How the turntables…
I am now here, officially, to spread the Bailey Falter agenda all over Pittsburgh. I am fully rooting for this guy, and he really is better than his reputation lends to him.
Ten days ago, I published a piece entitled “Is Bailey Falter Secretly Good At Baseball?”
At the time, I acknowledged that the question was perhaps a little premature, but I did present it as a legitimate statement. Here’s an excerpt of what I said then:
“His time in Pittsburgh really established a trend and an odd career path for Falter. He genuinely can be a very good pitcher at times. His ERA is heavily inflated due to certain very poor starts, and unfortunately for him, that clouds some very solid performances over his career, especially as a Pirate.“
That trend has definitely continued here in 2024. Bailey Falter gave up 5 runs to the first 5 batters he faced to start the season, and it was an absolute nightmare.
Since then? Falter has a 1.38 ERA over his last 26.0 innings pitched.
In Pittsburgh’s win over the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, Falter went 7.0 innings, allowing just 1 run while matching his career high of 8 strikeouts. Had the Pirates not sent him back out for the eighth inning, his stat line would have looked even better.
Falter allowed a solo home run to start the eighth, which prompted manager Derek Shelton to go to the bullpen and enlist Colin Holderman’s services. While that gaffe put a bit of a damper on the evening, Falter walked off to a standing ovation after an incredible outing.
Falter’s April has been terrific so far. In 4 starts, he has not allowed more than 2 runs in any of them, including a 6.0 inning shutout back on April 6th.
He looked fully in control of this game tonight, which even on other good Falter starts is a rare feeling. Those 8 strikeouts probably helped a lot.
In my previous piece on the matter, I wrote that Falter’s unpredictability might be his downfall.
“Of course, you can never quite know when you are going to get it, which is what makes him the biggest wild card among the pitching staff for the Pirates.
“That unpredictability is what also still makes him the most likely candidate to be booted from the rotation when Paul Skenes arrives, and he isn’t far off from arrival.
“The question then becomes where does Falter go? If he is performing well, does he see a shift to the bullpen? It’s dependent on a lot of factors, and not all of them are in his control.“
This situation becomes a little more stable for Falter with Marco Gonzales being out for an unknown time, but the next few days and starts for Falter are of the utmost importance.
History would dictate he’s due for a blowout, nightmare type game. Over the course of his Pirates career, he has never gone more than 4 games in which he allowed 4 runs or less.
Some of those games also came as a long reliever. Now that he has been entrusted (for now) as a full time starter, it’s all the more imperative that he breaks that trend and continues to string together good starts. It might just save him his rotation job.
Falter would benefit immensely from shedding that shaky reputation, and if he can keep the runs against numbers down, he could be in the rotation a lot longer than we all thought he would. He’s already performed a lot better than many of us expected out of him in the early goings of this season.
As for tonight, Falter was able to soak it all in after David Bednar, closing for a third consecutive day, sealed the win for the Pirates.
Falter now has a 2-1 record on the season with a 3.33 ERA, but his recent run of excellent starts have especially popped out. I have said that when Falter is on, he’s on. We just need to see it happen more, and consistently.
The Pirates now have back to back wins after ending their six game losing streak.
(Featured photo by David Dermer/USA Today Sports)
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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