I was paying close attention to the bench last night...
Haddad, Marin, Shelton & Kelly were all on the top step leaning on the rail. Marin was taking notes, Haddad might've had a stopwatch, Kelly was chewing sunflower seeds & Shelton was playing with his beard. It was very obvious that none of these guys were calling pitches. Unless they have some secretive guy hiding in the tunnel calling pitches, the catchers call the game.
I'm not sure where this farce came from, but can we finally table this?
Can’t say I care one way or the other. The starters have done very well whether it was Davis, Bart or Grandal. The notion that handling pitchers is a reason to go with any of them over the others is a farce.
I just want to say how annoying it is that the Cubs have so many players whom I like. I almost yearn for the Maddon days of hating everyone associated with that team.
They’ve had a smart FO and now seem to have all components in place to thrive—developing their own players, having resources (and the willingness to spend) to fill in holes, and one of the best managers in the game. We seem to be far behind in each of those areas (FO, manager, development, FA spending). But they don’t have Skenes and Jones, which makes me think of, ironically, Wood and Pryor.
Remember that time the Cubs front office cleaned house after like three years of subpar development and the Pirates decided to hire one of those guys to do the same for them.
I posted here before the season that given the pitching situation, injury to Endy and need for another bat in the OF and 1B, I had little hope for the Pirates to be a playoff team. Too many ifs with the starting rotation but more importantly as a fan, the lack of commitment to improve the offense. Sorry if I'm wrong but in my eyes, there's no excuse to not sign more production at 1B and the OF. Can't afford it? This has been a low payroll operation for years. There has to be money and if the team is not performing, trade them and save your precious pennies. It's absurd.
It's funny how I found out Jesus Castillo was on the IL. Birdland and I were talking about Delgado, then noticed he was wearing 54 - Castillo's number from last year. Both of us forgot he changed his number this year, so we were wondering what happened, and Birdland didn't see Castillo in the dugout at first so we panicked lol. I pulled up the transaction log nothing. Finally pulled up his player page, said he was number 12 and his status had the 7 day IL.
But even his transaction log at the bottom didn't even have the move to the IL
How close is Roansy to getting dropped? If they need long relief Priester can eat that up better. If Lauer's last 2 starts were a little better these 3 moves could make sense
it's kinda nice knowing a drop candidate when we want to bring up Lauer (by May 15th), Lamb (might be better than Tellez/Cutch) ....or the obvious one.
Thanks to Bradenton for saving us from a sweep - they have been on a roll lately. Last night led by strong pitching from Thomas Harrington and Hung-Leng Chang, and the hitting led by 3 hits (2 doubles) from Garret Forrester, last year's 3rd Round draft selection out of Ore St. Forrester, 22, 3B/1B, now has almost 100 AB at BRD in 2023 and 2024 with an 842 OPS - wonder why he is not being promoted to A+? With Johnson, Brannigan, and Jebb, his work at 3B could be limited, but 1B looks wide open.
Coincidence the Pirates and their affiliates won 7 of their previous 7 games until Murphy showed up, and then only Bradenton wins? Collusion. Or something. I'm not sure yet.
You are right - they are converting him to Catching, which looks like a dead-end when you look at the Catching depth at the upper levels. I even looked back at Oregon State and they had him listed only as an Infielder.
There are two 24 year old guys playing 1B at GBO (Sightler, Cimillo), so why not give this kid a ticket to ride at 1B.
Hell, Greensboro could probably even use a catcher. Planchart only gets two games a week, and Ross is the new Jonah Davis, where he only gets extra base hits if he even hits it. Not to mention Ross himself is a catcher convert.
As lots of people around here have been saying that altoona is the place where we see how real a hitter is, this should be a pretty good measuring stick for Siani
Siani had a BB/K of 51/126 last year at GBO, and this year at GBO he was 9/10 before the promotion. There are a lot of the players at A+ who have improved their BB/K numbers this year, but there are still guys with extreme K% like Nolasco 44%, White 35%, Jebb 33%, and Sightler 32%.
Another saying is that if a kid can hit well at AA, he will be able to hit at the MLB level. I am part of that crowd - if a kid can hit that well at AA, don't even waste time at AAA. The Pirates though are damn near religious about making everybody touch every base along the way.
If a kid can't hit at double A, he can't hit in the majors. If a kid can hit at double A, he has a chance to hit in the majors. Baseball is hard, there are very few givens, hitting well isn't one of them.
I was paying close attention to the bench last night...
Haddad, Marin, Shelton & Kelly were all on the top step leaning on the rail. Marin was taking notes, Haddad might've had a stopwatch, Kelly was chewing sunflower seeds & Shelton was playing with his beard. It was very obvious that none of these guys were calling pitches. Unless they have some secretive guy hiding in the tunnel calling pitches, the catchers call the game.
I'm not sure where this farce came from, but can we finally table this?
Were any of them watching the game? That is the real question.
Pretty sure i saw leyland on the Clemente bridge smoking cigs and calling the game
Can’t say I care one way or the other. The starters have done very well whether it was Davis, Bart or Grandal. The notion that handling pitchers is a reason to go with any of them over the others is a farce.
Defensively they've been fine.
Great points Catch and WTM.
I just want to say how annoying it is that the Cubs have so many players whom I like. I almost yearn for the Maddon days of hating everyone associated with that team.
I know they got 2 of the 3 players I wanted the pirates to go for in the off season, Busch and Imanaga. The 3rd being Jorge Barrosa from the DBacks.
They literally made every move you and I wanted the Pirates to make.
After it is all said and done they should easily win this division. Their deep pockets will add more pitching help to a really good lineup.
They’ve had a smart FO and now seem to have all components in place to thrive—developing their own players, having resources (and the willingness to spend) to fill in holes, and one of the best managers in the game. We seem to be far behind in each of those areas (FO, manager, development, FA spending). But they don’t have Skenes and Jones, which makes me think of, ironically, Wood and Pryor.
It’s far more annoying that they worked to improve during the offseason, unlike Ben. Must be fun when your team does that.
Remember that time the Cubs front office cleaned house after like three years of subpar development and the Pirates decided to hire one of those guys to do the same for them.
I posted here before the season that given the pitching situation, injury to Endy and need for another bat in the OF and 1B, I had little hope for the Pirates to be a playoff team. Too many ifs with the starting rotation but more importantly as a fan, the lack of commitment to improve the offense. Sorry if I'm wrong but in my eyes, there's no excuse to not sign more production at 1B and the OF. Can't afford it? This has been a low payroll operation for years. There has to be money and if the team is not performing, trade them and save your precious pennies. It's absurd.
It all makes sense if your goal is to operate the Washington Generals.
Great news on Harrington.
Just trying to get through the transactions list. I'll should be caught up by noon.
It's funny how I found out Jesus Castillo was on the IL. Birdland and I were talking about Delgado, then noticed he was wearing 54 - Castillo's number from last year. Both of us forgot he changed his number this year, so we were wondering what happened, and Birdland didn't see Castillo in the dugout at first so we panicked lol. I pulled up the transaction log nothing. Finally pulled up his player page, said he was number 12 and his status had the 7 day IL.
But even his transaction log at the bottom didn't even have the move to the IL
Thanks for the info, to update my fantasy team lol
How close is Roansy to getting dropped? If they need long relief Priester can eat that up better. If Lauer's last 2 starts were a little better these 3 moves could make sense
RO NEEDS TO GO!
it's kinda nice knowing a drop candidate when we want to bring up Lauer (by May 15th), Lamb (might be better than Tellez/Cutch) ....or the obvious one.
Thanks to Bradenton for saving us from a sweep - they have been on a roll lately. Last night led by strong pitching from Thomas Harrington and Hung-Leng Chang, and the hitting led by 3 hits (2 doubles) from Garret Forrester, last year's 3rd Round draft selection out of Ore St. Forrester, 22, 3B/1B, now has almost 100 AB at BRD in 2023 and 2024 with an 842 OPS - wonder why he is not being promoted to A+? With Johnson, Brannigan, and Jebb, his work at 3B could be limited, but 1B looks wide open.
Coincidence the Pirates and their affiliates won 7 of their previous 7 games until Murphy showed up, and then only Bradenton wins? Collusion. Or something. I'm not sure yet.
No no no.....the Bucs have to make him a catcher. They know best.
You are right - they are converting him to Catching, which looks like a dead-end when you look at the Catching depth at the upper levels. I even looked back at Oregon State and they had him listed only as an Infielder.
There are two 24 year old guys playing 1B at GBO (Sightler, Cimillo), so why not give this kid a ticket to ride at 1B.
Hell, Greensboro could probably even use a catcher. Planchart only gets two games a week, and Ross is the new Jonah Davis, where he only gets extra base hits if he even hits it. Not to mention Ross himself is a catcher convert.
As lots of people around here have been saying that altoona is the place where we see how real a hitter is, this should be a pretty good measuring stick for Siani
Siani had a BB/K of 51/126 last year at GBO, and this year at GBO he was 9/10 before the promotion. There are a lot of the players at A+ who have improved their BB/K numbers this year, but there are still guys with extreme K% like Nolasco 44%, White 35%, Jebb 33%, and Sightler 32%.
Another saying is that if a kid can hit well at AA, he will be able to hit at the MLB level. I am part of that crowd - if a kid can hit that well at AA, don't even waste time at AAA. The Pirates though are damn near religious about making everybody touch every base along the way.
That approach really worked for Davis and Peguero.
If a kid can't hit at double A, he can't hit in the majors. If a kid can hit at double A, he has a chance to hit in the majors. Baseball is hard, there are very few givens, hitting well isn't one of them.
For the pirates system if a guy can dominate AAA it means they won't be able to hit in the majors.