Also, I like this by one of the new (I think) beat writers, Colin Beazley:
"Shelton praised the team for continuing to fight down 9-1 on Friday, as Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a fairly inconsequential 3-run homer in the seventh inning. Regardless of whether that praise was merited, the Pirates did not show any “fight back” on Saturday."
The team could possibly be developing the same "give a crap" attitude that seems to prevail in every level of management from Shelton on up to Nutting.
The Pirates were worth $301 mil in 2011 according to Forbes. We were at $1.32 Bil by Forbes in 2024. Is that about a Billion dollars more in Equity Value? If he sells would he ask for less? Why not use a small percentage of that increased value to purchase needed talent and maybe push that Value number higher by playing better.
Also from the PG (maybe Haines wasn't the problem):
"The team is batting .198, fifth-worst in the bigs, slugging .295, third-worst in the majors, and have struck out 87 times, the third-highest total so far this season."
Someone speculated in the game thread that Shelton's use of Holderman yesterday was based on inning and not leverage. They nailed it (Shelton responding to a question about whether he had considered moving Holderman to a lesser role):
“That’s the fifth inning today. It wasn’t the seventh and eighth,” Shelton said. “We’re trying to find him a spot maybe earlier in the game to get him going. We’ve got to figure out a way to get him going.”
Wow! This is just sad. Sad for the incompetence. Sad for Shelton’s lack of awareness in how bad this makes him look. And sad that a man who provided the above response is in charge of a Major League Baseball team (all jokes about the state of this club, aside).
Not sure if *unserious* is a real word, but that’s how I see this team from the top down. But at least they are getting a few dollars from that Surfside ad! The Clemente sign was generating crap!
They have quite possibly a legit generational pitcher and I couldn’t be less excited about this club. Always been my sport and my team, but part of me is pulling for an epically poor performance for the entertainment value; they aren’t sniffing contention.
This all from a guy who predicted a final season record of 100-61! ;)
Wilbur Dotel had a VG outing for Altoona last night and was named the Top Pitcher. Checked Fangraphs Top 38 for 2025 and they missed him in that number but did make comments about him as a Relief possibility with only two pitches - Fastball and Slider. Kudo's to the Bucs on Deck crew who named him as our No. 18 Prospect and identified him throwing the Fastball that hit triple digits last year, a Slider, and Changeup.
Jaden Woods also finished the game with a clean inning.
Like to know more about what happened to Javier Rivas between 2024 and 2025 - he is tearing up the baseball in A+, and has yet to strikeout. Last year at A ball he had 367 PA's, 118 K/12 BB, but still managed to hit 12 HR. I commented about him 2 or 3 years ago hitting tater's out to the Golf Course parking lot at Pirate City, but he could never seem to take that BP power to games. But, something near miraculous has happened, and, it was not a surprise to the Manager at GBO because he has had him batting middle of the order for both games so far. We need to find out who made that light go off between his ears! Sure, a SSS, but this guy had almost whiffed his way out of baseball coming into 2025.
Canario has been around the block lately with a few teams and will need some time just to figure out where he's at and how to make it all work for him. He's definitely a good player to take a gamble on and has not even achieved a full year of MLB Service as yet. Only issue is the lack of MiLB Options so he has to stay and hopefully contribute.
Rivas is like finding a gold mine out there in the lower minors, because, as another writer observed, if he can hit, he can be our next SS at the MLB level. He is 6'7" (a bookend to Oneil Cruz) has big power if contact is made, and has played infield his whole career. If he had hit this well 2 or 3 years ago he would already have been at AA or AAA - the glove is that good.
Also, I like this by one of the new (I think) beat writers, Colin Beazley:
"Shelton praised the team for continuing to fight down 9-1 on Friday, as Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a fairly inconsequential 3-run homer in the seventh inning. Regardless of whether that praise was merited, the Pirates did not show any “fight back” on Saturday."
The team could possibly be developing the same "give a crap" attitude that seems to prevail in every level of management from Shelton on up to Nutting.
The Pirates were worth $301 mil in 2011 according to Forbes. We were at $1.32 Bil by Forbes in 2024. Is that about a Billion dollars more in Equity Value? If he sells would he ask for less? Why not use a small percentage of that increased value to purchase needed talent and maybe push that Value number higher by playing better.
Also from the PG (maybe Haines wasn't the problem):
"The team is batting .198, fifth-worst in the bigs, slugging .295, third-worst in the majors, and have struck out 87 times, the third-highest total so far this season."
He never was.
Scapegoat
And Holderman and Bednar’s issues will be solved when they ax the bullpen coach! Oh, wait…
Someone speculated in the game thread that Shelton's use of Holderman yesterday was based on inning and not leverage. They nailed it (Shelton responding to a question about whether he had considered moving Holderman to a lesser role):
“That’s the fifth inning today. It wasn’t the seventh and eighth,” Shelton said. “We’re trying to find him a spot maybe earlier in the game to get him going. We’ve got to figure out a way to get him going.”
Wow! This is just sad. Sad for the incompetence. Sad for Shelton’s lack of awareness in how bad this makes him look. And sad that a man who provided the above response is in charge of a Major League Baseball team (all jokes about the state of this club, aside).
Not sure if *unserious* is a real word, but that’s how I see this team from the top down. But at least they are getting a few dollars from that Surfside ad! The Clemente sign was generating crap!
They have quite possibly a legit generational pitcher and I couldn’t be less excited about this club. Always been my sport and my team, but part of me is pulling for an epically poor performance for the entertainment value; they aren’t sniffing contention.
This all from a guy who predicted a final season record of 100-61! ;)
Wilbur Dotel had a VG outing for Altoona last night and was named the Top Pitcher. Checked Fangraphs Top 38 for 2025 and they missed him in that number but did make comments about him as a Relief possibility with only two pitches - Fastball and Slider. Kudo's to the Bucs on Deck crew who named him as our No. 18 Prospect and identified him throwing the Fastball that hit triple digits last year, a Slider, and Changeup.
Jaden Woods also finished the game with a clean inning.
Like to know more about what happened to Javier Rivas between 2024 and 2025 - he is tearing up the baseball in A+, and has yet to strikeout. Last year at A ball he had 367 PA's, 118 K/12 BB, but still managed to hit 12 HR. I commented about him 2 or 3 years ago hitting tater's out to the Golf Course parking lot at Pirate City, but he could never seem to take that BP power to games. But, something near miraculous has happened, and, it was not a surprise to the Manager at GBO because he has had him batting middle of the order for both games so far. We need to find out who made that light go off between his ears! Sure, a SSS, but this guy had almost whiffed his way out of baseball coming into 2025.
Give Canario his number…
Canario has been around the block lately with a few teams and will need some time just to figure out where he's at and how to make it all work for him. He's definitely a good player to take a gamble on and has not even achieved a full year of MLB Service as yet. Only issue is the lack of MiLB Options so he has to stay and hopefully contribute.
Rivas is like finding a gold mine out there in the lower minors, because, as another writer observed, if he can hit, he can be our next SS at the MLB level. He is 6'7" (a bookend to Oneil Cruz) has big power if contact is made, and has played infield his whole career. If he had hit this well 2 or 3 years ago he would already have been at AA or AAA - the glove is that good.