https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-xxxei-125fafa
Matt Capps joins us to express concerns about David Bednar’s use, and he has the life-experience to speak on it. He also talks about what he sees lately from Mitch Keller. Is this the breakthrough? Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also joins us to figure out what happens to young call-ups on the roster when players start returning from the IL. A roster crunch is coming.
Craig Toth covers the Pirates for Inside The Bucs Basement, and joins his buddy Chris at a 9-foot homemade oak bar to talk Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball. Listen. Subscribe. Share. We are “For Fans, By Fans & all Pirates Talk.” THE Pirates Fan Podcast found EVERYWHERE podcasts can be found and always at BucsInTheBasement.com!
Inside The Bucs Basement 
Good conversation, as usual.
I am also concerned about Bednar usage. Capps mentioned how injury ended his career. Meek suffered an injury and seemed never the same. Hanrahan they barely dodged losing value from when they flipped him to Boston. To Capps’ point, a big injury is going to come at some point for most pitchers.
A proper mix of 2-seam, 4-seam (that isn’t flat), slider, curve, and change should enable someone with command to dominate. I don’t see the command at the proper level for Keller, and his change has often underwhelmed scouts while other pitches consistently look too easily recognizable and get barreled or taken way out of the zone. But if each pitch has different speeds and similar enough appearance out of the hand before their differing movements, that’s exactly what you want. Maybe he gets there, maybe not.
It is bewildering to see the extensive commitment to VanMeter, Cheng, and Tsutsugo, eh? They should be jettisoned in favor of Marcano, Gamel, and Newman. Newman gets a showcase and gets traded, barring further injury–no doubt in my mind. The same could happen for Gamel, who was playing worthy of a 110 OPS+ that definitely could attract suitors if the Bucs don’t intend to keep him as a veteran presence.
Castillo needs demoted, agreed. His athleticism on a couple of would-be routine (maybe above-average) catches yesterday made up for pretty poor outfielding technique, which ultimately burned them late in the game. If the idea is for him to be a true utility who can play at least one outfield position, better for him to learn the position in AAA, in my opinion. Allow him to regain his stroke too. He is just not finding outfield grass for enough batted balls, plain and simple.
I don’t think this was addressed in the episode, but man, what a debacle this year at catcher. I know you’ve all written at length about it, just can’t get over the needless black hole.
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