If the Pirates lose Kranick, oh well. If he stays, oh well.
He was mostly another velo pop up guy whose fastball still saw too much contact, and a breaker with limited swing and miss. His breaking balls looked relatively improved last year, but overall, was still meh.
Perez could be the difference-maker. He has used his Sinker 42.9% last year and for the past 3 years that pitch has had Run Values of +8, +9, and +4. Where we will see better or worse is with the other 2 pitches he throws - the Changeup 26.5%, and the Cutter 22.1%. The Changeup has been -7, -1, and -3 the past 3 years. Definitely need some improvement on that pitch.
The Cutter is the real question mark - over the past 3 years it has been -13, +13, and -11. If we are on the "every other year" schedule, he will do great! Kind of hard to figure, but when he was a +13 his record for Texas was 12-8, 2.89 ERA in 32 Starts/196 IP - and that's when Texas finished 68-94.
The 3 they have identified could be positive - Keller, Gonzales, and Perez. From there I still hope they leave 4 thru 6 to come from the group that I think can do it this year. In my order of importance to this franchise, they would be Jared Jones, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, and then the possibility of seeing Bailey Falter, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, and Kyle Nicolas by June/July. Would also have no problem with Carmen Mlodzinski being in middle relief and doubling as a Starter coupled with one of the other SP's already mentioned for a Bullpen Start.
With the names we could see as SP's at AA this year, many of the names above, with the exception of Keller, could be trade possibilities in late July.
Nicolas should be working toward high leverage bullpen duties. His fastball and slider both play up in shorter outings. Other than his debut, he looked good during his cup last year.
I think I would start him out in Indy (unless he show he's ready during spring training) as the closer there or bringing him in as a fireman to see how he responds.
Mlod seems like a one inning specialist. Give him a clean slate on an inning and just shorten the game. Hopefully that inning is the 7th or 8th and occasionally the 9th. He has a bulldog mentality but sometimes struggles with inherited runners.
Is Keller really untouchable? If he makes it clear he won’t sign an extension unless Pirates pay him rack rate, I won’t be surprised if he is dealt this summer. That is, if Pirates are out of it, and a contender is willing to pay what is sure to be a high price for him.
I do too. I would also be ok with signing Trevor Bauer and giving him a shot at redemption. That would be the cherry on top. I would still sign Hoskins and then platoon tellez and Cutch at DH
I saw Bauer made what I considered a half-hearted attempt at an apology for his past behavior towards women. Clearly he wants to pitch in MLB again, but in my opinion, is unwilling to apologize to the women he has victimized, the employers and teammates he let down, and the fans he failed.
Not sure if all MLB Owners agree with me, but I highly doubt BN, who had to deal with fallout of the criminal behavior of he who shall go unnamed, will be the Owner to take a chance on Bauer.
Nutting isn’t approving any impact free agent signing. It’s that simple. Doesn’t matter who it is... let alone someone with some of the biggest upside on the market.
Committing a crime isn’t the standard when it comes to MLB employment. Nobody but those in the room with him knows for sure what happened between he and his accusers, however here are a couple irrefutable facts:
1. He has had to pay off at least one of his accusers to make her go away.
2. He encouraged his Twitter followers to verbally abuse a woman who happened to piss him off.
Whatever talent he possesses in his right arm isn’t enough to risk the fallout from the type of behavior he’s exhibited repeatedly throughout his adult life.
A little luck and this is pretty comfortably a top-half of the league rotation, IMO.
I can see a more probabilistic view of the situation as being that the dudes we *wanted* being a matter of percentage points more likely to succeed than the dudes we *got*. If we accept, begrudgingly, that they were never gonna make those kinds of investments in the first place then I can acknowledge the dudes they ended up with for a fraction of the price are pretty solid bets.
Good enough to be competitive, deep enough to avoid the awful, and with enough intrigue to maybe, just maybe, end up with a Keller-like breakout. That's probably about as good as a Pirate club is gonna get.
Close to the perfect situation at catcher (short of Johnny Bench or Pudge Rodriguez of course). A solid defensive regular who batted left, and wasn’t a total loss at the plate (though he lacked power) and a hit machine as the right hand side of the platoon, who wasn’t abysmal defensively. Spanky and Slaught were an underrated component of those excellent teams.
Unrelated but digesting the Michael A. Taylor rumors...looks like he would be the ideal platoon partner w/ Suwinski for CF. They could probably generate +4 WAR between the two of them at the position. He would be a very nice addition at somewhere under $8m as the short side platoon partner. That’s probably an overpay at $8m based on the job description, but I think it would solidify the position and yield some secondary benefits as well.
If Harrison Bader got $10.5, I'm sure Taylor will be looking for something similar if not more. I'd hope it'd be more than just a platoon. It could get Suwinski out of CF and in RF where his defense probably plays better.
Bader is a few years younger, plus COLA for NYC. Also thought about KK in Toronto, slightly older but better track record plus COLA for Toronto. Lastly, we know the Pirates aren’t paying market, I kid but not really. Nevertheless, I’d be totally comfortable with overpaying here and trying to max out positional value in CF, while also keeping Oliveras’ bat in the lineup.
Michael Taylor's bat was woeful for 6 of first 7 years. I watched him daily with the Nats. Seeing some improvement in 22 and 23.....but then Haines will get a hold of him so regression is likely.
Looking at Diaz's career, next year he is in line for a good year. He seems to follow a trend lol he has a good year, a bad year, and then a 0 WAR year.
I hope Max clears waivers and can be sent to Indy to start which is probably what he needs. It does seem the AAA / AA rotations are getting pretty full. Across both levels: (Priester or Ortiz or both?), Wolf, Ashcraft, Plassmeyer, Jones, Skenes, Sullivan, Shortridge, Solometo, Chandler, Harrington, and Chen. Also.. Huang? Meis? Burrows when he returns. Clearly there are some locks and others on the bubble.
Yea it's pretty crowded in the upper levels. Some guys are probably going to get shifted to the bullpen this year. Meis, I thought, was better as a reliever anyway. Plassmeyer could head to the pen. But at some point, when I have a few free moments, I think I'm going to sit down and actually write out all the starters and see how they start to fit.
Someone like Po-Yu Chen might be the odd man out and have to start in Greensboro again.
With the crowd in Altoona and Indy, it seems to be a good time to move 1 or 2 with an mlb ready relief arm (ex. Selby) for a low risk high reward kinda of player (ex. Jorge Barrosa) to hopefully fill a need.
Here’s hoping we resign Max and he has the chance to replicate his almost perfect career debut someday. Yet another victim of the Curse of the Bond-bino.
If the Pirates lose Kranick, oh well. If he stays, oh well.
He was mostly another velo pop up guy whose fastball still saw too much contact, and a breaker with limited swing and miss. His breaking balls looked relatively improved last year, but overall, was still meh.
Perez could be the difference-maker. He has used his Sinker 42.9% last year and for the past 3 years that pitch has had Run Values of +8, +9, and +4. Where we will see better or worse is with the other 2 pitches he throws - the Changeup 26.5%, and the Cutter 22.1%. The Changeup has been -7, -1, and -3 the past 3 years. Definitely need some improvement on that pitch.
The Cutter is the real question mark - over the past 3 years it has been -13, +13, and -11. If we are on the "every other year" schedule, he will do great! Kind of hard to figure, but when he was a +13 his record for Texas was 12-8, 2.89 ERA in 32 Starts/196 IP - and that's when Texas finished 68-94.
I hope they use him as a reliever
I kinda like the rotation. There I said it.
we were promised a real starting pitcher
not some belly itcher
Boo this man, boo him loud and often!!!!!
👻
It has, potential. Would like at least one more "good" pitcher.
The 3 they have identified could be positive - Keller, Gonzales, and Perez. From there I still hope they leave 4 thru 6 to come from the group that I think can do it this year. In my order of importance to this franchise, they would be Jared Jones, Quinn Priester, Luis Ortiz, Roansy Contreras, and then the possibility of seeing Bailey Falter, Braxton Ashcraft, Mike Burrows, and Kyle Nicolas by June/July. Would also have no problem with Carmen Mlodzinski being in middle relief and doubling as a Starter coupled with one of the other SP's already mentioned for a Bullpen Start.
With the names we could see as SP's at AA this year, many of the names above, with the exception of Keller, could be trade possibilities in late July.
Nicolas should be working toward high leverage bullpen duties. His fastball and slider both play up in shorter outings. Other than his debut, he looked good during his cup last year.
I think I would start him out in Indy (unless he show he's ready during spring training) as the closer there or bringing him in as a fireman to see how he responds.
Mlod seems like a one inning specialist. Give him a clean slate on an inning and just shorten the game. Hopefully that inning is the 7th or 8th and occasionally the 9th. He has a bulldog mentality but sometimes struggles with inherited runners.
Is Keller really untouchable? If he makes it clear he won’t sign an extension unless Pirates pay him rack rate, I won’t be surprised if he is dealt this summer. That is, if Pirates are out of it, and a contender is willing to pay what is sure to be a high price for him.
I do too. I would also be ok with signing Trevor Bauer and giving him a shot at redemption. That would be the cherry on top. I would still sign Hoskins and then platoon tellez and Cutch at DH
I saw Bauer made what I considered a half-hearted attempt at an apology for his past behavior towards women. Clearly he wants to pitch in MLB again, but in my opinion, is unwilling to apologize to the women he has victimized, the employers and teammates he let down, and the fans he failed.
Not sure if all MLB Owners agree with me, but I highly doubt BN, who had to deal with fallout of the criminal behavior of he who shall go unnamed, will be the Owner to take a chance on Bauer.
He was not convicted of a crime.
Nutting isn’t approving any impact free agent signing. It’s that simple. Doesn’t matter who it is... let alone someone with some of the biggest upside on the market.
Committing a crime isn’t the standard when it comes to MLB employment. Nobody but those in the room with him knows for sure what happened between he and his accusers, however here are a couple irrefutable facts:
1. He has had to pay off at least one of his accusers to make her go away.
2. He encouraged his Twitter followers to verbally abuse a woman who happened to piss him off.
Whatever talent he possesses in his right arm isn’t enough to risk the fallout from the type of behavior he’s exhibited repeatedly throughout his adult life.
Corrections to my post:
1. Bauer did NOT pay off the woman he settled with. No money exchanged hands.
2. There are two other accusers who Bauer has not settled with as of yet.
3. The woman he cyber bullied was a college student.
IIRC Nutting has 3 daughters. There's not a snowball's chance he'll touch Bauer.
Fwiw, Dejan yesterday said no chance and said he wasn’t guessing.
Then again, he seems to be pushing Domingo German, who drank himself off the Yankees. Just not this FO’s sort of thing.
He also is probably going to want more than $10 million a year, but there are lines Bob will not cross. Fool him once (Frankie)...
Lets hear some more
A little luck and this is pretty comfortably a top-half of the league rotation, IMO.
I can see a more probabilistic view of the situation as being that the dudes we *wanted* being a matter of percentage points more likely to succeed than the dudes we *got*. If we accept, begrudgingly, that they were never gonna make those kinds of investments in the first place then I can acknowledge the dudes they ended up with for a fraction of the price are pretty solid bets.
Good enough to be competitive, deep enough to avoid the awful, and with enough intrigue to maybe, just maybe, end up with a Keller-like breakout. That's probably about as good as a Pirate club is gonna get.
Good points man. coming off of the buzz of piratesfest yesterday ill choose optimism today and agree
Booooo, ban NMR. He went too far, booo.
Outed as a Nutting Plant, the long con wasn't long enough. ;)
I was on you from day one!
Pirates management answering questions now, 5 likes and ill grill them on who bmac’s sources are
You sure bmac won’t be on the podium?
Ask them to trade for Jorge Barrosa.
Palacios and Alika heading to Tampa
You are half right, Richie Palacios traded to Rays!
anybody here think Palacios continues to surprise us and claim fulltime centerfield duties out of spring training with a .800ops in 2024?
Idk about FT, but I want to see him getting 8th and 9th inning ABs.
he kept on proving me wrong in 2023
Sources saying Suwinski str8 up for Musgrove
Deal, ill drive him to the airport myself
Harkens memories back to when Pirates had the best offensive catcher's duo in MLB......Cervelli and Diaz. 22 HRs, 91 RBIs.
Can't forget Doumit and Paulino!
20 HR 87 RBI
Don Slaught and Spanky or GTFO
Close to the perfect situation at catcher (short of Johnny Bench or Pudge Rodriguez of course). A solid defensive regular who batted left, and wasn’t a total loss at the plate (though he lacked power) and a hit machine as the right hand side of the platoon, who wasn’t abysmal defensively. Spanky and Slaught were an underrated component of those excellent teams.
Heineman and Diego on Mets 40-man. Kuhl and Newman get Milb contracts.
Off to piratesfest, expecting a logan gilbert announcement any minute
You didn't get one and did get a bunch of stale answers they've used for years instead.
Unrelated but digesting the Michael A. Taylor rumors...looks like he would be the ideal platoon partner w/ Suwinski for CF. They could probably generate +4 WAR between the two of them at the position. He would be a very nice addition at somewhere under $8m as the short side platoon partner. That’s probably an overpay at $8m based on the job description, but I think it would solidify the position and yield some secondary benefits as well.
If Harrison Bader got $10.5, I'm sure Taylor will be looking for something similar if not more. I'd hope it'd be more than just a platoon. It could get Suwinski out of CF and in RF where his defense probably plays better.
Bader is a few years younger, plus COLA for NYC. Also thought about KK in Toronto, slightly older but better track record plus COLA for Toronto. Lastly, we know the Pirates aren’t paying market, I kid but not really. Nevertheless, I’d be totally comfortable with overpaying here and trying to max out positional value in CF, while also keeping Oliveras’ bat in the lineup.
Michael Taylor's bat was woeful for 6 of first 7 years. I watched him daily with the Nats. Seeing some improvement in 22 and 23.....but then Haines will get a hold of him so regression is likely.
I wonder if the 2024 Rockies catchers will be better than the 2019 Pirates catchers.
2019: Stallings played 71 games & put up a 1.5 bWAR. Diaz played 101 for -1.1 bWAR.
Looking at Diaz's career, next year he is in line for a good year. He seems to follow a trend lol he has a good year, a bad year, and then a 0 WAR year.
I hope Max clears waivers and can be sent to Indy to start which is probably what he needs. It does seem the AAA / AA rotations are getting pretty full. Across both levels: (Priester or Ortiz or both?), Wolf, Ashcraft, Plassmeyer, Jones, Skenes, Sullivan, Shortridge, Solometo, Chandler, Harrington, and Chen. Also.. Huang? Meis? Burrows when he returns. Clearly there are some locks and others on the bubble.
Yea it's pretty crowded in the upper levels. Some guys are probably going to get shifted to the bullpen this year. Meis, I thought, was better as a reliever anyway. Plassmeyer could head to the pen. But at some point, when I have a few free moments, I think I'm going to sit down and actually write out all the starters and see how they start to fit.
Someone like Po-Yu Chen might be the odd man out and have to start in Greensboro again.
With the crowd in Altoona and Indy, it seems to be a good time to move 1 or 2 with an mlb ready relief arm (ex. Selby) for a low risk high reward kinda of player (ex. Jorge Barrosa) to hopefully fill a need.
Here’s hoping we resign Max and he has the chance to replicate his almost perfect career debut someday. Yet another victim of the Curse of the Bond-bino.