2019 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Thread

[DigitalGypsy66]

McCrae optioned, the Lithuanian nightmare recalled.

[LeopardLetang]

Third times a charm... or i mean lucky number 7? Or however many times he's been called up

[Dickie Dunn]

Keller starting tomorrow. Donaldson got suspended a game, which is embarrassing.

[Dickie Dunn]

Guys, I fear that Archer might suck.

[Gaucho]

4 solo homers? Hmyes.

[Dickie Dunn]

Frazier also sucks

[shafnutz05]

Another stellar outing Archie

[willeyeam]

Everyone sucks

[Factorial]

That 66 looks weird.

[DigitalGypsy66]

So Ke’Bryan Hayes left the Indy game tonight. Hope it was precautionary...ugh

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

Everyone sucks

https://youtu.be/ALHybzqaWwg

[willeyeam]

Everyone sucks

https://youtu.be/ALHybzqaWwg

Great pull. Saw them in 2006 for some reason. Good times

[Troy Loney]

On the plus side, the bullpen gave up zero runs last night.

If you stink, you might as well really stink and get a better draft pick, so there's that.

Ultimately, it probably doesn't matter, but the other good thing is that the guys that could have really put themselves in position for a big arbitration payday, are either injured (Taillon, Williams, Kela) or flailing (Musgrove, Frazier, Diaz). Bell is the only one that is putting himself in position for a payday.

I'd be more concerned about Archer if there wasn't a suckademic infecting the entire pitching staff, so I'm thinking a 5 era would be the equivalent of a 3.5 era on a team that wasn't imploding.

They should give Keller a decent look in the rotation. They might need to consider moving Musgrove to a swing man rule in 2020 to serve as a BP arm and rotation depth, and then have to add three actual major league relievers to pair with Vazquez and Crick. Kela is probably a non-tender candidate if he doesn't come back and pitch well in teh second half.

[Dickie Dunn]

Next year's rotation will be Taillon (hopefully), Williams, Archer, Musgrove, and Keller. Bullpen will be Brault, Crick, Kuhl, Rodriguez, Santana, Vazquez, and some other scrub (Kela, Liriano, Holmes, etc.). I can't believe you don't get how this works yet.

Dickie Dunn's Official Josh Bell is Falling Back to Earth Tracker:
Yesterday: 1 for 3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K
June: 206/300/353/653, 8 RBI

Yesterday was a step in the right direction, though it is a bit of a concern that he wasn't able to give one a ride with how easily the ball flies out of that park. He's definitely not making good contact lately.

Another new feature!

Dickie Dunn is Concerned About our Top Prospects:
- Mitch Keller: We'll find out more tonight.
- Ke'Bryan Hayes: Injured! Batting 222 in his last 10 games and 241/333/388/722 on the season. He's still young, but I can see a scenario where his bat forces him to force to the middle infield.
- Travis Swaggerty: He might suck. 227/322/341/664 on the season and only 12 XBH.
- Oneil Cruz: Still injured!
- Kevin Kramer: Really? MLB.com really considers this guy our fifth best prospect? He's already 25 and kinda sucks.

[Factorial]

Yesterday was a step in the right direction, though it is a bit of a concern that he wasn't able to give one a ride with how easily the ball flies out of that park. He's definitely not making good contact lately.

How much of this do you attribute to pitchers not giving him anything to hit? A few days ago he reached out and hit a ball 6" out of the strike zone for a hit to right field.

[Troy Loney]

I believe part of Bell's early success was with being more aggressive at the plate. I imagine that he's going to have to adjust to how he's getting less pitches to hit.

[Troy Loney]

Dickie Dunn is Concerned About our Top Prospects:
- Mitch Keller: We'll find out more tonight.
- Ke'Bryan Hayes: Injured! Batting 222 in his last 10 games and 241/333/388/722 on the season. He's still young, but I can see a scenario where his bat forces him to force to the middle infield.
- Travis Swaggerty: He might suck. 227/322/341/664 on the season and only 12 XBH.
- Oneil Cruz: Still injured!
- Kevin Kramer: Really? MLB.com really considers this guy our fifth best prospect? He's already 25 and kinda sucks.

Hayes has held his own in AAA, and he's probably white knuckling it a bit.

They always tread carefully with injuries, so I would say Cruz's extended absence is more precautionary. As for Swaggerty, we should always wait till guys are in Altoona to judge the bat. For whatever reason, no one hit well in the FSL (except for Kevin Newman, and if being a slap hitting singles machine is what thrives in the FSL, you can see why Swaggerty wouldn't succeed).
If we were to do a re-ranking of the prospects, Kramer would be nowhere near 5.

[Dickie Dunn]

Yesterday was a step in the right direction, though it is a bit of a concern that he wasn't able to give one a ride with how easily the ball flies out of that park. He's definitely not making good contact lately.

How much of this do you attribute to pitchers not giving him anything to hit? A few days ago he reached out and hit a ball 6" out of the strike zone for a hit to right field.

A lot. He's seeing about the same number of strikes in June as he was in May, but they're really working the edges on him and throwing a lot more off speed stuff. Last night he only got five four-seam fastballs thrown his way. He's seeing about 1.5 more pitches per at-bat in June than the rest of the year, so he's trying to be more patient but he might have to be even more patient. Soft and Medium contact are up this month while Hard is way down (though still higher than it was in April). In June he's pulling the ball slightly more (ahead of off speed stuff) and hitting opposite field a lot more (reaching for outside pitches), where as in May he was primarily pull or center. I think we're already starting to see adjustments in his approach and while I don't expect him to hit 12 HRs every month, I'm pretty sure this daily feature (three days running!) will die soon.

[Dickie Dunn]

Dickie Dunn is Concerned About our Top Prospects:
- Mitch Keller: We'll find out more tonight.
- Ke'Bryan Hayes: Injured! Batting 222 in his last 10 games and 241/333/388/722 on the season. He's still young, but I can see a scenario where his bat forces him to force to the middle infield.
- Travis Swaggerty: He might suck. 227/322/341/664 on the season and only 12 XBH.
- Oneil Cruz: Still injured!
- Kevin Kramer: Really? MLB.com really considers this guy our fifth best prospect? He's already 25 and kinda sucks.

Hayes has held his own in AAA, and he's probably white knuckling it a bit.

They always tread carefully with injuries, so I would say Cruz's extended absence is more precautionary. As for Swaggerty, we should always wait till guys are in Altoona to judge the bat. For whatever reason, no one hit well in the FSL (except for Kevin Newman, and if being a slap hitting singles machine is what thrives in the FSL, you can see why Swaggerty wouldn't succeed).
If we were to do a re-ranking of the prospects, Kramer would be nowhere near 5.

I think Hayes is definitely white knuckling it a bit and I think he'll be fine, I just don't think anyone should expect to see him in Pittsburgh until September 2020. Fingers crossed that the injury is not serious.

The FSL is weird, but my concern with Swaggerty is that other guys like Glendinning, Sharpe, Mitchell, and Stafford have had success this season whereas Swaggerty can't figure **** out.

I saw that Cruz is rehabing, but who knows when he'll be back. No sense in rushing him as he's only 20.

[Troy Loney]

Swaggerty's batted ball numbers are bad, but his K:BB ratio is good. He could be tinkering a bit right now. So, I'd still just wait till next year to feel concern.

Looks like the light switch turned on for Luis Escobar out of nowhere. if he doesn't tone it down, he might find himself in the unfortunate spot of being a Pirate's starting pitcher.

The Greensboro offense has gone dormant the past week or so, and the Martin, Castro Sanchez trio is coming back to earth. That stinks.

The return on their international bonuses from the last signing period is looking good in the early part of the DSL. They have 5 or so guys from that got 6 figure bonuses with OPS over 1.000.

Short seasons start soon, they have a big crop of guys that played in the DSL last year making their US debuts. So lots to see there.

Thus far, Bolton is the biggest breakout prospect for them in 2019, I think Herman emerges in that category as well.

[Dickie Dunn]

Bolton's success helps make up for Steven Jennings still being bad. I'm hoping we see Escobar at some point. I'd much rather see guys like Keller, Escobar, Agrazal, Brentz, and Brubaker (when healthy) than Yefry Ramirez, Chris Strattong, Alex McRae, etc. You know those guys suck and will contribute nothing to the future of this franchise. Might as well get an MLB look at some young guys to see what you've got for the future. Since you mentioned their international signings, they're actually expected to sign Christopher Cruz, a 16 year old RHP who is ranked 20th. I can't remember the last time the signed an international prospect ranked that high, not counting the Ji-Hwan Bae situation.

[willeyeam]

luis heredia

[Dickie Dunn]

luis heredia

Still only 24 years old, though I imagine his 9.00 ERA and 2+ WHIP in the Mexican league is going to end that part of his career soon. Dude ended up being worse than Rinku and Dinesh.

[willeyeam]

wow i cannot believe he is only 24. i cut him from my dynasty minor leagues 3 years ago

[willeyeam]

kid was a bust by the age of 21