Me too, had thunderstorms in my area, stream was terrible really couldn't tell his velocity or pitch type well. He looked like his command was pretty good, but I'm not sure, the catcher might have been framing well.
I'm still amazed he's keeping his walk rate below 10%, thought it would be closer 15% lol.
Thanks for sharing, though I am kinda disappointed in the article. Usually I like fangraphs' stuff but my takeaway from that one is that Davy Andrews liked the show of having Cruz at SS. Definitely arguments both for moving him off or keeping him there, but I dont think that writer did a great job of supporting much of anything
I like Baumann’s stuff as it’s a little offbeat and I think he’s a decent writer. Some of the rest of the newer folks, I don’t like as much. I’ll always read Clemens and EL.
have we considered the possibility that Bednar just does not like shelton and that David is performing his duty to the team and the city to get rid of this schlop manager?
Hard to get excited for 2025 without improvements. SP will be there I'm confident like you said. I have to hope we look at our RP and A) get rid of Ben Hellers and B) figure out what is going on with what we have in Bednar. Needs to be not given anything.
IKF should be on a team and probably even getting 300-400 at bats next year. But he should rotate with SS one night, then 2B, then 3B, to rotate people getting rest and avoid the 'Sunday lineup'. That super sub ability should allow us to stop having guys like Alika Williams on the major league team.
1B - no way we can sign a FA (though I love Christian Walker for a year or 2 but we won't A) Pay for him B) he should get QO and we won't touch that. Have to look for someone blocked....
2b) NIck G in about 200 AB since June 1 is hitting a wrc+ of 61. Should not be a shoo in for anything next year. I don't like the idea of handing anything to Nick Yorke but organically might be what we have to do. (would hate to have such a bad defender but honestly need to prioritize offense somewhere. )
SS) As stated above, IKF shouldn't be a starter, and we don't have a starter in our sytem ready for 2025. Gleyber Torres is a great candidate who has had a 2nd half in line with for this or 2b, and Wily Adames at SS would be another great candidate.
Good point about NG - he has been in a downward spiral - his OPS numbers have dropped about 380 points since May, and the K/BB rates are not good at all, and the rates we have seen of at least 5+ more K's than Walks came in his age 24 and 25 seasons. One of TJ's attributes are the K/BB numbers. In A and A+ in 817 PA he has 193 K, but also has 150 Walks and those numbers came from his age 19 and 20 year old seasons. When he is ready - possibly late 2025, he is our second baseman/SS.
To get ready for the MI of the future it would help if Peguero was promoted back to the Pirates where he spent 80 days last year. He fields well at both SS and 2B and hits for moderate HR power. If he plays all of Sep he will not have enough days to make his first year in MLB - that will come in 2025.
Totally...this is FIXABLE by someone competent, even under the omnipresent Nutting constraints...reassembling a reasonable bullpen...plugging SOME offensive holes...replacing the coaching staff.
Yep, this team doesn't need a complete rebuild on the player side. It needs someone that understands the hitting side, that can put together a development staff of coaches at all levels and a big league coach that pushes fundamentals and accountability. With a little larger payroll and bringing in a few average to above average regulars the team could be more than competitive.
We were told there would be no scholarships and that this year results mattered. It may not be completely fair, given some of the holes in the roster, but it would seem to be really hard to make the case to the players that they need to perform to keep their jobs if Shelton is given a 6th year.
In any case, at least one of Ben and Derek need to go--either we're nowhere near where we need to be talentwise in year 5, or the on-field staff is doing a lousy job of getting the best out of that talent. My preference is a new GM who can then evaluate Shelton without the bias people tend to feel when they've hired someone (how many times has Ben said Shelty is doing an excellent job despite a lack of results?).
WRT that last part, the only rationale I bought into for firing Huntington was that he remained too loyal to people like Stark and possibly Hurdle. I don't think Cherington is going to fire Shelton as they seem particularly close, and an inability to move on from people you've hired that are ineffective is enough of a reason to be let go.
The Cubs had 5 innings of scoring 4 or more runs in the series. That is what having MLB hitters up and down the lineup can do. They can string together a lot of productive ABs and and tee-off on center cut strikes. Our lineup has too few MLB hitters that will stench out a rally and a 2-spot is a big inning for us.
Still get, but very much also do not get, the lightning speed people moved off this kid. 20 yo w above avg contact, plus discipline, and THAT bat speed?
I’ve made this point before, but to defend myself as one of the movers off this kid:
I bought into the whole bat to ball skills thing, and thought that we were looking at a high average hitter for this day and age who would have relatively low strikeout totals and good plate discipline. Instead, we’ve got another three true outcomes guy who struggles to hit above .220. And who on top of that is a mediocre defensive second baseman by all accounts.
OK, the PIrates did not have a chance to take Jackson Holliday, and thank goodness did not take Elijah Green. But I think Termarr has been disappointing compared to the pre-draft scouting reports.
How much of that is on the Pirates development staff I have no idea. But again and again we see hitters with great tools completely fail, like Shalin Polanco. Termarr is doing better than that, but I’m not convinced he’s an all-star player at the major league level, and that’s what the Pirates need out of a #4 overall pick.
How much are they really leaning into these guys hit tools though? It’s the same story over and over. They get these guys who are supposed to have great bat to ball skills and then they end up K’ing a ton. Diego Castillo was a good example. Supposed to have a 60 hit tool and a 40 power tool, yet somehow he K’ed 26% of the time and 20% of hits were home runs. Mitch Jebb supposed to be a contact hitter and he’s striking out 20% of the time in high A at age 22. Keiner Delgado, 55 hit tool, striking out 22% of the time in A.
In the last two examples, they aren’t even getting the benefit of the power spike you saw with Castillo. They are singles hitters striking out like power hitters. Worst of both worlds.
I hear you, but I’d say at least a healthy chunk of that is the fault of the media you follow.
He left high-A with a K-rate 6% below league average, 20th percentile overall, as a kid who has still yet to face a pitcher younger than him. That’s not a three true outcome hitter by any definition of the term!
Kid started slow each of his first two years with an April k-rate in the 30s and it’s like people just quit paying attention after that. World we live in, I get it, but that just now somehow makes him a sleeper.
I'm glad he's out of Greensboro, the field layout is not good for young hitters. It can inflate some hitters numbers while suppressing others. I could be very wrong on this assumption.
I think Termarr is the type of hitter it hurts. He has good bat control and probably watched more strikes than normal trying to get pitches he could hit out to the gaps. This raised his strikeout rate and lowered his batting average, do to getting behind in counts. The other factor is he might have been over swinging, causing him to miss pitches or miss hit pitches, driving them into the ground or popping them up more often than he normally would. I make this last point from personal experience, when I was his age and I played in parks with a short porch I tried to take advantage of them, often driving the ball into the ground or hitting a high fly ball short of its target. I didn't have a tenth of his abilities but I was confident in the batters box and still tried even though I knew better.
I've watched interviews of him talking about hitting and I really feel he is just starting his real test. His plate discipline and in zone swing rate will now be tested without the distraction of his home field.
On the money, especially with approach. Each of the last few years he’s visibly calmed the effort in his swing as the season went on. Immature, sure, but also demonstrates real ability to adjust.
It’s so easy to do with all the draft content out there. I do it too. No one in that top 10, aside from Holliday and Lee, is really tearing it up. Green and Berry look like busts already.
Each season I posited at various times "we have hit a new low". Really 2024 should never have had that situation arise. After leaving SD on a 10-game streak I thought we were there. But after this 3 game debacle of allowing......what 50 runs or so.....my friends "we HAVE hit a new low". If BC and Nutting ignore this month of August, really the season tickets for '25 should be cancelled, and those few attending in Sept should don bags over the head attire. Sneak Eckersley out to throw the first pitch. Bring him up to the booth to chat with Brownie. It's time to abandon ship Captain.
On the bright side, it's great that SNP is showing the games for Indy and Altoona. I loved watching Chandler last night. Dude was still hitting 99 in the 5th.
I doubt they break camp with him in the rotation next year, but I could foresee a Skenes like promotion in May.
Didn’t watch the last 3 innings, but from the looks of the highlights, the Pitchers were grooving middle middle fastballs. And the fielding wasn’t exactly Gold Glove standard at SS either.
Nothing against IKF, a guy like him serves his purpose on a well run team, but a lot of those comments are people trying to award the front office a participation trophy for merely trying at the deadline. Doesn’t help that he was having an unsustainably good year as measured by xwOBA.
No argument there. I like the guy, I just don’t understand paying $7.5 million for defense when you can’t score runs as it is. And I don’t understand running out another fringy right handed bat for a team that already runs out too many fringy right handed bats on a regular basis. I get he’s been better against RHP this year, but the year prior, and for his career, the splits are really negligible.
I also like IKF, but agree that people overreacted to the acquisition which in the end doesn't do anyone any good. He's a nice acquisition but mainly because we have so many questions at 2B, SS, and even 3B and he provides a higher floor.
I agree. And on a normal budget team that’s not an issue. But there is always cheapish glove first guys available in free agency and via trade, certainly cheaper than $7.5 million. Jose Iglesias is a good example, he never got more than $5 million in free agency and his career 89 wRC+ is actually better than IKF’s 84. So what are we really paying for with IKF? I’d guess positional flexibility, and that is an ostentatious luxury for a team with a payroll situation and an offense like ours.
Is there a Press Conference scheduled for this morning? If not, I fear there is no hope that things will ever change for the Pittsburgh Pirates - just too many obstacles to overcome. Obviously, for other teams playing major league baseball, this would be the time when the lame duck Manager is "relieved of his managerial duties"! He may not be totally responsible, but he is the person who has not delivered a winner in his 5 years of managing this franchise.
A .500 season could have saved him, but after adding Jones and Skenes to the Rotation, .500 was definitely not good enough this year and they have completely fallen apart in August. Time to move forward - now rather than later!
To paraphrase Shelton in his justification of why they moved Cruz when they did--let's give a new manager enough of a "runway" to help him get more comfortable going into the offseason ;)
That actually only works, though, if the replacement is already one of their coaches (minors or majors). Bringing in someone from the outside would take time, plus should be hired by a new GM. But I wouldn't oppose giving Kelly the remaining 29 games for him to have that experience if nothing else.
I think they need to clean house all the way through from Cherington down to whoever runs the Dominican teams. Only problem with that is the new GM would want at least 5yrs for his rebuild. also Bob Nutting needs to spend a little more. No reason payroll can't be at least 125 million -150 million.
BC has provided too much in the Amateur Draft - from 2020 Gonzales, Mlodzinski, Jones, 2021 Davis, Solometo, Chandler, 2022 TJ, Harrington, Barco, Kennedy 2023 Skenes, Mueth and a lot of trade folks who have helped get us players. The problem is that he wants too much control - Shelton has been his puppet. Needs to bring on a Manager who will kick ass and take names! Being everybody's friend is not how to get it done.
The drafts haven’t been bad, but I struggle with labeling them great, because most of his picks, aside from Jared Jones were really can’t miss. And even Jones was a borderline first round talent when they picked him. Good drafts are finding lots of talent in the later rounds, and we just haven’t seen that. And he can’t draft bats to save himself.
I think the larger problem is his overall philosophy. The rosters he assembles are fundamentally flawed. I don’t think they are targeting the right types of bats in trades and free agency. And I think the way they are spending money is flawed. If he keeps his job, I’d like to see him rip up the playbook and try something new. But these guys seem super stubborn.
Cherington has done good drafting on the pitching side, he's been down right bad on the hitting side or has failed in the development of those drafted. With 4 top ten picks used on hitters we have 2 in the majors in their mid twenties struggling to establish themselves as mlb regulars, and 2 twenty or below high school picks that are to far away that have great upside. I'm not giving up on any of them yet. The issue I have is with picks outside the top 10, specifically the college bats, it's still to early to write off the young kids even White and Bishop. They would have just been coming out of college. Not a single one of his college bats have broken out to be a prospect projected to be a sure fire major league regular.
I think the only thing BC has done is that they figured out how to develop pitchers now. Everything else he has done has been a mess including roster management, development of hitters, international scouting...... This team /organization is no better than when Huntington was here. BC truly is Neil 2.0 as other analysts called him when he was hired. He needs to go along with Shelton, whoever is in charge of the "hitting" program etc...
They've changed the leadership of their international scouting but it shouldn't stop there, and anyway that only addresses talent evaluation--maybe the problem is developing that talent.
I think one of these premiere college coaches would make good GM material. The accounting and budgetary stuff is pretty easy to learn compared to the baseball knowledge and ability to design a good development program and evaluate high-school and college talent.
Of course, a guy like Chris Lemonis, Kevin O'Sullivan, or Wes Johnson makes about 1.5 million per year to run a major college program. I'm not sure Nutting will be able to find the kind of money in his wallet to entice one of the these guys to run the Pirates.
These guys are more than pitching coaches. They work on the hitting side too. I don't like the Pirates organizational structure. I'm not sure what Williams does or brings to the table, and I'm not sure what qualifies him to be over the GM. The standard corporation has a CFO, COO, and CEO. What is wrong with that organizational structure? Have a CFO, with a background in budget controls, accounting, and so forth, and a CEO and COO with a solid background in all things baseball. One of these premiere college guys fits the CEO or COO role perfectly.
Reed's line through 6 innings
0 h 1 r 1 er 2 bb 6 k
Leadoff walk stole 2nd, advanced to 3rd on a ground out, scored on a ground out. Edit scored on a fielders choice
73 pitches 44 strikes
I'm surprised he didn't get the seventh there. He did go over 100 innings during the start, so I guess it makes sense.
Me too, had thunderstorms in my area, stream was terrible really couldn't tell his velocity or pitch type well. He looked like his command was pretty good, but I'm not sure, the catcher might have been framing well.
I'm still amazed he's keeping his walk rate below 10%, thought it would be closer 15% lol.
To the Miguel Andujar Fan Club
.306 wOBA, with 4 HRs in 319 PA's.
Curious to see Oswaldo Bido as the A's 2nd most valuable arm per fWAR 1.3, with a 3.21 era, 3.30 fip, while k'ing 25% of hitters.
Current Pirates with a higher wRC+ or OPS+ than Andujar: Cruz, Bart, Reynolds, Cutch.
The point is he wouldn’t make the team better.
He’d also be ninth on the roster in fWAR, amazingly.
I always liked Bido and thought he might have another gear.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/oneil-cruz-is-no-longer-a-shortstop/
Thanks for sharing, though I am kinda disappointed in the article. Usually I like fangraphs' stuff but my takeaway from that one is that Davy Andrews liked the show of having Cruz at SS. Definitely arguments both for moving him off or keeping him there, but I dont think that writer did a great job of supporting much of anything
Approaching articles from a perspective other than a fan of the team they’re writing about is precisely why I read them.
You can have your beat writers.
Dan is an Orioles fan, I believe. Or used to be as he hinted as such in his chats.
Good call on Jaffe. Love his HOF stuff and as their resident historian. His JAWS book was great.
I like Baumann’s stuff as it’s a little offbeat and I think he’s a decent writer. Some of the rest of the newer folks, I don’t like as much. I’ll always read Clemens and EL.
And Dan’s stuff of course too.
have we considered the possibility that Bednar just does not like shelton and that David is performing his duty to the team and the city to get rid of this schlop manager?
Doing so could cost him a lot of money in arbitration. And it’s not like he’s made enough money where he’s set for life or anything with inflation.
If that is the case he needs to join Shelton out the door.
Hell yeah...let's go X-Files level conspiracies these final few weeks.
Bednar is really the Freak in a body suit?
Whoa - Skenes 3.2 fWAR through 18 starts
-Keller putting up typical Keller #'s
-Jones has been solid
-Bubba gets better with each promotion, 2.44 FIP in AAA
Pretty good pitcher development here and that includes Bailey.
Watching this group for a full season is going to be a fun watch.
Find some blocked hitters to match up with some of our blocked arms (Harrington, Ashcraft, Burrows) and make a run at this next year.
I'm pretty certain a GM worth their salt would make something of this. Pretty decent foundation in place.
You had me until you said, “a GM worth their salt…”
I’m fairly certain BC thinks he lost his last job because he set the bar too high. He’s making sure that doesn’t happen again.
At a minimum, Shelton and Haines and Brock have to go before this is going to be a fun watch.
Hard to get excited for 2025 without improvements. SP will be there I'm confident like you said. I have to hope we look at our RP and A) get rid of Ben Hellers and B) figure out what is going on with what we have in Bednar. Needs to be not given anything.
IKF should be on a team and probably even getting 300-400 at bats next year. But he should rotate with SS one night, then 2B, then 3B, to rotate people getting rest and avoid the 'Sunday lineup'. That super sub ability should allow us to stop having guys like Alika Williams on the major league team.
1B - no way we can sign a FA (though I love Christian Walker for a year or 2 but we won't A) Pay for him B) he should get QO and we won't touch that. Have to look for someone blocked....
2b) NIck G in about 200 AB since June 1 is hitting a wrc+ of 61. Should not be a shoo in for anything next year. I don't like the idea of handing anything to Nick Yorke but organically might be what we have to do. (would hate to have such a bad defender but honestly need to prioritize offense somewhere. )
SS) As stated above, IKF shouldn't be a starter, and we don't have a starter in our sytem ready for 2025. Gleyber Torres is a great candidate who has had a 2nd half in line with for this or 2b, and Wily Adames at SS would be another great candidate.
Good point about NG - he has been in a downward spiral - his OPS numbers have dropped about 380 points since May, and the K/BB rates are not good at all, and the rates we have seen of at least 5+ more K's than Walks came in his age 24 and 25 seasons. One of TJ's attributes are the K/BB numbers. In A and A+ in 817 PA he has 193 K, but also has 150 Walks and those numbers came from his age 19 and 20 year old seasons. When he is ready - possibly late 2025, he is our second baseman/SS.
To get ready for the MI of the future it would help if Peguero was promoted back to the Pirates where he spent 80 days last year. He fields well at both SS and 2B and hits for moderate HR power. If he plays all of Sep he will not have enough days to make his first year in MLB - that will come in 2025.
Totally...this is FIXABLE by someone competent, even under the omnipresent Nutting constraints...reassembling a reasonable bullpen...plugging SOME offensive holes...replacing the coaching staff.
Just keep the person or persons responsible for pitching dev and get rid of everyone else.
Yep, this team doesn't need a complete rebuild on the player side. It needs someone that understands the hitting side, that can put together a development staff of coaches at all levels and a big league coach that pushes fundamentals and accountability. With a little larger payroll and bringing in a few average to above average regulars the team could be more than competitive.
#FreePeguero
I did some research and found the following:
In the World Series era 1903-2024, only two managers ever began their tenure with a franchise with five losing seasons and returned for a sixth year.
Burt Shotton got six years to fail with the 1928-33 Phillies and Gene Mauch got seven years with the expansion 1969 Montreal Expos.
Time for Shelton to go.
We were told there would be no scholarships and that this year results mattered. It may not be completely fair, given some of the holes in the roster, but it would seem to be really hard to make the case to the players that they need to perform to keep their jobs if Shelton is given a 6th year.
In any case, at least one of Ben and Derek need to go--either we're nowhere near where we need to be talentwise in year 5, or the on-field staff is doing a lousy job of getting the best out of that talent. My preference is a new GM who can then evaluate Shelton without the bias people tend to feel when they've hired someone (how many times has Ben said Shelty is doing an excellent job despite a lack of results?).
WRT that last part, the only rationale I bought into for firing Huntington was that he remained too loyal to people like Stark and possibly Hurdle. I don't think Cherington is going to fire Shelton as they seem particularly close, and an inability to move on from people you've hired that are ineffective is enough of a reason to be let go.
The Cubs had 5 innings of scoring 4 or more runs in the series. That is what having MLB hitters up and down the lineup can do. They can string together a lot of productive ABs and and tee-off on center cut strikes. Our lineup has too few MLB hitters that will stench out a rally and a 2-spot is a big inning for us.
Yes having many ML hitters has been foreign to the Pittsburgh franchise for many years.
I do love watching Termarr’s swing.
Still get, but very much also do not get, the lightning speed people moved off this kid. 20 yo w above avg contact, plus discipline, and THAT bat speed?
I’ve made this point before, but to defend myself as one of the movers off this kid:
I bought into the whole bat to ball skills thing, and thought that we were looking at a high average hitter for this day and age who would have relatively low strikeout totals and good plate discipline. Instead, we’ve got another three true outcomes guy who struggles to hit above .220. And who on top of that is a mediocre defensive second baseman by all accounts.
OK, the PIrates did not have a chance to take Jackson Holliday, and thank goodness did not take Elijah Green. But I think Termarr has been disappointing compared to the pre-draft scouting reports.
How much of that is on the Pirates development staff I have no idea. But again and again we see hitters with great tools completely fail, like Shalin Polanco. Termarr is doing better than that, but I’m not convinced he’s an all-star player at the major league level, and that’s what the Pirates need out of a #4 overall pick.
How much are they really leaning into these guys hit tools though? It’s the same story over and over. They get these guys who are supposed to have great bat to ball skills and then they end up K’ing a ton. Diego Castillo was a good example. Supposed to have a 60 hit tool and a 40 power tool, yet somehow he K’ed 26% of the time and 20% of hits were home runs. Mitch Jebb supposed to be a contact hitter and he’s striking out 20% of the time in high A at age 22. Keiner Delgado, 55 hit tool, striking out 22% of the time in A.
In the last two examples, they aren’t even getting the benefit of the power spike you saw with Castillo. They are singles hitters striking out like power hitters. Worst of both worlds.
I hear you, but I’d say at least a healthy chunk of that is the fault of the media you follow.
He left high-A with a K-rate 6% below league average, 20th percentile overall, as a kid who has still yet to face a pitcher younger than him. That’s not a three true outcome hitter by any definition of the term!
Kid started slow each of his first two years with an April k-rate in the 30s and it’s like people just quit paying attention after that. World we live in, I get it, but that just now somehow makes him a sleeper.
I'm glad he's out of Greensboro, the field layout is not good for young hitters. It can inflate some hitters numbers while suppressing others. I could be very wrong on this assumption.
I think Termarr is the type of hitter it hurts. He has good bat control and probably watched more strikes than normal trying to get pitches he could hit out to the gaps. This raised his strikeout rate and lowered his batting average, do to getting behind in counts. The other factor is he might have been over swinging, causing him to miss pitches or miss hit pitches, driving them into the ground or popping them up more often than he normally would. I make this last point from personal experience, when I was his age and I played in parks with a short porch I tried to take advantage of them, often driving the ball into the ground or hitting a high fly ball short of its target. I didn't have a tenth of his abilities but I was confident in the batters box and still tried even though I knew better.
I've watched interviews of him talking about hitting and I really feel he is just starting his real test. His plate discipline and in zone swing rate will now be tested without the distraction of his home field.
On the money, especially with approach. Each of the last few years he’s visibly calmed the effort in his swing as the season went on. Immature, sure, but also demonstrates real ability to adjust.
Oh to be young!
Good and plausible observations. I hope you’re right.
How much of that is on the pre draft scouting reports being outlandish to begin with? And fans falling for that hook, line and sinker.
Guilty as charged.
It’s so easy to do with all the draft content out there. I do it too. No one in that top 10, aside from Holliday and Lee, is really tearing it up. Green and Berry look like busts already.
its so violent
Each season I posited at various times "we have hit a new low". Really 2024 should never have had that situation arise. After leaving SD on a 10-game streak I thought we were there. But after this 3 game debacle of allowing......what 50 runs or so.....my friends "we HAVE hit a new low". If BC and Nutting ignore this month of August, really the season tickets for '25 should be cancelled, and those few attending in Sept should don bags over the head attire. Sneak Eckersley out to throw the first pitch. Bring him up to the booth to chat with Brownie. It's time to abandon ship Captain.
Yesterday was a new low
Jake Woodford cleared waivers. Phew. /s
I read Dejan saying that his writing is one of reasons Latin America firings happened. Anyone think this is true?
DK is a hump.
Ego is a hell of a drug.
He previously claimed he got Huntington fired. I'm all for him testing his hypothesis by writing that Cherington needs to go.
Until his hypothesis is provably false. Lol.
Hoka Hey!
DK is trash.
I think it’s more that Vizcaino was vulnerable because he was a Huntington hire. Bumbling Ben won’t fix his own mistakes.
Thanks.
On the bright side, it's great that SNP is showing the games for Indy and Altoona. I loved watching Chandler last night. Dude was still hitting 99 in the 5th.
I doubt they break camp with him in the rotation next year, but I could foresee a Skenes like promotion in May.
Didn’t watch the last 3 innings, but from the looks of the highlights, the Pitchers were grooving middle middle fastballs. And the fielding wasn’t exactly Gold Glove standard at SS either.
IKF isn’t as good as he’s getting credit for. His batting line is nearly identical to BDLC’s and he’s below replacement as a Pirate.
Nothing against IKF, a guy like him serves his purpose on a well run team, but a lot of those comments are people trying to award the front office a participation trophy for merely trying at the deadline. Doesn’t help that he was having an unsustainably good year as measured by xwOBA.
he´s better than Triolo
No argument there. I like the guy, I just don’t understand paying $7.5 million for defense when you can’t score runs as it is. And I don’t understand running out another fringy right handed bat for a team that already runs out too many fringy right handed bats on a regular basis. I get he’s been better against RHP this year, but the year prior, and for his career, the splits are really negligible.
I also like IKF, but agree that people overreacted to the acquisition which in the end doesn't do anyone any good. He's a nice acquisition but mainly because we have so many questions at 2B, SS, and even 3B and he provides a higher floor.
Yes. Paying market value and probably then some to patch a hole which wouldn’t exist if the rebuild yielded better results.
agreed - $7.5 commitment for 2025 means he is the starting shortsop
I agree. And on a normal budget team that’s not an issue. But there is always cheapish glove first guys available in free agency and via trade, certainly cheaper than $7.5 million. Jose Iglesias is a good example, he never got more than $5 million in free agency and his career 89 wRC+ is actually better than IKF’s 84. So what are we really paying for with IKF? I’d guess positional flexibility, and that is an ostentatious luxury for a team with a payroll situation and an offense like ours.
Is there a Press Conference scheduled for this morning? If not, I fear there is no hope that things will ever change for the Pittsburgh Pirates - just too many obstacles to overcome. Obviously, for other teams playing major league baseball, this would be the time when the lame duck Manager is "relieved of his managerial duties"! He may not be totally responsible, but he is the person who has not delivered a winner in his 5 years of managing this franchise.
A .500 season could have saved him, but after adding Jones and Skenes to the Rotation, .500 was definitely not good enough this year and they have completely fallen apart in August. Time to move forward - now rather than later!
To paraphrase Shelton in his justification of why they moved Cruz when they did--let's give a new manager enough of a "runway" to help him get more comfortable going into the offseason ;)
That actually only works, though, if the replacement is already one of their coaches (minors or majors). Bringing in someone from the outside would take time, plus should be hired by a new GM. But I wouldn't oppose giving Kelly the remaining 29 games for him to have that experience if nothing else.
I think they need to clean house all the way through from Cherington down to whoever runs the Dominican teams. Only problem with that is the new GM would want at least 5yrs for his rebuild. also Bob Nutting needs to spend a little more. No reason payroll can't be at least 125 million -150 million.
BC has provided too much in the Amateur Draft - from 2020 Gonzales, Mlodzinski, Jones, 2021 Davis, Solometo, Chandler, 2022 TJ, Harrington, Barco, Kennedy 2023 Skenes, Mueth and a lot of trade folks who have helped get us players. The problem is that he wants too much control - Shelton has been his puppet. Needs to bring on a Manager who will kick ass and take names! Being everybody's friend is not how to get it done.
The drafts haven’t been bad, but I struggle with labeling them great, because most of his picks, aside from Jared Jones were really can’t miss. And even Jones was a borderline first round talent when they picked him. Good drafts are finding lots of talent in the later rounds, and we just haven’t seen that. And he can’t draft bats to save himself.
I think the larger problem is his overall philosophy. The rosters he assembles are fundamentally flawed. I don’t think they are targeting the right types of bats in trades and free agency. And I think the way they are spending money is flawed. If he keeps his job, I’d like to see him rip up the playbook and try something new. But these guys seem super stubborn.
Cherington has done good drafting on the pitching side, he's been down right bad on the hitting side or has failed in the development of those drafted. With 4 top ten picks used on hitters we have 2 in the majors in their mid twenties struggling to establish themselves as mlb regulars, and 2 twenty or below high school picks that are to far away that have great upside. I'm not giving up on any of them yet. The issue I have is with picks outside the top 10, specifically the college bats, it's still to early to write off the young kids even White and Bishop. They would have just been coming out of college. Not a single one of his college bats have broken out to be a prospect projected to be a sure fire major league regular.
I think the only thing BC has done is that they figured out how to develop pitchers now. Everything else he has done has been a mess including roster management, development of hitters, international scouting...... This team /organization is no better than when Huntington was here. BC truly is Neil 2.0 as other analysts called him when he was hired. He needs to go along with Shelton, whoever is in charge of the "hitting" program etc...
you are describing Jason Kendall
They've changed the leadership of their international scouting but it shouldn't stop there, and anyway that only addresses talent evaluation--maybe the problem is developing that talent.
Rick Hahn? Jack Zdurencik? Jeff Bridich?
Dan O’Dowd!
I think one of these premiere college coaches would make good GM material. The accounting and budgetary stuff is pretty easy to learn compared to the baseball knowledge and ability to design a good development program and evaluate high-school and college talent.
Of course, a guy like Chris Lemonis, Kevin O'Sullivan, or Wes Johnson makes about 1.5 million per year to run a major college program. I'm not sure Nutting will be able to find the kind of money in his wallet to entice one of the these guys to run the Pirates.
Hard pass on a college pitching coach for the big chair. No evidence they’d be able to handle the strategic outlook of an organization.
I’d be much more receptive to them as a scouting director.
They definitely need a baseball guy and not a bean counter above the GM.
These guys are more than pitching coaches. They work on the hitting side too. I don't like the Pirates organizational structure. I'm not sure what Williams does or brings to the table, and I'm not sure what qualifies him to be over the GM. The standard corporation has a CFO, COO, and CEO. What is wrong with that organizational structure? Have a CFO, with a background in budget controls, accounting, and so forth, and a CEO and COO with a solid background in all things baseball. One of these premiere college guys fits the CEO or COO role perfectly.
No as you described it they’re perfect for the scouting director. The layer underneath that.