Coming into the season, Tyler Glasnow was expected to provide a mid-season boost to the Pirates rotation, and that looks likelier by the day. As MiLB.com’s Sam Dykstra writes, the young righty has been dominant at Triple-A and currently leads the International League in strikeout rate. Though a promotion seems all but inevitable at some point, the timing remains uncertain and may be dependent upon what the club can get from its current options (as well as its estimation of where the Super Two cutoff will fall). Jeff Locke is coming off of his best start of the year after some significant early struggles, while Juan Nicasio is throwing well enough currently to hold down another slot and Ryan Vogelsong remains a factor.
Here’s more from the National League …
- The Mets may ultimately need to consider moving Travis d’Arnaud out from behind the plate, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post suggests. If d’Arnaud misses an extended stretch, argues Davidoff, the organization ought at least to think about alternatives to full-time catching. Of course, while the 27-year-old hit well enough last year (.268/.340/.485 in 268 plate appearances) to play anywhere on the diamond, he’s yet to carry that kind of production over even a full season and — regardless — is most valuable as a backstop.
- Opposing pitchers have exhibited a new approach to breakout Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes. After initially testing him on the inner half, with memorable results, hurlers are now attacking him away. While he’ll obviously have a chance to respond in the cat-and-mouse game, Story’s production has fallen off significantly. He still owns a rather productive .247/.306/.649 overall slash, but his 36.5% strikeout rate and recent lack of pull-side power opportunities certainly rate as concerns looking forward.
- Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post questions the Nationals’ lack of action on GM Mike Rizzo’s contract. The veteran executive says he’s not yet heard anything, though he also expressed a lack of concern on the subject. While there’s no rush to decide on Rizzo’s two-year option (it’s due June 14), and expectations remain that he’ll remain with the organization, Svrluga says it remains a mystery why ownership hasn’t gone ahead and made a seemingly obvious decision to lock up club’s head baseball decisionmaker.
Prob is a good thing for Glasnow that he is still in AAA right now and not really urgently needed. A local beat writer was interviewing Chris Stewart in spring training and Chris was asked about Glasnow. He had good stuff to say but did say that Tyler was trying to pitch beyond expectations. In other words, trying way to hard. Getting a very solid start in AAA will go a long way to ensure he gets off to a great start in the bigs.
Story has good O-Sw% and overal Sw%. His main goal should be to make contact on those outside strikes even if it’s not an oppo fld HR. His exit velo, avg HR+FB and recently a few more walks sets up another dynamic Rockies hitter.
I wonder if d’Arnaud could adapt to play one of the corners. As it stands, the Mets have awful depth behind Duda and Wright – Wright needs lots of days off and Duda is less effective against lefties. d’Arnaud could be sort of a utility player who can catch in emergency situations, and teaching him a new position would give Collins more flexibility with his infield. It would also allow Plawecki to get more playing time to develop his bat.
This is probably a longshot, but d’Arnaud has been disappointing defensively and his inability to control the running game was exploited perfectly by KC.
d’Arnaud will get hurt where ever he plays on the field, that’s what he does.
Jeff Locke just pitched well in Coors field, but he is a ticking time bomb. The Pirates will most certainly watch Glasnow’s service time so I don’t expect to see him until end of May at the earliest.
It’s also worth noting that Jameson Taillon is off to a strong start as well. His inning limit will be watched this year, but it’s exciting what the Pirates rotation might look like at the end of this year.