Pittsburgh Pirates: Dario Agrazal Continues to Pitch well

The Pittsburgh Pirates have had a slew of starting pitching injuries and the team needs to find some consistent starting pitching.  They may have a good option in Triple-A.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are expected to promote top pitching prospect Mitch Keller to start this coming Wednesday.  The team had him up a few weeks ago, and after a shaky start, he settled down and pitched rather well.

Upon his return to Triple-A, Keller has pitched very well.  In his first start he went six innings and gave up two runs, then in his most recent start he threw five innings and struck out 13 batters.  This time when Keller comes up he needs to stay up.  Rookie Davis should be slotted back into the bullpen and not have to make another start when being activated from the injured list.

Assuming that Keller is here to stay for the foreseeable future, who else could provide starting pitching depth at Triple-A?  Well, Dario Agrazal has been making a case since his early season promotion to Triple-A.  The right-hander has thrown to a 3.10 ERA in eight starts for Indianapolis.  He has thrown a total of 49.2 innings and has only allowed 38 hits while striking out 39.  Agrazal is more of a pitch to contact type pitcher, and he has done a good job of producing a lot of soft outs and has posted an impressive 56 percent groundball rate.

Last night, Agrazal started for the Indianapolis Indians.  He pitched against the Toledo Mudhens of the Detroit Tigers organization, where some of their top prospects were in the lineup in the likes of Willi Castro, Daz Cameron, and Victor Reyes.  Agrazal pitched another really strong game.  He fired off seven innings and only allowed two runs while striking out three; a really strong game against a pretty decent lineup.

Agrazal has shown he is more than ready to get a chance at the big league level.  Although Steven Brault has pitched well in his last few starts, his career as a starter has been rather rocky.  It would not be the biggest surprise if he needs replaced at some point.  Furthermore, Trevor Williams should be back with the team sooner than later.

Still, injuries happen.  Any Pittsburgh Pirates fan does not need to be told that at this point.  If another one were to happen, and the team needs to bring a pitcher up, it should be Dario Agrazal.  He is better than any of the methods that they have tried over the last few weeks.