101 Comments
Aug 30·edited Aug 30Liked by Anthony Murphy

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

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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.

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Aug 30·edited Aug 30

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.

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Tankathon odds to 7.5%. Who will make that draft pick though? Hopefully not Cherington.

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Rick Hahn? Jack Zdurencik? Jeff Bridich?

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Dan O’Dowd!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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No as you described it they’re perfect for the scouting director. The layer underneath that.

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Maybe Livvy Dunne will embarrass Nutting so badly he will find his wallet but I somehow doubt it: https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3523600/the-pittsburgh-pirates-have-broken-livvy-dunne-and-she-can-no-longer-stay-silent

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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.

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Aug 29·edited Aug 29

Current Pirates with a higher wRC+ or OPS+ than Andujar: Cruz, Bart, Reynolds, Cutch.

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The point is he wouldn’t make the team better.

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He’d also be ninth on the roster in fWAR, amazingly.

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I always liked Bido and thought he might have another gear.

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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

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FG sucks at approaching anything from the perspective of fans of a team. Their newer writers are getting really bad, too. Baumann and everyone hired after him are a bunch of zoomer navel-gazers more interested in playing with FG editorial tone than actually doing good baseball analysis. Going downhill there fast.

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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.

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I don't mind that they do that and didn't say that I did. Impartial analysis definitely has its place and I enjoy it. In this case I was reacting to "disappointed in the article....Andrews liked the show of having Cruz at SS" presumably more than the good of the ballclub. They're not always impartial either. Szymborski is a Reds guy and he just wrote a "Whats Next for the Reds" piece. They just don't do that often.

As far as actual quality of analysis goes, Ben Clemens, EL, David Laurila, Jay Jaffe and Dan Szymborski are all top-knotch analysts and writers but the new goofs like Baumann, Andrews, Oler et al are not close to the same class of writer or baseball thinker. They're just content goobers.

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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.

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You're right on Dan. I misremembered there. He _lives_ in or near Cincy.

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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.

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I can't stand Baumann. He so badly wants to be Serious but Carson Cistulli Also but he's not nearly as talented. Kiri Oler is the worst though. Terrible writer who talks constantly about childrens cartoons.

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And Dan’s stuff of course too.

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Obituary about 3 years too late

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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?

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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.

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If that is the case he needs to join Shelton out the door.

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Hell yeah...let's go X-Files level conspiracies these final few weeks.

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Bednar is really the Freak in a body suit?

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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.

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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.

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At a minimum, Shelton and Haines and Brock have to go before this is going to be a fun watch.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Just keep the person or persons responsible for pitching dev and get rid of everyone else.

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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.

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#FreePeguero

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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.

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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?).

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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.

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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.

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Yes having many ML hitters has been foreign to the Pittsburgh franchise for many years.

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We have 4 of those in a lineup of 9.

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Each and every one of us could have pre-paraphrased this Shelton quote: "It's frustrating. It's about as frustrated as I've been," Shelton said in reference to a game in which the Pirates surrendered a seven-run lead by allowing 11 unanswered runs in the final three innings of their largest come-from-behind loss of the season. "We've got to execute. You cannot have a 10-3 game in the seventh inning and give up 11 runs. We've got to be better."

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As John McKay once said when asked about his team's execution: "I'm in favor of it".

For those too young to know who he is, he was the first coach of the TB Buccaneers, and they lost their first 26 games as an NFL franchise before they won a game.

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“We didn’t tackle well today but we made up for it by not blocking.”

— John McKay

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I do love watching Termarr’s swing.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Good and plausible observations. I hope you’re right.

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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.

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Guilty as charged.

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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.

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its so violent

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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.

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Yesterday was a new low

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Jake Woodford cleared waivers. Phew. /s

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I read Dejan saying that his writing is one of reasons Latin America firings happened. Anyone think this is true?

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DK is a hump.

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Ego is a hell of a drug.

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He previously claimed he got Huntington fired. I'm all for him testing his hypothesis by writing that Cherington needs to go.

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Until his hypothesis is provably false. Lol.

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Hoka Hey!

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DK is trash.

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I think it’s more that Vizcaino was vulnerable because he was a Huntington hire. Bumbling Ben won’t fix his own mistakes.

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Thanks.

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