The Pittsburgh Pirates take on the Chicago Cubs tonight at 7:05 PM EST in the first game of a four game series. Tonight’s game will be notable due to the expected debut of Oneil Cruz.
The Pirates are calling up Cruz, along with outfielder Bligh Madris, and you can bet that Cruz will start upon his arrival to the big leagues. We will have thoughts on the Cruz arrival on the site throughout the day.
JT Brubaker takes the mound tonight, looking to follow up on yesterday with another win. We will post lineups when they become available. Use the comments below to discuss tonight’s game, and the big league club leading up to the debut of Cruz.
Here are the moves to get Indy’s best hitter in the lineup of the Pirates, along with Oneil Cruz as well
LINEUPS:
Pirates
New series on deck.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/YKpcRS8tsB
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 20, 2022
Cubs
Here is tonight's #Cubs starting lineup in Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/SIejDA8wT0
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 20, 2022
Pirates : A New Hope
Prelude: I went on a date and missed the beginning. When I returned, I started the game from scratch.
First things first. Man, Cruz is striking. 6’7. Lanky. Gigantic glaring face. And he does NOT disappoint. His first infield play in the 3rd results in a 96.7 mph strike to Michael Chavis’ dome. It is the hardest infield throw this season, with Bobby Witt Jr. at a distant 2nd with 94 mph. Cue Bob and Greg salivating. His next AB, a 112.9 mph beam into CF that causes Morel to completely misjudge it. As the man rounds 2nd base, HE IS MANICALLY LAUGHING as a later slow-mo zoom would reveal. He KNEW he shouldn’t go for 3rd. BUT HE DID ANYWAY. He’s called out at 3rd. He slinks, knee down on the ground, in an almost angelic prayer-like state. Then he stands, dreadlocks clouding his eyes from the video monitor. Then as he reaches the top of the dugout stairs, he suddenly heaves his head back, dreadlocks amass, flipping, floating, revealing the smiling Cruz. Style and Grace. He is also fast. I am smitten.
Madris went 3-4. Looked fantastic. Couple nice defensive plays. The AAA stats don’t lie. These two look here to stay.
Brubaker looked lucky to get 6 innings. The Cubs are a bad team and it showed. Killian never really had any control. And neither did Brubaker. With that said, he kept us in the game. And the final stat line looked good.
Also, Beede should be DFA’d. 23 IP, 10 K’s, 10 BB’s, somehow a 3.42 ERA. Lots of dancing. 96 mph fastball raises eyebrows but he doesn’t trust his own stuff.
This was Chang’s last game. And his final Pirate AB will be a fastball to the ribs :/
*In the 5th inning, it is 7-0 w/ no help from the two Pirates’ best players: Reynolds and Hayes. Reynolds would finish 2-3 w/ 2 runs.
I am a little worried about what they do when Yoshi, VanMeter, Newman, Gamel, and Marisnick are healthy. I would DFA Yoshi, VanMeter and Marisnick. I’d play Newman at 2B and Gamel as DH and OF until deadline then trade them away hopefully for something. But I could see them giving everyone another chance and don’t forget they still have Chang…
I’m actually okay with Vogelbach as the DH/PH he has pop and he can be the 13th guy until they sort out these young players.
Madris looks like a guy. Play him at 1st and 4th outfielder. I see a team coming together. Cruz looks legit.
Madris is not the prospect that Mitchell is, but I wish they keep Madris in the outfield and have Mitchell with his weak arm try to play 1b.
Time will tell whether Madris is a flash in the pan or a late bloomer. At 26, with his tools, it’s easy to see the latter, but we’ve seen his type before. Mitchell has to hit, and hit for power, to stick. He has no value anywhere on the field, but if he can prove serviceable at 1b, that improves his chances.
So many things went right in this game, here’s one that won’t get noticed — Chavis pretty much swings at everything, had only nine walks all year. He drew three today. Maybe putting a real lineup together will change some things.
Hitting’s infectious and when everyone’s contributing each player doesn’t put as much pressure on himself as he would when he feels he HAS to deliver for his team to have a chance. Kilian was wild but Chavis seemed less tensed up and didn’t take those wild swings we usually see. He could be a great weapon against LHer’s .
A lineup like todays can hurt you pretty much 1-7 which is a really nice improvement over early this year where 1-3 was pretty much all teams had to worry about
It looks like it could be. Chavis I think has a future. Madris really impressed me!
Chavis has a future, just not as a full time starter, weak side platoon and a good bat off the bench!
The kind of bat that can help you off the bench win a championship.
Man, just great moments tonight and yesterday. Been a long time!
raise it baby!!!
https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1539045418172092418?s=20&t=JXCTg9xBY9QpAah77tvqTA
Mutanttttttt. Hopefully in a year or two we can all have a good laugh about Tim wanting to trade Cruz (not in a mean way, in a friendly “silly Tim!” way)
I hope this Hembree’s farewell tour!
he’s not very good!
I think Beede has doubled his season K total
He still scares me but not so much with a 7 run lead, lol.
Well this game somehow exceeded expectations, which were pretty much through the roof.
Yep, pretty much….
13 ab’s, 5 runs scored, 6 hits and 8 rbi’s from all the rookies with 5 hits 3 runs 6 rbi’s from two guys just up today, lol.
#LetTheKidsPlay
A semi payback for the trashing they gave us.
Cap’n Bligh: The Hit Collector
I’m taking it back from Matt.
And another one, another one.
A Reynolds, Suwinski, Cruz middle of the order? This could be the start of something big.
“Hey! What about me???” —- Capt. Bligh
He’s there, too. Now, go spend $60 million on pitching and a couple RH bats
if things go well, we should have a few quality pieces to swing a nice deal for a quality arm or quality RH bat to go with 2 -3 above average FA to fill in some gaps (a catcher would be nice to really fill the gap til Hank and Endy show up 😁😁)
And another one.
Reynolds having himself a great month. The BABIP god’s are smiling on him after cursing him in the first two months.
What a bad pitch selection by the catcher. The change, the change!
Don’t look now, but another former Pirates hurler has a no-no through 7.
This former pitcher was always going to the highest bidder no matter who who it was so he does not bother me in the least. When you remove every thing with a team logo on it before being seen on camera and replace your team hat with your agent’s hat, it shows money was all that mattered. I have no problem with him going for,the most money. That stance eliminated any chance of him signing with 75% of the teams in baseball. More power to him. He earned that right.
Most definitely agree. Cole was never going to spend 1 day longer in Pittsburgh than MLB rules forced him to.
I don’t mind players going for top dollars. Not a fan of them being so open about it. Wearing a Boras Corp hat on night he lost game 7 was a horrible moment for him.
To be honest, he was going to hit the market no matter who he was playing for. Even if he was with the Yankees already and they overpaid during his Arb years, he was never going to extend. He would make more money by having even 2 or 3 teams bidding to drive the price up than by taking a great offer to stay. Most of the top end guys do that and bet on themselves to stay healthy and highly productive. Soto is going to do the same thing. Well, all except for the Boras hat if the Nats trade him and he gets interviewed in the clubhouse. Yes, it was a very bad look for Cole. Wonder if he was the winning pitcher if he would have done the same thing.
Okay Shelton, how many runs do you think is enough for Beede to give up?
One…… 🙂
Hate it when one of ours serves up an 0-2 meatball. Even worse when ducks on pond and 2 outs.
Just TURRIBLE!
Brubaker’s got another dozen wins in him this year. The big ones will come in September when we’re the talk of baseball in the middle of a pennant run.
Looks like Captain Bligh brought his Indy swing with him, lol.
brubaker with a nice outing. i’ll take it
6 shutout innings from Bru. I know it’s the Cubs, but still good.
And just like that, pitch count is fine.
Nice play Bligh! Greg Brown gonna have to change his underwear!
You guys, I am finishing a date that I almost cancelled to watch the Cruz/Madris game. Until my friend reiterated, “You’re gonna skip a date… To watch baseball.. No… To watch the PIRATES.” So I am on the date… But I secretly wish I was home with a cold one and my PiratesProspects crew. What have I missed? I want it all.
I hope you’re recording it
WAIT, should I just watch from the beginning? Is it worth it?
yes
yep – DON”T check in.
With those dreadlocks Cruz looks like Predator! Pirates fans, we may have us something better than a Super Hero…An Anti-Hero. A player all the other fans love to hate!
Lol’ng that Cubs put a shift on Heinemann with 2 outs nobody on.
What, everybody in the IF?
Have The Pirates just become the most interesting team in the league?
113 off the bat, 96+ from deep short in the same game, flying around the bases. We’re seeing shit we’ve never seen…This dude is a unicorn.
Please for once, let us have something nice…the pain and suffering has been enough
Don’t jinx us!
Man, that throw
O’Neil Cruz: STUD.
BIG STUD
He’s not ready for Pittsburgh.
Cruz looks like George Foster if George had dreds. Those eyes. Just looks like he not only wants to hurt you, but to ruin you for life.
I can dream about a Big Black&Yellow Machine
Lumber and Lightning redux
Somebody tell Nickles it’s time to start spending some money!
Remember what I was saying……this coming off season ……
Or next month if we go on a tear and get in contention. Might as well add on for the last two months and the next couple, three years. We need $60 million in pitching and a couple RH bats. And we’ve got prospects to trade 🙂
Took less than 3 innings for Pirates to improve their runs/game after promoting Cruz. Coincidence?
It literally took 3 innings for Cruz to have the hardest hit ball of the season, the fastest infield throw of the season and the fastest sprint speed for all Buccos this season
Bucs Opening Day roster had an average age of 29.3, tied for sixth oldest in MLB (with Giants). The 10 on the field tonight – 26.4, which is younger than any team’s OD roster.
This Cub’s starter has walk issues so far this year. If they are patient, the Bucs could make this a laugher. It would help if Bru wasn’t as generous with his walk rate.
Cruz made a nice throw, but what I really like is his hair. That’s just awesome hair.
Even recognizing that IF gloves are smaller than OF gloves, the one on Cruz’ hand looks like it would be comfortable for a little leaguer.
When I saw that camera shot I was in awe of how small that glove looked on his hand, lol.
he is a BIG human.
96.7 mph Cruz’ throw to 1st was the FASTEST pitch by an infielder in 2022. Bobby Wittt #2 94.4 mph.
Chavis hung tough as that lazer headed his way and gloved it cleanly. This is going to more fun as the season continues….
Hope he checked the lacings.
Vogelbach CAN NOT play first with Cruz at shortstop. His life would be in danger.
Jesus, can he pitch? Think of that arm on a right fielder? Oh, I’ve seen one. Roberto Clemente
I’ve always wondered what kind of pitcher Clemente would have made, or Parker.
I didn’t realize Heyward was still getting starts with Cubs.
The Cubs follow the Bob Nutting theory of sunk costs.
And The Cap’t. got some wheels
Loved the fist pump on his way to first. Gratz to Bligh!
aye, aye Captain Bligh
Mighty good debut for Capt. Bligh.
Earlier I was thinking how much fun the past few weeks have been with all these kids coming up. Thinking of the guys who just started rehab in Indy coming off of the il I’ll probably get a lot more work done around the house when they are back, lol.
Oh, yeah! Cap’t. Bligh
bligh guy!! let’s gooo