Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Joe Blanton was retired at this time last year, and now he is perhaps Pirates best long-relief option.
When the Pirates got Blanton for cash from the Kansas City Royals on July 29, it received a lackluster response. He has not had a season where he posted an ERA under four since 2007, and has not finished a season with a winning record since 2010.
Blanton had a terrible year in 2013 with the Angels, going 2-14 with a 6.04 ERA while averaging two home runs every nine innings, and retired in 2014 after failing to latch onto a major league roster after Spring Training. He returned to the majors in 2015 with the Royals, but struggled in their rotation.
Then he permanently switched to the bullpen.
It has been a small sample size, but it looks like the move has paid off for Blanton. He had a 2.74 ERA and 7.67 K/BB ratio in 11 bullpen appearances for the Royals, but was still designated for assignment when the team acquired Johnny Cueto, which is when he was sent to the Pirates.
With the Pirates, he is 3-0 and has given up only one run and 11 hits in 15.1 innings, while walking five and striking out 20. He has pitched three innings in an outing on three separate occasions with the Pirates; all three were scoreless appearances.
Helped by a mechanic adjustment he made in Kansas City that had him pitch off the right side of the pitching rubber instead of the left to add deception to his pitches, Blanton’s slider has become his strikeout pitch.
It remains to be seen whether or not Blanton can keep his success up with the Pirates out of the bullpen, but there are reasons to think he can. The first is that it is not unprecedented for struggling starters to reinvent themselves in the bullpen, and in Blanton’s case only facing a hitter once or twice allows him to more freely mix up his four pitches to keep the hitter guessing. The second reason is pitching coach Ray Searage, who has made getting the most out of previously struggling pitchers look easy.
If Blanton is the real deal, he gives the Pirates one of the best emergency starters and long inning relievers in baseball.
Caminero finally turning the corner
Speaking of Searage, he spoke to 93.7 The Fan’s Joe Starkey about Arquimedes Caminero’s recent surge.
Caminero has had a season full of peaks and valleys. In April, he looked like the Pirate version of Aroldis Chapman when he blew hitters away with his 100 MPH fastball.
But then hitters began figuring him out. His fastball, which he threw a majority of the time, looked flat, and hitters began having more success against it. In July, hitters batted .319 with a .971 OPS and three home runs against Caminero, and his ERA for the month was a bloated 7.59 in 10.2 innings, while only sporting a K/9 ratio of 7.06.
The Pirates and Searage stuck with him, and he has rewarded their patience.
During the month of August, Caminero has his highest ground ball rate of the season, 6.67 ground outs to every one air out. Hitters are only batting .182 against him, and his K/9 of 10.38 for the month suggests he has turned a corner. He has not allowed a run since July 25.
Searage told Starkey that Caminero has been using his two-seam fastball that is around 96-98 MPH as his go to pitch lately because of the angle of the pitch adds deception. With his four-seam fastball, there is little movement so hitters can see and hit it easier, despite how fast it is. Instead, he now uses the four-seamer to locate pitches on the corner, rather than just using it to overpower hitters.
Caminero has also slightly raised his arm slot to further the deception with his two-seamer, as well as his cutter and slider.
The Pirates already have one of the best late game combinations with Joakim Soria, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon, and Jared Hughes serving as the “fireman” to get the team out of jams. With Caminero, he could serve as their sixth inning reliever, taking some pressure off the starters to not have to go later into games, and making the Pirate bullpen one of the game’s best.
