5/10/23 – By Craig W. Toth – @BucsBasement on Twitter
April was fun. We can’t forget that.
Your Pittsburgh Pirates were 20-9 headed into a matchup with the best team in baseball-the Tampa Bay Rays-to kick off the second month of the season.
May…not so much. We have to remember this as well.
After a 1-7 slide-where nothing other than Mitch Keller seems to be going right-we regrettably have to look back on our pre-season projections.
Deep down we probably knew a regression was coming; but, we surely didn’t see the bottom dropping out so quickly.
News & Notes
- Cutch was clutch during the last two games of this series. Unfortunately, the team results didn’t fall in line with his production. After starting 0 for 3 in the opener, Andrew drove in 3 of the Pirates 4 runs; and took one step closer to 300 career homers.
- Another Veteran on the roster, Carlos Santana may need a breather. After Ji-Man Choi went down early on, I was wondering how much work Connor Joe-the only other realistic option at position-would get. Don’t get me wrong, Santana has been a godsend at 1st, but he can’t be asked to play 35 of the teams first 38 games, without seeing some sort of regression at the plate. Over his last 15 games, Santana is slashing .235/.328/.314.
- RISP has been a hot topic as of late; and with good reason. This series the Pirates were 3 for 18 in these situations; good for a .167 batting average. Obviously this matters, however, it also depends on circumstances. You know…like bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the 6th, and you can’t get one guy across home plate.
- Rich Hill only lasted 3 and 2/3 innings, while throwing 75 pitches. He definitely wasn’t bad, but relying on the bullpen for 5+ innings, isn’t ideal either. Maybe the defense will turn things around at some point. Hill’s final line: 3.2IP/4H/3R/1ER/2BB/4K.
- An overwhelming narrative has started to take over the Pirates Socials-initiated by Fans and some Media Members; and although I tackled the topic in a recent Through The Prospect Porthole, I thought I would address it again-due to a lot of misinformation-again tomorrow.
The Pirates have an off day on Thursday before heading to Baltimore to take on the surging Orioles.
For Pittsburgh, Johan Oviedo (2-3/5.59 ERA/1.62 WHIP) toes the rubber against Kyle Bradish (1-1/5.95 ERA/1.73 WHIP) in the orange and black.
Inside The Bucs Basement 
Hi Craig, I’m sorry to keep bringing up this subject, but there’s no way this team can succeed with Hedges in the lineup 75-80% of the time. Today the 7-8-9 batters were all under 200 BA. While I understand your point about Hedges defense and handling the staff, from what I’ve read, Delay is relatively close to Hedges in framing, I think they need to play him and Bae more. They need to get the best bats in the lineup, as a rule of thumb, most MLB players will make 90-95% of the plays defensively, and the hitters will win more games with their bats than they’ll lose with their gloves. Hayes is an obvious exception to this rule, he saves more hits with his defensive play.
Lastly I think it’s time to give Endy a shot, along with any other hot bats, scoring as little as we did this week screams for change.
I’ll stop badgering you about Hedges, I promise, I just had to get it off my chest. ✌️
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No reason to be sorry. It’s a relevant topic. Hedges and Delay are a lot closer defensively that one could have imagined at the beginning of the season; although his defense was one of the main reasons Shelton gave for him making the opening day roster. I have no issue with him playing the majority of games at the moment. As far the comments I’ve seen about Hedges holding runners or throwing out would be base stealers, only two catchers-Diaz(who we just faced) and Wong from the Red Sox-are the only standouts, with all other catchers being average to below average.
Bae has been struggling at the plate-aside from the double yesterday, and isn’t there defensively. With the other options on the roster, I just don’t see how he can get more playing time.
As far as Endy is concerned, he is working himself back from injury-health and timing wise. He looked a little bit more like himself last night, but still went 1 for 5.
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Important note: Hill committed the error that extended his final inning.
I had the same thoughts on McCutchen and Santana, good calls. I like both but can’t see them playing as often as the latter has. Of course, Connor Joe has rapidly sunk back to reality too, so I’m concerned about the corners being a black hole. It’s not an easy fix. Here’s hoping Choi returns strong, which I have no reason to expect he won’t, as long as he’s fully healthy. It very much felt like he might not have been when he debuted for the Bucs.
For having to pitch so many innings, the bullpen did great. If only Stephenson had gotten the three straight outs before the four straight baserunners.
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