Never seen him in person. But the WPIAL championships have been televised locally for decades and PR lead by Neil was in one of them. He certainly stood out as a WR & LB. Pretty sure his senior year they went to the state final and he had a scholarship to Penn st as a LB.
Love the - I went to high school with future stars bits.
Unfortunately, I didn't go to high school with future stars, but I did witness those Aliquippa vs Jeanette games. Whether it was on the gridiron or the hardwood, me and my buddies wouldn't miss those games. Terrelle Pryor, Jonathan Baldwin, Herb Pope, Jordan Hall, etc. Some of the very best competition I've ever seen.
I remember going to a packed Palumbo Center for the WPIAL hoops championship - Quips won. Large group of Quip fans sat in front of us. Very boisterous group of men in their late 20's and early 30's wearing Quip letterman jackets. I remember sharing quite a few looks with my buddies of being very uncomfortable. Must've been 120 degrees in that gym and it was so loud, you couldn't talk to the kid next to you.
About a decade out of high school at the basketball courts in Center Twp., I was hooping with my buddies and out of nowhere rolls in Darrelle Revis and his homeboys, and some fine a** women. We stepped aside and watched these dudes perform like they were part of the and one basketball.
Also…Does this count? My best bud from college went to Pitt Dental School for Tony Dorset’s 4 years in Oakland. He’d invite me to games several times a year and TD was always money. Highlight was the game vs Notre Dame when he rang up 313 yards rushing. That was the National Championship year, so many great memories
We are all pitiful! Begging for a one year contract to an outfielder who had a kidney infection last year. Crying for a "show-me" platoon between two hitters who utterly failed at the MLB level last year. This owner and GM have utterly cowed fans into seeking the most absurd slivers of hope for offense when other teams in similar markets or situations sign actual MLB contributors. I'm not sure if it's Lucy and the football or Linus and the Great Pumpkin!
We are pitiful and pathetic. Looking for magic where other teams fans do not look. But I will say we have had antibiotics for a hundred years now. Just saying.
Winker signed for one year at $7.5 million. Not a lot for a 2 WAR player. Are the Pirates willing to spend even this much to approve their team? No indication they are.
I give up on trying to guess which IFAs will pan out, but I do know every single one of our 15 yo selves would've shit themselves in the dugout if a dude like Morel or DLS stepped out for BP on the other team.
My classmates in High School who played basketball probably had that feeling when they got run off the court during the state playoffs by Lebron James and the rest of that stacked Akron St Vincent St Mary's team.
In '07, my friends son was part of a beat down from Huntington High with 4 D1 players, two of which went in the 1st round of the NBA draft (Mayo and Patterson). Pretty amazing they all were from there, Mayo did go over to Kentucky to play as an 8th grader in high school.
Upstate NY is not exactly a gold mine of athleticism. However, in HS, we played football against Lionel Chalmers who ended up as a D-1 point guard at Xavier who did get into the NBA for a bit in 2004. Unfortunately for Lionel, he was saddled with even worse players than we were. He played QB and with no blocking, every play of theirs evolved into Lionel pulling some Randall Cunningham shit, running East/West all over the field. Each play seemed like it was 40 seconds long. We won!
My western PA high school team was fodder for Lebron James' st vincent st mary's basketball squad at one of those invitational tourneys in pittsburgh my senior year, if memory serves me on the details.
I remember us running warm up drills like a scene from Hoosiers while they held a dunk contest as theirs.
When I went to high school in PGH in the early 70s our basketball team lost 150-75 to a Schenley team that featured Maurice Lucas (future NBA all pro and champion on the Bill Walton Trailblazers), Ricky Coleman (D-1 recruit who blew out his knee in college) and Jeep Kelly (D-1 recruit to UNLV). It wasn’t fair.
RIP Bob Uecker. I lived in Milwaukee for 30 years and was never a brewers fan, but Uecker's voice on the radio was always entertaining (even if he never told you what was going on in the game).
This article it’s up on Apple News, from the Athletic on the kid from Uganda the Pirates signed; I was able to read it by having Apple News + so a subscription might be needed.
There’s a long article in the Athletic on Muhoozi. The author went all the way to Uganda to report it. The gist is more or less as you could expect: he lives with his mother and siblings in his grandmother’s two-room house. One meal a day. He was exposed to baseball through the Dodgers Uganda academy (yes, the Dodgers have an academy in Uganda) and found a place there a few years ago. All the players signed by major league organizations have been through that academy.
Muhoozi didn’t want to sign with the Dodgers because they wanted him as a pitcher, whereas he wants to be a position player. Pirates lead global scout Tom Gillespie saw his YouTube video and felt it was worth following up with a visit. He signed him for $45,000, which needless to say is life-changing money in Uganda.
So in a few days Muhoozi is off to the Pirates academy in the Dominican. Unreal.
If the Pirates are ever going to have a few seasons of sustained success they must produce some decent players from the International pool and really, probably need a star or two to emerge out of these groups. We at least need another Starling Marte caliber guy.
An article from yesterday about Jim Bowden going after the Pirates front office and ownership, while appearing on a radio broadcast, due to the team's failure this off-season to upgrade their offense and to capitalize on the strength of their pitching. Less then a month until pitchers and catchers report and the team has still spent $0 on free agent hitters and/or trades for hitters making more than a minimum salary. Not sure the team needs to go "all-in" just yet. But how about somewhat in, or at least a little in.
I think Bowden is saying the same thing about the Pirates as most baseball fans outside of Pittsburgh. There is not much respect for Pirate ownership anywhere.
I appreciate the sentiment but Bowden remains stuck in the last era he was remotely relevant.
"Big bat" free agents are the dumbest money you can spend. sorry, it's true.
Lamenting the club's use of pitching depth to bring in a pre-arb player that stands as a good a chance of upgrading the offense as what the Brewers will pay Rhyse Hoskins $18m to provide this year is flat-out dumb.
I'm losing patience, but the best thing the club can do to support their rotation is to build a pen that can actually hold a g*dd*amn lead.
It's looking more and more like they're broke-broke, whether in reality or not.
The era of signing position players to long-term deals in their early 30s has passed. Ask Boras who had 4 clients sign short-term deals last year because no one wanted to give them more than 3-year contracts.
Technically, they signed free agent Andrew McCutchen for $5MM, but the point stands.
I think the predicament that the FO is in is that the FAs they can (or want to) afford project to be barely any better, or no better, than players that we already have. We don't need any more Rowdy-type signings where the player is projected to be worth about 1 WAR, but it would sure be nice if we'd sign or trade for a 2-3 WAR player like Santander or Robert.
Suwinski is a major cause of their predicament. I think that they want to give him every chance to win back the bulk of the platoon bats at a corner OF position, but they cannot be certain that he will be able to do so. So they need a right-handed bat who is willing to platoon, but who could handle right-handed pitching as an everyday starter as well. To make matters more difficult, they need a guy like this who will come cheap.
To make matters even more difficult, they will have to carry 5 OFers for a time to give Suwinski a chance (Suwinski, Suwinski's platoon, Cook, Cruz, and Reynolds). With a full-time DH in Cutch and 2 Cs, that leaves only 5 spots for infielders. Having a full-time DH-only player complicates roster construction (especially for a team with major question marks at several positions: corner OF, 2B, 3B), but where else can the Pirates get a bat of Cutch's caliber for $5 million?
I want Suwinski to be given a chance, and we have the potential to have an effective platoon in RF. It would be easier to add that 2-3 WAR OF if Reynolds was moved to 1B (but I like the Horwitz acquisition) or DH (but I'm glad Cutch is coming back). So it's understandable.
But, I worry that while we're giving guys the chance to show they belong, we'll squander the Skenes years.
I'm to the point of Reynolds in right, Suwinski/Cook in left. That would change if they signed or traded for a quality corner outfielder. I just don't see them getting an upgrade.
Davis has not shown himself capable of being a batboy thus far at the major-league level (although I thought that he handled the pitching staff pretty well last year in his time behind the plate). He has no value at present if he cannot play C, and he would have to improve significantly with the bat to have value at the C position.
Yorke might just turn out to be the 2nd best bat on the team after Reynolds. I'm pretty high on that kid. That may prove to be Cherington's best move as GM (aside from being really good at tanking, getting lucky in draft lotteries, and drafting Skenes).
Unless Suwinksi is lights out during Spring Training he should be starting the year at Triple A to prove he can hit there first. He did nothing last year to earn another shot at the bigs right away.
Even with last year he is averaging 18 HR/year the last 3 years. We are the Pirates and we cannot be picky about any guy who hits for that kind of power. We saw some real inconsistencies from guys last year - Suwinski, Triolo, Hayes, etc. We unloaded the hitting coach and we can now hope that Hague walks on water. If we can get more 2023 out of those 3 guys this could be a playoff contender in 2025.
I don't have a problem with this approach. I am not one for scholarships to the big-league team. However, let us say that Suwinski does hit well for a month in AAA. The Pirates are in the exact position that I describe. So, whatever free agent they bring in has to realize that they may be relegated to a short-side platoon player very quickly. This limits their ability to attract bounce-back guys like Hays, for example.
Hays is hard to value, because he had a serious illness last season: kidney infection, and one wonders if that will impact his ability to play long term. It is probably why the Phillies did not tender him. At 29, he is probably looking for a long-term deal, but teams are probably reluctant to give him one until he proves that he is healthy.
There are opportunities. My fear is that this is starting to play out much like last year, where the Pirates wait to see who is left and then begin "expressing interest" in every tier 2 free agent, only to have other teams, like the Giants, make actual contract offers instead of "expressing interest." The Pirates then bow out at the first indication of competition for service and are left with whoever no one else wants.
Hays and Laureano though are 2 guys whom they may be able to get for cheap this year solely with the "express interest" approach and who might provide real value. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Rowdy, Taylor and Grandal were bargain bin signings. Hard to get a player with a WAR projection better than 1 when shopping for these types of players. There are still a few players out there who will likely project as two or three WAR players but will require some real spending.
More from "Baseball Wit and Wisdom" to help fill the deep, dark, cold month of January in advance of spring training:
"A baseball fan has the digestive apparatus of a billy goat. He can, and does, devour any set of diamond statistics with an insatiable appetite, and then nuzzles hungrily for more."
Brett de Geus at 27 is in need of help. A 7.15 ERA, but a very respectable 3.78 FIP last year. He throws a lot of GB's, but seems to have lost his ability to strike people out. Prior to the pandemic he had double figure K's and very low BB numbers for the Dodgers in A and A+. If he makes it to ST, he has the Velo - Fastball at 98, and a Sinker at 96.4 mph - to be a late inning guy in the BP with some changes. He has a relatively clean arm at 27 with Saves in his earlier career. If any team can find the key to unlock his talent, it is the Pirates.
Reading the IFA Signee's from yesterday, I did not see the Pitcher from Australia listed. Did we lose him when we picked up Morel and others, or is he expected to sign later?
"If any team can find the key to unlock his talent, it is the Pirates." I wish this were true but I just can't jump on that wagon. Cleveland and Tampa Bay have historically been better. I'm glad the Bucs have starters in the pipeline but fixing relievers has been wildly fluctuating in success or failure in Pittsburgh.
As for the Australian signee, "hope springs eternal" but I won't hold my breath. It would be nice if there was at least one needle in the haystack.
He's going to have a signing ceremony when people from the pirates can attend, so sign later. John explained it in the previous article. His expected bonus is $400,000.
Thank you, that's a nice touch about the signing ceremony. I had read it in John's article, but I do not remember him being identified as the person waiting for the Pirates personnel to attend.
The Pirates international officials wanted to be there for both the Robinson Smith and South Korean player (name omitted on purpose) signings, so they had to push them back. The signing at the Dominican Academy yesterday included everyone except Muhoozi. They held the Smith ceremony today, so he has officially signed. I believe there final one is tomorrow, but don't quote me on that
Okay we've talked basketball and football...
...anyone play or watch Neil Walker at, what was it, Pine Richland back when?
Never seen him in person. But the WPIAL championships have been televised locally for decades and PR lead by Neil was in one of them. He certainly stood out as a WR & LB. Pretty sure his senior year they went to the state final and he had a scholarship to Penn st as a LB.
Looks like the Mets are bringing back Winker, theres guys id rather over him but i know some are high on what he could be
Good lord, Roansy just got dfa'd again.
He may set a MLB record, though not based on his on field performance. Just what we expected in return for Jaimo.
Dragmired!
Love the - I went to high school with future stars bits.
Unfortunately, I didn't go to high school with future stars, but I did witness those Aliquippa vs Jeanette games. Whether it was on the gridiron or the hardwood, me and my buddies wouldn't miss those games. Terrelle Pryor, Jonathan Baldwin, Herb Pope, Jordan Hall, etc. Some of the very best competition I've ever seen.
I remember going to a packed Palumbo Center for the WPIAL hoops championship - Quips won. Large group of Quip fans sat in front of us. Very boisterous group of men in their late 20's and early 30's wearing Quip letterman jackets. I remember sharing quite a few looks with my buddies of being very uncomfortable. Must've been 120 degrees in that gym and it was so loud, you couldn't talk to the kid next to you.
About a decade out of high school at the basketball courts in Center Twp., I was hooping with my buddies and out of nowhere rolls in Darrelle Revis and his homeboys, and some fine a** women. We stepped aside and watched these dudes perform like they were part of the and one basketball.
Like!
Also…Does this count? My best bud from college went to Pitt Dental School for Tony Dorset’s 4 years in Oakland. He’d invite me to games several times a year and TD was always money. Highlight was the game vs Notre Dame when he rang up 313 yards rushing. That was the National Championship year, so many great memories
Man, do I love these stories. These are barroom stories!
Dude, guarantee we were both in the same building at least once if that's the case. I remember seeing at least one of those hoops matchups.
If you didn’t get to the palumbo center at least an hour before tip, you weren’t getting in.
The Quip's are legendary - sort of like The San Rocco Festa, the Jaggerz, the Midland Basketball Teams, etc.
We are all pitiful! Begging for a one year contract to an outfielder who had a kidney infection last year. Crying for a "show-me" platoon between two hitters who utterly failed at the MLB level last year. This owner and GM have utterly cowed fans into seeking the most absurd slivers of hope for offense when other teams in similar markets or situations sign actual MLB contributors. I'm not sure if it's Lucy and the football or Linus and the Great Pumpkin!
We are pitiful and pathetic. Looking for magic where other teams fans do not look. But I will say we have had antibiotics for a hundred years now. Just saying.
Pirates signed OF DJ Stewart to a MiL deal. He played 74 games for the Mets last year and hit .177, so he’s probably a favorite for the RF job.
They also released Andres Alvarez.
DJ Stewart went 4 for 6 with 3 homers against the Pirates in 2023.
Playing against the Cheringtons and playing for them is kind of a Jekyll and Hyde thing.
This may also very well indicate how much of a pro scouting staff they've cared to continue paying, lol.
Winker off the table - to the Mets. Surely there's someone who batted .150 with a great pedigree that would be better than DJ Stewart!
Winker signed for one year at $7.5 million. Not a lot for a 2 WAR player. Are the Pirates willing to spend even this much to approve their team? No indication they are.
BA's 2017 Top 10 prospect list has entered the chat.
I continue to believe those things need an expiration date.
I give up on trying to guess which IFAs will pan out, but I do know every single one of our 15 yo selves would've shit themselves in the dugout if a dude like Morel or DLS stepped out for BP on the other team.
Unreal talent/athleticism at this level.
High school kids in WV knew this feeling in the early mid 90's every time they played Dupont. Randy Moss
My classmates in High School who played basketball probably had that feeling when they got run off the court during the state playoffs by Lebron James and the rest of that stacked Akron St Vincent St Mary's team.
In '07, my friends son was part of a beat down from Huntington High with 4 D1 players, two of which went in the 1st round of the NBA draft (Mayo and Patterson). Pretty amazing they all were from there, Mayo did go over to Kentucky to play as an 8th grader in high school.
Upstate NY is not exactly a gold mine of athleticism. However, in HS, we played football against Lionel Chalmers who ended up as a D-1 point guard at Xavier who did get into the NBA for a bit in 2004. Unfortunately for Lionel, he was saddled with even worse players than we were. He played QB and with no blocking, every play of theirs evolved into Lionel pulling some Randall Cunningham shit, running East/West all over the field. Each play seemed like it was 40 seconds long. We won!
My western PA high school team was fodder for Lebron James' st vincent st mary's basketball squad at one of those invitational tourneys in pittsburgh my senior year, if memory serves me on the details.
I remember us running warm up drills like a scene from Hoosiers while they held a dunk contest as theirs.
When I went to high school in PGH in the early 70s our basketball team lost 150-75 to a Schenley team that featured Maurice Lucas (future NBA all pro and champion on the Bill Walton Trailblazers), Ricky Coleman (D-1 recruit who blew out his knee in college) and Jeep Kelly (D-1 recruit to UNLV). It wasn’t fair.
Our high-school football team had 2 future NFL players on it. They both played on the baseball team too (but they sucked at baseball).
That Dupont team also had Jason Williams (NBA) Bobbie Howard (NFL linebacker) and Sam Singleton (drafted by the Brewers)
30 for 30
Rand University.
Must watch!
RIP Bob Uecker. I lived in Milwaukee for 30 years and was never a brewers fan, but Uecker's voice on the radio was always entertaining (even if he never told you what was going on in the game).
This article it’s up on Apple News, from the Athletic on the kid from Uganda the Pirates signed; I was able to read it by having Apple News + so a subscription might be needed.
https://apple.news/A3zcE6h3CTjO10bC-8chQ9w
There’s a long article in the Athletic on Muhoozi. The author went all the way to Uganda to report it. The gist is more or less as you could expect: he lives with his mother and siblings in his grandmother’s two-room house. One meal a day. He was exposed to baseball through the Dodgers Uganda academy (yes, the Dodgers have an academy in Uganda) and found a place there a few years ago. All the players signed by major league organizations have been through that academy.
Muhoozi didn’t want to sign with the Dodgers because they wanted him as a pitcher, whereas he wants to be a position player. Pirates lead global scout Tom Gillespie saw his YouTube video and felt it was worth following up with a visit. He signed him for $45,000, which needless to say is life-changing money in Uganda.
So in a few days Muhoozi is off to the Pirates academy in the Dominican. Unreal.
Tremendously cool stuff.
Thank you much for sharing the info, but I thought the amount listed for him was much higher than $45K.
It may have been, but it was a typo as Melkel said. The correct figure is $45,000.
If the Pirates are ever going to have a few seasons of sustained success they must produce some decent players from the International pool and really, probably need a star or two to emerge out of these groups. We at least need another Starling Marte caliber guy.
Yes, add Marte at his peak years to last year's team and we probably would have had a winning record. Add two, and we'd be a playoff contender.
I'm sorry Ben, but we can't be wasting precious 40-man spots on deGeus. Are we that desperate for pitching in Indy.
We have 4-5 guys on the 40-man that we wouldn't miss, though I'd guess de Geus will be the first to go if/when we make another acquisition.
Which makes you wonder how much cash did BC spend on deGeus? $25-50K would be like flushing it down the toilet.
$100k was the amount
Smh. I guess they have some slush funds for releasing Rowdy 5 ABs before his bonus!
https://rumbunter.com/ex-gm-roasts-pirates-offseason-half-measures-as-window-opens
An article from yesterday about Jim Bowden going after the Pirates front office and ownership, while appearing on a radio broadcast, due to the team's failure this off-season to upgrade their offense and to capitalize on the strength of their pitching. Less then a month until pitchers and catchers report and the team has still spent $0 on free agent hitters and/or trades for hitters making more than a minimum salary. Not sure the team needs to go "all-in" just yet. But how about somewhat in, or at least a little in.
I think Bowden is saying the same thing about the Pirates as most baseball fans outside of Pittsburgh. There is not much respect for Pirate ownership anywhere.
I appreciate the sentiment but Bowden remains stuck in the last era he was remotely relevant.
"Big bat" free agents are the dumbest money you can spend. sorry, it's true.
Lamenting the club's use of pitching depth to bring in a pre-arb player that stands as a good a chance of upgrading the offense as what the Brewers will pay Rhyse Hoskins $18m to provide this year is flat-out dumb.
I'm losing patience, but the best thing the club can do to support their rotation is to build a pen that can actually hold a g*dd*amn lead.
It's looking more and more like they're broke-broke, whether in reality or not.
The era of signing position players to long-term deals in their early 30s has passed. Ask Boras who had 4 clients sign short-term deals last year because no one wanted to give them more than 3-year contracts.
Technically, they signed free agent Andrew McCutchen for $5MM, but the point stands.
I think the predicament that the FO is in is that the FAs they can (or want to) afford project to be barely any better, or no better, than players that we already have. We don't need any more Rowdy-type signings where the player is projected to be worth about 1 WAR, but it would sure be nice if we'd sign or trade for a 2-3 WAR player like Santander or Robert.
Suwinski is a major cause of their predicament. I think that they want to give him every chance to win back the bulk of the platoon bats at a corner OF position, but they cannot be certain that he will be able to do so. So they need a right-handed bat who is willing to platoon, but who could handle right-handed pitching as an everyday starter as well. To make matters more difficult, they need a guy like this who will come cheap.
To make matters even more difficult, they will have to carry 5 OFers for a time to give Suwinski a chance (Suwinski, Suwinski's platoon, Cook, Cruz, and Reynolds). With a full-time DH in Cutch and 2 Cs, that leaves only 5 spots for infielders. Having a full-time DH-only player complicates roster construction (especially for a team with major question marks at several positions: corner OF, 2B, 3B), but where else can the Pirates get a bat of Cutch's caliber for $5 million?
I want Suwinski to be given a chance, and we have the potential to have an effective platoon in RF. It would be easier to add that 2-3 WAR OF if Reynolds was moved to 1B (but I like the Horwitz acquisition) or DH (but I'm glad Cutch is coming back). So it's understandable.
But, I worry that while we're giving guys the chance to show they belong, we'll squander the Skenes years.
I'm to the point of Reynolds in right, Suwinski/Cook in left. That would change if they signed or traded for a quality corner outfielder. I just don't see them getting an upgrade.
Like you said squandering a Skenes year.
On the other hand we have Yorke and Davis who are capable of holding both RF and IF and C positions who can platoon with Jack.
I personally would prefer Jack to prove his ability in AAA first. I want Yorke and Cook to get the first crack at full time AB’s in RF.
Davis has not shown himself capable of being a batboy thus far at the major-league level (although I thought that he handled the pitching staff pretty well last year in his time behind the plate). He has no value at present if he cannot play C, and he would have to improve significantly with the bat to have value at the C position.
Agreed, but Nick Yorke on the other hand...
Yorke might just turn out to be the 2nd best bat on the team after Reynolds. I'm pretty high on that kid. That may prove to be Cherington's best move as GM (aside from being really good at tanking, getting lucky in draft lotteries, and drafting Skenes).
Unless Suwinksi is lights out during Spring Training he should be starting the year at Triple A to prove he can hit there first. He did nothing last year to earn another shot at the bigs right away.
Even with last year he is averaging 18 HR/year the last 3 years. We are the Pirates and we cannot be picky about any guy who hits for that kind of power. We saw some real inconsistencies from guys last year - Suwinski, Triolo, Hayes, etc. We unloaded the hitting coach and we can now hope that Hague walks on water. If we can get more 2023 out of those 3 guys this could be a playoff contender in 2025.
I don't have a problem with this approach. I am not one for scholarships to the big-league team. However, let us say that Suwinski does hit well for a month in AAA. The Pirates are in the exact position that I describe. So, whatever free agent they bring in has to realize that they may be relegated to a short-side platoon player very quickly. This limits their ability to attract bounce-back guys like Hays, for example.
Bingo.
well said.
Austin Hays agent must be playing hard-ball. There's no reason he should still be on the FA market. Very very likely a 2 WAR OFer.
Hays is hard to value, because he had a serious illness last season: kidney infection, and one wonders if that will impact his ability to play long term. It is probably why the Phillies did not tender him. At 29, he is probably looking for a long-term deal, but teams are probably reluctant to give him one until he proves that he is healthy.
Precisely. Which would make Pirates an attractive place for 1-year deal to rebuild his value.
Certainly with a buyout and option for 2nd year. The calendar may start to wear on him and his agent.....we shall see.
There are opportunities. My fear is that this is starting to play out much like last year, where the Pirates wait to see who is left and then begin "expressing interest" in every tier 2 free agent, only to have other teams, like the Giants, make actual contract offers instead of "expressing interest." The Pirates then bow out at the first indication of competition for service and are left with whoever no one else wants.
Hays and Laureano though are 2 guys whom they may be able to get for cheap this year solely with the "express interest" approach and who might provide real value. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Rowdy, Taylor and Grandal were bargain bin signings. Hard to get a player with a WAR projection better than 1 when shopping for these types of players. There are still a few players out there who will likely project as two or three WAR players but will require some real spending.
More from "Baseball Wit and Wisdom" to help fill the deep, dark, cold month of January in advance of spring training:
"A baseball fan has the digestive apparatus of a billy goat. He can, and does, devour any set of diamond statistics with an insatiable appetite, and then nuzzles hungrily for more."
-- Arthur Daley, sportswriter
we've always been nerds!
Brett de Geus at 27 is in need of help. A 7.15 ERA, but a very respectable 3.78 FIP last year. He throws a lot of GB's, but seems to have lost his ability to strike people out. Prior to the pandemic he had double figure K's and very low BB numbers for the Dodgers in A and A+. If he makes it to ST, he has the Velo - Fastball at 98, and a Sinker at 96.4 mph - to be a late inning guy in the BP with some changes. He has a relatively clean arm at 27 with Saves in his earlier career. If any team can find the key to unlock his talent, it is the Pirates.
Reading the IFA Signee's from yesterday, I did not see the Pitcher from Australia listed. Did we lose him when we picked up Morel and others, or is he expected to sign later?
"If any team can find the key to unlock his talent, it is the Pirates." I wish this were true but I just can't jump on that wagon. Cleveland and Tampa Bay have historically been better. I'm glad the Bucs have starters in the pipeline but fixing relievers has been wildly fluctuating in success or failure in Pittsburgh.
As for the Australian signee, "hope springs eternal" but I won't hold my breath. It would be nice if there was at least one needle in the haystack.
They did a pretty nice job with Dennis Santana last season.
After that second outing (6 ER), I thought, Here we go again. Then he was unhittable the rest of the year.
Fingers crossed that it was not a fluke. Like you mentioned, after that 2nd outing, he was filthy.
Relievers are a strange beast.
Feels like Holderman and Mlod are both on that line where either can roll a sub-3 ERA year or completely crash and burn.
He's going to have a signing ceremony when people from the pirates can attend, so sign later. John explained it in the previous article. His expected bonus is $400,000.
Thank you, that's a nice touch about the signing ceremony. I had read it in John's article, but I do not remember him being identified as the person waiting for the Pirates personnel to attend.
The Pirates international officials wanted to be there for both the Robinson Smith and South Korean player (name omitted on purpose) signings, so they had to push them back. The signing at the Dominican Academy yesterday included everyone except Muhoozi. They held the Smith ceremony today, so he has officially signed. I believe there final one is tomorrow, but don't quote me on that