72 Comments

RIP O Delgado contact skills! RIP O Delgado offense! RIP O Delgado prospect status! Thou art now within the organization where hitters go to die!

Praise the heavens, ye Brubaker arm! Rejoice, for thou art free from the stagnant Bucs! Thou wilt now be free to excel for two years before injuries once again render thou without recognition.

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Wonder how many times he has said this the last five years, "I thought we actually had better swings tonight than we have the last couple days," said Pirates manager Derek Shelton, lol.

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Jo Adell finally breaking out after like a decade in the league is so awesome. Baseball's more fun when there's hope.

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Can the entire Indy roster be called up all at once? I’m only kind of kidding..

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There are probably 10 or 12 replacements you could make that wouldn't make a big difference one way or the other. I think Indy is a little more solid or deep than usual.

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Same record as the Rays.

Better pythagorean.

Still doesn't make me feel better.

However, this does - QP gonna shove today and the bats are gonna explode. I'm calling 3 home runs for the Buccos.

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

I hope youre right times a milion

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author

Let's go!!!

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

-Meis and Bubba hanging a golden sombrero on Dylan Crews, who currently has a higher K-rate and lower OPS than Termarr Johnson.

-It takes a lot to make Lonnie White look small but somehow Charles McAdoo manages to do it. F*ckin HOSS.

-I'll never understand the insane infatuation small market fans have with player extensions. You're all gonna hate Mitch Keller before his extension years even kick in.

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Dylan Crews is washed, you heard it here first

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anonymous major league exec told me wyatt langford can't hit.

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Is that Bmac’s source?

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who says the source isn't bmac?

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Who says youre not my source who is bmac’s source

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bmac's on first.

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So I like Delgado in isolation. But this feels forced to save the $2M salary this year and then we could have signed someone like Delgado with the international money we sent (he was signed for $100k). A slightly higher probability major leaguer lottery ticket....but still seems like asset mismanagement.

Regardless, without offense, we are toast this year regardless of how our pitching over performs.

Cruz needs to be CRUZ MISSILE ready, and Davis needs to be a competent catcher for anything to make a difference in 2024. I'm just waiting for Skenes to need TJ after his arm blows up on the 76th pitch of a night to make this year a complete nightmare...

I'll just wait for Marco and Martin to be shipped off near the deadline. Maybe we can try someone like Spencer Horwitz from the Blue Jays for a healthy pitcher to the Jays instead of Rowdy...

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The Pirates gave up 500K in bonus pool and J. T. Brubaker for a guy that the Yankees signed for 100K. Asset mismanagement? That's an understatement. Brazen daytime robbery of a pitcher in a seller's market for pitchers.

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I dont see this guy's bonus as a 1 to 1 for our bonus pool money. Maybe they see so much more in him than what he was signed for now that he has a decent number of games under his belt? Idk probably grasping for something thats not there

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*you* are most certainly not the one in this exchange that is grasping.

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$500k spending potential to avoid paying $2m ;)

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So frustrating. Bru was worth more than this return. Maybe they did PTBNL so it wasn't so obvious a salary dump and the casual fan will forget the details of the transaction.

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Yeah... it was a blatant salary dump, but there was no need. There had to be better offers for Brubaker... and probably better prospects in the pool of PTBNL, but Delgado takes pitches (probably because his strike zone is too small for complex-league pitchers to find) and that is all that matters to this team. Time and again, they have passed on better players just to get the guy who walks more. Just this year: Grandal over Sanchez and Tellez over a host of potential trade targets.

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

"likely being limited to second base" is a phrase I'll always associate with this prospect era of pirates baseball

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Here’s the problem I have about trying to collect guys like Keiner Delgado, Marcano, Castillo, etc etc etc. Aside from the obvious, it hasn’t worked for them. Pipeline thinks he could be a Thairo Estrada. Ok that’s useful. But they can easily afford to acquire such a player in free agency or in trade capital. Those types of players are always available at reasonable AAV’s on shorter term deals. What they can’t/wont pay for is power. Given the state of the organization you’d think they’d focus their attention on that aspect.

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The Yankee's A-ball system is filled with good-looking lottery tickets, and the Pirates get this guy? They are a parody of a baseball team at this point.

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And still not a first baseman in sight anywhere. I’m convinced they are going to extend Tellez. No need to trade for any first basemen.

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Actually, I believe they could also control him via arbitration for another year if they so wish.

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Wait...what?!?!?

They traded 1.5 years of JT Brubaker coming off TJS for a 40 FV prospect. At this point, is he even a starter? The return is fine.

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First of all, let’s consider the great luck they have had trading for guys like this? Why keep septupling down on an approach that clearly doesn’t work for them? They either can’t identity the right types of players to acquire in this regard, or they can’t develop properly. Second of all, they are bereft in power and outfielders/first baseman. Third of all, even if he does work out, these types of players aren’t hard to find. Why burn so much trade capital trading for players that best case scenario, are within your prospect/dollars budget anyways?

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It's actually 2.5 years of Brubaker if they option him for around 15 days. Seems like an easy decision for an extra year of control coming off TJS.

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he's a FA after 2025. Am I wrong here? Won't be the first

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May 1·edited May 1

He has exactly 4 years of service time and 2 options. If he's optioned for 2 or 3 weeks he will not reach free agency until the end of 2026.

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Fair enough. I'm not educated well enough on service time.

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No. They traded 1.5 years of J.T. Brubaker and 500K in bonus-pool money for a 5' 7, 145 lbs guy whom the Yankees signed with 100K left over in their international bonus pool. That's a loss of Brubaker and 400K in bonus pool money for a mighty might. The path to the MLB for a 5'7" 145 lb second-baseman is so narrow, you can hardly see it.

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What the obsession with posting what he signed for?

If he's a FV 40, he is worth more than 100k on 5/1/2024.

Very bizarre take.

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Because he is still in a complex league. He is one small step up from the DSL. You could go out, right now, and find the same guy somewhere in Latin America for 100K. In fact, you could get 4 of them, and there is a very good chance that one of those 4 will make it to the complex league and look competent doing so.

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You can get 4 40FV kids for 100K in LAM?

There's your market inefficiency.

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brother this is the *exact* type of player you claim they should be developing more of!

Who cares about exit velo and launch angle, right?

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You guys.... I never said that I don't care about hitting line drives or hitting the ball hard. It's that you can't look at a couple of numbers in isolation. If a guy is striking out 35% of his plate appearances, then just looking at average launch angle and average hard-hit rate doesn't give you the full picture.

I remember back when Jung Ho Kang came back from the Maddon-induced plantar fascitis and everyone was saying that his launch angles and exit velocity were great. He was just about "turn the corner." The guy made contact with a baseball once in a blue moon. It was over, but if you just looked at "exit velocity" and "launch angle," you would think he was about to transform into Aaron Judge.

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Is there a single adult in the room right now?

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jesus christ, absolutely nobody did that or argued one should. You create a complete alternate reality over this stuff. it's a disease.

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author

The one good thing about the early aughts and the reign of players like Ka'ai Tom, along with getting older, is I don't really get angry and pissed at the Pirates anymore. I'm just disappointed.

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Is that better? I always preferred if someone was angry with me than disappointed lol

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That was actually Coonelly’s point when he’d talk about how it was great that the fans were still passionate. Yes, Coonelly made sense once. Now, the owner and GM just want to isolate themselves from the fans, whom they clearly consider nothing but a nuisance. And that contributes to growing fan apathy.

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Yes. This front office is much more guarded and cloaked in secrecy. More Littlefield-esque than Bontifay or Huntington/Coonelly. But, at least during the Littlefield years they had McClatchy who was willing to face the fans/media and would publicly take the heat and try to defend what they were doing. That podium is largely empty now.

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Pessimism reigns after last nights game, this team is unbelievably hard to watch at the plate

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What's frustrating to me is watching us play teams with young players, many of whom were not top prospects, but who hit line drive after line drive, make good baserunning decisions, and seem to play with confidence and passion. I.e., seeing what appears to be developmental success stories. I'm left wondering where are ours?

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May 1·edited May 1

Who are these players you speak of?

Baseball is hard enough, don't suffer from imagined troubles!

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The Titusville Kid

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It’s becoming more and more clear that the dimwit running the team is putting them in a state where they’re going to need another rebuild.

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Another? Is it a new rebuild if they never exit the first one?

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It’s like uno. The 5 year plans stack like draw 2’s.

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It’s pretty much a dumbuild regardless.

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The funny thing is, if by some wave of a magic wand Nutting decided this wasn't working out and made a change, I feel like a new GM would be coming into a worse situation than GMBC stepped into. The most valuable MLB assets would be a revitalized Connor Joe, and Hayes. Reynolds isn't his pre-extension self. Keller is following a similar post-extension trend, though pitching is always expensive. Bednar should've been traded a year ago. Then a bunch of young flailing post-prospects. A new GM would have to AJ Preller (what Ben should be doing with their pitching prospect depth) his way into a competent club.

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

I'm glad that others recognize the relatively good situation Cherington came into, which was much stronger than when Huntington replaced Littlefield. That's why I've never understood why some fans seem/seemed content for Cherington to be on the same timeline as Huntington, especially given that it's easier to make the playoffs now. (And I think we're pretty clearly behind that timeline.)

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Always been my take for why the decision to tear down and rebuild was so disastrously awful.

It just wasn't that bad.

Giving away half a decade of at least watchable baseball to chase a dragon they were never gonna catch.

A Matt Arnold-style retool would've turned in a .500 club or better within a couple years.

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Yeah, I got blocked (again, and eventually unblocked. again) by DK for arguing that point some years back when he was still championing Ben as the answer. Pitching depth is looking phenomenal, but that's about all the positives that can be said in Ben's fifth season.

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May 1Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

When you run through the major league team, look at the guys Cherington brought in and ask whether they’re long-term pieces, it’s staggering how little he’s added in five years. A two year old randomly picking stuff out of a toy box would have accidentally done better. Cherington makes Littlefield look like Brooklyn-era Branch Rickey.

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BC was sold on Delgado when he heard the words, “more patient of hitter than.”

Seemingly the only skill set of importance to this organization.

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Seems like Alex Manoah was locked in as well---12ks

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May 1·edited May 1

He was. Slider was unhittable. So i looked up his other starts. The stats were not good.

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Grandal is probably having nightmares about that slider, saw two at bats, I think it was six sliders two Ks…..

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If Gonzo can yoke one of those sliders out to left I'm ready to have my heart broken again.

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I’m not gonna put that in writing, but….

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