With pitching, look at changes for future, not past failures taken at PNC Park (Pirates)

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Gregory Polanco is congratulated by teammates in Wednesday's win over the Padres.

For the second time in four days Wednesday, the Pirates spoiled the PNC Park homecoming of one of their former pitchers, beating Joe Musgrove and the Padres, 5-1.

The Pirates vs. former Pirates pitchers. That’s been a common theme the past six weeks, dating back to spring training.

Jameson Taillon made his return to LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla. in early March. Trevor Williams was back on PNC Park’s pitcher’s mound Sunday with the Cubs. Musgrove, of course, Wednesday. If they aren’t enough of a reminder, you can find a Tyler Glasnow, Gerrit Cole or Charlie Morton pitching most nights too, if you want to look for them.

It’s a laundry list of players who were either traded or dumped at various points over the past couple years. Some of those pitchers would have left in free agency by now, but Glasnow, Musgrove and Taillon would be quite the top three in a rotation.

Not that they truly lived up to their potential with the Pirates. Taillon was a 5 WAR pitcher in 2018, his only full, healthy season. He revamped his mechanics after his second Tommy John in 2019, and while he has gotten off to a bit of a shaky start with the Yankees, they felt confident enough to send a haul of prospects to the Pirates to acquire him. 

Musgrove has been the best pitcher for the Padres, throwing a no-hitter in his second start and allowing just one run over 19 innings. He showed signs of finally breaking out last September. Now he is.

Williams was one of the best rookie pitchers in baseball in 2017 and followed it up with a 4 WAR campaign the next year. He fell off from there, to the point that he was designated for assignment. Perhaps he was outpitching his metrics early in his career, perhaps he was a victim of the juiced baseball. Either way, it was a rapid and fairly unexpected decline.

Glasnow, Cole, Morton... there’s no reason to go down that path yet again. We know the story.

It could have been a special rotation, but they weren’t properly developed and weren’t used properly. A sinker-heavy approach that relied on pitching to contact wasn’t yielding the results it did from 2013-2015, and those in charge were either unable or unwilling to change. It’s a “what if” that’s going to haunt the Pirates during the lean years of this rebuild.

When asked Tuesday if he had a message for Pirates fans who could have seen this staff turn out very differently, Musgrove responded, “I don't know what there is I can say to make anyone feel good about it.”

Well, there isn’t. Except that pitching development has been completely overhauled. 

Not just at the very top with Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton. There’s a new farm director, John Baker. A new pitching coordinator in Josh Hopper. New coaches in the minors. History doesn’t have to repeat itself. The new regime is trying to prevent that from happening again with this next wave of pitching.

To review the heavy hitters: Quinn Priester is one of the most exciting young pitchers in the game, with prospect guru Jim Callis going as far to say as he thinks Priester could end the year as the best pitching prospect in the minors. Miguel Yajure, Roansy Contreras and Eddy Yean were all acquired via trade this offseason and have rotation potential. Carmen Mlodzinski and Brennan Malone were both first-round picks the last two drafts.

Not to mention, the first overall draft pick is very likely a pitcher out of Vanderbilt, either Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker.

They’re not going to be forced into the “you have to pitch down in the zone” or “outs on three pitches or less” mold. It’s going to be more collaborative between the front office, coaches and players. More individualized to play to a pitcher’s strengths.

“How we’re training, how things are perceived, and what types of edges that we can get in our player development, whether it’s technology or the numbers or how we’re using the tech and data,” Class AAA manager Brian Esposito told me about what’s different in player development during spring training. “It’s about doing a lot of listening, asking a lot of questions, and then staying authentic to how you help players get better.”

Without a minor-league season to refer to yet, most of this is still ideological, but some of it has been put into practice already.

Look at Max Kranick. In 2019, he was a young Class A pitcher whose trajectory was heading the wrong way. He wasn’t pitching the right way, in terms of stratagem or for his health.

In 2020, he meets a new coach at spring training, former Pirate pitcher Vic Black, who worked with him throughout the shutdown to revamp his throwing motion. At the same time, Kranick saw his stuff start to play up, and now his fastball does most of its damage in the higher part of the strike zone. Once the season resumed, he got an invitation to the alternate site, one of only a handful of players who had yet to reach Altoona as a member of the Curve. He impressed, and the Pirates added him to the roster this offseason. 

It’s an example of a coach going above and beyond and a pitcher who was willing to rise to the challenges it takes to get better. Now Kranick is a legitimate pitching prospect

That is the roadmap for the Pirates getting better and developing their pitching more effectively. It’s achievable, and it will ultimately determine the success of this new era of leadership. But you can’t judge them based on the previous regime’s failures.

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Musgrove's first start since his no-hitter last week lasted just four innings, with the Pirates running his pitch count up to 81 early. 

“Coming off the no-hitter, my assumption was the fact that he would be a little shortened just because of pitching nine innings early in the year,” Shelton said. “We did a nice job. Good stuff early on. Executed pitches, we were able to foul pitches off to extend at-bats. We didn’t score many runs off him, but how we were able to get him out of the game after the fourth was extremely important for us.”

The only run the Pirates got on the night was a second-inning fastball that Padres catcher Victor Caratini wanted low and away and Musgrove threw high and inside to Gregory Polanco:

Caratini's reaction says it all.

The Pirates' other runs came on a fifth inning, two-out base hit from Colin Moran, scoring Adam Frazier, an Erik Gonzalez bloop and a two run back breaking base knock from Frazier in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

• It was Polanco who led the charge in his return to the lineup Wednesday, going 2-for-2 with the homer and a pair of walks. 

Shelton gave him the first two games of the series off so they could work on his timing. 

"I don’t know if you noticed, but I changed my (stance) and I’m not just hanging with my front foot. I’m trying to get my foot on ground on time," Polanco said.

A quick observation on my part, but it looked like Polanco had a double toe-tap on the homer that we didn't see earlier in the season. That could be something to watch going forward.

• After making two good starts, but having some tough-luck runs go against him, Tyler Anderson's pitching line was more reflective to how he has performed earlier this season. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, worked around four hits and two walks to only let one run score, and struck out two. In the process, he picked up his first win as a Pirate.

After Chad Kuhl needed 37 pitches to get out of the first the night before, Anderson just needed seven in a one-two-three opening frame.

"If you can go out and have a good first inning, I just feel like it sets a good tone for you, a good pace," Anderson said. "Start throwing strikes and start getting ahead."

Shelton says Anderson's execution of the fastball to both sides of the plate has been key for him not only in this start, but in the early parts of this season.

"When he had to go in on right-handers, he went in and executed," Shelton said. "Sometimes he went in for balls to be able to set up the next pitch. Really good job by TA throwing the ball in, and I thought Mikey [catcher Michael Perez] did a really nice job with the game plan."

• Anderson was replaced with Duane Underwood Jr. While he allowed the one runner he inherited to score, he got five big outs and struck out three.

Sam Howard and Chris Stratton threw a clean eighth and ninth, respectively, to close the game. 

"Last night, we talked about it being an ugly game," Shelton said. "Tonight was a clean game. We did a really nice job all the way around."

• Frazier went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and RBIs in his return to the top of the order. Phillip Evans drew a walk to extend his on-base streak to 11 games, but went hitless in four trips to the plate. Bryan Reynolds went 1-for-5 with four strikeouts, all on breaking pitches -- two sliders and two curveballs.

• Factoid of the night: The last time Polanco reached base four times in a game without making an out was June 17, 2018.

THE ESSENTIALS

Boxscore
Video Highlights
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

Adam Frazier, 2B
Phillip Evans, 3B
Bryan Reynolds, LF
Colin Moran, 1B
Kevin Newman, SS
Gregory Polanco, RF
Dustin Fowler, CF
Michael Perez, C
Tyler Anderson, P

And for Jayce Tingler's Padres:

Trent Grisham, CF
Manny Machado, 3B
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Tommy Pham, LF
Jurickson Profar, RF
Jake Cronenworth, 2B
Ha-Seong Kim, SS
Victor Caratini, C
Joe Musgrove, P

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates have a quick turnaround before the series finale with the Padres on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. as Mitch Keller (1-1, 4.50 ERA) is scheduled to take on Chris Paddack (0-1, 5.63 ERA).

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