Bubba Chandler wouldn't blame anyone for taking a look at the box score following the Pirates' 6-2 loss to the Yankees here today at LECOM park and thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, he's bad.' 

The results Chandler produced in his spring debut weren't pretty: He walked four batters in the second inning and ended up being credited with four earned runs while landing just 14 of 35 pitches for strikes in 1 2/3 innings. But it wasn't all bad. 

Instead of dwelling on the results, Chandler chose to focus on some positive takeaways. It is just spring training, after all: "For one, I'm healthy. Two, I'm excited to pitch in front of people again. Three, there's a lot of good that -- behind the scenes what I wanted to accomplish -- I did. Unfortunately, didn't end the way I wanted to, and I walked people, but I was efficient in the way I wanted to be, not how you should be. Everything I was throwing today that I wanted to execute, I did. I hate walks. One walk is fine. You can't let one turn to two, two turn to three, and definitely not in a row, either. But good day, beautiful day. A little windy. Not the best start, but one I can definitely build off of, and I'm excited about. Ball's coming out really easy. So, it's good." 

Chandler acknowledged to me a few weeks ago that last season humbled him as a pitcher. He didn't get promoted to the big leagues until mid-August and a big reason why was his 12% walk rate and 4.77 BB/9 over 100 innings with Class AAA Indianapolis. 

Chandler's control got better as he transitioned to the majors, walking just four batters in 31 1/3 innings. But today was a different story. He rolled through a clean first inning, throwing six of his eight pitches for strikes and even striking out Jasson Dominguez. Then, the four walks and four second-inning runs killed his day. He landed just three of the 21 fastballs he threw for called strikes, but did end up striking out two, including Seth Brown on a nasty 2-2 changeup in the second.

"I'm gonna slow down some video and nitpick myself for probably the next eight hours," Chandler said. "I'd say something probably changed from the first to the second. Felt like, all day, I didn't necessarily have the best command and control with my fastball, which is pretty evident, but everything else felt great. I wanted to throw a slider, I threw it where I wanted to. Curveball, changeup, whatever it was, and that's awesome. Usually for me, it's those pitches that take some time to catch up, and right now they feel great. Just got to get back on plane with my heater. That's a very simple and easy fix that will be done over the next couple of days. Excited pitch on Saturday."