2018 Pittsburgh Pirates In-Season Thread

[Troy Loney]

I think Williams has established himself pretty wel, for this being only his second full season. He had a **** month when the team was in disarray, so put me in the willians is good column

[willeyeam]

https://twitter.com/DanZangrilli/status ... 58753?s=19

[Freddy Rumsen]

That is pretty funny.

Also that we got Williams for nothing makes it better.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Joe Musgrove made his debut on 5/25. His stats: 6.17 IP per start, 3.41 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 2.9 K/BB, .301 xwOBA, 32.3 Hard Hit%

Gerrit Cole since 5/25: 6.14 IP per start, 3.45 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 3.2 K/BB, .315 xwOBA, 32.2 Hard Hit%

https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexJStumpf/ ... 9532187653

[Dickie Dunn]

Managed to hear today’s episode of the Neal Huntington Show, where Neal ***** out and had his Assistant GM answer for Friday nights bullshit.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Bummer of a series

[dodint]

Who cares if they lost?

[Dickie Dunn]

3. Mercer is now tied for third among qualified National League shortstops in fielding errors (7). He entered play Sunday with the second fewest defensive runs saved among qualified NL shortstops (-11).

Hooray!

Glasnow started again today for the Rays. 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BBs, 6 Ks. 61% of pitches for strikes. Throwing his fastball 77% of the time.

[Troy Loney]

And Austin Meadows has something like a 1.200 OPS for the TB AAA team.

I'm thinking it's more of a SSS thing than all of a sudden these dudes are invincible. At least for Meadows, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over dealing him, but dealing Glasnow is going to probably be the mistake here. They should have done more to try and get him back into the rotation as opposed to trying to make him a high leverage reliever this year.

I think Hurdle is terrible for this team right now.

[Morkle]

I think Hurdle had an easier time managing "established" players and he is bungling younger guys up all over the place. I don't think he's a good fit for this team, but I've wanted him fired for awhile, so.

[MR25]

The contributions of the position coaches aren't really helping either. It's really telling when certain guys who can't seem to put it together with the Pirates suddenly go somewhere else and become solid ML options.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

imo the pirates really didn't have a plan for glasnow going into this year and the sure as sht didn't have room for him in the rotation after they acquired archer. they painted themselves into a corner with glasnow and the best option was to just trade him away.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

sidebar: since this gentleman is a gr8 baseball fan and an even greater American, I made a trip up to Altoona on Saturday for a curve-seawolves double header.

kebryan hayes is currently a better third baseman than colin moran by a large margin. his arm is really good and he has a lot of range. very aggressive getting to balls. he probably isn't going to have a flaccid bat like moran, either. really excited for him.

I can see why tucker was a high draft pick. he looks the part is and very fast. he had a very clutch 3-run go ahead triple late in the second game. but I still am not convinced he will be able to hit enough to be an everyday major leaguer.

it is $6.50 for a 32 oz beer at blair county ballpark.

[Troy Loney]

There was an interesting blurb on Tucker in a recent fangraphs prospect chat. Their prospect guy was talking about Tucker projection, and that when he was picked there was some assumption that he would fill out some to add some power to the bat, but then potentially have to move off of SS. Fast forward to today, the dude is a stick, so he will be able to stay at short, but have a flaccid bat. I'm not interested in a competent fielding SS that hits .250 with no power.

[willeyeam]

imo the pirates really didn't have a plan for glasnow going into this year and the sure as sht didn't have room for him in the rotation after they acquired archer. they painted themselves into a corner with glasnow and the best option was to just trade him away.

on one hand, the Pirates couldn't afford to throw Glasnow in the rotation this year, like the Rays can. Despite dodint's wishes, they aren't out of it yet.

On the other hand, selling him at such a low point wasn't the greatest idea ever.

[shafnutz05]

I really liked what I saw out of Hayes when I was in Altoona.

Also agree, can't beat the concession prices.

[willeyeam]

It is conceivable that the Pirates brass thought his stock wouldn't get any higher than it was, as well. It's whatever

[Troy Loney]

They are 8-9 since the winning streak.

I'm sure it's lost on those that choose to read my posts as Pirate-Fan Boy, but I think they are an average team on a rebuilding level payroll, and I've stated that. They are in good shape because the roster deadweight is coming off the books and there are in house options that will be better than the current options.

For whatever reason, the organization brain trust always takes a couple of months to figure out how to manage the pitching staff. It's natural for a team to have an inconsistent offense, and they definitely have that, but you don't want starting pitchers to lose too many games for you. As they stand right now, Taillon, Williams and Musgrove are not losing games for them, they are somehow 2-0 when archer pitches, but that can happen when the bullpen is good. So essentially, they did give away a lot of games trying to figure out the bullpen roles and getting guys like Williams and Taillon playing to their strengths.

The deadline deals did fortify the pitching staff for next year. But they really need to address the lack of production from 3B, SS, and 2B. contributions from those positions would remove the 100% reliance on Dickerson, Marte and Polanco to produce.

[Beveridge]

Granted in September they have 13 games combined vs Cardinals, Brewers, and Cubs, but this next 3 week stretch leading into Labor Day will determine how big those September games are.... 2 games they need to take vs Twins and then 16 in a row vs Cubs, Cards, Brewers, and Braves.

[Dickie Dunn]

And Austin Meadows has something like a 1.200 OPS for the TB AAA team.

I'm thinking it's more of a SSS thing than all of a sudden these dudes are invincible. At least for Meadows, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over dealing him, but dealing Glasnow is going to probably be the mistake here. They should have done more to try and get him back into the rotation as opposed to trying to make him a high leverage reliever this year.

I think Hurdle is terrible for this team right now.

I think Glasnow is going to end up being indicative of the "we're smarter than everyone" bullshit that somehow permeates through the franchise and leads to junk like the Clay Holmes start on Friday, Hurdles desire to not "overuse" guys on hot streaks, ignoring that Jordy Mercer is terrible, etc. Their approach to developing pitchers was clearly not working with Glasnow and he's already benefiting from a move to another organization. I don't think he'll ever develop into the top of the rotation pitcher people thought he could be, but he probably has a better shot at it now that he's elsewhere.

And yes, Hurdle is a dolt.

kebryan hayes is currently a better third baseman than colin moran by a large margin. his arm is really good and he has a lot of range. very aggressive getting to balls. he probably isn't going to have a flaccid bat like moran, either. really excited for him.

I read a scouting report on Hayes earlier in the season that said his defense at 3B is so good that he could easily move to 2B if his bat doesn't develop into what you'd want for a corner position, but his bat definitely seems to be developing His best season in the minors by far and he doesn't turn 22 until January. The Pirates have a glut of AAA infielders (Kramer, Newman, Moroff, Reyes, Osuna, Mathisen) but I don't see how Hayes isn't the starting 3B for Indianapolis next season and hopefully works his way to a September callup so the big, dumb, flaccid bat lumberjack can disappear ASAP.

I'm not interested in a competent fielding SS that hits .250 with no power.

This is my nightmare and it's multiplied because it sounds exactly like the type of SS Hurdle would salivate over giving 600 ABs to.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

well, the three of us at the curve game the other day generally agreed that none of the three (Kramer, newman, or tucker) are a notable upgrade over jordy joe mercer of taloga, ok.

[Troy Loney]

Kramer is a notable upgrade.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Kramer is mercer like on defense and who knows how well he will hit.

imo

[Freddy Rumsen]

Call me crazy, but I think we need to wait more than two weeks to certify that Glasnow is "doing better with a new organization". He had streaks like this in the past and he's facing a lot of guys for the first time. Glasnow always did well until people figured him out, which is where his problems always surfaced. He couldn't adjust to hitters.

[Dickie Dunn]

Call me crazy, but I think we need to wait more than two weeks to certify that Glasnow is "doing better with a new organization". He had streaks like this in the past and he's facing a lot of guys for the first time. Glasnow always did well until people figured him out, which is where his problems always surfaced. He couldn't adjust to hitters.

This is 100% false.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... &year=2016
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... &year=2017
https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... &year=2018

In 2016 he had two okay relief appearances against a TERRIBLE Reds team but was overwise bad. In 2017 he sucked monstrous amounts of ass from start to finish. This year he started bad, became fine-ish in May, was a mixed bag in June, and kind of unraveled again in July. In general, he didn't do well against anyone, regardless of how many times they saw him. In fact, some of his best numbers are against the team he faced the most, but that's likely just a product of the Reds being terrible for pretty much ever. While it is entirely 100% possible that Glasnow's early performance with Tampa is a result of AL teams having limited exposure to him, the fact is that he has never pitched this well in MLB before, let alone for a string of three games.

Number of times through the order is the same story. (https://www.baseball-reference.com/play ... Career&t=p)

1st: 260/361/468/829, 1.80 K/BB
2nd: 341/437/659/1096, 1.68 K/BB
3rd: 264/328/434/762, 3.00 K/BB

It's a weird split, but suck is suck.

This year as a reliever:

1st: 234/338/375/713, 2.17 K/BB
2nd: 125/333/188/521, 1.80 K/BB

As a starter with TB:

1st: 160/222/320/542, 6.50 K/BB
2nd: 133/188/333/521, 7.00 K/BB