2019 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Thread

[willeyeam]

It's the right choice. But sad. Cervelli was a pro's pro and easy to root for.

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Freddy Rumsen]

[robbiestoupe]

A bit harsh from Madden, but he's not entirely wrong

[Dickie Dunn]

He left out his strong following of female fans.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Cervelli had a pulse, which is more than could be said about management and most of the players on the roster over the last few years.

[Troy Loney]

Diaz has completely fallen apart upon becoming the starter. Cervelli is good when healthy, I’m sure the resident yankee fan mwb would have seen his pirate tenure going as it did.

[Dickie Dunn]

I'm hoping that Diaz's issues can be attributed to his injury/infection/illness that cropped up during spring training, but he's been completely awful so who knows. Another crowd last night barely above 10,000. Their YoY attendance difference has dropped to +529 per game. Would not surprise me in the least if they end up with worse attendance this season.

Had some fun this morning look at how truly awful this team is. The only month where they've allowed less than 4 runs per game is March. As bad as May was (6.48 Ra/G), they're hitting their high watermark this month with 6.53 Ra/G and a run differential of -2.63. I guess the good news is that their "Luck" number fell to zero as the team is now on even pace with it's Pythagorean W/L.

BR also added a new W/L split at some point this season for tracking blowouts where the game is decided by 5 or more runs. Comparing the Buccos to the rest of their MLB bottom feeder brethren:

Orioles: 12-38
Pirates: 13-31
Tigers: 6-29
Mariners: 20-27
Marlins: 13-27
Jays: 17-22
Royals: 14-21

Only the second most blowout losses. No wonder Hurdle and GMNH seem destined to hang around forever.

As far as where the team ranks in WAR by position:

Overall: 26th, -12.8
All P: 23rd, -3.8
SP: 27th, -2.2
RP: 17th, -1.7
Non-P: 27th, -9.0
C: 27th, -2.0
1B: 7th, 1.0
2B: 15th, -0.5
3B: 30th, -2.0
SS: 26th, -1.4
LF: 12th, 0.0
CF: 14th, 0.3
RF: 29th, -2.5
OF: 23rd, -2.2
DH: 12th, 0.0
PH: 28th, -1.9

In summary, this team sucks at everything at every position.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I don't know much about defensive runs saved but the pirates have some really bad looks

Diaz is 2nd worse catcher in the league in terms of DRS
Moran is in a 3 way tie for worst 3b
Melky is 5th worst OF and somehow marte is 10th. is DRS effected by shifts? Because I think marte gets boned by some bad shifting methods implemented by the pirates. he is always way into right center field, perhaps because melky's 35 year old ass is in right

[Dickie Dunn]

In general, yes, Marte is boned by the Pirates shifting. Fangraphs has him at -10 DRS, which is fifth from the bottom among qualifying OFs. He gets points for his ARM score and takes a tiny hit for errors, but the big hit he takes is on his range score, which is defined as "The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity". It also notes that these metrics don't take shifts into account. So his defensive performance isn't really being calculated based on the frequency and average with which he makes plays on balls hit in HIS vicinity, but how well he is able to get to balls hit in the average vicinity of where a CFer typically plays, and since he's starting out pretty **** far from that area, he's taking a big hit.

That brings me to another point. WHY THE **** ARE YOU STILL PLAYING MELKY'S OLD ASS CLINT? HE'S NOT GONNA BE AROUND NEXT YEAR.

[LeopardLetang]

Wow keller needed that

[Troy Loney]

In other deflating news, the PBNL in the Kela trade, Sherten Apostel, is starting to break out for the Rangers. He has crazy power potential and not the kind of prospect that a team should make available for a reliever. This could end up cancelling out the Watson-Cruz trade.

[LeopardLetang]

Yeah it's a bummer. We've still got his bigger younger brother doing well in the dsl but I've not heard anything about why he stopped playing. Assuming injury

[Troy Loney]

Here is my greatest concern about the pirates, Brault and Keller are making strong cases for rotation spots next year, which would be fine if they weren’t behind three guys that should all be competing for a back of the rotation spot, as opposed to being the teams top three starters.

They also now have nothing in the rotation pipeline above short season ball. With Santana and Kuhl coming back, you can make the argument that the bullpen spots are covered (Kuhl would be a fine swingman), but they might look at their top 5 then look at the cost of upgrading the rotation and say “we’re good”.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Last mention of him in this thread, but Cervelli signed his Braves contract and joined the team in NY against the Mets last night. 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs. Good for him.

[Troy Loney]

Good for him. If he helps the braves take out the cubs or dodgers, I’ll cheers to that.

[robbiestoupe]

Source of the post helps the braves take out the cubs or dodgers

talk about picking your poison

[Troy Loney]

Cubs are scum and the Dodger's exploitation of financial resource advantage make the Yankees look cheap.

[robbiestoupe]

That tomahawk chop tho...and Sid Bream

[Troy Loney]

Ancient history.

[DigitalGypsy66]

The Braves gear - largely absent here over the last 10 years or so - started coming back out 2-3 years ago. Very slowly, and now building up.

I like to remind them - when the Sid Bream thing comes up - that the Braves have the same number of World Championships as the Pirates do over the last 40 years. Chumps.

[willeyeam]

Ancient history.

Spoilered for sensitivity

Jerry Meals

[willeyeam]

[willeyeam]

Un fcking real.