I expected the Pirates to add a starting pitcher today, predicting last night that they’d go for a lower cost guy, rather than one of the big arms from the Tampa Bay rotation. They did that with the addition of Ivan Nova. I also expected them to deal away one of their starters like Jon Niese, which they also did. You can read my recaps of those moves here.
And so I was all set to write a First Pitch tonight about Francisco Liriano. How he is the key if the Pirates want to contend. How they needed him to become the old Francisco Liriano in order to give them a fighting chance in the playoffs — the playoffs where Gerrit Cole would be used in the Wild Card game, and wouldn’t be available right away in the NLDS.