So I have MLB in the background as I work on some things, and they have a minor-league game between Syracuse and Scranton playing. I am happily working when I hear that Yerry de los Santos is pitching against Travis Swaggerty. Now those are blasts from the past.
He was locating very well but seems to have lost a tick or 2 on his fastball. Of course, it is outrageously cold there, so hard to get a decent grip in that weather.
Holy crap, I’m surprised Bednar still has options, but glad they used one. I expect he will go to extended spring training until Oscar Maren says he is fixed.
Why DFA Delay, who is a perfectly serviceable backup with options, when they could have put Gonzalez on the 60 day instead. Not liking the odds of Gonzalez getting back to health and getting in some minor league rehab within 60 days.
Abrahan Gutierrez is in the system and is supposed to be one of the best defensive catchers the have so a good backup still available if not more with Aberahan
Looking down the road, if Harrington is serviceable tonight he could easily be slotted into the rotation and Carmen pushed back into the pen, possibly as a late inning option…
Which is probably what they should’ve done out of spring training.
I guess the surprise is that they'd use him three times in high leverage situations and then after an outing that can largely be attributed to bad luck, decide he isn't capable of pitching even in low leverage situations in the majors.
There just seems to be a disconnect, which maybe isn't all that surprising with this group.
Which of course means that now Bart will get injured, Endy will continue to struggle (I have faith in Endy, though), and Davis won't be able to handle MLB catching duties.
It would seem Borucki is the one guy that has options to be sent down, to make room for Harrington. And Shugart should be the DFA. Pirates always keeping us in suspense......until gametime.
The conversation probably revolves around why they agreed to work for this organization and be the scapegoats for all the bad players the GM accumulates.
Interestingly the 5 game metrics so far seem to fall in line with Hagueanomics, or similarly to the types of player's they were targeting. Middle of pack in EV, but bottom of league in hard hit and barrels
I kid I kid. Can you elaborate on "Hagueanomics", though? I don't know anything about his philosophy but from what you posted about EV, hard hit and barrels, those all seem like negative attributes. What positive attributes would they be looking for instead of those?
It's mostly conjecture at this point, but when looking at the batted ball data of the players they were acquiring (Valdez, Horwitz, etc.), they all had similar profiles of they didn't have high barrel/hard hit rates, but they had higher than average exit velocities with lots of contact. So they're making contact often, and hitting the ball harder on average than most, but not squaring it up with monster river ball shots. Their max EVs or 90th percentile are below average. In a way could say it's better than Marcano where he was mostly making contact for the sake of contact, with well below average EV. Getting guys on base and stringing hits together, with an Oneil Cruz who is the guy you hope can run into one.
Noticed those two relievers last night throwing 99 gas.....Bigge and Rodriguez. Both were signed by Cubs years ago. Rays are 3-1 without their best hitter Yandy doing anything.
When I watch relievers like those two last night, I am reminded how easy it is to get overly excited about our pen when we're evaluating it in isolation. There are so many good relief arms out there that as impressive as Ferguson, Holderman, Santana, Mlod (before he became a starter) might be, most teams have comparable arms.
If that's how they view Bae, they should trade him and if they don't find a taker, then DFA him.
I like Bae, and to be fair to the player, they should provide an opportunity. Shuttling him between AAA where he has little to prove and the bench with the Pirates doesn't serve anyone well. While it's not necessarily excusable, when a player like Bae only gets an opportunity every few games, it's understandable that he then tries to do too much.
I would ask: what do like about Bae? He’s a fast runner, but he can’t really hit major league pitching. He needs to go to the minors and make some changes to his swing.
I want him to get one last chance to get a stretch of regular ABs to show if he can hit MLB pitching. Spring training is spring training, but he did lead the Pirates in hits, extra base hits (tied with Jack), and runs. I know there's a good chance that it was nothing more than what happens every spring with some players, but I don't think the team has enough talent not to find out for sure if there isn't something more there.
Yea... his speed really seems to be his only tool and between his baserunning and his routes in the outfield, that tool is all but negated. If this was year 1-3 of a rebuild I would be all for Bae starting every day but you can't have Paul Skenes on your roster and be wasting time on giving reps to a guy like Bae hoping that he improves.
when you're a bench bat to begin with, it's kinda on you to earn the reps when you get the opportunities. or get your dad to whine to the coach for more playing time.
I'm not yet convinced he's a bench bat, or at least not a bench bat on this roster. Or, more accurately, that he can't be a quality 4th OF.
What's frustrating to me is that last year he put up a .974 OPS in AAA and only got 81 PAs with the Pirates, while a full season of PAs went to the combination of MAT, Olivares, and BDLC.
I don't think he should take PAs away from Cruz, Suwinski, or Reynolds. But Frazier? Maybe. Or just rotate him with Reynolds and Cruz getting some time at DH. But I know I'm higher on Bae than probably anyone else on this site. Doesn't make me wrong, though ;)
If they give Bae three starts a week for the first ~6 weeks for the season to see what he can do, I'm fine with that. They should have done that last year instead of the many wasted PAs on guys noted above.
The worst part of this is it denies the fans in Pittsburgh from seeing Skenes face the Yankees on Sunday afternoon.
My cynical view is that they know they'll sell out Sunday due to it being the Yankees and pushing Skenes back to Monday for his first home appearance gives them a chance to draw a big crowd that night too.
I'm wondering if this is just their plan for him entirely during his Pirates tenure, but he never pitched on "normal" days rest last season. It was always 5 days rest, so this is his "typical" regiment.
I honestly hadn't noticed all last year till near end of season and someone pointed it out.
I think we are on the precipice of the 6 man rotation era, and within 10 years every team will do this. While the Pirates may not be the first to go with the full implementation, they are in at least a good situation to work it into this season, as they have a lot of starters. Amazing in that I can remember when 4 man rotations were the rule.
If pitchers were having fewer injuries I would conclude this makes sense, but guys are blowing their arms out all over the place despite all kinds of rest and “protection”.
It's going to be interesting if 27th man enters the CBA negotiations. The union obviously wants it and owners could be persuaded due to the 5 days rest issue.
This could be, but they also said that there would be no restrictions beyond normal usage this year and giving him the extra day rest seems like a pretty big restriction. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that this administration said one thing and did another.
I don't think it has anything to do with "cash" or profits. The only one who really cares about these are Nutting. Littlefield and Russell only care about keeping their cushy MLB jobs with all the perks, living the MLB life: fine dining, travel, hanging out with baseball players, etc... . No one is hiring either of them for just about anything once they finally get fired from these jobs. Shelton is back to selling wiffleball bats with strings and Cherington is back at Amherst teaching "sports management" to a bunch of purple-haired communists. It is all about saying, "We did everything that we could to keep Skenes healthy in case that he gets injured." They are doing what they do best... CYA.
And that cash cow might explain my cynical view in my previous post. They care more about maximizing revenue through him than winning while they have him.
They r pushing him out a day. Why? No idea. I suppose the best reason is so Keller can pitch the home opener, and the acquisition of Canario allows them to call up Harrington for a spot start without having to send someone down.
It is the Rays and regardless of the players they have under contract, Manager Kevin Cash will keep them competitive. If we are looking for somebody who could change the direction of this ballclub, he would be at the top of my list.
If not him, Don Kelly was a top managerial candidate when the Pirates hired him as the Bench Coach to Shelton. He is a baseball lifer, Pittsburgh born and raised and played at Mt Lebo, Point Park, and 9 years in MLB with 3 or 4 of those years under Jim Leyland in Detroit.
Or they could have just pitched Skenes on what should be normal 4 days rest. Then moved Mlod back to the pen to try and cover for Bednar and Blown Holderman and called up Harrington to take over the 5th starters job.
If this is true, then who is getting sent down to make room on the active roster? Only Skenes, Mlod, Bednar and Holderman have options. Anyone else will have to be waived or put on the DL. Ben put himself in this position with the way he constructed the roster. Will see how he gets himself out of it. I vote for Holderman getting a 10 day phantom DL placement.
Mlod is presumably still in the rotation, or at least he didn't pitch bad enough yesterday to already have lost his spot in the rotation and then his spot in the bullpen as well.
I think the Pirates are already at the max limit for pitchers on their roster so Harrington will have to take the place of a pitcher rather than a hitter.
Gutierrez first needs to stay healthy and hit his way out of double A before he becomes more than an emergency option.
Wouldn’t Bednar have to agree to be optioned due to his amount of service time accrued?
Seems he has a little over 4 years service time. He needs 5 full years or more to have the right to refuse minor league assignment.
Thx. Was thinking it was 4.
So I have MLB in the background as I work on some things, and they have a minor-league game between Syracuse and Scranton playing. I am happily working when I hear that Yerry de los Santos is pitching against Travis Swaggerty. Now those are blasts from the past.
Any update on which former Bucco won that match up??
de Los Santos with the K.
He was locating very well but seems to have lost a tick or 2 on his fastball. Of course, it is outrageously cold there, so hard to get a decent grip in that weather.
Hopefully Swaggs has his vertigo issues in check finally. A shame how his career got derailed
Holy crap, I’m surprised Bednar still has options, but glad they used one. I expect he will go to extended spring training until Oscar Maren says he is fixed.
Bednar optioned and Delay DFA’d. Bae lives another day. Fans of blooper reels rejoice in praise.
Why DFA Delay, who is a perfectly serviceable backup with options, when they could have put Gonzalez on the 60 day instead. Not liking the odds of Gonzalez getting back to health and getting in some minor league rehab within 60 days.
Abrahan Gutierrez is in the system and is supposed to be one of the best defensive catchers the have so a good backup still available if not more with Aberahan
maybe looking at the glut (no jinx no jinx) of upper level catchers with Hank waiting in the wings?
I wish they could rely on Hank if needed but we all saw how that went last year.
Looking down the road, if Harrington is serviceable tonight he could easily be slotted into the rotation and Carmen pushed back into the pen, possibly as a late inning option…
Which is probably what they should’ve done out of spring training.
Since blogs are for speculation ;), I don't think they'd option Bednar if there wasn't a health issue.
Why? He has lost the feel for throwing off speed pitches for strikes. He needs to figure that out before he can resume pitching in meaningful games.
You may be correct, but the eye test tells me he can't throw the FB for strikes when and where he wants to.....so overall command issues.
I guess the surprise is that they'd use him three times in high leverage situations and then after an outing that can largely be attributed to bad luck, decide he isn't capable of pitching even in low leverage situations in the majors.
There just seems to be a disconnect, which maybe isn't all that surprising with this group.
The wild pitch in 9th was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
literally not one single need to twist yourself into a conspiracy here. what scott suggested is plainly obvious.
Just heard via Keff Hawthorne on KDKA that Bednar optioned. No idea who was DFAd
Delay.
Which of course means that now Bart will get injured, Endy will continue to struggle (I have faith in Endy, though), and Davis won't be able to handle MLB catching duties.
With Rodriguez and Davis both looking so shaky, I’m really surprised they viewed Delay as a luxury.
They always have.....Heineman, Hedges, Grandal, Perez.....just throw anybody behind the plate.
There are always a pile of glove-first AAAA catchers floating around in the off-season. Not a big deal.
Wonder if he will elect FA if no one claims him?
Probably. Seems like he could easily move up to #3 somewhere.
It would seem Borucki is the one guy that has options to be sent down, to make room for Harrington. And Shugart should be the DFA. Pirates always keeping us in suspense......until gametime.
In a surprise move, it's Bednar.
Just posted as well. He was optioned but who has been DFAd? Any word?
Borucki's also the one reliable reliever. But who cares about that?
Which is why Russell used him in mopup yesterday.
Edit: He doesn't have any options left. Seems Mlod could go down.
Don’t want to see Mlod sent down
I'm curious how quickly the new bat tracking metrics are expected to "stabilize"?
Early returns on Ke'bryan not looking good at all.
Pirates have 7 of 9 hitters in lineup last night hitting at or below the Mendoza line. Hague and Vogie are probably having some deep conversations!
The conversation probably revolves around why they agreed to work for this organization and be the scapegoats for all the bad players the GM accumulates.
Braves are hitting .144 as a team, Houston .157. Most of this is just really unfortunate timing for small sample luck.
Yep, we need to face some #5 starters (and #6) and the numbers will surely improve. Surely. I hope.
Interestingly the 5 game metrics so far seem to fall in line with Hagueanomics, or similarly to the types of player's they were targeting. Middle of pack in EV, but bottom of league in hard hit and barrels
How’s about they get some of dem torpedo bats?
I like that idea
Not saying this as necessarily a bad thing. Just SSS observation
"similarly to the types of players they were targeting"
So.... bad?
I kid I kid. Can you elaborate on "Hagueanomics", though? I don't know anything about his philosophy but from what you posted about EV, hard hit and barrels, those all seem like negative attributes. What positive attributes would they be looking for instead of those?
favorite username on the site.
It's mostly conjecture at this point, but when looking at the batted ball data of the players they were acquiring (Valdez, Horwitz, etc.), they all had similar profiles of they didn't have high barrel/hard hit rates, but they had higher than average exit velocities with lots of contact. So they're making contact often, and hitting the ball harder on average than most, but not squaring it up with monster river ball shots. Their max EVs or 90th percentile are below average. In a way could say it's better than Marcano where he was mostly making contact for the sake of contact, with well below average EV. Getting guys on base and stringing hits together, with an Oneil Cruz who is the guy you hope can run into one.
Noticed those two relievers last night throwing 99 gas.....Bigge and Rodriguez. Both were signed by Cubs years ago. Rays are 3-1 without their best hitter Yandy doing anything.
Need him to stay cold for 2 more games.
When I watch relievers like those two last night, I am reminded how easy it is to get overly excited about our pen when we're evaluating it in isolation. There are so many good relief arms out there that as impressive as Ferguson, Holderman, Santana, Mlod (before he became a starter) might be, most teams have comparable arms.
Exactly, reminded me of the same. There are so many good arms out there espec for an inning or two.
I like the Canario pickup. I think Bae has a lousy swing, can’t hit good velocity, has a lousy arm. And poor baseball instincts. Send down Bae.
If that's how they view Bae, they should trade him and if they don't find a taker, then DFA him.
I like Bae, and to be fair to the player, they should provide an opportunity. Shuttling him between AAA where he has little to prove and the bench with the Pirates doesn't serve anyone well. While it's not necessarily excusable, when a player like Bae only gets an opportunity every few games, it's understandable that he then tries to do too much.
I would ask: what do like about Bae? He’s a fast runner, but he can’t really hit major league pitching. He needs to go to the minors and make some changes to his swing.
I want him to get one last chance to get a stretch of regular ABs to show if he can hit MLB pitching. Spring training is spring training, but he did lead the Pirates in hits, extra base hits (tied with Jack), and runs. I know there's a good chance that it was nothing more than what happens every spring with some players, but I don't think the team has enough talent not to find out for sure if there isn't something more there.
Yea... his speed really seems to be his only tool and between his baserunning and his routes in the outfield, that tool is all but negated. If this was year 1-3 of a rebuild I would be all for Bae starting every day but you can't have Paul Skenes on your roster and be wasting time on giving reps to a guy like Bae hoping that he improves.
when you're a bench bat to begin with, it's kinda on you to earn the reps when you get the opportunities. or get your dad to whine to the coach for more playing time.
life ain't fair and the world is mean.
I'm not yet convinced he's a bench bat, or at least not a bench bat on this roster. Or, more accurately, that he can't be a quality 4th OF.
What's frustrating to me is that last year he put up a .974 OPS in AAA and only got 81 PAs with the Pirates, while a full season of PAs went to the combination of MAT, Olivares, and BDLC.
I don't think he should take PAs away from Cruz, Suwinski, or Reynolds. But Frazier? Maybe. Or just rotate him with Reynolds and Cruz getting some time at DH. But I know I'm higher on Bae than probably anyone else on this site. Doesn't make me wrong, though ;)
Being able to play three times a week and still hit is a skill. Needing to play every day when you’re not an above avg player is a AAA skill.
If they give Bae three starts a week for the first ~6 weeks for the season to see what he can do, I'm fine with that. They should have done that last year instead of the many wasted PAs on guys noted above.
Some industry news:
Crochet gets paid.
Staff draft by BA released yesterday. Bucs take Tyler Bremner, UCSB righty.
man that's a tough number.
Yep. 28 mil per year for a guy who has topped 100 innings a season once…in his life. Pretty big gamble. Good for him.
Why are they skipping Skenes? wtf
My guess is they want him facing the Cardinals and Reds next week.
The worst part of this is it denies the fans in Pittsburgh from seeing Skenes face the Yankees on Sunday afternoon.
My cynical view is that they know they'll sell out Sunday due to it being the Yankees and pushing Skenes back to Monday for his first home appearance gives them a chance to draw a big crowd that night too.
Ding ding ding
I'm wondering if this is just their plan for him entirely during his Pirates tenure, but he never pitched on "normal" days rest last season. It was always 5 days rest, so this is his "typical" regiment.
I honestly hadn't noticed all last year till near end of season and someone pointed it out.
I think we are on the precipice of the 6 man rotation era, and within 10 years every team will do this. While the Pirates may not be the first to go with the full implementation, they are in at least a good situation to work it into this season, as they have a lot of starters. Amazing in that I can remember when 4 man rotations were the rule.
If pitchers were having fewer injuries I would conclude this makes sense, but guys are blowing their arms out all over the place despite all kinds of rest and “protection”.
McNally - Cuellar - Palmer - Dobson!
Don't see how Shelton can manage with a seven-man bullpen. He can't really even manage with eight.
It's going to be interesting if 27th man enters the CBA negotiations. The union obviously wants it and owners could be persuaded due to the 5 days rest issue.
So no risk of a downside then.
This could be, but they also said that there would be no restrictions beyond normal usage this year and giving him the extra day rest seems like a pretty big restriction. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that this administration said one thing and did another.
Yeah, by "no restrictions", they probably just mean pitch counts in an individual start.
They'll protect him at all costs. He's their "cash cow". He boosts local AND national attention.
I don't think it has anything to do with "cash" or profits. The only one who really cares about these are Nutting. Littlefield and Russell only care about keeping their cushy MLB jobs with all the perks, living the MLB life: fine dining, travel, hanging out with baseball players, etc... . No one is hiring either of them for just about anything once they finally get fired from these jobs. Shelton is back to selling wiffleball bats with strings and Cherington is back at Amherst teaching "sports management" to a bunch of purple-haired communists. It is all about saying, "We did everything that we could to keep Skenes healthy in case that he gets injured." They are doing what they do best... CYA.
And that cash cow might explain my cynical view in my previous post. They care more about maximizing revenue through him than winning while they have him.
They r pushing him out a day. Why? No idea. I suppose the best reason is so Keller can pitch the home opener, and the acquisition of Canario allows them to call up Harrington for a spot start without having to send someone down.
1 xbh
It is the Rays and regardless of the players they have under contract, Manager Kevin Cash will keep them competitive. If we are looking for somebody who could change the direction of this ballclub, he would be at the top of my list.
If not him, Don Kelly was a top managerial candidate when the Pirates hired him as the Bench Coach to Shelton. He is a baseball lifer, Pittsburgh born and raised and played at Mt Lebo, Point Park, and 9 years in MLB with 3 or 4 of those years under Jim Leyland in Detroit.
They're GM keeps them competitive.
Replace Cash with Shelton and the Pirates would still suck
Bob Nutting utterly rejects the idea of replacing cash.
You might have hit on a way for the Pirates to hire him away from the Rays. Just tell Nutting you’re bringing in cash.
Harrington called up to start tonight!
Finally something that makes sense!
They had to do something to give us a reason to watch, and this is about the best they could have done :)
Or they could have just pitched Skenes on what should be normal 4 days rest. Then moved Mlod back to the pen to try and cover for Bednar and Blown Holderman and called up Harrington to take over the 5th starters job.
Nah, makes too much sense.
If this is true, then who is getting sent down to make room on the active roster? Only Skenes, Mlod, Bednar and Holderman have options. Anyone else will have to be waived or put on the DL. Ben put himself in this position with the way he constructed the roster. Will see how he gets himself out of it. I vote for Holderman getting a 10 day phantom DL placement.
Call up Harrington, send down Mlod.
Mlod returns when one of the RP’s has to go on IL for arm soreness after pitching poorly.
Mlod is presumably still in the rotation, or at least he didn't pitch bad enough yesterday to already have lost his spot in the rotation and then his spot in the bullpen as well.
Valdez or Bae will go down. Tomorrow Canario will replace Harrington.
I think the Pirates are already at the max limit for pitchers on their roster so Harrington will have to take the place of a pitcher rather than a hitter.