Coming off of a 2-0 victory, the Pittsburgh Pirates (21-15) take on the Colorado Rockies (14-22) at PNC Park tonight, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 PM.
Luis Ortiz will be on the mound for his season debut, taking the rotation spot of Vince Velasquez, who was placed on the Injured List last week. More on Ortiz later when the move becomes official. The Rockies are countering with right-handed pitcher Connor Seabold (0-0, 5.30), who has pitched 18.2 innings over one start and seven relief appearances.
According to Jason Mackey, this isn’t the only change for the Pirates today.
Sources: Pirates selecting Josh Palacios. Has been raking at Triple-A.
Chase De Jong DFA'd.
More to come.
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) May 9, 2023
More on that move once it becomes official as well. Both Ortiz and Palacios should be announced at the same time, but if one goes first, there will be an article up for it shortly after it happens.
Since this is going up early, here are some links from yesterday (plus one from today) that you may have missed.
**UPDATE UPDATE: Here are some minor league moves from today, with more possibly to come
**UPDATE: Here are the moves from today.
**Pirates Prospects Daily: One Affiliate Short of All Teams Above .500
**Mitch Keller Ends the Pirates’ Losing Streak With a Complete Game Shutout
**Greensboro is up to five catchers in the last four days due to some more moving around, as Wyatt Hendrie gets promoted.
**Top Performers: Aaron Shackelford and Caleb Smith Lead the Way The best in the minor league system over the past week
**Wyatt Langford is starting to show why some people liked him better than Dylan Crews. Things are getting a bit interesting. Our weekly look at how the draft is shaping up.
UMPIRE SCORECARD
Hey, what’s going on here? Two strong umpired games in a row? Notice that the biggest calls in the game all went for the Pirates, though there were only four missed calls all game.
Umpire: Nate Tomlinson
Final: Rockies 0, Pirates 2#Rockies // #LetsGoBucs#COLvsPIT // #PITvsCOLMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/F2tQHjsjKy pic.twitter.com/xQYlv7R9c6
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) May 9, 2023
LINEUPS
Pirates
Game 2 on deck.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/G9LIY6n6lj— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 9, 2023
Rockies
Randal Grichuk hitting second for the #Rockies tonight, while Profar, brought in to be the lead off guy, moves back to seventh: pic.twitter.com/sUIkCV9gpE
— Danielle Allentuck (@d_allentuck) May 9, 2023
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.
Any predictions for the percentile plots for the recent 1st round picks?
Henry Davis
Termarr Johnson
Nick Gonzales
Neto is fairly balanced between red and blue already
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/zach-neto-687263?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
The color scheme for Nick Gonzales will probably look something like this …
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/aaron-judge-592450?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
Yohan’s still being treated with kid gloves regarding the situations he’s called upon to come in and pitch but he’s showing he belongs when he gets the ball. This bullpen has a lot of potential.
Mears would be nice to still have in that mix too though
Im upset that hernandez is getting charged an earned run when underwear was the one pitching the rest of the inning
If Shelton challenges Dias interference in blocking Santana’s throw to Marcano in the 4th, it very well would be a 1-1 game entering the 7th inning. Just saying. This did not have to be a blowout.
As long as he’s in the base path, I don’t think what he did is a violation.
Probably not, but his hand went up around his head, much higher than when running a normal stride. As it turned out to be the play of the game, Shelton could have/should have had NY look at it. Crazier calls have come out of NY when they interpret the rule in great depth.
Not my night—switch off the Pirates game to watch Indy just in time to see Smith give up a 4-run HR. Moving on to AA…
*3-run HR (i.e., I wouldn’t refer to a grand slam as a 4-run HR :)).
Well time for more moves, never mind.
This is painful to watch. Bad hitting. Worse pitching. Worser defense. Worst coaching!
Does Cruz even have to jump to catch that humpback liner to SS?
CSN still looks lost at the plate.
Davis with #8 . Too bad for him the Pirates have all the offense they need.
Someone just please hit with runner on base!!!!! 1b or 2b or 3b or wherever!!! Hitting’s horrific right now
I can’t recall them looking any worse than this the last three years. That might includes fundamentals—we’ve already had two bone-headed plays tonight. Just very hard to watch right now.
Jose Hernandez is the third best pitcher on the team behind Bednar and Keller. Dodgers really screwed up leaving him unprotected in rule 5 draft.
Speaking of screw up. Sabo is playing pretty regular. Playing outfield and catching. Five,Homer’s 11 Rbi. OPS 780. Batting around 250. He’s from San Francisco and extremely happy
The ironic thing is that Sabol for Hernandez is looking like a fair deal. But to state the obvious, we don’t have the depth to lose someone via Rule 5 who is as good as Sabol.
Blake sabol is striking out 44% of the time, the only reason his numbers are palatable are a few homers in his few hits. I would 100/100 rather have hernandez than him right now
Sabo does make the wind blow around the plate, but is productive.
Sabol has been worth .6 WAR already, which seems impressive for a Rule 5 pick. Maybe the K’s will catch up to him, or maybe he cuts down on those K’s as he gains experience. I don’t know which of the two I’d prefer, but I’d like to have both.
Triolo is up in AAA? Just tuned in to that game and he took a first pitch and lined to CF for a hit…
There’s an article from earlier linked above about him moving up, along with other minor moves
Thanks!
When was last time the pirates got a big hit? Man this is getting serious.
I get that players, particularly guys like Santana who’ve been in the league for a very long time, are still adjusting to the pitch clock. But when the dude throws 6 straight balls there ain’t no damn reason to not be in the box ready for the next pitch.
Inexcusable after this many games.
Reynolds timing is off again. He should’ve blasted that 93 mph middle middle meatball.
Needs the stache back
He gets in and out of focus so quickly.
I don’t care if you’re Rod Carew 2.0, never, ever, bunt down by 4 runs! Ridiculous!
Think Mitch can go tomorrow…
“Only” 103 pitches, I will guess yeah.
Seabold = Ace, the f….
Their #5 > Our #5 . Disappointing.
That last single for the Rockies proved Marcano has the range to play shortstop and might not even have the arm for second base. Really tough throw for anybody no doubt, but I might’ve been safe on that play.
Ortiz looks like Clay Holmes, if the Yankees converted Holmes into a starter.
I’m here, still hopeful for a win from Ortiz… let’s start from a quality start
Welppppp 4 runs 6 innings?
you picked a fine time to show up……5 now….
Such unfortunate hits… but I think it’s way more depressing that I feel like the Bucs can’t/won’t score more than maybe 3 runs at max 🫥
Find Jobu and a live chicken………
Was that legal and/or reviewable for Diaz to put his hands up as the throw was coming to 2nd??
Shelton and Kelly missed another one.
Marcano got charged w an error. I don’t get that. Scorer may reverse that.
Yeah you have to question that one, what reason does he have for doing that other than interfering with the throw. He sure as hell was trying to protect his head!
Sucks it cost a run instead of a DP and I still like Elias Diaz so it sucks for him, but since Santana’s throw to second just hit Diaz’ throwing hand they should run on him. No chance he’s as accurate after that.
Pirates were hitting 091 risp since may 2 before cutches single , that explains a lot.
Wait did Ortiz actually pick up a sinker or is Savant doing Savant things?
I thought he always threw a sinker?!!
I’m…I…
Whatever he is throwing, it ain’t helping much this inning…..
my kingdom for a single, actual shortstop…
Thank you Andrew !!
Man, thought Hayes was picked off 2nd…..
Delay bats are afraid of the curve ball…..
His swing is so powerful that the ball curves out of the way.
Termarr Johnson is at a 50% strikeout rate after his K to start tonight’s game. I think he needs a reset. It felt like they rushed him into real games for no particular reason without enough Extended ST games, but this is rough from a guy who is supposed to be an elite hitter. He swings out of his shoes a lot, so I can’t imagine he will ever have elite contact rates. But that might mean a 25% strikeout rate, not 50%
Termarr had a good game today
Any opinions on the starting pitcher for low A, Dom Perachi?
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=5/9/2023&gamePk=729615&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=&sportId=14
He is Wade Boggs second coming. Once he is old enough to grow a reddish stache he will come good.
The start of his career is very perplexing. I am very much doubting the scouting reports and I am concerned there is more going on here than we can see with stats.
He’s 18 years old, fellas.
Smh……gotta go with Skenes this year.
I watched Termarr in High School
I hated the pick when Pirates selected him. I say this kid is a bust
That’s alarming to say the least
good grief.
Remember when we effed up the Milb Rule 5 draft in December, passing when our pick was not even eligible to be picked! Must have got Palacios before that gaffe. Well, it would be good to see Palacios be an MLB caliber player, although a 4th OFer always seems to be the ceiling of BC’s call-ups.
Looks to me like Sebold is throwing meatballs. Bucs just aren’t squaring them up. Hayes was just under it, Reynolds on top and rolled it over and Cutch’s was off the end of the bat but all were very hittable pitches.
Yay Tucu!!!! Great start for Luis!!!
Now that’s good IF defense, Tuco!
Now he needs to hit, hit hit not bunt!
Davis with #7 .
#8 and a double
OPS is 1.175. Heaven forbid the Pirates should rush him.
I’m just glad he isn’t striking out over 35 percent like the other 2 first round picks. Pushing him a little would be nice though.
Also hit by pitch
Figures. Four true outcomes guy.
Can’t stream the game……
I’m getting it.
Went back to see the bomb. Every one I’ve ever seen him hit was way out.
Lets Go Bucs!
Kinda seems like putting out a Sunday lineup on a Tuesday but I like Delay in there and it’s nice to see Palacios getting action right away.
I kinda like it. Shows Shelton is paying attention to Delay and gets Bae at #9 , where he should have been all along, with his speed.
Learned today from Mackey that it was Shelton who called the double steal last night where Owings had a 3-2 count and Castro tried to steal third in a scoreless game with one out. Hedges on deck. Didn’t like it then thinking Castro was on his own. Don’t like it now with Shelton calling it. Like with a pitcher batting, you want to just get Hedges up that inning and clear to top of lineup for next inning. Dias also has a 53% caught stealing rate, which is ridiculously good. I’m getting concerned about Shelton and this running game he is trying to execute.
Hedges doubled the to lead of the next inning. Does not mean that he would have doubled the last inning with runners on 1st and 2nd as the pitcher would not have probably pitched him the same as he did with bases empty. Hedges was left standing on 3rd to end the 6th.
Cutch is a better fit in the 6 hole range than the 3 spot , but I dont’ have a better option right now so I cant fault Shelton for the lineup composition. We got by the OCruz hole in April with duct tape & super glue but his absence now is a glaring deficiency in the lineup.
Two more against Colorado, at Baltimore (3), at Detroit (2), home against Arizona (3) & Texas (3), at Seattle (3) and at SF (3) to close out May. Seattle and Texas have top 10 pitching staffs right now, rest are middle of pack.
I think I’d sign up for 8-11 for rest of May, and anything better is gravy, no?
19-0 till they ain’t.
In all seriousness, who frickin knows with this team? Very up and down of late.
Palacios may not stick in the Majors, or he may do well, none of us really know at this point. But, give the front office credit for finding a player in the minor league rule 5 draft that can at least hit very well in AAA this year. Would have been easy to say, “yep, we have enough outfield depth”, and just not keep looking and trying to use all avenues for finding players, but they kept at their jobs and found someone that may help, and can at least hit AAA pitching in a short sample size in 2023.
Looks like the Front office may also have found a keeper in the Major League portion of the Rule 5. Hernandez has looked pretty good as well.
Lots of AAAA OF and lots of AAAA 2b, would be wonderful if one or more separated themselves from the crowd on those fronts!
Mackey is reporting that Bolton has been optioned to AAA so apparently that is the other shoe to drop.
Huh, so we lost two pen pitchers and gain ortiz? Also i dunno who is long out of the pen but would prefer bolton in the position
They’ve gone multi innings with R5 guy. The more IP he gets the better. Very optimistic about him.
Moreta has gone more than one as well. I def agree with giving Hernandez and Moreta work. I have hope for both.
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Time for the Pirates to compete game in and game out…
Please no more excuses for umpiring or they are young, just compete every game and they will win some and lose some but they will improve…
Definitely happy to see them reward Palacios for his work so far this year. Offense sure could use a jolt, and hopefully he’s the guy to provide it.
Nobody’s exactly seized that last OF spot, to put it mildly, so plenty of experimenting is order.
I expected that to be an issue all year…..really I thought 2 OF spots would be issues all year but Jack has made some nice adjustments this year…..so far.
Against LHPs Jack has an OPS of .468 in 28 plate appearances, and his career OPS against LHPs is .504 in 139 plate appearances, so on a win-now team he should be used as a platoon player.
With last night’s performance, Mitch Keller jumped into the top 10 of Pitching WAR for the year.
My guess is Bae is the one sent down, but just a guess
DeJong
Fine choice!
Palacios is up for him so still need a move for ortiz
Hey Cal, Swag, this should have been you! Hope Swag is ok, I’ve never been sick for a month!
yeah, between the Pirates and Swags, something seems to have gone very wrong. It made no sense to come out of spring training with both CSN and Suwinski and not Swaggerty, and from there it seems things have gotten worse. And, best I can tell, there is no mention of him anywhere, but then I don’t really do social media, so maybe I’m out of the loop. But, we could have really used a good fielding CFer from the first game of the season onward, and we still don’t have that.
Give the guy some f*cking space, christ. These are human beings, remember that.
Your comments to my comments are usually out of line, but this one pisses me off. I have no idea how you think I’m criticizing Swaggerty, maybe you know more about what “illness” means than I do, but whatever. I am actually one of Swaggerty’s biggest fans on this board. But you of all people are the most vulgar, boorish and dehumanizing poster here, so for f*ck sake go read your comment history and ask yourself about remembering others, both posters, ball players, and whoever your are insulting, if you are remembering they are human or not.
Swags had a daughter less than 2 years ago and she was 6 weeks or so premature. It’s believed that she is struggling again, and he is off to be by her side. This is a very sensitive topic.
Thanks for the reply, did not know that. If that is the reason for his absence, then the Pirates, or Swags, should simply say he is out due to a family illness. That would still respect everyone’s privacy, while also letting fans know what the deal is. A baseball team is public entity, so absolute secrecy in these matters benefits no one.
You are not that important, buddy. Nobody owes you a damn thing.
Get a freakin life.
So much the human thing, eh?
respect is earned, my man. I’m not inclined to give you a shred until you start treating others with it.
I respect people until they earn my disrespect. I have absolutely no respect for you, or for your comments.
Nice, a self defeating comment
Kinda doubt he’s the one who’s sick.
That’s my feeling too, hope that whoever it is fully recovers.
no Vince to the DL?
Oh you might be right, he mightve gone to the 15 day IL
Vince went on the 15 day on the 5th My guess is DFA for Anduhar. After his 4-5 start in the Washington DH he is 1 for 19.
this would make sense too, as Andujar is limited defensively, whereas Bae is at least versatile defensively
If it were me, I’d send Marcano down. The two are almost identical at the plate except for a walk or two in Marcano’s favor. Bae is a butcher in the field, but the outfield is kind of set now with Reynolds, Suwinski, Joe and now Palacios, and I get the feeling that Owings is going to be getting consistent ABs at SS, moving Castro over to 2B where he’s much less of a liability (-22 UZR/150 at SS, -5 at 2B). For a bench guy, Bae has the one skill that stands out: he is an absolute menace on the basepaths, #11 in all of baseball in baserunning runs. I’d keep him up just to have that weapon handy.
good points made
Bae isn’t a big leaguer without the rule changes this year. Rob Manfred, Job Creator.
You talking the shift or the bigger bases/two throws over per at bat? I don’t think his stolen bases would be dramatically different…speed is speed (think Billy Hamilton). That said, still not sure he’s a MLB player even with the rule changes. He’s exciting and fun….so that’s cool
Ha, look at that. An article up at FanGraphs talking about this from the catcher’s perspective.
“The bases are, what, six inches [closer]?” he says. “It’s fractions of a second.” To be precise, at top sprint speed even the slowest runner in baseball covers six inches in a little over 0.02 seconds. Wong’s pop time is more than 0.02 seconds better than all but five catchers in the league this season, so he makes that deficit back up with ease.
“I think the biggest advantage for baserunners is if you get to two disengagements,” he says. “That’s almost a jailbreak for them. But we really haven’t gotten there much as a staff, so I think the pitchers are doing a really good job of holding on to those [disengagements] and also mixing their times.”
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/connor-wong-is-popping-and-blocking/
ya but catchers are barely actual human beings so….lol. Of the one rule that I am not in love with, it’s the two disengagement rule, let them throw over as many times as they want, THAT part isn’t adding a lot of time to the game time.
haha, preach brother.
I think it’s more the pickoff rules?
its weird though how a few of these marginal guys have single handedly won a game or two for us
Bae I can count twice – – – Choi twice and Andujar once
Thats the importance of having a strong roster 26 deep, never know who is going to step up
I have a hunch that we will be adding Palacios to that list
Guess its about keeping an eye on the hot hand and calling it up and inserting directly into the starting lineup
…and then ignoring all the games they contribute to losing.
I sure hope youre right!
Priester for freeland and the rockies pick up 80% of his contract arenado style
Ortiz iz going to mow the lawn with these guys
I heard hes going to outdo kellers start
Excited to watch 9 innings of -1 runs for Ortiz today 🙂
Pleasantly surprised about De Jong. I thought sure he had lifetime veteran tenure. Even if it’s the wrong move, which I doubt, at least they’re willing to make a move.
It’s amazing what people are willing to do when they actually care about winning.
Has anybody else noticed that these ump scorecards skew towards the home team?
Many years ago, I believe it was SI who put out an article with supporting evidence showing how Umpires/Referees in every sport sub-consciously favor home teams. If my memory serves me right, they chalked it up to the human desire for affirmation.
Kinda made sense to me.