With the Pirates playing an afternoon game today, the attention tonight will be on the minor leagues, where Tyler Glasnow, Clay Holmes and Mitch Keller all get starts today. Glasnow will obviously garner the most interest for a few reasons. If you somehow missed it, he has thrown a combined 13 no-hit innings in his last two starts. He’s also the top prospect in the system and the next pitching prospect up to Pittsburgh with Jameson Taillon and Chad Kuhl already making their debuts.
Glasnow had those two starts back-to-back with no hits, but they couldn’t have looked much different. That’s actually a good thing, especially if his start tonight looks more like his second game. I think a repeat performance would make it his last start in Triple-A and I don’t even mean throwing a third no-hitter, I’m talking strictly about the stuff.
He could give up a couple runs tonight and as long as he had command of the fastball down in the zone, and he could throw his curve for strikes, then those runs are meaningless from a scouting standpoint. The Pirates are looking for him to have fastball command like he did last week, and not get by with some nice defense and impatient hitters like he did in his previous start. They want him throw the curve for strikes, and they want him to use the changeup more than just a few times. He did all of that in his last game, and even though he issued five walks, there were two walks in which is was around the plate the entire time and the other three were a one batter loss of control which he quickly regained. In his six walk game on June 17th, the entire game was poor fastball command and a few impatient hitters helped him limit it to six walks.
Keller’s start is coming off a long break due to the All-Star game. He did pitch one inning during that All-Star game, but it was a very quick and efficient inning with two strikeouts and a grounder. The last time Keller went awhile between starts is when they skipped him just a few weeks ago. Skipping starts hasn’t worked out for the big pitchers this year. Keller had his worst outing of the season after that skipped start. Jameson Taillon did it shortly before getting called up, and while the results were fine in his return game, he was losing velocity around 60 pitches and was gassed at the end of an 83-pitch outing. So it will be interesting to see how Keller responds to another longer than usual layoff.
Clay Holmes was the other player who got skipped and he came back with seven runs and 11 hits over 4.1 innings. He’s looked good since then with one run over 11 innings, but it’s another case of a skipped start leading to poor results in the next outing. There were good reasons to skip all of them. Holmes and Taillon need to be limited due to their lack of work over the previous two seasons, while Keller is looking at a huge increase over last year. I don’t think this will be Keller’s last skipped start, unless they shorten his outings later in the season. Holmes and Taillon may also see a start skipped the same way as Keller, using the All-Star break to give them some time off.
It’s a big day in the system with three top 20 prospects all going on the same night. We should have live reports from all three games as well. I’ll be watching Glasnow, then probably watching Holmes on replay tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, Keller is radio only. Not that Adam Marco isn’t great at calling the games for the Power, but it would be nice to be able to watch the replay of Keller’s game as well.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates won 4-3 on Sunday night over the Dodgers. Francisco Liriano gets the start this afternoon. In his last two starts combined, he has gone 10.2 innings, allowing eight runs on 12 hits and eight walks, with 12 strikeouts. The Dodgers will counter with Scott Kazmir, who has a 4.52 ERA in 83.2 innings, with 87 strikeouts and a 1.30 WHIP. In his last start, he gave up two runs over six innings to the Nationals. He has had six starts of five innings or less, and all with three runs or more.
In the minors, Tyler Glasnow, Clay Holmes and Mitch Keller all get the starts tonight in a big day for pitching prospects. Glasnow has thrown 13 no-hit innings over his last two starts, though he has also walked 11 batters during those starts. He is first in the International League in ERA and strikeouts, and ranks second in walks.
Keller has gone 12 days since his last start due to the All-Star break and going to the back of the rotation once the Power started back up. It was done to limit his innings (he’s at 67 now) in order to keep him around 120 innings by the end of the season. He is sixth in the league in ERA, eighth in strikeouts and first with an 0.81 WHIP.
Holmes is coming off a start in which he allowed one run over five innings. In his prior start, he threw six shutout innings and struck out nine batters, which is his high since returning from Tommy John surgery.
Domingo Robles gets the start for the GCL Pirates. For Bristol, 20th round draft pick Adam Oller will make his pro debut. No starter has been named for Bradenton yet.
MLB: Pittsburgh (37-39) vs Dodgers (41-36) 12:35 PM
Probable starter: Francisco Liriano (5.17 ERA, 49:80 BB/SO, 78.1 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (40-36) vs Gwinnett (34-43) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Tyler Glasnow (1.61 ERA, 47:100 BB/SO, 84.0 IP)
AA: Altoona (42-32) vs Binghamton (31-42) 7:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Clay Holmes (4.93 ERA, 31:48 BB/SO, 73.0 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (40-31) vs Ft Myers (36-36) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: TBD
Low-A: West Virginia (37-36) vs Lexington (25-48) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Mitch Keller (2.42 ERA, 7:76 BB/SO, 67.0 IP)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (6-4) vs State College (7-3) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable Starter: Stephan Meyer (4.35 ERA, 1:8 BB/SO, 10.1 IP)
Rookie: Bristol (3-1) vs Greeneville (1-3) 7:00 PM (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (1-0) vs Braves (0-2) 12:00 PM (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (7-12) vs Indians (9-10) 10:30 AM (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Here is Willy Garcia showing off the best arm in the system
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
6/26: Pirates purchase the contract of Chad Kuhl. Kyle Lobstein optioned to Indianapolis.
6/26: Pirates designate Curtis Partch for assignment.
6/26: Pirates unconditionally release Cory Luebke.
6/26: Trevor Williams placed on bereavement list.
6/26: Tomas Morales sent to Bradenton.
6/25: Luis Paula, David Whitehead and Justin Maffei assigned to Bristol on rehab.
6/24: Pirates purchase the contract of Adam Frazier. Designate Cole Figueroa for assignment.
6/24: Juan Nicasio activated from restricted list. Designate Jorge Rondon for assignment.
6/24: Jacob Stallings optioned to Indianapolis.
6/23: JT Brubaker added to Bradenton roster. Colten Brewer placed on temporary inactive list.
6/23: Tito Polo assigned to Bradenton.
6/22: Pirates recall Kyle Lobstein. Wilfredo Boscan optioned to Indianapolis.
6/22: Jhondaniel Medina assigned to Indianapolis.
6/21: Pirates recall Wilfredo Boscan. Curtis Partch optioned to Indianapolis.
6/21: Pirates sign Braeden Ogle.
6/20: Trace Tam Sing and Erik Lunde added to Bradenton roster. Pablo Reyes placed on temporary inactive list.
6/19: Steven Brault sent to Morgantown on a rehab assignment.
6/19: Pirates purchase the contract of Jacob Stallings. Jason Rogers optioned to Indianapolis.
6/19: Tomas Morales promoted to Indianapolis.
6/18: Pirates option Rob Scahill to Indianapolis. Recall Jason Rogers, Jorge Rondon and Curtis Partch.
6/18: Cory Luebke designated for assignment.
6/18: Juan Nicasio placed on restricted list.
6/17: Pirates released Garrett Russini and Guido Knudson.
6/17: Pirates sign Matt Frawley, Stephen Owen and Arden Pabst.
6/16: Pirates sign 13 draft picks.
6/16: Casey Hughston and Logan Sendelbach assigned to West Virginia. Julio Vivas and Billy Roth assigned to Morgantown.
6/15: Pirates sign Will Craig, Matt Anderson and nine other draft picks.
6/15: Pirates release Nick Buckner.
6/15: Trey Haley sent outright to Indianapolis.
6/15: Dovydas Neverauskas promoted to Indianapolis. John Kuchno placed on disabled list.
6/14: Pirates place Gerrit Cole on the disabled list. Recall Jameson Taillon.
6/14: Kevin Newman and Wyatt Mathisen activated from disabled list. Trace Tam Sing assigned to GCL Pirates.
6/14: Miguel Rosario promoted to Altoona.
6/14: Pirates release Robert Zarate.
6/13: Sam Street activated from Temporary Inactive List. JT Brubaker assigned to GCL Pirates.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Five former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, including the first player to hit a ball into the Allegheny on a fly. Starting with the oldest today, we have 1883-84 catcher Jackie Hayes, 1947 pitcher Hank Behrman, 1962-63 catcher Elmo Plaskett and 1995-96 lefty pitcher Lee Hancock. The fifth player is Daryle Ward, who played for the 2004-05 Pirates, but it was something he did with another team that makes him special. Ward is the son of Major League outfielder Gary Ward, who had a decent career himself. The younger Ward broke into the big leagues with the Astros in 1998 and on July 6,2002, he became the first player to reach the Allegheny River on the fly. It took 11 years before that feat was equaled by Garrett Jones.
The link above also includes a game recap from 1991, in which the eventual NL East champs, had a ninth inning comeback at home to beat the Cubs. You can find the boxscore of the game here, which comes with complete play-by-play of the game and the ninth inning rally.
