Spent several summers in St. Louis. Never liked the Cardinals but going to games was impressive. Saw McGwire's longest HR in his big 70 season. Never saw so many flashes from pictures every time he came up. Although I don't feel sorry for them it is shocking to see how few fans are at the park - but then this team isn't used to 3 bad seasons (and bad seasons in St. Louis are better than average seasons in Pittsburgh). Favorite memory at old Busch - Zane Smith 1-0 shutout in 90 minutes.
I will throw on the Athletics games from time to time. I enjoy watching their hitters. Jacob Wilson and Andujar are almost comical to me, how little they walk.
Chip Carey on the Cardinals broadcast said Shelton is a good manager and he is doing the best with the players he is given. (btw, Shelton is from Saint Louis area.)
What evidence could he possibly have? With better talent, maybe Shelton would show he can manage. But to just say he’s a good manager when the team he manages is so poor at fundamentals, how does he justify that?
Certainly not doing the best with the players he’s been given! Laughable. There are serious problems with the roster but Shelton is part of the problem.
My prediction: Once Chandler arrives, Horowitz returns as well as Nick G. returns and Pham is released we become a decent team again, but the season will have been torched in the 1st 2 months.
That was my prediction before the season started... that they would be too far behind by the time they got their act together. I said 10 games out of a Wild Card by the end of June. They are currently 8 games out. Somebody got angry and said 10 games out in June is still "in the race." Race for what? Lots of balls in the draft lottery?
Mlodzinski seems like a pretty good guy, very chill, and a guy that pays attention to detail in his preparation. When he gets to mound though, I've heard him say a swear word or two. :)
In his column this morning, kovacevic and was wondering when the first player would start sharing their feelings about this mess. Maybe Mlod is the one who is bold enough to do so.
That was my thought too as there wasn't anyone else significant that Cherington traded that offseason, but it also didn't seem like something Marte would say. Diaz was nontendered and Agrazal was also traded, but Marte still seems like the most logical choice.
I also don't have complete confidence in DK's reporting, and it could be that the player wasn't actually traded until the following year which would open up a whole bunch of possibilities.
The way we have run the bases this year is beyond unacceptable. On the positve: At practices in Bradenton and some of the spring training games, I really liked Brock. From the way it looked, Brock is the one that has been working with Cruz and I saw Cruz go to him with questions more than once.
He is the OF coach: the guy responsible for all the collisions and near collisions for the past 5 years. I wish Cruz was asking someone else, but at least, this helps to dispel the myth that Cruz is uncoachable or unmotivated.
Because the Pirates' base coaches are probably the 2 most incompetent people to ever step foot on a baseball field since Roseann Barr sang the national anthem.
So help me understand this—Mlod gets first two outs of the 5th and gets pulled, Borucki gets the last two batters he faced and he gets pulled. Shugart allows six straight base runners including a HR before he gets pulled.
This is more generally the price of being a pitching-first, -second, -third, and -last team. You always have a single point of failure with no compensating runs elsewhere because the other team will just give Cruz and Reynolds little to hit.
I have never been a fan of taking a hitter out of the game, if he already homered or if he already has 2 hits. I'm not a fan of taking a pitcher out after retiring the last two batters. The mental part of this game is often ignored. After Mitch Keller hit DeJong in the face, it was obvious he was so shaken up he was done.... but he was left in to get shelled anyway. Andrew Heaney a few weeks ago was throwing a no hitter and in a groove. Shelton argued with the ump about something senseless with 2 outs and making Heaney wait on the mound.
This one’s more of a Dumbo Special. Not totally, though. Birdbrain chose to address their bullpen needs by bringing in a bunch of borderline middle relievers. Trouble is, when you have to run through 3-4 of them in every game, a couple may pitch well, but at least one will usually get pummeled. And Dumbo is too inept to maneuver like he needs to, as he showed today. It’s a big problem that’s not getting noticed like the stone dead offense.
Other than Ferguson, he managed, somehow, to choose the worst available. There were a pile of guys out there available for cheap who would have been better.
Righty vs. lefty, but Shelton's tiny brain still doesn't get it. You don't bring in the scrub to pitch to the heart of the order in leverage. If you have to use the scrub, you use him against the bottom of the lineup. Baby steps. Maybe 6 or 7 more years and Shelton will have it figured out.
Yeah, I just think the righty/ lefty/righty sequence was over-managing, especially in the 5th/6th and with nobody on base either time. But then to stick with Shugart until he had allowed 4 runs?
Well... he throws a ton of mediocre sinkers and cutters right down broadway every time out. I get that there is some deception there, but you can't use him against guys like Arenado and Contreras.
Spent several summers in St. Louis. Never liked the Cardinals but going to games was impressive. Saw McGwire's longest HR in his big 70 season. Never saw so many flashes from pictures every time he came up. Although I don't feel sorry for them it is shocking to see how few fans are at the park - but then this team isn't used to 3 bad seasons (and bad seasons in St. Louis are better than average seasons in Pittsburgh). Favorite memory at old Busch - Zane Smith 1-0 shutout in 90 minutes.
I will be making the 3 hour drive to be at the games tomorrow and Wednesday..... and looking forward to it. What the hell is wrong with me?
Skenes is pitching. Worth the trip.
Plus day baseball before the miserable summer heat in St. Louis. Great choice of a couple of games.
Miguel Andujar batting .326 for the 19-16 A’s…
I will throw on the Athletics games from time to time. I enjoy watching their hitters. Jacob Wilson and Andujar are almost comical to me, how little they walk.
Wilson .333 avg 5 walks .400avg with risp
Andujar .326 avg 6 walks .429avg with risp
Wilson is fascinating. Maybe the 2nd coming of Tony Gwynn.
Every game is a form of torture to watch. How bad must it be for the players?
This team suuuuuuuuuuuucks
I have a feeling you will be adding more u's as the season goes on.
Just don’t understand these players. BRey takes a called 3rd strike. Earlier in the game Cruz did the same. What the heck?
Well... that strike to BRey was 102 MPH.
So what. Swing! It is 3-2. It’s a strike. Swing and miss, but swing.
Chip Carey on the Cardinals broadcast said Shelton is a good manager and he is doing the best with the players he is given. (btw, Shelton is from Saint Louis area.)
What evidence could he possibly have? With better talent, maybe Shelton would show he can manage. But to just say he’s a good manager when the team he manages is so poor at fundamentals, how does he justify that?
Cards don't like Marmol. Let's trade.
I prefer Schilt. The manager they fired, so they could hire Marmol.
If I was a fan of the Cardinals, I would want the Pirates to keep doing what they’re doing.
Certainly not doing the best with the players he’s been given! Laughable. There are serious problems with the roster but Shelton is part of the problem.
If they can play 500 ball from here on out, they'll end with 75 wins. That an unlikely "if".
My prediction: Once Chandler arrives, Horowitz returns as well as Nick G. returns and Pham is released we become a decent team again, but the season will have been torched in the 1st 2 months.
That was my prediction before the season started... that they would be too far behind by the time they got their act together. I said 10 games out of a Wild Card by the end of June. They are currently 8 games out. Somebody got angry and said 10 games out in June is still "in the race." Race for what? Lots of balls in the draft lottery?
This team is living under a dark cloud right now.
That was a bad hop. Not a misplay by Hayes.
Pages are now 12-15 vs Pirates in last two weeks.
Hannah’s report on why the Arch is dark and Brown’s follow-up comments validated my watching—there really was a good reason to stay tuned in.
https://x.com/JMackeyPG/status/1919562694815801743
Mlod's thought after being pulled.
Mlodzinski seems like a pretty good guy, very chill, and a guy that pays attention to detail in his preparation. When he gets to mound though, I've heard him say a swear word or two. :)
Appears I was right. Then again, what Pitcher wouldn’t be pissed with that decision?
In his column this morning, kovacevic and was wondering when the first player would start sharing their feelings about this mess. Maybe Mlod is the one who is bold enough to do so.
The player he was referencing in 2019 had to be Marte, right?
That was my thought too as there wasn't anyone else significant that Cherington traded that offseason, but it also didn't seem like something Marte would say. Diaz was nontendered and Agrazal was also traded, but Marte still seems like the most logical choice.
I also don't have complete confidence in DK's reporting, and it could be that the player wasn't actually traded until the following year which would open up a whole bunch of possibilities.
Good point on DK.
This team makes me wish I was blind.
Why is Brock not tracking the ball and backup guy and not telling Pham to go to second?
The way we have run the bases this year is beyond unacceptable. On the positve: At practices in Bradenton and some of the spring training games, I really liked Brock. From the way it looked, Brock is the one that has been working with Cruz and I saw Cruz go to him with questions more than once.
He is the OF coach: the guy responsible for all the collisions and near collisions for the past 5 years. I wish Cruz was asking someone else, but at least, this helps to dispel the myth that Cruz is uncoachable or unmotivated.
Because the Pirates' base coaches are probably the 2 most incompetent people to ever step foot on a baseball field since Roseann Barr sang the national anthem.
That was the worst non-overturn I’ve seen since they went to replay. Good for us, though.
So help me understand this—Mlod gets first two outs of the 5th and gets pulled, Borucki gets the last two batters he faced and he gets pulled. Shugart allows six straight base runners including a HR before he gets pulled.
This is more generally the price of being a pitching-first, -second, -third, and -last team. You always have a single point of failure with no compensating runs elsewhere because the other team will just give Cruz and Reynolds little to hit.
I have never been a fan of taking a hitter out of the game, if he already homered or if he already has 2 hits. I'm not a fan of taking a pitcher out after retiring the last two batters. The mental part of this game is often ignored. After Mitch Keller hit DeJong in the face, it was obvious he was so shaken up he was done.... but he was left in to get shelled anyway. Andrew Heaney a few weeks ago was throwing a no hitter and in a groove. Shelton argued with the ump about something senseless with 2 outs and making Heaney wait on the mound.
...... Sorry, but I could go on and on.
Dumbo prefers failure to success. No other way to explain it.
And we’ll hear that Shugart just didn’t execute his pitches, but it shouldn’t take 6 batters to realize your pitcher isn’t executing his pitches.
He was going all out to end the losing streak, but was like a deer in headlights when things with Shugart didn’t go as planned.
Very disappointed at the lack of a “Cheringtons” reference in the comments so far. Starting to find it quite amusing amongst all this pain and misery.
This one’s more of a Dumbo Special. Not totally, though. Birdbrain chose to address their bullpen needs by bringing in a bunch of borderline middle relievers. Trouble is, when you have to run through 3-4 of them in every game, a couple may pitch well, but at least one will usually get pummeled. And Dumbo is too inept to maneuver like he needs to, as he showed today. It’s a big problem that’s not getting noticed like the stone dead offense.
Other than Ferguson, he managed, somehow, to choose the worst available. There were a pile of guys out there available for cheap who would have been better.
IOW, he handled it like everything else, with complete ineptitude.
It’s called “consistency.”
Righty vs. lefty, but Shelton's tiny brain still doesn't get it. You don't bring in the scrub to pitch to the heart of the order in leverage. If you have to use the scrub, you use him against the bottom of the lineup. Baby steps. Maybe 6 or 7 more years and Shelton will have it figured out.
Yeah, I just think the righty/ lefty/righty sequence was over-managing, especially in the 5th/6th and with nobody on base either time. But then to stick with Shugart until he had allowed 4 runs?
Well... he throws a ton of mediocre sinkers and cutters right down broadway every time out. I get that there is some deception there, but you can't use him against guys like Arenado and Contreras.
Piratey!