Darrell-Hicks?? We cannot be clogging up the 40-man with arms like this. Thought we were long past this. (He won't last 10 days and will be DFAed....so what's the point Ben?)
Bunch of options, years of control, interesting arm. Find something better for the 40th spot, run him through waivers. In the (very) unlikely event he clicks, you got something valuable.
Charlie Morton started off the season 0-7 with an ERA around 9. Who would have guessed he has now won 3 of his last 4 starts. Last night he pitched 5 scoreless with 10 strike outs?
Perusing the MLB site I discovered an amazing stat. The Pirates have scored an unbelievable 151 less runs than the Cubs so far this season. And that in just over 70 games.
IKF interview post game: “If we’re not going to score runs, we have to make sure that he doesn’t give up any. [That’s] on us. I just wanted to make that play for [Skenes]”
Love that the pirates are showing more desire and competing. Would love it more if they were hitting with RISP or putting together multi-run innings. 5 of their last 7 scoring plays (dating back to Wednesday) have been on outs, failed FCs or walks. A multi-hit inning seems almost mythological. They could be on an 8 game streak right now but are 3-23 in RISP since Tuesday.
They’re playing much better, but it’s sobering to think that, in a bad stretch, they go 12-26, and in a good stretch, they go 16-15. You can’t just look at 30 or 40 games and assume, this is the “real” team.
Everyone, except maybe Cruz and Horwitz, is pretty much playing at the top of their game right now. Bednar and Santana haven't given up a run in weeks. Some guy named Chase Shugart has somehow become a reliable fireman. Heaney and Falter are having career years. Reynolds is hitting above his career norms for the past month. IKF is playing about as well as he can. Frazier looks like a different player than last year. Even Hayes has resembled a major-league player at times. And they are a game over .500 in this stretch. I don't think even that is quite sustainable. They are very much the same team that went 76-86 last year, unfortunately.
They are still 5-6 decent players away from being a playoff club or 1-2 star players, and with nothing in the upper tiers of the minors and several key members of their current roster in arbitration, about to enter arbitration, or on high-end (for the Pirates) guaranteed contracts, it is going to take some very clever maneuvering to get them over the top.
Appreciate the optimism (I'll have what AB is having).
On the arb side, only Bednar is heading to A3, and he'll likely be gone instead of getting $8M+ from the pirates.
The most expensive A2s are Falter at $2.2M and Bart, Holderman and Santana at $1.75M or below -- their raises (if they're still around), wouldn't be awful.
The A1s are only Cruz, Moreta and Suwinski. (Cruz should be extended first).
High end relief pitchers are expensive in free agency. Losing Bednar is not just something that you shrug off. It is a major blow. Falter's salary is going to up a lot as are Bart's and Santana's (at least in Pirate terms). Cruz is also going to make $4 million or so. That is a lot of nickling and diming for a team built on nickels and dimes.
Complicating things, I’m convinced Nuttin has an extremely tight limit on future obligations. When you talk about payroll flexibility with Nuttin, what it really mean is DOWNWARD flexibility. He wants to be able to cut back in the event of unforeseen issues. I doubt there’ll be any more extensions, including Cruz.
You may be right. The man is a absolute marvel of conservative and miserly. No one in baseball runs their teams so miserly and conservatively. Even the Rays gave a big extension to Franco before they discovered his kiddie diddling, and even the As just signed Rooker and Butler to extensions.
It is just impossible to run any type of business as risk averse as Nutting is. Running a business is, by its nature, risk taking. His already overly conservative calculation of risk is skewed toward the absurd by revenue sharing, which means he doesn't have to sell one ticket to guarantee solvency, assuming league-minimum salary at every position.
Rather than more revenue sharing, I think that less would be better for baseball: at least for Pittsburgh. It would force Nutting to live in the real world, assess risk with the strong possibility of insolvency if he cannot sell tickets, or get out of the business.
The only salaries that will be easy to move are Keller and Bednar. Hayes and Reynolds are going to be hard sells to anyone. With Falter, Bart, Oviedo, and Cruz entering arbitration, and Santana already in arbitration, the price of poker will go up. In addition, they have to replace (or resign) IKF, Ferguson, Heaney, Frazier, and McCutchen. They also still do not have a left-fielder. As I say, going to require great cleverness to get this team over the top in the next 2 years on Nutting's budgets, and with attendance in the toilet, those budgets are going to look even more meager.
Y'all IKF haters better buy on the dude at this time. He had a really strong game yesterday.
And he also has the top batting average on the club. So ZIP it!
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NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOUR TOON TOWN ACTION REPORT
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For the life of me I thought the Pirates were playing the SeaWolves last night because it looked like they were gonna win the game (and would have) with only TWO hits. Nick Cimillo scored in the third inning on a balk and to that point the Curve were hitless. Next inning Curvin' Pichardo gave one a big fat wham to left for the difference.
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Po was pitching last night and I don't mean the little red Telle-Tubby, I mean YU, Chen. And, you know, this is the second time I've seen him pitch in a row and - Gosh I don't know if he's gonna make the bigs.
*
He's got a 70s curve that was effective last night, fools around in the 80s with some wiggly pitches and a fastball that touches 91? He managed to get through 4.2 innings on 85 pitches and seemed to be working some deep counts. He surrendered 5 hits and 5 walks but also managed 6 strikeouts, which kept a pretty good hitting Erie team at bay, giving up only one run.
*
The pen looked pretty darn good. Jaden Woods did not fuck around. Burrows got the save with 2 solid innings. Justin Meis got the win but probably scuffled the most, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out two to put up a goose-egg.
*
Oh, and in the big news, it was ... I shit you not .... "Sparkly Vampire" night in Toon Town. It's a night where they... well, they really didn't DO anything. I couldn't figure out what the elements of a Sparkly Vampire Night was. I guess they had kids doing things in between innings like race to put on a wolf mask and tail and gloves. They also had kids between innings race to slather stand-up cut outs of Edward with sunscreen.
*
Now, I'm sure that this all sounded good in the staff and promotions department in the pre-season.
*
No capes. No fake teeth. Worst of all... No goddam sparkles. But I did get to hug Loco. And that makes you FEEL surprisingly sparkly.
We should focus first on catching the Reds and Cardinals as they seem in reach.
And what might have been--I'm not fully buying in on what they've done under Kelly (17-16) but IF they were around .500 for the season as the Reds are, they'd only be 4 games out and we'd be considered in the race, especially with Chandler's promotion on the horizon.
Darrell-Hicks?? We cannot be clogging up the 40-man with arms like this. Thought we were long past this. (He won't last 10 days and will be DFAed....so what's the point Ben?)
Bunch of options, years of control, interesting arm. Find something better for the 40th spot, run him through waivers. In the (very) unlikely event he clicks, you got something valuable.
Ben's going to Cherington
Charlie Morton started off the season 0-7 with an ERA around 9. Who would have guessed he has now won 3 of his last 4 starts. Last night he pitched 5 scoreless with 10 strike outs?
Perusing the MLB site I discovered an amazing stat. The Pirates have scored an unbelievable 151 less runs than the Cubs so far this season. And that in just over 70 games.
IKF interview post game: “If we’re not going to score runs, we have to make sure that he doesn’t give up any. [That’s] on us. I just wanted to make that play for [Skenes]”
Dude, we should do both!
Did anyone ask him about his play in the 8th inning and not playing in and coming home with the ball to shut down the tying run?
You have to hand it to IKF though. The guy's a gamer.
Love that the pirates are showing more desire and competing. Would love it more if they were hitting with RISP or putting together multi-run innings. 5 of their last 7 scoring plays (dating back to Wednesday) have been on outs, failed FCs or walks. A multi-hit inning seems almost mythological. They could be on an 8 game streak right now but are 3-23 in RISP since Tuesday.
I want to see them BEAT teams.
They’re playing much better, but it’s sobering to think that, in a bad stretch, they go 12-26, and in a good stretch, they go 16-15. You can’t just look at 30 or 40 games and assume, this is the “real” team.
That’s why they play 162.
Everyone, except maybe Cruz and Horwitz, is pretty much playing at the top of their game right now. Bednar and Santana haven't given up a run in weeks. Some guy named Chase Shugart has somehow become a reliable fireman. Heaney and Falter are having career years. Reynolds is hitting above his career norms for the past month. IKF is playing about as well as he can. Frazier looks like a different player than last year. Even Hayes has resembled a major-league player at times. And they are a game over .500 in this stretch. I don't think even that is quite sustainable. They are very much the same team that went 76-86 last year, unfortunately.
They are still 5-6 decent players away from being a playoff club or 1-2 star players, and with nothing in the upper tiers of the minors and several key members of their current roster in arbitration, about to enter arbitration, or on high-end (for the Pirates) guaranteed contracts, it is going to take some very clever maneuvering to get them over the top.
Appreciate the optimism (I'll have what AB is having).
On the arb side, only Bednar is heading to A3, and he'll likely be gone instead of getting $8M+ from the pirates.
The most expensive A2s are Falter at $2.2M and Bart, Holderman and Santana at $1.75M or below -- their raises (if they're still around), wouldn't be awful.
The A1s are only Cruz, Moreta and Suwinski. (Cruz should be extended first).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTZt0NpwOTDmF4L8IO3VPHXWcrYa01cF9ZRMpy2bw4-tLxYZolgVarMQTn9t8gjiVb6YeQA8Ss_DfZA/pubhtml
High end relief pitchers are expensive in free agency. Losing Bednar is not just something that you shrug off. It is a major blow. Falter's salary is going to up a lot as are Bart's and Santana's (at least in Pirate terms). Cruz is also going to make $4 million or so. That is a lot of nickling and diming for a team built on nickels and dimes.
Complicating things, I’m convinced Nuttin has an extremely tight limit on future obligations. When you talk about payroll flexibility with Nuttin, what it really mean is DOWNWARD flexibility. He wants to be able to cut back in the event of unforeseen issues. I doubt there’ll be any more extensions, including Cruz.
You may be right. The man is a absolute marvel of conservative and miserly. No one in baseball runs their teams so miserly and conservatively. Even the Rays gave a big extension to Franco before they discovered his kiddie diddling, and even the As just signed Rooker and Butler to extensions.
It is just impossible to run any type of business as risk averse as Nutting is. Running a business is, by its nature, risk taking. His already overly conservative calculation of risk is skewed toward the absurd by revenue sharing, which means he doesn't have to sell one ticket to guarantee solvency, assuming league-minimum salary at every position.
Rather than more revenue sharing, I think that less would be better for baseball: at least for Pittsburgh. It would force Nutting to live in the real world, assess risk with the strong possibility of insolvency if he cannot sell tickets, or get out of the business.
My guess is there’ll be some salary dumping either at the deadline or after the season.
The only salaries that will be easy to move are Keller and Bednar. Hayes and Reynolds are going to be hard sells to anyone. With Falter, Bart, Oviedo, and Cruz entering arbitration, and Santana already in arbitration, the price of poker will go up. In addition, they have to replace (or resign) IKF, Ferguson, Heaney, Frazier, and McCutchen. They also still do not have a left-fielder. As I say, going to require great cleverness to get this team over the top in the next 2 years on Nutting's budgets, and with attendance in the toilet, those budgets are going to look even more meager.
Ok
*
Y'all IKF haters better buy on the dude at this time. He had a really strong game yesterday.
And he also has the top batting average on the club. So ZIP it!
*
*
NOW IT'S TIME FOR YOUR TOON TOWN ACTION REPORT
*
For the life of me I thought the Pirates were playing the SeaWolves last night because it looked like they were gonna win the game (and would have) with only TWO hits. Nick Cimillo scored in the third inning on a balk and to that point the Curve were hitless. Next inning Curvin' Pichardo gave one a big fat wham to left for the difference.
*
Po was pitching last night and I don't mean the little red Telle-Tubby, I mean YU, Chen. And, you know, this is the second time I've seen him pitch in a row and - Gosh I don't know if he's gonna make the bigs.
*
He's got a 70s curve that was effective last night, fools around in the 80s with some wiggly pitches and a fastball that touches 91? He managed to get through 4.2 innings on 85 pitches and seemed to be working some deep counts. He surrendered 5 hits and 5 walks but also managed 6 strikeouts, which kept a pretty good hitting Erie team at bay, giving up only one run.
*
The pen looked pretty darn good. Jaden Woods did not fuck around. Burrows got the save with 2 solid innings. Justin Meis got the win but probably scuffled the most, giving up two hits and a walk and striking out two to put up a goose-egg.
*
Oh, and in the big news, it was ... I shit you not .... "Sparkly Vampire" night in Toon Town. It's a night where they... well, they really didn't DO anything. I couldn't figure out what the elements of a Sparkly Vampire Night was. I guess they had kids doing things in between innings like race to put on a wolf mask and tail and gloves. They also had kids between innings race to slather stand-up cut outs of Edward with sunscreen.
*
Now, I'm sure that this all sounded good in the staff and promotions department in the pre-season.
*
No capes. No fake teeth. Worst of all... No goddam sparkles. But I did get to hug Loco. And that makes you FEEL surprisingly sparkly.
*
That is all.
*____________________________________
"Shoot 'im now! Shoot 'im now!"
-Wabbit
10.5 out of wildcard
We should focus first on catching the Reds and Cardinals as they seem in reach.
And what might have been--I'm not fully buying in on what they've done under Kelly (17-16) but IF they were around .500 for the season as the Reds are, they'd only be 4 games out and we'd be considered in the race, especially with Chandler's promotion on the horizon.
Wake up!!! Bucs playing competitive baseball against a good Cubs team! Henry looking confident at the plate! KG keeps hitting!!! Let's go!!!
And don’t forget Adonis Florentino, who is making a mockery of the Florida complex league at age 18.