26 Comments

probably worth bumping a couple more starts per week to Joey Bart at this point, right?

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Awfully rough go of it for Solometo and Ashcraft to start the season.

Says something about the strength of the system when such a thing completely goes unnoticed.

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How the ENTIRE Greensboro rotation pitched last week makes it easy to overlook

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I feel like Hudson Head has been in A-ball since I graduated high school in 1997.

Really hope it is nothing major for Gonzales...just sucks for him, although I think we have some viable options for that spot.

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Congrats to the man, the myth, the legend!

300 is part of a very exclusive club.

Thanks for everything you've done for this great city.

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My hope is that lauer is the name to come up to fill in for gonzales, i think we are still a bit early to assume skenes is coming up

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The PG reported that multiple sources said Skenes will not be an option and Shelton pointed out that with the off day Thursday they have plenty of time to decide how to proceed (they won't need a 5th starter until next Tuesday). If Lauer or Priester start for Indy on Thursday, we might have our answer.

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Jared Jones could be a comp, but he pitched 126 innings last year - 44 at AA, 82 at AAA. When Paul Skenes gets beyond 50 innings at AAA, IMO, he will be ready to take a shot at MLB hitters.

Lauer is definitely a Wild Card in that he has only pitched 10 innings in AAA in 2024. He has had some injury issues, so I would not want to push him too quickly. The Pirates have Contreras, Ortiz, Priester, Cam Alldred, and by then, Mlodzinski, If we need a pitcher 10-14 days from now. The day off gives us the ability to run an extra week without need for a 5th pitcher.

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I agree on Skenes and don't see any injury changing the Skenes plan. To me it is Lauer or Priester. As stated earlier in this stream, if Gonzalez is diagnosed as out for a long time then the 40 man issue to add Lauer is solved and I think that would be the likely move. Priester to me has been ok but not great in AAA and i prefer he stay there and force his way to MLB. Also, for pure SP depth, if Lauer looks ready and has an opt out I prefer not losing him yet.

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My thought is that lauer may or may not hang around if priester gets a shot before him so maybe that gives lauer the upper hand if it is between the two

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It would make no sense to bring up Skenes so he can pitch 3-4 innings. They're slowly ramping him up, I think he's up to 55 pitches. Once he goes 6-7 innings and close to 100 pitches, he'll be ready. Probably another 5 or so starts. We're talking mid to the end of May.

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They’re probably waiting to get an idea how long he’ll be out. If it’s a couple starts maybe they’ll do the opener thing.

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Seems like they are using a similar approach with all of their pitching prospects.

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11 down. 70 to go.

The Pirates win 9-2 in Philadelphia and are in a virtual tie for first place in the NL Central.

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It stopped raining yesterday, ironically a Sunday, a day when an offer was accepted for new digs in Toon-Town just a half mile from the front gate of People's Natural Gas Park.... which is a far more inferior and funny name than the original Blair County Ballpark... But money talks, so much so that it's ok if your AA franchise's field is named after a fart joke. I suppose PNG Park is just one character away from PNC Park, so... like... it's ALMOST like being in the show.

*

The stump in the back yard had a week-long reprieve because it rains here more than anyplace. I believe it is alleged and true to be the cloudiest place in America. But the sun shined on Sunday and that stump was coming out and I put out a radio and listened to Aston Villa go down to the Emirates in London and give Mikel Arteta and Arsenal a 2-0 whipping, which made my mood sunny as well. THEN I "Tuned-In"... see what I did there (I use the Tune-In app) to listen to Bitch Keller give Zach Wheeler and the Phillies the business. Also very satisfying.

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During which, I had dug out around the stump and I had laid my fire carefully by drilling it full of big holes and filling them up with gasoline and then throwing all these wet and dead sticks, logs, balls of balled up paper, a full size pallet and half a year's worth of Amazon boxes. Then I lit one of those little fire starter cubes and tossed it in there from behind the tipped over cover of a wheelbarrow some five yards away. I imagined myself like Audie Murphy lobbing a grenade from the cover of a trench, but twice as good looking and ten times more unsafe.

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WHOOOSH!!!! Game on, STUMP!

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With the fire raging and the dogs free in the back yard, I would never drive off to get beer at Sheetz because who would do THAT? But it's a game that is going pretty well, Zach Wheeler be DAMNED, and I had no D.G. Yuengling Product in the fridge with which to savor it... So I went and returned and things were still going on apace with no wildfires in sight.

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The dogs had turned the wheelbarrow upside down and were playing dominoes. I still don't know how to play it on account of they don't talk ENGLISH, they just woof at you as if you're supposed to know what to do. "Learn the damn LANGUAGE DOGS," I growled at them. And they... they are two 60 pound brother golden doodles, one white and one brown, and when they are going to ignore me they give me the side-eye.

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So I'm drinkin' and thinkin' that the only thing that could make this day any better was some CARROTS ON THE HOUSE!!!!!!

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@> ONE. (1) golden love dart for Cutch on a day when hitting your 300th homer ONLY gets you ONE carrot. His Cutchness went 2 for 5, scoring 3 runs and driving in 2.

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@>@> TWO. (2) Two Blessings of Caratin for Mike WAZOWSKI, who people on this message board (lookin' at YOU WTM!) had maligned so maliciously earlier in the day such that in the Zen of The Moment PROVED that Wazowski would take Wheeler deep with a Granny!

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@>@>@> THREE. (3) Three Bugs Bunny Bushes for Keller, who I used to name Pitch Keller, but now will call him Bitch Keller, because that 97 up in the zone is a hot tomata if'n'yer swingin' a stick at it! 7 innings of two run baseball that we'll take any darn day, brother!

*

Okay. Okay. Getting a little excited here is all. It's Monday morning and ... in the interim of what had been a lovely and productive day... well I'd decided to go down and look at this new house and clock the half mile from that door to the door of the Curve... And then, sunny and blue skies above, I drove to Plaza Azteca and ordered a pequeno margarita with salt... Also very good. It was as if Central Pennsylvania had turned into paradise or something... I was definitely operating in a dream world.

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By then, the clouds had gathered and phones everywhere were going off like that robot from Lost In Space... I decided to stretch my luck and drove over to McGarvey's and bellied up to the bar and had a half dozen wings and a bottle of Yuengling and I pulled out a copy of StoneMan's first CD and gave it to the nice lady and said "Give this to Mick McGarvey because there's an Irish sitting here at the bar and this amazing band has never been hired to play in this fine rock-n-roll establishment and that stuff has got to change. The nice lady dutifully said she would... but it had begun to rain, so my luck might have been on the wane.

*

I get back in the Gladiator and the crap is hitting the fan. Gigantic bolts of chain lightning are arking like brightly electric tree branches across the sky as if The Gods had said, "YOU'VE HAD YOUR SUNSHINE FOR THIS MONTH!!!" By the time I got to Bigler, it had begun to hail. Upon returning home, the one doodle - who is terrified of thunder - had opened the bottom drawer of the oven and tried to hide in there then went and got in the tub spilling product all over the place....

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So I open the basement door and the dog runs downstairs where he can't hear the kabooming.

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The fire, thus extinguished, and the stump YET remains. My God! What is that thing made of?

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__________________________

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"Oh My Stars! Monsters must lead such INteresting lives. Bobby pins, please."

-Wabbit

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Apr 15·edited Apr 15

The 40 man implications matter with this stuff. If Marco needs TJ and goes immediately to the 60 man, then that's one less obstacle to promote Skenes. We'll need a 40 man spot for German and Lauer (who's been dealing) as well.

Only 40 man guy I'd cut now is Palacios.

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German has disappeared. He looked good when I saw him in an exhibition 2-3 weeks ago. They may be taking the off-field stuff very seriously.

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Yesterday on the BC show, he indicated that they're having visa issues with German. Apparently, alcoholics with a penchant for domestic abuse have issues getting back into the country.

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Should’ve thought of that.

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Damn what a shame... anyway lol

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If German is gone we're down to Lauer, Priester and Skenes. Remember when Ortiz and Roansy were starters?

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Well, Lauer’s first opt-out is May 15. With pitchers dropping like flies everywhere, I have to think he’ll take it. Can’t imagine they’d let that happen.

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Fangraphs projected standings suggest that we're in for a ride--while most divisions have a 20-30 win gap between the teams projected to finish first and last (the AL East has only an 11 game gap), the NL Central has a ~2 game gap with the Brewers and Cubs at the top with 83.7 wins and the Reds last with 81.5 wins (we're at 82 wins, the Cards at 82.3 wins). It might be the little things that matter.

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Apr 15·edited Apr 15

This 2024 Pirate team is certaintly beating expectations at this point, 10% of season in the books... Really proud of the team, coaches/manager, and FO👏👏... I'm not sure this will last as Im not sure how we are getting these pitching performances, and just enough timely offense (wow how abt 3 homers on Sunday👍)... But its kinda feeling real, so im thinking we should be investigating some offensive help, not easy at this time of the year of course🤷‍♂️

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Doing a lot even with Cruz re-acquainting himself with MLB pitching, and Jack having a down start so far. Hope that GS helps him turn the corner. The Pitching has been solid, overcoming slow starts by both Bednar and Keller. Good to see the hitters get enough runs yesterday to keep Mitch in the game - he has turned the corner. The Gonzales situation is going to be tough - he has been a solid piece of the Rotation.

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A missing 7 following the Lakeland Flying Tigers in A. A note on that game - the Box Score had a lineup that had 8 of the 9 Marauder hitters below the Mendoza Line! I think the No. 9 hitter had 2 hits in the game and finished with an average of .222.

Great to see 'Cutch get No. 300 and that should complete his resume' for possible entry into the HOF. He had some awesome fWAR years leading the Pirates to the Playoffs before being traded to the Giants for Bryan Reynolds and a RP, and has been a solid contributor to the Pirates offensively since coming back in 2023. Missed a lot of time to an Achilles injury, which has affected his performance in 2024.

Nice to see Malcom Nunez doing well at AAA with 3 doubles, 3 HR, 9 RBI already for Indy. He's young - just turned 23, and coming back from an injury that limited him in 2023. An excellent fielder at both 3B and 1B, but he has been playing most of his innings at 3B. I doubt the Pirates have a need for a third baseman in this decade, so it would be nice to see him primarily at first base. Who plays 1B? Gorski (drafted as a CF) was there yesterday, and I think Lamb and McKinney have also been used at 1B. With Bae joining Gonzales and Peguero, we should have enough guys to handle 3B. Celestino also doing well in CF at AAA.

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