The Pittsburgh Pirates go into an off day riding a seven game losing streak.
JT Brubaker appeared to have settled things down after the Philadelphia Phillies scored two runs in the top of the first, but then they broke through in the fifth inning for five more runs.
During their 1-8 skid, the Pirates have only managed to score more than two runs only twice. In three of the nine games they were only able to push across one run.
Cal Mitchell continued his recent hot stretch by going two for four and collecting his 12th RBI. Cal only needs 11 more at-bats before he graduates off of prospect lists.
Then speaking of hot streaks, Kevin Newman in his last seven games has gone 11 for 30 with a slash of 367/406/600. Since returning on July 8th he is carrying a line of 315/359/452 for the month of July, complete with eight doubles and a triple. The good news is that his hard hit % and average launch angle is up. The bad news is that his average exit velocity has still been well below average and he’s striking out more. Newman striking out more though is still a very respectable 20%.
I’m honestly starting to not expect much this deadline. It’s been a lot of all bark and no bite. The customary “Front offices and execs are telling me this is going to be the wildest deadline EVER” tweets are starting to come out from insiders. They are yearly now to the equivalent of all the “Best shape of his life” articles that flood the news every spring training.
This is our first expanded playoffs deadline. The questions I had coming into this deadline were whether more teams with a possibility of playoffs would drive up prices, or if teams would be more likely to remain with their existing roster. With some of the rumors coming out it’s actually seemed like teams on the fringe are more willing to deal from their roster. Baltimore, Boston, and San Francisco are all teams within four games of the Wild Card but have been mentioned as willing to part with key pieces. “Buyers and Sellers” seems to be this deadline’s most oft used phrase.
I think we’ll mostly be waiting on roster moves that Ben Cherington claimed are imminent after the deadline.
