Pittsburgh Pirates Scratch James McDonald, Give Kyle McPherson Nod Against Brewers

The stage will be huge on Wednesday when Kyle McPherson makes his first big league start against the Milwaukee Brewers. The game will have post season implications and who knows where the Bucs will be in the standings at that point, but the fact that the Pirates have confidence to hand Mac the ball speaks volumes to his development.

We will have the big right hander on the Podcast this week, so be sure to check back in this week.

The Pittsburgh Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle made the announcement on his radio show that beleagured starter James McDonald who was listed as the starter on Wednesday, has been lifted from the rotation in favor of McPherson.

Last week, Hurdle hinted that the organization wanted to get McPherson a start if the situation presented itself.

It was reported that Hurdle had met with both pitchers on Friday after JMac allowed four runs in 3.2 innings against Chicago.  But  Cocktailsfor2 confirmed that McPherson had not met with Hurdle to discuss the situation after speaking with him in the windy city yesterday.

So apparently, the discussion was held before the game today in Chicago.  (Maybe Hurdle is losing his mind and just telling people that he met with McPherson? )

For some reason, McDonald has become the Charlie Morton thinking mans pitcher in the second half of the 2012 season and has voiced his lack of confidence to the Pirates manager.

If you really read this quote, Hurdle said he failed with McDonald in unlocking a key to find something in the pitcher that looked like a sure All-Star in the first half of the season.

It’s admirable that he said this, but damn it makes me wonder just what the Pirates now have in McDonald moving forward.  “You’re looking to find a key to unlock something. That’s the challenge you have with young players — sometimes it takes different keys. Not one key works with everybody. We’re trying to find the keys to unlock him. And we’re running out of time.”

Amen.

McPherson is one player that has taken every advantage of his call-up to the bigs.  Despite impressive statistics, the Pirates have lost in every game in which the 6’4″ Mobile, Alabama native has pitched.  Over 11.2 innings, McPherson has struckout eleven and walked just two bad guys.  He has a 1.54 ERA and a sparkling )   0.94 WHIP.