Over the past couple years, one of my main goals has been to Understand Jeff Locke. Every time I read something interesting about pitchers that I didn’t previously know, I say to myself, “AHA! This is what it is that Jeff Locke does that the Pirates see in him!” And then I go into the numbers, find out that that’s not the answer, and banish the half-written post with its busted hypothesis into my drafts folder for forever.
Anyway, at FanGraphs yesterday August Fagerstrom tackled the Jeff Locke Question and failed to get any solid answers, but still makes some really interesting observations about how Locke’s approach to righties and lefties is changing, how that fits in with the Pirates’ pitching philosophy, and how his results are affected. As you might expect, there is a sentence in which the words, “This is the part where everything about Jeff Locke starts to make no sense,” appear. It’s worth a read as an insight into the Pirates’ pitching philosophies, even if it still doesn’t help clarify Jeff Locke all that much.
Meanwhile, Jon Heyman reported yesterday that the Pirates’ extension talks with Gregory Polanco have broken down, but are likely to be revisited after the season. There are lots of encouraging words in the story, like “very long” (seven years, plus three option years) and “largest contract ever given to a player with less than one year of service time.” All that makes me think that there was decent progress made this winter, and that there’s still plenty of time for the two sides to agree on a deal. Andrew McCutchen signed his extension after 2+ years of big league service, and Starling Marte signed his after 1+.
This is a couple days old now, but Kiley McDaniel ran down the Pirates’ farm system at FanGraphs last week and it’s worth a read.
I understand why they build an off-day in after the home opener for cold-weather teams, but man, this day always kills me. If you’re looking to do some non-Pirate baseball viewing tonight, I’ve got my eye on the Bucs’ two biggest division rivals, with Jake Arrieta and Lance Lynn facing off in the husk of Wrigley Field at 8:10, plus Tyson Ross and the new-look Padres against Zack Greinke at Dodger Stadium at 10:10.
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