I see Planchart didn't merit a mention in the catchers prospects write-up last week. He's 23 and has been in the system since 2019. He's made it up to Greensboro, but doesn't seem like much of a prospect and I would think he'll be a minor league free agent soon. Are they hoping to make him a prospect at this stage or is this AFL assignment a courtesy to let him showcase for other teams?
It's hard to say. Anthony and I discussed it recently i believe, but can't say they're too high on him, when the Pirates had Shawn Ross playing essentially as the everyday catcher in Greensboro. At least up until Alfonzo showed up.
I wonder if it is a result of the negotiations that must go on as an AFL roster is assembled. Maybe the Bucs want Termarr to play regularly and in return they offer up a catcher for the roster. Some give and take to make sure a team doesn't end up with 6 shortstops and no outfielders. Planchart isn't a prospect, but someone has to catch.
Really enjoyed the discussion yesterday regarding the projected 2025 budget for players. I know we have the Nutting/BC track record, but with the positive attention brought to the Pirates from the 2024 adds of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones, and Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington nearly ready at AAA, could the Pirate management see this as the perfect time to bump the budget to help bring in a middle-of-the order bat or two?
Given how Cherington used his resources last year, why should Nutting be willing to increase payroll? So that we can get ~0 WAR from 50MM spent instead of from just 30MM spent? But then Nutting chose to keep Cherington so who knows?
In any case, I don't trust Cherington to spend wisely and any resources Nutting makes available should go towards trying to extend Skenes if even just for a year or two. Or perhaps Chandler so that we can call him up early without the risk of losing a year of control.
If I'm not given enough budget to purchase a new truck, I'm forced to continue repairing the one I have knowing full well it's a waste of money in the long run. You're then gonna turn around and blame me for wasting money and use that as justification to continue making the same poor decision.
But Ben was given enough that he could have purchased a nice truck even if it wasn't the truck of his dreams. A better analogy is that instead of buying a nice suit or two that he could feel proud to wear for a night on the town, he chose to buy five outdated suits from the discount rack that never should have been seen in public again.
Anyway, yes I'd like Nutting to provide more resources, especially now that we have some new personnel that I hope will lead to the FO making better decisions.
The mark of a good executive is realizing the error of his ways and self correcting. Problem is, the Pirates have been operating this way for years. IMO it’s failure on their part to recognize how top heavy the game has become (the bulk of most teams production is in a fraction of the roster, and it makes sense to allocate your resources there) and conversely overvaluing far lesser talents. Tellez is a perfect example of this.
Nope. Just look at what the successful teams do and what the failures don’t. There are clear differences between the Rays/Orioles/Astros and the Rockies/White Sox/Pirates/Angels.
It doesn’t take a particularly sophisticated baseball person to grasp that. You can see it in how they approach trading, spending, etc.
Grasping the nuances of all the differences? Yeah I’m pretty clueless there. I couldn’t even begin to explain to you what the Rays player development system works better, or why the Orioles scout bats better.
Someone should write a book though. But that person would need to know a hell of a lot more than me lol.
Trout and Ohtani only played in 46.6% of the Angels games over the six years. They also lost more than they won .480 winning percentage. Some bad luck and the Rendon contract took a lot of money for minimal return in the win column.
The nuances of running a major league organization are so complicated and foreign to me that anyone who has worked in a major league organization in any significant capacity would embarrass me. That’s not in dispute. That’s why I went into subtleties of scouting, player development etc. I have no clue as to all the different ways the Rays, for example, are run differently than the Pirates. I just know that they are based on the results and how they observably do things.
But yes, any simpleton can see that the Rays/Orioles/Astros are different. First of all, if you can do something as basic as reading the standings you can see that. If you can read a spreadsheet you can see those teams allocate payroll and spend differently. If you can read the scouting profiles on the players they are drafting you can see they value different skill sets than we do. How do you think different outcomes happen? Different outcomes result from different decision making processes. I’m guessing you think it’s all dumb luck, and poor unlucky Ben is making decisions the same way as Elias or Neander?
Good points, but any chance to extend Paul Skenes or any of the other young pitchers will be based on how they view the willingness of this franchise to win, and that means adding hitting now, not on a 4 or 5 year schedule.
Nice returns for the Pirate hitters in the AFL with Planchart getting 4 hits incl a HR, Pichardo 2 hits incl a HR, and Siani a hit in his only AB as a late inning sub in CF. Pitching for the Scorpions continues to be an adventure in negativity, so even 10 runs was not enough to get a W!
The AFL experience for Planchart, 23, is probably a showcase for the Rule 5,, because the Pirates have way too many better Catchers ahead of him. Pichardo is a decent fielding second baseman and was a good hitter at AA Altoona, especially doubles (14) and HR's (11). He came from the Padres after they claimed Jackson Wolf off of waivers. Hard to see him in the future plans of the Pirates. Siani is doing very well in the AFL - he could be with the Pirates sometime in 2025.
I see Planchart didn't merit a mention in the catchers prospects write-up last week. He's 23 and has been in the system since 2019. He's made it up to Greensboro, but doesn't seem like much of a prospect and I would think he'll be a minor league free agent soon. Are they hoping to make him a prospect at this stage or is this AFL assignment a courtesy to let him showcase for other teams?
It's hard to say. Anthony and I discussed it recently i believe, but can't say they're too high on him, when the Pirates had Shawn Ross playing essentially as the everyday catcher in Greensboro. At least up until Alfonzo showed up.
I wonder if it is a result of the negotiations that must go on as an AFL roster is assembled. Maybe the Bucs want Termarr to play regularly and in return they offer up a catcher for the roster. Some give and take to make sure a team doesn't end up with 6 shortstops and no outfielders. Planchart isn't a prospect, but someone has to catch.
Thing is, they have 4 catchers. But, maybe the Tigers don't want their two high upside guys behind the plate too much, and rather focus on hitting.
Really enjoyed the discussion yesterday regarding the projected 2025 budget for players. I know we have the Nutting/BC track record, but with the positive attention brought to the Pirates from the 2024 adds of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones, and Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington nearly ready at AAA, could the Pirate management see this as the perfect time to bump the budget to help bring in a middle-of-the order bat or two?
Honestly, I will be stunned if the opening day payroll tops $90M.
Given how Cherington used his resources last year, why should Nutting be willing to increase payroll? So that we can get ~0 WAR from 50MM spent instead of from just 30MM spent? But then Nutting chose to keep Cherington so who knows?
In any case, I don't trust Cherington to spend wisely and any resources Nutting makes available should go towards trying to extend Skenes if even just for a year or two. Or perhaps Chandler so that we can call him up early without the risk of losing a year of control.
This is a classic resource trap, though.
If I'm not given enough budget to purchase a new truck, I'm forced to continue repairing the one I have knowing full well it's a waste of money in the long run. You're then gonna turn around and blame me for wasting money and use that as justification to continue making the same poor decision.
Awful strategic thinking here.
But Ben was given enough that he could have purchased a nice truck even if it wasn't the truck of his dreams. A better analogy is that instead of buying a nice suit or two that he could feel proud to wear for a night on the town, he chose to buy five outdated suits from the discount rack that never should have been seen in public again.
Anyway, yes I'd like Nutting to provide more resources, especially now that we have some new personnel that I hope will lead to the FO making better decisions.
The mark of a good executive is realizing the error of his ways and self correcting. Problem is, the Pirates have been operating this way for years. IMO it’s failure on their part to recognize how top heavy the game has become (the bulk of most teams production is in a fraction of the roster, and it makes sense to allocate your resources there) and conversely overvaluing far lesser talents. Tellez is a perfect example of this.
JC, you should write a novel...
"How to be a Successful Executive in Major League Baseball"
I mean, holy shit. You have it all figured out.
Nope. Just look at what the successful teams do and what the failures don’t. There are clear differences between the Rays/Orioles/Astros and the Rockies/White Sox/Pirates/Angels.
It doesn’t take a particularly sophisticated baseball person to grasp that. You can see it in how they approach trading, spending, etc.
Grasping the nuances of all the differences? Yeah I’m pretty clueless there. I couldn’t even begin to explain to you what the Rays player development system works better, or why the Orioles scout bats better.
Someone should write a book though. But that person would need to know a hell of a lot more than me lol.
What?!
The Angels routinely missed the playoffs with the two best baseball players on the planet.
Man you're awful at this.
Trout and Ohtani only played in 46.6% of the Angels games over the six years. They also lost more than they won .480 winning percentage. Some bad luck and the Rendon contract took a lot of money for minimal return in the win column.
You can’t only have two good players. That’s a ridiculous, and likely intentional misreading of my comment.
My dude, you're making it sound like any swinging dick with above average intelligence can figure this out.
If you had a debate with Ben Cherington on anything related to baseball, he would thoroughly embarrass you.
You obviously didn’t read my comment.
The nuances of running a major league organization are so complicated and foreign to me that anyone who has worked in a major league organization in any significant capacity would embarrass me. That’s not in dispute. That’s why I went into subtleties of scouting, player development etc. I have no clue as to all the different ways the Rays, for example, are run differently than the Pirates. I just know that they are based on the results and how they observably do things.
But yes, any simpleton can see that the Rays/Orioles/Astros are different. First of all, if you can do something as basic as reading the standings you can see that. If you can read a spreadsheet you can see those teams allocate payroll and spend differently. If you can read the scouting profiles on the players they are drafting you can see they value different skill sets than we do. How do you think different outcomes happen? Different outcomes result from different decision making processes. I’m guessing you think it’s all dumb luck, and poor unlucky Ben is making decisions the same way as Elias or Neander?
Good points, but any chance to extend Paul Skenes or any of the other young pitchers will be based on how they view the willingness of this franchise to win, and that means adding hitting now, not on a 4 or 5 year schedule.
Nice returns for the Pirate hitters in the AFL with Planchart getting 4 hits incl a HR, Pichardo 2 hits incl a HR, and Siani a hit in his only AB as a late inning sub in CF. Pitching for the Scorpions continues to be an adventure in negativity, so even 10 runs was not enough to get a W!
The AFL experience for Planchart, 23, is probably a showcase for the Rule 5,, because the Pirates have way too many better Catchers ahead of him. Pichardo is a decent fielding second baseman and was a good hitter at AA Altoona, especially doubles (14) and HR's (11). He came from the Padres after they claimed Jackson Wolf off of waivers. Hard to see him in the future plans of the Pirates. Siani is doing very well in the AFL - he could be with the Pirates sometime in 2025.