104 Comments

Chandler just got his 6th k. Just finished the 5th inning. 1 hit and 6 ks.

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He might be the only untouchable in the minors that we have, unless it's for the right bat with control.

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They can't trade him. Keller, Skenes, Jones, Chandler, Ashcraft, Ortiz, Burrow, Priester....2025, that's probably the best pitching staff + depth for the money in MLB.

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They totally can. They could sign a SP. Harrington and Barco and Mueth are on the way, too.

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three of those guys will go down on tommy john in the next four years

starting pitching is the most expensive market commodity

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True but it's at least available. Bats aren't at all right now and we have 1.5 MLB bats on the 40 man this moment. Not to mention—when trading young arms—you just might be trading away some of those tommy johns, too. I'm not sure how you even 40 man all those guys mentioned above, either, especially while hanging on to Alika Williams sorts on the roster.

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Only guy with much value who's not hurt or scuffling in MLB or MiLB.

9th K and through 6 innings now. 1 BB.

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Jun 27·edited Jun 27

Yep, that's 19K's 2BB's 3H's through his last 2 starts.

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Jun 27·edited Jun 27

21K's 2BB's 5H's 2R's over 13 2/3 innings

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13.8 k/9, pretty nice.

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He left two runners on, so he might end up giving up run/s

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Gave up two runs……

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I'll edit if he gets Skenes'd

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Damn, 11 through 6 2/3 now tonight.

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Just missed the 12th, that ball was hit straight into the ground, looked like a pop-up. A little bit of the air was out of him grooving the 3-1 down the middle for the single to right.

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Bubba Chandler is making Akron hitters look silly tonight. 5 Ks through 3 innings.

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Was that a triple for Macadoo?

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It was, but the outfielder didn’t play it the best. Looks like it stuck under the padding on the wall? He smoked it though

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Naw, that one that got stuck was a ground rule double for Siani. Macadoo scored on Siani's ground rule double.

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i watched this today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3lwOq60cY

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Would love it if he made it to us but I'm not holding my breath. Some other ivy or near ivy league or two _will_ get cute and try to cut underslot deals in this draft but I'm not sure if enough of them are that clever to net us a Kurtz or Montgomery. Tibbs could possibly get to us, though.

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he just hits these popups to the clouds that end up far in the seats

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I always liked Josh Bell and his half season in 2019 was one for the ages, but I don’t understand why people keep mentioning him as a possible trade target, even in a package. His WAR this season is -0.7. Please, no.

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The argument is they’ve received so little production from 1st, centerfield, etc. that even acquiring a player slightly below replacement level is an upgrade. Hence people clamoring for Bell, Chisholm, etc. it also shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg in terms of prospects to make it happen.

But I agree, not super high on bringing Bell back.

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Bingo.

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Jun 27·edited Jun 27

Using his salary to offset a better acquisition at a lower cost prospect wise. Even if Bell is primarily a bench bat.

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Yeah I don't want Bell. His swing will get F'd for 100 straight PAs 2-3 times per seasons.

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Think Derrek Lee/Justin Morneau situation.

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No one would be talking about acquiring Bell if he weren’t a respected former Pirate. He’s slugging .375 for god’s sake.

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A bloop from Palacios and a blast from Peggy ties the game for Indy in the 7th

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Watching mlb central and Dan O Dowd ( who I really like) just answered a proposed Pirate trade question

Pirates- Luis Robert JR

White Sox- Termarr Johnson, Anthony Solometto, Priester, Lonnie White JR

O’Dowd mentioned he didn’t love the deal for the Sox because all the Pirate prospects are having terrible seasons. It would be a draft pedigree acquisition and hope they pan out. He didn’t like it for the Pirates because he feels Robert is over valued and always injured, Mentioned him not being a star despite his big season a few years back. Thoughts?

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If that was the package I would do it in a heartbeat.

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The salary's a bigger deal for them than the prospects, IMO.

Cruz will be hitting arb at the same time as they're paying Reynolds, Keller, and Hayes $40m/yr.

Add another $20m for Robert.

Then add arb for Skenes and Jones on top.

Bobby is getting nervous.

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If you are willing to pay 20 million dollars a year for a player (especially for one that is only healthy a half a season), those signings should be done in the off-season. So trading away 4 prospects right now at their lowest value seems foolish for a team at this point.

Even though the culture of the pitching staff is good, the culture of our every day players is not good. We are not going to be a play-off team until our culture changes, players like Oneil Cruz can run hard on a double play, cut down on the mental mistakes and at least get to be a .500 team first.

Sorry for the negativity.

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Send them Mitch Jebb, Lonnie White, Quinn Priester and some compromising photos of their GM. I bet that gets the deal done.

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Well, you’re not going to get a real cleanup hitter for Carter Bins. If you don’t want to look for AAAA guys who’d be upgrades on MAT, Jack and Grandal (which is pretty much every AAAA guy out there), you have to trade one type of risk for another and rely on your evaluation skills. Which in the Pirates’ case are the equivalent of Tellez’ sprint speed.

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First off, Mr. Miller... You leave Carter Bins otta dis!

AAAANNNND, while we're at it, there is recent apocrypha contradicting your slander on Rowdy.

____________________________

"For shame, Doc! Shootin' wabbits with an elephant gun."

-Wabbit

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I take that to mean that their evaluation skills are methodical, high effort and purposeful. 🙂

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Cherington is a notorious ditherer.

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i wouldnt mind taking a shot on some other team´s broken prospects

Jack Leiter, Elijah Green, Druw Jones, Dylan Lesko, Cam Collier, Will Bednar, Spencer Torkelson, Max Meyer, Robert Hassell

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Will bednar and then sneak him in after we flip bednar to baltimore

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Eli Green is striking out 46% of the time in A ball with a 62 wRC+. Torkelson or Druw Jones I could get behind, though. GMs are so afraid of getting burned by post-hype prospects though.

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The Pirates had a choice between Johnson and Green and chose the former. As much as Termarr is struggling this year, that choice still holds up. Green simply cannot control the strike zone.

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rather roll the dice on them turning things up a level

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That tracks almost exactly with my thinking

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I see Priester down early against the Nationals AAA lineup. I think he becomes an important guy going forward as you know the Pirates are going to monitor innings for Jones and Skenes. I see several spot starts for him as the season goes on.

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Jun 27·edited Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Ortiz has always been abit, for me and many others I imagine, a compelling prospect...still young enough, seems to have weathered an initial hiccup, and here he is now saying, maybe Im the third best starter in 2024 rotation🤷‍♂️... its nice to firmly add him to the SP conversation competition👍👏

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Do you have him in front of keller, jones, or skenes?

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...."maybe im the 4th best"🤷‍♂️🤣

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Easy Ted, let's pump the brakes just a little. Ortiz is just 6 days removed from his worst outing of the year. 6 ER, 10 hits, a walk and HBP in 4 innings. Yes Rays have a better line up than Reds, but I'm going to be looking for consistency in his mechanics before awarding him a back of the rotation spot.

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Well, Ortiz is in the rotation. Merely a question if Mlod or someone else picks up the 1st inning before starts slinging. Me thinks there will be some mixing and matching with him, Perez, Flemiand Gonzales if he makes it back. All will get starts (at least a spot start for Fleming) and all will work long relief to an extent in an effort to give Skenes and Jones some reduction in innings as the summer wears on. Will be very interesting how they work things once all are healthy.

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This is a good post.

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Tell me what you think of this crazy idea. Pitch Mlodzinski the first 2 innings or maybe 3 of a Skenes game, then bring in Skenes so he can finish his own game.

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only reason Skenes isnt already finishing his own games on a routine basis is his innings limit

while this idea sounds cool, it still results in the same amount of innings pitched by skenes

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I like the idea of Skenes pitching the 7th, 8th and 9th. I think it could be pretty cool, but you are right it is not going to save any innings.

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I don't think I'd mess with Skenes, having the ball to start the game is an adrenalin rush for some. I'm sure he could handle it, but as the old saying goes don't try to fix something that ain't broke.

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That rush was something that I think would mess with Ortiz when first came up. Sometime s fine and some times not. I think having him piggyback for several starts with Mlod kinda helped with that. He seems a lot more come and focused for the most part now.

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Good point on the adrenalin rush to start the game and even a better point on don't mess with his routine. He is not showing anyone up, but I see how pissed he gets when he gets taken out in the middle of an inning with guys on base. Technically he has only won 4 of his 8 starts, while the Pirates lost 2 of his 8 starts. Crazy idea I know.

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Ted's cool (he's wearing shades drinking a Woodford) let him be bold.

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Wednesday, June 26

39 down. 42 to go.

*

Pirates win 6-1 at Cincinnati with solid baseball all around. We are beginning to get some separation in the Logjam Central. The Bucs are in third place, 2.5 games behind the Cardinals and 2.5 games out of last place. They’ve put the Reds below them and need to look up the table instead of down.

*

CARROTS ON THE HOUSE!!!

@> Rowdy Tellez is not dead. He is very much alive and percolating in the clean-up spot of the batting order. He needs to bring Xander along wherever he goes, apparently. But that game winning oppo-bomb was just what our stats guys envisioned when they brought him in. Good on ya, Rowdy!

*

@>@> Kyle Nicolas. (Welcome to the Carrot Leader Board, son. What kept ya?) He’s a handsome kid who can throw a baseball pretty hard but into which zip code has been a quandry until recently. Only one walk while covering the seventh and eighth and it may be that the Bucs are developing yet another leverage reliever.

*

@>@>@> Louis L’Ortiz! The Frenchman gets the win with six strong and you have to think the pitching in Pitchburgh is starting to get contagious. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this rotation at this point!

*

Some notes: It is da Wabbit’s esteemed opinion that the Bucs are very close to catching heck. They need a bit of a streak, yes, and the pitching seems strong and apt to improve with a number of arms on the way back… Like I said… Who wouldn’t want to be on this pitching staff before the train leaves the station, right? There seems to be a synergy of confidence coming clear. When the Pirates brought in Falter, Perez and Gonzalez, we felt underwhelmed, but each has shown something so far this season. Leave alone the Allegheny Electric Company of Keller, Skenes and Jones. It is incumbent on this batting order to score 4 or more on 7 out of 10 days and this team will be very good.

_______________________________

“Woulds’t thou, Hassan, like all this treasure for thy very own?”

-Wabbit

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They’re definitely your carrots to award, but if they were mine, I’d award ‘em to Delay and Cutch before Nicolas.

Just one fans opinion.

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Scott Kliesen, do you ever get tired of being right?

Yeah, I could def see that. The great rabbit in the sky was listening to the game and might go back and make an adjustment. Da Wabbit is a big fan of Jason Delay. And cousin could use a couplea carrots. And cutch... well... excellence is as excellence does. It is a breath of fresh air seeing him enjoy his baseball.

OTOH, IF Nicolas gets it together, he's gonna make Chapman expendable at the deadline IF the Bucs aren't involvec in the playoffs. Both IFs are mighty big ones.

Thanks for the input. The Great Rabbit in the Sky has the matter under review.

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I think it's Allegheny Gas & Electric Co. I could be wrong.

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yeah, I read that somewheres, yinz is prolly right.

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Luis Ortiz has given up two walks *this month*.

Completely different pitcher when he's got his control down.

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Just throw strikes. Follow me for more pitching tips!

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He and Nick are neck and neck for comeback player of the year for our Bucs.

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Nice story on MLB.com about Rowdy and his 7-year-old superfan. Since seeing the kid in Toronto on May 31, Rowdy's hitting .350+ and .900+ OPS.

To paraphrase an old Marx Brothers bit: "Being a hitting coach isn't hard, a 7-year-old child could do it." Andy Haines: "Well, run out and find that kid. I can't make heads or tails of the job!"

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I was glad to see that Shelton put out the kind of lineup we want/need when going for a series win against a division rival. And he seemed to acknowledge the importance of winning the series:

“To be able to bounce back and to win two in a division series was really important for us, and I’m proud of our group.”

I complained when winning the Cardinals series didn’t seem a priority so give him credit for approaching yesterday’s game differently. Important game, big win!

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I complained more about the Cardinals series since I was there. That win yesterday makes the Pirates 6-14 in the final game of their last 20 series. That's the negative. The positive is that we have the winning percentage of a wild card team the rest of the games.

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Cousin ain't afraid of no Threshers!!

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Time to move him to GBO, along with others above him that need to be advanced?

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I honestly have no idea what they're doing lol

They won't promote Cimillo, cause I guess they don't want to eat into Dustin Peterson's at bats in Altoona? Meanwhile, they demoted Hendrie down to Greensboro, to play outfield? Hoppers have 4 outfielders as it is, and it should be 5 cause the Jebb experiment at SS should cease to exist. Altoona has 26 yr old relievers getting blown up in Double-A, and can't find a way to make a spot for college pitchers with ERAs ~ 2.00 Nielson or Perachi.

It was kind of whatever with them clearly gunning for the SAL first half title. But I really hope they aren't actually thinking about how that roster needs to "grow as a unit" for a playoff run/title.

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

" But I really hope they aren't actually thinking about how that roster needs to "grow as a unit" for a playoff run/title."

sounds like some goofy shit that baker would do, sooo

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I mean, at same time, I do understand they can't just ship half a roster up. It does seem they've somewhat been doing piece by piece. With Woods and McAdoo going up first. Then Peralta. Along with a Connor Scott got released.

I'm glad they've so far just plugged Doo at 3B

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

I’m less concerned with Mac’s position than with him being allowed to swing the bat with multiple runners on. On a scale of 1-10 in this org, getting better at situational hitting is an 11. Bunting is 0.0000000001.

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Can’t like this comment enough.

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Could be, while they're still waiting on the fruits of Bradenton and Greensboro making the title series' in 2021.

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"Things I think I think" (PM) - The Pirates pitching is VG with our top 3 SP's and the work from the BP every game, and yesterday an excellent 6 IP spot start from MI reliever Luis Ortiz. Return of Perez will help. Some hitters of note - Rowdy Tellez alive and well with a .964 OPS in June, second only to Bryan Reynolds with a 1.046 OPS in June. Cutch, Joe, Delay giving this franchise a lift yesterday.

MIA - KeBryan Hayes. Missed all but 8 games in May due to injury and has played 20 games in June to the tune of an OPS of .498. Jack Suwinski has been struggling since the season started and we need that bat. NG was very strong in May, but has regressed in June; OPS is still decent, but cannot be sustained - major area of concern is the 1 BB/22 K in June. It's a game of constant adjustments.

Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas has a CF who seems to have adjusted to MLB - JJ Bleday, 26, originally from Titusville, PA. He struggled after being a high draft pick by the Marlins, but seems to have found his footing this year. A .665 OPS in 2023, but decent BB/K of 42/72, 13.9%/23.8%, and 11 doubles/10 HR in 256 AB. This year he is 253/336/461/797 OPS with 22 doubles, 3 triples, 11 HR. Two years of ARB remaining before FA. What do they need? Everything except a Catcher or a Closer. Wouldn't hurt to ask

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I keep hearing and seeing JJ Bleday rumors, but don't see why the A's would want to trade him. They just traded for him with years of control left. Isn't he a guy they should be building around?

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They have a lot of other holes in there lineup and only a few really good trade chips. They aren't looking to compete until they're in Vegas, if they can get 2 or 3 potential pieces they'd most likely consider it. He's been good this year and has pedigree but was underwhelming prior (probably the Marlins fault lol). It would take a decent package to get him.

Personally I'd make a strong offer for Bleday and Miller then get a another low cost bat if possible.

Something on the lines of Bae or Suwinski and Ashcraft from the 40 man then their pick of 5 or 6 prospects with a couple of exceptions, like 1 of Chandler or Harrington.

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I think Miller will equal 3 Bledays on the trade market. I think you will have to overpay for Miller for sure and probably with Bleday as well...... but you never know with Oakland.

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Almost 2x Bledays according to BTV

Termarr

Bubba

Endy

Jack (who's trade value dropped so they must have done an update again)

Ashcraft

and Peguero

are still short for Bleday and Miller according to the model.

Cruz

Chandler

Suwinski

Solo

and Ashcraft is right there though lol

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Yep. Atlanta will probably get them for a song and everybody will scratch their collective head saying "WTF!"

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I don't see how they could. Miller's worth about 85% of Skenes at least according to BTV.

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Jun 27·edited Jun 27

It was a joke on the last couple of returns Atlanta sent to the A's. Milwaukee has made off better than the A's when dealing with the Braves.

My goodness BTV really undervalues starting pitching. Miller is awesome but has a checkered health background and has only really thrived as a reliever. Skenes is arguably a top 10 even top 5 starting pitcher. Skenes is worth over 2 times Miller if not more.

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I'm all in on JJ Bleday from Titusville.

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It'd be a great surprise if Bleday was in Atlanta tomorrow with both the pirates and A's having the day off today.

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He would be my preference as well.

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There's honestly about half a dozen OFs out there that make sense for the Pirates, that should fall somewhere in their price range: Bleday, Rooker, Jesus Sanchez, Jazz, Taylor Ward, and probably more. All would be very clear upgrades over what they have, offensively and easily defensively.

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I'd add Kevin Pillar to that list honestly as a cheapo upgrade. .288 .355 .518 line this year and can fake it in CF probably as well as Suwinski or better.

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If the pirates could eat Bell's remaining salary, they could aquire Sanchez as well for minimal prospect capital. Sanchez could platoon with Joe or Olivares in right field. Bell could platoon and share time with Tellez at first and occasionally DH against rhp. It also wouldn't suck having a bat on the bench late in close games.

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Shit, I think they should get Sanchez and stick him in CF lol

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

He's a better fielder than Suwinski.

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You don't want those guys; they aren't good ballplayers.

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We have guys that can hit lhp for right field but are sub .600 ops against rhp. Sanchez ops against rhp is still over .700 and near .775 for his career.

I think he's an upgrade not a permanent fix.

Bell is the way to aquire him cheap and have a bench bat we don't currently have.

I don't think either are particularly good but an upgrade and available at a low cost other than Bell's salary.

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Jun 27Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Challenge is there are about 10 teams that list corner outfielder as a need. Rooker to me smells like a one year wonder so I am not as intrigued. But I have been wrong many times!!

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What would it take to get rooker and bleday? That would pretty much fix this offense and make the outfield one of MLBs best offensive OFs. The Joe can be 4th outfielder and platoon at 1B.

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Termarr, Endy and Jack

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I’m here for small market teams like Pirates and A’s colluding to partially offset the economic advantages larger market teams have. A’s give Pirates right of first refusal on guys like Bleday and Rooker for our prospects, and down the road when Pirates window shuts and A’s opens, we reciprocate. F*** MLB, the Dodgers, Yankees, et al!!!

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