Fifth Avenue Forum

The Trib has a nice puff piece on Priester on their website today. Seems like a well adjusted dude. So we have that going for us, which is nice.

Brault (2.53 ERA as a starter) and Kuhl are the veterans of the group and have shown flashes of dominance. However, injuries have prevented them from pitching well over an extended stretch.

This is some gaslighting right here from mackey

Loney,

Spring training is here, everyone is gonna be blowing smoke up everyone’s ass. You gotta lean into it.

The over / under is 59.5.

That is so low, I would not feel comfortable betting the under.

They were on a 52 win pace last year. Even with jettisoning some of that dead weight, I don't know if I see enough to pick up another 8 wins.

I'll take that under of 59.5 all day.

That feels like a pretty safe under IMO. I will be pleasantly surprised if they hit 50 wins and I know that's historically bad but I really think they are that.

It's a fact they'll be really bad. To get into win totals you have to consider the teams they're playing. Did the division get better? Cards? Ugh, yes. Cubs? No. Reds? No. Brewers? Did they do anything? Probably similar to last year. The division as a whole got worse. So I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable betting on the win total.

Brault... strings together 3 straight starts where he doesn't walk 2 guys an inning and they hit everything right at guys and cuts his era in half.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-51-pros ... h-pirates/

Good piece to get a good idea of where the system is. They've already rated the best farm system (the Rays) so we get to see how well the Pirates compare. Overall depth is good, missing some top tier prospects (welcome Kumar and Green), and the mid-level depth is still lacking (they need some of these guys from the DSL to take steps forward).

Source of the post (welcome Kumar and Green)

I have to cringe at this. While Kumar is a slam dunk and GMBC should select him, there's the Pirate PTSD in me that isn't so sure. And also the fear that they'll somehow pull a Bad News Bears this year and surprise, missing out on this Green kid

what is Nick Gonzaleseses ceiling? A better version of Josh Harrison?

what is Nick Gonzaleseses ceiling? A better version of Josh Harrison?

https://www.fangraphs.com/players/kesto ... osition=2B

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-51-pros ... h-pirates/

Good piece to get a good idea of where the system is. They've already rated the best farm system (the Rays) so we get to see how well the Pirates compare. Overall depth is good, missing some top tier prospects (welcome Kumar and Green), and the mid-level depth is still lacking (they need some of these guys from the DSL to take steps forward).

Sweet thanks!

I don't pay attention to the draft scouting but heard Leiter might be the smarter pick. Bad take? Or is that debatable. Ulf?

Appears the knock on Leiter was velocity but he came out last weekend in the upper 90s so he's definitely going to be moving up boards and in the conversation. Rocker's knock was relying on the fastball/slider combo, but it sounds like he came out with a pretty nice new cutter last weekend.. so could be a fun battle between them for the 1/2 picks. Not as fun for the rest of the SEC

Leiter's delivery looked pretty high effort. But, I've no clue, Looks like a Bauer / Cole dilemma where you can't go wrong.

Read this as Dexter Fowler and then realized

Lifetime .224 hitter.

Lifetime .224 hitter.

So he should bat in the 3 spot then?

Anybody ready to give a lineup projection?

Pain

I don't know why I'm doing this but here goes

Alford 8
Frazier 4
Moran 3
Polanco 9
Hayes 5
Reynolds 7
Stallings 2
Tucker 6
Brault 1

Alford seems destined to fail so you’ll probably see Reynolds higher up in the order and whoever the f plays center lower in the order. I like the idea of hayes in the 5 or 2 spot.

Newman 6
Frazier 4
Hayes 5
Moran 3
Reynolds 7
Stallings 2
Polanco 9
Alford 8

[Puke emoji]

The lineup is actually the strength of the team.

Kuhl
Brault
Keller
Anderson
Brubaker / Crowe