OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Kuhl. Kuhl, Kuhl, Kuhl

[ColePens]

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[Harv]

That ball that Cutch flipped on was 3.4 inches low.

 

[Coastal Kev]

Could the Bucs with an infusion of youth make a run similar to the Pens?

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Might as well go for the sweep today. Impressive effort against Kershaw, maybe this can catapult us into a winning streak or at least a heavy W streak leading up to the all-star break that begins to erase some of the epic collapse. 13 games left- 10-3 or 9-4 should put us right back even with the Cardinals at worst, probably a bit better since 4 of those 13 are against them.

Starts with finishing against a slightly scuffling Dodgers team. We should be able to work Kazmir pretty well, do some damage, and get into the bullpen. It would be a nice game for Liriano to come out and set a tone more like the #2 starter we need.

Kuhl seems like Brandon Cumpton with a little bit better stuff, but I've only seen a bit of scattered highlights from last night. Seems like he might be able to give us reasonably effective, 5-6 IP starts, at least for a few more until the league gets a little book on him. That in itself would be a nice bridge to Cole returning, and while you could make a case to keep him in there over wildly fluctuating Locke or Niese, given that he'll be on an inning limit of some kind anyways, it might make sense to flip him into the bullpen for the rest of the year and occasionally spot start him for Taillon to keep Taillon's innings in check. With his stuff, he can probably be a better version of Jared Hughes from the pen, who can actually go more than part of an inning.

 

[Penguins23]

Yeah I'm not going to get too upset with Cutch for getting ejected.

 

[Winger for Hire]

I don't think we needed the K Zone to see how bad that called third strike was, but seeing the images just makes it that much more frustrating. I don't blame him at all for being upset. Personally I think he needed to blow up to get some of it out of his system.

I think whoever said it on the broadcast said it the best when they said (along the lines of), "He was chasing those pitches when he's been in a funk and finally learned to lay off them and then gets called out for good discipline. It has to be frustrating."

 

[Penguins23]

Strike 2 was called a strike both ways a few times last night but strike 3 was just atrocious.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Good lord, I just realized that the TDL is roughly a month away.

 

[djt153]

promising start from kuhl. looks like a very live arm and the raw material to get major league hitters out

 

[TNT87]

What a debut by beating Kershaw. I didn't see that coming.

 

[ImporterExporter]

We beat Bumgarner and Kershaw. At least we know we have some sort of shot in a potential WC game

 

[Cherpak]

promising start from kuhl. looks like a very live arm and the raw material to get major league hitters out

He still has A LOT to work on from what I saw. Unless it was nerves, his location is just atrocious. Everything he was throwing was either too high/low in the zone, he couldn't hit a corner if he walked up to it. His two seamer needs to be running away from lefties instead it was running into their sweet spot. He's going to get crushed if he continues throwing like that. You may get away with that in the minors but the big leaguers feast on stuff up in the zone out over the plate. His fastball flattens out and I don't think I even saw a change up.

Don't get me wrong, there was some stuff I liked about his game as well. He consistently was throwing in the mid upper 90's effortlessly, that surprised me. When he does throw his two seamer with sink its an effective pitch. Its gonna create a lot of ground balls. The slider when its on could be his most devastating one though. There were times last night that it was just nasty. It had speed and serious late break. Reminded me of Darvish's. Loved his enthusiasm when he made the play at the plate, and his at bat was refreshing to see after having to endure the likes of Locke every 5th day. He also doesn't seem to unravel if something isn't going his way. That will be big when he comes up for good. Calm is always best, looking at you Gerrit Cole.

Over all, I see him as a #3/4 whenever everyone is up. Still has some warts to rid himself of though. Definitely not ready for the Show full time yet but it was enough to give us hope that its coming.

 

[Harv]

C'mon Jordy. You have to score there. You know he's not catching that.

 

[Cherpak]

C'mon Jordy. You have to score there. You know he's not catching that.

Sofield did the right thing by holding him up. He was dead meat at the plate. He barely had any speed coming into 3rd.

 

[Coastal Kev]

I love Jhay... but that was a sloppy at bat.

 

[Harv]

Sofield did the right thing by holding him up. He was dead meat at the plate. He barely had any speed coming into 3rd.

That was after the fact. He froze dead between 1st and 2nd when it was clear as day he wasn't going to catch that ball.

 

[Cherpak]

That was after the fact. He froze dead between 1st and 2nd when it was clear as day he wasn't going to catch that ball.

He may not have had the best angle to tell if it would drop or not. TV has that advantage. Saying it was clearly going to drop might have been obvious for us, not so much for Jordy.

 

[Winger for Hire]

I love Jhay... but that was a sloppy at bat.

Every JHay AB is a sloppy one

 

[Cherpak]

Kratz coming through again. Another 4 spot early on.

 

[Cherpak]

Every JHay AB is a sloppy one

He gets too excited when runners are in scoring position. Needs to approach each at bat as if no one is on.

 

[Coastal Kev]

Every JHay AB is a sloppy one

You're right... but I love when his sloppiness pays off


40 pitches in the first inning...yowza

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

2 hits from Kratz in his time here but they were 2 big hits.

 

[Cherpak]

That was a much tougher play than it looked. Nice going Freese.

Good to see Mercer back so soon. Doesn't need another long injury to derail his career.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

I don't know what Clint's seeing that he usually replaces Freese and Jaso late in games. They've both been really good at 1st and it's not like Rodriguez is a first baseman by trade himself.

 

[Cherpak]

Horrible read off the bat by McCutchen...