last month from 2.99 (which ranked them second) to 3.36, which ranks them third. Their 1.24 WHIP was the best in April, while their current 1.31 WHIP ranks them fourth. They remained sixth in strikeouts. The Curve have hit the most batters and allowed the fewest homers, so they are very similar overall to Indianapolis this season.
Bradenton is young for the league, almost a year younger than the league average pitcher. They also have three of the top pitching prospects in the system and two other starters with potential. The team ERA in late April was 3.44 and they had a 1.17 WHIP, while ranking tenth out of 12 teams in strikeouts. They led the league in hit batters, yet they were one of the best teams in limiting walks. A month later, the team ERA is now 3.68, which dropped them one spot to seventh best. The WHIP is up slightly to 1.21, but they improved to the second best in the league with that number. They moved up to eighth in strikeouts and they are now the best team at limiting walks. So the numbers themselves haven’t improved, but they have improved in almost every category compared to the rest of the league.
West Virginia is the only club with a losing record, yet they are one of the better hitting teams in their league. They ranked sixth out of 14 teams with a 3.32 ERA in April. Their ERA went up slightly through last night, but their 3.38 mark now ranks them fifth. Their 1.18 WHIP stayed exactly the same, except they went from third to fourth place. The Power were sixth in strikeouts, but Luis Escobar had a great April and has sputtered since, so they have dropped to tenth. Surprisingly for a Pirates team, they are tied for last in hit batters. If you’ve been following the site the last 5+ years, you know we mention that the Pirates pitch inside and the lower you go in the system, the more often that leads to hitting batters.That isn’t the main goal, just something that comes with the style.
So Indianapolis is the only team with a better ERA, but all four clubs are somewhere in the top or middle of their league. All four clubs are doing well in WHIP, while the strikeout numbers aren’t quite as good, but they could obviously be worse.
** Trevor Williams pitched yesterday, so it’s time for a quick prospect status update. We are down to five players with prospect status now, with Danny Ortiz being sent down (though he could be back up after that Polanco injury). Starting with Williams of course, who was just 7.1 innings away from losing his prospect status going into yesterday. He fell short by four outs, coming out even though he had just 67 pitches and one run allowed at the time. So he gets six more days to enjoy still being a prospect.
As for the other four players, Johnny Barbato has 25 appearances and 31.1 innings. He’s going to top 30 appearances before he tops 50 innings. Jose Osuna batted twice on Monday and now needs 53 more at-bats to lose that rookie status. Alen Hanson batted three times Monday and his slow climb now has him 43 at-bats away. As a side note, he has played 63 games, so he’s going to have a very high game total for someone who still has prospect status. Gift Ngoepe played Monday, but did not bat. He has 52 at-bats. If Ortiz does come back, he will need someone to go on the DL (doesn’t have to be Polanco) because he hasn’t been down for ten days yet. For the record, he has 12 at-bats.
PLAYOFF PUSH
Bradenton trails in their division by a half game with 19 games remaining in the first half.
West Virginia trails their division leader by 6.5 games, with 19 games left in the first half. They are in fifth place.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pittsburgh Pirates won 4-3 over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday evening. The Pirates will send Ivan Nova to the mound tonight to make his 11th start of the season. He faced Arizona two weeks ago and allowed three runs over six innings. At home this season, he has a 2.39 ERA in four starts. The Diamondbacks will counter with 25-year-old lefty Robbie Ray, who has a 3.45 ERA, a 1.20 WHIP and 74 strikeouts in 60 innings.
In the minors, Tyler Eppler gets the start for Indianapolis tonight. He had a 2.45 ERA in April and he’s at 2.92 in 24.2 innings this month. The big difference between the two months is that he had an 0.82 WHIP last month, and that’s gone up to 1.34 in May. Brandon Waddell allowed four runs in four innings in his season debut, then missed four weeks. Since returning, he has a 3.18 ERA in 17 innings. Due to all of the rain outs last week, Luis Escobar hasn’t made a start in 12 days. He did pitch a scoreless inning of relief of Saturday, but that’s it since he last start. He ranks fifth in the league in strikeouts. No starter has been named for Bradenton.
MLB: Pittsburgh (24-28) vs Diamondbacks (31-22) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Ivan Nova (2.83 ERA, 5:37 BB/SO, 70.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (27-22) vs Lehigh Valley (35-15) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Eppler (2.70 ERA, 12:33 BB/SO, 46.2 IP)
AA: Altoona (27-21) vs Akron (22-24) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Brandon Waddell (4.29 ERA, 11:21 BB/SO, 21.0 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (29-21) @ Ft Myers (25-26) 6:35 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD
Low-A: West Virginia (22-25) @ Charleston (26-24) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Luis Escobar (4.43 ERA, 20:57 BB/SO, 40.2 IP)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is the sixth strikeout from Jameson Taillon during his rehab start in Altoona on Sunday.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
5/28: Jameson Taillon assigned to Altoona on rehab.
5/27: Yunior Montero assigned to Bradenton. Danny Arribas assigned to Extended Spring Training.
5/27: Antonio Bastardo and Josh Lindblom assigned to Indianapolis on rehab.
5/27: Andrew Walker assigned to West Virginia. Trae Arbet assigned to Morgantown.
5/26: Kevin Krause activated from disabled list. Mitch Keller placed on disabled list.
5/26: Eury Perez assigned to Morgantown.
5/25: Chris Harvey retired.
5/25: Gregory Polanco activated from the disabled list. Danny Ortiz optioned to Indianapolis.
5/23: Yunior Montero assigned to Extended Spring Training. Sam Street added to Bradenton roster.
5/22: James Marvel activated from West Virginia disabled list. Chris Harvey assigned to Morgantown.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Two former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, plus two trades of note. The two players born on this date were pitcher Al Mamaux (1913-17) and 1912 outfielder Mike Donlin. Mamaux was a highly touted pitcher out of college. By his third year in the big leagues, he won 21 games for the 1915 Pirates and threw eight shutouts. By 1917 he had fallen out of favor with the team due to condition and off-field issues and was traded to Brooklyn before the 1918 season. Donlin was one of the best hitters of his day, but he cared more about money than playing baseball, so when his acting career began to pay more, he quit the game. He was a .333 career hitter in 1,049 games.
The two trades the Pirates made on this date occurred in 1912 and 1925. The first one saw the Pirates deal away long-time star Tommy Leach and pitcher Lefty Leifield to the Cubs for pitcher King Cole and outfielder Solly Hofman. It ended up being a one-sided win for the Cubs, as the Pirates got little from either player they acquired. The 1925 trade saw first baseman Al Niehaus being dealt for pitcher Tom Sheehan. This deal was made possible by the signing of veteran Stuffy McInnis, which was covered in yesterday’s Morning Report. McInnis outhit Niehaus and Sheehan was a valuable reliever for the Pirates team that went on to win the World Series.
On this date in 1925, the Pittsburgh Pirates collected 32 hits during a doubleheader sweep of the Cardinals. In the second game, the Pirates set a Major League record (since 1900) with eight triples in one game. The 1894 Baltimore Orioles had nine triples in a game. Game two was the first game ever managed by Rogers Hornsby and game one was the last game ever managed by Branch Rickey. You can read more about these games in the link above. The boxscores can be found here: Game one Game two
