123 Comments

I honestly think if they can swing a trade for Bleday and Pham then go get another solid reliever this team would be primed for a run. I don’t think it would take much to get Pham or another solid reliever. Bleday is going to be the tough one since he isn’t a free agent until 2029 but since he has so many years of control I’d be ok with giving up Suwinski, peguero and one of the pitching prospects.

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Have to think Chandler straight up lands Bleday but Cherington may not want to do that.

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I think Pham is a very realistic target. I would also love for them to find an everyday 1B with some years of control. The latter would probably be a little harder to pull off mid-season. I think their bullpen will organically get stronger with players returning from the IL, but a solid late inning arm wouldn’t hurt.

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They'll overpay for Charlie Blackmon who will go on to put up a 65 OPS+ for the Pirates in the 2nd half. Then they will say, "See... we did something."

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Finished yard work. McAdoo is the truth

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I’d say his AA debut went pretty well.

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Welp, Patrick Sandoval unlikely to get traded. Left his start shaking his arm.

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And Braxton Garret scratched, too.

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Ta&m v Tennessee is on espn. Lot of good players that are draft eligible.

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I like Jackson Appel as a later round pick, older switch hitting catcher that's fairly athletic.

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Burke just made a good play defensively to save a run. Then couldn't pick a tough throw on the edge of the grass and dirt.

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So, Nuttin in an interview says they need to add and could do it well before the deadline. But bumbling Ben says he’s focused on the players they already have.

How is it remotely possible to take these guys seriously?

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I take Nutting seriously. Whenever Ogden or Bob made a strong, public statement that something would happen or a correction would be implemented, results would follow.

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Whether or not a significant move will be made by the deadline remains to be seen. A good 2/3 of the league is looking to buy. Depends on who will actually be available and what the ask will be. I fully expect a some decent FA adds in the offseason this go around. I won’t be upset if a significant move is not made until the offseason unless the moves do not happen by spring training.

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The difference is, 2/3 of the league doesn't need to upgrade from disasters as bad as Grandal, MAT, Suwinski and Tellez. The Pirates don't even need to find average players to get significant improvement.

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The question is with so few sellers, what will be the cost to get players even marginally better than what we have? I am all for parting with players to get bett but not at a stupid cost.

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Virtually everyone is marginally better than what we have.

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Not arguing that.. Just a question of the ask. I just don’t want to see them massively overpay just to do something.

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Maybe Ben wants to keep things close to the vest and is going to shock us with a big trade for a hitter. NAH you're probably right, they are hard to take seriously.

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McAdoo doubles in his 1st double A at bat.

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Haha, now 2B BB HR.

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Ben's offensive surprise! Just gotta wait another year or so.

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What I don’t get is that McAdoo didn’t even make the recent top 40 Pirates prospect list on Fangraphs. He was included in the other outfielder category. Are the underlying metrics off with him or is Fangraphs over-thinking this somehow? I can only scout the stat line, which is fantastic.

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This just in, Fangraphs isn’t always right. I like the site enough to give them my money, but that doesn’t mean I take what they say as gospel.

Never forget, Human Beings + Baseball = Chaos

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BA came out with an article with some underlying exit velocity/contact numbers that were REALLY in McAdoo’s favor, so I don’t think it’s that.

Hard to say why he didn’t like him.

I tried to not put too much hype until he got to AA, but watching him play it was hard not to get excited. Now he’s already hitting in Altoona

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Fangraphs use to be the best, they are spread thin and don't get to a lot of the player and probably put more faith in who they use in the Dominican currently. Probably 35% of the players they rank are from the international ranks. I'm not saying they're bad evaluators but just spread thin.

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Yeah, it was a real weird ranking of basically loving data complex kids

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Eric finally got a second guy again (Travis Ice) but I've never seen him write a thing as of yet so...

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Do you think they'll finish the preseason rankings before the draft?

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Nope!

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pirates could use a hitter

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Maybe a new hitting philosophy would help some of the hitters they already have. Waiting for pitchers to throw you your pitch every at bat only works if the ump only calls strikes in your hitting zone forgetting about the rest of the strike zone, lol.

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Yep, it's not like the other teams doesn't have data, knowing what areas to target and areas to avoid. Always waiting for a mistake doesn't lead to a very good batting average.

Kinda reminds me of what Maddox said about Gwynn, "It took me damn near my entire career to figure out the best approach to get Tony out, Throw right down the middle, he knew how to react if I worked the outside edge (line drive into left center) if I threw it on the inside edge he went down the right field line. He wasn't expecting it down the middle, he'd still hit the ball hard but sometimes actually at someone.

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Maddox and Gwynn played during a time when players weren't burdened with page after page of analytical data to try and remember and just played baseball, lol.

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Or five.

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Wish I could find it to give credit,

Pirates this year have a pitching staff that will prevent losing streaks and an offense that will prevent winning streaks.

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That’s so brilliant.

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MLB network loses the feed with 2 outs. 😐

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In the works of Roman Maroni — those lousy cork-soakers, fargin iceholes….

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That was some authentic frontier gibberish!

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And 2 strikes????

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Yes. It was right before the Tampa player hit the double to give them their third run.

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Booyah!!!!!! #37 in the books and 86 to go!!!!! Jones gets the win with 7 strong. Nice bounce back after his last outing. Raise it!!!!!Skenes for the series win tomorrow 😁

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Nice win after yesterday's turd

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🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

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Somebody start warming as soon as Chapman throws first pitch.....

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What's up with Bednar?

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Had zero offense after the third, but notable that the top 4 were just productive enough to be in position for the W. We need a lot more games where the top 4 make things happen.

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Holderman has been unreal this year. Average exit velocity of 84. That is Kevin Newman territory.

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Seems like if he’s only 95% healthy, he’s terrible, but if he’s 100% he’s money in the bank.

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Tip of the cap to Eflin.

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