Pirates sign reliever Aroldis Chapman, minor league coaching assignments are annoucned and Termarr Johnson named the best second base prospect on Pipeline.
Honestly, Chapman should be exciting and I'm thinking SharkTank 3.0 with him, bednar, holderman, and Mlodzinksi.
Seriously now go sign Bauer for 24 and 25 and then use the excess payroll availability to front load Brandon Woodruff for a 2 year deal with a 3rd year option (he won't compete in 24). That makes the SP much more palatable and interesting till the young guns come
Adding Bauer and Woodruff to the existing roster would make the Pirates legitimate contenders for the division and the playoffs, despite having what will be the worst defensive team in baseball (except for 3B and C, of course). Would be fun having a contending team, even though I remain skeptical of Bauer's ability to behave himself.
Obviously some tongue in cheek stuff there, but I think in your humor you’re onto something in that they could push the envelope more to take peoples minds off the actual product. Funny post either way. 😂
I personally am big on Termarr and could care less about the ranking but again, look at those names behind him. What happened to all the good prospects!
I'm starting to think a few of are guys are under rated in comparison to other teams prospects. Example the Orioles have Ortiz, Norby and Westburg that all have similar numbers to Peguero, Gonzales and Triolo. The shine of our guys have dimmed a bit with graduation and lackluster performance at the highest level (doesn't apply to Triolo).
We need a couple of our recently graduated prospects to take the next step and become solid regulars.
I agree with both the BP top 100 equally with the BA for that reason...i don't know that the Pirates have more than two "Top 100-quality" prospects, but also don't know that there are actually any better prospects out there on other clubs than what the buccos have in slots 3 through 5 or 6.
Listening to the BP podcasts (I’ve never paid for BP content...is it worth it? Is BA? This is for any and all to answer, as I’m currently thinking of what online content I’ll consume this year) it’s clear they put a lot of weight on the organization the player belongs in. If Skenes was in the LAD or Cleveland system, he’d be the greatest pitching prospect who ever prospected. They came out and basically said that someone in the top 10 would be the top prospect overall if he was in the Braves system. Gut feeling, that feels like it’s weighed too heavily in their process.
I subscribed to BP for years but dropped them after - geez I don't even remember now - one of their big dogs got poached and content declined.
BA has really improved over the last couple years, IMO, in terms of quality. Quantity has always been there, so I say they're the gold standard at this point.
I don't even remember where Keith Law is writing at this point, used to follow him around and subscribe wherever he ended up but his interests seemed to expand and that's cool but i just wanna hear baseball takes.
That's fair, I should have specified. FanGraphs in particular were a few years ahead in the kind of analytic rigor that now is common pretty much across the board, IMO. From that angle I would say their individual reports have improved...rankings on the other hand...
It seems like guys that have been great at something their entire lives also have a weakness that comes with it. It seems the Pirates try to correct that weakness, but it brings down whatever they were once good at. I would rather see the Pirates not mess with these guys too much and just focus on what they are good at. (I have no idea if I made sense to anyone, but me.)
I wouldn't think Jack falls in the category of always being great his entire life. He has already exceeded expectations, in my opinion. An example from several years ago is when they got Tyler Glasnow thinking, he actually got worse. From a hitting side, I think if Roberto Clemente was on the Pirates today, they would try to get him to stop swinging at pitches out of the strike zone (even though he hit well out of the zone). Some players need a lot of info and guidance, while others should not be over-coached or you could take away their mojo.
That’s fair. My argument is more trying to balance the limitations of a player with improvement. Jack already feels like he’s on the precipice of swan diving, and I think scaling back (or trying to scale back) on his power may do more harm than good.
He was a 14 year old playing in a 12 and under. We all loved him, then we found out later he was really a cheater. It was the same feeling the Cubs and Cardinals fans felt about Sosa and McGwire.
I'd give Bauer a try with a club option. Urias is a different story, I think the entire incident needs to be known, domestic abuse in a public setting is disturbing. With that said, I've seen an incident were a man accused was actually just defending himself but the accusations still follow him.
Take away the name everyone recognizes and what have you got? A 35 year old short reliever who is currently, on paper at least, the highest paid player on the team for 2024 taking up over 12% of the whole payroll. How can that be a good thing? Of course everyone knows that he'll only be on the team for the first half of the year so they are not really going to pay him the entire $10.5 million, but this is just another signing of an over-the-hill veteran to a one year contract so Nutting can claim the team is spending money when the players union correctly calls him out on his cheapness. The only hope has to be that they might get at least a middling prospect when they trade him.
The one thing most of us were hoping was that BC would finally try to invest in improving the team and stop the patchwork filling of gaping holes with veterans no one else wanted. Hasn't happened and sure looking like it's not about to. Gonzales was a nice pickup but it only happened because the Braves will be paying three-quarters of his salary this year. As I recall, he's under contract for two more years but does anyone seriously believe the Pirates are going to keep him for those years and pay him over $12 million a year? Most likely he's another one traded away either at the deadline or next off season.
Perez might be a decent, for the Pirates anyway, starting pitcher who BTW will have the third highest salary on the team this year behind only Chapman and Reynolds. Another deadline trade piece? Tellez? Nothing else to say about him other than hoping someone might want him in July, which is something I seriously doubt.
Some among us might say they're only doing this until the group of young pitchers the Pirates have in the minors develop. That's their story anyway. Nutting and his paid side-kick Cherington are con artists, and we (the fans) are their suckers.
I’ll disagree with the over the hill characterization. Last year he was 1.8 WAR, had a 2.59 xFIP and struck out 15 guys per 9 innings. That is a good baseball player. Statistically he was one of the better relievers in the game last year: he was 7th in all of MLB in fWAR. I’ll agree that they don’t deserve a ton of credit for spending $10.5 MM on a player, especially when they’ve spent more on players in the past, but he’s not over the hill.
I love the end of the Pirates bullpen now. With our fragile looking starting rotation, we need pitchers that come in for multiple innings. As NolaJeffy mentioned, there is more of an importance for good comebacks from Roansy and Ortiz. Also the addition of Chapman allows us to stretch the innings of Borucki, which I would like to see. Stretching the inning of Mlodzinski could be helpful as well, if the Pirates think this would work.
Yeah, at the top of my wish list is a solid starter. But second was depth at the back of the pen for those times when Holderman and Bednar are not available for one reason or another. Too often we go into a season where everything needs to go right, but adding to the pen gives us at least one part of the team where we could weather some adversity.
I dunno. If BC had $10 million to spend, how in hell did we settle for Rowdy Tellez for 1b?
My guess is that BC is gambling that Shelty can abuse the bullpen in the first half, then when Skenes and Bru join the team in June, they can jettison a couple of pen arms for prospects, then bring up someone from AAA who looks decent.
My only justification is that they must've found something in his profile that they liked, no matter how improbable that seems? Seemingly superior options like belt are still out there and yet that grabbed rowdy early so feels like there must be a reason
“Hey, I spent money to improve the team and nothing bad happened! I wasn’t struck by lightning. I wasn’t fired. Maybe I could do it again! I could add an actual, major league starter. Maybe two! Maybe a first baseman or an outfielder who can hit. Maybe we could contend and I wouldn’t have to keep BSing the fans about being ‘competitive.’”
A positive to see the Pirates moving the A+ Pitching Coach, Fernando Nieve, to AA with the mother-lode of our best young future pitchers, and then followed up with Drew Benes at AAA.
Jonathan Johnston, 40, has been a consistently very good Manager at Bradenton over the past 3 years with an overall record of 214-164. Based on that, I have to think the Hitting Development Coordinator job must be a very important want for this management team. Overall, this could be the best Manager we have had in the minors over the past 3 years.
A grunt Catcher, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and drafted No. 1266 in the 2007 Draft. With that type of background, he is definitely the type of person who knows how to set goals and achieve those goals.
See a lot being made of TJ's swing and miss numbers - 120 K's at A/A+. Obviously people who do not understand how hard it is for an 18/19 year old who can also manage to post 100 Walks, 31 EBH including 18 HR, with an 868 OPS at A, an 842 OPS at A+, and Fielding Percentages of 957 at A and 960 at A+ as a second baseman. He will start at A+ as a 19 year old and I would not be surprised if he gets to AA by the time he turns 20 in June.
I have not heard good things about Nieve as a coach. Heard he's a great person, everyone loves him, but he can get too friendly with the players. Maybe that has changed over the last year, transitioning more to a coaching mentality, but there were those with the team who did not think he was right for the job after his 1st, 2nd, 3rd years in the system.
Thats $12M I would have liked to see Cherington spend (or $14M if we had to overpay). Word is Paxton is healthy and while he's not an innings eater as you mention, he puts up quality innings and would have been a good bridge to midseason callups. Way more upside than either of the SPs we already acquired.
A healthy Paxton at 14m makes more sense for the Pirates needs then Chapman at 10.5m. That being said, I will gladly take Chapman. I don't trust the health of a 35 year old Paxton who has never reached 162 innings in a season yet in his career.
Similar to a lorenzen or any of the other mid range starters that we missed out on. Feels like there has to be another shoe to drop, probably via trade, for this deal to make any cohesive sense. Otherwise, feels like a luxury signing for a team with a roster containing many larger holes as it stands
I think the Pirates had a plan of trading multiple players (on the 40 man) for either a more established mlb player or for good minor league prospects. I think that plan has failed. Teams aren't biting and the Pirates keep losing players off of the 40 man that they thought had better trade value.
In a vacuum, the Chapman signing really shores up the bullpen. In the overall view, it's so odd to me given the uncertainty surrounding 1B, 2B, RF, SP and even catcher that a setup man is where they splurge.
Long term, Chapman did net the Royals Cole Ragans last season lol
I just hope this isn’t an “optics” signing. There are some glaring holes on this team that need to be addressed. If they’re not addressed, we will know the true intention behind this signing.
His fucking boss just publicly told him to GO FUCKING DO SOMETHING.
So he did.
In a manner that does in fact improve the team, which is a perfectly acceptable way to operate a Major League Baseball club. They should try that more often!
Optics.....so this means they can extend Keller? I’m on the wait, at least mid season to do this. I think Keller is a solid #3, not an ace nor #1 on a good team.
There's like 13 people in the Pittsburgh sports ecosystem that give a fuck about extensions and every one of them will turn against player and team the moment he doesn't wildly exceed the value of his contract. We've been down this road, we know how it will end.
You wanna help optics, you bring in a madman throwing 100mph seeds that even casual fans know.
It's still crazy to me that the face of the franchise and best player in a generation ended his last season with the club as a 4-WAR star and yet the end of his tenure is seen as an abject failure because of one down year.
After seeing Hader get close to 20 million a year for 5 years, I am starting to think Bednar might be more out of the Pirate's price range than Keller is. Bednar is a Yinzer, but he also knows the market.
100% where I am. Are they better today than yesterday... yes with some basic performance assumptions(nothing is risk free). Even if Chapman is 80% of last year, that is still very likely better than whoever got knocked down to AAA. I really thought SP was where any remaining money would be spent as for good or bad I can see a depth chart at other positions.
That's where Ro and/or Ortiz come into play. Then I'd say you have some mix of Moreta, Nicolas, Mlodzinski, Holderman, Chapman, and Bednar where you can mix and match 3 arms a night in the late innings.
I’m fully on board with the firemen approach. Take guys who are stretched as 5-6 inning starters for any reason (injuries, command, lack of a 3rd pitch, etc.), and stick them in shorter 2-3 inning spurts where their flaws may be less visible, hitters only get one look at them, and their stuff plays up. Honestly, if they can get a couple of guys like that with some success, that goes a long way.
Which to be honest, more I'm thinking about it, Ro and Ortiz would each probably pair well mixed with Perez and Marco. You can go from 90-91 LHP to a mid-high 90's RHP (Assuming Ro finds his velo).
Yep. And both those guys are limited in their arsenal, so I think they’re better suited to relief anyway. It feels like a waste if a team decides a guy can’t start and he goes from pitching six innings to one.
Just for argument's sake. You go Keller, Marco/Ro, Perez/Ortiz, Priester/Falter, annnnnnd whoever Holderman is traded for. Then Moreta, Mlod, Chapman, Bednar and Borucki.
I mean, closing out games is a whole other monster, but I think all 6 I mentioned have a strong case for being backend capable, at least 7th-8th. Not to mention, Ro and/or Ortiz could be argued capable as well.
If say, Quinn can get me through 5 with only 3 runs against, you got a lot to mix and match with. That's not even throwing in wacky Borucki into the mix.
Def not opposed to this signing assuming he can keep his walk rate in check. This should make for a better bullpen with added flexibility that can shorten games. My only hope is that this comes with a corresponding move or two to bolster the starting rotation and strengthen your defense up the middle. Now go spend another $20m on Clevinger/Bauer and Taylor; if shit goes south, trade them at the deadline, this year or next, and recoup some of your costs. This isn’t rocket science.
I just accept him for what he is. 58 innings and 103 strike outs was the second best strike out rate in baseball last year (50 innings or more). I will take the 36 walks that go with it. My guess is if the walks go down so will the strike outs. That's not what we signed him for.
Honestly, Chapman should be exciting and I'm thinking SharkTank 3.0 with him, bednar, holderman, and Mlodzinksi.
Seriously now go sign Bauer for 24 and 25 and then use the excess payroll availability to front load Brandon Woodruff for a 2 year deal with a 3rd year option (he won't compete in 24). That makes the SP much more palatable and interesting till the young guns come
Adding Bauer and Woodruff to the existing roster would make the Pirates legitimate contenders for the division and the playoffs, despite having what will be the worst defensive team in baseball (except for 3B and C, of course). Would be fun having a contending team, even though I remain skeptical of Bauer's ability to behave himself.
Sports are entertainment and at the end of the day we all just want a good show.
Nutting should go full-heel, WWF style.
Fail-son night, where Hunter and Don Jr. are the only perogies in the race and every mid child of a business owner gets in free.
Aubrey Huff does play by play in the box but it's just climate denial. Doesn't even call the game.
Trevor Bauer debates the merits of wokeism with Mayor Gainey on the Fan postgame after each start.
Generate a real shitshow 1980's minor league club environment. Freakshow stuff.
Disco Demolition Night
Nutting Bobblehead Bonfire Night
Obviously some tongue in cheek stuff there, but I think in your humor you’re onto something in that they could push the envelope more to take peoples minds off the actual product. Funny post either way. 😂
I bet Hunter runs REALLY fast.
The Pirate Parrot provides his performance enhancers.
Wait, some one with the last name Nutting is the strength and conditioning coach at Altoona? Would have to think there is some connection to Bobbo.
Not related
I personally am big on Termarr and could care less about the ranking but again, look at those names behind him. What happened to all the good prospects!
I'm starting to think a few of are guys are under rated in comparison to other teams prospects. Example the Orioles have Ortiz, Norby and Westburg that all have similar numbers to Peguero, Gonzales and Triolo. The shine of our guys have dimmed a bit with graduation and lackluster performance at the highest level (doesn't apply to Triolo).
We need a couple of our recently graduated prospects to take the next step and become solid regulars.
I agree with both the BP top 100 equally with the BA for that reason...i don't know that the Pirates have more than two "Top 100-quality" prospects, but also don't know that there are actually any better prospects out there on other clubs than what the buccos have in slots 3 through 5 or 6.
Listening to the BP podcasts (I’ve never paid for BP content...is it worth it? Is BA? This is for any and all to answer, as I’m currently thinking of what online content I’ll consume this year) it’s clear they put a lot of weight on the organization the player belongs in. If Skenes was in the LAD or Cleveland system, he’d be the greatest pitching prospect who ever prospected. They came out and basically said that someone in the top 10 would be the top prospect overall if he was in the Braves system. Gut feeling, that feels like it’s weighed too heavily in their process.
I subscribed to BP for years but dropped them after - geez I don't even remember now - one of their big dogs got poached and content declined.
BA has really improved over the last couple years, IMO, in terms of quality. Quantity has always been there, so I say they're the gold standard at this point.
I don't even remember where Keith Law is writing at this point, used to follow him around and subscribe wherever he ended up but his interests seemed to expand and that's cool but i just wanna hear baseball takes.
"BA has really improved over the last couple years, IMO"
Really? I feel like they've gone downhill. Maybe I pay disproportionate attention to their top prospect lists.
That's fair, I should have specified. FanGraphs in particular were a few years ahead in the kind of analytic rigor that now is common pretty much across the board, IMO. From that angle I would say their individual reports have improved...rankings on the other hand...
Law has taken his talents to the Athletic. Thanks for the intel!
It seems like guys that have been great at something their entire lives also have a weakness that comes with it. It seems the Pirates try to correct that weakness, but it brings down whatever they were once good at. I would rather see the Pirates not mess with these guys too much and just focus on what they are good at. (I have no idea if I made sense to anyone, but me.)
An argument for just letting Jack be Jack, eh?
I wouldn't think Jack falls in the category of always being great his entire life. He has already exceeded expectations, in my opinion. An example from several years ago is when they got Tyler Glasnow thinking, he actually got worse. From a hitting side, I think if Roberto Clemente was on the Pirates today, they would try to get him to stop swinging at pitches out of the strike zone (even though he hit well out of the zone). Some players need a lot of info and guidance, while others should not be over-coached or you could take away their mojo.
That’s fair. My argument is more trying to balance the limitations of a player with improvement. Jack already feels like he’s on the precipice of swan diving, and I think scaling back (or trying to scale back) on his power may do more harm than good.
Exactly. Not that Rodolfo Castro was Babe Ruth to begin with, but once they got him to change his approach at the plate it became hard to watch.
This was my Pedro development critique!
There aren’t any. Everyone’s too busy throwing 50’s and 55’s on kids at the Little League World Series.
You have to admit Danny Almonte was pretty dominant in the 12 year old world series back in the day.
Wasn't he like 14 or 15 playing against 11 and 12 year old's.
I was gonna say...he was 12-ish.
He was a 14 year old playing in a 12 and under. We all loved him, then we found out later he was really a cheater. It was the same feeling the Cubs and Cardinals fans felt about Sosa and McGwire.
Hahah, little Johnny showed a plus-plus hit tool in Williamsport. Now he's all swing and miss. Can't believe Andy Haines fucked this one up.
You got to believe a deal is in the works that sends a reliever plus Triolo or Peguero for a starting pitcher.
Wouldn’t do it.
You wouldn’t or they wouldn’t? Or both?
That wouldn’t get us a good starter. Especially a 0-6 guy, which is always a Nuttin mandate.
if there is no moral restraint in signing Chapman, then it is absurd to not capitalize on the discount prices of Bauer and Urias
Wouldn’t Urias be dealing with a suspension?
I'd give Bauer a try with a club option. Urias is a different story, I think the entire incident needs to be known, domestic abuse in a public setting is disturbing. With that said, I've seen an incident were a man accused was actually just defending himself but the accusations still follow him.
here is Chapman´s story
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2596824-aroldis-chapman-allegedly-fired-gunshots-choked-girlfriend-after-argument
Maybe he has grown as a person since then. He's apparently with the same person and hasn't had another issue, at least publicly.
at the william penn
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1201577-aroldis-chapman-reds-fireballer-victim-of-bizarre-hotel-robbery
they are baseball players
they play baseball
in this scenario, we retain all talent and have the best rotation in the division
Take away the name everyone recognizes and what have you got? A 35 year old short reliever who is currently, on paper at least, the highest paid player on the team for 2024 taking up over 12% of the whole payroll. How can that be a good thing? Of course everyone knows that he'll only be on the team for the first half of the year so they are not really going to pay him the entire $10.5 million, but this is just another signing of an over-the-hill veteran to a one year contract so Nutting can claim the team is spending money when the players union correctly calls him out on his cheapness. The only hope has to be that they might get at least a middling prospect when they trade him.
The one thing most of us were hoping was that BC would finally try to invest in improving the team and stop the patchwork filling of gaping holes with veterans no one else wanted. Hasn't happened and sure looking like it's not about to. Gonzales was a nice pickup but it only happened because the Braves will be paying three-quarters of his salary this year. As I recall, he's under contract for two more years but does anyone seriously believe the Pirates are going to keep him for those years and pay him over $12 million a year? Most likely he's another one traded away either at the deadline or next off season.
Perez might be a decent, for the Pirates anyway, starting pitcher who BTW will have the third highest salary on the team this year behind only Chapman and Reynolds. Another deadline trade piece? Tellez? Nothing else to say about him other than hoping someone might want him in July, which is something I seriously doubt.
Some among us might say they're only doing this until the group of young pitchers the Pirates have in the minors develop. That's their story anyway. Nutting and his paid side-kick Cherington are con artists, and we (the fans) are their suckers.
I’ll disagree with the over the hill characterization. Last year he was 1.8 WAR, had a 2.59 xFIP and struck out 15 guys per 9 innings. That is a good baseball player. Statistically he was one of the better relievers in the game last year: he was 7th in all of MLB in fWAR. I’ll agree that they don’t deserve a ton of credit for spending $10.5 MM on a player, especially when they’ve spent more on players in the past, but he’s not over the hill.
The Tellez signing is getting me the most. Like, Santana at $7.5M (presumably) was too much? But Chapman, as a setup man, at $10.5M? Huh?
I love the end of the Pirates bullpen now. With our fragile looking starting rotation, we need pitchers that come in for multiple innings. As NolaJeffy mentioned, there is more of an importance for good comebacks from Roansy and Ortiz. Also the addition of Chapman allows us to stretch the innings of Borucki, which I would like to see. Stretching the inning of Mlodzinski could be helpful as well, if the Pirates think this would work.
Yeah, at the top of my wish list is a solid starter. But second was depth at the back of the pen for those times when Holderman and Bednar are not available for one reason or another. Too often we go into a season where everything needs to go right, but adding to the pen gives us at least one part of the team where we could weather some adversity.
Matt Morris cost $10mil
just saying...
Uh who?
I dunno. If BC had $10 million to spend, how in hell did we settle for Rowdy Tellez for 1b?
My guess is that BC is gambling that Shelty can abuse the bullpen in the first half, then when Skenes and Bru join the team in June, they can jettison a couple of pen arms for prospects, then bring up someone from AAA who looks decent.
My only justification is that they must've found something in his profile that they liked, no matter how improbable that seems? Seemingly superior options like belt are still out there and yet that grabbed rowdy early so feels like there must be a reason
I imagine BC having this internal debate:
“Hey, I spent money to improve the team and nothing bad happened! I wasn’t struck by lightning. I wasn’t fired. Maybe I could do it again! I could add an actual, major league starter. Maybe two! Maybe a first baseman or an outfielder who can hit. Maybe we could contend and I wouldn’t have to keep BSing the fans about being ‘competitive.’”
“Nah.”
A positive to see the Pirates moving the A+ Pitching Coach, Fernando Nieve, to AA with the mother-lode of our best young future pitchers, and then followed up with Drew Benes at AAA.
Jonathan Johnston, 40, has been a consistently very good Manager at Bradenton over the past 3 years with an overall record of 214-164. Based on that, I have to think the Hitting Development Coordinator job must be a very important want for this management team. Overall, this could be the best Manager we have had in the minors over the past 3 years.
A grunt Catcher, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and drafted No. 1266 in the 2007 Draft. With that type of background, he is definitely the type of person who knows how to set goals and achieve those goals.
See a lot being made of TJ's swing and miss numbers - 120 K's at A/A+. Obviously people who do not understand how hard it is for an 18/19 year old who can also manage to post 100 Walks, 31 EBH including 18 HR, with an 868 OPS at A, an 842 OPS at A+, and Fielding Percentages of 957 at A and 960 at A+ as a second baseman. He will start at A+ as a 19 year old and I would not be surprised if he gets to AA by the time he turns 20 in June.
I have not heard good things about Nieve as a coach. Heard he's a great person, everyone loves him, but he can get too friendly with the players. Maybe that has changed over the last year, transitioning more to a coaching mentality, but there were those with the team who did not think he was right for the job after his 1st, 2nd, 3rd years in the system.
Paxton getting 1/$12m from the Dodgers, dude has barely pitched over 100 innings since 2019. He also may be the first Boras domino to fall.
Thats $12M I would have liked to see Cherington spend (or $14M if we had to overpay). Word is Paxton is healthy and while he's not an innings eater as you mention, he puts up quality innings and would have been a good bridge to midseason callups. Way more upside than either of the SPs we already acquired.
A healthy Paxton at 14m makes more sense for the Pirates needs then Chapman at 10.5m. That being said, I will gladly take Chapman. I don't trust the health of a 35 year old Paxton who has never reached 162 innings in a season yet in his career.
Has he even gotten to 162 innings in his career?
0 if his season he reached 162 innings
4 seasons where he reached 100 innings
3 more seasons where he reached 50 innings
4 more seasons where he did not reach 50 innings
He has a pretty sweet nickname. "Big Maple"
It is a good one. My favorite nickname was Country Breakfast (Billy Butler).
Similar to a lorenzen or any of the other mid range starters that we missed out on. Feels like there has to be another shoe to drop, probably via trade, for this deal to make any cohesive sense. Otherwise, feels like a luxury signing for a team with a roster containing many larger holes as it stands
I think the Pirates had a plan of trading multiple players (on the 40 man) for either a more established mlb player or for good minor league prospects. I think that plan has failed. Teams aren't biting and the Pirates keep losing players off of the 40 man that they thought had better trade value.
Nice pickup in Chapman can get outs in the 7,8, and 9 innings...Bednar, Holderman and Chapman nice end of games trio...
In a vacuum, the Chapman signing really shores up the bullpen. In the overall view, it's so odd to me given the uncertainty surrounding 1B, 2B, RF, SP and even catcher that a setup man is where they splurge.
Long term, Chapman did net the Royals Cole Ragans last season lol
I just hope this isn’t an “optics” signing. There are some glaring holes on this team that need to be addressed. If they’re not addressed, we will know the true intention behind this signing.
I don’t think it’s just an optics thing. I think they know they’re short on the rotation and believe this is an easier way to mitigate that.
Nah, way too much credit given to planning here.
His fucking boss just publicly told him to GO FUCKING DO SOMETHING.
So he did.
In a manner that does in fact improve the team, which is a perfectly acceptable way to operate a Major League Baseball club. They should try that more often!
Ha. That too.
Probably also realize they can't, or more they shouldn't, consistently use Bednar on back-to-back nights, or the occasional back-to-back-to-back.
Optics.....so this means they can extend Keller? I’m on the wait, at least mid season to do this. I think Keller is a solid #3, not an ace nor #1 on a good team.
There's like 13 people in the Pittsburgh sports ecosystem that give a fuck about extensions and every one of them will turn against player and team the moment he doesn't wildly exceed the value of his contract. We've been down this road, we know how it will end.
You wanna help optics, you bring in a madman throwing 100mph seeds that even casual fans know.
I wanna say fans turned on B-Rey not even like a week later cause he went on a slump after signing his extension lol
lol absolutely.
It's still crazy to me that the face of the franchise and best player in a generation ended his last season with the club as a 4-WAR star and yet the end of his tenure is seen as an abject failure because of one down year.
After seeing Hader get close to 20 million a year for 5 years, I am starting to think Bednar might be more out of the Pirate's price range than Keller is. Bednar is a Yinzer, but he also knows the market.
And he’s also older so he gets maybe one shot at a good payday. He’ll be well into his 30’s when he hits FA.
So do the Pirates have 3 years of control left with Bednar or 4 years?
100% where I am. Are they better today than yesterday... yes with some basic performance assumptions(nothing is risk free). Even if Chapman is 80% of last year, that is still very likely better than whoever got knocked down to AAA. I really thought SP was where any remaining money would be spent as for good or bad I can see a depth chart at other positions.
Also, could just be an indication they know they aren't getting 6+ regularly out of their starters, if even 5 for some.
I agree we are not getting 6+ out of our starters, but wouldn't we then want to add a multiple inning guy instead of a 1 inning guy?
That's where Ro and/or Ortiz come into play. Then I'd say you have some mix of Moreta, Nicolas, Mlodzinski, Holderman, Chapman, and Bednar where you can mix and match 3 arms a night in the late innings.
I’m fully on board with the firemen approach. Take guys who are stretched as 5-6 inning starters for any reason (injuries, command, lack of a 3rd pitch, etc.), and stick them in shorter 2-3 inning spurts where their flaws may be less visible, hitters only get one look at them, and their stuff plays up. Honestly, if they can get a couple of guys like that with some success, that goes a long way.
Which to be honest, more I'm thinking about it, Ro and Ortiz would each probably pair well mixed with Perez and Marco. You can go from 90-91 LHP to a mid-high 90's RHP (Assuming Ro finds his velo).
I like thinking about Marco 86mph to Chapman 101
Yep. And both those guys are limited in their arsenal, so I think they’re better suited to relief anyway. It feels like a waste if a team decides a guy can’t start and he goes from pitching six innings to one.
Just for argument's sake. You go Keller, Marco/Ro, Perez/Ortiz, Priester/Falter, annnnnnd whoever Holderman is traded for. Then Moreta, Mlod, Chapman, Bednar and Borucki.
That's 13 pitchers.
I could see a world where this works, which isn't crazy, right?
I mean, closing out games is a whole other monster, but I think all 6 I mentioned have a strong case for being backend capable, at least 7th-8th. Not to mention, Ro and/or Ortiz could be argued capable as well.
If say, Quinn can get me through 5 with only 3 runs against, you got a lot to mix and match with. That's not even throwing in wacky Borucki into the mix.
That's king borucki to you ;)
Feels like a rays style pitching approach but that sort of creativity, if done well, could help us get more than we should out of this staff
Def not opposed to this signing assuming he can keep his walk rate in check. This should make for a better bullpen with added flexibility that can shorten games. My only hope is that this comes with a corresponding move or two to bolster the starting rotation and strengthen your defense up the middle. Now go spend another $20m on Clevinger/Bauer and Taylor; if shit goes south, trade them at the deadline, this year or next, and recoup some of your costs. This isn’t rocket science.
I just accept him for what he is. 58 innings and 103 strike outs was the second best strike out rate in baseball last year (50 innings or more). I will take the 36 walks that go with it. My guess is if the walks go down so will the strike outs. That's not what we signed him for.