Selby is in his age 26 season and KC wants to try to solve his control issues and use him in the short innings. The Pirates are absolutely loaded with many more talented pitchers right now. Oliver is in his age 23 season, but only pitched in A for KC in 2023.
The Pirates had already DFA'd Selby with KC Claiming him. The Pirates were fortunate to get anything back to complete the deal.
Oliver pulled off the impressive achievement of playing for four different schools over four seasons. He made one appearance for Wichita State in 2020 prior to the shutdown. He transferred to Wabash Valley, an Illinois JuCo, for the 2021 season. He put together an outstanding season there with a 1.87 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 57.2 innings. Oliver then transferred to TCU for the 2022 season. He struggled for playing time with the Horned Frogs and got hit hard when he did pitch, surrendering 19 hits and nine walks in just 11 innings. He transferred to Miami (Ohio) for the 2023 season and finally put it together. Earning a spot in the weekend rotation, Oliver tossed 78.2 innings with a 3.89 ERA, posting a strong 27.6% strikeout rate while walking 12.6%. He was a Second-Team All-MAC honoree for his efforts.
A lanky lefty at 6’2”, 170, Oliver works a low-90s fastball from a high 3⁄4 arm slot. Its spin helps the heater play above its velo. He’ll also mix in a changeup, curveball, and cutter, and he’s shown good feel for the cambio. Oliver has always been able to miss bats, but his command isn’t great. Lefties with good changeups can usually find some sort of role, but there’s considerable development needed here.
No pitchers, please. Our hitting prospects taken in the First Round have been disappointing so far. We have enough pitching in the pipeline but not enough hitting.
Skenes has made me a believer, and, because of that, I believe the Pirates might have two true top-of-the-rotation starters this year with one or two more on the way. Plus, Preister may figure it out and Keller might rebound. The future riotaton:
Scenes (1)
Jones (2)
Chandler (2 or 3)
Solomento (3 or 4 or 5)
Keller/Preiester (4 or 5)
That's a strong rotation. But, the offense and defense are not strong. Draft a position player, one who hits., all else being equal. We need it.
I'm with you with the exception, if all the top college bats are gone, I wouldn't be upset at all with Smith and to a lesser degree Burns. A couple of the prep bats could jump them though, as well as a couple college bats.
We need to target 2 corner bats with the compA to 3 round pick in my opinion as well. It's the strength of this draft. Not likely but Tommy Tanks might be there at pick 37. I still like Blake Burke even if he becomes a dh. I really think his swing would play great at PNC.
Per Rum Bunter, Connor Oliver is a 2023 draftee out of the University of Miami taken in the 15th round of the 2023 draft by the Royals. Despite being a senior he got a $100K bonus. He has pitched a grand total of one professional inning.
We just need to have one team before us draft a prep player and we should get a very good college prospect. With Condon, Kurtz, Bazzana, Jac, JJ, Montgomery and the 2 pitchers Burns and Smith that have either separated themselves with play this year or in Wetherholt (who's back playing) and Kurtz that had injuries but have prior performances to warrant their status. I'll be slightly disappointed if we have to go with a prep but there's 3 I like if we have to.
We need to keep in mind a 'very good' college prospect (we are not getting Crews or Langford in our draft slot) may take 2 -4 years to make the majors (I know Schanuel did.. but let me know when he is a playoff caliber first baseman) and no guarantee they will do that. I get we need a first baseman but I will beat the drum forever that you don't draft for need in baseball, you draft best available. We 'may' have a surplus of pitching, that is how you obtain a first baseman for next year or later this year.
Yep, as much as I like Schanuel, more time in the upper minors would have helped him. This draft doesn't have a concensus top 5 like last year but is top heavy in the top 10 to 15. Last year we were lucky to have a top 5 pick, this year there isn't much separation in the top 10 picks.
I'm not necessarily down on Schanuel as a high OBP good fielding 1B. I just feel there is a lot of discussion / expectations around filling our MLB power and / or 1B hole in this draft. The right pick (seems there are a lot of top of draft candidates) may actually fit that profile but it would be optimistic to think they would be filling that hole positively even by 2026. ie. other options need explored...draft who they think is the best guy.
The best thing with this Pirates team so far is that they keep games within the margin of bullpen variability. It won't always go their way, but at least they regularly have odds that it might.
They say that 1/3 of the games, you win no matter what; 1/3 you lose no matter what; and 1/3 could go either way depending on timely defense, timely relief pitching, etc... . The advantage of good pitching and good defense is that these numbers don't hold up. You can move a larger portion of the games into the "could go either way" category. With good bullpen work and good baserunning, you can then turn these into a higher proportion of wins. So far, that is what the Pirates are doing. If the starters can keep holding the line and keeping most games close, the Pirates will make the playoffs... same holds for any team actually.
If I could change one thing about baseball, it would be to get managers to be more aggressive in deploying their best relievers in high leverage earlier. If the other team's best batters are due up in the 7th or 8th, don't wait until the 9th to deploy your best reliever. If the other team has two men on in the 6th, send your best to kill the rally then and there.
The other strategy that many are adopting now and that I have used for some time, is to find a guy with high speed ratings (or SB% in the older sims) who can play killer defense in CF and use him in any close game as a pinch-runner defensive sub. It got to the point that in my last Diamond Mine league (3 or 4 years ago), that Billy Hamilton went in something like the 5th round of the draft to a team who had no intention of using him as a starter.
You are preaching to the choir. FYI, in every baseball sim league that I have played in, dating back to the early 1990s and a game called Computer Baseball to OOTPB and Diamond Mind in the present, pretty much every manager has adopted this strategy sooner or later. You will notice that in MLB, teams do it now in the post-season, so they know it is optimal. They claim analytics... blah... blah... blah... but they don't really practice what they preach.
Oh, I roll my eyes at bullpen usage. And then I watch some team fall one or two games short of a playoff spot.
The problem is recency bias. People blame managers for what happened in the 9th. For some reason, they don't think hard enough about what happened in the 7th.
A bit OT, but I just saw a report that Mia -- which is headed for their first win of the season -- voided Skip Schumaker's 2025 option. They were a good team to open against because they seem to be a seriously effed up org. They made the playoffs last year with a patched-together roster, so they immediately told the GM they were reducing her role and she left. Now the mgr. is leaving. I don't know much about them but they seem to be trying to screw up.
Worked out well, starting with four against those boobs, then a crappy Wash team, then moving on to a real opponent.
They seem like the McClatchyfield Pirates: fail to develop prospects, dump salary, FO incompetence. The new President of Baseball operations may want to put his people in place, it's players that win games and that team as it now stands will not win without their good pitchers.
It was nice of Miami to take that first win from a Pirates divisional opponent. Downright gentlemanly of them.
As for the Marlins, they've never really recovered from the stadium debacle two ownership groups ago. The team lied to the city about its debt situation, including holding assets offshore, and sold quality players for spare parts. The city never bought back into the team after that. The team has never bought back into the team, either.
It's a mess. Also, I believe they're cursed because they moved that glorious home run sculpture outside. It was friggin majestic, and it was the only reason to even care that that ballpark ever existed.
Need to keep Jose Hernandez around. He gets into two games at the start of the season because somebody's on paternity leave and he picks up a save. Comes back due to an injury and immediately gets a W.
It would be nice to actually earn it by, you know, hitting the ball out of the infield with a runner on third. On the other hand there will be games that go the other way so might as well enjoy this one.
Anyone else see wher Colin Shelby was dealt to KC for a LHP Conner Oliver?
Selby is in his age 26 season and KC wants to try to solve his control issues and use him in the short innings. The Pirates are absolutely loaded with many more talented pitchers right now. Oliver is in his age 23 season, but only pitched in A for KC in 2023.
The Pirates had already DFA'd Selby with KC Claiming him. The Pirates were fortunate to get anything back to complete the deal.
from a kc site about their draft last year:
Oliver pulled off the impressive achievement of playing for four different schools over four seasons. He made one appearance for Wichita State in 2020 prior to the shutdown. He transferred to Wabash Valley, an Illinois JuCo, for the 2021 season. He put together an outstanding season there with a 1.87 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 57.2 innings. Oliver then transferred to TCU for the 2022 season. He struggled for playing time with the Horned Frogs and got hit hard when he did pitch, surrendering 19 hits and nine walks in just 11 innings. He transferred to Miami (Ohio) for the 2023 season and finally put it together. Earning a spot in the weekend rotation, Oliver tossed 78.2 innings with a 3.89 ERA, posting a strong 27.6% strikeout rate while walking 12.6%. He was a Second-Team All-MAC honoree for his efforts.
A lanky lefty at 6’2”, 170, Oliver works a low-90s fastball from a high 3⁄4 arm slot. Its spin helps the heater play above its velo. He’ll also mix in a changeup, curveball, and cutter, and he’s shown good feel for the cambio. Oliver has always been able to miss bats, but his command isn’t great. Lefties with good changeups can usually find some sort of role, but there’s considerable development needed here.
Much obliged for the intel 😁
Came here looking for info myself.
is there enough interest in a separate minor league thread?
Why not? 😁
i'd like to chat about minor league games, but it just gets buried under the pirates game chat....which i get, of course
Bucs took two of three from the Orioles. Cubs tool two of three from the Dodgers. NL Central now 30-16 with no team below .500.
No pitchers, please. Our hitting prospects taken in the First Round have been disappointing so far. We have enough pitching in the pipeline but not enough hitting.
Skenes has made me a believer, and, because of that, I believe the Pirates might have two true top-of-the-rotation starters this year with one or two more on the way. Plus, Preister may figure it out and Keller might rebound. The future riotaton:
Scenes (1)
Jones (2)
Chandler (2 or 3)
Solomento (3 or 4 or 5)
Keller/Preiester (4 or 5)
That's a strong rotation. But, the offense and defense are not strong. Draft a position player, one who hits., all else being equal. We need it.
Um . . . about the hitting . . .
The Pirates are fourth in runs scored. https://www.espn.com/mlb/standings/_/sort/pointsfor/dir/desc/group/overall Also, two of the four teams ahead of them are the Dodges and Padres, who've played two more games.
How quickly people forget the Pirates teams that were dead if the other team hit four runs.
59 runs in 10 games ain't bad. You'll win a lot of baseball games with 5.9 per game.
I'm with you with the exception, if all the top college bats are gone, I wouldn't be upset at all with Smith and to a lesser degree Burns. A couple of the prep bats could jump them though, as well as a couple college bats.
We need to target 2 corner bats with the compA to 3 round pick in my opinion as well. It's the strength of this draft. Not likely but Tommy Tanks might be there at pick 37. I still like Blake Burke even if he becomes a dh. I really think his swing would play great at PNC.
really think we need a hitter, but getting burns would just be hilarious to add to the rotation at that point
I actually like Hagen Smith a little better but just a little.
that would also be cool. pirates could use a power lefty in the rotation
Yep, he's a nightmare for lefty hitters. K'd Bazzana 3 times, Bazzana has only struck out around 13 or 14 times all season.
Imo, the hitting will improve and we will start seeing more HRs. However, I wouldn't be crushed if we made a trade to add a legit bat....
Marco doing good job for someone nobody wanted. 😉
Hey... I wanted him... .
I have been one of the most-outspoke Marco haters. I'll be perfectly happy if he keeps proving me wrong. I don't expect it, but I do hope for it.
I think nobody wanted him for 12.5 million.
In fairness, the Pirates are only paying like 4 million of that.
Pirates traded Colin Selby to KC for MiL LHP Connor Oliver.
Per Rum Bunter, Connor Oliver is a 2023 draftee out of the University of Miami taken in the 15th round of the 2023 draft by the Royals. Despite being a senior he got a $100K bonus. He has pitched a grand total of one professional inning.
Just the name itself Connor Oliver sounds like a ball player.
Off topic but Nick Kurtz is on fire his last few games. 3 more homeruns today. 8 hrs in the last 5 games.
I hoped that he would be slightly better than underwhelming this season. If that would happen, he might fall to the Pirates in the draft.
The Pirates seem incapable of drafting and developing a 1B.
We just need to have one team before us draft a prep player and we should get a very good college prospect. With Condon, Kurtz, Bazzana, Jac, JJ, Montgomery and the 2 pitchers Burns and Smith that have either separated themselves with play this year or in Wetherholt (who's back playing) and Kurtz that had injuries but have prior performances to warrant their status. I'll be slightly disappointed if we have to go with a prep but there's 3 I like if we have to.
We need to keep in mind a 'very good' college prospect (we are not getting Crews or Langford in our draft slot) may take 2 -4 years to make the majors (I know Schanuel did.. but let me know when he is a playoff caliber first baseman) and no guarantee they will do that. I get we need a first baseman but I will beat the drum forever that you don't draft for need in baseball, you draft best available. We 'may' have a surplus of pitching, that is how you obtain a first baseman for next year or later this year.
Yep, as much as I like Schanuel, more time in the upper minors would have helped him. This draft doesn't have a concensus top 5 like last year but is top heavy in the top 10 to 15. Last year we were lucky to have a top 5 pick, this year there isn't much separation in the top 10 picks.
I'm not necessarily down on Schanuel as a high OBP good fielding 1B. I just feel there is a lot of discussion / expectations around filling our MLB power and / or 1B hole in this draft. The right pick (seems there are a lot of top of draft candidates) may actually fit that profile but it would be optimistic to think they would be filling that hole positively even by 2026. ie. other options need explored...draft who they think is the best guy.
Yeah, it can’t be repeated enough that you never pick for need in the baseball draft. I think this is more true of the baseball draft than any other.
The best thing with this Pirates team so far is that they keep games within the margin of bullpen variability. It won't always go their way, but at least they regularly have odds that it might.
They say that 1/3 of the games, you win no matter what; 1/3 you lose no matter what; and 1/3 could go either way depending on timely defense, timely relief pitching, etc... . The advantage of good pitching and good defense is that these numbers don't hold up. You can move a larger portion of the games into the "could go either way" category. With good bullpen work and good baserunning, you can then turn these into a higher proportion of wins. So far, that is what the Pirates are doing. If the starters can keep holding the line and keeping most games close, the Pirates will make the playoffs... same holds for any team actually.
If I could change one thing about baseball, it would be to get managers to be more aggressive in deploying their best relievers in high leverage earlier. If the other team's best batters are due up in the 7th or 8th, don't wait until the 9th to deploy your best reliever. If the other team has two men on in the 6th, send your best to kill the rally then and there.
The other strategy that many are adopting now and that I have used for some time, is to find a guy with high speed ratings (or SB% in the older sims) who can play killer defense in CF and use him in any close game as a pinch-runner defensive sub. It got to the point that in my last Diamond Mine league (3 or 4 years ago), that Billy Hamilton went in something like the 5th round of the draft to a team who had no intention of using him as a starter.
You are preaching to the choir. FYI, in every baseball sim league that I have played in, dating back to the early 1990s and a game called Computer Baseball to OOTPB and Diamond Mind in the present, pretty much every manager has adopted this strategy sooner or later. You will notice that in MLB, teams do it now in the post-season, so they know it is optimal. They claim analytics... blah... blah... blah... but they don't really practice what they preach.
Oh, I roll my eyes at bullpen usage. And then I watch some team fall one or two games short of a playoff spot.
The problem is recency bias. People blame managers for what happened in the 9th. For some reason, they don't think hard enough about what happened in the 7th.
A bit OT, but I just saw a report that Mia -- which is headed for their first win of the season -- voided Skip Schumaker's 2025 option. They were a good team to open against because they seem to be a seriously effed up org. They made the playoffs last year with a patched-together roster, so they immediately told the GM they were reducing her role and she left. Now the mgr. is leaving. I don't know much about them but they seem to be trying to screw up.
Worked out well, starting with four against those boobs, then a crappy Wash team, then moving on to a real opponent.
They seem like the McClatchyfield Pirates: fail to develop prospects, dump salary, FO incompetence. The new President of Baseball operations may want to put his people in place, it's players that win games and that team as it now stands will not win without their good pitchers.
When you run Derek Jeter out of town on his own choosing, you know something's
not right.
It was nice of Miami to take that first win from a Pirates divisional opponent. Downright gentlemanly of them.
As for the Marlins, they've never really recovered from the stadium debacle two ownership groups ago. The team lied to the city about its debt situation, including holding assets offshore, and sold quality players for spare parts. The city never bought back into the team after that. The team has never bought back into the team, either.
It's a mess. Also, I believe they're cursed because they moved that glorious home run sculpture outside. It was friggin majestic, and it was the only reason to even care that that ballpark ever existed.
Shout out to Ro. Great job today!!!!!
Ugly wins are better than ugly losses!
Sounds like a Tomlinism LOL
That was a **gritty** win, sir. Run hard down the line. Make him make the throw because he might not.
Ugly wins are better than pretty losses. Winning beats losing regardless.
Not necessarily when it comes to dating though.
Your mind is wandering here. Stay focused.
🤣
Need to keep Jose Hernandez around. He gets into two games at the start of the season because somebody's on paternity leave and he picks up a save. Comes back due to an injury and immediately gets a W.
I noticed they brought up Hernandez over Holderman who pitched in Dny again today.
After a terrible inning Friday with Indy in a mop-up role. He seems to prefer high leverage.
As NMR would say, “Baseball is fun again!”
It's nice to not feel like a 2-1 ninth inning against a quality team is a death sentence that ends in three straight outs.
It would be nice to actually earn it by, you know, hitting the ball out of the infield with a runner on third. On the other hand there will be games that go the other way so might as well enjoy this one.
That was earned. You have to pressure the other guy to make the throw. The other guy didn't make the throw. That's baseball.
Tellez caused the errant throw. It was a hard earned victory.
And without committing interference.
Okay, if you prefer it that way fine with me. A win is a win.
Did you not see Tellez cause Henderson to change his throwing angle under immense duress?
It was a brilliant base running play way more than a bad throwing error.
Believe whatever you want if it makes you feel better. I’m happy with the win either way.
In game play, I tend to believe that Pitching > Hitting > Defense. But games like this point to the importance of quality defense.
That said, how is it that a major league hitter can fail to get a ball into the air and into the outfield?
The Pirates are near the bottom of the defense stat used to compute FWAR.
This does not bode well for the teams future success.
Their best defensive players have made blunders that shouldn't happen with this abundance again so hopefully that will even it out
Because hitting a major league pitch is really hard. Slow pitch softball I agree with that take.
Cano is nasty.
I'm complaining about the Bucs defense today. O's made some great defensive plays today. O's give up 2 of 3 runs due to errors.....crazy.
Booyah! Raise it!!!!! 8 down and 152 to go!!!
So nice being on the winning side of such a play instead of the losing end.