The Pirates Finally Figured Out How to Use Carmen Mlodzinski

0:00Support for this podcast comes from Progressive America's number one motorcycle insurer. Did you know riders who switch and save with Progressive saved nearly $200 per year? That's a whole new pair of riding gloves. And more. Quote today. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. National average 12 month savings of $197 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between October 2024 and September 2025. Potential savings will vary. Hey, it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this, but I have Exema. So I get how it can steal your time. But why let Exema take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglyce? Epglyce, lubricism app, LBKZ, a 250-mg per 2-mg leader injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kg with moderate to severe Exema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglyce can be used with or without

1:00topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglyce. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsening eye problems, you should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyce. Before starting Epglyce, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lili. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyce and visit Epglyce.com or call 1-800-LiliRX or 1-800-545-5979. Music, Food, Art. These things define and unite us and they come in colors that breathe culture. Colors that connect us with their variety and richness. You'll find that same variety in Valsvar Ultra paints. Great coverage and durability starting at 29.90A per gallon. Enjoy everyday protection against scuffs and wear with a smooth, washable finish. We're made of colors and with Valsvar Ultra, you can reflect that pride of culture you have inside on every wall of your home available at Lowe's.

2:08The odds are the pirates were playing for pride on Sunday. They don't have much of a path to the postseason outside of pretty much winning out and hoping for two teams to collapse. It's not a great path. They're playing for pride and to finish 500 or above. But you know what pride is still something and Carnaginski won them that ball game on Sunday. Came in in a very tight spot. Bases loaded. You don't normally see him come in inheriting runners anymore. Did a great job. Only one of those inherited runners came in on a very weak ground out. Pitched another ending on top. I would argue he was the player who was most consequential to the pirates winning that game on Sunday. And I can't help but wonder if maybe the pirates could have been playing for more than pride if that version of Carnaginski would have been available in June and July. Good morning and welcome to Offbeat here on North Shore 9 presented by Fandall.

3:14My name is Alex Stumpf and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh pirates. Again, I'm starting off by giving flowers to Carnaginski here. That was a really tough spot that he came into. Bases loaded a lot of lefties and he just attacked. There's a lot of valid criticism of how Don Kelly used his bullpen on Saturday. And if you want to just play the percentages, Sunday putting Maginski in whenever there are that many lefties in the lineup, not a great spot. But you know what he went with he is my best reliever. And I am going to put him in the biggest spot in the game. Amma Jensky delivered. And not only did he deliver, that was the third time in eight days that he had delivered. We've seen him transition to more one inning outings. That was an inning in two thirds, but like shorter outings. It's not the three or four innings like we had seen since he

4:14been demoted from the rotation at the end of May. And would you believe he was far more impactful because of it? Whatever Maginski went to the bullpen, it was long relief. It was mapping out what days he was available. And he wasn't available a lot of days. And we've talked about this before. I wrote about it for book real books. It created that like smoke if you got him. If he's available, well, you got to kind of use him because it's going to take days to reset for him to go out there again. And he would go out there in low in leverage spots that didn't mean as much. And he going to give three good innings, but it's like it what impacted it really have on the game. It didn't swing the wind probability added. On Sunday, according to baseball boss of aunt, his wind probability added was 22.6%. That is a huge, huge swing. And I'm going to

5:19concede here that there's a little bit of apples and oranges here with wind probabilities between one source and another. I get that. But baseball reference is very, very credible. And it's also very accessible. So I decided to check from June 4th to September 2nd, this run where he would go multiple days off. And then he'd pitch multiple innings. He pitched in 20 games and had a wind probability added of 0.177. On average, he swung the chances of winning by less than 1% in outing. And compare that to what he did on Sunday, 22.6%. It's jarring. He was more valuable, strictly talking from wind probability added. On one day, then he was over three months. And I know I have been quite

6:22critical of how Majinski has been used this year of how he handled the bullpen. And I get if people are tired of hearing the broken record, if I come off as that. But I say it only because I think he has the ability to be brilliant. This is a team that has Mason Montgomery, you know, absolutely in stride right now. He looks brilliant. Luke Weaver, I know his Pirates 10 year has and gotten off to the best start. Jose Negroes reporting about the Poison Ivy. I think played a large impact to that. The Poison Ivy, not the reporting. I guess I should clarify. But he's really good too. And at this start of this podcast, I'm saying he is the bullpen's best reliever. And I earnestly believe that even back at spring training, whenever I was like, who's the number five starter, it's like, give it to Karim Majinski because I think this guy is a capital D dude.

7:27And the way he was deployed for three months was disappointing. I get in that stretch from June to September, there were three starts. But where they really starts, they weren't telling him go five six settings. It was still the go three innings, go four innings if you got, if you can. It was basically, he was an opener. And he wasn't making an impact. And the Pirates weren't winning 20 games pitched in three months and they won 12 and eight. In games where he was on average swinging the wind probability by less than one percent of time. And for three months from like May to the trade deadline, this bullpen was a capital P problem. And I can't help but wonder what would have happened this year if Majinski would have been

8:32deployed this way. I'm not saying he has to go back to 2023, 2024, Karim Majinski where he's, you know, got to be able to go back to back days or, you know, three out of four or anything like that. But there was a median here. There was a median between having him start or be on a starter schedule for a while, have these long recoveries between outings and what we're seeing in September. I get some of this was built into that, but like this could have been a plan. This could have been deployed a lot more before. Imagine a year where Karim Majinski is this team's closer. It's one thing where it's like Mason and Gummary. It's like, man, imagine if this guy was here in June or July, but he was growing. He was developing. He was getting better as a player. Okay, you get that. Like the guy we see now in August and September is not the same guy we saw in April and May because he's gotten better. He's continued to grow and develop. That's what young pitchers do.

9:36We'd seen Karim Majinski in this row before. We had seen him make a huge impact in this row before and now he's back in this row and he's making a huge impact. And it's just coming at a point in the year where it got the pirates to 500, but they're postseason odds. Aren't great. I have more to say on this, but first I want to take a break and thank today sponsor, Lerineco. We all know nicotine pouches are popular and part of it isn't so much the nicotine as it is the routine. Lerine just launched a pouch that keeps the routine but leaves the nicotine out. Lerineco pouches swap out the nicotine and give you clean focus and support your enamel the whole time they're in. It works like the pouches you've seen before. Just tuck one in and go about your day. Each pouch has a half cup of coffee's worth of caffeine plus L-thiening and alpha GPC for a smooth study focus with no energy crash. It gives your teeth daily enamel support between brushing's. It comes in mint cinnamon and mango and it's nicotine free always. It's doing something

10:37good for your teeth and it gives you smooth energy and focus without those jitters. Every other pouch out there makes you pick between something that helps you focus and something that's actually good for your teeth. This is the only one designed to do both and it comes from a brand that's leading the way at supporting your oral health. Give Lerine a try. Right now Lerineco is offering ear listeners up to 50% off at byloren.com slash norshore. That's byloren.lair.in.com slash norshore from up to 50% off. Support for this podcast comes from progressive America's number one motorcycle insurer. Did you know riders who switch and save with progressive save nearly $200 per year? That's a whole new pair of riding gloves. And more quote today. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. National average 12 month savings of $197 by new customer surveyed who saved with progressive between October 2024 and September 2025. Potential savings will vary. Hey it's Kelly Rowland. You may not know this but I have Exema so I get how it can still your time.

11:41But why let Exema take over when you can talk to your doctor about Epglyce? Epglyce, lubricism app LBKZ, a 250mg per 2mL injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older, who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40kg with moderate to severe Exema. Also called a topic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Epglyce can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you are allergic to Epglyce. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. I problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have newer worsting eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglyce. Before starting Epglyce tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Paid partnership with Lili. Respect your time. Ask your doctor about Epglyce and visit Epglyce.com or call 1-800-LiliRX or 1-800-545-5979. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way.

12:42Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel right in one spot and turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. This series for this road trip we saw Brax and Nashcraft go on the injured list. And again, Ben Charrantons saying on his radio show on 937 The Fan that nothing appears to be structural. Okay, it's the best case scenario you can get in something like that. But in a lot of cases, you would have thought okay, he moves into the rotation. Or at the very least, he goes back to what we saw in August, whatever Mitch Keller went down. And no, they're pitching him this way. And it's the right call. It was the biggest moment in the game, throwing your best bullpen arm.

13:43He delivered. And I don't know what the future holds for Carmen Maginski in Pittsburgh. I think you can make a very legitimate claim that he could be a starter next year. That either you train Mitch Keller or you just going to next year with him being one of six or whatever, whatever the case may be. If Carmen Maginski is planned to be a starting pitcher, I'm on board with it because I think he could be a major league starting pitcher. I think he could be a number four or five starter. I also think he could be an absolute demon in the bullpen if he's in this kind of role. In this Andrew Miller type of role. This is what he could be. I think this is the best form of Carmen Maginski in that type of role where he's going to go one up maybe two sometimes. And he's just going to seek out the biggest moment in the game and he is going to be just on

14:44Lee show. Just do that. He did that in Riggly on Sunday in a game where if the parrots have any pulse, he is the reason why right now. It is a huge out of it. It was a tease almost though of like, man, there are games in July and June. Who knows what the sea or even August? Who knows how this season would have gone if it would have been done the other way? And I get that they wanted to have someone who was like kind of in that starter role in case they needed to go back to him. But then whenever they did lose a starter, they didn't try to stretch him back out. So I, it's disappointing because he did and he did more to help the parrots chances of winning in one day than he did in three months. It's one of those stats that sounds almost made up.

15:48And it wasn't just on Sunday, like what he did on in that one, nothing win against the angels, the previous Sunday. What he did in Chicago coming in the fifth inning, delivering that inning. Like those are holds. Those are big holds. Those are games that he's helping him win right now. We talked about going 12 and 8 in that 20 game stretch. There are three now whenever he pitches now. In those three games, it was decided by four runs. Here he is pitching meaningful innings and close games and the parrots end up winning. I truly believe even with what Mason Montgomery has been doing the last month and a half, I do think Carmichandsky could be the parrots best reliever if he is deployed this way. And if they want to go into next year with this, I will be 100% on board. I will champion it.

16:51You're going to get an off beat every other week on this topic next year if they go that way. But I get his goal is to be a starting pitcher and it's a good goal to have. It's a good goal to have. And I think he can do it. But whenever you could be the absolute best at something, man, I don't know if I've been the absolute best at anything in my life. I don't know if I have that type of thing. That type of dog and you see it in them and it's... I don't know. There is a little bit of bitter sweetness in that win on Sunday. Because maybe they are playing for more than pride and they aren't going to get that e next to their name anytime soon. They've been playing good ball of late. That Friday, notwithstanding.

17:54But I can't help but feel like this could have been more and he could have been even greater and made a bigger impact. You want your best players to make the biggest impact possible. And for three months, I don't think he was in a position to do that. And I think Sunday is a pretty good indicator of what the best version of himself is. Thank you so much for listening to Offbeat here on North Shore 9 presented by Fandall. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe wherever you find podcasts or trick us out on YouTube if you want to see my smiling face. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk again tomorrow. All right, that wraps up this episode of North Shore 9. Thanks so much for tuning in. Whether you're listening on the podcast or catching us on YouTube, if you enjoyed the show, please give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. It really helps us grow. And if you're listening on the podcast, a quick review goes a long way in helping others find

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