Yeah... I'm not sure accumulating more WAR than Oliveras will be some great developmental achievement. Although, if the Pirates used him right, Oliveras could be useful as a part-time player.
Galaxy Brain Cherington: temporarily lose players for long enough to develop under the acquiring team only to get them back before the dividends start returning
AJ Graham was released. He ended up playing 15 games over three seasons. Remember when he was drafted and no one could find any real info about him? It was a strange pick then and ended up working out about as well as you would expect from a completely unknown high school player
Two OF, a DH, and Joe playing some at 1B. I’m higher on Olivares and lower on Palacios—having him as the 27th man. Welcome back CSN! If there’s an injury or two, maybe he has a shot?!
While CSN is not the first player to go through this dfa/claim/dfa/reclaim cycle Pirate management seems a bit too dysfunctional to field a winning team.
Anthony: A little more information on Nashville being considered for an MLB Franchise. There is an active Nashville group "Music City Baseball" pursuing a new franchise should MLB decide to expand to 32 teams - 4 divisions of 4 teams each in the National and American Leagues. Evidently Manfred has mentioned Nashville when the subject of expansion comes up. Dave Stewart is mentioned as the leader of the Music City Baseball group.
Right now they are looking at some property North of the city around where Tennessee State University and 3 other HBCU's are located. My hope would be that they look at an area North, but closer to Goodlettsville/Hendersonville which has major highways I-40, I-65, I-24 and Briley Parkway feeding that area, and it would be closer to the Airport, to the Gaylord Opryland Resort, the Grand Ole Opry, Opry Mills Shopping area, and John A's Restaurant and Bar which I have been known to frequent when visiting.
As a Tennessean, though about 3 hours from Nashville, my hope would be that they'd be the money-spending team to root for, preferably playing in the AL.
I lived in the Los Angeles area now longer that I’ve lived anywhere else, so this is home, and when I was at my lowest point of being a Pirates’ fan the thought of rooting for the home team crossed my mind, but I can’t. Tell you this much, my seven year old son is not gonna be a Pirates’s fan. I want him to do better than me!
My daughters are Pirates fans but not in any serious way--they've seen the turmoil the Pirates have put me through.
I don't think I could adopt another current team, even as a second team. I do wonder, though, that if an expansion team came to Nashville whether I could get on board with them as a second team. It would be kind of fun to be in on a team from day one.
Four divisions of four teams is asking for chaos. You’ll inevitably end up with teams from lesser divisions making the playoffs over teams in a tougher division getting left out.
Expand, go to two divisions per league, eight teams apiece.
Works perfectly. Then you can have 4 Wild Card teams but the two division winners get a bye. That is how I set up MLB after I expanded by two teams (one the Nashville Stars, which is what they intend to call the team) in my OOTPB game.
So 8 teams per league in the postseason with four division winners and four wild cards? Why even play a regular season then if so many teams make the playoffs? MLB has consistently had issues with the six division format as is, with dead fish divisions like the AL Central poaching playoff spots with inferior records.
I’m not saying a two division format only falls for two division winners to make the playoffs. We’re way past that with the amount of teams out there. I put this theory on PP so I may as well put it here. We’ll use the NL, 2023 records as an example:
Clemente Division: Atlanta, Philly, Miami, New York, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.
Division winners, Atlanta and LA. Next four: Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Miami, Arizona.
The playoff gauntlet shakes out like this: Arizona would go to Miami for a one game, winner take all. Winner moves on to Philly for a two of three. Winner moves on with all games best of seven. At most this takes four days, and gets an assist by reducing the regular season to 156 games.
No. Two divisions in each league. 8 teams in each division. Two division winners out of the 8-team divisions and 4 wild cards from each league make the playoffs. So 6 teams of the 16 in each league make the playoffs, but the division champs get a bye, and don't have to play in the wild card round. The 4 wild cards in each league play a 3-game wild card round... the 2 winners of the wild card series advance to play the division champs. I don't like 4 wild cards per league, but that is the direction that baseball has moved. So I tried to stay authentic to that.
The real question is where will the 2nd expansion team go? I researched it, and the most likely place is in North Carolina. However, I think baseball, if they are smart, will go in a different direction. Mexico City is too far away and too high elevation, but moving toward Mexico and Latin America would be the smart play. So I set up the 2nd team in San Antonio (even though the movers and shakers there are not convinced that a baseball team is a good idea) with a minor league system in which most of the teams are in northern Mexico and play in the Arizona Complex League, the California League, the Texas League, and the Pacific Coast League. San Antonio is kind of a small market though, but with a Mexican minor league system, I suspect the fanbase would exceed the geographic region. I took control of the San Antonio team.
Two divisions with eight teams each would be perfect. For one, it brings to mind the old AL and NL from the first half-century+ of the "modern" era when you had to bat out seven other teams to win something. For two, simply having an East and West harks back to the 60's-90's. Use the wisdom of the past, even though those were six-team divisions. Four divisions of four would be a bad move, which probably means that's what they'll do.
I’d prefer a Memphis team for a good reason to do an annual baseball/BBQ weekend with some Beale Street blues mixed in (18yrs since my son graduated Rhodes and I still miss our trips down there).
Four divisions, name them after icons in the game: Ichiro, Ruth, Robinson, Clemente. Reduce the schedule to 156, so the Bucs would play 7 division foes 12 times (84). A three game home and home with the other division in the league (48 games) and a three game series against one division in the other league (24 games), alternating divisions in the other league by year.
I think it worked better back then because there were no wild cards. If you have 2 divisions of 8 with 4 wild cards, there is almost no reason for divisions at all (because you will almost always have the teams with the best 6 records make it.
Your suggestion is the most fair, assuming there are wild card teams. As unfair as it is, I prefer a more unfair method of 3 or 4 divisions because I am one of the few fans left that check daily standings. When NBA had 8 teams making it from each league, there was little reason to scoreboard watch. I don't want the MLB season to be as meaningless as the NBA.
I assume there would still be seven playoff teams, so five wildcards. But you'd give the two division winners a bye, and could even further reward them by making their first round a best-of-seven with them hosting 5 of the 7. Or keep it best of five, but the division winners start the series with one win. I'm all for greatly incentivizing winning a division when the divisions are larger.
As for the five wildcards, I think you would need a "play-in" game between the 6th and 7th seeds, then the best of 3 series like this year where the higher seed hosts all three games so that the division winners are only off 4-5 days before playing.
It’s 7:42 AM on 2/20/24, and many of the top FA’s have yet to sign. Seems like Owners/GM’s and Players/Agents are playing a high stakes game of chicken.
Maybe more and more Owners are unwilling to give in to Players/Agents demands for 5+ year deals after seeing how things have transpired with Angels and Rendon? They don’t want to be the next sucker to be fooled by a player who has lost his love for the game after being paid.
Those same owners set a record for most free agent money ever spent literally just last year and the reigning World Series Champions won from spending on the exact kind of contracts you claim owners increasingly fear.
FA spending is cyclical, but that won't stop everyone from applying their pet theories to the moment.
Their best two players were FA signings and two of their better pitchers were FA. Nowhere near the best April-September team, ok. But they looked like a playoff team virtually all year and that’s what matters.
I mean, their four best players were FA. It’s not a reach at all. And who won WS MVP?
You are right in that every FA class is different. The remaining players have warts. But if any had to take pillow contracts, the Pirates should be in on them.
Teams are increasingly unwilling to pay for past performance, particularly when the projection systems project a step back from what were career years in the cases of Snell and Bellinger. The thought on a lot of these deals for guys in their early 30’s was that you get 2-4 good years up front in your window of contention, then you eat the last few years. But, as we are seeing so frequently, sometimes teams aren’t even getting 1 good year out of these contracts, like with the Rockies and Kris Bryant. In the case of Rendon the Angels got 1 OK year (for the price).
There’s nothing to really back this up, but Snell appears to be a stuff over feel pitcher. And once the stuff goes……
As for FA, maybe that’s the case with some teams being unwilling to pay. They apparently weren’t paying attention to the team who won the WS, largely on the backs of FA. Nothing to be learned by that, right?
I think there’s certain types of players where you’re a little more willing to take the risk of decline. Seager is one, and that may have been who you had in mind with the WS comment. I wouldn’t be willing to take risk with a lot of the guys left though. Chapmans value is largely in his glove and the platoon splits are awful. Hard pass. Agree on Snell. Bellinger was a fluke last year IMO. Montgomery is the one guy I’d consider for a longer term deal if I was a mid-market team or above.
Bellinger feels like a fluke (much higher xwOBA than wOBA) to some degree. But, he cut his K rate in half and that xwOBA is in line with what he put up in 2018 which is still a 3-4 win player. He’s not as good as he looked in 23, but I think he’s better than he was in 21/22 for sure.
Snell? Nope on five and dive guys. Agreed on Montgomery.
Chapman’s splits are only that stark in 23. He hit 23 of his 27 homers off righties in 2022. Still, there’s a lot of that value in his glove and power and that’s it. I worry about those guys aging.
For all of these guys, it depends on the length and where I am on the win spectrum. If I’m Cincy, Chicago or Baltimore, I’d go hard after Montgomery.
I mean, I’d go with any of them on a shorter term deal. We should be looking into any of them on short term high AAV deals. Opt outs and all. I’d be leery of anything longer than 3 years except for Montgomery though.
There were 8 teams hit with CBT (luxury tax) last season. That's keeping these guys unsigned too. Just hoping NL Central teams aren't pursuing Snell and Montgomery.
As far as the big names, I think you are right as far as the game of chicken example. For the back-up players I think it might be the result of two things 1) the trickle down effect of mlb cutting down from which I believe was 180 guys in an organization. 2) Teams wanted to wait until they could put players on the 60 day IL (to open up spots). Some of the part-time players have been getting signed this week and I think we will see more of those quickly. I have no idea about guys like Bellinger and Snell.
I'd do that even with an opt-out, preferably after year two. I wouldn't like the thought of Snell (or, say, Montgomery) opting out but it would guarantee that they'd stay focused.
And IF (big if incoming) you trust our developmental pipeline of arms coming up, then you could argue that money could be smartly redistributed even if they did opt out after shoving for 2 years or something. Performance based player opt outs are huge imo
Nah, he's got the cutter Murphy described, but also the fastball shape for swing and miss. Granted that shaped is precluded on maintaining his velocity deeper into games. Other secondaries still need some refining, but he also doesn't even turn 20 till 4/20
Glad to see the Pirates take advantage of the situation to bring CSN back into the fold. A lot of MLB players "tanked" in their first exposures to the "Show", and the experience should help him mature as a ballplayer.
With very little background, Thomas Harrington has come a long way from "walking on" at Campbell University and in only 2 years becoming the Pitcher of the Year in the Big South Conference and a 3rd Team All American SP. With 3 "almost" Plus pitches (FB, SL, CH) to go along with a Curve as a 4th pitch, he has the mental approach to make it all work. Should start at AA and I would not be surprised if he finished the year at AAA or beyond
Harrington seemingly has the mental makeup to excel. Suppose we’ll find out this year if he has the physical stuff to make it. Rooting for the kid to do it.
I'm high on Harrington because when you read about him, the first thing that comes up is essentially his aptitude for pitching. For most of our other top prospects, the first thing that comes up is their arm strength or stuff. It seems like the latter group is much more likely to bust even if they might have more upside (though in this case, from I've read about Harrington's changeup, he has a lot of upside too).
Harrington, Solo, Skenes and even Kennedy, Barco and Shim seem to have the aptitude for pitching. We definitely have some talent from the upper minors to A ball.
A couple other guys could end up with those guys but they all seem to have very substantial floors. With any uptick in Harrington's stuff, he'll jump right up there if not pass some of the others.
Fitting combination of topics as Canaan himself is a former Longenhagen Pick to Click, class of 2020.
CSN didn’t waste any time. He’s already here.
Would love if he just raked and forced his way on the roster
I think he did that last year and was the OD RF'er.
I realize how flawed my comment is and i retract lol
Nothing like spring training stats.
Kevin Newman hitting .700!!!
If he ends the season with more WAR than Oliveras, it will be a striking indictment of the Cherington regime that will result in.... nothing.
If CSN ends up with more WAR than Oliveras it wil indicate a massive development win given how abysmal he was last year.
Take a gift when you get it!
Well, what if it’s -0.4 WAR vs. -0.2 WAR?
lol, then we all lose
Yeah... I'm not sure accumulating more WAR than Oliveras will be some great developmental achievement. Although, if the Pirates used him right, Oliveras could be useful as a part-time player.
Or that a couple a days under the Mariners development staff unlocked something the pirates didn't do in years. More of a joke than being serious.
Your looking at it the right way though.
Galaxy Brain Cherington: temporarily lose players for long enough to develop under the acquiring team only to get them back before the dividends start returning
AJ Graham was released. He ended up playing 15 games over three seasons. Remember when he was drafted and no one could find any real info about him? It was a strange pick then and ended up working out about as well as you would expect from a completely unknown high school player
Back when I was still optimistic about this regime's ability to find and develop hidden gems.
He was hardly ever healthy. Altogether weird.
A relative of a friend of a friend of a friend - probably Moonlight!
Outfielders
Bryan Reynolds……….100%
Andrew McCutchen…100%
Jack Suwinski………….100%
Connor Joe……………..100%
Edward Olivares………..90%
Josh Palacios…………….40%
Canaan Smith-Njigba….5%
Billy McKinney…………….0%
Giberto Celestino………..0%
Matt Gorski…………………0%
.
Two OF, a DH, and Joe playing some at 1B. I’m higher on Olivares and lower on Palacios—having him as the 27th man. Welcome back CSN! If there’s an injury or two, maybe he has a shot?!
This list isn’t complete without a certain Catcher who was drafted 1-1. Not to mention any number of MI’s, too.
So add tony sanchez??
Haha…well played
While CSN is not the first player to go through this dfa/claim/dfa/reclaim cycle Pirate management seems a bit too dysfunctional to field a winning team.
Anthony: A little more information on Nashville being considered for an MLB Franchise. There is an active Nashville group "Music City Baseball" pursuing a new franchise should MLB decide to expand to 32 teams - 4 divisions of 4 teams each in the National and American Leagues. Evidently Manfred has mentioned Nashville when the subject of expansion comes up. Dave Stewart is mentioned as the leader of the Music City Baseball group.
Right now they are looking at some property North of the city around where Tennessee State University and 3 other HBCU's are located. My hope would be that they look at an area North, but closer to Goodlettsville/Hendersonville which has major highways I-40, I-65, I-24 and Briley Parkway feeding that area, and it would be closer to the Airport, to the Gaylord Opryland Resort, the Grand Ole Opry, Opry Mills Shopping area, and John A's Restaurant and Bar which I have been known to frequent when visiting.
Are you looking to jump ship? You better not!
As a Tennessean, though about 3 hours from Nashville, my hope would be that they'd be the money-spending team to root for, preferably playing in the AL.
I lived in the Los Angeles area now longer that I’ve lived anywhere else, so this is home, and when I was at my lowest point of being a Pirates’ fan the thought of rooting for the home team crossed my mind, but I can’t. Tell you this much, my seven year old son is not gonna be a Pirates’s fan. I want him to do better than me!
My daughters are Pirates fans but not in any serious way--they've seen the turmoil the Pirates have put me through.
I don't think I could adopt another current team, even as a second team. I do wonder, though, that if an expansion team came to Nashville whether I could get on board with them as a second team. It would be kind of fun to be in on a team from day one.
Four divisions of four teams is asking for chaos. You’ll inevitably end up with teams from lesser divisions making the playoffs over teams in a tougher division getting left out.
Expand, go to two divisions per league, eight teams apiece.
Works perfectly. Then you can have 4 Wild Card teams but the two division winners get a bye. That is how I set up MLB after I expanded by two teams (one the Nashville Stars, which is what they intend to call the team) in my OOTPB game.
So 8 teams per league in the postseason with four division winners and four wild cards? Why even play a regular season then if so many teams make the playoffs? MLB has consistently had issues with the six division format as is, with dead fish divisions like the AL Central poaching playoff spots with inferior records.
I’m not saying a two division format only falls for two division winners to make the playoffs. We’re way past that with the amount of teams out there. I put this theory on PP so I may as well put it here. We’ll use the NL, 2023 records as an example:
Clemente Division: Atlanta, Philly, Miami, New York, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.
Robinson Division: LA, SF, SD, Arizona, Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago.
Division winners, Atlanta and LA. Next four: Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Miami, Arizona.
The playoff gauntlet shakes out like this: Arizona would go to Miami for a one game, winner take all. Winner moves on to Philly for a two of three. Winner moves on with all games best of seven. At most this takes four days, and gets an assist by reducing the regular season to 156 games.
No. Two divisions in each league. 8 teams in each division. Two division winners out of the 8-team divisions and 4 wild cards from each league make the playoffs. So 6 teams of the 16 in each league make the playoffs, but the division champs get a bye, and don't have to play in the wild card round. The 4 wild cards in each league play a 3-game wild card round... the 2 winners of the wild card series advance to play the division champs. I don't like 4 wild cards per league, but that is the direction that baseball has moved. So I tried to stay authentic to that.
Ah ok. I think we’re in the same time zone with those ideas!
The real question is where will the 2nd expansion team go? I researched it, and the most likely place is in North Carolina. However, I think baseball, if they are smart, will go in a different direction. Mexico City is too far away and too high elevation, but moving toward Mexico and Latin America would be the smart play. So I set up the 2nd team in San Antonio (even though the movers and shakers there are not convinced that a baseball team is a good idea) with a minor league system in which most of the teams are in northern Mexico and play in the Arizona Complex League, the California League, the Texas League, and the Pacific Coast League. San Antonio is kind of a small market though, but with a Mexican minor league system, I suspect the fanbase would exceed the geographic region. I took control of the San Antonio team.
Two divisions with eight teams each would be perfect. For one, it brings to mind the old AL and NL from the first half-century+ of the "modern" era when you had to bat out seven other teams to win something. For two, simply having an East and West harks back to the 60's-90's. Use the wisdom of the past, even though those were six-team divisions. Four divisions of four would be a bad move, which probably means that's what they'll do.
I’d prefer a Memphis team for a good reason to do an annual baseball/BBQ weekend with some Beale Street blues mixed in (18yrs since my son graduated Rhodes and I still miss our trips down there).
I have a kid at Rhodes! It's a neat city, even with the challenges it faces.
I recall! It’s why I responded to you specifically. :-)
Four divisions, name them after icons in the game: Ichiro, Ruth, Robinson, Clemente. Reduce the schedule to 156, so the Bucs would play 7 division foes 12 times (84). A three game home and home with the other division in the league (48 games) and a three game series against one division in the other league (24 games), alternating divisions in the other league by year.
I think it worked better back then because there were no wild cards. If you have 2 divisions of 8 with 4 wild cards, there is almost no reason for divisions at all (because you will almost always have the teams with the best 6 records make it.
That’s the point. The teams with the best records should make it, not having a bunch of divisions so inferior teams make the playoffs.
Your suggestion is the most fair, assuming there are wild card teams. As unfair as it is, I prefer a more unfair method of 3 or 4 divisions because I am one of the few fans left that check daily standings. When NBA had 8 teams making it from each league, there was little reason to scoreboard watch. I don't want the MLB season to be as meaningless as the NBA.
I assume there would still be seven playoff teams, so five wildcards. But you'd give the two division winners a bye, and could even further reward them by making their first round a best-of-seven with them hosting 5 of the 7. Or keep it best of five, but the division winners start the series with one win. I'm all for greatly incentivizing winning a division when the divisions are larger.
As for the five wildcards, I think you would need a "play-in" game between the 6th and 7th seeds, then the best of 3 series like this year where the higher seed hosts all three games so that the division winners are only off 4-5 days before playing.
Yeah that’s where my head goes. There needs to be more of a reward for being the best team over 150-160 games, rather than one extra home game.
Completely something that came with the info on the "Music City Baseball" org.
knowing the system I think we could have had a couple more Picks to Click. Michael Kennedy, Lonnie Smith and Tsung-Che Cheng etc
Could have, but many more systems have similar type picks to click. We really only know our own.
Assuming this is lonnie white! But would love if all of these hit for sure
If we’re lucky, he’ll have Smith’s career!
It’s 7:42 AM on 2/20/24, and many of the top FA’s have yet to sign. Seems like Owners/GM’s and Players/Agents are playing a high stakes game of chicken.
Maybe more and more Owners are unwilling to give in to Players/Agents demands for 5+ year deals after seeing how things have transpired with Angels and Rendon? They don’t want to be the next sucker to be fooled by a player who has lost his love for the game after being paid.
Those same owners set a record for most free agent money ever spent literally just last year and the reigning World Series Champions won from spending on the exact kind of contracts you claim owners increasingly fear.
FA spending is cyclical, but that won't stop everyone from applying their pet theories to the moment.
First, Texas won the WS because they had the best October, but nowhere near the best April-September.
Second, don’t downgrade Evan Carter. We all know he was the key contributor who put the Rangers over the top.
Third, and last, let’s have a gentleman’s agreement this year to agree with each other’s bullshit, even if it doesn’t stand up to close examination.
Their best two players were FA signings and two of their better pitchers were FA. Nowhere near the best April-September team, ok. But they looked like a playoff team virtually all year and that’s what matters.
I think we can agree that FA is a key component in roster construction, and this year appears different than last year with regard to FA.
But if you’re selling that FA is THE reason Rangers won the WS, I see that as an overreach.
I mean, their four best players were FA. It’s not a reach at all. And who won WS MVP?
You are right in that every FA class is different. The remaining players have warts. But if any had to take pillow contracts, the Pirates should be in on them.
I'll counter with a friendship agreement to jag each other for their bullshit even when we agree. ;)
Another example: Philly, who lost the WS and made the NLCS. Harper, Wheeler, Turner, Schwarbs…all FA.
Rosenthal has a good article out about how team seem to be countering Boras's "strategies" he's been using over the years.
Teams are increasingly unwilling to pay for past performance, particularly when the projection systems project a step back from what were career years in the cases of Snell and Bellinger. The thought on a lot of these deals for guys in their early 30’s was that you get 2-4 good years up front in your window of contention, then you eat the last few years. But, as we are seeing so frequently, sometimes teams aren’t even getting 1 good year out of these contracts, like with the Rockies and Kris Bryant. In the case of Rendon the Angels got 1 OK year (for the price).
There’s nothing to really back this up, but Snell appears to be a stuff over feel pitcher. And once the stuff goes……
As for FA, maybe that’s the case with some teams being unwilling to pay. They apparently weren’t paying attention to the team who won the WS, largely on the backs of FA. Nothing to be learned by that, right?
I think there’s certain types of players where you’re a little more willing to take the risk of decline. Seager is one, and that may have been who you had in mind with the WS comment. I wouldn’t be willing to take risk with a lot of the guys left though. Chapmans value is largely in his glove and the platoon splits are awful. Hard pass. Agree on Snell. Bellinger was a fluke last year IMO. Montgomery is the one guy I’d consider for a longer term deal if I was a mid-market team or above.
Bellinger feels like a fluke (much higher xwOBA than wOBA) to some degree. But, he cut his K rate in half and that xwOBA is in line with what he put up in 2018 which is still a 3-4 win player. He’s not as good as he looked in 23, but I think he’s better than he was in 21/22 for sure.
Snell? Nope on five and dive guys. Agreed on Montgomery.
Chapman’s splits are only that stark in 23. He hit 23 of his 27 homers off righties in 2022. Still, there’s a lot of that value in his glove and power and that’s it. I worry about those guys aging.
For all of these guys, it depends on the length and where I am on the win spectrum. If I’m Cincy, Chicago or Baltimore, I’d go hard after Montgomery.
I mean, I’d go with any of them on a shorter term deal. We should be looking into any of them on short term high AAV deals. Opt outs and all. I’d be leery of anything longer than 3 years except for Montgomery though.
There were 8 teams hit with CBT (luxury tax) last season. That's keeping these guys unsigned too. Just hoping NL Central teams aren't pursuing Snell and Montgomery.
As far as the big names, I think you are right as far as the game of chicken example. For the back-up players I think it might be the result of two things 1) the trickle down effect of mlb cutting down from which I believe was 180 guys in an organization. 2) Teams wanted to wait until they could put players on the 60 day IL (to open up spots). Some of the part-time players have been getting signed this week and I think we will see more of those quickly. I have no idea about guys like Bellinger and Snell.
The free agents that are left have a bunch of question marks attached to them. Seems to me the asking prices don’t justify their talents...
Snell- velo and control not best, plus health concerns asking for ace money
Bellinger- one good year after two pathetic years at the plate
Montgomery- seems like he is looking for ace money when he is more of a mid rotation arm plus a TJ surgery already
Chapman- can barely hit his weight
Lorenzen- fell off a cliff in the second half
Dodgers didn’t get that memo!
Yeah they did, they just filed it away in the Accounts Payable file.
If only we would be willing to 3/105 for snell
I'd do that even with an opt-out, preferably after year two. I wouldn't like the thought of Snell (or, say, Montgomery) opting out but it would guarantee that they'd stay focused.
And IF (big if incoming) you trust our developmental pipeline of arms coming up, then you could argue that money could be smartly redistributed even if they did opt out after shoving for 2 years or something. Performance based player opt outs are huge imo
If I were BN , I’d do that deal in a minute, and probably be willing to throw in a couple player opt outs in, too.
Ercol. I love it!
Sounds intriguing, as long as this is not a replay of "Quinn can hit upper 90's analysis"
Nah, he's got the cutter Murphy described, but also the fastball shape for swing and miss. Granted that shaped is precluded on maintaining his velocity deeper into games. Other secondaries still need some refining, but he also doesn't even turn 20 till 4/20
Don’t call him Erkel.
Should we say it more like Er-call?
More like a Spanish broadcast —
Al - ess - AN - dro!!
I just wanna post meme's of, "Did I dooooo that???" When he K's 10 in 6 IP
I can see it now. ERRRRRRRRRRCCCCCCCCCCCC
Glad to see the Pirates take advantage of the situation to bring CSN back into the fold. A lot of MLB players "tanked" in their first exposures to the "Show", and the experience should help him mature as a ballplayer.
With very little background, Thomas Harrington has come a long way from "walking on" at Campbell University and in only 2 years becoming the Pitcher of the Year in the Big South Conference and a 3rd Team All American SP. With 3 "almost" Plus pitches (FB, SL, CH) to go along with a Curve as a 4th pitch, he has the mental approach to make it all work. Should start at AA and I would not be surprised if he finished the year at AAA or beyond
Harrington seemingly has the mental makeup to excel. Suppose we’ll find out this year if he has the physical stuff to make it. Rooting for the kid to do it.
I'm high on Harrington because when you read about him, the first thing that comes up is essentially his aptitude for pitching. For most of our other top prospects, the first thing that comes up is their arm strength or stuff. It seems like the latter group is much more likely to bust even if they might have more upside (though in this case, from I've read about Harrington's changeup, he has a lot of upside too).
Harrington, Solo, Skenes and even Kennedy, Barco and Shim seem to have the aptitude for pitching. We definitely have some talent from the upper minors to A ball.
A couple other guys could end up with those guys but they all seem to have very substantial floors. With any uptick in Harrington's stuff, he'll jump right up there if not pass some of the others.