The Pirates are calling up the future in Mitch Keller. We don’t know how long he will be up, but he brings with him a good deal of fantasy intrigue. Wil Myers hasn’t lived up to expectations. Is that his fault or yours? The answer might surprise you. Joey Votto hasn’t lived up to expectations. That’s 100 percent on the Canadian lefty who has been woeful to date. Finally, the worm is starting to turn though.
PIRATES CALL UP KELLER
Mitch Keller is the best pitching prospect with the Pirates. With injuries to Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams, there has been a thought for a while now that Keller could be called up to take a shot on the bump for the Pirates. He will be called up to start for the club in the second game of the Pirates double-header Monday. “It’s crazy. It’s sooner than anyone expected, but I feel like I’m ready. I’m ready to go out and show what I can do,” he said. “I’m prepared to live in the moment and show what I can do.”
The team had hoped to give Keller more time. “He showed up this year and had a rough spring training with some command stuff and executing his pitches the way he wanted to. Then it spilled over into the start of the season. It led to elevated pitch counts and a lot of foul balls. His stuff was not as crisp as he wanted it to be” AAA manager Brian Esposito said.
Once Keller got things going in the right direction this year, he turned diligently to improving a new weapon to attack hitters – a slider. “It’s been evolving. It started as a cutter, then it started getting a little bit more shape and has a little bit more depth than what we would call a cutter,” Esposito said. “He kept working and then it became a slider. It’s just another weapon for him to cover the entire plate.”
Let me be clear before going on. We don’t know if this is a one-and-done scenario for Keller. We don’t know if he will stay in the bigs until Williams is ready to return. We don’t know if, once Williams returns, that Keller will stick around until Taillon returns (he was recently put on the 60-day IL meaning Taillon won’t be eligible to return until July). Bluntly, we have no idea how long Keller will remain in the big leagues.
As for the skills… I really love em. Here is from the preseason rookie writeup.
A high floor, low ceiling type of starter who profiles as an SP3 long term. His stuff induces grounders and batters have a hard time squaring him up as well. His four-pitch arsenal led to a 12-4 record with a 3.48 ERA last season. However, he walked 3.5 batters per nine which led to an elevated 1.30 WHIP, though the sink on his pitches continued to make it difficult for batters to elevate his pitches (he allowed 10 homers last season in 142.1 innings and he’s permitted just 22 big flies in 435.2 career innings). The 5.85 ERA and 1.55 WHIP in 10 Triple-A starts last season is cause for some concern in the short run, but he should be fine long-term and profiles much better than Nick Kingham who everyone always seems to love in the fantasy game.
The biggest issue this year has been the walk with Keller as he’s issued 3.83 walks per nine (the mark in 10 starts at Triple-A last season was 3.78). He has been better of late issuing seven walks in five outings (2.33 per nine). In those five games he’s struck out 33 batters in 27 innings. A secondary issue has been his inability to get out lefties. In limited work this season lefties have hit .289 against him as Keller has struggled to a 1.74 WHIP.
Keller is a pitcher, who can attack batters with a variety of pitches (fastball, an 11-to-5 curveball, a changeup and the slider), and he would appear to be ready to have success at the big-league level right now, that is if he can keep the walks in check. He’s doesn’t figure to dominate even if he has success, but with his pitch mix, his ability to keep the ball in the yard (a ground ball rate well over 50 percent since 2017) he would be a pitcher that should be rostered in all mixed leagues of 12-team size or larger.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF WIL MYERS
Every day I get at least one note from someone about dropping Wil Myers. Look, I get it. He hasn’t lived up to expectations at all, and that has led to some frustrations. However, at that point, I seem to break off from the rest of you. Let me be clear – you should not be dropping Wil Myers, and yes, I would have said that (and did say it) when I was asked before his big games to end last week. Let’s take a look at his pace.
Myers is on pace for 31 homers.
His career best is 30 homers.
Myers is on pace for 83 runs scored.
He has a career best of 99 tuns, but he’s never scored 83 in another season.
Myers has a .315 OBP.
His career mark is .328.
Myers has a .459 SLG.
His career mark is .441.
Myers has a .774 OPS.
His career mark is .768.
Again, I understand the frustration… to a point. You have to understand who a player is, and you have to give that player time to marinate. Myers is hitting .233 and that stinks, but he’s just a career .252 hitting meaning that a strong month and he’s right back on his career mark. Hell, a hot two weeks could get him there.
The strikeouts are a concern. His current mark is 35.4 percent in the K-rate column and he’s never had a mark above 27.7 percent (his 14.0 percent swinging strike rate is well above his 10.6 percent mark the last two years). We never like to see that much swing and miss. In fact, it’s a scary level, but this is a guy who has always gone up and down in short timeframes.
Gotta play the long game with Myers. I’m still a fan of the multi-position Myers, warts and all.
VOTTO IS FINALLY HITTING
Joey Votto has been a failure to this point.
Period.
Votto has four homers and nine RBI this season. Nine. That’s hard to even fathom really. Given that he was coming off a down season last year (.284-12-67-67) many bailed on Votto a month ago. Like with Myers, I get it… to a point. He’s still Joey Votto. He’s still got a chance to make the HOF. He’s still one of the best hitters of our generation. We’re finally starting to see it too.
Over the last two weeks Votto is batting .311 with a .360 OBP.
Over the last week Votto hit .409 with a .417 OBP.
It’s way to early to say he’s fixed.
It’s way too early to say he’s a must start in every format.
I will say this. He should be in your lineup this week.
I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see him hit .300 the rest of the season.
I’m buying, as I have been all along.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Friday, 8-10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.
