What is happening? Welcome to the Plus Pitch Podcast.

Morning Pitching Podcasts from Pitcherlist.com.

My name is Nick Pollock.

Today is May 24th.

And yes, we are going to talk about baseball.

A.J. Smith-Shava.

4.1 inning, zero and runs.

Three hits, two walks, 4Ks.

Nine whiffs and a 24% CSW.

He did throw 87 pitches, though. In his return to the majors, this was his MLB debut for 2024, season debut, I should say, after pitching last year.

And what we saw was generally similar to what we saw in the spring of this year.

AJ Smith-Shavner did feature increased velocity. We saw 99 in the first inning, which is absolutely bonkers.

He also had a 14-for-18 strike rate with his curveball, which is amazing.

But I also had some big mistakes here and there that led to inefficiency in this one for

Smith Schaver.

I hope Atlantic keeps him in the rotation.

This is the Spencer Strider spot in the rotation.

No Bryce Elder. Maybe there is Vines in there. But really, I think that Smith Schaver, getting this

opportunity means that he's going to stick around. And if he were, then, well, then he gets, I believe,

the Pirates next. That would be wonderful. Sorry, now that Pirates, the Nationals next.

I don't know if I'm necessarily in, because there needs to be more polish added to Smith-Shava. That would suggest,

hey, look, you can go six innings and actually execute everything. He had a really nice change

...