Pittsburgh Pirates: Trade Deadline Preview
By Jason Evans
Rotation
The pitching staff is led by All-Star Gerrit Cole. Unfortunately, he is now out with an injury to his triceps. They don’t know when he’s coming back. In his stead is top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon. Taillon has looked good in both his starts against the Mets, but got hammered by the Chicago Cubs last night, proving that there will still be a few growing pains.
The thing is, the Pirates would have rather used Taillon to replace one of their other starters instead of their ace. The issue with the rotation is that every starter has given up more hits than innings pitched, including Cole. Hard to win when you’re behind the eight ball like that.
Juan Nicasio, at this point, should be a specialist. Lefties love hitting against him as much as the Kardashians love attention. Lefties are hitting .326/.383/.651 with ten home runs in 129 at bats this year.
Francisco Liriano has seen his ERA spike almost two runs this year from 3.38 to near 5.00. Jon Niese has an ERA of near 5.00 and Jeff Locke has an ERA close to 6.00. That is not going to get it done.
If you want to look at a reason why the Pirates aren’t as good as they have been in recent years, that’s really all you need to see.
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