2019 Pittsburgh Pirates Season Thread

Postby **Morkle** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:20 pm

Hey now, theoretically they're still in i....haha

Postby **blackjack68** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:25 pm

So you're saying there's a chance?

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 8:37 pm

Wyatt Toregas fired. At least they’ve identified AA and A+ as the cause of this **** season.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 8:38 pm

Postby **Morkle** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:23 am

Saw the play, was straight on his wrist. Surprised X-rays came back negative.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:28 am

i was at the game. this season is beyond an game by game analysis of the team's ineptitude, but last night was really inept

clay holmes threw half his pitches for strikes. why is this such a common theme for this organization

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:42 am

Last night's stellar attendance of 9,169 puts 2019 attendance at 173 warm bodies ahead of 2018. Two weeks ago they were 529 ahead and 6 weeks ago they were 2,192 ahead of 2018. At this point it's not a question of if attendance drops below 2018 but by how much.

This morning I realized that in addition to not calling up Keven Kramer or creating space on the 40 man roster for Craig or Hayes, they also decided against calling up Luis Escobar, DuRapau, Neverauskas, and McRae. They all suck, but so do Wei-Chung Wang, Yacksel Rios, Parker Markel, Geoff Hartlieb, etc. What is the point of that beyond dicking guys out of MLB pay for a month?

Postby **willeyeam** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:08 am

Kramer and Hayes aren't ready yet imo. Craig probably isn't either but I wouldn't have been opposed to just throwing him to the wolves.

Postby **willeyeam** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:11 am

Also, Kramer just sucks so at the end of the day I don't care what they do. I'd have the same reaction if they called him up or if they just cut him. Meh

Postby **Troy Loney** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:19 am

I think Kramer sucks, but there still exists a chance that Craig takes another step forward.

Hartleib, Neveraskuas, DuRapau and McRae should all be ousted from the 40-man. DuRapau might get claimed, but so what. These large international classes that they've been bringing in are going to start putting pressure on the 40 man. In sort of a crappy system, international signings have to be added five years after signing, the same amount of time that high school kids get (so around age 21 vs age 23 for the HS draft picks). To me, that indicates that they need to start clearing deadweight from the upper levels of the system and engage in some aggressive promotions, because teams with lower level scouting experts are going to start poaching guys from the pirates in the Rule V draft.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:44 am

Kramer, about to turn 26, and Craig, about to turn 25, suck and will probably continue to suck, but I would rather see them get some September ABs than EGon and Melky. Neither will hit free agency until their 30s, so who gives a **** about throwing them a bone, see if there's anything there worth keeping.

With Hayes it's different. He's not ready, but a September callup is a good "you worked hard this year and finished the season out strong, welcome to the majors kid" incentive. It gives a player who has been pegged as an important part of your future a taste of what's to come while also showing him that he's not going to be dicked around about service time. But it's the Pirates, so they're gonna dick around with his service time.

I also agree with TL about the scrub ass pitchers that populate the 40 man roster, though I feel that status for ousting could be extended to the newly added Wang and Rios. While we're at it, **** Clay Holmes too.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 12:36 pm

A positive note about the pirates:

Adam Frazier is really good at picking walkup music

Postby **willeyeam** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 6:19 pm

Pop the champagne Dickie, Kramer is up.

Postby **willeyeam** » Wed Sep 04, 2019 6:34 pm

The return for him was certainly underwhelming, but dumping Walker when we did was a really good move. He sucks

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:51 am

Packed house last night for Kevin Kramer's triumphant return:

Announced attendance was 9,043. Now 108 ahead of 2018 with 13 home games left.

Postby **Kane** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:53 am

They'll just use that to once again justify not increasing payroll.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:59 am

And then hopefully the fanbase will continue to tell them to **** off. Saw from a commenter on BD that the ticket office is offering up tours of anywhere you can imagine in PNC Park in exchange for season ticket packages.

Postby **Morkle** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:08 am

Yea, I fully expect to hear "the fanbase turnout was not what we anticipated given the good roster we built, that had a fluky system."

This team is a walking PR failure, so the expectations to actually own the problem is nil.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:10 am

Yes, it sucks that this team prioritizes winning cheaply as opposed to just winning. Sometimes you have to be a little loosey goosey with the short term payroll.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 11:49 am

And I bet there were still long lines at the two concession stands still open for those “9000” fans.

(MLB uses tickets sold, not butts in seats for attendance figures)

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 12:57 pm

Only team in the league that uses turnstile count is the Marlins. It became too hard for them to pretend any longer.

Postby **robbiestoupe** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 1:31 pm

When opening day looks like that, maybe then Bobby will care

Postby **Troy Loney** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 3:15 pm

Looks like James Marvel is going to start on sunday. So all of DD's demands are being met.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 3:44 pm

Narduzzi remains gainfully employed.

Postby **LeopardLetang** » Thu Sep 05, 2019 3:50 pm

As I recall, to start the season we all agreed the pirates had plenty of pitching depth right? Right?

Right? No we didn't.

Here's my favorite group of stats that tells the story of the poor, unfortunate and just darn bad luck - once in a million simulations - 2019 Pirates

Pitching depth - just going down in order:

Kingham 37.1ip 9.87era
Keller 33 - 8.18
Hartlieb 28.1 - 8.26
DuRapau 17.1 - 9.35
McRae 15.1 - 9.98
Davis 10.2 - 6.75
Neverauskas 9.1 - 10.61
Burdi 8.2 - 9.35
Markel 7.2 - 7.04
Ramirez 7.2 - 7.04
Escobar 5.2 - 7.94
Lyons 4 - 11.25

I only skipped Kela in that mix and if Taillon wasn't above Kingham i would have included the next guy Holmes at 40.2 and 5.75. That's not a lot of failure - it's much worse than that. There's a lot of talent there too. At least enough to be around league average - but for some reason when promoted to the Pirates they were god awful. I didn't include the last few guys because they were position players. But also they performed better lol. Novice pitchers with no idea what they were doing were better than our talented minor league arms pitching with the Pirates coaching plan. Wonder how Agrazal avoided the taint?