2020 Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club Thread

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Dickie Dunn]

Is he willing to play for free?

[iamjs]

can't wait for the "we almost had him" press release

[Freddy Rumsen]

“Having a pitching coach that can work with the mechanical/delivery side of it, then also be able to break down the numbers and tell you where you need to improve and how we can improve is really big,” starter Joe Musgrove said. “It makes it one line of communication through the same guy, as opposed to having to go through four different guys to get one answer.”

[DigitalGypsy66]

I don't recall reading about this at the end of last season, but evidently Kyle Crick discovered he was tipping his pitches. He and a video coordinator discovered it after he was ruled out for the season after the fight with Vazquez.

In an interview with DK, Crick insinuates that Rojas (who had issues with a lot of the pitching staff evidently) and Searage didn't help find out why he was getting lit up all season.

It's an interesting story, and hopefully Crick has a bounceback year without coaches working against him. Unless he's the problematic one.

He explained that to me in detail at season’s end but asked that I don’t share specifics. Suffice it to say, with one specific motion in one specific situation, he might as well have plastered on the scoreboard what was coming next. And he was plenty displeased about it. Without ever citing names, I’m guessing that meant with Ray Searage but especially with Euclides Rojas, his bullpen coach with whom he — and other relievers — had frequently clashed.

“It bothers me,” Crick told me that day, “because I know I could’ve given so much more to the team if the right people had my back. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

It is, actually. In the baseball culture, it’s fully in the pitching coaches’ domain to pick up such details.

But that’s then, this is now, and so, so much has changed. The front office was wiped out. Clint Hurdle, Searage and Rojas, too, at the field level. And Vazquez … oh, you know.

Which might explain why Crick reported Tuesday in soaring spirits and opened our one-on-one conversation with this regarding 2019: “I’m done with last season. All of it. Ready to move forward.”

https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2020 ... r-duel-dk/

[Freddy Rumsen]

In both of these stories you see how rabidly dysfunctional the coaching staff was last year.

[Troy Loney]

Can’t understate how terrible searage and hurdle were last year.
Started with glasnow, but those two sabotaged the team,
The worst part is it almost appears deliberate.

[Troy Loney]

In both of these stories you see how rabidly dysfunctional the coaching staff was last year.

Yeah. I keep coming back to glasnow. I think it has so much to do with the prior success searage had doing things a certain way, and instead of adapting with guys like cole and glasnow, they just torpedoed their value and dumped them because they were too stupid to realize their struggles were because of them.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Searage was a one-size fits all type of coach. He had success with one method, so every pitcher got the same method. Marin seems to customize how he works with each pitcher, which is a great sign.

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Dickie Dunn]

I guess Pillar wanted to actually get paid like a semi-successful major league baseball player. Dyson is 35, made less than $4MM last season, batted 230/313/320/633 last season, and is a 247/319/338/657 career hitter. He sucks, so he should fit in perfectly.

[Troy Loney]

That's fine, not like Pillar is anything to get excited about.

[Troy Loney]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2020-top-100-prospects/

At least fangraphs likes the minor league system. They have Hayes, Cruz, Keller, Swaggerty, Thomas & Peguero all in the top 100.

Swaggerty, obviously the outlier on this list. They're rationale is that the CF defense/speed is good enough to make him a regular even if the bat never develops. But, they seem to believe that Pirate hitters are more talented than their results .There's a note in the Hayes blurb that he is hitting the ball hard, but into the ground. They are basically still behind on the launch angle stuff.

[King Colby]

Irritating they wouldnt sign a guy or two who doesnt stink, at least to buy a few prospects with at the deadline.

[Freddy Rumsen]

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

He sucks, so he should fit in perfectly.

Suppose the name fits

[willeyeam]

Did he put his old Pirates jersey on in public?

[LeopardLetang]

Not sure what's more frustrating. The glasnow meadows trade or the non trade of Vasquez for some Dodgers gold. Oof.

[robbiestoupe]

You can't blame the Pirates for the Vasquez thing, unless you believe in curses. Glasnow/Meadows trade may go down as one of the top 5 worst trades in the history of the franchise.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I'd say that trade might be top ten worst in all professional sports.

[Dickie Dunn]

I was fine with the trade (until Baz was announced as the PTBNL), but it has been made exponential worse thanks to the incompetence of Hurdle & Co. and the immediate improvement generated by the Rays coaching staff.

Speaking of PTBNL, did we ever get a **** thing for Dickerson?

[Troy Loney]

I was fine with the trade (until Baz was announced as the PTBNL), but it has been made exponential worse thanks to the incompetence of Hurdle & Co. and the immediate improvement generated by the Rays coaching staff.

Speaking of PTBNL, did we ever get a **** thing for Dickerson?

I was definitely okay at the time as well, the Baz inclusion was announced right when we were starting to learn that Glasnow's struggles in Pittsburgh were not related to Glasnow, so that changed the situation from the trade starting to poke us fans in the eye to being bludgeoned with a baseball bat.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I think I read the Pirates got cash considerations for Dickerson, after declining whatever PTBNL the Phils offered.

[Freddy Rumsen]