Pirates Insider Podcast, Episode 45 (7/20 recapping Guardians series)

Paul Skenes continued to look like Paul Skenes. Meanwhile, should we just call this the Billy Cook Game? Esmerlyn Valdez homered again amid his breakout rookie campaign, while Ben Cherington addressed what could happen with the bullpen on the Pirates Insider Show. Jason Mackey breaks it all down right here.

Transcript

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All right, good morning, Pirates fans. This is the Pirates Insider Podcast. I am your host, Jason Mackey, coming to you from New York following a 7-1 Pirates victory over the Guardians at Progressive Field. The Pirates take the series. A lot to unpack from this one. It was a Paul Skeens day, and it was an excellent Paul Skeens day. He went seven strong, gave up one earned, walked two, struck out eight, a hundred pitches, sixty-eight for strikes. He's now won three starts in a row with a 245 ERA during that time. What do you know? Looks like the Paul Schemens of old, but that was hardly the only thing to talk about here on a busy Sunday, on an interesting Sunday. Thank you so much for finding us. My story actually, the new Pirates Insider tag, call it a column, call it what you will, I wrote about Billy Cook. We could easily call this the Billy Cook game. And it turned out to be a pretty fascinating story. So get this. Over the break, Billy Cook got married. Yes, he got married. We had some fun with it afterward talking to Billy Cook about this. And this wasn't uh, you know, he didn't run off to Vegas or they didn't JP it or something like that. Um, you know, it was with his uh fiance, Amelia, and it turns out her brother is in the army and will be deployed in September, and so they wanted to do something where he could be there for it. So over the break, they basically Colorado Springs uh got married with a bunch of friends and family, and what do you know, Billy Cook, once again, was an excellent teammate. This time for his wife. That's the tact that I took anyway. But uh, in any case, his first real game back, I know he played in the double header, but his first start, and a lot of people upset about Billy Cook being in the lineup today, but he's in there and has the game of his life. Three hits, including a triple, two RBIs, two runs scored, throws somebody out from center field, steals a base. It was the quintessential Billy Cook experience. And uh, come on, how can you not be happy for the guy? I can tell you from being in the clubhouse every day, he is the most delightful, mild-mannered, helpful, polite, um, just the definition of a good teammate. And Billy Cook's fingerprints were all over this one. Obviously, a game the Pirates needed to win. The way that doubleheader went on Saturday, boy, that was ugly. Uh blowing the lead in the 8th and 9th. Uh, didn't do a podcast over the weekend, but obviously that would have been a big focal point. Uh but the Pirates needed a spark, and Billy Cook gave that to them. Uh, there were more ingredients in this game, of course, that I'm gonna get to, but uh Billy Cook was just he was so fun to watch. I love the jokes. I made a joke on Twitter about you know the biggest billies out there, Billy Strings, Billy Joel, Billy Corgan, Billy, I don't, I don't, I don't know what other billies I included. I forgot Billy Madison. That was embarrassing, but Billy Cook, absolutely fantastic, and a fun story behind it. Do check that story out. I love Jake Mangum's quote. He deserves every single bit of that game. Works his tail off, great human being, great family, couldn't be happier. And it wouldn't have mattered, of course, if we hadn't have seen a whole bunch of other ingredients. So let's talk about those a little bit. Skeens, you know what I picked out with this? He looks like Paul Skeens. I know that's maybe an oversimplification, but he looks like the guy who's attacking hitters. He's got a little bit of a swagger back. I know I talked about that on a previous podcast. I want to see Paul simplify. I want to see him go right at guys. I want to see that four-seamer play, and it has. Um, you can see it in his attitude, his body language, if you watch Paul Skeens all the time, and this is not a bad thing at all. There's just a little bit of cockiness, a little bit of an edge. Um you can see him pitching with that something else that nobody has, and had 18 whiffs today. Uh, got some great defense behind him, mind you. Jake Mangum made a fantastic play. I mentioned Billy Cook um throwing the runner out at home. This was all around just a bad game for the Guardians on the bases. Just to highlight a few of those. Uh Steven Kwan in a strike em out, throw-emout situation in the third and inning later. Chase DeLoder was the runner that Billy Cook threw out at home. Gabriel Arias goes past second base, doesn't retouch it in the fifth. He's out on kind of an odd play. Kwan in the sixth, trying to stretch a single into a double. That was Mangum's throw. Uh, and then Khalil Watson gets picked off in the seventh. But you know what? To the Pirates' credit, they took care of business. Skeens goes seven, Mason Montgomery pitches the eighth, Mason Montgomery, or Mason Montgomery pitches the eighth, and then Isaac Matson finishes it off. A victory that the Pirates absolutely have to have. And get this, we've talked a lot about this 22-game stretch for the Pirates. You can actually make it 25 given the way the Diamondbacks have fared against teams 500 or better. The Pirates have won 10 of 16. Yes, they have. They've won 10 of 16. It might not feel that way because it seems like every time they lose, it's cataclysmic or, you know, just really, really bad, or it's really frustrating. It's a game you think they should have won, and in Saturday's case, they should have won it. But the Pirates are chugging along pretty well. Uh some underrated storylines, I thought, from the weekend, just to touch on them. They did very well in the ABS challenge system. I thought throughout the weekend, we saw some good challenges from Henry Davis as Marilyn Valdez doing very well in that department. Raphael Flores Jr. had a couple on Saturday, but the Pirates, that was a weakness for them. Um, and they're just they're getting a lot better at that. So credit where it's due. Uh we've also seen some contributions from young guys. Jacob Gonzalez, Homer's Saturday, had a double in an RBI on Sunday. I think there's something to that. Uh these young guys contributing right away. I've talked a little bit about that before on the pod, but the fact that they're able to step in and be comfortable, be comfortable right away, that's generally the mark of a good team. And it's not just those guys, as Marilyn Valdez is going to talk about him in a second, Tyler Callahan earlier this season, but they're really able to, excuse me, welcome in guys to this lineup and get contributions right away. Saw some good hard base running in the double header that I really liked. I know it's a little thing, but Tyler Callahan legging out a double, as Marilyn Valdez doing the same. Uh running hard, that always leads to good things and smart plays on the bases, especially when your counterpart does not do that. As Marilyn Valdez homered Sunday, I want to talk about him for a second. Came in the top of the ninth, two-run home run, uh, fly ball to right field, actually landed in the concourse, went 371 feet, came on a full count, four-seamer, middle in. He has six homers in his last six games, seven straight games with an RBI. It's absolutely crazy the run that this kid is on. He has 20 RBIs in the month of July. He's gradually creeping up the leaderboard for Pirates rookies in a calendar month. Uh right now he's tied with Jason Bay in July of 2004 for the most RBIs in a month since 2000. The leader in that category, Pedro Alvarez, September of 2010. But the Pirates have had, and that was 26 by the way. Neil Walker had 22 in August of 2010. Um but the Pirates have had some rookies really explode on the scene, and as Marilyn Valdez is absolutely doing that, has 12 homers already on the season, two more ribies today, takes him up to 32. And just what a what a find this kid has been. Continues to impress, love it so much. Um and it just all kind of worked together today. The the Billy Cook fireworks as Marilyn Valdez, some key, timely hitting, playing a good defensive game. Paul Skeens getting back to what Paul Skeens does. Um he became the first Pirate Starter since Braxton Ashcraft on May 21st to go at least seven innings. Uh, was able to avoid any long counts, got some quick early outs, and it really helped Paul Skeens. Liked what I saw there. Uh, working on a piece for Monday morning about the Pirates Insider show and going just a little bit away from the game, but wanted to sort of touch on some of those storylines that you might read about. I asked Ben about bullpen help, and I asked him about bullpen help, knowing full well, and Ben is aware that they need to improve their bullpen. Um right now, according to Charrington, the trade market is just not quite there. Uh he said there are some things that they could have done that over time he doesn't think people would have wanted them to do. He said, quote, we have to stay at it, keep working the phones, and keep focused internally. So the Pirates are focusing on improving internally. There's certainly some meat on that bone. Dennis Santana made a lot of people frustrated on Saturday. They're gonna have to get more from him. Gregory Soto has struggled recently as well. They got Wilbur Hotel back in Cleveland, wouldn't be surprised to see him soon. Christian Curtis was really good in that second game of the doubleheader. Who knows if there's a bullpen roll targeted for him? Isaac Mattson has pitched well. They still need maybe a little bit more. Mason Montgomery, good to see that he's kind of found his better form. He hasn't allowed an earned run over his last eight appearances. Prior to that, had an 868 ERA and 10 appearances. Um, one guy that I did ask Charrington about and was kind of curious where this would go and sort of what the openness was to doing something else with him, that's Carmen Majinski. We're now 10 appearances into this new role for Carmen, and he has been very, very good. 2-0, 188 ERA. He's worked in MLB high 28 and two-thirds innings, that's for all relievers, of course, since making the switch. And he's given the Pirates everything you could possibly want in that role. I think we saw over the weekend, we saw a week before that in double headers, Carmen covering multiple innings, giving them a chance to score some runs, preserve a lead, or whatever. Generally, when he pitches in the game, that leads to good things. But if you're thinking about moving Carmen to another role, boy, I don't think the Pirates are going to do that based on what Charrington said. And I'm gonna read another quote. We really believe that the role he's in is valuable, arguably the most valuable that he could be in for the team. Sometimes you get in trouble, start moving guys around to try to solve something else and create another problem. We're focused on improvement in all areas of the pitching staff, and we feel like Carmen's a major part of the solution already. We want to stay focused on that. So if you roll it all together, I'm not expecting them to go out and get somebody, uh, at least not yet. Eventually they will have to when the trade market materializes. Ben said that uh deadlines exist for a reason, and sometimes it's just kind of a staring contest here until you get at the deadline. That's August 3rd, by the way. The pirates know they need to add, but they also need to get some internal improvement. Other areas of the show, I asked Ben about Derek Curiel, the Pirates' first round pick, and his confidence in them being able to agree to something before the July 27th deadline. Uh he said it's very high and was very uh plainspoken about that. Said they've had some great conversations at the draft, nothing subsequent to that has changed it. So would fully expect Derek Curiel to be under contract and be curious to see how they allocate money differently, maybe to second round shortstop Aiden Ruiz. He's a high schooler, and the Pirates will have some um pool money, you would think. Um they should be able to get Curiel under slot. So I think that's sort of showing us the strategy there. Last thing to talk about with the Charrington show is Seth Hernandez. Uh Seth Hernandez kind of joked with us at the futures game that he was trying to show the Pirates that he's ready to come out of the bullpen, able to come out of the bullpen. Ben kind of laughed, said that's his personality, loves baseball, he's competitive, uh, has that kind of uh I forget, you know, just sort of the the pizzazz to it. Um, you know, I forget exactly how Ben put it, but just those guys kind of have, you know, charisma and a certain thing to them, but they're focused on developing him as a pitcher, and and Ben said, quote, this guy has a chance to be a really good starting pitcher for the Pirates for a long time. So unfortunately, that was not we're flirting with the idea of having Seth Hernandez appear out of the bullpen in September, which is a bummer, but I get it. Uh certainly don't want to do anything that would jeopardize Seth Hernandez's development way too important. So the Pirates will start a series with the Yankees today. Looking forward to that. Braxton Ashcraft on the hill opposite Ryan Weathers. We have the pitching matchups for those series, Bubba for that series, Bubba Chandler will go on Tuesday opposite Will Warren. And then Mitch Keller and Garrett Cole face off. Good buddies on Wednesday 135 at Yankee Stadium. Looking forward to all of that. We'll have daily Pirates Insider podcasts for you. Make sure you download this, subscribe to it, listen to it every day. Really, really appreciate all of that. Proud of the work that we're doing at Pirates.com, and we'll continue to bring all of these recaps, analysis, and all that fun stuff. All right, everybody, that does it for me. Enjoy the game tonight, and I'll talk to you after.