Any intel on this Hunter Furtado guy down in Bradenton? I’ve seen a couple clips and the stuff seems to be very good. 97 from the left side has me hoping he can throw strikes.
I still think rooting for the Browns is worse, but what do I know....their owner spends money like there's no tomorrow and still can't get the right players....
Is it worse to have an owner that spends no money, or one that spends large amounts of money uselessly???
These are the philosophical questions we must mull....lol
Yeah, signing and then extending Watson after all the off-field stuff is worse than anything Nutting has done. Haslem is at least trying to win, and did recently acknowledge the mistake with Watson. But if I was a Browns fan, I'd have been out as soon as they signed Watson until they release him.
And in terms of GMs and comparing sports, I'll rank BC above Nic Harrison of the Mavs, at least until he trades Skenes after only negotiating with one team.
"We're going to create it from within the locker room, and it's not going to be an ownership thing," Skenes says. "Having a group of fans that are putting some pressure on the ownership and Ben and all that -- it's not a bad thing, but we have to go out there and do it. I kind of feel like we owe it to the city."
This team currently has the second most errors per game and 1.67 errors in the last three games. For fuck's sake, do they ever practice? What was Spring Training for?
All the problems emanate from 3 positions: 1) 1B 2) CF 3) SS. There was no spring training for anyone at 1B, because our manager decided that no one on the roster needed any reps at 1B all spring. The problems at SS stem from them trading for 2B/3B utility guy to play SS everyday, and the problems in CF stem from them moving Cruz to CF 4 1/2 years late.
We're not talking about lack of *good* defense. Efficient routes, plus range, strong arms.
We're talking about errors. Routine plays.
I know our favorite hobby is dragging the Front Office and coaches, but a Major League f*cking Baseball player has to bear the absolute minimum amount of responsibility in making a routine f*cking play.
Half of those routine plays that the IFers are charged with errors are because we don't have a 1Bman. 2 Es on Skenes last night, for example, were not errors at all, but very good pickoff throws that would have resulted in at least 1 out if we had a real 1Bman.
That IKF cannot make a strong, accurate throw to first when ranging to his right at SS is not IKF's fault. It is his natural limitation, which is why teams moved him to utility. Putting guys in positions for which they lack abilities to perform is on management.
Of course! I'm not completely absolving the players from responsibility, but this issue is nothing new. They are not fundamentally sound, which reflects on the coaching and how the players are being prepared and preparing themselves.
The obvious baserunning errors, the horrible communication in the OF and constant near-collisions between OFers and IFers is are not new this season. This has been going on since Russell and his crew took over. Rabelo has been a disaster as 3B coach, but there is no accountability for anyone anywhere in this entire organization.
Joe Delicarri is still employed by the Pirates despite a draft and international record dating back 15 years that is so far below sub par as to set new standards in awful.
This offense is so putrid that a 38 year old on the down side of his career is currently their best hitter. And the dumbest manager in all of baseball decides to sit him on the bench. You just can't make this shit up!
You couldn't make this stuff up--Cutch passes out the necklaces to jumpstart the team, has a good game, they win, it's Jackie Robinson Day, and Shelton sits him?!? Seems like part of a plot to a movie like Major League. And I could maybe get it if Canario was in RF, but Pham?
I hope we get some explanation like he was banged up or something.
Keller is a true professional. After that horrible HBP, Keller was truly human and empathetic in his response and yet able to continue the inning. If not for the broken bat, Keller would have had 6 solid innings with only one run scoring. Impressive two outings in a row. Even his personal defense outshines the rest of the team's defense.
It's a good sign, half of his strikeouts came in his first 3 games (7), then the same in his next 6 games (7). He's making more contact on breaking and offspeed pitches, the 110.3 mph ground out was on a change up if I'm remembering correctly.
Only 2 strikeouts in his last 3 games, and they were in the same game.
I’m really trying to temper my expectations after so many flameouts (Chad Hermansen walks on water, anyone?), but these little things are really good signs for a guy jumping from high school to full season ball.
Yep, he's seeing not only more but better offspeed pitches other than his short time in spring training. As long as he's making contact with glimpses of power, the sky's the limit for the young man.
Someone posted the other day (maybe you?) that despite his bottom-line numbers looking good, his stuff wasn't looking any better and he was only succeeding due to facing AAA players. In that case, I agree.
Second-best case: We take a step back and that leads to cleaning house in the FO and coaching staff.
Worst case: We don't contend but are just good enough that Nutting justifies giving Ben and Derek one more chance.
The best case seems to slipping out of reach but at least we're on our way to the second-best scenario.
I know there's a case I haven't listed where we contend but don't make the postseason--in that case it depends on what "contend" means and what that looks like--are there signs that key players like Suwinski, Endy, Davis, Gonzales, Horwitz, etc. have taken steps forward or do we hang around because the 6th playoff spot ends up going to a team that barely breaks .500?
I'm not sure what BC or Shelton have to do to get fired by this organization. They've been able to do nothing for years and are still employed. There's no way Nutting follows baseball closely or has any baseball knowledge to allow these 2 to be employed. The fundamentals on this team seem to be getting worse each year. It's ridiculous. The off season "additions" are horrendous........
The only thing BC has done was to be smart enough to take a job for a disengaged owner who had hired a non-baseball president and cares only about profits. The only thing Shelton has done is to buddy-up with BC.
I can somewhat see sticking with BC for 2025 based on the promise of a rotation consisting of Skenes, Chandler, Jones, and Keller, and that it took Huntington until year 6 to have a playoff team. But if they stick with him after another losing season, it will be really hard for me to invest any more time, money, and mental energy in this team until a change is made.
If it was up to me, I'd replace Shelton after this homestand unless they win at least 3 of the next 5 (then I'd see if they can break even in LA before making a decision). Why not see if a new manager can make a difference? I'd wait on making a change at GM until September because it would be too disruptive at this point in the season, and BC's drafts haven't been bad (it's his trades and FA signings that have been so disappointing).
A complete franchise "Swept" with the Pirates, and their affiliates at AAA, AA, A+, and A all going down. Two 19 year olds - Konnor Griffin, Axiel Plaz and two 20 year olds Jhonny Severino and Yordany De Los Santos offer some hope for a better future.
As good as the Bucs looked Monday night, they completely flipped the script on Tuesday wasting a nice start by Mitch Keller - a Quality Start - with little, if any, signs of life from the offense! Is this hard to understand? The Pirates are now 6-12 with a winning percentage of .333! How many years of excuses can this Owner allow without taking action? Shelton is still the Manager because the GM gave him a vote of confidence after the 2024 season. One or both need to be gone - TODAY!
Best case scenario would be a Shelton, Brock, Rabelo firing during the All Star break. But Nutting is such a low profile owner, he would not do it as the whole baseball world would focus on it during the break.
Shelton should have been on a very short leash going into 2025 - everybody was screaming for Shelton's head and BC said he had confidence that Shelton could turn it around. A start like this is even additional proof that this group of players are not playing for HIM! Shelton has to go down the road now and Bench Coach Don Kelly should be installed as the Interim Manager for the remainder of 2025.
That will allow Kelly the time to get this team moving in the right direction - if he does, Kelly stays on a 2 or 3 year contract as the Manager of the Pirates.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Don Kelly but why does he get a pass when he's been a part of this coaching staff all along? Clean house!
I thought hosting the Nats might buy Shelton some time but last night might move up the firing. Hideous fundamentals team. So the farm is 21-23 thanks mostly to GVille. Indy should be stacked but they stink. Ben can’t be trusted to serve the PBC best interests at this point
Any intel on this Hunter Furtado guy down in Bradenton? I’ve seen a couple clips and the stuff seems to be very good. 97 from the left side has me hoping he can throw strikes.
Control has always been his problem.
Guess which front office received zero top 5 votes for the second year in a row from a panel of 40 MLB executives?
Hard to produce when you're also delivering paper in Beech Bottom.
I wouldn’t even put them in the top 30.
Hard to imagine them getting any top 10 or even top 15 votes either.
And to state the obvious, with Nuttng's lack of spending, we probably need a top 5 FO to contend.
Jeff Passan sympathizes:
"Rooting for the Pirates is among the cruelest fates in sports"
From an article about Skenes being the next mega-star:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/44669755/mlb-2025-paul-skenes-pittsburgh-pirates-ace-superstar-status
Just got done reading that. Great article.
I still think rooting for the Browns is worse, but what do I know....their owner spends money like there's no tomorrow and still can't get the right players....
Is it worse to have an owner that spends no money, or one that spends large amounts of money uselessly???
These are the philosophical questions we must mull....lol
Yeah, signing and then extending Watson after all the off-field stuff is worse than anything Nutting has done. Haslem is at least trying to win, and did recently acknowledge the mistake with Watson. But if I was a Browns fan, I'd have been out as soon as they signed Watson until they release him.
And in terms of GMs and comparing sports, I'll rank BC above Nic Harrison of the Mavs, at least until he trades Skenes after only negotiating with one team.
So I guess it could be worse...
And I like this quote from Skenes:
"We're going to create it from within the locker room, and it's not going to be an ownership thing," Skenes says. "Having a group of fans that are putting some pressure on the ownership and Ben and all that -- it's not a bad thing, but we have to go out there and do it. I kind of feel like we owe it to the city."
God I love this guy, we are so lucky that he fell into our laps
This team currently has the second most errors per game and 1.67 errors in the last three games. For fuck's sake, do they ever practice? What was Spring Training for?
All the problems emanate from 3 positions: 1) 1B 2) CF 3) SS. There was no spring training for anyone at 1B, because our manager decided that no one on the roster needed any reps at 1B all spring. The problems at SS stem from them trading for 2B/3B utility guy to play SS everyday, and the problems in CF stem from them moving Cruz to CF 4 1/2 years late.
The problem is not the players.
I'm not blaming the players.
I'm sorry, but that's bullshit.
We're not talking about lack of *good* defense. Efficient routes, plus range, strong arms.
We're talking about errors. Routine plays.
I know our favorite hobby is dragging the Front Office and coaches, but a Major League f*cking Baseball player has to bear the absolute minimum amount of responsibility in making a routine f*cking play.
https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1912578135859593656
Only hit he gave up today was a bunt single, he very piratey threw the ball away at first lol. He might be ready!
That last splitter, my god.
Half of those routine plays that the IFers are charged with errors are because we don't have a 1Bman. 2 Es on Skenes last night, for example, were not errors at all, but very good pickoff throws that would have resulted in at least 1 out if we had a real 1Bman.
That IKF cannot make a strong, accurate throw to first when ranging to his right at SS is not IKF's fault. It is his natural limitation, which is why teams moved him to utility. Putting guys in positions for which they lack abilities to perform is on management.
Of course! I'm not completely absolving the players from responsibility, but this issue is nothing new. They are not fundamentally sound, which reflects on the coaching and how the players are being prepared and preparing themselves.
The obvious baserunning errors, the horrible communication in the OF and constant near-collisions between OFers and IFers is are not new this season. This has been going on since Russell and his crew took over. Rabelo has been a disaster as 3B coach, but there is no accountability for anyone anywhere in this entire organization.
Joe Delicarri is still employed by the Pirates despite a draft and international record dating back 15 years that is so far below sub par as to set new standards in awful.
This offense is so putrid that a 38 year old on the down side of his career is currently their best hitter. And the dumbest manager in all of baseball decides to sit him on the bench. You just can't make this shit up!
On Jackie Robinson Day too.....evidently Cutch wanted to play specifically on April 15
You couldn't make this stuff up--Cutch passes out the necklaces to jumpstart the team, has a good game, they win, it's Jackie Robinson Day, and Shelton sits him?!? Seems like part of a plot to a movie like Major League. And I could maybe get it if Canario was in RF, but Pham?
I hope we get some explanation like he was banged up or something.
Apparently, Jackie Robinson is celebrated heavily in Nam.
Yeah I didn't even think of that angle. Shelton should have been fired years ago. Just a major dumb ass!
Side note away from the albatross in the room ...
Keller is a true professional. After that horrible HBP, Keller was truly human and empathetic in his response and yet able to continue the inning. If not for the broken bat, Keller would have had 6 solid innings with only one run scoring. Impressive two outings in a row. Even his personal defense outshines the rest of the team's defense.
Also - Wood for the Nats is a beast!
That's a very tough lineup. 6 IP and 3 R is a solid outing against that lineup no matter the circumstance.
Zero K's in 4 AB's for Griffin!
That’s as good as the HR.
Better in my opinion. 4 Ab's, no k's and a walk.
It's a good sign, half of his strikeouts came in his first 3 games (7), then the same in his next 6 games (7). He's making more contact on breaking and offspeed pitches, the 110.3 mph ground out was on a change up if I'm remembering correctly.
Only 2 strikeouts in his last 3 games, and they were in the same game.
I’m really trying to temper my expectations after so many flameouts (Chad Hermansen walks on water, anyone?), but these little things are really good signs for a guy jumping from high school to full season ball.
Yep, he's seeing not only more but better offspeed pitches other than his short time in spring training. As long as he's making contact with glimpses of power, the sky's the limit for the young man.
He's probably a better hitter than several on the major league club.
So am I.
Pirates bullpen excl Bednar, Holderman, and Harrington’s piggyback:
56.1 IP. 39 H. 12 ER. 25 BB. 47 K.
1.92 ERA. 1.14 WHIP.
It's pretty telling that with Endy going on the DL they're recalling Shugart instead of Bednar despite Bednar's good numbers in AAA.
I actually think it's the right call, let him build up some confidence and hopefully harness his command/control.
Someone posted the other day (maybe you?) that despite his bottom-line numbers looking good, his stuff wasn't looking any better and he was only succeeding due to facing AAA players. In that case, I agree.
I saw that as well, it's what I'm basing my opinion on and some extended success couldn't hurt.
Most days it’s hard to be a Pirates fan, but some days it’s so hard, I wish I never heard of baseball. Yesterday was one of those days.
You are not alone! Have you seen the empty stadium the past 2 games. Steeler fans will fill up a stadium in 20°
so I don't buy the weather is too cold.
It's apathy and anger that few fans even bother.
The way I look at this season is:
Best case: We make the postseason!
Second-best case: We take a step back and that leads to cleaning house in the FO and coaching staff.
Worst case: We don't contend but are just good enough that Nutting justifies giving Ben and Derek one more chance.
The best case seems to slipping out of reach but at least we're on our way to the second-best scenario.
I know there's a case I haven't listed where we contend but don't make the postseason--in that case it depends on what "contend" means and what that looks like--are there signs that key players like Suwinski, Endy, Davis, Gonzales, Horwitz, etc. have taken steps forward or do we hang around because the 6th playoff spot ends up going to a team that barely breaks .500?
I'm not sure what BC or Shelton have to do to get fired by this organization. They've been able to do nothing for years and are still employed. There's no way Nutting follows baseball closely or has any baseball knowledge to allow these 2 to be employed. The fundamentals on this team seem to be getting worse each year. It's ridiculous. The off season "additions" are horrendous........
The only thing BC has done was to be smart enough to take a job for a disengaged owner who had hired a non-baseball president and cares only about profits. The only thing Shelton has done is to buddy-up with BC.
I can somewhat see sticking with BC for 2025 based on the promise of a rotation consisting of Skenes, Chandler, Jones, and Keller, and that it took Huntington until year 6 to have a playoff team. But if they stick with him after another losing season, it will be really hard for me to invest any more time, money, and mental energy in this team until a change is made.
If it was up to me, I'd replace Shelton after this homestand unless they win at least 3 of the next 5 (then I'd see if they can break even in LA before making a decision). Why not see if a new manager can make a difference? I'd wait on making a change at GM until September because it would be too disruptive at this point in the season, and BC's drafts haven't been bad (it's his trades and FA signings that have been so disappointing).
A complete franchise "Swept" with the Pirates, and their affiliates at AAA, AA, A+, and A all going down. Two 19 year olds - Konnor Griffin, Axiel Plaz and two 20 year olds Jhonny Severino and Yordany De Los Santos offer some hope for a better future.
As good as the Bucs looked Monday night, they completely flipped the script on Tuesday wasting a nice start by Mitch Keller - a Quality Start - with little, if any, signs of life from the offense! Is this hard to understand? The Pirates are now 6-12 with a winning percentage of .333! How many years of excuses can this Owner allow without taking action? Shelton is still the Manager because the GM gave him a vote of confidence after the 2024 season. One or both need to be gone - TODAY!
Best case scenario would be a Shelton, Brock, Rabelo firing during the All Star break. But Nutting is such a low profile owner, he would not do it as the whole baseball world would focus on it during the break.
Shelton should have been on a very short leash going into 2025 - everybody was screaming for Shelton's head and BC said he had confidence that Shelton could turn it around. A start like this is even additional proof that this group of players are not playing for HIM! Shelton has to go down the road now and Bench Coach Don Kelly should be installed as the Interim Manager for the remainder of 2025.
That will allow Kelly the time to get this team moving in the right direction - if he does, Kelly stays on a 2 or 3 year contract as the Manager of the Pirates.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Don Kelly but why does he get a pass when he's been a part of this coaching staff all along? Clean house!
I thought hosting the Nats might buy Shelton some time but last night might move up the firing. Hideous fundamentals team. So the farm is 21-23 thanks mostly to GVille. Indy should be stacked but they stink. Ben can’t be trusted to serve the PBC best interests at this point
I guess Escotto can thank poor contact skills for getting only a two-game suspension for taking a swing at a guy.
Let's avoid all broken hands, please!
Beats punching walls I guess.
The Pirates need to win one of their next two against the Nats to gain a split, right?
Game was so bad last night it erased Monday from my memory. My bad! It’s fixed
Anthony, I couldn't agree more. I did the Fubo free trial to watch the game....and it wasn't worth it. 🤣
When ‘free’ feels like too much, we might have an issue lol
Yep, noticed that too. The wins are so rare, they’re easy to miss!