This is the worst part about our current state of futility. There are no more top prospects coming soon to put our hope in. Between their actual on-field performances and our track record of development, there really isn't much reason for optimism for ANY of the guys we HAD been putting our hope in. I'm starting to fear the writing is on the wall for the short term future of our team being tied up with guys like Henry, Endy, Gonzales, Termarr, etc. I don't believe that these guys were bad picks, trades, signings, etc. I believe that our management and development teams have made critical errors with all of them and without changing out THOSE guys, there's no hope for THESE guys or for the NEXT guys coming through (and, even if they did, the damage has already been done for this current group).
This has been six years of disaster and will probably take a new (good) regime and many more years before we even start to see some *real* hope for the future again.
I think some of this is unreasonable expectations.
Endy's got like three months as a big leaguer under his belt.
Gonzales graduated as a grade 40/45 prospect and was playing to that level by his second year.
Hank joins a list of recent high-first round college bats across the league to get punched in the mouth by big league arms.
Conversely, Mitch Keller took 4 years to get his feet under him as a big leaguer, has settled into barely what he was expected to be at graduation, and yet seems to be regarded as a developmental success.
We've gotta accept hitting is really, really hard.
If this team is on pace to lose 100 games by the time the trade deadline is approaching we could be looking at another roster tear down and back to square 1 on the rebuild. Figure anyone with a non-minimum salary will be gone, including Reynolds, Keller, Hayes if anyone will take him, same for Bednar, and anyone on a one year contract.
Well, pitching is supposed to be our strength so it's only fair to the other teams that we handicap ourselves with atrocious defense at all of the most important positions.
Maybe it was exaggerated by opposing the mf'n buzzsaw Shane Baz, but Harrington was super uninspiring. Gonna take elite command to make that kind of stuff play.
At least one highlight for me was seeing 38 yo Andrew McCutchen come off the bench and turn around 101 on the screws. Godd*mn professional.
I cannot express how little sympathy I have with the idea that all these young guys deserve to be coddled like puppies or else lack any accountability over their own performance.
If they had established major leaguers who could play, nobody would care about young guys. But if the choice is Tommy Pham or some random AAA guy, I'd take the AAA guy.
All these guys are responsible for their play. It's just impossible to know where to turn because this FO has done such an unholy, shit job of finding talent. Obviously, you can't blame it all on coaching, or even most of it. Not really more than a very small fraction of it. But if everybody who sucks doesn't play, they couldn't even play five-man football.
Thank you for not attempting to hide the fact that the Pirates are off to a terrible start. Our experienced ballplayers brought in to help this young group - Pham and Frazier - are doing about as well as David Bednar as a Closer, Ji-Hwan Bae as a baserunner, and Derek Shelton as a Manager. If all 5 of those names disappeared from the team roster, I doubt that many baseball people would be surprised. Of course, if we get rid of the players too early, they may go elsewhere, do better, and make the Pirates look just that much dumber than they already look.
I see some signs of improvement in the stat that I think is very important and that is the BB/K rates. Oneil Cruz 6 BB/6 K .240 BB/PA; Endy Rodriguez 4 BB/4 K .250 BB/PA; IKF 4 BB/3 K .182 BB/PA; Cutch 2 BB/3 K .143 BB/PA. On the other end are Pham 1 BB/8 K .043 BB/PA; Frazier 1 BB/4 K .059 BB/PA; Reynolds 2 BB/8 K .071 BB/PA; Bart 2 BB/7 K .087 BB/PA. Why is this an important stat? Because 3 of the 4 in the top group are also our OPS leaders.
Awesome analysis Mell and it is obviously the veteranosity that is excelling at sucking right now. I think Bednar was a big scab to rip off and. Hopefully Pham, Frasier and the entire upper management team can go in short order.
We all look at OPS, but tend to forget that OPS is a combination of Slugging Percentage and On Base Percentage. OBP is not as sexy as the guy hitting 20+ HR/year and a high Slugging Percentage, but the real GM's and Managers know how important OBP is to scoring runs. Sure, we all want that 20+ HR hitter, but if we do not have that or anything close, then we have to look for players who can keep their K/BB numbers below 2/1, and emphasize contact and working walks.
Agree, but the there must be a balance or synergy in the lineup. Sure, getting on base increases your odds of scoring. However, mixing in guys that make poor contact tends to offset these odds.
It is kind of funny that the one veteranosity player that was an overall net positive all around, Carlos Santana, was subsequently traded and then not signed in free agency even when he stated an openness to returning. Ben was like, "Nah. We need a worse option."
Ben tends to see these "veteranosity" guys as interchangeable parts - one guy is just as good as another. It's been 6 years and he is still doing it the same wrong way - we do not need a big brother, we need guys who are professional hitters even if it costs $1 or $2 mil more player.
Maybe 20 years ago players showed respect for older guys just because that was how you were raised - kids nowadays want somebody to show them that they still belong in MLB, and then they may listen to half or a third of
what that veteran might offer!
In addition to what Santana gave us on O and D, he also brought us Jhonny Severino at the trade deadline, one of the best young hitters in our system.
This is a good point. The idea that veterans are important purely for the sake of their veteran status never made sense to me. If the veteran is someone like Cutch, a former MVP and borderline HoF player.... maybe... But, a question for anybody on this board who has a job - are you listening to a guy who's been around forever but sucks at his job when he tells YOU how to do your job?? I don't think so.
7 hitters 28 and younger with negative fWAR. I know it's early, but damn.
This is the worst part about our current state of futility. There are no more top prospects coming soon to put our hope in. Between their actual on-field performances and our track record of development, there really isn't much reason for optimism for ANY of the guys we HAD been putting our hope in. I'm starting to fear the writing is on the wall for the short term future of our team being tied up with guys like Henry, Endy, Gonzales, Termarr, etc. I don't believe that these guys were bad picks, trades, signings, etc. I believe that our management and development teams have made critical errors with all of them and without changing out THOSE guys, there's no hope for THESE guys or for the NEXT guys coming through (and, even if they did, the damage has already been done for this current group).
This has been six years of disaster and will probably take a new (good) regime and many more years before we even start to see some *real* hope for the future again.
I think some of this is unreasonable expectations.
Endy's got like three months as a big leaguer under his belt.
Gonzales graduated as a grade 40/45 prospect and was playing to that level by his second year.
Hank joins a list of recent high-first round college bats across the league to get punched in the mouth by big league arms.
Conversely, Mitch Keller took 4 years to get his feet under him as a big leaguer, has settled into barely what he was expected to be at graduation, and yet seems to be regarded as a developmental success.
We've gotta accept hitting is really, really hard.
In Griffin we trust.
If this team is on pace to lose 100 games by the time the trade deadline is approaching we could be looking at another roster tear down and back to square 1 on the rebuild. Figure anyone with a non-minimum salary will be gone, including Reynolds, Keller, Hayes if anyone will take him, same for Bednar, and anyone on a one year contract.
For better or worse, that's not really much of a teardown.
I think they're in cobbling-it-together mode from here on out.
personally bummed that Bart is looking like the defensive catcher I was worried Hank would be.
Every game there is a muff or two, and passed ball or two. His framing doesn't seem great either.
Well, pitching is supposed to be our strength so it's only fair to the other teams that we handicap ourselves with atrocious defense at all of the most important positions.
I thought the infield d has been pretty solid, especially IKF.
Outfield d has been dogshit.
He's been good since that horrendous opening day. But I am still tempering my expectations for him.
Pham and Frazier suck but so do all the young position players on the roster.
Harrington does not resemble an MLB arm.
Maybe it was exaggerated by opposing the mf'n buzzsaw Shane Baz, but Harrington was super uninspiring. Gonna take elite command to make that kind of stuff play.
At least one highlight for me was seeing 38 yo Andrew McCutchen come off the bench and turn around 101 on the screws. Godd*mn professional.
I cannot express how little sympathy I have with the idea that all these young guys deserve to be coddled like puppies or else lack any accountability over their own performance.
Bart could have caught Harrington with a Kleenex.
I wouldn't bet on Bart catching an STD in a Thai whorehouse let alone any pitch from any pitcher above AA.
Wizard of
Cutch pimping a 158 wRC+ with a .250 babip!
If they had established major leaguers who could play, nobody would care about young guys. But if the choice is Tommy Pham or some random AAA guy, I'd take the AAA guy.
watching them play and absolving them of any responsibility over their play are two different things!
All these guys are responsible for their play. It's just impossible to know where to turn because this FO has done such an unholy, shit job of finding talent. Obviously, you can't blame it all on coaching, or even most of it. Not really more than a very small fraction of it. But if everybody who sucks doesn't play, they couldn't even play five-man football.
i hear ya brother.
Unless Tommy Pham is that AAA rando
checkmate, wilbur.
Merrill getting paid too.
Thank you for not attempting to hide the fact that the Pirates are off to a terrible start. Our experienced ballplayers brought in to help this young group - Pham and Frazier - are doing about as well as David Bednar as a Closer, Ji-Hwan Bae as a baserunner, and Derek Shelton as a Manager. If all 5 of those names disappeared from the team roster, I doubt that many baseball people would be surprised. Of course, if we get rid of the players too early, they may go elsewhere, do better, and make the Pirates look just that much dumber than they already look.
I see some signs of improvement in the stat that I think is very important and that is the BB/K rates. Oneil Cruz 6 BB/6 K .240 BB/PA; Endy Rodriguez 4 BB/4 K .250 BB/PA; IKF 4 BB/3 K .182 BB/PA; Cutch 2 BB/3 K .143 BB/PA. On the other end are Pham 1 BB/8 K .043 BB/PA; Frazier 1 BB/4 K .059 BB/PA; Reynolds 2 BB/8 K .071 BB/PA; Bart 2 BB/7 K .087 BB/PA. Why is this an important stat? Because 3 of the 4 in the top group are also our OPS leaders.
We need less OBP and more SLG!
Awesome analysis Mell and it is obviously the veteranosity that is excelling at sucking right now. I think Bednar was a big scab to rip off and. Hopefully Pham, Frasier and the entire upper management team can go in short order.
We all look at OPS, but tend to forget that OPS is a combination of Slugging Percentage and On Base Percentage. OBP is not as sexy as the guy hitting 20+ HR/year and a high Slugging Percentage, but the real GM's and Managers know how important OBP is to scoring runs. Sure, we all want that 20+ HR hitter, but if we do not have that or anything close, then we have to look for players who can keep their K/BB numbers below 2/1, and emphasize contact and working walks.
Agree, but the there must be a balance or synergy in the lineup. Sure, getting on base increases your odds of scoring. However, mixing in guys that make poor contact tends to offset these odds.
It is kind of funny that the one veteranosity player that was an overall net positive all around, Carlos Santana, was subsequently traded and then not signed in free agency even when he stated an openness to returning. Ben was like, "Nah. We need a worse option."
Ben tends to see these "veteranosity" guys as interchangeable parts - one guy is just as good as another. It's been 6 years and he is still doing it the same wrong way - we do not need a big brother, we need guys who are professional hitters even if it costs $1 or $2 mil more player.
Maybe 20 years ago players showed respect for older guys just because that was how you were raised - kids nowadays want somebody to show them that they still belong in MLB, and then they may listen to half or a third of
what that veteran might offer!
In addition to what Santana gave us on O and D, he also brought us Jhonny Severino at the trade deadline, one of the best young hitters in our system.
This is a good point. The idea that veterans are important purely for the sake of their veteran status never made sense to me. If the veteran is someone like Cutch, a former MVP and borderline HoF player.... maybe... But, a question for anybody on this board who has a job - are you listening to a guy who's been around forever but sucks at his job when he tells YOU how to do your job?? I don't think so.
This year is all about winning! Good luck on pitching a shutout today, Paul!
tankathon.com/mlb
1 xbh in two games, 0 BB to 25 k
Might be time to move on from Shelton? Or did they miss that chance a couple years ago already?
This team is butt.
Maybe they can add Paul Assenmacher to the coaching staff.
This team aspires to be butt.
baby got Buc