I (maybe) don’t mind Frazier as much with Shelton gone. From the time he signed, I figured Shelton would do anything to find him 5-6 starts a week. Judging from his willingness to forgo Phamine, I’m guessing Kelly will be willing to relegate Frazier to his proper bench role once Nick returns. Unless Birdbrain intervenes.
He's a contact hitter and a veteran who's supposed to know not to bunt directly back to the pitcher. The little things. A foul bunt would be better than his bunt.
Taijuan Walker of the 2.62 ERA? Yeah man what a shame.
Abel looks like he might be turning it around but had struggled to the point of working himself out of a starter role heading into this season. Hope for him he figured it out.
I was surprised to hear Cole Tucker as a guest on MLB radio yesterday. Didn't know he was not playing anymore in Milb. He is decent on radio, not quite at Brault's level, but he thought the Phillies might go with Walker as closer. My first reaction was that's dumb......but anyway, will be interesting how the Phils address the Alvardo suspension.
IMO they've got to outside the org and trade for a closer. Plan B might be Kerkering.
Romano might be fine. In his last 8 outings/innings he's allowed 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, and has 11 Ks. If his early-season struggles were related to only pitching 13.2 innings last year, maybe he can return to his '21-'23 form when he was one of the best closers in baseball.
Looked very good yesterday. They probably do need another back-end piece though. I think the plan was to use Alvarado against the lefties in late innings and Romano against righties. So they are probably looking for a late-inning lefty. Ferguson might be of interest to them.
Cole was the guest on this past weekend's Jason Mackey podcast I caught on YouTube. He explained there were opportunities but he has a baby at home now so he decided to hang it up.. He's doing some part time coaching with the Angels now and that may be his future in the game as well as broadcasting.
Yeah, this week will show more than last week. And even last week, they had the three 1-run losses and the Pham-drop/check swing call on Harper game, so they weren't far from a 3-3 road trip against two of the best teams in MLB.
They may "only" be 3 starting pitchers away from being decent, but Gibson and Morton weren't even giving them chances to win. It must have been very frustrating to their fans when those two were their primary answer to losing Burnes.
Canario is looking good and so much more confident since Kelly has taken over.
And I thought Horwitz looked pretty good given that it was his first series back. When Cruz gets back to himself and assuming Reynolds is now back to being more like himself, they should be able to put an okay lineup out there.
Obviously, they've dug way too deep of a hole for any hope of contending this season, but maybe they can still inspire some hope for the future.
Kinda where I'm at...Let's see what they can do with a full healthy lineup. Horwitz, Gonzales, play Canario every day in LF. See if a healthy Moreta can help the pen. See if Cruz, Hayes, Keller and Reynolds can finish strong for the last 3/4 of the season.
There are still reasons to watch. It's painful to watch this offense, but hopefully they'll get it together a bit.
My hope and “fear” is that at some point things start clicking for this team and they put two really good months together which will make the first two months all the more painful.
Agreed, which is why so many of us want BC to go. Back to back 76 win seasons with strong pitching present and more coming should mean improvement, not a 100 loss season. BC mailed in an offseason only his mother could applaud.
Thank you. This team has been crippled since ST with Jones going on the IL, Horwitz undergoing corrective surgery that was not projected when the trade was made, and NG out since Day1. Then Reynolds/Pham having bad starts and Cruz out on the IL. The Pirates are just not deep enough to handle all of that. Good example of how bad it has been is that only one Pirate has played in more games than Adam Frazier!!
It's difficult, but, at this point, the Pirates need to be playing for 2026 - that means that guys like Frazier and Pham have to be bench strength at best, and IKF continuing to play, but we need to get Peguero up to get starts at both SS and 2B.
The MI at AA, Brannigan and Johnson, are playing very well on both sides of the ball.
Anyways. I'm liking some of the hitters in Greensboro looking like they're seeing breakthroughs. Improving in areas that were of concern with regards to moving up a level.
He had one winning year, 2013. The rest losing years, mostly last place years. You can't rest on your laurels from 12 years ago, it's all about what have you done lately in pro sports. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut on occasion. He's been a failure in Pittsburgh so it's easy to call him a loser.
It's not my word choice, but I certainly will call him a failure in Pitts. I'll give him 1/4 success grade with pitching; 3/4 failure grade in hitters and hiring of coaches (which correlates with player development and game planning and field execution). And roster composition has been pitiful full of 2nd basemen and utility players.
I was almost tuned out but the Shelton firing and the return of some of the lineup guys have me still paying attention. If wishes were horses and all that ... but with a different GM I could see some light in that proverbial tunnel. I really hope Canario continues his improvement - I would love to see a guy taken from the Cubs successful with the Bucs.
Watching Skenes develop into the complete package of the premier pitcher in baseball; watching Bednar come back to form and rooting for him; watching Keller spin gems through the warm months of the season; watching with satisfaction as Cruz becomes a borderline star; seeing the twilight of McCutchen's career and seeing his competitive fire still burn. There are lots of reasons to watch. Unfortunately, those reasons are individual players and not the overall quality of the team.
That's why I thought it was so important last season for the Pirates to bring in a leader and spend another 20 million to make the right signings. Watching the Reds sign Terry Francona (grew up near Pittsburgh) was clue #1 that the Pirates were not all in on my plan.
Can we PLEASE stop playing Adam Frazier.... there is zero reason to not be giving this playing time to Solak until Gonzales comes back
I was listening until...."to Solak". Exchanging mediocrity with post-prospect mediocrity.
But yeah can't wait for Nicky G. return.
I (maybe) don’t mind Frazier as much with Shelton gone. From the time he signed, I figured Shelton would do anything to find him 5-6 starts a week. Judging from his willingness to forgo Phamine, I’m guessing Kelly will be willing to relegate Frazier to his proper bench role once Nick returns. Unless Birdbrain intervenes.
The Pirates didn't pay Frazier all that money to have him sit. 1.5 million dollars!!!!! :)
He's a contact hitter and a veteran who's supposed to know not to bunt directly back to the pitcher. The little things. A foul bunt would be better than his bunt.
Imagine being a Phillies fan and knowing Abel is going to be sent down so Taijuan Walker can start.
He was pretty amped up; heater was up almost 2 ticks from where he was in AAA.
Taijuan Walker of the 2.62 ERA? Yeah man what a shame.
Abel looks like he might be turning it around but had struggled to the point of working himself out of a starter role heading into this season. Hope for him he figured it out.
Yeah. Except for last season, Walker has been good for a long time. Kind of injury prone though isn't he?
I was surprised to hear Cole Tucker as a guest on MLB radio yesterday. Didn't know he was not playing anymore in Milb. He is decent on radio, not quite at Brault's level, but he thought the Phillies might go with Walker as closer. My first reaction was that's dumb......but anyway, will be interesting how the Phils address the Alvardo suspension.
IMO they've got to outside the org and trade for a closer. Plan B might be Kerkering.
Romano might be fine. In his last 8 outings/innings he's allowed 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, and has 11 Ks. If his early-season struggles were related to only pitching 13.2 innings last year, maybe he can return to his '21-'23 form when he was one of the best closers in baseball.
Looked very good yesterday. They probably do need another back-end piece though. I think the plan was to use Alvarado against the lefties in late innings and Romano against righties. So they are probably looking for a late-inning lefty. Ferguson might be of interest to them.
They have one of the best late inning lefties in baseball - Matt Strahm.
And one of the best baseball card show hosts.
Cole was the guest on this past weekend's Jason Mackey podcast I caught on YouTube. He explained there were opportunities but he has a baby at home now so he decided to hang it up.. He's doing some part time coaching with the Angels now and that may be his future in the game as well as broadcasting.
One of my fantasy teams would LOVE Kerkering as the closer lol
absolute STUD prospect. relievers, man.
I'm guessing they'll try and trade for Chapman.
Maybe we can interest them in a gently used David Bednar.
Bob would never allow that.
Abel for Bednar.
Pick up the phone, Ben.
He was on point for sure yesterday. But it's one start and he struggled badly last season.
Don't think I'd be working with his agent on extension quite yet.
3-6 since Shelton got canned, that was predictable vs those 3 NL East teams. Should have better results vs Reds and Brewers, ie 4-3.
Problem is the Redsare on a heater right now, especially Will benson, who has homered in the last 4 games and has 5 in this stretch.
They're having trouble scoring runs too, 22 runs in last 7 games. 3.1 runs per game.....that may be enough to sweep us lol.
Yeah, this week will show more than last week. And even last week, they had the three 1-run losses and the Pham-drop/check swing call on Harper game, so they weren't far from a 3-3 road trip against two of the best teams in MLB.
If you strip out all the bad results, they look pretty good!
It's the best 15-32 team I've ever seen.
But if the Orioles lose their next 2 ...
I'd honestly be crapping myself worse if I were them. Those vaunted bats are mediocre at best.
That's like if the Pirates were losing because their starting pitching sucked.
We at least knew our offense would suck, lol.
It would be surprising if the bats didn't turn around for them. That's
a historically bad stretch, but I would literally place a bet they will
improve collectively back into a top 10-12 offense.
I knew the Os weren't doing well, but when they fired their manager I realized just how BAD they were doing
They may "only" be 3 starting pitchers away from being decent, but Gibson and Morton weren't even giving them chances to win. It must have been very frustrating to their fans when those two were their primary answer to losing Burnes.
O's might be bad for real. They're getting blown out basically on a nightly basis.
2 xbh’s in three game series, you can’t make this shit up!
Cruz just killed us this series, and he's one of the few guys who regularly gets xbh's.
That many?
Just trying to find the positives from being swept by Philly over the weekend:
* Team was in position to win 2 of the 3
* Heaney and Skenes with VG Starts
* Canario with a 3-8 weekend including a HR, 3 RBI, 2 R.
* Reynolds with a 3-7 weekend, including 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 R
* Cruz and Horwitz in the lineup moving forward
Canario is looking good and so much more confident since Kelly has taken over.
And I thought Horwitz looked pretty good given that it was his first series back. When Cruz gets back to himself and assuming Reynolds is now back to being more like himself, they should be able to put an okay lineup out there.
Obviously, they've dug way too deep of a hole for any hope of contending this season, but maybe they can still inspire some hope for the future.
Kinda where I'm at...Let's see what they can do with a full healthy lineup. Horwitz, Gonzales, play Canario every day in LF. See if a healthy Moreta can help the pen. See if Cruz, Hayes, Keller and Reynolds can finish strong for the last 3/4 of the season.
There are still reasons to watch. It's painful to watch this offense, but hopefully they'll get it together a bit.
My hope and “fear” is that at some point things start clicking for this team and they put two really good months together which will make the first two months all the more painful.
That's better than the depths of 2008 or 2021. They're not getting blown out.
This is the kind of team that improves 20 games with a half-decent offseason.
Agreed, which is why so many of us want BC to go. Back to back 76 win seasons with strong pitching present and more coming should mean improvement, not a 100 loss season. BC mailed in an offseason only his mother could applaud.
Even his mother said she wasn’t mad at his offseason. She’s just disappointed.
Good on you, Mel. I'd much rather read this than celebrating how bad they are and how big of a loser the GM is.
Thank you. This team has been crippled since ST with Jones going on the IL, Horwitz undergoing corrective surgery that was not projected when the trade was made, and NG out since Day1. Then Reynolds/Pham having bad starts and Cruz out on the IL. The Pirates are just not deep enough to handle all of that. Good example of how bad it has been is that only one Pirate has played in more games than Adam Frazier!!
It's difficult, but, at this point, the Pirates need to be playing for 2026 - that means that guys like Frazier and Pham have to be bench strength at best, and IKF continuing to play, but we need to get Peguero up to get starts at both SS and 2B.
The MI at AA, Brannigan and Johnson, are playing very well on both sides of the ball.
Love the Peggy reference, Mel always pounding the table!
I appreciate the optimism but I really don't think that people who are speaking of the obvious problems are celebrating them. It is what it is.
I mean, but he's a pretty big loser!!!! lol
He's a f*cking nerd, sure. But I'm not calling a guy with a WS ring a loser.
I will. He's a loser.
Anyways. I'm liking some of the hitters in Greensboro looking like they're seeing breakthroughs. Improving in areas that were of concern with regards to moving up a level.
He had one winning year, 2013. The rest losing years, mostly last place years. You can't rest on your laurels from 12 years ago, it's all about what have you done lately in pro sports. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut on occasion. He's been a failure in Pittsburgh so it's easy to call him a loser.
Flags Fly Forever.
I have a real hard time calling any GM is pro sports a loser.
When I think of a loser, I think of a deadbeat Dad, or someone that can't hold a job, or a man that beats women.
You don't get 2 GM jobs in baseball by being a loser.
It's not my word choice, but I certainly will call him a failure in Pitts. I'll give him 1/4 success grade with pitching; 3/4 failure grade in hitters and hiring of coaches (which correlates with player development and game planning and field execution). And roster composition has been pitiful full of 2nd basemen and utility players.
I appreciate this post especially on Monday morning.
I was almost tuned out but the Shelton firing and the return of some of the lineup guys have me still paying attention. If wishes were horses and all that ... but with a different GM I could see some light in that proverbial tunnel. I really hope Canario continues his improvement - I would love to see a guy taken from the Cubs successful with the Bucs.
Watching Skenes develop into the complete package of the premier pitcher in baseball; watching Bednar come back to form and rooting for him; watching Keller spin gems through the warm months of the season; watching with satisfaction as Cruz becomes a borderline star; seeing the twilight of McCutchen's career and seeing his competitive fire still burn. There are lots of reasons to watch. Unfortunately, those reasons are individual players and not the overall quality of the team.
That's why I thought it was so important last season for the Pirates to bring in a leader and spend another 20 million to make the right signings. Watching the Reds sign Terry Francona (grew up near Pittsburgh) was clue #1 that the Pirates were not all in on my plan.
New Brighton.
Wonder if he's been to the crazy horse?
I plead the 5th.