'Hey, you've grown:' Chandler learning, maturing as pitcher
As Bubba Chandler walked off the mound Thursday at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla. after a 1-2-3 inning, he gave himself an imaginary fist bump after working through a situation that signified how far he's come as a pitcher since being drafted in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft.
The moment came after a called third strike to Willi Castro -- an 0-2 97.5 mph fastball on the outer half of the plate -- was overturned by an ABS challenge. The pitch was less than half-an-inch outside of the zone.
"Three years ago, challenge system, that happens, Bubba Chandler's walking that guy, 100%, no doubt in my mind," Chandler said. "Even if it was 0-2, I'm going to walk that guy."
Instead, Chandler threw a sinker outside the bottom of the zone and then pinpointed a low 97 mph fastball to induce a double play back up the middle to get out of the inning.
"For me, getting back in there, throwing strikes, getting that double play. For myself, it's a little fist bump like 'Hey, you've grown', which is nice," Chandler said.
Joey Bart was catching Chandler during his second outing and while he hasn't caught him a ton since arriving with the Pirates last April, but said the best pitchers are the ones that are able to work themselves out of those types of jams.
"It's not always to be easy obviously and you're going to find yourself in jams and you're going to have to make pitches," Bart said. "That's what he did, made a pitch, got the guy in the right spot and made a double play and got himself out of it."
Chandler has skyrocketed through the minor-league system over the last two years and is currently ranked as the Pirates' top overall prospect and is ranked as the 15th overall prospect by MLB Pipeline and 7th by Baseball America. As he continues to climb, he's also starting to grow as a pitcher and the experience he's getting in spring training is helping.
He used his five-pitch walk to Royce Lewis on Thursday as a prime example. Chandler started Lewis with a fastball up in the zone for a strike and then threw another one above the zone before trying to get him to chase a slider low and outside the zone.
"He's not going to swing at anything low because I didn't throw anything low, so he doesn't respect it," Chandler said. "Just little stuff like that. If I would have executed a fastball low, then yeah, that would have played off great. But, little stuff like that, big-time big league hitters aren't going to swing at it. They're going to spit on it every day of the week."
Chandler has made two appearances this spring with both coming against the Twins. He's allowed one earned run and one hit while walking two and striking out one. He said he put on a little weight this offseason, gained a little muscle and has matured physically to get ready for spring training and compete for a roster spot.
He also started his throwing program about two weeks earlier than normal so he could come into spring training sharp and is already throwing hard. He threw 11 pitches on Thursday and eight were 96 mph or faster, one reached 98 mph. In his first outing, he threw 14 pitches with his first pitch topping out at 99 mph. Leading into spring training, Baseball America ranked Chandler's fastball as the best among its Top 100 prospects.
However, Chandler is also taking this time to refine everything else in his arsenal so it's up to par as he tries to break onto the big-league roster.
"Everyone here has a job to do, and that's get ready for 162 games. That's kind of how I'm treating it as I get everything going now early," Chandler said. "Some of the finer pitches I can change up, curveball, slider and if you're missing with them now, you've got a month to get them right. I'm not super mad at my past two outings. I didn't necessarily dominate and strike everybody out how you want to, but I landed strikes, got through innings pretty quick. The bad stuff that did happen, it's stuff that could go 50-50, stuff that you can fix easily."
With Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones at the head of the starting rotation, the Pirates are already in a good place. Add arms like Andrew Heaney, Johan Oviedo, Bailey Falter and possibly Carmen Mlodzinski or Caleb Ferguson into the mix and it gets crowded pretty quickly.
That leaves Chandler on the outside looking in, but at this point he's not looking ahead too much. He just wants to prove himself as a competitor who will do whatever he can to win.
"Hopefully I get some more opportunities to throw a little longer than an inning and show O (pitching coach Oscar Marin), Shelty (Derek Shelton) and some of the guys that 'Hey, whether I'm ready for not, I'm going to compete as hard as I can and hopefully put myself in a position to get to Pittsburgh,' " Chandler said.
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THE ASYLUM
Greg Macafee
3:24 pm - 02.28.2025Bradenton, Fla.'Hey, you've grown:' Chandler learning, maturing as pitcher
As Bubba Chandler walked off the mound Thursday at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla. after a 1-2-3 inning, he gave himself an imaginary fist bump after working through a situation that signified how far he's come as a pitcher since being drafted in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft.
The moment came after a called third strike to Willi Castro -- an 0-2 97.5 mph fastball on the outer half of the plate -- was overturned by an ABS challenge. The pitch was less than half-an-inch outside of the zone.
"Three years ago, challenge system, that happens, Bubba Chandler's walking that guy, 100%, no doubt in my mind," Chandler said. "Even if it was 0-2, I'm going to walk that guy."
Instead, Chandler threw a sinker outside the bottom of the zone and then pinpointed a low 97 mph fastball to induce a double play back up the middle to get out of the inning.
"For me, getting back in there, throwing strikes, getting that double play. For myself, it's a little fist bump like 'Hey, you've grown', which is nice," Chandler said.
Joey Bart was catching Chandler during his second outing and while he hasn't caught him a ton since arriving with the Pirates last April, but said the best pitchers are the ones that are able to work themselves out of those types of jams.
"It's not always to be easy obviously and you're going to find yourself in jams and you're going to have to make pitches," Bart said. "That's what he did, made a pitch, got the guy in the right spot and made a double play and got himself out of it."
Chandler has skyrocketed through the minor-league system over the last two years and is currently ranked as the Pirates' top overall prospect and is ranked as the 15th overall prospect by MLB Pipeline and 7th by Baseball America. As he continues to climb, he's also starting to grow as a pitcher and the experience he's getting in spring training is helping.
He used his five-pitch walk to Royce Lewis on Thursday as a prime example. Chandler started Lewis with a fastball up in the zone for a strike and then threw another one above the zone before trying to get him to chase a slider low and outside the zone.
"He's not going to swing at anything low because I didn't throw anything low, so he doesn't respect it," Chandler said. "Just little stuff like that. If I would have executed a fastball low, then yeah, that would have played off great. But, little stuff like that, big-time big league hitters aren't going to swing at it. They're going to spit on it every day of the week."
Chandler has made two appearances this spring with both coming against the Twins. He's allowed one earned run and one hit while walking two and striking out one. He said he put on a little weight this offseason, gained a little muscle and has matured physically to get ready for spring training and compete for a roster spot.
He also started his throwing program about two weeks earlier than normal so he could come into spring training sharp and is already throwing hard. He threw 11 pitches on Thursday and eight were 96 mph or faster, one reached 98 mph. In his first outing, he threw 14 pitches with his first pitch topping out at 99 mph. Leading into spring training, Baseball America ranked Chandler's fastball as the best among its Top 100 prospects.
However, Chandler is also taking this time to refine everything else in his arsenal so it's up to par as he tries to break onto the big-league roster.
"Everyone here has a job to do, and that's get ready for 162 games. That's kind of how I'm treating it as I get everything going now early," Chandler said. "Some of the finer pitches I can change up, curveball, slider and if you're missing with them now, you've got a month to get them right. I'm not super mad at my past two outings. I didn't necessarily dominate and strike everybody out how you want to, but I landed strikes, got through innings pretty quick. The bad stuff that did happen, it's stuff that could go 50-50, stuff that you can fix easily."
With Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones at the head of the starting rotation, the Pirates are already in a good place. Add arms like Andrew Heaney, Johan Oviedo, Bailey Falter and possibly Carmen Mlodzinski or Caleb Ferguson into the mix and it gets crowded pretty quickly.
That leaves Chandler on the outside looking in, but at this point he's not looking ahead too much. He just wants to prove himself as a competitor who will do whatever he can to win.
"Hopefully I get some more opportunities to throw a little longer than an inning and show O (pitching coach Oscar Marin), Shelty (Derek Shelton) and some of the guys that 'Hey, whether I'm ready for not, I'm going to compete as hard as I can and hopefully put myself in a position to get to Pittsburgh,' " Chandler said.
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Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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