![]() If you’re reading this, there is more than a solid chance that I won’t have to waste time reviewing Searage’s bona fides. Uncle Ray’s reputation is well deserved at this point. It started when the Pirates made a shrewd, underrated move in bringing up pitching coordinator Justin Meccage to serve as a lieutenant to venerable pitching coach Ray Searage. The good news is this: this deficit has been recognized and addressed. The club’s starting pitching is still finding its way to missing more bats and completing more strikeouts. Yet the work the Pirates rotation has put in towards becoming a top of the line unit in Major League Baseball is largely unfinished. 2019’s version of depth chiefly amounts to Nick Kingham, who was as widely regarded of a starting pitching prospect as Taillon until injuries ravaged his development. If the fringes have improved, that means the depth has improved also – in 2016 the club relied on a relative unknown in Kuhl for its main depth option along with the likes of Wilfredo Boscan, Drew Hutchison and a very-green Steven Brault. Even the fringes are much more talented than in years previous Ivan Nova could have been considered a number two starter on the 2016-2017 teams yet now has been jettisoned off to the White Sox in favor of a seemingly better curveballer in Jordan Lyles. Chris Archer and Joe Musgrove have served as an injection of talent from the outside, while Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams look like honest-to-goodness well developed pitchers. One cannot deny the change in talent level that has taken place over the past two-plus seasons. Two full seasons since the end of that disastrous campaign, how has the Pirates’ starting pitching performance progressed at a team level? The results are a bit mixed: Retrospect on the “bridge year” is still unkind, but Neal Huntington deserves at least a shred of credit for recognizing that the starting rotation needed something akin to a complete overhaul. It also saw the debut of Jameson Taillon and Chad Kuhl, along with the addition of Ivan Nova. ![]() ![]() Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano were there, too, but had long since reached the peak of their time with the Pirates for one reason or another. You do remember the 2016 Opening Day rotation don’t you? It featured names such as Jon Niese, Jeff Locke and Ryan Vogelsong in prominent roles. That mission was simply to revitalize a tired starting pitching corps. In many ways, the 2019 Pittsburgh Pirates will finish the job the club started back in mid-2016. Dashes (-) refer to a sample size of ZERO.ĬLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PIRATESGUIDE - ON SALE for JUST $10.50 THe bottom charts for each pitcher show batted ball data - an * refers to a sample size of 10 batted balls or last. “2019” stats in the tables below refer to Steamer projections, or at least those that were available at press time. This is an example of our complete player peviews for each unit (SPs, RPs, Position Players). I’ll be doing something a bit different with this excerpt. This week, the book is on sale for just $10.50 for Paperback / $5.99 for Ebook. The following is an excerpt from PIRATESGUIDE 2019, a PIttsburgh Pirates season preview book from myself and Alex Stumpf here at Bucs Dugout, among others. ![]()
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