2018 Pittsburgh Pirates In-Season Thread

[Troy Loney]

Do the Pirates have any legitimate power talent in the minors?

O'Neil Cruz.

oof. I'd be interested to see the Pirates just go ahead and re-evaluate their entire scouting/prospect department. They don't have many true impact players ready to come up and do anything.

In the sense that power prospects do not grow on trees, I don't think this is a concern. Their roster is made up primarily of homegrown players, so while they don't have that true impact bat right now, such players are few and far between.

I think that Hayes and Keller are in line to be impact players when they arrive at the ML level, and I also think that Kramer, while not an impact guy, could provide a noticeable upgrade over their current 2B production.

I also think that with the change to the international signing system and one high draft pick in the system (Swaggerty), we could start seeing some more impact type guys move through

[Freddy Rumsen]

So how about those Pirates...

[Kovyfalcon27]

So how about those Pirates...

They weren’t playing the best after the deadline but were treading water. They really seem to have quit on Hurdle after that resting the rotation bullshit and I don’t blame them. Hurdle is no longer the right manager for this team, but he’s got a job as long as he wants it I’m sure.

[willeyeam]

Manager doesn't have **** to do with it, win or lose. The bats have been red hot or ice cold all year.. and right now they're ice cold. It's just ridiculous how they all go cold at the same time.

If the team quit on Hurdle, did the pitchers miss the memo?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Pitching Feliz in a 2 run game is a very bad bad bad move

[dodint]

It's a bad organization, people. C'mon.

[Kovyfalcon27]

Manager doesn't have **** to do with it, win or lose. The bats have been red hot or ice cold all year.. and right now they're ice cold. It's just ridiculous how they all go cold at the same time.

If the team quit on Hurdle, did the pitchers miss the memo?

The pitchers have responded well to the Hurdle baby treatment. The team quit plain and simple. Not running out balls, going up and wildly swinging at any 3 pitches so they can go back and sit down as quick as possible. Doesn’t really bother me though, this team will always have a place in my heart simply for the fact that they went on a fluke run and made Huntington trade some of his beloved prospects and made Nutting open his wallet a tiny bit.

[willeyeam]

So half the team quit? That doesn't even make sense. Surely he would get some credit then for the 11 game win streak in July after being pretty much written off by all.

They're a .500 team, it is what it is. Even when they were hot, I think the high water mark was 5 games over

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

nova left the game after throwing 78 pitches and six innings while down 2-0. I figured, ok, whatever, they added kela to the bullpen so the bullpen has both a lot of depth and has been good. instead of seeing kela or Santana or even richrod in the 7th, we get feliz, who proceeds to make a mockery of the situation. I thought we were trying to win games here? Why is that shtbird feliz pitching in a close game? you cant tell me this bullpen hasn't gotten rest

[Morkle]

nova left the game after throwing 78 pitches and six innings while down 2-0. I figured, ok, whatever, they added kela to the bullpen so the bullpen has both a lot of depth and has been good. instead of seeing kela or Santana or even richrod in the 7th, we get feliz, who proceeds to make a mockery of the situation. I thought we were trying to win games here? Why is that shtbird feliz pitching in a close game? you cant tell me this bullpen hasn't gotten rest

Wasn't he on something like 12 days rest because he was so bad? You're trying to win games, you play the best players.

[Dickie Dunn]

The decision to bring Feliz into the game makes less sense than anything Hurdle's dumbass has made in probably ever. Dude was optioned to AAA on July 26th. He played in 4 games in AAA, putting up a 10.80 ERA, 1.80 WHIP, 364 average against, etc etc., dude sucked ass in AAA. The Pirates inexplicably recalled him on August 11th and he sat his ass in the bullpen for 8 **** days, after sitting in the AAA bullpen for 2 additional days, without an appearance when Hurdle decides to bring his suck ass into a 2 run game that he promptly destroys. HOW **** STUPID ARE YOU CLINT?

[Freddy Rumsen]

Clint Hurdle is the MLB version of Lindy Ruff.

Mister mediocre who somehow everyone thinks super good at his job.

[Morkle]

The only thing I can think of is that Hurdle knows it's over and while he chides Marte for dogging it to first, the rest of the team has the right to chide him about not playing the best players. The optics of it all look like a player and coach who know the off-season is almost here and they just want to get it over with.

[Dickie Dunn]

The complete futility of this offense is just incredible. It's like watching a Pitt basketball game last season. Somehow, everyone **** sucks, and the guys who are suppossed to be the offensive leaders are the worst offenders.

BA and OPS at the end of July vs. through last night's game:

Dickerson: 318/869; 307/818
Marte: 285/820; 274/779
Polanco: 254/865; 241/819

How the hell does your starting outfield lose a collective 35 BA points and 138 OPS points in 19 games? How the hell is it possible that they're all completely terrible at the same damn time?

Another solid 0fer last night for that flaccid lumberjack Colin Moran. HOW THE **** DO YOU ONLY HAVE THREE EXTRA BASE HITS SINCE JULY 1ST YOU GAPING FRONT HOLE!?! 267/301/319/620 split with an ISO of 052 in 123 PAs. How is that even possible for a 6'4", 215 lbs. "professional" baseball player? Dude's season basically peaked in April.

[willeyeam]

Clint Hurdle is the MLB version of Lindy Ruff.

Mister mediocre who somehow everyone thinks super good at his job.

he's not good, he's not bad. MLB managers don't mean sht. I bet they decide 5 games over the course of a year. Their main job is being a cheerleader and motivating and making sure the clubhouse doesn't implode. From all accounts, he's good at that, so I don't have a problem with Hurdle. The roster just ain't that great at the end of the day.

[Dickie Dunn]

He's clearly worn out his welcome. Dude is in his 8th season here. He's currently on track to produce the 5th sub-500 season on his tenure. As a player, you can only hear the same cheerleading motivational spiel so many times before you just don't give a **** anymore. There's currently five other managers in MLB with tenures that are at least as long as Hurdles.

Mike Scioscia - 19th season, .537 W%, 1 WS, 6 division titles, 7 playoff appearances
Bruce Bochy - 12th season, .505 W%, 3 WS
Buck Showalter - 9th season, .500 W%, 1 division title, 2 playoff appearances, don't know how he stays employed after this season
Ned Yost - 9th season, .481 W%, 2 playoff appearances, 1 WS, don't know how he stays employed after this season
Bob Melvin - 8th season, .512 W%, 2 division titles, on track for a 3rd, 3 playoff appearances, on track for a 4th
Clint Hurdle - 8th season, .513 W%, 0 division titles, 3 playoff appearances

Hurdle helped orchestrate a stretch of three great seasons for this team, but it's time for a change. The motivational stuff has worn thin and he's a terrible strategist/in-game manager.

[robbiestoupe]

The only encouraging thing regarding the roller coaster Pirates is their relative youth. They are the 4th youngest team in MLB based on average age on the team. But this is also their kryptonite.

There's something about this team's development strategy that stinks to the core. A first round pitching prospect is dealt away a year after his draft as a PTBNL for a #3 starter. Prospects have shown their talent in the minors, only to flop big time when they are approaching the majors. Simple fundamentals are forgotten. How many first round picks are on the team right now? Taillon, ??? Absolutely sub-par.

Where are the Pirate's international talents? Marte and Polanco - OK, but they were acquired looooong ago. Also, see above regarding fundamentals. Diaz and Santana are decent players, but they are not major contributors.

[willeyeam]

okay.. put Bochy in charge of this team starting 1/1/2018 - what's their record right now?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

The only encouraging thing regarding the roller coaster Pirates is their relative youth. They are the 4th youngest team in MLB based on average age on the team. But this is also their kryptonite.

There's something about this team's development strategy that stinks to the core. A first round pitching prospect is dealt away a year after his draft as a PTBNL for a #3 starter. Prospects have shown their talent in the minors, only to flop big time when they are approaching the majors. Simple fundamentals are forgotten. How many first round picks are on the team right now? Taillon, ??? Absolutely sub-par.

Where are the Pirate's international talents? Marte and Polanco - OK, but they were acquired looooong ago. Also, see above regarding fundamentals. Diaz and Santana are decent players, but they are not major contributors.

marte was a littlefield signing

[Dickie Dunn]

okay.. put Bochy in charge of this team starting 1/1/2018 - what's their record right now?

64-63

[robbiestoupe]

The only encouraging thing regarding the roller coaster Pirates is their relative youth. They are the 4th youngest team in MLB based on average age on the team. But this is also their kryptonite.

There's something about this team's development strategy that stinks to the core. A first round pitching prospect is dealt away a year after his draft as a PTBNL for a #3 starter. Prospects have shown their talent in the minors, only to flop big time when they are approaching the majors. Simple fundamentals are forgotten. How many first round picks are on the team right now? Taillon, ??? Absolutely sub-par.

Where are the Pirate's international talents? Marte and Polanco - OK, but they were acquired looooong ago. Also, see above regarding fundamentals. Diaz and Santana are decent players, but they are not major contributors.

marte was a littlefield signing

His last year, correct? So you'd have to give the Huntington team some credit for developing him. My beef is not so much with finding talent (they may be the best in business at this), more with developing talent.

[Troy Loney]

Where are the Pirate's international talents? Marte and Polanco - OK, but they were acquired looooong ago. Also, see above regarding fundamentals. Diaz and Santana are decent players, but they are not major contributors.

marte was a littlefield signing

I think when judging the international signing, we have to consider the organization decision to abstain when market incentives were broken.

(reminder that prior to the 2017-2018 signing period, there was no hard cap and the penalty for exceeding the bonus pool was limits on following year signings. so what occurred was once a team crossed the limit, the incentive was to spend as much as possible and sign as many top players at whatever bonus amount, because they would be restricted from signing the next two years. This in effect pitted teams with that incentive against one another to try and outbid each other on the remaining available players. Nutting said f-that and they were bargain bin shopping for years and came out with only a handful of guys. )

The few interesting guys from the dead period are Luis Escobar, Domingo Robles, Lolo Sanchez and Rodolfo Castro. And they did have that one interesting class from before the system was broke that had Osuna, Polanco, Hanson and Wily Garcia. But mostly, their big signings like Harold Ramirez have been pretty meh. But since all this, Rene Gayo is out, they brought in a guy that has Venezuelan expertise and they have been very active since the end of the 2016 signing period, which was capped off with the Jean Eusubio signing.

[willeyeam]

apparently Ji-Hwan Bae is back over.. I missed that news

[Dickie Dunn]

Thought this was a good read on Archer's questionable two-seamer. Maybe he stopped throwing it for a reason.

https://www.bucsdugout.com/2018/8/22/17 ... her-sinker

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

apparently Ji-Hwan Bae is back over.. I missed that news

he didn't ever fully leave (as in leave the country)