You asked the other day if there was anything Cherington was good at. He is good about keeping the Pirates up-to-date with all the latest technological gizmos. I found the stuff that Casas said about the eyes to be much more interesting. Syd Thrift used to talk about the same things: the number of muscles in the eye, optical dynamics, and the importance of training the eye muscles to track high-velocity objects moving toward you: like a boxer.
I am not doubting Skenes is a stud and yes it would be smart from a marketing standpoint. I am also old school and want to give it to the guy that has earned in by their first half performance. If Skenes wins a few more games, I think his numbers will justify being on the all-star team. 2024 might be the best numbers from NL starting pitchers we have seen for years.
Mark DeRosa today was making a push for Skenes to make the all-star game. He said that would add some excitement to the game. It reminds a litte of when Puig broke into the majors. He was hitting .391 with 8 homers in 38 games. They actually left him off.
Could not have hoped for a better start to his professional career, but don't know that "Everyone" would even include all of the Pirate fans let alone the other 14 teams in the NL. After 7 Starts, Paul Skenes is 4-0, 2.29 ERA, but let's not forget the 28 Starts from Mitch Keller, 8-4, 3.36 ERA and Jared Jones, 4-6, 3.76 ERA. Best of all and counting 2024 are the combined 17 years of contractual obligation to the Pirates of these 3 pitchers. 2025 could be the first year in recent memory that the Pirates should not feel the need to sign a FA SP!
We're going to lose a contractual year when Skenes finishes in the top 2 for ROY, so make that 16.
Of course Nutting should agree to an extension that buys out a year or two of FA for Skenes, which might be realistic given that Skenes could still enter FA in his 20s.
Nutting may agree to that but we have no idea if Skenes will agree to that. Depends how much he likes bing here vs top dollar for his services. If he really likes it here he will agree to a deal that probably will cost him several million for those couple of FA years. If Skenes is of the Cole mindset, he won’t even entertain an offer.
Yes, Skenes would have to want to be here but most players (perhaps even Cole--I've never heard that we tried to extend him in early in his career) would trade a year or two of control to remove the risk of never seeing a 9-figure deal due to injury. It would only delay Skenes from pitching somewhere else, if he wanted to.
The key is that the Pirates' offer can't be such that it "probably will cost him several million for those couple of FA years" and instead must be based on his expected earnings for those years (that would be a complicated calculation because of how teams spread out salaries over the years of a contract).
My thoughts on Cole are based on him not willing to even counter a supposed substantial offer after they acquired him. Who knows if he and Boras told the Bucs that the did not want to discuss any type of extension. Cole bet on himself and certainly won. Will be an interesting 5-6 years to see how it turns out for Skenes and Jones both.
Cole wanted to be a free agent at age 29 because he thought it would get him a large contract. Too bad for him he only was able to sign a 324 million dollar contract.
Much of where Skenes finishes in the voting depends on how voters view Imanaga and Yamamoto (who may miss time anyway). Some voters disqualify them because they don’t consider NPB a minor league. Among hitters, Joey Ortiz certainly seems headed for a top 3 finish, and Jackson Merrill too. But the overall rookie class is pretty light.
I think before the season, he would have signed an 8 year $100 mil with an option or 2 to get to around $150 mil. Now it would be in the $150+/- mil for 8 and the 8th would be the option year.
That's probably in the ballpark and should be doable. If this gets discussed at all in the next year, I'm sure it will be after the season once all parties know whether 5 or 6 years of control remain.
If the Pirates wanted to be bold, they'd negotiate now as if he'll place top 2 in ROY, but I'd be shocked if they did that and Paul probably wants to get a better sense of the city and the direction the organization is heading before committing to extra years anyway.
The pirates really missed the chance to be bold. Extending him before the season would have been very risky, but it's looking like a no brainer in hindsight.
They could justify it--he leads the NL in xFIP and NL starters in SIERA. But I'd guess there would be some backlash among his NL pitching peers if he got the nod over someone like Ranger Suarez or Glasnow. Coincidentally, though, as I count ahead for his turns in the rotation, he's lined up perfectly to pitch in the All Star Game.
If you're insane, the MLB combine is on MLB.tv right now
https://www.mlb.com/news/jurrangelo-cijntje-ambidextrous-pitcher-mississippi-state
That guy's a bit fun from a roster construction perspective.
Cade Obermueller almost at 3k RPMs as a LHP
This Triston Casas article https://blogs.fangraphs.com/triston-casas-talks-hitting-training/ got me wondering if the Pirates have a Trajekt and it turns out they got one this offseason. Could be a part of why bats are struggling, honestly. Sounds like it takes a while to figure out. https://archive.is/JZJAK
Sounds like most teams have them now: https://apnews.com/article/trajekt-pitching-machines-mlb-d1fa69e776bcb394adbce07d268193a7
You asked the other day if there was anything Cherington was good at. He is good about keeping the Pirates up-to-date with all the latest technological gizmos. I found the stuff that Casas said about the eyes to be much more interesting. Syd Thrift used to talk about the same things: the number of muscles in the eye, optical dynamics, and the importance of training the eye muscles to track high-velocity objects moving toward you: like a boxer.
Paul Skenes might not be The God; be he is a God.
Paul, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!
Skenes should be the NL Starting Pitcher in the AS game. Everyone who cares about baseball would love to see it.
Ranger Suarez 10-1 1.77 ERA .88 WHIP .186 AVG 91 K'S
Paul Skenes 4-0 2.29 ERA .99 WHIP .221 AVG 53 K'S
I am not doubting Skenes is a stud and yes it would be smart from a marketing standpoint. I am also old school and want to give it to the guy that has earned in by their first half performance. If Skenes wins a few more games, I think his numbers will justify being on the all-star team. 2024 might be the best numbers from NL starting pitchers we have seen for years.
shut up, nerd
Mark DeRosa today was making a push for Skenes to make the all-star game. He said that would add some excitement to the game. It reminds a litte of when Puig broke into the majors. He was hitting .391 with 8 homers in 38 games. They actually left him off.
Could not have hoped for a better start to his professional career, but don't know that "Everyone" would even include all of the Pirate fans let alone the other 14 teams in the NL. After 7 Starts, Paul Skenes is 4-0, 2.29 ERA, but let's not forget the 28 Starts from Mitch Keller, 8-4, 3.36 ERA and Jared Jones, 4-6, 3.76 ERA. Best of all and counting 2024 are the combined 17 years of contractual obligation to the Pirates of these 3 pitchers. 2025 could be the first year in recent memory that the Pirates should not feel the need to sign a FA SP!
We're going to lose a contractual year when Skenes finishes in the top 2 for ROY, so make that 16.
Of course Nutting should agree to an extension that buys out a year or two of FA for Skenes, which might be realistic given that Skenes could still enter FA in his 20s.
Nutting may agree to that but we have no idea if Skenes will agree to that. Depends how much he likes bing here vs top dollar for his services. If he really likes it here he will agree to a deal that probably will cost him several million for those couple of FA years. If Skenes is of the Cole mindset, he won’t even entertain an offer.
Yes, Skenes would have to want to be here but most players (perhaps even Cole--I've never heard that we tried to extend him in early in his career) would trade a year or two of control to remove the risk of never seeing a 9-figure deal due to injury. It would only delay Skenes from pitching somewhere else, if he wanted to.
The key is that the Pirates' offer can't be such that it "probably will cost him several million for those couple of FA years" and instead must be based on his expected earnings for those years (that would be a complicated calculation because of how teams spread out salaries over the years of a contract).
My thoughts on Cole are based on him not willing to even counter a supposed substantial offer after they acquired him. Who knows if he and Boras told the Bucs that the did not want to discuss any type of extension. Cole bet on himself and certainly won. Will be an interesting 5-6 years to see how it turns out for Skenes and Jones both.
Cole wanted to be a free agent at age 29 because he thought it would get him a large contract. Too bad for him he only was able to sign a 324 million dollar contract.
Much of where Skenes finishes in the voting depends on how voters view Imanaga and Yamamoto (who may miss time anyway). Some voters disqualify them because they don’t consider NPB a minor league. Among hitters, Joey Ortiz certainly seems headed for a top 3 finish, and Jackson Merrill too. But the overall rookie class is pretty light.
fanduel odds for nl rookie of the year
Imanaga plus 105
Skenes plus 170
Merrill plus 1100
Ortiz plus 1100
Winn plus 1800
Jones plus 1800
Yamamoto plus 4800
the rest are plus 6000 or higher
That darn Yamamoto injury might have cost the Pirates a year of control with Skenes.
My first thought when I saw the news about Yamamoto (am I too Pirates-centric?).
I was hoping Nutting could have done that before they brought him up.
I think before the season, he would have signed an 8 year $100 mil with an option or 2 to get to around $150 mil. Now it would be in the $150+/- mil for 8 and the 8th would be the option year.
That's probably in the ballpark and should be doable. If this gets discussed at all in the next year, I'm sure it will be after the season once all parties know whether 5 or 6 years of control remain.
If the Pirates wanted to be bold, they'd negotiate now as if he'll place top 2 in ROY, but I'd be shocked if they did that and Paul probably wants to get a better sense of the city and the direction the organization is heading before committing to extra years anyway.
The pirates really missed the chance to be bold. Extending him before the season would have been very risky, but it's looking like a no brainer in hindsight.
Nutting ventured nothing gained.
They could justify it--he leads the NL in xFIP and NL starters in SIERA. But I'd guess there would be some backlash among his NL pitching peers if he got the nod over someone like Ranger Suarez or Glasnow. Coincidentally, though, as I count ahead for his turns in the rotation, he's lined up perfectly to pitch in the All Star Game.
there are more than enough reasons from a particular social media influencer that will make it a no doubt decision for mlb tv execs