If Rivas’ defense is as good as you all say it is, then he has a high floor. If he can hit .240 with 15-20 HRs and some SBs, that’s a valuable player even if he doesn’t walk much.
Maybe im just optimistic since I was in house for last night's win, but I really can't stop feeling like we aren't all that far from being an actual contender. I think this deadline could be a big push in the right direction if executed well. Heaney will be a chip and Im sure he won't bring back a haul but instead of an 18yo lottery ticket, we should try to target some guys in AA with crazy stuff and walk 6 per 9 to try and unlock enough control to be a decent bullpen arm. Bednar isn't going to bring anything back this year but he and Santana both are only controlled through next year if Im remembering right. This pen needs an overhaul and I think bringing in a stable of guys with great stuff and no idea where it is going could be the easiest solution to figuring it out
Probably the most fun game of the season--getting to see Cruz's two blasts and Skenes pitch with the game coming down to the karma of the "ball never lies" would get anyone believing :)
You could say the same thing about Burrows--on May 11 he had 11 Ks in 4.2 IP, comes to the majors and only gets 3 Ks in 5 IP while giving up 4 runs. Sure, like any reasonable fan I'm giving him a pass on his first MLB start. But...
It's not like Mlod didn't have some strong MLB outings--on April 7 he allowed 1 run over 5 IP with 6 Ks against the Cardinals (an outing that only looks better now given the Cards' success but even then the Cards had been averaging about 7 runs per game). And, in 14.1 IP in his three starts before his last one with the Pirates he allowed a total of 4 runs (2.51 ERA) with 8 Ks and only 2 BBs. For a young pitcher transitioning from reliever to starter, that's enough for me to think he has potential as a starter and should remain in consideration as the 5th starter to join Skenes, Keller, Chandler, and Falter once Heaney is traded or leaves via free agency, or we have the inevitable injury.
I agree with you, however i do find it noteworthy that the biggest knock on Mlodzinski is that he lacked a “strikeout” pitch and was relying mostly on fastball command, but after his demotion he finds immediate success striking batters out.
I still think the motivation behind making him work as a starter is to be used as a trade option, similar to Ortiz last season.
Well... they need help desperately in the bullpen, so they could trade him for a backend reliever after another year of working with him to get him passable as a starter. That makes sense.
Seems like they got a pretty reliable position player in return for Ortiz. I wouldn’t imagine they move Mlodzinski unless they receive a similar return.
Great to see the Bucs come back and win it. They have had so many games like this where they have just folded. Pitching ranged from Excellent to Poor, but the hitters pulled them out - that's a nice turnaround. Oneil Cruz with 2 HR's leading the way. Sign him!!!!! Any suggestions for a package that could buy us the first 2 years of FA?
Quinn Priester up next and he is fighting for a place in the Rotation. Yesterday's SP Peralta is their Ace, and Priester's ERA is about 3 runs higher than Peralta. Struggling with control so far with about the same number of K's and BB's, so hopefully we will not be too anxious to help.
Edward Florentino, all 6'4" 200 of him, lit it up in the FCL - still just 18, bats L, and plays 1B, and all of the OF positions. If the Pirates at A were not so deep, I would be asking why Florentino was not being promoted. FCL ends a lot earlier than A, but I would still like to see he and a few others from the FCL get an earlier bump to A. The Pirates have a lot of late round college draftee's at the lower levels, but we need to clear the path for players with that extra oomph!
Athletics Designate Seth Brown For Assignment, Option JJ Bleday… Maybe the Pirates take notice. If you’re not performing, you get sent down or designated for assignment.
Nice to win one last night, but a look at the box score bothers me vis-a-vis the bullpen.
Rainey(BS, 1)
0.1 2 2 2 1 1 0 7.94
Bednar
0.1 1 1 1 2 1 1 5.52
These guys are firemen, alright... from Fahrenheit 451.
Christmas, these guys are trotting out there carrying The Olympic Torch.
If the rest of the team had not responded, we'd'a been tagged with another loss. If not for a monster game by Cruz....
if not for... if not for....
You can always say "yeah, but," I know. And I am always trying to look on the sunny side. But if the starting pitching is gonna be this good and the batting order is gonna come around... we need to quarantine our firemen.
________________________________
"I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season."
I figure, with the SPs they have and are going to add, and the hitting regressing to its mean of being merely crappy instead of historically putrid, the bullpen will be the difference between playing the remainder of the season at a 72-75-win pace and maybe 78-80. And I'm not optimistic about the bullpen. It's a bunch of marginal guys, one or two of whom are going to have bad outings nearly every day when you're using 3-5 relievers in every game.
Skenes, Keller and maybe Heaney going 6+ as much as possible might offset some of this, but if Heaney’s traded and the rotation later this summer includes Chandler and any of the younger guys who will have trouble going deep (or be limited by the team from doing so), then, yeah, the pen has a good chance of being exposed.
Unless, we see a combination of some of the AAA arms getting innings out of the pen this summer and Money Moreta brings his swagger back to the burgh soon.
It’d be pretty fun to watch Burrows, Ashcraft and Harrington all pitch in the same game.
At some point, they just have to use some of these guys in relief. The innings are certainly there. Keeping them stashed indefinitely in AAA isn’t going to make them better.
I keep envisioning Ashcraft as one of these guys that comes in the game at a pivotal spot and gives the pirates 3 electric shut down innings. That’s a valuable piece to have when you have a starter that doesn’t have his best stuff on a given day.
When Oneil Cruz does not play or get a hard hit, the leader boards for top exit velocities usually seem to sit in the 100-105 MPH range…until a TEENAGE Konnor Griffin showed up!
That kid’s physical talent is incredible. Now, they just need him to continue to develop and avoid having some dumbass anonymous scout say he walks on water. :)
Pete Crow Armstrong had another ridiculous game for the Cubs yesterday so I checked his stat line for the season. He has an OPS around .900 AND a strikeout to walk ratio of 51 to six! So it can be done, I suppose, even at the big league level.
If Rivas’ defense is as good as you all say it is, then he has a high floor. If he can hit .240 with 15-20 HRs and some SBs, that’s a valuable player even if he doesn’t walk much.
Oops. Wrong thread. Just pretend it’s in the hitting breakout post.
Maybe im just optimistic since I was in house for last night's win, but I really can't stop feeling like we aren't all that far from being an actual contender. I think this deadline could be a big push in the right direction if executed well. Heaney will be a chip and Im sure he won't bring back a haul but instead of an 18yo lottery ticket, we should try to target some guys in AA with crazy stuff and walk 6 per 9 to try and unlock enough control to be a decent bullpen arm. Bednar isn't going to bring anything back this year but he and Santana both are only controlled through next year if Im remembering right. This pen needs an overhaul and I think bringing in a stable of guys with great stuff and no idea where it is going could be the easiest solution to figuring it out
Probably the most fun game of the season--getting to see Cruz's two blasts and Skenes pitch with the game coming down to the karma of the "ball never lies" would get anyone believing :)
I'd suggest moving Mlod back to the pen as a good first overhaul step.
Could’ve already set himself up as the next closer if he didn’t push/BC didn’t agree to let him try to start again
If you ever need an example of the gap in talent between AAA and the majors, I give you exhibit A:
Mlodzinski 10 k’s in first AAA start
You could say the same thing about Burrows--on May 11 he had 11 Ks in 4.2 IP, comes to the majors and only gets 3 Ks in 5 IP while giving up 4 runs. Sure, like any reasonable fan I'm giving him a pass on his first MLB start. But...
It's not like Mlod didn't have some strong MLB outings--on April 7 he allowed 1 run over 5 IP with 6 Ks against the Cardinals (an outing that only looks better now given the Cards' success but even then the Cards had been averaging about 7 runs per game). And, in 14.1 IP in his three starts before his last one with the Pirates he allowed a total of 4 runs (2.51 ERA) with 8 Ks and only 2 BBs. For a young pitcher transitioning from reliever to starter, that's enough for me to think he has potential as a starter and should remain in consideration as the 5th starter to join Skenes, Keller, Chandler, and Falter once Heaney is traded or leaves via free agency, or we have the inevitable injury.
I agree with you, however i do find it noteworthy that the biggest knock on Mlodzinski is that he lacked a “strikeout” pitch and was relying mostly on fastball command, but after his demotion he finds immediate success striking batters out.
I still think the motivation behind making him work as a starter is to be used as a trade option, similar to Ortiz last season.
Well... they need help desperately in the bullpen, so they could trade him for a backend reliever after another year of working with him to get him passable as a starter. That makes sense.
Seems like they got a pretty reliable position player in return for Ortiz. I wouldn’t imagine they move Mlodzinski unless they receive a similar return.
Great to see the Bucs come back and win it. They have had so many games like this where they have just folded. Pitching ranged from Excellent to Poor, but the hitters pulled them out - that's a nice turnaround. Oneil Cruz with 2 HR's leading the way. Sign him!!!!! Any suggestions for a package that could buy us the first 2 years of FA?
Quinn Priester up next and he is fighting for a place in the Rotation. Yesterday's SP Peralta is their Ace, and Priester's ERA is about 3 runs higher than Peralta. Struggling with control so far with about the same number of K's and BB's, so hopefully we will not be too anxious to help.
Edward Florentino, all 6'4" 200 of him, lit it up in the FCL - still just 18, bats L, and plays 1B, and all of the OF positions. If the Pirates at A were not so deep, I would be asking why Florentino was not being promoted. FCL ends a lot earlier than A, but I would still like to see he and a few others from the FCL get an earlier bump to A. The Pirates have a lot of late round college draftee's at the lower levels, but we need to clear the path for players with that extra oomph!
Athletics Designate Seth Brown For Assignment, Option JJ Bleday… Maybe the Pirates take notice. If you’re not performing, you get sent down or designated for assignment.
Nice to win one last night, but a look at the box score bothers me vis-a-vis the bullpen.
Rainey(BS, 1)
0.1 2 2 2 1 1 0 7.94
Bednar
0.1 1 1 1 2 1 1 5.52
These guys are firemen, alright... from Fahrenheit 451.
Christmas, these guys are trotting out there carrying The Olympic Torch.
If the rest of the team had not responded, we'd'a been tagged with another loss. If not for a monster game by Cruz....
if not for... if not for....
You can always say "yeah, but," I know. And I am always trying to look on the sunny side. But if the starting pitching is gonna be this good and the batting order is gonna come around... we need to quarantine our firemen.
________________________________
"I wonder what the poor bunnies are doing this season."
-Wabbit
If the hitting comes around a bit, the bullpen remains a BIG problem.
I figure, with the SPs they have and are going to add, and the hitting regressing to its mean of being merely crappy instead of historically putrid, the bullpen will be the difference between playing the remainder of the season at a 72-75-win pace and maybe 78-80. And I'm not optimistic about the bullpen. It's a bunch of marginal guys, one or two of whom are going to have bad outings nearly every day when you're using 3-5 relievers in every game.
Skenes, Keller and maybe Heaney going 6+ as much as possible might offset some of this, but if Heaney’s traded and the rotation later this summer includes Chandler and any of the younger guys who will have trouble going deep (or be limited by the team from doing so), then, yeah, the pen has a good chance of being exposed.
Unless, we see a combination of some of the AAA arms getting innings out of the pen this summer and Money Moreta brings his swagger back to the burgh soon.
It’d be pretty fun to watch Burrows, Ashcraft and Harrington all pitch in the same game.
I love Moreta, really hope he bounces back.
At some point, they just have to use some of these guys in relief. The innings are certainly there. Keeping them stashed indefinitely in AAA isn’t going to make them better.
I keep envisioning Ashcraft as one of these guys that comes in the game at a pivotal spot and gives the pirates 3 electric shut down innings. That’s a valuable piece to have when you have a starter that doesn’t have his best stuff on a given day.
When Oneil Cruz does not play or get a hard hit, the leader boards for top exit velocities usually seem to sit in the 100-105 MPH range…until a TEENAGE Konnor Griffin showed up!
That kid’s physical talent is incredible. Now, they just need him to continue to develop and avoid having some dumbass anonymous scout say he walks on water. :)
We just saw how much it hurts to have Cruz out. At least we don’t seem to have anybody ranting any more about sending him to AAA.
And, yeah, unrestrained raving about KG makes me nervous. Gotta retain some capacity to let the kid just find his way.
Agree. The walk on water comment was an old reference back to a Chad Hermansen quote!
Pete Crow Armstrong had another ridiculous game for the Cubs yesterday so I checked his stat line for the season. He has an OPS around .900 AND a strikeout to walk ratio of 51 to six! So it can be done, I suppose, even at the big league level.
We were worried about similar things when Starling Marte was coming through the system.