Two reports list Gerrit Cole as a number two starter.

Two different reports went up this morning about Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Gerrit Cole. Both reports were similar, possibly seeing the same start from the right-hander, and the takeaway from both reports could challenge the idea that Cole is the top prospect in the system.

**Mark Anderson of Baseball Prospectus scouted Cole on Sunday (h/t Ed Giles), which was his worst start of the year. Cole gave up eight runs on six hits and three walks in 5.2 innings. Anderson noted that Cole has good pitches, but had command issues with his fastball (average command), slider (average), and changeup (below average). He also noted that Cole looked emotional on the mound, and showed frustration with his teammates and umpires who did him no favors. Anderson said that Cole’s stuff got better when he was angry, which makes me think a Gerrit Cole/Incredible Hulk photoshop from Rumbunter is in our future. Overall Anderson said that Cole could be a number one starter, but something was holding him back, and projected him as a high number two starter.

**Al Skorupa of RotoGraphs also scouted Cole recently, and while he doesn’t note which start he saw, the reports sound the same. Skorupa noted that Cole was easily rattled on the mound when calls went against him. He also noted that Cole was missing his spots, and said he needs to tighten up his command and control. He says that the potential is there for Cole to be one of the best starters in the game, but projects him as a number two starter or a high-end number three.

I’ve been talking about Cole’s lack of command all season as the reason he’s been struggling, so it’s not a surprise to see both reports mention that. Both reports are the same in that they say Cole has the stuff to be a number one starter, but both feel something is holding him back and have him as a number two. It’s possible that both reports came on the same day. Having two reports saying Cole is a number two starter draws concerns, but if it’s two reports on the same start, it might as well just be one report.

That’s not discrediting either report. Cole definitely has some command problems, and I agree that something is holding him back. I’ve been saying for weeks that he’s not ready right now. The Pirates also don’t need him with Charlie Morton and Jeff Karstens returning soon. At this point they should focus on the 2014 season for Cole. Don’t even worry about trying to get him up in 2013 just because that’s what people want to see. There’s a bigger need for Cole in 2014. There’s more value in Cole working on his command in 2013, rather than getting a few extra starts in the majors and adding to what will soon be a crowded pitching staff.

I still think Cole has number one upside, and he definitely has number one stuff. As for whether he can get there, I think there’s less optimism on that front now than there was in previous seasons.

Those are three things that Allie has working against him. But they’re also three theories/beliefs of mine that you could question if you don’t see where I’m coming from. So let’s take a look at some recent examples of players who have done what Stetson Allie is doing this year. Allie is 22 years old and putting up huge numbers in the South Atlantic League. So I went back through the years finding players who were also 22, and also putting up huge numbers in the SAL (by huge numbers, I mean an OPS around 1.000). Here are the players from each season, as well as how they performed after moving to the upper levels.

Matt Curry (2011)

In 2011 Matt Curry had a monster year in West Virginia. In his 195 plate appearances at the level he had an impressive .361/.477/.671 line with nine homers. He also had a 17.9% walk rate and an 18.7% strikeout rate.

The Pirates wanted Aaron Baker to get time at first base in high-A, rather than promoting him to Double-A. So they opted to move Curry up to Altoona, skipping him over high-A. Later in the summer they traded Baker for Derrek Lee, which probably wouldn’t have been possible if Baker was exposed at a higher level. I’m not saying that was their motivation, just an observation of how things played out.

Curry struggled initially in Altoona, hitting for a .242/.320/.374 line in the second half of the 2011 season. Last year he showed improvements with a .285/.352/.480 line in 396 at-bats. He didn’t carry the strong K/BB ratio over, with a 9.8% walk rate and a 29.7% strikeout rate. He carried the strikeout problems over to the 2013 season, with a 33.3% strikeout rate in 105 at-bats before getting injured.

Bryce Brentz (2011)

Bryce Brentz was playing for the Boston Red Sox in 2011 in the South Atlantic League. He also got off to a hot start like Curry, hitting for a .359/.414/.647 line in 186 plate appearances, along with 11 homers. His K/BB ratio wasn’t bad, with a 20.6% strikeout rate, and a 7.5% walk rate. He spent the second half of the 2011 season in high-A, hitting for a .274/.336/.531 line in 321 plate appearances.

In 2012 Brentz moved up to Double-A. There he hit for a .296/.355/.478 line, which was similar to Curry’s result. He also had 17 homers in 504 plate appearances. His strikeout rate took a dip, dropping to 28.5%, while his walk rate stayed about the same at 7.9%.

J.D. Martinez (2010)

In 2010 J.D. Martinez led the South Atlantic League with a .362/.433/.598 line and 15 homers in 393 plate appearances. That came with a 15.8% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate. He made the same jump to Double-A that Matt Curry made the following year, and saw his OPS drop to .765 the first year.

In his second year at the Double-A level, Martinez hit for a .338/.414/.546 line in 370 plate appearances. He also was called up to the majors that year. He maintained the good K/BB rates, with a 17.4% strikeout rate and an 11.4% walk rate, showing some big improvements with the walks.

So far in the majors he has combined for a .250/.308/.397 line in 754 plate appearances. The strikeouts have gone up to 24.2%, while the walks have dropped to 7.6%.

Mike Zuanich (2009)

You probably haven’t heard of Zuanich, and there’s a good reason. In 2009 he had a .362/.450/.616 line in 170 plate appearances in the SAL, with seven homers. He also had a 26.1% strikeout rate and an 11.7% walk rate.

After two more seasons of dominating low-A and high-A, Zuanich was moved up to the Double-A level. So far in 318 plate appearances he has a .242/.333/.415 line with 13 homers. His strikeout rate has been 28.9%, while his walk rate has been 9.2%.

Michael Taylor (2008)

Taylor was one of the top prospects in baseball, and has spent a little bit of time in the majors, but hasn’t worked out so far.  In 2008 he had a .361/.441/.554 line in 288 plate appearances, with 10 homers in the SAL. He also had a 17.3% strikeout rate, and a 10.8% walk rate.

Taylor’s numbers carried over to Double-A the following year. He had a .333/.408/.569 line in 363 plate appearances, while also maintaining the good walk rate (9.6%), and the low strikeouts (16%). He didn’t do so well at the Triple-A level, combining for a .280/.372/.440 line in 1694 plate appearances over five seasons. Those would be good numbers in the majors, but not in Triple-A, with four years coming in the hitter friendly PCL.

Jared Goedert (2007)

We know where Goedert is now. He’s with the Indianapolis Indians hitting for a .235/.346/.419 line. He looks like he could be a good platoon option at third base against lefties, but that’s not a huge upside. Plus he’s 28 and hasn’t seen the majors.

In 2007 he had a monster season in the SAL at the age of 22, posting a .364/.475/.715 line in 205 plate appearances, along with 16 homers. Across the board that’s better than Allie right now. He also had a 17.6% strikeout rate, and a 17.1% walk rate.

Gaby Sanchez (2006)

I was originally going to stop at 2008, then I saw Goedert as the 22-year-old dominating in 2007. Then I went one more year and saw Sanchez on the list (Steve Pearce is also up there with a .969 OPS at the age of 23).

Sanchez hit for a .317/.447/.603 line with 14 homers in 237 plate appearances in the SAL. We know the story of his career. He posted two good seasons in the majors where he beat up on left-handers, has never hit more than 19 homers in a season in the majors, is a career .258 hitter with a .758 OPS, and is established as a lefty-only option in a platoon (despite the fact that he keeps getting starts against right-handers).

Hunter Pence (2005)

There’s always an exception to the rule. The list of players so far with similar numbers to Allie at the same age have been uninspiring. At best case you’ve got a career platoon guy. The worst case is he washes out at Double-A. Then there’s Pence.

In 2005, Pence had a .338/.413/.652 line in 341 plate appearances in the SAL, with 25 homers. Those are pretty insane numbers, especially the home run totals. He also had a 17.5% strikeout rate and an 11.1% walk rate. We know what he’s done since then. Pence spent several years in the majors as a .280 hitter with 25 homers a year and an .800 OPS. He could be on pace for another one of those years in 2013.

Larry Broadway (2003)

The Pirates’ Director of Minor League Operations had a pretty good season in the SAL in 2003. He hit for a .307/.400/.566 line in 340 plate appearances. So if Allie doesn’t make it, he might have a future in a Major League front office somewhere.

Stetson Allie (2013)

After today’s game, Allie has a .331/.410/.627 line in 195 plate appearances with 12 homers. He also has a 33% strikeout rate and an 11% walk rate.

We don’t know how it will play out from here with Allie. What we do know is that in a lot of previous examples, monster numbers in the SAL don’t mean monster numbers in the upper levels. They also don’t guarantee major league success. And if you’re thinking Allie is going to be a .300 hitter with 40 homers a year because those are his numbers in low-A, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

The best case would be the Pence route, with a .280 average, an .800 OPS, and 25 homers a year. But Pence had much better plate patience. Allie’s 33% strikeout rate is the worst of anyone on this list. That’s a huge concern, especially since most of the hitters saw their strikeouts increase when they reached Double-A. I don’t think expecting the exception would be a good approach here. That’s almost as ridiculous as saying Allie will be a Director of Minor League Operations because he has comparable numbers to Larry Broadway. A more realistic expectation would be a platoon player like Gaby Sanchez, although he still has a long way to go to get to that point.

You could make the argument that Allie isn’t an ordinary 22-year-old. He made a late switch to hitting, taking a few years off to be a pitcher. That could have put him behind, and could have led to the high strikeout numbers. The question is, can he reverse that trend? Noting that he made the switch from being a pitcher might explain why he’s having strikeout issues, but it doesn’t mean those issues are sure to go away.

What Allie does going forward is going to be extremely important. If he can maintain this in higher levels, that would be tremendous. The point here is that just because he’s tearing up the South Atlantic League doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to put up these same monster numbers in the majors, or even in Double-A. In fact, in most cases the numbers take a big drop by the time a player reaches Double-A. So this is good to see for now, but the more important thing to see would be how he handles the Double-A level. Until he goes through that test, I’d have a hard time giving him a high ranking and trusting that he could put up these numbers in the long run. Based on the above examples, I’d say that Double-A test should happen next year.

First, my humble submission:

Salami in the Lunchbox. #Pirates #Cubs

— Tom Bragg (@TomBraggSports) May 22, 2013

  …and James’ bold prediction:

Regardless of the result, I love this move to pinch-hit Snider for Barmes. #Pirates

— James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) May 22, 2013

#PIRATES 5, CUBS 3 – 6th – What did I say? #LunchboxBomb

— James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) May 22, 2013

This might be the exact moment Snider’s ball cleared the PNC Park wall.

I assumed Snider’s shot would have landed him on Twitter’s trending topics for Pittsburgh. That, however, was not the case.

It is somewhat shocking it did not crack the list, but that’s also my fault for assuming something very broad judging from just my Twitter feed. Pittsburgh seems to be decently connected when it comes to the online audience of its sports fans and media (see: anytime the Penguins do anything) and if you’re like me and keep an eye on Twitter during games to see what other people are saying about what is happening in real time then you probably got to take part in or at least witness that moment when you refreshed your page and suddenly OMG TRAVIS SNIDER IS PRETTY COOL GUYS CANNON BALL COMIN’.

If you’re reading this and you do not follow games on Twitter, even just occasionally, then give it a try sometime. You might enjoy it.

Jeff Locke says he has “gotten much better” over the last two years.

Jeff Locke, let’s talk.

Heh. Rhymes.

Jeff, your pitching has played a role of significance in the Pirates’ 26-18 start and a spot in the playoffs if Bud Selig took ether and ended the season on May 21. You have pitched five quality starts in your last six outings in the last month, allowing an average of fewer than four hits per start. Combine those with your earlier starts, and you find yourself 11th of 59 qualified NL pitchers with a 2.73 earned run average. I’m not being tongue-in-cheek when I say you should be proud.

It just won’t last.

Nothing personal, Jeff. You are still 25 years old and have a long career ahead, hopefully in Pittsburgh’s rotation instead of some other team’s. You were great in Triple-A last year, and you have definitely earned the spot in the rotation you were so happy to get at the start of the year. If you continue to pitch well, there is no reason you can’t keep that spot when guys like Jeff Karstens and Charlie Morton are ready to join the team.

But your performance won’t continue to match the performance of the NL’s best pitchers. You just won’t keep your ERA below the ERA of guys like Stephen Strasburg, Cliff Lee and Madison Bumgarner. That doesn’t mean you won’t continue to pitch well, but the run-prevention numbers will start to go north. Here’s why, and remember the words “regression to the mean” –

1. You can’t maintain such a low ERA with such a high FIP. No one can.

Let’s start with the basics, Jeff. Your FIP this season is 4.47 compared to your 2.73 ERA. We know that FIP is a better predictor than ERA of future run-prevention ability. Look at it this way, the five pitchers since 2000 with the lowest ERA compared to FIP over a full season:

• Ryan Franklin, Mariners (2003): 3.57 ERA, 5.17 FIP (1.61 difference)
• Elmer Dessens, Reds (2002): 3.03 ERA, 4.61 FIP (1.58 difference)
• Al Leiter, Mets (2004): 3.21 ERA, 4.76 FIP (1.55 difference)
• Jeremy Hellickson, Rays (2012): 3.10 ERA, 4.60 FIP (1.50 difference)
• Jeremy Hellickson, Rays (2011): 2.95 ERA, 4.44 FIP (1.49 difference)

Out of the 1,132 pitcher seasons since 2000, not one starter has maintained your 1.74 difference in ERA and FIP over the whole year. Jeff, that alone should be an indicator that your ERA won’t stay this low.

Let’s look at Hellickson, who shows up twice there. In his brief career, the Tampa Bay starter has been a true outlier in outperforming his defense-independent numbers and flouting BABIP-based regression. Why? R.J. Anderson says it has been “some combination of weak contact, defense, infield flies, and park.” It all checks out. Hellickson those a crapload of changeups that induce weak contact, pitches in front of a good Rays defense, draws plenty of pop-ups and plays about half his games in pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field.

Despite all that jazz, Hellickson still can’t keep an ERA more than a run and a half below his FIP. And sorry Jeff, but you’re no Jeremy Hellickson.

Locke’s Response: “I don’t understand what all those things mean anyway, because the people that made them up didn’t play. I just know that if you attack and be aggressive and do what you can do every outing… yeah, maybe the hit totals have been down, but the walks have been up a little bit. It all evens out somewhere. A baserunner’s a baserunner, no matter how they got there. I don’t worry about anything like that.”

2. Your BABIP won’t be that low, even with the Pirates’ great defense.

This season, the Pirates replaced their players’ gloves with high-powered vacuums. Given there was no rule expressly forbidding vacuums, and the fruitful endorsement deal with Hoover, the Bucs have turned an MLB-best 71.6 percent of balls in play into outs.

But bad news, Jeff. Bud Selig found out about the vacuums and has banned them from future games. I had to tip off the Commissioner’s Office. Now your .224 BABIP (third-lowest in the NL) is set to go back up. Since 2000, only one starter has ever kept a BABIP that low over a full season. Can you guess who? Jeremy Hellickson? You’re good at guessing.

You have also stranded more than 82 percent of your baserunners, this year, a number just as unsustainable. You know who pulls that off over a full season? Pedro Martinez, Curt Schiling, Roy Halladay, Randy Johnson, Johan Santana, Jered Weaver, Roger Clemens and young Jake Peavy. I don’t think you will take any offense by my saying you are not those guys.

Locke’s Response: “That’s why there are seven guys behind me. I like to use them all. [The defense] is efficient all the time, a lot of speed in the outfield… You just gotta trust the guys, because they trust you.”

3. You will face tougher opponents.

Jeff, we have all had a lot of fun in May watching you control teams like the Nationals, Mets and Astros, all in the bottom quarter of the league in run creation. Problem is, they are all outside your division, and you have faced the 15th-easiest schedule of 142 eligible starters.

If the rotations holds up as scheduled (which it won’t, but play along), you’ll face the Brewers at the Miller Launchpad, the power-packed Tigers, and the above-average Braves and Giants. These teams can score runs in bunches, Jeff. Godspeed.

It’s Not So Bad!

All of this doesn’t necessarily mean you will go back to the same fringy starting pitcher of the last two years. Pitchers evolve. You appear to have a higher release point on your pitches, you are throwing more sinking two-seam fastballs and getting a few more ground balls hit toward those quality infielders.

Catcher Michael McKenry certainly thinks highly of you, Jeff, and he loves catching you.

“He knows what he needs to do, knows what he can do and he puts his trust in us,” McKenry said. “We’ll go back there and we’ll improvise and change some things when we need to, but most of the time he’s gonna attack with the gameplan he has… Once he starts to learn himself and grow a little bit, his possibilities are endless.”

Endless, Jeff! So take heart: your run-prevention numbers will go in the wrong direction. I’m almost certain of that. But you’re a young pitcher still entering his prime. You have a great defense behind you. You are showing good deception with your pitches. And you’re a left-hander in a ballpark that helps you get outs and swallows potential home runs from right-handed hitters. I think you will be okay in the end.

And sorry for telling Selig about the vacuums.

Alen Hanson has done a complete 180 both offensively and defensively since being benched for a few games in April.

Ground balls are supposed to lead to easy outs. When you see a routine grounder hit to shortstop, you expect an out. There’s usually no feeling that the play could go wrong. You get ready to write “6-3″ in your scorebook, even before the play is finished. There’s a reason they call it “routine”.

That wasn’t the case with Alen Hanson early in the season. Hanson’s defense at the start of the year was horrible. The shortstop started the year with ten errors in his first ten games. There were several plays that could have been ruled errors, but where Hanson got the home town treatment. But the frustrating thing about these errors were that they didn’t come on somewhat difficult plays. They came on routine plays. The ball would be hit to Hanson, he’d have plenty of time to make a play, and he’d throw wild to first. Or he’d set up ready to field the ball, and would boot the grounder.

There were moments where you held your breath on every routine grounder. The speed of the ground ball to short gave you just enough time to debate whether Hanson could commit an error. ”No way he commits an error on this. There’s just no possible way.” Then you pause. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow does.” Then the throw. Wild, even though there was plenty of time to get the runner.

At times it was painful to watch. It wasn’t an issue where you thought “maybe he’d be better off at second base”. It was an issue where you thought “there’s no infield position he can play if he’s doing this”. Bottom line, it seemed like a classic case of Steve Sax syndrome.

Hanson was benched for several games after a three error game on April 14th. He was benched to clear his head, as the error count was not only adding up, but was also affecting his hitting. At the time he had a .191/.224/.255 line in 47 at-bats.

He came back on April 18th. That same day Pirates infield coordinator Gary Green came to Bradenton for a week to work with all of the infielders. Naturally this would present a good time to work with Hanson on his issues. That’s what they did. Each day that week Hanson worked on the short field beyond the outfield wall with Green and Marauders manager Frank Kremblas. Pirates Director of Minor League Operations Larry Broadway was also in attendance on some days, overseeing the fielding practice.

The purpose was to get Hanson focusing on his mechanics again. He needed to focus on funneling the ball to his body, and shortening his arm, which would prevent the wild throws. There was also a focus on Hanson being aggressive on the field, especially with the routine plays. Some of the errors on those routine plays came as a result of weak throws. It’s not that Hanson was necessarily slacking on the field, but it looked like he wasn’t throwing the ball at 100 percent on the routine grounders. He’d make good throws on the close and difficult plays, but would take a lot off on the easy throws. Hanson already has a fringy arm which is enough to stick at shortstop. By taking anything off the throws, he turns a lot of routine plays into unnecessarily close plays at first.

In the week working with Green, Hanson had some errors, but only three in his next six games. He also showed some positive signs, looking much better on the field. It wasn’t something that you wanted to give a lot of praise to, since he was just making the routine plays with the ease that you’d expect from a routine play. But considering how he set the bar so low early in the season by struggling with anything routine, it was worthy of recognition that he was at least making the plays he should be making.

Since April 23rd, Hanson has only made one error. That came last week, and wasn’t a fielding error. Hanson retrieved a relay from center field with a runner advancing to third. He had no shot of throwing out the runner, but rushed the throw anyways, instead of holding the ball. The ball got past the third baseman, went into the dugout and allowed a run to score. That was a case where he was probably too aggressive.

As for his fielding, it has been considerably better since the Pirates made that change. I thought about writing about Hanson after Green left town, but I wanted to wait and see how the defense held up. That error from Friday’s game was the only error he’s had in the last 23 games, and it wasn’t a fielding error. He’s had three fielding related errors in 29 games since taking a break and working with Green. His offense is also doing better, with a .297/.363/.405 line in 111 at-bats since being benched.

I noticed something the other day. Now when there’s a routine grounder hit to short, I hardly notice. I go to write “6-3″ in the scorebook, and don’t even consider the possibility that the routine play could somehow be missed. That’s the way it should be, and it speaks to the complete 180 that Hanson has done from his rough start early in the season.

Clint Barmes’ recent adjustments to his swing have paid off in hits and helped the Pirates get some production from the bottom of the batting order.

Barmes was never intended to be a player Pittsburgh looked to as a vital piece of its lineup, as made evident by his usual appearance in the No. 8 spot. His main contribution has been with his glove but recently he  has shown some improvement at the plate.

Through April Barmes’ batting average was just .181 and he had an OPS of .422. Through 37 at-bats in May he’s seen his batting average rise 48 points to .229. So far this month he’s hitting .324 with an .873 OPS.

“He made an adjustment, suggested to him probably a week ago, and he was able to put it right into the game,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said during the Milwaukee series last week. “He’s worked on a number of different things throughout his career. It’s something we tried, talked about and said, ‘We’ve got to do this.’ Since then he’s just had much better at-bats. He’s held his position and his posture in the batter’s box much better. Kinda the same thing we talked with Jones about — staying tall and hitting the ball against your front foot and not lowering your angle and not crouching to hit it. He’s had some success.”

Barmes’ big moment came on a Saturday afternoon early in the month at PNC Park when he crushed a Stephen Strasburg pitch for a two-run home run to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead (that they would later lose to Washington).

Since then he’s had timely hits and provided a capable bat in the lower half of a Pittsburgh batting order that has sorely needed some production with the well documented struggles of Pedro Alvarez (thought Alvarez did have a decent weekend).

“The adjustment we made is just trying to get some weight on the back side,” Barmes said. “Just start it there and leave it there so when I want to start my swing I get to center and I don’t have to go further past that. Really that’s the biggest adjustment that I’ve made. It’s a minor one but it’s obviously kept me on the ball a little better and definitely behind the ball so I’m driving the ball better than what I have up to this point this season.”

Barmes acknowledged that he has not always been the most consistent hitter during his 10-year career and said that he has been able to get away with not getting behind the ball for a stretch.

“It’s nothing that we haven’t really tried to find or tired to be more consistent with in the past,” he said. “The biggest thing is just my weight shift back and trying to get some weight back so that I can go from being behind the ball and get to center as opposed to in the past I’ve always wanted to try to somewhat stay centered in my body and go from there. I’ll have spurts where I get by with it but as far as consistency, which is what I’ve battled my whole career. it’s not very good for that.”

I’m on record as saying I think Jordy Mercer should get more playing time at shortstop, but the Pirates — at least for now — have an option at the position that can add something to the offense in Barmes. I think we can all agree that is more than (currently injured and a black hole at the plate before that) John McDonald brings to the team and it will not hurt to have someone around who can play there and split time as needed.

#pirates and #twins are among teams that could have interest in @reidbrignac

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 17, 2013

Brignac was recently designated for assignment by the Colorado Rockies after hitting for a .250/.294/.375 line in 48 at-bats. In his career in the majors he has a .228/.270/.321 line in 719 at-bats. The strength of his game is that he has good defensive tools, which would have some appeal as a backup infielder who can cover shortstop. His numbers aren’t inspiring, but he’d be a better option than John McDonald.

Back in 2008 there were trade rumors at the deadline that the Pirates were interested in Brignac, including a rumor that a deal was done sending Jason Bay to Tampa Bay in exchange for Brignac and Jeff Niemann.

SATURDAY: Brignac has been traded to the Yankees, per Jon Heyman.

Brignac traded to yankees

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) May 18, 2013

Jeff Karstens is scheduled to start for Altoona on Saturday.

– Charlie Morton pitched Thursday for Altoona, going four innings while allowing two hits (both home runs) and two runs (both earned) with one walk and one strikeout. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said Morton is on a five-day rotation with three more rehab starts scheduled and that his next start will be for Triple-A Indianapolis.

– Jeff Karstens is scheduled to make a rehab appearance Saturday for Altoona. Hurdle said the goal for this start is to see Karstens somewhere in the four innings, 65-pitch range.

– James McDonald is still in the early stages of rehabilitation. Hurdle said McDonald recently played flat-ground catch but is not yet throwing off a mound.

The Red Sox knew that there were health issues when they traded for Hanrahan.

Per MLBTR, Buster Olney was on the Mut & Merloni radio show in Boston, and spoke during the interview about the Joel Hanrahan trade. Olney mentioned that the Red Sox, along with “many teams”, were aware that there were health issues with Hanrahan. Olney said that’s why the Pirates didn’t get much of a return.

I think the return they got was a good one. I thought that at the time, and that’s especially true now that Hanrahan is out for the year, Mark Melancon looks like a dominant late inning reliever, and Stolmy Pimentel has been on fire this year. I figured they could have gotten more for Hanrahan, but only if they would have traded him a year earlier. I guess what Olney is saying is that the value could have been higher this year, without the injury issues.

There’s not much that can be done about the injury news, and I don’t think the Pirates are regretting the trade right now. When you think about it from the other side, the fact that the Red Sox even gave up Melancon — who looked great last year in the second half — for Hanrahan — who they knew had health problems — is pretty astounding.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, this is just another lesson that you need to deal relievers at peak value. While the return for Hanrahan has been good, there’s a good chance it would have been much better if it came when he had more years of control, and didn’t have health problems.

Clint Barmes is out of the lineup against the Brewers and pitcher Yovani Gallardo. Photo Credit: David Hague

“Our lineup is extended better that it has ever been before as far as being able to hit deeper,” Hurdle said. “(Alvarez) is 0 for 15 against Gallardo. Barmes along the same lines. I’ve watched them go to bat against the guy for two straight years and this is the third year. We’ll try something different.”

MLB.com’s Tom Singer dug up the numbers for Alvarez and Barmes against Gallardo.

Alvarez (0-15) and Barmes (1-17) against #Brewers’ Gallardo, so they sit in favor of Inge (2-5 with HR) and Mercer (first look). #pirates

— Tom Singer (@Tom_Singer) May 15, 2013

**

Jordy Mercer was recalled from Indianapolis this afternoon when the Pirates placed John McDonald on the 15-day disabled list. McDonald left last night’s win against the Brewers with discomfort in his lower back.

Mercer, of course, had just left Pittsburgh when Neil Walker was recalled from the disable list, but finds himself back at PNC Park and playing his preferred position with McDonald hurt and Barmes not in the lineup.

“It’s another sign of the improvement within the organization and the strength within the organization,” Hurdle said. “Johnny Mac’s issue came up all of a sudden. You watch that guy take that swing of the bat and hit the ball, OK. Two minutes later the trainer is pulling on my shirt saying he can’t play, his back is locked up.”

Hurdle said having a guy like Mercer that he can plug in without having to allow for a tranisiton from Triple-A to the big leagues is a an added bonus.

“As you dig into the situation, (McDonald) going down, you don’t draw those up,” he said. “To have a guy you can go and get in Mercer that is still fresh, just left. It’s a feel good and I’m able to plug him back into the lineup as well which is another benefit.”

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Lineups:

Milwaukee (16-21, 4th National League Central)

1. Aoki rf
2. Segura ss
3. Braun lf
4. Ramiriez 3b
5. Lucroy c
6. Gomez cf
7. Weeks 2b
8. Gonzalez 1b
9. Gallardo p

Pittsburgh (22-17, 3rd National League Central)

1. Marte lf
2. Tabata rf
3. McCutchen cf
4. Sanchez 1b
5. Walker 2b
6. Martin c
7. Inge 3b
8. Mercer ss
9. Rodriguez p