I'm'a listen to the podcast here in a bit, but I think all the caterwauling about moving a potential superstar to center field from short is just something to squawk about. Players change positions all the time. Baseball is not rocket surgery.
With that arm, nobody is gonna test O'Cruz. And with his speed, range and height, he's gonna make a lot of catches that might not get made as long as his first step and reads on the ball are good. It'll be different for a bit and we're well and truly out of it, so it is, in my opinion, time to give O'Cruz the rest of the season in center. This is why the outrighted MAT.
Playing baseball is not complicated. We just make it that way.
As You Were...
-------------------------------
"We don't howl at the girls in the big city, cousin."
The Pirates Front Office never misses a chance to look amateurish! Nice timing on making the announcement that they have decided to move Oneil Cruz off of SS to CF. Cherrington and Shelton are buffoons, and this comes off as an excuse for how the 2024 season played out. Yes, Cruz has made errors, and that is stuff you handle earlier in the season or the first week of the off- season.
There are 30 games left in a season where I think he leads the team in fWAR - last I looked I think he was around 2.9 fWAR. I am sure we could have waited to break this story! This would be the time for other teams to line up for what they would offer for the SS Oneil Cruz!
This is the same management team quick to point out that Cruz missed a whole season of major league development, so there would be ups and downs. I don't have a problem with Cruz moving to OF. I have a problem with watching a team who's leadership is rudderless. Hell, they can't even get experienced OFs to throw to the right base!
i’ve wanted Cruz to move to OF for some time, but agree the timing makes the organization look foolish. Cherrington “believed in” SS Cruz a week ago.
We’re also not exactly busting at the seams with viable SS play. IKF is better as a super utility & Nick G, Bae, Peguero, Termarr etc.. seem like 2B to me (not terribly inspiring options even if they could play SS adequately).
The timing is what seems most bizarre to me, and the thought that it was somehow connected to an excuse for this season and a case for next season occurred to me as well--'Bob, if we only had a more reliable SS, we'd have contended and now we're good to go for '25! Oh yeah, also the injury to Jones, and to Holderman, and...but see, we had too much to overcome this year but just wait until next year!'
And not that one series should influence anything, but he had an error-less series against the Reds. It was almost like they watched EDLC for four days and thought OC isn't EDLC at SS so let's move him! (I'm sure that isn't the case, but again , bizarre timing and does look "amateurish"). Anyway, waiting for someone to explain why the timing makes sense as opposed to having him work out there in winter ball and ST first.
It'd be sad if it took that long, but not surprising lol all of the Elly vs Oneil debates were fun, cause if you just objectively watched Elly play SS one game, you should've came away immediately thinking, "Ok. Yeah. Oneil isn't him at SS"
Possibly with another SS on the roster, such as Liover Peguero, but not with Alika Williams or IKF as our Shortstops. This is like BC saying he did not really look for a CF since 2023 because he could see this possibility playing out, and Shelton just keeps nodding affirmatively.
I do wonder if they traded for IKF in part because they were foreseeing this happening. IKF has only played primarily SS in two seasons, and actually graded out very well. Hope is they get that quality SS play. Unfortunately, they bought the bat "breakout", but are getting solely the regression.
One reason I liked the IKF acquisition was the flexibility it gave us for figuring things out in the offseason based on the results from the remainder of '24. Cruz at SS isn't the only question as we also have to ask if Hayes can return to good enough health to play everyday, Gonzales is an average or better 2B, Triolo can be an effective utility player...IKF had the potential to be the solution should any of the answers to those questions be "no". But now there appears to be no flexibility--Hayes needs to come back healthy, Gonzales needs to be at least average, Triolo needs to be a quality utility player because IKF is our SS. Of course it wouldn't shock me if the CF experiment fails and Cruz moves back to SS.
Hey, hey, hey.
I'm'a listen to the podcast here in a bit, but I think all the caterwauling about moving a potential superstar to center field from short is just something to squawk about. Players change positions all the time. Baseball is not rocket surgery.
With that arm, nobody is gonna test O'Cruz. And with his speed, range and height, he's gonna make a lot of catches that might not get made as long as his first step and reads on the ball are good. It'll be different for a bit and we're well and truly out of it, so it is, in my opinion, time to give O'Cruz the rest of the season in center. This is why the outrighted MAT.
Playing baseball is not complicated. We just make it that way.
As You Were...
-------------------------------
"We don't howl at the girls in the big city, cousin."
-Wabbit
The Pirates Front Office never misses a chance to look amateurish! Nice timing on making the announcement that they have decided to move Oneil Cruz off of SS to CF. Cherrington and Shelton are buffoons, and this comes off as an excuse for how the 2024 season played out. Yes, Cruz has made errors, and that is stuff you handle earlier in the season or the first week of the off- season.
There are 30 games left in a season where I think he leads the team in fWAR - last I looked I think he was around 2.9 fWAR. I am sure we could have waited to break this story! This would be the time for other teams to line up for what they would offer for the SS Oneil Cruz!
This is the same management team quick to point out that Cruz missed a whole season of major league development, so there would be ups and downs. I don't have a problem with Cruz moving to OF. I have a problem with watching a team who's leadership is rudderless. Hell, they can't even get experienced OFs to throw to the right base!
i’ve wanted Cruz to move to OF for some time, but agree the timing makes the organization look foolish. Cherrington “believed in” SS Cruz a week ago.
We’re also not exactly busting at the seams with viable SS play. IKF is better as a super utility & Nick G, Bae, Peguero, Termarr etc.. seem like 2B to me (not terribly inspiring options even if they could play SS adequately).
The timing is what seems most bizarre to me, and the thought that it was somehow connected to an excuse for this season and a case for next season occurred to me as well--'Bob, if we only had a more reliable SS, we'd have contended and now we're good to go for '25! Oh yeah, also the injury to Jones, and to Holderman, and...but see, we had too much to overcome this year but just wait until next year!'
And not that one series should influence anything, but he had an error-less series against the Reds. It was almost like they watched EDLC for four days and thought OC isn't EDLC at SS so let's move him! (I'm sure that isn't the case, but again , bizarre timing and does look "amateurish"). Anyway, waiting for someone to explain why the timing makes sense as opposed to having him work out there in winter ball and ST first.
It'd be sad if it took that long, but not surprising lol all of the Elly vs Oneil debates were fun, cause if you just objectively watched Elly play SS one game, you should've came away immediately thinking, "Ok. Yeah. Oneil isn't him at SS"
"Oh, you're making too many errors? Well, how bout you learn a new position mid-season?"
-Pirates FO/coaches thinking
Well, this isn’t really mid-season. The Pirates’ season ended when Cherington “improved” the team at the deadline.
Possibly with another SS on the roster, such as Liover Peguero, but not with Alika Williams or IKF as our Shortstops. This is like BC saying he did not really look for a CF since 2023 because he could see this possibility playing out, and Shelton just keeps nodding affirmatively.
I do wonder if they traded for IKF in part because they were foreseeing this happening. IKF has only played primarily SS in two seasons, and actually graded out very well. Hope is they get that quality SS play. Unfortunately, they bought the bat "breakout", but are getting solely the regression.
One reason I liked the IKF acquisition was the flexibility it gave us for figuring things out in the offseason based on the results from the remainder of '24. Cruz at SS isn't the only question as we also have to ask if Hayes can return to good enough health to play everyday, Gonzales is an average or better 2B, Triolo can be an effective utility player...IKF had the potential to be the solution should any of the answers to those questions be "no". But now there appears to be no flexibility--Hayes needs to come back healthy, Gonzales needs to be at least average, Triolo needs to be a quality utility player because IKF is our SS. Of course it wouldn't shock me if the CF experiment fails and Cruz moves back to SS.
And honestly, they should just call up Peggy and let it ride out rest of the year. He's out of options after this year.
Honestly, my first thought was "Well, now they don't have to pay for a FA CF for next season"....
So now the OF is Reynolds, Cruz, De la Cruz....the IF is Hayes, IKF, Nicky G and probably a cheap FA, and then you have Endy and Davis catching.....
If the really want to go cheap they can put Endy at 1B and let Davis and Delay catch....
Never count out the power of saving money where the Pirates are concerned.
left handed Max Kepler seems like a good candidate for right field platoon with BDLC
.780 career ops versus right handed pitching - - - not so hot .690 ops verse right handed pitching this year though
I back Jack as the platoon partner for BDLC.
Went over this on the pod lol I said I wouldn't be surprised if they went some route of Bart/Delay at catcher, Endy at 1B, and Tank/BDLC split DH/RF.
Sorry....I was just reading the comments. I'm at work and streaming is blocked, so I couldn't listen.
I forgot about Bart...