Derek Holland has heard the doubters and haters. They aren't exactly hard to find. Columnists, television pundits, Twitter users, most agree: They don't like the Pirates' rotation.
"Trust me, I'm a big reader," Holland said with a smirk during his Zoom call following his start in the Pirates' 5-3 loss to the Indians Wednesday. "I see what's going on."
There are obvious criticisms of the rotation. They are already down their top two arms in Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer. They don't have a true ace. Everyone in the rotation had an ERA well above 4.00 -- if not 5.00 or 6.00 -- in 2019, and Holland, a minor-league free agent coming off the worst year of his career, was their only addition.
Holland has heard it all. He's also seen people complaining that the players are having too much fun before they have won a regular season game.
He hears you, but he just doesn't care. In fact, he wants more.
"We love that. Please keep doing it," Holland said. "Keep ripping us apart. Keep telling us that you think we suck and all that. I love it, and so do those guys. I promise you, you're feeding the fire. Love that."
Most projections have the Pirates finishing in last place in the National League Central. Just another log on the fire.
"People aren't picking us to do anything, and I can tell you right now, that clubhouse loves that mentality right now," Holland said. "Loves that nobody wants us to win, nobody is picking us to win. We're going to go out there and we're going to do everything we can each and every game to give the fans what they deserve.”
Even though they are forecasted to finish last, there is still hope, especially in a 60-game season in the National League Central. Earlier this week, Major League Baseball's Twitter posted FanGraphs' season projections. The Pirates were in last, but with one extra win over each team in their division, they would be in first-place.
How do you feel about your squad? pic.twitter.com/ztdFpVSJKy
— MLB (@MLB) July 17, 2020
Again, not that the Pirates are buying into what others are saying. One of Derek Shelton's mantras during camp has been that this 60-game season is a sprint. Anything can happen.
"I think there's gonna be a lot of parity throughout baseball, especially in our division this year, and I'm excited for that," Shelton said the day after those projections were released. "There are some teams in our division that did some things this offseason which seemed like a long time ago to put them in a better place. I'm really happy with where we’re at."
Thank Holland for being one of the players to drive that mindset home with the team. He was partially brought in to be a leader for the pitchers, even though he was not given a roster spot at the start of spring training or even summer camp.
The Pirates were pretty transparent the whole time that Holland was going to make the team, but he didn't allow himself to think like that. On Wednesday, Shelton officially announced he made the team and rotation. Still, he's keeping the same mindset that has gotten him this far.
"I’ve always had that competitive edge to make sure I’m competing for a spot no matter what, even if you’ve got a job," Holland said. "I think the me that I’ve tried to encourage with the young guys is just because you’re a top prospect or you’ve got a contract or anything like that you’ve still got to earn this job. Somebody can come up and take it from you at any time."
His competitive edge has spread to the rest of the rotation. Each wants to be the best on the staff, but they also help each other, including by sitting in on each other's bullpen sessions to give feedback.
"You don’t see too many young staffs do that," Holland said. "... To see them doing right now shows how well they care about each other, how well we’re competing against each other and how well we want to make sure each guy is doing his job where he should be, how he’s doing it, getting more eyes on ourselves and helping each other out."
""They're very competitive bullpens. It's not just go out there and throw," Holland added later. "There's always something going on in the bullpens, and I think that's something too that helps a lot, is being able to compete every time you go out to the bullpen just like you would in a game."
Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington have wanted to establish a player-centric team culture that encourages learning. What's going on with the starters falls right in line with that.
"The fact that they go down and watch each other’s bullpens and they have conversations about it and they’re competitive in those settings, I think it’s good," Shelton said in a postgame Zoom call. "When you take bullpen settings especially and you make ‘em competitive, you’re gonna get more out of it. It’s going to be more engaged."
Those are the conversations the Pirates care about. Not what the rest of the baseball world has.
"Whatever people say externally, we really don’t care," Shelton said. "I care what our group thinks and what our staff thinks and what our baseball ops staff thinks. We’ll deal with those."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• As for Holland's start, he allowed three runs on five hits and a walk over three innings pitched. He struck out two and allowed a homer.
Two of those runs came in the first and were the result of some poor fielding plays. Adam Frazier had a potential inning-ending double-play ball go under his glove, and Colin Moran didn't get enough leather on a line drive during the next at-bat.
"This whole last thing was just to make sure everything’s where it needed to be," Holland said. "I thought everything was really good. I thought I had good action, a lot of weak contact. Working with Stalls [Jacob Stallings], that was our second time throwing together. I think that was huge too, having the same connection we needed to have a good relationship back there. Overall, I think everything was where it needs to be heading into it."
• It was a much better showing for the bullpen. They did allow two runs on two solo shots, but one was from the recently optioned Miguel Del Pozo, who was just rounding out the game.
Chris Stratton, Clay Holmes and Geoff Hartlieb each pitched a spotless inning, and Robbie Erlin worked around just one hit in his frame of work.
Kyle Crick's velocity was still down, averaging about 92 mph on his heater and 78 mph on the slider. He was averaging about 95 mph on his fastball and 81 mph on his breaking ball last year.
Shelton has said that he believes the dips in velocity from guys like Crick and Richard Rodriguez is because they are still getting ramped up for the season.
"I would have liked our bullpen guys to have got on the mound a few more times," Shelton said. "I think we saw some encouraging things tonight."
• After homering batting right-handed Monday, Bell put a charge into a couple pitches batting left-handed, homering in the first inning and then doubling off the wall in right in the sixth.
He said back in Bradenton that it usually takes him about 25 at-bats to get ready for a season. Some of those early intrasquad swings weren't pretty, but he looks ready to go.
• As Shelton said Tuesday, Mitch Keller will be the Pirates' No. 3 starter this year and will pitch July 26 in St. Louis. It will be the first time he is a part of a major-league opening day roster.
"It’s just an honor," Keller said Wednesday. "I’m super excited to have the opportunity to go third. I worked my butt off all offseason and then coming into camp here, it’s been a huge learning experience for me, learning new things and putting those to the test and just going out every fifth day, being here and being told I was going to be the third starter is just very exciting."
• Shelton confirmed that Keone Kela had tested positive for COVID-19. He did not offer a timetable for his return.
Kela was placed on the 10-day injured list on July 18, signaling that the Pirates would need to start the season without their closer. He has yet to reach the field in summer camp, which wraps up Thursday.
Kela is the fifth Pirates player with a confirmed case of COVID-19. Gregory Polanco and Blake Cederlind are isolated from the team, while Socrates Brito and Ke'Bryan Hayes have returned to the playing field. Hayes was sent to the Pirates' alternate training site in Altoona, Pa. Wednesday after being sidelined for almost all of summer camp.
• Another update in Jameson Taillon's delivery: He is starting to mix in breaking balls from flat ground.
Most recent step- Spinning breaking balls on Flat Ground 😎 Ready to watch the guys get after it for a 60 game sprint. Lots of good work being put in by everyone. pic.twitter.com/wl78umMRfX
— Jameson Taillon (@JTaillon19) July 22, 2020
• So it turns out the Blue Jays will not play at PNC Park after all this season after the Pennsylvania Department of Health nixed it. More on that here.
• With the Indians completing the exhibition sweep, the Pirates finish 3-18-3 in exhibition and spring training play.
It doesn't matter. And from here on out, the games count.
• To wrap things up, DK's daily shot:
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