115 Comments

Law's mock at The Athletic:

>9. Pittsburgh Pirates: Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M

Montgomery seemed to be cruising toward a top-five pick before he broke his ankle in the Super Regionals. Word is the injury isn’t a long-term issue, and he should go in the top 10 anyway, maybe still sneaking into the top five after all. I’ve heard the Pirates on James Tibbs III, Waldschmidt, Rainer, and Christian Moore as well.

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Saw two trades at BTV and wanted to see how making both would look:

1st for Taylor Ward (spot on by their model)

Harrington

Cheng

Forrester

2nd for Bleday (I had to sub out Harrington for the purpose of this convo)

Ashcraft

Burrows

Harrington subbed for Brannigan

Brayln Brazoban subbed for De Los Santos to make up for drop from Harrington to Brannigan

Would you all give up Ashcraft, Harrington, Cheng, Burrows, Brannigan, De Los Santos and Forrester for Bleday and Ward? I think I would but sort of only if I could get both guys. Connor Joe could be subbed for Brannigan or Burrows, roughly if you'd prefer.

I looked at Bleday's splits and Oakland has him batting 2nd and 3rd way too much.

I think we'd go:

Cutch

Reynolds

Cruz

Rowdy

Ward

Bleday

Nick

Bart

Hayes

Thoughts? Definitely some more OBP there. Losing Ashcraft and Harrington stings a bit but it lengthens the lineup for 2+ years.

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Vintage wet blanket loss. Who did not see this coming?

They can recover with a win tomorrow, but the roster problems keep asserting themselves, which is why we can’t win more than 2 games in a row.

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Help us Taylor Ward, you're our only plausibly affordable hope.

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107 pitches to get through 4.2 innings? So glad I missed this one. Woof.

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I would say that just about every time the Pirates score 5 or more runs the next game they usually lay an egg. So frustrating to follow this bunch.

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This umpire is consistently calling strikes outside of the zone. Milwaukee is swinging at pitches outside of the zone and getting hits. Pittsburgh is not swinging at pitches out of the zone, striking out and complaining about it.

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I would usually feel pretty good about a series win with Skenes on the mound but Civale 3 hit us last time and has had our number in the past

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Hayes is a problem.

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If you’re listening to the broadcast, they made it seem like Hoskins made an outstanding play and robbed him of a hit. In reality Hoskins made a play that an average first baseman should be able to make and Hayes hit yet another ball to the right side of the infield.

At the beginning of the season I remember watching an interview where Hayes said he had big expectations for himself this season. That certainly hasn’t been the case.

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Rhys Hoskins is so bad at 1B that the Brewers have been starting Bauer at 1B with his .662 career OPS over Hoskins for long stretches. Hoskins is not making any "spectacular" plays at first: not tonight; not ever.

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I had big expectations for him too. I thought he was primed to have a career year. 11 extra base hits from him on July 10th and diminished defense and I admit, sadly, I couldn’t have been more wrong. What the heck do they do with him? Can anyone help him figure out how to be an even league average hitter? Maybe not…

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I have to believe it has something to do with his back. Which begs the question: why is he playing at all?

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He had a solid start to the season with an OPS of .713 in March/April. He was horrific in May, also on the IL. and has been terrible ever since. Get him out of there. He has 4 extra base hits since the beginning of May. Allow me to repeat: our starting 3b has 4 extra base hit since the beginning of May!!!!

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He had a lot of luck early. He was still hitting groundballs at a prodigious rate, even in March-April.

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I don't think it's his back. I think part of it is lack of situational hitting ability,, and the major part remains that 4% launch angle, which I thought he fixed toward end of last season. He's still hitting the ball hard, just not in the air.

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Eh, lowest exit velocity of his career so not hitting the ball as hard as he was and yeah his launch angle dropped from 13 to 4 again. Lowest barrel% and bottom 7% of MLB xSLG. Lowest HardHit% of his career, too. Guy sounds cooked to me. Has-been with the bat who never-was. His sprint speed has dropped to within 2 mph of Rowdy's (26.4) whereas he used to run at a 78th percentile 28 ft/second.

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It’s the totality of the circumstances, everything you just listed, that leads me to believe his back is still an issue and he’s just trying to adjust in order to manage it. The decreased range, the lower hard hit rate, the adjusted swing angle, slower sprint speed, etc.

He said it himself when he came back from the IL. Which shouldn’t be the case. Shut him down if you have to till it’s figured out. They’ve been super cautious with literally everyone on the roster but him.

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Good thing that they only have him for 5 more years and only owe him $37 million more dollars. I'd give up a decent prospect just to have someone take that contract away.

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Rowdy with his spikes flaming has a stand up double!

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fwiw, the Uruguay/Colombia game has been ridiculously intense.

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Two teams that really want to win. Uruguayians take football as seriously as Argentines and expect to win international cups, despite the tiny size of the country. Tremendous pressure on that team: both from internal sources and external. Columbia just missed qualifying for the World Cup last time around, and they have a big chip on their shoulders. Over the past 5 or 6 years, they have been the toughest team that Argentina has played in Cup matches, outside of France in the finals: much tougher than Brazil.

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Who said "watch them get two hit tomorrow" during yesterday's thread? That person deserves a bonk

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Must've been somebody who's been following them for five years.

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Triolo is absolutely terrible at the plate.

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Unfortunately, Cherington is just fine with that.

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It's past time to end the Triolo Experience. It isn't working.

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Cruz has to stop sitting over stubbed toes and Hayes needs to retire so we can use his cash to sign a real 3B so Tri can be the defensive sub he's meant to be.

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i like him as a 26 man on the roster and utility infielder

but never to be a starter

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Too bad the same could be said for half the roster (including some of the guys in the bullpen).

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Another dud after a blow out…

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Great throw bart! Hes had a few recently

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