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Morning Report: Altoona Could Use a Better Performance from Kevin Newman in the Playoffs

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Bradenton won their opening game in the first round of the Florida State League playoffs on Tuesday night by an 11-6 score. They decided to go with Mitch Keller for the opener, despite announcing JT Brubaker would pitch the first game. That decision likely changed well before they updated the Bradenton website in the early afternoon yesterday.

In the Morning Report, I posted about Brubaker and his match-up with St Lucie, which I’ll repost here instead of making you go back and check it. The only difference now is that the Marauders are now up 1-0 in the best-of-three series and the last two games (if two are necessary) are at home. Bradenton has a little leeway now with Yeudy Garcia either pitching game three in a must-win game, or game one of the finals. Here is the Brubaker write-up:

“Brubaker might not be the worst choice for the opener because he has faced St Lucie three times this year and pitched well in two of those games, including one run over seven innings on the road. He did give up four runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings the next time he pitched in St Lucie, but came back with two runs over six innings when he last pitched against them on August 12th.”

That last game is the most important one now because not only is it the most recent, it was also the only one of the three that he made at home against St Lucie. Brubaker ended up allowing just two runs over six innings in a 7-4 Bradenton win.

Altoona opens up their playoffs tonight with Alex McRae on the mound. His overall stats don’t scream best choice for the series opener, but he has actually pitched well recently. In his last eight starts, he has a 2.23 ERA over 48.1 innings. He was chosen simply because it’s his turn in the rotation and assuming the series goes five games, then you will also see the higher ranked prospects. None of them are pitching better than McRae at this point, they just have higher upside. The one downside with McRae might be his results during the only time he faced Akron. Back on July 6th, he allowed six runs on eight hits and one walk in only 1.1 innings.

In the season series, Akron took the 12-9 advantage. Over the course of the season, Akron was just a 1/2 game better and that was because Altoona lost a game due to weather, though they obviously could have lost that game too. It didn’t matter for the playoffs because if two teams tie, they just go to the head-to-head record and Akron still would have got the top seed in the playoffs.

I mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Report that Bradenton was led on offense by the hot-hitting of Pablo Reyes, Jordan Luplow and Connor Joe, who have all hit well recently. Reyes ended up with four hits, Luplow smacked a three-run homer and Joe struck out four times, so two out of three isn’t bad. It just means Joe will be due for a good game tonight.

As for Altoona, they have had the best hitter in the system each of the last two months in Barrett Barnes. They have a lot of solid hitters with Edwin Espinal, Kevin Newman, Erich Weiss and Jin-De Jhang, plus power hitting from Eric Wood and Stetson Allie…maybe. Allie left Monday’s game with an apparent hamstring injury after pulling up lame on a double. He walked off under his own power, but it’s unknown if he will play tonight or even during this series.

I mentioned Kevin Newman as a solid hitter, but I think his overall stats this season hide his recent stats fairly well because I don’t hear anyone talking about his finish. In his last 31 games, which dates back to late July, Newman hit .221/.313/.292 in 132 plate appearances. He also stole (and attempted) just one stolen base during that time. That’s not what you want from your number three hitter in the lineup, or lead-off hitter like he went back to doing for the last two games of the season. Newman had an .898 OPS and a .359 average in his first 71 games of the season, so the last six weeks get lost in the mix because he still ended up with an overall solid season.

Altoona hasn’t made any roster changes yet other than sending Henry Hirsch back to Bradenton, after he was promoted during the last week of the season. If Allie is injured, then you could see two additions to the roster. The most obvious would probably be outfielder Justin Maffei returning from a brief assignment in Indianapolis (he was actually in Bradenton for a short time after being demoted). The other would probably be Jhondaniel Medina or Josh Smith (if they want a lefty), who were both promoted late to Indianapolis. If any changes are made early, I’ll try to put them in today’s transaction section below.

Here are the first round playoff schedules for Altoona and Bradenton, which will remain up in the Morning Report until both teams either win, or have been eliminated.

Bradenton

9/6: Marauders 11, St Lucie 6

9/7: Marauders vs St Lucie 6:30 PM

9/8: Marauders vs St Lucie 6:30 PM (if necessary)

Altoona

9/7: Altoona vs Akron 6:00 PM

9/8: Altoona vs Akron 6:00 PM

9/9: Altoona @ Akron 7:05 PM

9/10: Altoona @ Akron 7:05 PM (if necessary)

9/11: Altoona @ Akron 6:05 PM (if necessary)

PLAYOFF PUSH

The Pirates trail the second wild card spot by a 5.5 games.

PIRATES GAME GRAPH


Source: FanGraphs

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates lost 9-7 to the Cardinals on Tuesday night. They will send Jameson Taillon to the mound tonight, making his 15th start this season. This will be his first start against the Cardinals. Taillon faced the Brewers in each of his last two starts and allowed five runs over three innings the first time, followed by one run over six innings his last time out. The Cardinals will counter with Mike Leake, who has a 4.56 ERA in 152 innings, with 108 strikeouts and a 1.27 WHIP. He has faced the Pirates a total of three times this season, allowing 12 runs over 17.1 innings. Leake had a 4.88 ERA in August, though that includes seven shutout innings in his last start.

MLB: Pittsburgh (67-69) vs Cardinals (73-64) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Jameson Taillon (3.25 ERA, 12:67 BB/SO, 83.0 IP)

AAA: Indianapolis (70-74) (season preview)

AA: Altoona (0-0) vs Akron (0-0) 6:00 PM (season preview)
Probable starter:  Alex McRae (4.79 ERA, 25:67 BB/SO, 88.1 IP)

High-A: Bradenton (1-0) vs St Lucie (0-1) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter:  JT Brubaker (5.32 ERA, 22:43 BB/SO, 67.2 IP)

Low-A: West Virginia (71-68) (season preview)

Short-Season A: Morgantown (38-38) (season preview)

Rookie: Bristol (25-43) (season preview)

GCL: Pirates (22-34) (season preview)

DSL: Pirates (27-42) (season preview)

HIGHLIGHTS

Here are two highlights from Jordan George, who had an incredible run with West Virginia to end the year.

George batted .324/.455/.448 in 34 games with the Power.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

9/7: Josh Smith assigned to Altoona.

9/6: Pirates recall Tyler Glasnow, Drew Hutchison, Trevor Williams and Pedro Florimon. Kelvin Marte and Curtis Partch designated for assignment.

9/6: Henry Hirsch assigned from Altoona to Bradenton.

9/5: Jung Ho Kang activated from disabled list.

9/3: Jacob Taylor assigned to Morgantown.

9/2: Pirates recall Jameson Taillon, Steven Brault, Jason Rogers and Adam Frazier. Chris Stewart activated from disabled list.

9/1: Jung Ho Kang sent to Indianapolis on rehab.

9/1: Pirates receive Jake Brentz and Pedro Vasquez from Mariners to complete earlier trade for Arquimedes Caminero.

8/31: Pirates trade Kyle Lobstein to Baltimore Orioles for Zach Phillips.

8/31: Logan Ratledge promoted to Bradenton. Alfredo Reyes activated from West Virginia disabled list.

8/31: Pirates release Raymond Rodriguez, Ramy Perez and Ramon Garcia.

8/31: David Whitehead assigned to Morgantown.

8/30: Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley sent to New York Yankees as part of Ivan Nova trade from August 1st.

8/30: Jason Creasy and Jhondaniel Medina promoted to Indianapolis.

8/30: Justin Maffei and Trace Tam Sing assigned to Indianapolis.

8/30: Henry Hirsch and Junior Lopez promoted to Altoona

8/30: Nick Neumann activated from Bradenton disabled list.

8/30: Alen Hanson promoted to Pirates. Jameson Taillon and Steven Brault assigned to Bristol.

8/30: Pirates purchased contract of Kelvin Marte. Kyle Lobstein designated for assignment.

8/30: Mitch Keller and Sean Keselica promoted to Bradenton. Scooter Hightower and Matt Frawley promoted to West Virginia

8/30: Mike Wallace promoted to Morgantown.

8/29: Pirates recall Steven Brault. Gerrit Cole placed on disabled list.

8/28: A.J. Schugel recalled from Indianapolis. Adam Frazier optioned to Bristol.

8/28: Pirates activate Tyler Glasnow from disabled list. Optioned to Indianapolis.

8/28: Justin Topa placed on disabled list. Henry Hirsch activated from temporary inactive list.

THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY

Five former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date. Starting with Gorkys Hernandez, who was a former player when I wrote the original article linked above, then he came back, then he left again. He played 25 games for the Pirates in 2012 and eight more last season. All the other players were born before 1900:

Fred Blackwell, 1917-19 catcher. He was a September call-up in 1917, then served as the third string catcher in 1918. He lost that job in 1919, but came back after Jeff Sweeney struggled and Walter Schmidt got hurt. Blackwell hit .205 in 35 games over his three seasons.

John Flynn, 1910-11 first baseman. Hit .263 in 129 games. The Pirates purchased him from St Paul in late 1909 for $4,000 and they sold him back to St Paul in 1911.

Charlie Case, 1904-06 pitcher. Had just three starts in the majors in 1901, before joining the Pirates three years later. He went 10-5, 2.94 in 1904, then followed that up with a 2.57 ERA over 217 innings in 1905. He lost his job when the Pirates improved their pitching staff in 1906 and went down to the minors early in the season, never coming back to the majors. He won 122 games in the minors after being sent down.

Ed Poole, pitcher/outfielder for Pirates from 1900 until 1902. Had a 3.22 ERA over 95 innings with Pittsburgh and hit .221 in 90 at-bats.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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