113 Comments

Ortiz's stuff was good tonight. Fastball was 96-98 with movement, the change looked really good, and a decent slider. Control and command, not stuff, appears to be the issue now.

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'Fanduel' has cancelled betting on Liover Peguero will be benched tomorrow, lol.

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The look on Hank’s face when Peggy unloaded. The sheer joy and it continued when Peggy got into the dugout. Love this team.

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Many of these guys played together for a few years and coming up in the same season is huge. They are a close group and they are talented. They need the leash taken off because there are not any guys on this roster more talented than Hank, Peggy, Endy and Bae. it's another lost season they should play together most days as the season winds down.

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Hank is on the IL and the other 3 have been playing. Been rotating some guys but mostly all 4 have been playing when healthy.

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I realize Hank is on the IL and Bae just came off of the IL. I also don't have a problem with Delay spelling Endy but before Hank went down the Pirates had a golden opportunity to have Endy's bat in the lineup everyday with Delay up by using Endy as DH or at first or second like he played many times in the minors. I'll be 70 in a couple of months and I hope I live long enough to see Shelton on anybody else's bench but the Pirates!

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The young guys are bringing a fun energy that we haven't had in a while

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Now hayes spoiling us with a walk!

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The Pirates have finally met their match. The Royals are actually worse than they are.

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The Royals are in an interesting position. They looked like they had a stack of young talent last year, but so many failed to improve this year or have failed to deliver at the major-league level entirely. There are more questions than answers with them right now.

Whatever the case, it is obvious that Bobby Witt is going to be a big-time star, and another protracted, tanking-for-years rebuild should be out of the question. If they trade Perez (for anything though they should get something), they should have some money to address the pitching situation and the OF. Melendez will be fine as a C for now, and his bat plays there. In addition to Witt, Waters, Pasquintino, and Garcia should be fine. With Perez, Dozier, and Greinke coming off the books, they should have plenty of money to sure up the OF and pick up some pitching help.

They should make significant strides next year, even if Pratto, Massey, and Isbel don't pan out (and it sure seems that they will not). Unlike Nutting, Sherman does have infinite patience for failure. He fired long-time GM Dayton Moore after the 2022 season (despite the emergence of Waters, Witt Jr., and Singer). Sherman has also demonstrated a willingness to spend some money on free agents.

It is a challenging situation for Piccollo, their current GM. A long rebuild is out of the question, but with only Witt, Waters, Pasquantino, Melendez (at C), and Garcia to build around, he is going to have to be very shrewd in both trading and acquiring free agents. It is a interesting position and challenging for a GM... much more so than Oakland which has nothing anywhere in the system and has no choice but to go into a protracted rebuild.

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Pirates are bad, no doubt, but they're miles ahead of KC. Looks at KC's fangraphs page....It's Bobby Witt and nothing else. Combine that with a terrible farm system.

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Even jack getting in on the action

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Poor Peguero, he just made sure to be on the bench tomorrow 🤷🏻‍♂️

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But the bunt really impressed Shelton, he'll be in lineup.

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Sad but probably true.

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Peggy BOOM!

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That was a blast and a half!

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Steven Cruz MLB debut. Wow.

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Flat slider center cut. You need more than 101.

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Jeebers, Hayes!

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Please let this be Hayes from now on!

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Im loving this!

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So there is an article at the Post gazette that claims that Hayes has been working with the AA hitting coach and doing a better job of managing his back issues and that has lead to the current results. For those Haines hater ( I personally don’t care either way) this might the final nail in the coffin.

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that is Nunnally?

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Yes that’s the name! Thanks

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I'm no hitting coach expert, but between Davis, Peguero, Endy, and Cruz, there will be some legitimately talented young hitters with the big league club next year whose development will be critical to this team's future. They really need to find someone who can help them progress.

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Think about this Scranton, depending on what level a player went to in his career he started out with his father as his hitting coach and depending on his potential it would continue to be his father or his coach at each level. The one thing I see consistently watching these really great young Latino hitters like Julio Rodriguez, Ronald Acuna and Wander before he went Felipe on us is you can only out guess them because like the late great Clemente there is not any part of the plate you can throw a pitch that they can't hit with authority. This fascination with pulling the ball is a killer for many a career.

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BOOM!!!! Goes Hayes!!!

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This changeup is looking pretty spicy tonight

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And endy is rightfully calling it over and over

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pleased with Ortiz´s outing this evening

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Ortiz has shown me shades of his better self tonight

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