The Pittsburgh Pirates will go for a four-game sweep against the Cincinnati Reds today. My hope in this game is that they get out to an early lead, to allow recently promoted Drew Maggi to get a chance to get in the action for his MLB debut.
Maggi was promoted earlier today as a temporary replacement for Bryan Reynolds, who is on the Bereavement List. Maggi was drafted by the Pirates in 2010, and has spent parts of 13 seasons with a few different organizations around the game. After 1154 games in the minors, this could be his first chance to appear in an MLB game.
Never give up on your dream. 🥲 pic.twitter.com/rRlenZBSZn
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 23, 2023
Maggi isn’t in the lineup today. The Pirates are off tomorrow, so this might be his only opportunity. Let’s hope we see another early offensive explosion, allowing the Pirates the chance to give Maggi a few innings at the end of the game.
PIRATES VS REDS
Game Time: 1:35 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Vince Velasquez (2-2, 5.12)
Reds Starter: Hunter Greene (0-0, 4.24)
Pirates Lineups:
Some Sunday baseball.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/W8AezPj0Yz— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 23, 2023
Reds Lineups:
Series finale with Hunter Greene on the mound.
Powered by @PNCBank pic.twitter.com/6zrzRbKUQH
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 23, 2023
INDIANAPOLIS AT MEMPHIS
Game Time: 3:05 PM EST
Projected Starter: TBA
Osvaldo Bido had a rough outing last night, after opening the season with a few strong starts. Bido gave up four runs on four hits in four innings. Most of his damage came in the last inning. His long-term upside is a reliever in the majors, with a chance to be an emergency starter if he’s pitching well when the Pirates need a guy.
ALTOONA VS BOWIE
Game Time: 1:00 PM EST
Projected Starter: Kyle Nicolas, RHP (1-1, 5.79)
There were a few transactions in Altoona this morning. The big one was Maggi going up to Pittsburgh. Jared Jones also hit the injured list. Altoona has Kyle Nicolas on the mound today, coming off a good outing his last time out. He allowed one run in six innings, with only two walks allowed. He gave up eight runs in eight innings with six walks in his first two outings. Nicolas is a sleeper pick of mine to follow, due to his ability to put up the latter type of outing.
GREENSBORO VS GREENVILLE
Game Time: 2:00 PM EST
Projected Starter: Po-Yu Chen, RHP (0-1, 7.27)
Chen is a similar situation to Nicolas above. In his first outing, he allowed six runs in 3.2 innings. Last time out, he gave up one run in five innings. The encouraging thing is that he had the bad outing on the road, and the good outing at home.
BRADENTON VS DAYTONA
Game Time: 12:00 PM EST
Projected Starter: J.P. Massey, RHP (0-1, 6.75)
Bradenton has J.P. Massey on the mound today. As I type this, he’s pitching in Bradenton’s early game, with three no-hit innings, one walk, and five strikeouts. Massey was featured as a sleeper prospect to follow at the start of the season.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
People appear to be strangely focused on and loving this Maggi nonsense. Feel good story? Maybe, but my problem with it is that it’s become the main national Pirate news story instead of the fact that the Pirates now have the lead in the National League Central and the best record in the National League.
If he stays in Pittsburgh after today, he should start at third on Tuesday and bat lead off then get pulled after one AB and replaced by Hayes and immediately sent back to Altoona. Win, win and enough already.
These are 2 unrelated things. Maggi is a good story and very well may be back in Altoona Tuesday as we have no idea how long Reynolds will be out. I think (not sure of this), for a bereavement leave the player coming up to replace the player can be sent right back down instead of a normally required number of days in the majors. He was an emergency replacement that required no risk if lost when sent back down. It could have been Bissonnette, Owings, Macias et al but they chose a fun story.
I am assuming they did not want to add anybody to the 40 man that they feel they may actually leverage for more important purposes later and would not want to expose to waivers.
The second part: I really don’t think there are news groups anywhere saying we can only cover one aspect of the Pirates so we have to choose between Maggi or the Pirates great start. I have already heard the Pirates referenced / discussed many times based off of their great start. In almost every case they sound like most of us – great start but it is a long season.
Milwaukee’ Bull Pen in the 8th!!! Bucs should be in 1st in a couple mins!!!
Matt Bush got Crowed
Apt gif, lol.
I have two Crowe gifs now. One when he enters and this one if he blows up.
New verb, added to my very limited dictionary.
Sunday lineup with 3 rooks and 3 second year guys combined with VV on the hill, couldve been an easy 3-1 series win but the guys battled hard and showed yet again this team isnt gonna roll over! I am gaining more optimism by the day
I’m mailing my 2024 vote early for the Marin for president campaign!
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on…..
Whooo Hooooooo!!!!!!
Holy Shit! Lucky Seven. Make it Eleven.
Raise it!!!! What an incredible start to the season.
Winning is so fun it makes grown men smile and hug each other!
Let’s Go Bucs!!!
First thought that hit my mind was the guys in the bar hugging when the Tribe won in Major League. Of course I can’t find a gif……
Pirates-Rays WS! Manfred will watch from his hospital bed after having a stroke.
I actually think Manfred would love to see it once. Boras on the other hand would be sooooo pisssssseddddd!!!
I think you are right, it will reaffirm the whole salary cap is not needed bs.
OK, I’ll buy into that reasoning… except I don’t think sponsors would be thrilled.
Most definitely correct. Sponsors would be ok with one underdog, but not two.
CSN will be sent down. Maggi will stay briefly.
Not that I don’t like CSN or anything but man I hope Maggi gets an AB. Hopefully he will stay.
It actually makes sense to send CSN down. Swaggerty’s DL stint relieves the OF glut for a week or two. CSN isn’t gaining much experience gathering splinters. Maggi will be fine warming a bench seat.
This is a guy who batted under .200 last year and again this year….just give him an ab and DFA him back. Call up Andujar who is getting pay a million bucks to play in AAA.
I’m thinking CSN is in Indy until Swags returns at a minimum.
Could well be Maggi stays up and CSN goes down as Maggi is probably better suited to playing once a week.
Time to put this game to bed(nar)
our manager is a big asshole
How so? What did I miss?
My uneducated guess is since maggi didnt get in but i could definitely be wrong
Id a have put in maggi and just trust bednar
I love that Maggi is up and want to see him hit the field as well but in a 1-0 game, I want the win. Every win now means 1 less missed opportunity for later in the season. He will get his chance. Like others have posted, I can easily see CSN going down to put a string of starts together to get back into a groove when Reynolds comes back and having Maggi as the Swiss Army knife on the bench for a few weeks and he will get his chances to get on the field then.
Maggi in for McCuthen? or is that too cute by half?
Santana would have been a great option quarter back in college (all his under hand tosses to the pitchers cover first are perfect).
I like The Holder Man
The umps in this series should have everyone everywhere screaming for MLB to start using the electronic strike zone sooner rather than later. Three inches off the plate or six inches high is not a strike.
i am starting to think umps have been told by mlb to widen the strike zone. Seems like every game I have watched this year the strike zone has included one extra inch on both sides of the plate
You have seen an expanded strike because the league has told the umps to expand it so they say but it seems counterintuitive for the umps to go along with it.
You jump around like Bae does and you get a lot of bad calls because the ump has a hard time reading your strike zone. I don’t blame the ump for that bad call. How the hell is the ump supposed to know where the top of Bae’s strike zone when Bae’s jumping up and down?
Downvote. I could see your point on a pitch a few inches high. Not a foot high.
MLB needs to adopt a Manager challenge on ball/strike call. That strike 3 to Bae would’ve made Eric Gregg blush.
Interesting video from 3 months ago on the electronic strike zone being used in Triple-A this year from the you tube channel CloseCallSports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud9DmGtJb98
I went to the Marauder game this afternoon and there were a number of challenges to strike calls usually by the batter. A bunch of them were overturned. I’m assuming they had that electronic eye system in use as a backup. I didn’t realize they had challenges to strikes in the minors.
Yep. The plate ump had a very large strike zone.
Hey, I liked Eric Gregg. He made some calls against Larry Bowa that really did make Eric blush
Bae fakes himself into two strikes
Bad call but also a bush league at bat by Bae.
I am not enjoying Bae’s ABs. I know he’s a rookie but his swings are terrible
Lol poor Hunter Greene has rotten luck against us
or his just plays for the Reds
Left-hander in for the Reds.
We want Maggi.
We want Maggi ….
Something magical happening in Pittsburgh! And no place is that more apparent than on the pitching mound.
New quality start streak!
Hat tip to VV. 5 starts, 1 terrible, 2 OK, and 2 excellent. That is much better than I was expecting.
I’m starting to believe in Marin Magic Dust.
Or good coaching.
Preponderance of evidence Marin knows his stuff.
Best AB I’ve ever seen from Suwinski. Foul off five pitches and take two close ones for a second walk? GREAT AB
Suwinski’s having really good ABs
yes, but the bar seems pretty low for him. Posters here are pleased when he just walks.
He didn’t just “walk” though. First one he had an 8 pitch walk. Down 1-2 and worked his way up. Second one a 9 pitch walk. (5 fouls too)
Good ABs regardless of low bar.
a Double! now that’s even more cool!
There’s just something about Suwinski that I believe in. Was losing it finally after the bad spring training & start to the season, but he’s had solid ABs lately that makes me hopeful he can be a good productive player here, not in AAA or AA.
It’s just really nice to have a GG in the infield… 😊
Davis with two bombs today. First went way over the LF bleachers.
Something has to go right with these prospects at some point.
I hope that’s the start of him going on a tear.
Also had an RBI single.
I’m mainly afraid AA pitchers just won’t ever challenge him.
He seems to get his hits in bunches. And when he’s not getting hits he’s…getting hit or drawing some walks.
He hasn’t dominated there yet, I understand that he has goods at bats, but better results are needed!
When will they stop the Yogi Berra story to run every. single. commercial pause????!!!
Hayes double, Marcano single, Cutch DP, all on fast balls (98-99 mph). Santana strikes out on a slider. looks like the game plan is to hunt fastballs.
Hayes with improved launch angle 😁
Cutch might want to talk to Hayes about launch angles
Termarr with a two run single. Then Nadal with a straight steal of home. Pitcher wasn’t paying attention.
Termarr had a nice play earlier on a GB to his left.
doesn’t have to be a lopsided game, if the Reds bring in a left handed reliever, I would rather see Maggi than Suwinski in the batter’s box.