Cubs get 3 off Helsley in the 9th for the walk-off. Wrigley was a party. Great theatre. It may be a dump, but I would be a Cub fan if I lived in Chi-town. Cubs win!
I haven't thought of Cruz the same way since Dreker's comment on the possible reason for reluctance to extend him a few years ago. And that's all I have to say about that.
I forget what Dreker said but my current thought is "Imagine Oneil Cruz in the playoffs when the crowds are loud and the stakes are high". Lucky for him, Cherington punted on this year last offseason but I'd be worried for Oneil if the game is speeding up on him already.
Basically that the feeling is if he got paid motivation levels would drop off a lot. Others can probably add to that but I feel that is as concise as I can make it.
Good discussions below about the Cruz debacle with BRey. I'll just state what I posted last night.......this is a coaching failure. A game or two ago Cruz was also very close to BRey (to his left), he should never be that far out in LF. It's happened many times to LF and CF where he's out there too far. I mean this is high school stuff......I don't know what coaching he got in the DR?? But he isn't being coached here either.......until perhaps? now that he single-handily cost us a win in playoff drive. We'll see.
People forget a couple years ago there were crazy shifts. Two years ago, that might have been Cruz's ball to catch based on where Reynolds was playing. I'm guessing his job was to try to run those down until he gets called off. Off the bat, that ball looked like it could have been in the bermuda triangle.
I think we could come up with a top 100 list of things we would like teams to practice or educate with their teams better. Communication on balls like that is one of them.
Yes per Post-game interview with Cruz. Cruz also said it was loud with fans too. But he admitted he heard BRey.......is their a language misunderstanding.
I mean, they've had him in the system since he was 18. You'd think they'd at least have done some coaching about where to range to in those 8 f'ing years.
I'd agree if it wasn't a chronic characteristic of his. A one-off being dumb and overzealous, ok. But it happens frequently, this time it was fatal. Coaching 101 is that each of the 26 players are different. You can teach something once and some guys get it, never have to say another word. A guy like CRuz is going to require constant reinforcement imo.
Sorry man, this is pretty out there. Does a player not have any agency over their own actions and decisions?
Oneil Cruz absolutely knows what to do in that situation.
His lack of execution speaks not to knowledge or coaching but to his greatest (only) weakness, which is mental strength. The ability to execute your skill play after play without mental lapses.
If you wanna blame any coaching, I guess that's where.
It reminds me of a few of the basketball players I coached. One of the reasons they were good was because they had the cockiness or confidence that they were the best at everything. The trick is how to get them disciplined without letting them lose their edge.
Fans overreact. I know I’m guilty from time to time. Either have to take the good with the bad with Cruz, or move on this winter. I just hope he learns from this and it helps him mature, because we desperately need his bat.
Jake Woodford gave props to two coaches at Indy for getting him back to where he was last night. We should have an article on who those guys are. It wasn't Marin and Meccage last night......it was the Indy coaches. Good sign for the other pitchers rising thru the system.
Nice, that's the first mention of anything positive our coaches have done without them getting fired for it I've ever read during the Cherington regime!
Gonzales has cratered. He had stretches like that in the minors. His BABIP has cratered. That's bad news for any player but it's really bad news for Nick Gonzalez. Let' hope he rebounds.
I like all stats and wRC is pretty cool as well, but there is not one tell all. I think it is pretty safe to say Jack would be the guy you want leading off an inning in July. Correct me if I'm wrong, but moving a guy from second to third with no one out counts the same as a strike out in wRC.
You have no idea. I have been making up my own formulas to rank baseball players since I was about 12. The conclusion is that when the game is going on, the situation may want you to change the stat you are looking at.
I have always been a SB type guy. Loved Rickey Henderson and his fluorescent green mizuno gloves. I have a pair age 12. Got all crusty from being so sweaty from never taking them off. The left one more so. I def was faster when I wore them.
It's funny when you've resolved yourself to the idea that the Pirates will never win anything meaningful under Cherington and are unlikely to as long as Nutting owns the team. I bet I'm way less disappointed at years' end than you are :)
I do! It's been true for all but 5 years of my 42 year life. Pretty easy to come to terms with given. If it wasn't for the connection I had with my dead dad through the Pirates I'd have walked away probably in 2018!
Calm down there. It was a compliment to the fan base. They are diehard and believing in management even though management has done little to earn such trust. And if you think management has earned such trust, well, we will have to agree to disagree on that one.
This deadline was on Nutting. The Perez trade occurred because Cherrington had to balance the books. So, Nutting lied when he said there would be money to improve the team. A few FO members tattled on him. So, this take is a safe one.
What I struggle with, beyond the paltry spending figure is how they spend their money. And I’m not sure who to blame for that? There’s been a lot of ink spilled about how Nutting sets a budget and is relatively hands off. I’m not sure I buy that though, because every general manager they’ve employed seems to have a suspiciously similar approach to spending money. And, although they don’t spend enough, there’s plenty of examples of teams spending similarly to us and succeeding, and the big difference is in how those teams spend their money: We’d never sign Zach Eflin to 3/$39, for example. But those are the types of deals that offer the most upside for a small market team. The Rays got nearly 5 fWAR out of Eflin. The contract literally paid for itself in 1 year. But we’d rather spend $30 MM on Chapman, Grandal, Perez and Tellez and get a cumulative 1 fWAR. Unfortunately there’s too many people with rose colored glasses who don’t want to consider this.
Serious question: are you doing ok in life? Everything going alright? It seems like you need something you're not getting and are projecting that into needing everybody else to believe in this iteration of the Pittsburgh Pirates as much as you do. I hope all is well.
Well, I have been told I’m looking mighty pale these days!
Now, beyond my pathetic life in the basement, fans are correct to be concerned about management. This isn’t sandlot baseball. Teams are being run more top down than ever. Things typically in the purview of the player such as swing decisions, pitch usage, etc are increasingly being determined in front offices. Managers are being dictated to in terms of bullpen usage and lineups.
Along those lines, there’s more data and information available to fans than ever, which allows us to compare and contrast how teams operate. And there’s a chasm between the Pirates and teams doing it the “right way” (IMO), like the Rays and Orioles.
I want them to win as badly as you do. I promise. I just don’t like the way they are going about it.
People who are on twitter not because they have some business reason to be but by choice and for fun demonstrate their bad judgement just by being there.
Cruz has a -.23 WPA/LI the last two games. When a season's worth of WPA/LI coming in at -2 is "Awful", that's a pretty big two game swing. Maybe he sits today.
"Cruz admitted he heard Reynolds' voice amongst the screaming fans inside Houston's Minute Maid Park, but he still kept tracking it before the ball ultimately fell and trickled away into foul territory." Ok, bench the kid.
There are only 4 hitters in MLB who hit the ball on the ground more than Ke'Groundout Hayes and they all hit the ball hard unlike Hayes. Ke's the only one of the with a soft% >20%. Send the guy on a phantom IL to driveline to completely scrap his swing or send him to the ballet academy.
Do you think any of the minor league hitting coaches have shown any promise? I saw an article the other day that ex-Pirate Matt Hague is getting some positive press.
How do you not understand that someone who's watched the Pittsburgh Pirates from like 1994 (I was pretty young during the Bonds run) to now would predict the absolute worst possible outcome for anything related to the Pirates? I could have made that general prediction every year from 1994 to now and I would have been meaningfully wrong like 10 times mostly in 3 seasons. Doesn't it make perfect sense?
I don't think it's a matter of smarts. I think he's just trying to do too much given his athletic ability, and it becomes detrimental as a SS. In CF, he can range wherever his heart desires, and uncork 150 MPH throws
The “smarts” that’s lacking is within the Pirates and their choices. Any other organization would have made Cruz an outfielder 4-5 years ago. People want to blame Cruz by saying he wanted to stay at short and would have pouted. I have no idea whether that might have happened or not, but so what if it did? He would have adjusted long ago and there’d be no need for this discussion. It’s also an inevitability.
When he approaches free agency in a few years some team (assuming he continues to hit and display the tools he clearly has and that are being misused by the Pirates) will offer him a gigantic contract to play in the outfield regardless of what the Pirates do in the meantime. He is going to become an outfielder and probably an all-star outfielder eventually, but whether the Pirates are savvy enough to begin the transition or not remains the question. They should do it at the end of this season and give him all of the training and support possible to make it as seamless as possible. I don’t expect it to happen though. These are still the Pirates.
I'm not 100% Bryan Reynolds survives Oneil Cruz in CF but get where you're coming from. Wilbur says he saw Cruz in the OF in the minors and hopes to never see him out there again so that's all I have to go on.
I mean, he got a whole 80 innings in LF in 2022 and that's it. Jazz (Pirate fans deadline CF of choice) never touched the OF till 2023 the Marlins just went, "Hey, you're our starting CF now". Hell, put Cruz in RF if you need to. Bigger problem is the circumstances of the Pirates inability to acquire and develop an actual SS leaving Cruz as really the only option largely due to his bat. But the move should've been done much sooner.
Time to go hit the little ball around the grass, but just a suggestion. I think the Pirates have a very good Farm System and we should be prepping them for PNC Park. Why can we not have similar dimensions at least at AA and AAA that would mirror the dimensions at PNC. Victory Field in Indy is beautiful, but Death Valley for RH hitters. At Victory LF down the line is 320' (good), but then it goes out to LC which is 418' - 8 feet even deeper than the notch at PNC. Then in CF the distance is 402' - is there any reason why it has to be deeper than the 399' at PNC.
Altoona has dimensions that are fairly standard 325' down the line in LF and RF, 385' in LC, 400' in CF, and 375' in RC. That more closely resembles PNC and should be the same at Victory Field in Indy.
Excellent 5 IP start by Woodford and he deserved better, BDLC with 2 hits out of cleanup was a pleasant surprise, the list of top exit velocities is very promising, and Oneil needs to leave the series in Houston on the plane.
Carlson Reed is proving to be another of the solid group drafted in 2023. #3 Garrett Forrester, #5 Patrick Reilly, and #13 Charles McAdoo were used in trades to get now players at the MLB level to help the Pirates down the stretch and into 2025. Moving forward into the future with the very positive performances of #2s Zander Mueth, along with #4 Reed, and #7 Jaden Woods.
The Pirates jumped up with $180K for Jacob Bimbi - tells me they wanted to make sure he was in the fold. Are they going to make a run at the HS kid drafted 20th or the 4th year College Soph?
I was actually a little surprised Bimbi got the remaining $30K. College SR out of WKU? I'd have expected Andrew Patrick to have gotten the last $30K.
That said, there's a path for Taylor Penn in college ball, but I might also point to only 3 WKU pitchers were selected (all after 10th), and only Bimbi got over the $150K allotment. I imagine his hope would be that he could play a prominent role for WKU in 2025, or even 2026, and then transfer out to a bigger school for a potential bigger payday.
This draft was interesting because they took four prep guys early but didn't follow the standard tactic of taking a college senior or two on day two to rack up pool savings. Huntington always, or almost always, did, sometimes pretty early. Delay, for instance, was a 4th rounder.
BC's done that a bit, but nobody this year. Several day two guys got below slot, but not way below as seniors usually get. But they signed all the early prep guys.
They seem to be looking for ways to find upside without having to finesse the hell out of the pool system. Maybe they're regretting Davis, especially with White and Solometo struggling badly. This year, for instance, they took a bunch of guys coming off down years, some injury-related and some not. I might be more comfortable with that approach. That first round pick just has too much value. It's too damaging if you end up with a fiasco like the Tony Sanchez/prep pitcher draft.
Solomento -- lost his command and control in AA Grade: -
White -- lacks a hit tool Grade: -
Davis, White and Polanco are black marks for the Development people. That's $7 to $8 million dollars Cherrington's people flushed down the drain. We can still hope that TJ is breaking out. These days, his 0fers are not littered with Ks. He's hitting like we expected he would when he was drafted. He turned 20 in June. The real test for him will come when he's moved to Altoona.
The book isn't closed on these guys, but a competent manager is going to be reevaluating strategy on an ongoing basis. You can't wait until Davis' career is over to start wondering whether it was a good idea. And they've got to be wondering whether it was. It speaks volumes that they have Davis with an OPS over 1.000 in AAA and an obviously washed-up Grandal still on the team.
Those last four obviously all wanted overslot, which was why they were the last four. I could see the other three. Patrick, for instance, had a down junior season, probably due to injury. I could see him thinking he'd go back and hope to have a big senior season. But there was nothing above-slot-y that I could see with Bimbi.
When they were down to $30K and 4 unsigned picks, I thought it would be Bimbi and Penn. Curley can improve stock at Georgia, and thought Patrick might want to try and actualize on his "top 100 potential" with a healthy season.
cards lose
Cubs get 3 off Helsley in the 9th for the walk-off. Wrigley was a party. Great theatre. It may be a dump, but I would be a Cub fan if I lived in Chi-town. Cubs win!
I lived there for a decade. F the Cubs.
i lived there for a year in the new york building
makes me wonder what oakland was like when forbes field was around
One would hope for a meteor when the Cubs/Cards play. But given the Cards are ahead, I’ll grudgingly accept a Cubs win.
It's the Wrigley atmosphere and the Cubs win song. No one leaves. It's pure celebration. Seems like good baseball fans.
Naw, good drunks.
And Sciambi and Deschaies are pros. They call a great game.
It's going to take 86+ wins to get a wildcard this year. Without a big run, neither the Cards or the Pirates are likely to get there.
https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds/fg/wc
hatrz
realrz
It looks like they'd need to go 32-22ish. You think they can do that?
possible, but not probable...
Yeah I agree completely
TJ: 2-3, 1 2B, 0 BBs, 0 Ks
2-4 with a 2B, 1 BB, 0Ks
I'm waiting for a monster -- statement -- game!
But being consistently good is good too!
Damn, Trout out for the year
His body is breaking down every year. He's like Jr. Griffey -- blessed by the Gods on the one hand, cursed by them on the other.
yinz are jagoffs - - full confidence in Oneil at shortstop!
he´ll be the one to rifle the relay home to save the day in game 5 just like Morneau in 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKizd_XMsk
The Fort being the Fort?
Naw, traded this offseason after the Bucs miss the playoffs by 2 this year.
I haven't thought of Cruz the same way since Dreker's comment on the possible reason for reluctance to extend him a few years ago. And that's all I have to say about that.
I forget what Dreker said but my current thought is "Imagine Oneil Cruz in the playoffs when the crowds are loud and the stakes are high". Lucky for him, Cherington punted on this year last offseason but I'd be worried for Oneil if the game is speeding up on him already.
Basically that the feeling is if he got paid motivation levels would drop off a lot. Others can probably add to that but I feel that is as concise as I can make it.
Sounds right, thanks
Cruz is a liability to the Pirates...tick tock on him...
BTW coaching doesn't teach baseball smarts...
Are you saying "baseball smarts" are innate?
I'd say a kid either has the aptitude to have baseball smarts by the time he reaches pro-ball or he doesn't.
Good discussions below about the Cruz debacle with BRey. I'll just state what I posted last night.......this is a coaching failure. A game or two ago Cruz was also very close to BRey (to his left), he should never be that far out in LF. It's happened many times to LF and CF where he's out there too far. I mean this is high school stuff......I don't know what coaching he got in the DR?? But he isn't being coached here either.......until perhaps? now that he single-handily cost us a win in playoff drive. We'll see.
People forget a couple years ago there were crazy shifts. Two years ago, that might have been Cruz's ball to catch based on where Reynolds was playing. I'm guessing his job was to try to run those down until he gets called off. Off the bat, that ball looked like it could have been in the bermuda triangle.
I'm sorry but what Cruz did in LF is not on the coaches. That's on Oneil 100%.
In what universe are MLB teams coaching their SSs not to try and catch routine flyballs to the LFer?
There's the injury factor too. Educate the kid about EGon taking out Marte for how many weeks/months. It's gotta stop.
I think we could come up with a top 100 list of things we would like teams to practice or educate with their teams better. Communication on balls like that is one of them.
They learn *I Got it, I Got It* in little league.
Mine, mine, mine is correct, it clears up any confusion on I got it or You got it..
Everyone knows Yo la tengo
are we really debating the semantics of this? Holy shit!
Did Reynolds call him off? and did Cruz hear him?
He did and Cruz said through his interpreter that he did hear him, yeah.
Yes per Post-game interview with Cruz. Cruz also said it was loud with fans too. But he admitted he heard BRey.......is their a language misunderstanding.
I guess anytime there is a collision from any of the other 29 teams, it's just bad coaching.
Seriously?? We're not talking about a little flair into the Bermuda Triangle.
You've seen other teams have players collide, no?
Man, the lengths some of you guys go to blame coaching is a phenomenon.
I mean, they've had him in the system since he was 18. You'd think they'd at least have done some coaching about where to range to in those 8 f'ing years.
They 1000% have. He did something very dumb and it's not because of lack of coaching. But whatever, you think what you want.
He’s having a rough time at plate the last few days. Not surprising he tries to do more than he should defensively to make up for it.
Personally, I’d be more concerned if he showed a lack of hustle running out to try and catch it. Have to assume he didn’t hear Reynolds call him off.
I'd agree if it wasn't a chronic characteristic of his. A one-off being dumb and overzealous, ok. But it happens frequently, this time it was fatal. Coaching 101 is that each of the 26 players are different. You can teach something once and some guys get it, never have to say another word. A guy like CRuz is going to require constant reinforcement imo.
Sorry man, this is pretty out there. Does a player not have any agency over their own actions and decisions?
Oneil Cruz absolutely knows what to do in that situation.
His lack of execution speaks not to knowledge or coaching but to his greatest (only) weakness, which is mental strength. The ability to execute your skill play after play without mental lapses.
If you wanna blame any coaching, I guess that's where.
It reminds me of a few of the basketball players I coached. One of the reasons they were good was because they had the cockiness or confidence that they were the best at everything. The trick is how to get them disciplined without letting them lose their edge.
Guy like Cruz needs a vet or 2 to get in his face.
but that made Jazz Chisholm cry tho. will Oneil be ok?
I'm not absolving Oneil. He might be uncoachable. If he is, I hope they trade him.
Fans overreact. I know I’m guilty from time to time. Either have to take the good with the bad with Cruz, or move on this winter. I just hope he learns from this and it helps him mature, because we desperately need his bat.
Do they have coaches at the MLB or MiLB level in this org or is it just a buddy system?
I see you've taken your show over at FG. Nice screen name.
I have a few! At least there you can follow me and get the endorphins from downvoting me hahahaha
I don't comment over there. This is my only commenting site.
It shows!
Jake Woodford gave props to two coaches at Indy for getting him back to where he was last night. We should have an article on who those guys are. It wasn't Marin and Meccage last night......it was the Indy coaches. Good sign for the other pitchers rising thru the system.
Nice, that's the first mention of anything positive our coaches have done without them getting fired for it I've ever read during the Cherington regime!
July surprises (to me):
-Jack Suwinski was good for a 113 wRC+, by far his best month of the season
-Nick Gonzales (46 wRC+) was somehow worse than KeBryan Hayes (wRC+)
-KeBryan had 2 walks for every extra base hit...as in literally 2 walks and 1 extra base hit. All f*cking month.
Gonzales has cratered. He had stretches like that in the minors. His BABIP has cratered. That's bad news for any player but it's really bad news for Nick Gonzalez. Let' hope he rebounds.
Hayes is definitely the single most disappointing player on team by far. Maybe in entire league.
God I don’t hope Pirates have to eat that contract, but far better to do that than roll with this version of him next year.
The most disappointing contract: Wander Franco and the Rays.
Jack with the 110 EV! Hate that he's down there.
I like all stats and wRC is pretty cool as well, but there is not one tell all. I think it is pretty safe to say Jack would be the guy you want leading off an inning in July. Correct me if I'm wrong, but moving a guy from second to third with no one out counts the same as a strike out in wRC.
You like stats? Wouldn't have guessed it by reading your name.
You have no idea. I have been making up my own formulas to rank baseball players since I was about 12. The conclusion is that when the game is going on, the situation may want you to change the stat you are looking at.
Statistics identify central tendencies. They tell one nothing in most cases.
I have always been a SB type guy. Loved Rickey Henderson and his fluorescent green mizuno gloves. I have a pair age 12. Got all crusty from being so sweaty from never taking them off. The left one more so. I def was faster when I wore them.
Short for Statistics Cabal
I am cracking up that the Pirates were the "buyer" who ZiPS thinks made themselves the most significantly worse at the trade dealine: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/zipsing-up-the-trade-deadline/
And Clemens put them as a deadline winner on his list. I mean we'll see.
“Cracking up.”
Speaks volumes about your fandom.
PS - Zips doesn’t get to determine success/failure of a trade deadline. Players do.
It's funny when you've resolved yourself to the idea that the Pirates will never win anything meaningful under Cherington and are unlikely to as long as Nutting owns the team. I bet I'm way less disappointed at years' end than you are :)
My team sucks! HAHAHA!!!
You do realize that’s what you said, right?
I do! It's been true for all but 5 years of my 42 year life. Pretty easy to come to terms with given. If it wasn't for the connection I had with my dead dad through the Pirates I'd have walked away probably in 2018!
But, angry Twitter people are yelling at me for disliking their deadline
People want to believe in this team so badly, no matter how nonsensical some of their moves seem. It says a lot about the quality of the fans we have.
They want to believe so badly they can't handle when others don't bother haha. It's very odd behavior and I blame the advent of the internet.
How dare a fan of this team to believe in them after a 15-10 July and within striking distance of the playoffs.
All those shitty fans showing up a selling the place out are suckers.
Calm down there. It was a compliment to the fan base. They are diehard and believing in management even though management has done little to earn such trust. And if you think management has earned such trust, well, we will have to agree to disagree on that one.
This deadline was on Nutting. The Perez trade occurred because Cherrington had to balance the books. So, Nutting lied when he said there would be money to improve the team. A few FO members tattled on him. So, this take is a safe one.
What I struggle with, beyond the paltry spending figure is how they spend their money. And I’m not sure who to blame for that? There’s been a lot of ink spilled about how Nutting sets a budget and is relatively hands off. I’m not sure I buy that though, because every general manager they’ve employed seems to have a suspiciously similar approach to spending money. And, although they don’t spend enough, there’s plenty of examples of teams spending similarly to us and succeeding, and the big difference is in how those teams spend their money: We’d never sign Zach Eflin to 3/$39, for example. But those are the types of deals that offer the most upside for a small market team. The Rays got nearly 5 fWAR out of Eflin. The contract literally paid for itself in 1 year. But we’d rather spend $30 MM on Chapman, Grandal, Perez and Tellez and get a cumulative 1 fWAR. Unfortunately there’s too many people with rose colored glasses who don’t want to consider this.
Most of the fans are going to the game believe in the team and the players. Most could give 2 shits about MGMT.
The ones that are constantly worrying about MGMT are nerds that don't come out of the basement.
Serious question: are you doing ok in life? Everything going alright? It seems like you need something you're not getting and are projecting that into needing everybody else to believe in this iteration of the Pittsburgh Pirates as much as you do. I hope all is well.
Settle down, bro.
Jeffy literally stated "angry twitter" in the comment you're getting all worked up about.
Those are the nerds you speak of.
Well, I have been told I’m looking mighty pale these days!
Now, beyond my pathetic life in the basement, fans are correct to be concerned about management. This isn’t sandlot baseball. Teams are being run more top down than ever. Things typically in the purview of the player such as swing decisions, pitch usage, etc are increasingly being determined in front offices. Managers are being dictated to in terms of bullpen usage and lineups.
Along those lines, there’s more data and information available to fans than ever, which allows us to compare and contrast how teams operate. And there’s a chasm between the Pirates and teams doing it the “right way” (IMO), like the Rays and Orioles.
I want them to win as badly as you do. I promise. I just don’t like the way they are going about it.
People who are on twitter not because they have some business reason to be but by choice and for fun demonstrate their bad judgement just by being there.
Cruz has a -.23 WPA/LI the last two games. When a season's worth of WPA/LI coming in at -2 is "Awful", that's a pretty big two game swing. Maybe he sits today.
"Cruz admitted he heard Reynolds' voice amongst the screaming fans inside Houston's Minute Maid Park, but he still kept tracking it before the ball ultimately fell and trickled away into foul territory." Ok, bench the kid.
Yup, he sits today. The whole team does. They're off today. Lol.
There are only 4 hitters in MLB who hit the ball on the ground more than Ke'Groundout Hayes and they all hit the ball hard unlike Hayes. Ke's the only one of the with a soft% >20%. Send the guy on a phantom IL to driveline to completely scrap his swing or send him to the ballet academy.
Scrap Haines and just hire Nunnally
Do you think any of the minor league hitting coaches have shown any promise? I saw an article the other day that ex-Pirate Matt Hague is getting some positive press.
I've never seen a player blow a game the way Oneil did last night.
He single handedly cost them a sweep.
I don't think I've ever seen a more selfish, immature player in my life.
Well, we wouldn't be going for the sweep if it wasn't for his clutch double in game one. Just sayin.
That is true. take the good with the bad.
Why tf was he in left field?!
Playing hero ball. Look at how athletic I am...I can make a play on a routine can of corn to the LFer.
Hate it. Just know your position and play it. Did he even look over at Reynolds once?
Showing his range, as to why he'll be the starting CF in 2025
He's fine at SS. He just needs to grow tf up.
I think he would a disaster in CF
He's two months shy of 26. Skenes is 3.5 years younger. Not sure it's ever going to happen for the guy.
I get it, I really do.
I also understand that no matter what, you're going to predict the absolute worst possible outcome for anything related to the Pirates.
I just don't understand how 7 hours ago you were pounding your drum and you're right back at it. This is your routine. Anyhow, keep preaching, man.
How do you not understand that someone who's watched the Pittsburgh Pirates from like 1994 (I was pretty young during the Bonds run) to now would predict the absolute worst possible outcome for anything related to the Pirates? I could have made that general prediction every year from 1994 to now and I would have been meaningfully wrong like 10 times mostly in 3 seasons. Doesn't it make perfect sense?
He went near twice the distance as Reynolds and actually overran the spot. He was moving.
But why?!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1818815439398719726
I'm not in his head, just stating he went a long way fast. Too fast, he over ran the spot the ball came down.
Guy should switch sports to track and field. Could just run all out all day.
Not sure he's got the baseball smarts for CF watching him have zero clue about where he was in space running into Reynolds easy catch territory.
I don't think it's a matter of smarts. I think he's just trying to do too much given his athletic ability, and it becomes detrimental as a SS. In CF, he can range wherever his heart desires, and uncork 150 MPH throws
The “smarts” that’s lacking is within the Pirates and their choices. Any other organization would have made Cruz an outfielder 4-5 years ago. People want to blame Cruz by saying he wanted to stay at short and would have pouted. I have no idea whether that might have happened or not, but so what if it did? He would have adjusted long ago and there’d be no need for this discussion. It’s also an inevitability.
When he approaches free agency in a few years some team (assuming he continues to hit and display the tools he clearly has and that are being misused by the Pirates) will offer him a gigantic contract to play in the outfield regardless of what the Pirates do in the meantime. He is going to become an outfielder and probably an all-star outfielder eventually, but whether the Pirates are savvy enough to begin the transition or not remains the question. They should do it at the end of this season and give him all of the training and support possible to make it as seamless as possible. I don’t expect it to happen though. These are still the Pirates.
Every time he touches the outfield grass I think of that play he made in Erie a couple years back
I actually just went back and watched it lol absolute dart to home, unlike yesterday. Move him to OF!
I'm not 100% Bryan Reynolds survives Oneil Cruz in CF but get where you're coming from. Wilbur says he saw Cruz in the OF in the minors and hopes to never see him out there again so that's all I have to go on.
I mean, he got a whole 80 innings in LF in 2022 and that's it. Jazz (Pirate fans deadline CF of choice) never touched the OF till 2023 the Marlins just went, "Hey, you're our starting CF now". Hell, put Cruz in RF if you need to. Bigger problem is the circumstances of the Pirates inability to acquire and develop an actual SS leaving Cruz as really the only option largely due to his bat. But the move should've been done much sooner.
Time to go hit the little ball around the grass, but just a suggestion. I think the Pirates have a very good Farm System and we should be prepping them for PNC Park. Why can we not have similar dimensions at least at AA and AAA that would mirror the dimensions at PNC. Victory Field in Indy is beautiful, but Death Valley for RH hitters. At Victory LF down the line is 320' (good), but then it goes out to LC which is 418' - 8 feet even deeper than the notch at PNC. Then in CF the distance is 402' - is there any reason why it has to be deeper than the 399' at PNC.
Altoona has dimensions that are fairly standard 325' down the line in LF and RF, 385' in LC, 400' in CF, and 375' in RC. That more closely resembles PNC and should be the same at Victory Field in Indy.
So Rob Manfred, where does our #1 pick, and all of these other guys play until next April? Just choose up sides and pick your field?
The reason for the early finish of the FCL is a mystery to me.
Excellent 5 IP start by Woodford and he deserved better, BDLC with 2 hits out of cleanup was a pleasant surprise, the list of top exit velocities is very promising, and Oneil needs to leave the series in Houston on the plane.
Carlson Reed is proving to be another of the solid group drafted in 2023. #3 Garrett Forrester, #5 Patrick Reilly, and #13 Charles McAdoo were used in trades to get now players at the MLB level to help the Pirates down the stretch and into 2025. Moving forward into the future with the very positive performances of #2s Zander Mueth, along with #4 Reed, and #7 Jaden Woods.
The Pirates jumped up with $180K for Jacob Bimbi - tells me they wanted to make sure he was in the fold. Are they going to make a run at the HS kid drafted 20th or the 4th year College Soph?
I was actually a little surprised Bimbi got the remaining $30K. College SR out of WKU? I'd have expected Andrew Patrick to have gotten the last $30K.
That said, there's a path for Taylor Penn in college ball, but I might also point to only 3 WKU pitchers were selected (all after 10th), and only Bimbi got over the $150K allotment. I imagine his hope would be that he could play a prominent role for WKU in 2025, or even 2026, and then transfer out to a bigger school for a potential bigger payday.
This draft was interesting because they took four prep guys early but didn't follow the standard tactic of taking a college senior or two on day two to rack up pool savings. Huntington always, or almost always, did, sometimes pretty early. Delay, for instance, was a 4th rounder.
BC's done that a bit, but nobody this year. Several day two guys got below slot, but not way below as seniors usually get. But they signed all the early prep guys.
Especially these last couple drafts, they've really stuck to the slot amounts
They seem to be looking for ways to find upside without having to finesse the hell out of the pool system. Maybe they're regretting Davis, especially with White and Solometo struggling badly. This year, for instance, they took a bunch of guys coming off down years, some injury-related and some not. I might be more comfortable with that approach. That first round pick just has too much value. It's too damaging if you end up with a fiasco like the Tony Sanchez/prep pitcher draft.
I don't consider the Davis class a failure.
Davis -- the book on him remains open Grade: 0
Chandler -- top prospect Grade: +
Solomento -- lost his command and control in AA Grade: -
White -- lacks a hit tool Grade: -
Davis, White and Polanco are black marks for the Development people. That's $7 to $8 million dollars Cherrington's people flushed down the drain. We can still hope that TJ is breaking out. These days, his 0fers are not littered with Ks. He's hitting like we expected he would when he was drafted. He turned 20 in June. The real test for him will come when he's moved to Altoona.
The book isn't closed on these guys, but a competent manager is going to be reevaluating strategy on an ongoing basis. You can't wait until Davis' career is over to start wondering whether it was a good idea. And they've got to be wondering whether it was. It speaks volumes that they have Davis with an OPS over 1.000 in AAA and an obviously washed-up Grandal still on the team.
The Sanchez draft class was a black hole. The whole class was weak, although I believe it was Zach Wheller draft year.
how tf do you give a college senior over slot lol
Those last four obviously all wanted overslot, which was why they were the last four. I could see the other three. Patrick, for instance, had a down junior season, probably due to injury. I could see him thinking he'd go back and hope to have a big senior season. But there was nothing above-slot-y that I could see with Bimbi.
When they were down to $30K and 4 unsigned picks, I thought it would be Bimbi and Penn. Curley can improve stock at Georgia, and thought Patrick might want to try and actualize on his "top 100 potential" with a healthy season.