Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call: Kinda Filthy Frankie?

Welcome to the Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call, a daily feature here at RumBunter.com. Every morning at 9 AM, one of us will give you our random thoughts on the goings-on around the Pirates’ organization, and we’ll throw out a few links to some good Pirates-related items from around the web.

Somewhat Filthy Frankie is enough

Francisco Liriano gave the Pirates a quality start Friday night against the Rockies, wish six innings pitched, allowing three earned runs. He looked to labor early but settled down for a stretch. Yet still there is something a bit off about Liriano over his last few starts. Yes, he has not lost a decision since June 20th, but in between then and now he has turned in some clunkers. They may just be going unnoticed, as Pittsburgh Pirates fans are still basking in the afterglow of another win and are soaking in the warmth of a record that is 29 games over .500. Liriano’s control seems to come and go in spurts over the past month. Could teams be figuring out that slider? That remains to be seen.

Again, he gave the team a chance to win and even a somewhat “Filthy Frankie” is still a pretty darn good pitcher.

I’ve told you this before. His name is Gregory Polanco

Gregory Polanco went and had himself a day, and a very workmanlike one at that. Polanco did a little bit of everything, going 3-for-5 with a stolen base, two runs, an RBI, and two outfield assists. I think I just got tired from writing that sentence. Yet Polanco is doing anything but tiring, and his August tear continues to be torrid.

I’ve previously written about the difference a year made with El Coffee, and we are seeing the fruits of Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle‘s faith in the youngster. Polanco’s August stretch sees a slashline of .343/.398/.525/.923. He continues to lower his K-Rate, with only a 16.7% punchout percentage. He has shaken off some defensive deficiencies, remaining error-free in August.

Pirates talk on the web

Please go and read this piece by Jeff Passan of Yahoo as soon as you can. “The Pirates Pitcher Who Succeeds By Not Throwing Strikes” goes in depth on how Liriano uses pitching outside of the zone to make batters look foolish.

Let’s change it up and look at some of the best #Pirates tweets from last night!

You know…he’s got a point…

Just because I was happy to be reminded that that picture existed.

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