My spring training observations are pretty thin today.
......Konnor Griffin, Konnor Griffin, Konnor Griffin!!!..... He is every bit of 6'4 and strong. I heard someone comment on how smooth his swing is. Well, I'm not sure I've seen so many line drive home runs with little lauch angle..... including one over the 380 mark.
..... If you never knew the 4 catchers (Bart, Endy, Henry, Delay), you would clearly think Endy was the veteran and the best of the 4. Batting practice, he was hitting to all field plus some home runs. In his defensive drills, he looked agile and his arm accurate. He was also the vocal leader of that coaching group.
---- The pitchers have been mostly hiding for the most part, so nothing to report there.
----- Someone mentioned yesterday that saw outfield practice, "Bae's work ethic stood out while Cruz looked a step slow"
------Another person told me a Tommy Pham story he heard from Adam Wainwright. When Pham was young and the Cardinals were scuffling, Pham stood on a table, and said "You show up late. You don't work hard enough, You don't run hard." Basically calling out teammates.
I have a 30 year old special needs daughter 4'11 95 pounds. Termarr finds her first and thanks us for coming. He is nice and enthusiastic with any fan that talks with him. He is always building his teammates up as well.
When he was working on hitting, he had a few bad swings in a row. Then stepped out and got visibly upset with himself. A minute later when he was up again. first pitch home run. He stepped out and said "That was all I needed." I was actually glad to see him show that fire.
Had a brother with CP. Happiest person in the world. Lived all his life at home till my mom got a terminal diagnosis. After that, he was with us for 9 years till he died at 70.
Some people who don’t have a special needs family member may think they’re a burden. In our case, it was a pure gift. My wife and now 40-something kids adored him and I know his time with us made the kids more caring and empathetic people.
So here’s to you Stats. Thanks for sharing that anecdote and I hope you and she enjoy every moment in Bradenton. God bless.
Hayes swing looks a lot better to my eye. Looks shorter and quicker to the ball (not so loopy). Hitting with better extention more out front with less head movement.
I know it's just batting practice, hoping it translates to live games, with better plate discipline (adding some walks would be great).
That does look better. His hands are going straight for the ball, and he really seems to have shortened up to save his back. This looks like Nunnally work from the off-season. Sure wish he was at AAA right now to work with some other guys.
Per the P-G, both Cherington and Shelton confirmed that Plan A at catcher is Bart and Endy. Cherington was quoted as saying that they see Endy as a catcher and will not be moving him around the diamond. So if he proves he can handle the position defensively that appears to mean that Davis and Delay will be the catching tandem at AAA.
Zach Yorke is playing tonight at 8pm eastern (Grand Canyon vs. Vandy). Get a look at Nick's little (huge) brother. Probably a 3rd through 6th round draft pick.
He notes that this class is deeper than average, and especially on the HS bat side. Lot of big framed bats with power and contact questions (BA noted as much when looking at college bats in a podcast a few weeks back. A good listen). Additionally, the overall quality of arms is lesser in the mid first thru second round area than in recent years.
I really like a lot of the potential in the prep bats, still like Willits in the 1st, Hartshorn in the 2nd, and the Parker twins at 2comp and 3rd. Heck go with Grindlinger in the 4th and fill out the dirt positions.
His write up of Willits (had him in the 30’s) was pretty glowing defensively. Said he made a lot of contact, but didn’t think he had much power impact.
Very possible he might lack pop, his brother had a similar profile coming out of high school, now he's looking like a 1st rounder for the 2026 draft. He was also much older in the 2023 draft than Eli will be this year.
Yep, Jaxon was 1 for 3 yesterday with a homerun and 2 walks. Both have really good plate discipline, which is a trait I really like, especially in switch hitters.
FG has their draft rankings out. Some intriguing names I didn’t know till well, including the #2 player. He’s got BOD favorite Kruz Schoolcraft at 21, as his secondaries are kinda pedestrian.
EL had an opening salvo last week in his chat about readers asking why they’re lower than other outlets on certain players and says why he (and others) avoid those questions. As they should. They have their rankings and their reason for ranking guys as they do. Also, lists would be boring if they were the same or 90% the same.
Kinda funny, really. For every guy they dropped from, say, 2 to 9, somebody else moved up to 2. So, do they hate the one guy or love the other? Or is it just a call they made based on the reasons they gave?
I would guess it’s the latter. EL had gotten numerous questions on Holliday in chats and cited some of his reservations on him, while admitting his upside.
GMBC said that he “Believe we’re deeper than we were in November. Believe we’ve added talent in places we want to have talent." It must be a great thing to live in a world like that. Can there be another person in the world that agrees with him?
Deeper doesn't mean better. There are alot of bodies on the roster, too bad most of them are not mlb caliber. BC failed to address pretty much every need this off season. Power lh bat - nope, legit 1b- nope, upgrade outfield defense-nope, legit outfielder-nope, add a legit bullpen arm or 2- nope......
Interesting that he chose November as the reference point because that's when our FAs like Chapman were no longer on the roster. The question should be whether the talent they've brought in from the outside is better than the talent they had brought in last year or the year before. That seems pretty questionable.
If Ben wants to cite something that actually should generate optimism, simply point out that so many of the players they acquired in '20-'22 should be ready to significantly contribute this year. There's reason for some optimism, just not due to them having "added talent in places we want to have talent".
GMBC clearly loves light hitting MI’s more than any other position. So he must be referring to the Adam Frazier signing when he’s talking about being deeper in places we want to have talent.
A case of the yips is what pushed him to 2B in 2022, and while he certainly isn't Pedro-esque anymore he's also been pretty terrible at short both in AAA and his big league time in 2023.
Because he's been on our radar so long, I forget that he's still young--just turned 24 on New Year's Eve. This does seem like the season he should break through if he's going to be the above average player we hoped for. I've tempered my hopes for him being a star, but on a roster where we only have 2-3 above average position players, above average would obviously be a great outcome.
Peguero has the offensive profile of a shortstop or second baseman, and even there he has been lacking. Potentially playing him at positions that require power is self-defeating.
This is another bad idea in the name of increasing positional flexibility on the roster. I can’t believe the Pirates keep doing this.
Liover Peguero is one of my favorites because he has the ability to be a true MI in that he can play both SS and 2B and compete with the best defenders at both positions. His 2024 defensive stats at AAA .965 Fld % in 83 G at SS, and .994 Fld % in 48 G at 2B are proof that he has the defensive skills to play at the MLB level which he did show in 2023 with a .960 Fld % in 39 G at SS, and a 1.000 Fld % in 33 G at 2B for the Pirates. Offensively, he needs to make better and more contact, but he has the pop in the bat to be a 15+ HR hitter in MLB.
My projection for the Pirates would be to have Peguero get a lot of reps at both SS and 2B for the Pirates in ST, and have IKF and Peguero as the MI going into 2025 with the hope that IKF could hit much better than he did for the Pirates last year, and that he would be traded at the deadline. Peguero would play a few games a week at SS and Yorke would play a few games a week at 2B when Peguero moves to SS. After IKF is traded, Peguero 24/Yorke 23, would be the MI to finish 2025. Both have less that a year of MLB Service heading into 2025.
I love ya mel, and i know you love Peguero, but we just went through this experience with Oneil.
The conversation of whether or not a player "can" play a position is meaningless. What matters is how *well* they can play it. And Liover Peguero has shown he'd be a poor big league shortstop. Poor big league shortstops get moved to other positions whether they "can" play it or not.
There is also the whole matter of Peguero's bat being mediocre for AAA ball at this point. A bad defensive SS who can't hit doesn't seem to have much "utility" no matter how many positions he adds.
The season for optimism...after catching up on articles from various sites last night, I'm excited to see Endy, Peggy, and Oviedo, feel like Hall is interesting and glad he's getting a chance to show what he can do, and of course really looking forward to watching Bubba, and also his mentor Harrington.
After watching the interview DK had with Endy, and then reading up more, I remember how much I liked Endy and how much I missed him play last year. So excited to see him back on the field. His energy is infectious.
Likewise. That interview was great, and it's easy to see why pitchers would like throwing to him. It will be interesting to see how they handle Bart and Endy sharing time, and I think the writing should be on the wall that Davis needs to be able to play another position.
It’s easy to forget the potential of Oviedo but he has similar upside to Jones and Bubba. 98 plus and ability to dominate. We have to see how he performs off surgery but if he’s back?? Jeez the starting staff is loaded.
I’m a fan personally of Peguero and feel he should have a legitimate shot at the starting SS position. I like IKF but Peggy has more upside. IKF should be the player they brought Frazier in to be.
I know he walked a lot, but hitters only hit .210 off of him post all-star break where he went 6-4. I am all for him being a starter or multiple inning reliever.
I think Falter turned out to be a good fit with the Pirates as a #5 starter last year. This year I wonder if he could share piggy back games. It seems we have much better multiple-inning pitchers than one-inning relievers.
I don’t remember him bringing that kind of heat. Regardless, if he bounces back to form, he will make one helluva back of the rotation SP. Or a better trade piece than Luis Ortiz.
Couldn’t disagree more on Oviedo. Other than giving the rotation IPs, he largely outperformed his metrics in 2023. His expected stats in 2023 were a bit concerning and scream regression candidate. He also has control issues, which will likely be exacerbated by his injury as works to build his command/control back. He profiles much better as a reliever, similar to how St. Louis used him in 2022.
Strong data Anthony and I don’t have counter arguments of that sort; however is it crazy to see a player with exceptional raw tools have a breakout thus exceeding any previous metrics?
The control is for sure the factor that matters with him and the injury may contribute or limit progress there.
I agree that a relief role may be a strong possibility for building innings and monitoring health. Ortiz may be a good usage model - just don’t rule out that possibility that he jumps.
My spring training observations are pretty thin today.
......Konnor Griffin, Konnor Griffin, Konnor Griffin!!!..... He is every bit of 6'4 and strong. I heard someone comment on how smooth his swing is. Well, I'm not sure I've seen so many line drive home runs with little lauch angle..... including one over the 380 mark.
..... If you never knew the 4 catchers (Bart, Endy, Henry, Delay), you would clearly think Endy was the veteran and the best of the 4. Batting practice, he was hitting to all field plus some home runs. In his defensive drills, he looked agile and his arm accurate. He was also the vocal leader of that coaching group.
---- The pitchers have been mostly hiding for the most part, so nothing to report there.
----- Someone mentioned yesterday that saw outfield practice, "Bae's work ethic stood out while Cruz looked a step slow"
------Another person told me a Tommy Pham story he heard from Adam Wainwright. When Pham was young and the Cardinals were scuffling, Pham stood on a table, and said "You show up late. You don't work hard enough, You don't run hard." Basically calling out teammates.
Good stuff Stats! Appreciate the insight
Thanks again for the reports.. I really appreciate it. So do a lot of other posters/readers. Thanks again
Love the first hand reports. Thanks!
The generational alignment of the stars that would allow us to luck into both Konnor Griffin and Darell Morel showing up in the bigs as unicorns...
A boy can dream!
Signing Morel has been the best move by the front office this off-season, they were actually proactive for a change.
We’re due, right? It’s time for our karma to take a positive turn.
By then, the pitching will have fallen apart and Cherington will make no effort to add pitching.
Haha, inevitably
That's a very good sign for Griffin, indicates a lot of backspin.
Endy breaking out this year would be huge.
Thanks, any looks at Termarr?
I have a 30 year old special needs daughter 4'11 95 pounds. Termarr finds her first and thanks us for coming. He is nice and enthusiastic with any fan that talks with him. He is always building his teammates up as well.
When he was working on hitting, he had a few bad swings in a row. Then stepped out and got visibly upset with himself. A minute later when he was up again. first pitch home run. He stepped out and said "That was all I needed." I was actually glad to see him show that fire.
Had a brother with CP. Happiest person in the world. Lived all his life at home till my mom got a terminal diagnosis. After that, he was with us for 9 years till he died at 70.
Some people who don’t have a special needs family member may think they’re a burden. In our case, it was a pure gift. My wife and now 40-something kids adored him and I know his time with us made the kids more caring and empathetic people.
So here’s to you Stats. Thanks for sharing that anecdote and I hope you and she enjoy every moment in Bradenton. God bless.
Thanks for sharing. I totally agree and understand what you are saying.
👍
you're a good dude, stats.
👍
Really seems like a great person, I think it comes together for him this year.
https://x.com/CWolfPGH/status/1890462178181824740
Hayes swing looks a lot better to my eye. Looks shorter and quicker to the ball (not so loopy). Hitting with better extention more out front with less head movement.
I know it's just batting practice, hoping it translates to live games, with better plate discipline (adding some walks would be great).
That does look better. His hands are going straight for the ball, and he really seems to have shortened up to save his back. This looks like Nunnally work from the off-season. Sure wish he was at AAA right now to work with some other guys.
i won't argue mechanics but you don't see many big leaguers with rotational ability of that...well...god i hope he's salvageable.
I agree
At the least, we need to give the guy credit for working on adjustments.
Absolutely. He is doing his best. Can't fault him for that, whether it works out or no.
Per the P-G, both Cherington and Shelton confirmed that Plan A at catcher is Bart and Endy. Cherington was quoted as saying that they see Endy as a catcher and will not be moving him around the diamond. So if he proves he can handle the position defensively that appears to mean that Davis and Delay will be the catching tandem at AAA.
Give Davis a 1st baseman’s mit.
It see if he can play right field.
Zach Yorke is playing tonight at 8pm eastern (Grand Canyon vs. Vandy). Get a look at Nick's little (huge) brother. Probably a 3rd through 6th round draft pick.
https://youtu.be/R22LZmEWBSk?si=2aYuFy0nPc-6WBP9
K'd first at bat, lined out to center second at bat, 2 run Homerun third at bat. A rocket line out to center his 4th at bat.
Bubba gave Harrington a Greg Maddux comp :)
He's a great interview; his quote about Skenes throwing a football (see the end of the interview at DKPS) had me laughing.
He notes that this class is deeper than average, and especially on the HS bat side. Lot of big framed bats with power and contact questions (BA noted as much when looking at college bats in a podcast a few weeks back. A good listen). Additionally, the overall quality of arms is lesser in the mid first thru second round area than in recent years.
College season starts today.
I really like a lot of the potential in the prep bats, still like Willits in the 1st, Hartshorn in the 2nd, and the Parker twins at 2comp and 3rd. Heck go with Grindlinger in the 4th and fill out the dirt positions.
His write up of Willits (had him in the 30’s) was pretty glowing defensively. Said he made a lot of contact, but didn’t think he had much power impact.
Very possible he might lack pop, his brother had a similar profile coming out of high school, now he's looking like a 1st rounder for the 2026 draft. He was also much older in the 2023 draft than Eli will be this year.
His brother is a Sooner, right?
Yep, Jaxon was 1 for 3 yesterday with a homerun and 2 walks. Both have really good plate discipline, which is a trait I really like, especially in switch hitters.
FG has their draft rankings out. Some intriguing names I didn’t know till well, including the #2 player. He’s got BOD favorite Kruz Schoolcraft at 21, as his secondaries are kinda pedestrian.
Glanced through it. The surprise is Holliday at 9. They see him as extremely risky, and they back it up well.
EL had an opening salvo last week in his chat about readers asking why they’re lower than other outlets on certain players and says why he (and others) avoid those questions. As they should. They have their rankings and their reason for ranking guys as they do. Also, lists would be boring if they were the same or 90% the same.
Kinda funny, really. For every guy they dropped from, say, 2 to 9, somebody else moved up to 2. So, do they hate the one guy or love the other? Or is it just a call they made based on the reasons they gave?
I would guess it’s the latter. EL had gotten numerous questions on Holliday in chats and cited some of his reservations on him, while admitting his upside.
21 MY ASS!!! HE’S EXACTLY #6!!!
GMBC said that he “Believe we’re deeper than we were in November. Believe we’ve added talent in places we want to have talent." It must be a great thing to live in a world like that. Can there be another person in the world that agrees with him?
Deeper doesn't mean better. There are alot of bodies on the roster, too bad most of them are not mlb caliber. BC failed to address pretty much every need this off season. Power lh bat - nope, legit 1b- nope, upgrade outfield defense-nope, legit outfielder-nope, add a legit bullpen arm or 2- nope......
catcher, middle infield, starting rotation...... probably more depth
outfield, corner infield, bullpen........ not more depth
Any updates from today?
I just posted up top.
Well, there's one thing with this team that's definitely deeper.
Interesting that he chose November as the reference point because that's when our FAs like Chapman were no longer on the roster. The question should be whether the talent they've brought in from the outside is better than the talent they had brought in last year or the year before. That seems pretty questionable.
If Ben wants to cite something that actually should generate optimism, simply point out that so many of the players they acquired in '20-'22 should be ready to significantly contribute this year. There's reason for some optimism, just not due to them having "added talent in places we want to have talent".
GMBC clearly loves light hitting MI’s more than any other position. So he must be referring to the Adam Frazier signing when he’s talking about being deeper in places we want to have talent.
202 .284 .294 .576
He nailed it!!!
Peguero is the only true SS with a chance to make the team, so let's get him reps at 1st???
Is he though?
A case of the yips is what pushed him to 2B in 2022, and while he certainly isn't Pedro-esque anymore he's also been pretty terrible at short both in AAA and his big league time in 2023.
Because he's been on our radar so long, I forget that he's still young--just turned 24 on New Year's Eve. This does seem like the season he should break through if he's going to be the above average player we hoped for. I've tempered my hopes for him being a star, but on a roster where we only have 2-3 above average position players, above average would obviously be a great outcome.
Peguero has the offensive profile of a shortstop or second baseman, and even there he has been lacking. Potentially playing him at positions that require power is self-defeating.
This is another bad idea in the name of increasing positional flexibility on the roster. I can’t believe the Pirates keep doing this.
All 30 teams in MLB are doing this.
Yeah, but the other 29 have actual outfielders with actual bats.
Liover Peguero is one of my favorites because he has the ability to be a true MI in that he can play both SS and 2B and compete with the best defenders at both positions. His 2024 defensive stats at AAA .965 Fld % in 83 G at SS, and .994 Fld % in 48 G at 2B are proof that he has the defensive skills to play at the MLB level which he did show in 2023 with a .960 Fld % in 39 G at SS, and a 1.000 Fld % in 33 G at 2B for the Pirates. Offensively, he needs to make better and more contact, but he has the pop in the bat to be a 15+ HR hitter in MLB.
My projection for the Pirates would be to have Peguero get a lot of reps at both SS and 2B for the Pirates in ST, and have IKF and Peguero as the MI going into 2025 with the hope that IKF could hit much better than he did for the Pirates last year, and that he would be traded at the deadline. Peguero would play a few games a week at SS and Yorke would play a few games a week at 2B when Peguero moves to SS. After IKF is traded, Peguero 24/Yorke 23, would be the MI to finish 2025. Both have less that a year of MLB Service heading into 2025.
I love ya mel, and i know you love Peguero, but we just went through this experience with Oneil.
The conversation of whether or not a player "can" play a position is meaningless. What matters is how *well* they can play it. And Liover Peguero has shown he'd be a poor big league shortstop. Poor big league shortstops get moved to other positions whether they "can" play it or not.
There is also the whole matter of Peguero's bat being mediocre for AAA ball at this point. A bad defensive SS who can't hit doesn't seem to have much "utility" no matter how many positions he adds.
The Pirate equivalent of moving that guy from Office Space into the basement. The writing is on the wall.
No love for Nick G, I see.
The season for optimism...after catching up on articles from various sites last night, I'm excited to see Endy, Peggy, and Oviedo, feel like Hall is interesting and glad he's getting a chance to show what he can do, and of course really looking forward to watching Bubba, and also his mentor Harrington.
After watching the interview DK had with Endy, and then reading up more, I remember how much I liked Endy and how much I missed him play last year. So excited to see him back on the field. His energy is infectious.
Likewise. That interview was great, and it's easy to see why pitchers would like throwing to him. It will be interesting to see how they handle Bart and Endy sharing time, and I think the writing should be on the wall that Davis needs to be able to play another position.
It’s easy to forget the potential of Oviedo but he has similar upside to Jones and Bubba. 98 plus and ability to dominate. We have to see how he performs off surgery but if he’s back?? Jeez the starting staff is loaded.
I’m a fan personally of Peguero and feel he should have a legitimate shot at the starting SS position. I like IKF but Peggy has more upside. IKF should be the player they brought Frazier in to be.
I know he walked a lot, but hitters only hit .210 off of him post all-star break where he went 6-4. I am all for him being a starter or multiple inning reliever.
Yep, I’m more in favor of him in the rotation than Falter.
I think Falter turned out to be a good fit with the Pirates as a #5 starter last year. This year I wonder if he could share piggy back games. It seems we have much better multiple-inning pitchers than one-inning relievers.
I like O, but he’s more of a back end/swingman type guy as opposed to Jones and Chandler who have higher ceilings. They don’t look similar.
98 plus?
I don’t remember him bringing that kind of heat. Regardless, if he bounces back to form, he will make one helluva back of the rotation SP. Or a better trade piece than Luis Ortiz.
Couldn’t disagree more on Oviedo. Other than giving the rotation IPs, he largely outperformed his metrics in 2023. His expected stats in 2023 were a bit concerning and scream regression candidate. He also has control issues, which will likely be exacerbated by his injury as works to build his command/control back. He profiles much better as a reliever, similar to how St. Louis used him in 2022.
Strong data Anthony and I don’t have counter arguments of that sort; however is it crazy to see a player with exceptional raw tools have a breakout thus exceeding any previous metrics?
The control is for sure the factor that matters with him and the injury may contribute or limit progress there.
I agree that a relief role may be a strong possibility for building innings and monitoring health. Ortiz may be a good usage model - just don’t rule out that possibility that he jumps.