122 Comments

Palacios is apparently getting called up. I would imagine Suwinski goes down, but naturally that decision would be made after he has his first 3 hit game of the season, including a homer…

I’m not gonna argue he’s not deserving of a demotion, but still.

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I bet Olivares gets DFA'd

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Now looking like a change of plans. According to Alex Stumpf.

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Trade fell through or "Hey, Jack got some hits?!"

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Has to be Jack had a good game so they decided to hold up on. Which made me go through and delete a whole section in the morning rundown lol

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Makes sense. Whatever's most kneejerkiest for this crowd of ditherers.

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Ditherers

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Joe Block shared stat on the radio side tonight: The Pirates are something like 12 games over .500 when they score three runs, not three or more runs - just three runs. GMBC, go get a f****** bat.

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He's not going to

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Grandal on this team is a joke. How many times has he made a mistake that cost this team a run. It doesn't matter whether it cost us the game. It's just unacceptable from a veteran who's supposed to be a professional. Two catchers interference calls tonight. That's some serious horseshit. Then he makes up for it by providing zero offense. What value does he bring over Jason Delay? Move on.

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All you had to do was check his stats and statcast data the last two years to see his skills have totally deserted him. (His pop time is funny -- 1st percentile.) Any nitwit with internet could see that this was exactly how Grandal figured to turn out. But somehow bumbling Ben missed it.

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Ben wants to lose this year. Grandal and Shelton/Haines being around are proof.

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Yea I was a really big Grandal fan earlier in his career (liked watching him in college) but he was far from the player he used to be and all the numbers absolutely warned us, but they did it anyways.

Numbers aside, the fact that NO ONE signed him and he was available going into camp shoulda been a pretty clear sign

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Michael A Taylor says what?

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Yea you can basically copy and paste most of that for MAT as well. Only difference was MAT was coming off a career year that almost no one expected him to repeat.

Also didn't think he'd crater this hard though.

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Yeah i just wanted .650 ops out of him

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That's why I don't always buy into getting a veteran to help the young guys. I liked the Carlos Santana acquisition, but not too many others....... unless we want to count Cutch.

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It has to be the right one. Like someone who hasn't shown a clear decline in the previous couple of seasons like with Grandal

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I also think some veterans are used to losing and others have an attitude where they know what it takes to win. A George Springer type attitude would be a great leader, but as you say he is on the decline, not to mention his salary.

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On the plus side, Grasshoppers are abusing the Baltimore High A team

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Greensboro be like ‘McAdoo who?’

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McAwho?

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What was wrong with Keller today? I'm out of town on a roadtrip with the family.

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With the umpire continuing to give the pitchers 5 inches on each side of the plate Mitch kept missing middle middle. The grand slam came on a sweeper that ended op being over the heart of the plate, anywhere else Gorman strikes out. Burleson, Donovan, and Wynn are going to continue to do a lot of damage against us

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The grand slam came on a back door sweeper that barely caught the outside edge of the plate. Granted it was waist high, but it was an amazing piece of hitting much, much more than a bad pitch.

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IDK. He kept throwing strikes and they kept hitting them.

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At the Marauder game. Trailing 5-4 in the 6th, they brought in a position player to pitch. Must be running short. Odd thing is he has been the most effective so far.

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Another game for the "Jack Suwinski largely hits well in low leverage" file.

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Just hope this is what starts one of the streaks he tends to go on. I was 100% ready to call up Bae to replace him but he bought himself the Cardinal series with his performance tonight

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It seems reasonable to think he should get his season numbers closer to his career line between now and the end of the season.

The downside is that what we're likely learning is that Suwinski is a career .710 or .720 OPS guy rather than the .800-ish guy we saw last season. The upside is that maybe this is more like Reynolds' 2020 season -- the valley in his career trajectory.

TBH, there's a case for calling up Bae and sending Suwinski down. I want to see Bae in the majors again for a good stretch, anyhow. However, the bigger problem is just the general lack of OF depth in the minors.

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Suwinski is a completely different player now than he was his first 1 1/2 years. The transition started in July last season. He is swinging far more often and going outside his hot zone for pitches with less fastball hunting early in the count. He is also protecting the plate with 2 strikes far more (or trying to). He is less a pull hitter now than before.

When he started the switch last year, he was a terror. This year the opposite. I would give it some time: with the Pirates or in AAA. I don't think it matters. I think he will get going at some point and be a pretty solid OFer. He is just really struggling this season with the complete overhaul of his approach. Not as easy as he made it look last year. I still think he will be just fine... hopefully sooner... as in now.

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I don't see the logic in messing with a 2-WAR player on a rebuilding team that lacks OF depth, but that's me.

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I don't think it was anything that the Pirates did or Haines or anything except a decision by Suwinski. I watched it happen and noticed immediately. It happened during the Braves series in July last year. It looked to me like Suwinski was watching the Braves approach and decided to do like them: more or less.

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Priester with a good start tonight -- 5 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 Ks.

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Looks like Grandal is determined to lose the game single-handed.

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He's gotta knack for doing so.

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He has to go! Earlier I know the pirates had a really good record when he started but I’m guessing that has started to diminish! He has negative value on the field.

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Not just anybody can account for 5 outs in 3 at bats and give up a run on a strike by your own pitcher.

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I could. But at 59 with two bad hips, a bad back and a torn rotator cuff, I guess that proves your point.

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It'd be pretty hard to account for 5 outs in 3 at bats lol.

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Really abysmal work for the last month. There may be intangible value in having him taking up a roster spot, but the on field results have to easily outweigh any staff/clubhouse benefit. He gotta go.

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On pace for about -1.2 fWAR/400 PAs which is impressively bad

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I guess Shelton thought Ortiz is better used today. I can't stand Shelton, puts Ortiz in a position to fail.

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It seems like the Pirates are against throwing relievers multiple innings. I was wanting to see Mlodzinski get an extra inning the other night and for Fleming to keep going tonight.

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Except the guy we might need in a long situation the next 2 days lol.

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If there's a bad choice to be made, Shelton will find it

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Lets comeback and beat this nerds

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Way to go Cutch!

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Just so mystified by Jack this year. Good to see him get one.

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Good for Jack!

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Jack!!

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Cutch!!

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Grandal needs to learn how to throw the ball to the pitcher. He needs to be told to run out a potential double play. Meanwhile Jason Delay is back in Indianapolis...

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