36 Comments
Feb 12Liked by WTM

Brewers pony up for Sanchez, bucs scrounge for grandal. Nothing demonstrates the difference between these two franchises better than this. They get nice stuff, we get family dollar.

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Can anyone check and see if Dylan Cease prefers Grandal? Maybe there will be a Dylan Cease trade to the Pirates tomorrow.

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I wonder if they wait until pitchers and catchers report to sign Grandal, or who gets dfa'd?

Can't think of anyone on the 40 currently that I would give up for Grandal and $2.5 million.

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Feb 12Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Yeah, surely at this point it will take until the 14th to get the physical done and finalize the paperwork. They'd have to be pretty stupid to do otherwise.

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Feb 12Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

I'm convinced they're pretty stupid lol.

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Henry Davis, grab your OF glove!

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Feb 12Liked by WTM, NolaJeffy(BnP)

in other news, looks like Stumpf will be making pirates.com a new place to read about the Pittsburgh Pirates

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If Owen makes it to the show I hope they refer to him as Owen "The Green Mountain" Kellington. Cheesy and I know he is only like 6'3. Need some cool nicknames in baseball. Like basketball of yesteryear. Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson, the round mound of rebound, ect. Trying to get into this Super Bowl but find myself thinking of cool hoops nicknames instead. Just an FYI.

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Yasmani? Poor mans Gary Sanchez?

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I guess we can dream he can get back to his ‘21 form. It’s worth taking a shot, and probably about as good of a chance of having an impact as Sanchez.

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It’s much less likely than Sanchez, because he was somewhat productive just last year. It’s been awhile for Yaz.

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Yeah, you're right. I thought that with the difficulty Sanchez had getting a contract last year, that he was worse than he actually was in '21 and '22.

But typical Pirates, get outbid for the player they probably wanted and then settle for what's left. But I hope that at $2.5MM, there won't be any need to keep him if Ali Sanchez or Delay outplay him for the second catcher spot.

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Feb 12·edited Feb 12

We're signing him, I hope it's a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Otherwise I really hate this front office.

Bad offense and bad defense for a 35 year old.

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Feb 12·edited Feb 12Author

Nope. $2.5M plus incentives.

Forever just piddling away money in small amounts to multiple veterans who don't improve the team.

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Well he was ranked 98th defensively last year out of 102. So he's not the worst defensive catcher just close. Maybe he can approach Hedges in the hitting stats, he's getting closer year to year.

$2.5 million is a waste.

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Feb 12Author

Statcast puts him in the 1st percentile for pop time and 2nd for CS%. And his hitting rankings look like Ivan Nova. There's just no end to The Stoopid with this FO.

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Feb 12Liked by WTM

Good teams would pay more than $2.5 million to make sure he wasn't on their team.

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The Pirates are pretty much hopeless, and I now agree with you that Cherrington has crossed into Littlefield territory.

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Feb 12Author

The other 29 teams are probably paying Nuttin to retain Ben the Boob.

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A minor league deal would be ideal, but a low cost major league deal should be okay. And he’s worked with Cease :)

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I think I don't like this front office no matter how they sign him. They do nothing to excite me as a fan.

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I guess they excite me a bit, problem it's anger.

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Good way of putting it. Never thought of excited anger. Now I know what I feel any time I see Nutting or Ben. Especially Ben wearing sunglasses. Not sure why.

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Can Harrington be a breakout candidate when Kiley already has him in the top 100? And what about Termarr? What if he shows this year that he can combine his hit tool and his power to become a top 10 prospect? Beyond those two taking leaps to being in the top 30 and top 10, respectively, I'd go with Barco just based on this being the year when he should be fully recovered from his TJ surgery.

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Feb 11Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

Ain't a breakout unless you're jumpin at least one full grade IMO.

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Feb 11Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

I'd go Barco as a pitcher, Brannigan as a position player.

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Feb 11Author

In pretend-major-league news, the Pirates are supposedly “keeping tabs” on Lorenzon and Syndergaard. Other teams are interested, so forget it.

Also, Trevor Bauer said his agent called the Pirates and was told “no.”

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I've had mixed feelings about Bauer--I didn't like him before the scandal, though I did like that he called out the cheaters on the Astros. But if the Pirates signed him, it would be a bold statement on the their confidence in Shelton as a leader who can manage a clubhouse even if there are guys with reputations of being bad teammates...

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Feb 11Author

The Dodgers certainly didn’t like him. I read in the early stages of the whole controversy that his teammates didn’t want him back.

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Feb 11·edited Feb 11

I'm conflicted here. Media reports vs actual players willing to speak up (Mookie).

He's got classic picked-on-chubby-kid vibes that he at least up til now hasn't been able to shed, but I do wonder how much of his rep came from legitimately being smarter and better prepared than the DBacks org who initially drafted him.

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Feb 12Liked by NolaJeffy(BnP)

It’s no secret Cole thought he was a colossal douchebag either.

I’m a bit conflicted as well. As you said he was drafted by an archaic organization that could not have been less equipped to handle a guy who was unconventional. And that is certainly a lot of “old boys” thinking that he rightfully challenged. But he ran himself out of numerous organizations, and somehow ran afoul of Terry Francona in Cleveland who is possibly the most successful players manager in recent years.

When I think of Bauer and his long list of enemies real and imagined, I think of the Raylan Givens adage: “When you run into an asshole, you ran into an asshole. When you keep running into assholes, you’re the asshole.”

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Every time I finish all six seasons of Justified, I start over again.

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make it Cueto, Rich Hill and Bumgarner - all three report to pirates camp in four days

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Although his breakout could be considered the back end of last season, I am hoping Bubba breaks out further. Also would love to see a big breakout from a hitter this year above the Greensboro level. Anything there or below feels like a tease

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