Chapter 1: What performance did Braxton Ashcraft deliver in his latest outing?
All right, bottom half of the fourth for the Buccos. No runs have come across the ledger for Paul Skeens today. Much better than the first outing that he had in New York. Austin Bechtel with you. Joined by our MLB analyst, Matt Clement. Bob and Joe Show rolling along, leading into the PM team. Social media's biggest loser is brought to you by Awaken 180 Weight Loss.
Visit them at awaken180weightloss.com. Social media's biggest loser... Hmm. Right now, we might just flip it to O'Neal Cruz as the biggest winner because he was social media's biggest loser for really the latter part of the last three or four days. But a home run today, two home runs yesterday. He has had a significant uptick in his just overall play where he went from hitting...
Right around 120, 130, to now 300 in OPS of over 1,000. What's Cooking is brought to you by your local GEICO rep, Tim Hester. Thank you very kindly, Mr. Hester. And Fan Weather is brought to you by Secure Money Advisors. Looking to retire soon? Well, let Secure Money Advisors get your retirement on track. Currently, the weather is... 62 degrees, the high of 66 today.
Rain in the forecast, 50% chance of rain at 6 o'clock. There's a 50% chance of rain for the home opener, but it looks like... It's going to be in what could be the latter portions of the game. 6.30 is when rain is expected in the forecast. It was originally supposed to be at 4, so it keeps getting pushed back and pushed back.
So that could be good news for a 4-1-2, 4-12 first pitch for a game that you can hear right here on 93.7 The Fan as Mitch Keller will be on the mound for the Buccos against the Baltimore Orioles. Matt Clement with us as we tease to a guy who had a really good first start, Matt.
Braxton Ashcraft, who I think can truly be a pitcher for them that explodes in a way where solid fastball, not 100, but still throwing right around 97. I didn't know he had that type of stuff in him. Good curveball, good delivery. I don't see why his upside can't be as a No.
2 starting pitcher in their rotation, even having the high upside of a Bubba Chandler and the types of arms that they have with Jared Jones coming back and the sustained success of Mitch Keller.
Yeah, he was very impressive. And I think what really got him going is, and we talked about this in the first hour, he kept dropping the curveball in for strike one. And it wasn't a bad curveball. I wouldn't call it a get-me-over curveball, but it was one that was consistently, consistently getting him ahead strike one.
And then, you know, it's funny when you say $97 fastball is like a normal fastball in today's day and age. It's kind of scary. But, like, he's throwing hard enough. The pitch selection's there enough. You know, these guys are built. They look like starting pitchers. They look like they can be horses for, like, the whole year. And I think that, you know... This is how winning teams are built.
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Chapter 2: How does Braxton Ashcraft compare to other Pirates pitchers?
Yeah, Louisville. And you aren't Golden Spikes' winner by not hitting. That's for sure. You know, he's the type of player... I give him a lot of credit on one hand. I give him a lot of credit. The question was his defense. Now everybody's talking like he's an elite defender. So he's had to... I can't imagine how hard he's had to work. You become 1-1 because...
Catching is such a commodity in the draft. If you are a catcher and you are good, you're going to get drafted pretty high, probably higher than somebody else with similar stats or projectability because it's such an elite position. It could affect both sides so much defensively, helping your pitchers, but also offensively. You know, we talked before.
I think to start the year, I think the ABs have looked a lot better. You know, and again, we're talking small sample size. Like Cruz went from bat and won something to 300 in one and a half games. Henry Davis had a double to start his first at bat, and I think the third at bat of that game, he hit a ball that he hit way hard on the double that Bichette made a good play at third base on.
And sometimes luck plays into it. He's a guy that you'd love to see have a little bit of luck to get rolling and see if that momentum can carry him somewhere. Yeah. But I feel like, you know, with him platooning with Bart enough, you know, I see him getting over – if you gave me the over-under 200, I'm going over. And I'm hoping for him – Yeah, I'd hope he'd go over.
I mean, you're in the major leagues. But it hasn't been, right? It hasn't been. And I think he has the potential to be like somebody who goes 225 to 240 with double-digit home runs. I really do. But he needs – he just needs to see something break the right way. I'm sure he is paralyzed by – input from people on what to do to fix this hitting though.
I can't even imagine how many people have told him what to do or how to fix it or what he needs to do or who he needs to go see or how to do this or that. And he probably sifting through that right now is a biggest, a biggest issue as just going up there and just forgetting about and hitting.
Yeah. How do you determine who you listen to and who you don't on different opinions, different types of advice, because you could probably write down and make a chart list of, okay, maybe I should try this. Maybe I should try that where it just becomes information overload.
Absolutely. And I would bet right now, like if you go through his time since he stepped foot in the big leagues, the amount of input he's gotten from former college coaches, hitting people, his agents, his agent's friend, somebody else that used to play. Along with all the pirate people, the pirates have all these different hitting people.
And honestly, I think there's got to be something that clicks for him that he goes with. And I really feel in times like this as somebody that heard a million people tell him how to not walk people. Like the Bubba Chandler thing, we joked about my one outing I had with that. That was me all the time. It was always like, hey, you won the game, but you walked six.
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