In those days many baseball players had off-season jobs to support themselves and their families because professional baseball players were paid so poorly. Not sure if players were even paid if they could not perform. Arm hurt? Too bad. Tommy John surgery? Well, Tommy John did not even start pitching in MLB until 1963. His surgery was not performed until 1974, 50 years ago, and that surgery now bears his name and is part of the routine landscape of MLB.
Take Tommy John surgery out of the picture. My point is pre TJ there were way less injuries to all players in those days. Very few players were well built and muscular. All the modern weight training has led to more injuries for many reasons.
Never a good time for injuries, but with Perez already back, Gonzalez about another 2 or 3 appearances away, Ashcraft back and throwing 3 innings last night at AAA, and the ability to tap either Priester or Ortiz, I like the Pirates ability to continue to be very competitive. The Pirates wanted to tap the brakes on Jared Jones, and the unknown Lat pops up. He may have had one more start before the AS Break and this provides a nice 2 week break. Good possibility that Paul Skenes is going to be called to pitch in the AS Game - nice for him and MLB, but means the Pirates will have to make an additional adjustment to assure he will be able to pitch in the AS Game!
The Pirates hitting needs to improve. Suwinski has picked it up a little, but he was just one player who had declined. Hayes and Gonzales are also struggling. These are three guys we hoped would be strong contributors in the 5-7 slots in the order. Let's hope for better going into the Break!
OT - just saw that Raul Mondesi is headed for the big house. I’m guessing the statute of limitations has expired for that con he ran on Dave Littlefield so it must be for something else.
Didn’t get to see the Suwinski bases loaded AB live, but I did watch the replay of the 3-1 pitch, and all I have to say is WOW. That pitch would’ve been low in an 8-year old Little League game. Which is exactly where that Umpire should be calling games if he can’t do any better than that.
Defensive stats do not have the sample size that ABs do. Many putouts are routine, so really only the lower percentage putouts contribute to defensive stats. So it takes a large sample to glean anything of significance: a full season of fulltime play at least. I don't think Reynolds is below average in LF: just some statistical noise, produced by a number of lower percentage line drives and flyballs that he just missed this year. However, what can be determined with some certainty is that the Pirates' OF as a whole so far this year has not been good defensively.
Statcast thinks Reynolds' defensive decline is for real. His range is bottom of the league according to their metrics. I'm not sure what the deal is. His sprint speed is still fine.
Let’s go big. Garrett Crochet for Termarr Johnson, Henry Davis, and Quinn Priester—3 first rd picks. Crochet has 2 more years of control at surprisingly low salaries. Reminder that Endy Rodriguez will be back next yr. That would make a rotation of Skenes, Keller, Jones, Crochet, and X for the this year and 2 more. Who says no? Can CWS get more from someone else?
I agree that we do not give away bats, especially for a resource we are loaded with already. The Pirates with Keller, Jones, Skenes, Bubba, Harrington, and Barco - with Michael Kennedy and Zander Mueth coming through to back them up. At least a Top 5 Rotation in MLB now and for the future.
TJ is a resource on defense and offense, who can work a walk or hit for the river. Getting a kid who at 20 is very close to 1 Walk/1 K in Hi A is special. He needs to be in Altoona right now. If the CWS are smart, they do not trade Crochet at this point. See what the return is from the Robert, Jr trade to the Dodgers or the Mariners and then re-visit.
It'd be really nice to have a top of the rotation LHSP but Crochet isn't the guy I'd bet the farm on. Who knows how sustainable these RP to SP conversions are going to be longterm. I don't think Endy is going to be very good, unfortunately.
We can’t be giving up bats when we have so few. I especially say that considering that we aren’t sure whether this new offensive environment is going to be the norm moving forward.
Falter on 15 day and Brent Honeywell up
Baseball players are so fragile.
No shit! Obviously a different era but there were SO fewer DL stints 50-60 years ago.
In those days many baseball players had off-season jobs to support themselves and their families because professional baseball players were paid so poorly. Not sure if players were even paid if they could not perform. Arm hurt? Too bad. Tommy John surgery? Well, Tommy John did not even start pitching in MLB until 1963. His surgery was not performed until 1974, 50 years ago, and that surgery now bears his name and is part of the routine landscape of MLB.
Take Tommy John surgery out of the picture. My point is pre TJ there were way less injuries to all players in those days. Very few players were well built and muscular. All the modern weight training has led to more injuries for many reasons.
Never a good time for injuries, but with Perez already back, Gonzalez about another 2 or 3 appearances away, Ashcraft back and throwing 3 innings last night at AAA, and the ability to tap either Priester or Ortiz, I like the Pirates ability to continue to be very competitive. The Pirates wanted to tap the brakes on Jared Jones, and the unknown Lat pops up. He may have had one more start before the AS Break and this provides a nice 2 week break. Good possibility that Paul Skenes is going to be called to pitch in the AS Game - nice for him and MLB, but means the Pirates will have to make an additional adjustment to assure he will be able to pitch in the AS Game!
The Pirates hitting needs to improve. Suwinski has picked it up a little, but he was just one player who had declined. Hayes and Gonzales are also struggling. These are three guys we hoped would be strong contributors in the 5-7 slots in the order. Let's hope for better going into the Break!
OT - just saw that Raul Mondesi is headed for the big house. I’m guessing the statute of limitations has expired for that con he ran on Dave Littlefield so it must be for something else.
Didn’t get to see the Suwinski bases loaded AB live, but I did watch the replay of the 3-1 pitch, and all I have to say is WOW. That pitch would’ve been low in an 8-year old Little League game. Which is exactly where that Umpire should be calling games if he can’t do any better than that.
How did our outfield defense get so bad? How did Reynolds go from a good defensive outfielder to a below average one, at least according to Fangraphs?
Defensive stats do not have the sample size that ABs do. Many putouts are routine, so really only the lower percentage putouts contribute to defensive stats. So it takes a large sample to glean anything of significance: a full season of fulltime play at least. I don't think Reynolds is below average in LF: just some statistical noise, produced by a number of lower percentage line drives and flyballs that he just missed this year. However, what can be determined with some certainty is that the Pirates' OF as a whole so far this year has not been good defensively.
Statcast thinks Reynolds' defensive decline is for real. His range is bottom of the league according to their metrics. I'm not sure what the deal is. His sprint speed is still fine.
Here's Outs Above Average
Year # Rank
2019 2 54th in MLB
2020 2 19th in MLB
2021 11 6th in MLB
2022 -7 218th in MLB
2023 -4 197th in MLB
2024 -9 168th in MLB
Might have to do with playing LF in PNC and the north side notch. Lots of guys look bad in LF at PNC.
Let’s go big. Garrett Crochet for Termarr Johnson, Henry Davis, and Quinn Priester—3 first rd picks. Crochet has 2 more years of control at surprisingly low salaries. Reminder that Endy Rodriguez will be back next yr. That would make a rotation of Skenes, Keller, Jones, Crochet, and X for the this year and 2 more. Who says no? Can CWS get more from someone else?
That wouldn’t even come close to doing it. He has more value than Keller and I’m sure you wouldn’t take that package for Keller.
Yeah take that package and add Bubba to it and you're right there.
We need hitting my friend!
I'd do that if they "threw" in Luis Robert. ;) He's not having a great start but still is better than 2 of our starting outfielders.
No thanks. Reminder, Endy hasn't proved he can hit in the big leagues yet.
I agree that we do not give away bats, especially for a resource we are loaded with already. The Pirates with Keller, Jones, Skenes, Bubba, Harrington, and Barco - with Michael Kennedy and Zander Mueth coming through to back them up. At least a Top 5 Rotation in MLB now and for the future.
TJ is a resource on defense and offense, who can work a walk or hit for the river. Getting a kid who at 20 is very close to 1 Walk/1 K in Hi A is special. He needs to be in Altoona right now. If the CWS are smart, they do not trade Crochet at this point. See what the return is from the Robert, Jr trade to the Dodgers or the Mariners and then re-visit.
It'd be really nice to have a top of the rotation LHSP but Crochet isn't the guy I'd bet the farm on. Who knows how sustainable these RP to SP conversions are going to be longterm. I don't think Endy is going to be very good, unfortunately.
We can’t be giving up bats when we have so few. I especially say that considering that we aren’t sure whether this new offensive environment is going to be the norm moving forward.