DK’s Double Shot of Pirates: Enough innings?

0:00Hey guys, welcome to Double Shot of Pirates. I'm Dan Kovachevich. He's Chris Hallock, we're from DK Pittsburgh Sports. And this program is one that's going to really be revving up as we get closer and closer. We're now only 26, 20 days out. Yeah, it's crazy. It's coming up, man, opening day. I mean, it's funny. Like I remember having conversations with Jose like back in January, be like, you know what? It's funny. Like this is going to come up like it's like out of nowhere. It's like all of a sudden baseball seasons here. And really, it will, it will be here. It's less than three weeks. It's crazy. The pirates are engaged in a split squad as we speak. Those are difficult updates. Stuff going on in two different places. The game that we're covering that Jose is at in Bradenton. You mean he didn't somehow split himself and go to two different places?

1:03I always say to our staff, if you ever have a choice between the road split squad or the home split squad, yeah, you had better have paul schemes on the other end. Yeah, if you're going to the road, right? Just because it's just that it's enough of a grind. Oh, yeah, you don't need to be doing more in the home game, which is by the way, nine to six full of Elfie and the fifth inning. It doesn't matter. Braxton, Ashcraft pitched three innings gave up two runs, three hits. He struck out five and walked none. Lots got to which probably means more than than the rest of it. Yeah. Ashcraft is funny. When we, when we do our little who's going to be in this spot and that spot and everything else, we always say, we have Ashcraft in the rotation, we're basing that on exactly. It feels to me to an extent, still like it's a hope thing. Who else is it going to be? Okay, well, that's also a hope. I mean, you've got, I bet this seriously,

2:10like who else is it going to be? All right, well, here's what I've got on Ashcraft. First of all, they, I want to make this part really clear. They really like it. Oh, yeah. Like they believe that he is, he is jipped. Now, that doesn't mean that he's got, you know, skiing, ceiling or even above a chandelier, ceiling, ceiling, ceiling, something that specifically touched the schemes. Sounds like something you do in an arcade, like a ski ball, like it's some sort of like, something the Norwegians would be good. Yeah. Here we are. This is his career, these are his career numbers for Ashcraft. First one should be the one of greatest concern. 69 and 2 thirds innings pitched in the banks. Okay. He has a 271 ERA, which is obviously wonderful for a player just entering. Absolutely. The majors. He has 71 strikeouts, 24 walks, also encouraging strikeout and inning walks, you know, less than a third of

3:17your case. He has a 1.25 with opponents bat 2.39 against me. He's given up only three home runs. Good to. That's nice. Yeah. Okay. But you were the one bringing up on the show last week. The number of guys in this rotation aren't even going to be allowed to max out innings. I mean, that's just because that's what that's what happens. Like you have Paul schemes. You have Mitch Keller. They're established. They have logged a lot of innings. That's not that's not Braxton Ashcraft. That's not Bubba Chandler. No. They have not gotten to that to that level yet. They just haven't. No, not this coming year. They won't be allowed. 2025 in Indianapolis. He pitched 48 and third innings. What's the most he's pitched in a season in his professional career? It's looking like as I'm glancing through this, it's looking like one.

4:20It looks like about 130 and they tell you that you're only supposed to go up in certain increments. No, it's only 73. That's not combined. That's that is the combined. Yeah. So he has he has to even hit 100 innings. This is a fixture in your rotation. So there's going to be a whole lot. In other words, when you build your little rotation and you roll out whoever you're going to roll out in New York, you've got to understand that ain't it. It's not like that's going to be your for those of you who go back to 1997 when the pirates use the same five starters all season. That was the freak show team. That is a freak show. We all give Kevin Polkovich and those guys way too much credit for 97. It was really about Jason Smith and Esteban Loiza and John Lieber and those guys that were out there. Steve Cook, Francisco Cordova. I just did the whole rotation.

5:22There you go. I just did the whole rotation. There you go. I mean, you only have to know five of them. I know, but that's good. Yeah, that's I couldn't name it. I got Cordova and Schmidt and yeah, that would have been it. But I even got a Steve cook in there. Yeah, the the obligatory lefty. This is not going to be that. This is going to be a rotation that's got you got two guys who can log in. There's going to be a lot of starters and there's going to be some piggybacking that gets done. There is an ash craft is going to be part of that. So what you need from ash craft is probably just on some kind of regular basis. The old timer is going to hate here in this. Give us like three or four good things. Yeah. If you can get to five then but I don't even know that you want them to if he set up to piggyback, that's my point. Yeah. In other words, if you have him, if you have him and you also have, let's say,

6:22Carmen Maginski or Thomas Harrington, you let him know in advance, hey, just like spring training boys, we're piggybacking today. Yeah. Give me three good ones. Give me give me one good turn through their lineup. I will say this. If if if ash craft can be a guy who gets who averages four innings a start and he can and he can give you 30 starts. And I'm saying averages four innings because there were probably be he's not getting you 30 starts. I'm just I'm just 30s 30s a lot but I'm just saying like, if you spread it out, if you really keep control of this pitch count and he's able to do something like that and the averages four innings at start, that's what what's what's four times 30. That's 120 innings. I feel like 120 innings is doable. If you spread it out, if you make sure that every time he goes out there, that you're not having him run his pitch count up by you know, you don't want him log in 100 pitches every single time he goes out

7:26there. You want to take care of his arm. You want to give him the obligatory. You want might want to give him a couple extra days in between some starts every now and then. That's why I say like 29 or 30 starts starting along those lines. I feel like if you can give you 100 120 125 innings and it's quality. It's going to be a lot of people. That's going to be a lot of bottom line. Yeah. I'm seeing already here in the Clifford Bowser asks over there in our live chat six man rotation. No. No, because you don't you want skeins and Keller on them. It's going to be a 10 man rotation. There's going to be guys coming in and out of this thing. Scenes is going to knock on something. He's going to get you his 200 innings. He's going to get you his his 32 plus starts. Okay. Keller is going to get you the innings that he always gets you. He's going to get you his starts. One thing you can bank on with Mitch is Mitch. Mitch will show up every day every fifth day and take the ball. Yep. And beyond that man you need to get somebody

8:32to chop not eat. Chop the way the way the way Chris does into a burrito. Chop to get the innings that you need. And that picture is still not here. I don't know but I was told in Bradenton that they are still aggressively looking for someone. Hit 23 said multiple times now not in just an issue but in previous days it says go get left the cantona cantona sign. Yeah cantona sign. I don't know where you're getting your updates my man. Yeah. Cantona's not available. Now I thought cantona was a was a really interesting you know possibilities since he's pitched here before but now he's he's not available. I think it's with Colorado. Now Andrew comes in and points out over in our live chat. Andrew go get that membership. What's up with that? What's up with that that dark font there? We need to get you in here. It's down at the bottom there. See underneath Chris's laptop dkps.net flash join pirates and make sure it's all lower case

9:39and you'll be glad you did. Andrew says he reminds us that Jared Jones is going to come back too. You know it's hard to bank on the Tommy John guys. It is until they've come back and they've experienced their ups and their downs and their whatever's I don't think you can make them part of your plan is what I'm saying. I didn't mean to make it sound like Jones is reliable or isn't trying or whatever or anything. I'm talking but from an executive standpoint if you're if you're the GM of the team you can't say well we're going to get a hundred innings out of Jared Jones this year. You have no way of knowing that. No you have no way of knowing that. I'm still he is there though. He is there but I'm I'm still I'm still convinced that at some point whether it be this season next season whenever that he's gonna eventually become a reliever slash closer. I just think that's his destiny. Yeah I really do. That's tough to do to the kid. I mean I'm not saying he's still so young. I agree. And you're shaping his career path. I'm not saying I'm not saying that

10:40they shouldn't they should just give up on him as a starter but I just have it especially if he's a guy who's going to try to rely on velocity. He's not built that. He's not built to do that. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah I think they're gonna at least give him 2026. I would think so too. I'm not saying it's gonna happen this season. To do that I really think here Andrew comes a we're we're playing with the Andrew but we'd love to have he says I will join thanks to you. It's a little bit of a concern. Yes it's not a massive concern just yet but the main reason I'm bringing this up is I think people need to understand that their vision of this old school you know 1971 Orioles model rotation it isn't gonna happen this year. No. That you have a lot of guys who are prepared to take the next step but the next step isn't the final step. So Ashcraft is kind of like your perfect tweener on this one. Mm-hmm. Well

11:49here do this against schemes. Teller Chandler. Chandler's not he's not gonna be 200 and he's either. Mm-hmm. And then your four guy is Ashcraft who has even less innings and then your five is gonna be your not Contana obviously but your Contana type person that you bring in. I don't see another I don't see another way here I don't see another option. No you're you got to bring in more guys or at least at least one more guy because like Erkiti is a guy who could possibly be a guy who can I'd be shocked if number one assuming that he's like stays on the team beyond April but he's gonna start at least a few games just either he's the number five starter to start the season or he's in the bullpen as a long reliever and he's the first guy to start a game when a guy gets you know gets put on the eye. He's having a good spring too. Yes. So he will be a guy who gets you some innings no matter what. Hunter Barco is in the mix too RVN. Uh-huh. One of our members points

12:54out as well Barco is a lefty but Barco is in the same spot as the rest of these guys. He's not stretched out. He's not somebody you can just magically anoint yeah into your rotation. Asking any of those guys to get over 100 innings is a is a tall ask in today's day and age. Well it you know we'll see how it goes over how it goes over the course of the season but again I think the other thing is when you're a younger starter in baseball now you're not thinking about nine innings. Oh gosh. You're not thinking about complete games. No. You're not thinking about even in the event of no hitting somebody you have a pretty good idea then I can let you finish. Yeah. Whereas if you did that to the previous generation or any of the previous generations there would have been a mutiny. Oh yeah. These guys are used to it. The kids are used to it.

13:56If you tell the kids they're going to be piggybacking that day. You don't have to explain to them what it means. If you tell the kids hey listen we want you to get through the lineup one time. They don't take it as an insult. Yeah. Because you know the guys and the other dugout will have been watching you and studying you and they figured you out and they seen you once and there's no chance you're going to get them out twice. Right. It would be insulting. But to the kids it's like now if you're saying skeens this skeens that skeens is done some other skeens in color are not part of this conversation. No and yeah right although Mitch Mitch can have his troubles with third time through the order. Oh he can but he's at least going to get into the fifth inning before that happens. Like it's just I mean normally what he does. I mean that's why he gives you the innings that he can give. I don't think he's ever gotten 200 innings before but he's he gets you innings and that's what you need especially from from near the top of the rotation. That's just that's what he does. That's why he's reliable.

14:57That's why he was so valuable. You know over the obviously when we tell yeah he he almost got 200. He got 194 and a third. That's his career high. So yeah he's going to get you innings too. Guys we love you. We're actually going to call this show short for the day and I know why. I think I'm on to something here. Look at the look at the eyeball count. Look at that. Look what they're doing. Yeah. You know what that is right. What is that? They're all in on the deadline. Oh yeah. They're in early on the deadline. Which one? Oh we'll be right back after this quick message says the bar. This episode is brought to you by IQ bar IQ bar protein bars IQ mix hydration mixes and IQ Joe mushroom coffees are the delicious low sugar brain and body fuel that you need to win your day all IQ bar products are clean label certified and entirely free gluten dairy soy GMOs and other artificial ingredients IQ mix

16:01is a zero sugar drink mix that hydrates with electrolytes it proves mood and boosts clarity. IQ Joe is a mushroom coffee design for mental clarity and pack the 200 milligrams of natural caffeine. Right now they're offering our listeners 20% off all IQ bar products including the ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping to get your 20% off text MLB to 64000 that's MLB to 64000 to be a text message and data rates might apply see terms for details. Hi guys. We are we're going to end our baseball show a little bit early today because I can tell from the voluminous numbers that are in here that a lot of you are here just for the NHL trade deadline. We have a whole bunch of stuff to report on that and there's nothing new on the baseball front. One of the nice things about these shows is there can be at least a little bit of give and take in the event of news believe me when the baseball news is bigger and we got nothing to talk

17:05about related to hockey in August we'll go the other direction. Oh gosh yes slide on over to our penguins channel when YouTube and check out our double shot of penguins we're going to talk about the trade deadline and there is definitive news on this deadline over there.