Fleming and Anderson making it hard on the Pirates to keep Roansy and Falter. Good. I'm rooting for Fleming anyway and don't think this spring is a fluke.
The Anderson thing is probably just a small-sample-sized fluke. I don't think the guy just found something new at 35 or whatever. He is who he is a 5.00 FIP/ ERA type who can fill in as a 5th starter on an emergency basis like he did for Colorado last year. Fleming is a different story. I'm not sure he got a real chance or fair shake in Tampa. A guy who rarely walks anyone and has 61% groundball rate is pretty enticing. I don't think this his showing this spring was entirely a fluke.
You could be right, but that incredibly low K rate is alarming. RH have all day for his pitches to get to the plate. I think Fleming and Anderson is fine AAA depth.
I’ve said this before — The state of this rotation, with one established starter five years into a supposed rebuild, definitively brands Cherington as a drooling incompetent.
I kind of see this as a coin of two sides…. On one hand it seems there should be more pitching that is ‘already there’. On the other, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the club with ‘close’ pitching depth of the quantity and quality that seems to be there now. More legit arms in the mid-minors and higher than I can remember.
Now if they can get a few young bats to follow along. 🙂
This might be a swing year for Cherington--either we hop on board his bandwagon after Jones and Skenes make successful debuts, the veterans he acquired to help the rotation prove competent, and Chandler and others progress in the minors. Or, Jones struggles, the veterans prove to be what we thought they were when he acquired them, and Chandler and others stagnate in the minors. (I couldn't bring myself to offer anything negative about Skenes, though there is always the risk of injury.) All to say, huge year in determining whether Cherington is up for the job.
I think somewhere around 75 is about right. Probably last in the division. I think all the teams in the division are flawed, but I think our flaws are most glaring. They are correct that the pitching is inexcusable. They definitely misjudged the market. Their strategy is flawed in addition to misjudging the market. No excuse not to sign a mid-tier free agent to a short term market value deal, other than that their philosophy on spending free agent dollars prevents such an acquisition.
Especially considering the state of the industry. It’s just one massive pileup of Tommy John’s and shoulder issues. The way teams value free agent pitching has shifted wildly too. Teams aren’t willing to overpay for the “safer” production of a guy like Perez. They are more willing to overpay for the greater upside of a guy like Montas. They need to get of the budgetary straight jacket that they’ve voluntary placed themselves into.
Meh, I took a big whiff of hopium this morning. Ill chalk this up to national guys going for some surface level headlines and nothing more. We ride to .500 this year!
I give them about an 8% chance of winning the division and a 40% chance to finish .500. They are not hopeless as in years past, but they are not exactly the Orioles in year 5 of a new administration either.
To a degree. It’s always good to recalibrate with industry thoughts about the organization, to compare it with what we’re reading as fans. We always think the best for our guys, but that’s unlikely to transpire.
I feel like the Bucs break .500 this season and finish strong.
I don't think Davis is a "poor" catcher. He's Ryan Doumit.
I said last offseason that Mike Wazowski was my bet to take significant strides forward. He did, which means I am a Super-Genius. And I think Suwinski takes another positive step this season. Write it down, ya bastads!
The pitching will out-perform these low-bar standards. My hunch here is they have a lot of depth and will rotate it if necessary to good effect. Note the winning record in bullpen games last year.
____________________________
"Wile- E - Coyote: Suuuuper-Geeennniiusss! I like the way that rolls out."
Ryan Doumit was awful defensively though. And I think their criticism is fair of him. He’s been bad or thought to be bad behind the plate for awhile. If he works himself up to average, and hits like he’s able to, that’s a huge win.
Apologies ahead of time for the language, but how the fuck do you get -3.4 fWAR with a 123 wRC*?!?!?!? That was a slow period of me following baseball. Though I remember being a fan of him. Iirc his 1b defense was pretty brutal as well. Shame the DH didn’t exist in the NL back then.
I remembered his inability to catch throws home. Got to the point that whenever a runner was heading home he was gonna be save no matter how obviously out he looked. After all that he was one of my favorites on that team.
Doumit sure could hit and man, watching the ball clank off his glove was something.
I bet he'd been concussed a few times or something.
On a separate note, I wonder what ever happened to Francisco Cervelli... LOVED that guy and it was sad to see him suffer so many head injuries. THAT would be a nice feature article for BucsOnDeck, I think.
Cervelli was def a nice guy and great professional but man was it tough to watch him catch some games. It seemed like he didn’t wear any equipment behind the plate because every foul tip was followed by 3 minutes of him walking around.
i just drafted skenes in my league thinking he'd start the year with the pirates, too!!
Fleming and Anderson making it hard on the Pirates to keep Roansy and Falter. Good. I'm rooting for Fleming anyway and don't think this spring is a fluke.
Even if they don't keep Ro and Falter, there's better options than Fleming and Anderson.
The Anderson thing is probably just a small-sample-sized fluke. I don't think the guy just found something new at 35 or whatever. He is who he is a 5.00 FIP/ ERA type who can fill in as a 5th starter on an emergency basis like he did for Colorado last year. Fleming is a different story. I'm not sure he got a real chance or fair shake in Tampa. A guy who rarely walks anyone and has 61% groundball rate is pretty enticing. I don't think this his showing this spring was entirely a fluke.
You could be right, but that incredibly low K rate is alarming. RH have all day for his pitches to get to the plate. I think Fleming and Anderson is fine AAA depth.
I doubt Fleming makes it to AAA. He is on a split deal and someone will pick him up, given all the injuries to pitchers this spring.
15 Whiffs for Anderson? Impressive!
I definitely did a double take looking at that number
I’m sure the guys are chomping at the bit to get the show on the road. I know I am.
T minus 10 days!
BP posted their podcast preview for the NL central. Pecota has the Bucs at 73-89, two of the three podcasters took the under. Some highlights:
-Their opinion is split on Davis hitting. They all think he’s a poor catcher.
-Cruz and Hayes are gonna have big years. They think Jack has a possibility to crater.
-Pitching is gonna be disastrous; they don’t have faith in anyone beyond Keller. They do seem to like Jared Jones. Bednar is due for a swoon.
Opinions are like rear ends. Everyone has one. Mine is 85-77.
Our hitting will be upper half of NL and Davis will be at least be average on defense.
I’ve said this before — The state of this rotation, with one established starter five years into a supposed rebuild, definitively brands Cherington as a drooling incompetent.
He may prove to be incompetent but I haven't seen him drool yet.
I kind of see this as a coin of two sides…. On one hand it seems there should be more pitching that is ‘already there’. On the other, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the club with ‘close’ pitching depth of the quantity and quality that seems to be there now. More legit arms in the mid-minors and higher than I can remember.
Now if they can get a few young bats to follow along. 🙂
This might be a swing year for Cherington--either we hop on board his bandwagon after Jones and Skenes make successful debuts, the veterans he acquired to help the rotation prove competent, and Chandler and others progress in the minors. Or, Jones struggles, the veterans prove to be what we thought they were when he acquired them, and Chandler and others stagnate in the minors. (I couldn't bring myself to offer anything negative about Skenes, though there is always the risk of injury.) All to say, huge year in determining whether Cherington is up for the job.
I think somewhere around 75 is about right. Probably last in the division. I think all the teams in the division are flawed, but I think our flaws are most glaring. They are correct that the pitching is inexcusable. They definitely misjudged the market. Their strategy is flawed in addition to misjudging the market. No excuse not to sign a mid-tier free agent to a short term market value deal, other than that their philosophy on spending free agent dollars prevents such an acquisition.
They’re constantly surprised that the cost of pitching is going up. How can you continually to be surprised at that?
Especially considering the state of the industry. It’s just one massive pileup of Tommy John’s and shoulder issues. The way teams value free agent pitching has shifted wildly too. Teams aren’t willing to overpay for the “safer” production of a guy like Perez. They are more willing to overpay for the greater upside of a guy like Montas. They need to get of the budgetary straight jacket that they’ve voluntary placed themselves into.
Anyone with a profile like Jack's can crater. I think he'll have big swings in production from one year to the other.
Look at Joey Gallo.
Maybe BP should stick to Gas and Oil...
Meh, I took a big whiff of hopium this morning. Ill chalk this up to national guys going for some surface level headlines and nothing more. We ride to .500 this year!
I give them about an 8% chance of winning the division and a 40% chance to finish .500. They are not hopeless as in years past, but they are not exactly the Orioles in year 5 of a new administration either.
To a degree. It’s always good to recalibrate with industry thoughts about the organization, to compare it with what we’re reading as fans. We always think the best for our guys, but that’s unlikely to transpire.
Shows what those guys know.
I feel like the Bucs break .500 this season and finish strong.
I don't think Davis is a "poor" catcher. He's Ryan Doumit.
I said last offseason that Mike Wazowski was my bet to take significant strides forward. He did, which means I am a Super-Genius. And I think Suwinski takes another positive step this season. Write it down, ya bastads!
The pitching will out-perform these low-bar standards. My hunch here is they have a lot of depth and will rotate it if necessary to good effect. Note the winning record in bullpen games last year.
____________________________
"Wile- E - Coyote: Suuuuper-Geeennniiusss! I like the way that rolls out."
-Wabbit
Ryan Doumit was awful defensively though. And I think their criticism is fair of him. He’s been bad or thought to be bad behind the plate for awhile. If he works himself up to average, and hits like he’s able to, that’s a huge win.
Noumit had a 123 wRC+ in 2008 and was worth -3.4 fWAR. My God!
Davis is bad, but he's not that bad.
Apologies ahead of time for the language, but how the fuck do you get -3.4 fWAR with a 123 wRC*?!?!?!? That was a slow period of me following baseball. Though I remember being a fan of him. Iirc his 1b defense was pretty brutal as well. Shame the DH didn’t exist in the NL back then.
I remembered his inability to catch throws home. Got to the point that whenever a runner was heading home he was gonna be save no matter how obviously out he looked. After all that he was one of my favorites on that team.
I’m not sure anyone can ever be that bad.
Pretty sure he got a trophy for being the worst defensive catcher of all-time.
Doumit is the antithesis of Austin Hedges.
Arky... so you get my humor.
Doumit sure could hit and man, watching the ball clank off his glove was something.
I bet he'd been concussed a few times or something.
On a separate note, I wonder what ever happened to Francisco Cervelli... LOVED that guy and it was sad to see him suffer so many head injuries. THAT would be a nice feature article for BucsOnDeck, I think.
Cervelli was def a nice guy and great professional but man was it tough to watch him catch some games. It seemed like he didn’t wear any equipment behind the plate because every foul tip was followed by 3 minutes of him walking around.
It's theatre. I love me a showman and that's what Frankie was.
He was a fun cat. Baseball is supposed to be fun!
Murph, what is your email?
Thx!
Bucsondeck@gmail.com