Jones is the guy who gets us something in return, imo. Bubba + Falter maybe gets us Kjerstad from the O's. It'd still be an overpay for Baltimore according to BTV.
I can’t remember a team that has had so, so many missed opportunities. We easily should, could have 5 more wins this year, and if you want to be greedy, could argue for 6, 7, or 8 more. We are good enough to be competitive now, but not good enough to win consistently. As someone else wrote below: pitching good enough to avoid losing streaks; bad offense to prevent winning streaks.
I haven't counted, but I believe the bullpen has already flushed away five to ten games if not more this season. Holderman's problems today are a "shit happens sometimes" case given his excellence this year. But, if the Pirates could hit a lick better than they have and if the bullpen had been the strength it was expected to be, the Pirates would now be in first place.
I find it too depressing to follow the off-season dumpster diving we are subjected to every year. So, I spare myself the aggravation. That said, Cherrington did cash in on some of his SP signees. Cutch is Cutch. But he gets an -F for everything else. It often seems like the plan is to hire MLers at dumpster dive prices. Cherrington departed from that plan when he spent $10M on Chapman. But what would the Pirates have spent if the team knew how the 2024 season would play out? We don't know, but it's clear the Pirates FO and ownership did not expect to contend in 2024. Had they expected to contend, what would they have done to augment the team's chances of winning in a uniformly weak division? I hope the 2923-4 off-season is not Cherrington's idea of giving it a real go. Rowdy is not totally useless now but it would have been better had Cherrington signed a starting firstbaseman, centerfielder and catcher who are not historically bad. We fans cheer when the these players inch past the Mendoza Line! That's pathetic. Even if one grants that Cherrington did not expect Skenes, Jones, Keller and Falter to be as good as they have been so far, Skenes and Jones being rookies, Keller being historically inconsistent, and Falter being a surprise, the organization should have had a plan to put in place players meant to provide offensive support for their starting pitchers. There is no evidence that such a plan existed or, if it did, it depended mostly on the internally developed position players who seemingly can't hit baseballs well. The story of the mid-teens contending Pirates ended when superior starting pitchers dominated a just good enough Pirates offense. The story of the mid-twenties teams will end before it achieves much of anything. The ending will be marked by: The development staff turned a generational hitting prospect into Rowdy Tellez's mini-me.
It's time for Nutting to step up and authorize Cherrington to take concrete steps to fix the team that surrounds this excellent starting rotation.
The Pirates could make the playoffs this year. Yet I've already written off this season. Dumpster diving won't get it done. It has never gotten it done. We'll know how serious Nutting and Cherrington are by the kinds of players they sign or trade for, how forward looking these moves are, how risk adverse they act, how smart they appear to be.
Cherington had enough money to fill several positions of need. He failed to do so by signing Rowdy Tellez, Grandal, and tossing $10 million at Chapman. Tellez, Grandal, and Olivares or their equivalents could have been had off the waiver wire. In fact, the As just waived a 1Bman much better than Tellez. We were all yelling for him to acquire a couple decent players, rather than frittering away his budget on a bunch of junk. In addition to frittering away most of $30 million, he did not make a single trade of any import to fill positions-of-need.
Everyone knew that the Pirates had a chance to be competitive this year if things worked out with Skenes and some others. Even the Pirates thought that they might be competitive this year. The massive haul of garbage that GMBC brought in this off-season was his best effort to put together a competitive roster. Nutting did not put a gun to his head and make him bring in a bunch of garbage ballplayers. Cherington chose to do this. No amount of authorization from Nutting is going to turn GMBC into a decent GM. The guy should be teaching sports management at some joke New-England university and leave the actual job of running a baseball team to someone capable of doing it (preferably someone who never attended any of his jargon-filled seminars at university).
Yeah probably 20 of 30 managers in MLB right now could. Dairy Queen Derek is abysmal with the bullpen, his lineups are a joke and there are never any consequences for slop play either.
But those managers already have jobs. Jokes of a lineup are because of joke of a team. We have known for 5 years now that Hayes can't hit. Triolo and Suckwinski aren't major league players, Joe is a bench player at best it's pretty sad when the best catcher they've had over the 5+ years has been Stallings. Tired of the small market excuse. No reason that Nutting can't raise that payroll by 50-70 million on real major leaguers. Also wasting a roster spot on Taylor who is nothing more than a Sunday starter or late inning replacement. But go ahead and keep blaming the manager. You will be still doing that if and when they replace Shelton because they will still have crap players, Besides no one would want to manage for a team not committed to winning
Shelton has gotten the worst case out of the young guys on the team. Suwinski and Triolo were good last year. He saw Davis go backwards. He's a terrible coach for a team coming out of rebuild. I agree with your last point. No one but a nobody like Shelton would manage this team because Nutting and Cherington are loser morons. Not all nobodies stay nobodies though and some have talent. Derek doesn't.
Feels like there's a lot more off days built into the schedule, maybe due to the CBA, maybe due to the interleague play with all 29 teams. Start a week earlier in March, play a week later into October. Guys don't need as many days off in this era.
Any way they can trade Hayes? The guy just isn’t good and shedding his salary could help them sign someone who is actually good at some point. I also don’t love his attitude, he seems to sulk. Maybe I am wrong about the attitude but I just don’t really care to watch him play anymore.
They’d get pennies on the dollar for him right now. Im guessing he’s trying to work through back issues. I’m not sure how you lose that much exit velo and lateral mobility as quickly as he has. He’s not old, he hasn’t gained weight.
Domingo German 5 innings 1 hit 4 walks 7 k's today for Indy.
Burrows took a tentative step pitching for Bradenton.
gotta think long and hard about cashing in on Bailey Falters success in succession from this guy
Jones is the guy who gets us something in return, imo. Bubba + Falter maybe gets us Kjerstad from the O's. It'd still be an overpay for Baltimore according to BTV.
My dream: Take the 70s Lumber Company offense and give them Skenes, Jones, and Keller. That team would win 100+ games.
Or just add a sub-par bottom of the order to this team. As opposed to currently the sub-MLB bottom of the order.
Bednar to 15 day IL lol. Hits keep on coming.
You know when is a good time to rest 2 of only 4 guys on your entire roster who can actually get on base?
How about AFTER your GM goes out and acquires more players who can actually get on base
or when you are 10 games in first place.
I can’t remember a team that has had so, so many missed opportunities. We easily should, could have 5 more wins this year, and if you want to be greedy, could argue for 6, 7, or 8 more. We are good enough to be competitive now, but not good enough to win consistently. As someone else wrote below: pitching good enough to avoid losing streaks; bad offense to prevent winning streaks.
I haven't counted, but I believe the bullpen has already flushed away five to ten games if not more this season. Holderman's problems today are a "shit happens sometimes" case given his excellence this year. But, if the Pirates could hit a lick better than they have and if the bullpen had been the strength it was expected to be, the Pirates would now be in first place.
I find it too depressing to follow the off-season dumpster diving we are subjected to every year. So, I spare myself the aggravation. That said, Cherrington did cash in on some of his SP signees. Cutch is Cutch. But he gets an -F for everything else. It often seems like the plan is to hire MLers at dumpster dive prices. Cherrington departed from that plan when he spent $10M on Chapman. But what would the Pirates have spent if the team knew how the 2024 season would play out? We don't know, but it's clear the Pirates FO and ownership did not expect to contend in 2024. Had they expected to contend, what would they have done to augment the team's chances of winning in a uniformly weak division? I hope the 2923-4 off-season is not Cherrington's idea of giving it a real go. Rowdy is not totally useless now but it would have been better had Cherrington signed a starting firstbaseman, centerfielder and catcher who are not historically bad. We fans cheer when the these players inch past the Mendoza Line! That's pathetic. Even if one grants that Cherrington did not expect Skenes, Jones, Keller and Falter to be as good as they have been so far, Skenes and Jones being rookies, Keller being historically inconsistent, and Falter being a surprise, the organization should have had a plan to put in place players meant to provide offensive support for their starting pitchers. There is no evidence that such a plan existed or, if it did, it depended mostly on the internally developed position players who seemingly can't hit baseballs well. The story of the mid-teens contending Pirates ended when superior starting pitchers dominated a just good enough Pirates offense. The story of the mid-twenties teams will end before it achieves much of anything. The ending will be marked by: The development staff turned a generational hitting prospect into Rowdy Tellez's mini-me.
It's time for Nutting to step up and authorize Cherrington to take concrete steps to fix the team that surrounds this excellent starting rotation.
The Pirates could make the playoffs this year. Yet I've already written off this season. Dumpster diving won't get it done. It has never gotten it done. We'll know how serious Nutting and Cherrington are by the kinds of players they sign or trade for, how forward looking these moves are, how risk adverse they act, how smart they appear to be.
Cherington had enough money to fill several positions of need. He failed to do so by signing Rowdy Tellez, Grandal, and tossing $10 million at Chapman. Tellez, Grandal, and Olivares or their equivalents could have been had off the waiver wire. In fact, the As just waived a 1Bman much better than Tellez. We were all yelling for him to acquire a couple decent players, rather than frittering away his budget on a bunch of junk. In addition to frittering away most of $30 million, he did not make a single trade of any import to fill positions-of-need.
Everyone knew that the Pirates had a chance to be competitive this year if things worked out with Skenes and some others. Even the Pirates thought that they might be competitive this year. The massive haul of garbage that GMBC brought in this off-season was his best effort to put together a competitive roster. Nutting did not put a gun to his head and make him bring in a bunch of garbage ballplayers. Cherington chose to do this. No amount of authorization from Nutting is going to turn GMBC into a decent GM. The guy should be teaching sports management at some joke New-England university and leave the actual job of running a baseball team to someone capable of doing it (preferably someone who never attended any of his jargon-filled seminars at university).
Need a new coach, GM and owner.
14 runs in 6 games......that 2.3 is going to get you a 2-4 record every time, only because of our good SP.
Lower it. On you, Dairy Queen Derek.
Come on dude. Can you do a better job managing this pile of crap players? Can anyone? Place your blame where it belongs. Cherington & Nutting.
Yeah probably 20 of 30 managers in MLB right now could. Dairy Queen Derek is abysmal with the bullpen, his lineups are a joke and there are never any consequences for slop play either.
But those managers already have jobs. Jokes of a lineup are because of joke of a team. We have known for 5 years now that Hayes can't hit. Triolo and Suckwinski aren't major league players, Joe is a bench player at best it's pretty sad when the best catcher they've had over the 5+ years has been Stallings. Tired of the small market excuse. No reason that Nutting can't raise that payroll by 50-70 million on real major leaguers. Also wasting a roster spot on Taylor who is nothing more than a Sunday starter or late inning replacement. But go ahead and keep blaming the manager. You will be still doing that if and when they replace Shelton because they will still have crap players, Besides no one would want to manage for a team not committed to winning
Shelton has gotten the worst case out of the young guys on the team. Suwinski and Triolo were good last year. He saw Davis go backwards. He's a terrible coach for a team coming out of rebuild. I agree with your last point. No one but a nobody like Shelton would manage this team because Nutting and Cherington are loser morons. Not all nobodies stay nobodies though and some have talent. Derek doesn't.
I'd be pissed if I was Skenes
Wait, why is Cutch in RF?
Funny, I've thought that about nearly everybody they've had in RF since bumbling Ben became GM.
Another winnable game about to go down the tubes because bumbling Ben can't distinguish a hitter from a dandelion.
Not to mention Shelton sitting the flawed but at least passable hitters he's got aside from Reynolds.
B-b-but . . . it's SUNDAY!!
Feels like there's a lot more off days built into the schedule, maybe due to the CBA, maybe due to the interleague play with all 29 teams. Start a week earlier in March, play a week later into October. Guys don't need as many days off in this era.
Exactly!
Any way they can trade Hayes? The guy just isn’t good and shedding his salary could help them sign someone who is actually good at some point. I also don’t love his attitude, he seems to sulk. Maybe I am wrong about the attitude but I just don’t really care to watch him play anymore.
They’d get pennies on the dollar for him right now. Im guessing he’s trying to work through back issues. I’m not sure how you lose that much exit velo and lateral mobility as quickly as he has. He’s not old, he hasn’t gained weight.
No one seems to be talking about it yet, but his defensive numbers are really down this year. Troubling.
If you have the Hayes from the 2nd half last year, this year, this is a Wild Card team, with this Hayes, no…
I've been talking about his declining defense :)
That’s not a good sign.
And this is the third season of back troubles. He's cooked.
Back & hip issues for a player of his age isn’t good. It’s not like you can get surgery for arthritis.
maybe that triggers an insurance clause?
Not to mention he never consistently hit prior to the chronic injuries.
Ke'Ballerina Hayes. Why would any other team want him with that contract? He's a non-hitting late game defensive sub and the defense is declining.
I'm guessing the Pirates are leading the league in pissing away good starting pitching performances!
Bring back Nunnally. Pirate fans should go on strike and force Nutting's hand. Key looks awful.
He should get DFAd. His defense is just ok now, too, so he's a waste of money.
Ke'Groundout Hayes is a pathetic player.
Please call Jon Nunnnally. Please.
Shelton you dumbf*ck, you could have had Cutch and Gonzales in the game all game