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MWT's avatar

Gorski and Burrows now with the team. BC must’ve read this article

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Docdon385's avatar

Yet Suwinski and Canario remain in Pittsburgh mainly sitting on the bench, where they belong. Cherington’s analytics are killing the Pirates.

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StatsCbl's avatar

I've seen Gorski play about as much as anyone and the guy brings it every game. Except for the high-rate swing and miss, he is about as smooth as you are going to find for his size. Since position players on a roster have dropped to 13 a few years, Gorski-type players have been replaced on rosters by utility players. I am pulling for the guy.

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Mel Schuster - emjayinTN's avatar

Not seeing him brought up last year was sort of a kiss of death for a 26 year old who had good numbers. He is now in his age 27 year, and there is no room at the Inn - Pham, Cruz, Reynolds, Cutch, Valdez and Suwinski (doubt he will stay much longer). Valdez is one of the utility guys you referenced who plays 2B and LF, and has hit for the Pirates, so I see him staying short term.

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StatsCbl's avatar

I think it will take one or two guys to go the 60 day IL for either Solak or Gorski to get called up.

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Nelson Walters's avatar

Pirates are already five games below 500, why not cut Pham and bring up Gorski who also gives a rt handed first base option?

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Mel Schuster - emjayinTN's avatar

Could be an expensive venture by the Pirates. Unless traded, I cannot see how the Pirates get out from under the remainder of his $4 mil contract.

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Nelson Walters's avatar

But is keeping Pham best for the team? Or should they find out if Gorski can hit the major leagues?? They aren’t adding payroll - just admitting Pham was a poor hire.

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WTM's avatar

The sunk cost fallacy is a way of life for the Cheringtons.

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Mel Schuster - emjayinTN's avatar

Hey, we screwed up! Nope, just not in their vocabulary. That's the quick and dirty, but the fact is that it is way too soon to get off Tommy Pham. He had his ups and downs with other teams, but overall he is a true professional. Sometimes when so much is expected it just tends to overwhelm - he may just surprise us. No, he and Frazier have not yet helped, but our options are very limited.

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WTM's avatar

This is just sunk cost fallacy stuff. Even worse, it meets the definition of insanity. We get all these rationalizations for clinging to Birdbrain's disastrous signings every. single. year. And every single year the only thing waiting accomplishes is the team loses more games while they're waiting.

In Pham's case it's even more indefensible than usual. He's literally been in decline for five years. At 37, there was virtually no chance the decline wouldn't continue. Even worse, there was a significant chance that he'd completely collapse. Every shred of evidence we have -- both the actual results that Birdbrain thinks are totally unimportant and the underlying data -- suggest that the collapse is happening. And Pham has no upside. Best case is he just sucks as opposed to however you characterize the comedy act he's perpetrating now.

And it doesn't matter whether the options are limited. This is always one of the key pillars of the sunk cost fallacy. First of all, that's not true. There's Yorke, Gorski and Cook. Second of all, it doesn't matter if they all suck. Even if there's only a 1% chance of one of them doing anything, it's still a better play than Pham. Likely failure > established failure.

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Mel Schuster - emjayinTN's avatar

And the remainder of the $4 mil? If that "sunk cost fallacy" means that BC is going to fall on his sword, he'll be the first GM to do so. It will play out as long as Pham is able to take the field.

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