13 Comments

Where is Endy Rod and why isn't he hitting somewhere in the minors? I know he had TJ surgery but so has Othani and he is hitting for LA. What is pirate management hiding? In spring training Endy was interviewed but did not shine any light on his situation. Can anyone provide any info?

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Ohtani had his TJS surgery on September 18th. Endy had it in early December. So he is at least 2 1/2 months behind.

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Right. Different schedule. I’m not sure why some immediately go into “what are they hiding?!”mode.

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Last I read he isn’t cleared fully to swing RH.

https://x.com/andrewdestin1/status/1820465847766565261?s=46

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They’ve been saying his recovery is ahead of schedule and he may DH some in AAA.

I think the “schedule” all along was for him to miss this year to clear the way for Grandal to stink up the field all season.

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I hate to say this but are we seeing a pirate collapse?

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Currently? Yes. Will it continue? Stay tuned…

The fact is we have a really difficult schedule the rest of the way and the front office doesn’t seem overly concerned with trying to win this year, so I think we’re looking at a tough last 7 weeks.

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Because of his age and lack of pedigree he will have doubters all the way to majors, but it seems, seems, like we might have found a solid major league hitter, not unlike Steve Pearce, though with a bit more power. We’ll see… Can good things happen to Pirate hitters???

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He actually was projected to be 1st round pick/Day 1 pick after his Freshman season at Manhattan College. That was probably scouts thinking he could stick at Catcher though.

Then the 2020 pandemic his Soph season and a subpar Junior season against inferior college competition and he got passed over his first year draft eligible.

Then he transferred to Rutgers for his Senior year. He raked there and was the leader/straw that stirred that drink for a really good Rutgers team that year.

I actually like him coming out of College as a Senior.

https://bvmsports.com/2020/09/21/manhattan-baseball-star-nick-cimillo-prepared-to-dominate-college-competition-and-beyond/

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Good stuff PB, he stuck out to me recently at one of the games. Will definitely be tracking him moving forward

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Really interesting. It’s the sort of thing they seemed to be doing this year to find late-round upside. For some reason, though, they haven’t been too eager to push Cimillo. His first full year he hardly played at all the first two months. He was easily Bradenton’s best hitter, but even after that he played only semi-regularly. And they were slow to promote him to AA.

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Apart from his age, Cimillo will be running up against scouts' dislike of 1B-only players. Considering that there's a DH, and considering some of the horrific hitting the Pirates are getting -- some of it from guys who aren't good defensively, either -- you'd think there'd be some value in a guy who can just hit, assuming Cimillo keeps hitting.

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Yeah, that bias makes no sense to me. Can we just get someone who can hit decently and catch the ball? It’s not like we have a long line of Uber athletic guys waiting to play the position.

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