OnlyBucs

No surprise that Kuhl is opening day pitcher, but I'm in disbelief that Keller is falling off a cliff.



Does Keller still project as a legit #1?

3235232B2532757900272D21292C6E232F2D400 wrote: No surprise that Kuhl is opening day pitcher, but I'm in disbelief that Keller is falling off a cliff.



Does Keller still project as a legit #1?


Project is the key word there. Clearly, he's not showing any signs of becoming a legit #1. At this point he would have difficulty making a roster outside of the Pirates. He was terrible in 2019. His mini 2020 season: 3 very good and 2 very bad but in the good ones he walked nearly 1 per inning. He gave up only 9 hits in 21.2 innings but walked 18. How many more hits would he have given up if batters had seen strikes to swing at? In ST this year he's been awful with 23 hits and 8 walks in only 11.1 innings.



He's young and has good stuff so it's reasonable to project vast improvement. But we still aren't seeing any signs of it. IMHO he should be no better than a #5 right now. But so should Anderson, Brubaker, Kuhl and Cahill.

In Keller's favor, he is turning 25 in April, he has pitched less than 100 innings at the major league level, and many of his stats in the minors were quite good.



That said, to date, at the major league level, nearly all of his stats are not just poor, they are bad.



There is little indication that Keller can become a top of the line starter. My hope is that he can establish himself as a decent starter at the major league level this year, and that he continues to grow during the few years that the Pirates will control his service time. There is still time, but he could be sunk by expectations.

664A42454E695E48582B0 wrote: In Keller's favor, he is turning 25 in April, he has pitched less than 100 innings at the major league level, and many of his stats in the minors were quite good.



That said, to date, at the major league level, nearly all of his stats are not just poor, they are bad.



There is little indication that Keller can become a top of the line starter.  My hope is that he can establish himself as a decent starter at the major league level this year, and that he continues to grow during the few years that the Pirates will control his service time.   There is still time, but he could be sunk by expectations.




My son and I do some high stakes fantasy baseball leagues . We've found some pretty knowledgable sources that give information on pitchers in particular. What we found on Keller is they believe the movement on his FB is terrible. They also say his FB command is also terrible. That IMO explains the disappointment .

3D3A2B382B7A774E0 wrote: In Keller's favor, he is turning 25 in April, he has pitched less than 100 innings at the major league level, and many of his stats in the minors were quite good.



That said, to date, at the major league level, nearly all of his stats are not just poor, they are bad.



There is little indication that Keller can become a top of the line starter.  My hope is that he can establish himself as a decent starter at the major league level this year, and that he continues to grow during the few years that the Pirates will control his service time.   There is still time, but he could be sunk by expectations.




My son and I do some high stakes fantasy baseball leagues . We've found some pretty knowledgable sources that give information on pitchers in particular. What we found on Keller is they believe  the movement on his FB is terrible. They also say his FB command is also terrible. That IMO explains the disappointment .




does your say if this has been a change since he was in lower minors? It doesn't make sense that he was held in high regard if he had poor movement and command.

Interesting comments. Remove Keller and insert Glasnow and the same things were being said when he first came up. Then he gets traded and suddenly he's the missing link. So all they need to do to get keller on track is trade him and the team he goes to is rewarded for their patience and Pirates fans will finally love keller.



Let the guy get a season or so.

Perhaps the solution is to have him pitch for the Pirates while wearing a Rays or Astros uniform.

735F57505B7C4B5D4D3E0 wrote: Perhaps the solution is to have him pitch for the Pirates while wearing a Rays or Astros uniform.


;D

6D4B4C59505C4B5D553E0 wrote: Interesting comments. Remove Keller and insert Glasnow and the same things were being said when he first came up. Then he gets traded and suddenly he's the missing link. So all they need to do to get keller on track is trade him and the team he goes to is rewarded for their patience and Pirates fans will finally love keller.



Let the guy get a season or so.
This is a good chance to see if the BC regime will do a better job of developing pitchers than the NH regime.

1E333E2F28392E6E6D5C0 wrote: Interesting comments. Remove Keller and insert Glasnow and the same things were being said when he first came up. Then he gets traded and suddenly he's the missing link. So all they need to do to get keller on track is trade him and the team he goes to is rewarded for their patience and Pirates fans will finally love keller.



Let the guy get a season or so.
This is a good chance to see if the BC regime will do a better job of developing pitchers than the NH regime.


Glasnow needed about one word to almost instantly fulfilling all his promise: "just go out there and throw your stuff." The Rays don't look like geniuses, the Pirates look like idiots.



Keller has a year under the new regime and ZERO results, from appearances. Is it possible for the new guys to whiff as badly as the old guys? The rest of MLB is certainly hoping so...



Maybe there's something in the water in Pittsburgh.