Pirates Offseason Thread 2022-23

[robbiestoupe]

Can't wait until the Cards select him in the rule 5 and he's mashing Selby fastballs over the fence at a Mark McGuire pace.

[willeyeam]

No one's taking a guy that's played 8 games at AAA and hit 260 in AA next year

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I just read pirates prospects and they were raving about how according to some goofball Twitter advanced metric, Selby has the second best stuff of any pirate reliever, including the ones on the major league roster.

While I don't give a shat about those metrics, I can see why he's worth protecting and Nunez is not.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

No one's taking a guy that's played 8 games at AAA and hit 260 in AA next year

And if the strokefest posted by pirates prospects is true, selby would be a guy taken because every bullpen has room for a guy who throws 99

[robbiestoupe]

Offense wins games, bullpens win championships

[Troy Loney]

It's also just functionally easier to stash a reliever on your roster than it is to stash a backup DH/1B.

I think it was dumb to expose Nunez mostly because there's a very good chance that they end up having to add him to the roster early on anyways because they have nothing at 1B and DH.

But I really don't know, maybe every system in baseball has Nunez types exposed in the rule V that don't get taken for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps I'm also just haunted by the ghost of Chris Shelton past.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I still think that this organization is spooked by Jose bautista, which is why they tend to hold onto to trash for too long

[King Colby]

While I don't give a shat about those metrics, I can see why he's worth protecting and Nunez is not.

This is not the question. The question is why is there not an additional 40-man roster spot?

[willeyeam]

Because then it would be a 41 man roster

[Dickie Dunn]

Praise Jesus

[faftorial]

Reds must be looking to contend in '23.

[Troy Loney]

Does probably make sense to try and plug the bullpen holes like this. No reason to invest any money on relievers right now when there really isn't a "commitment" to winning.

Payroll is now sitting at around 40mm (taking into account expected arbitration raises). Still have to sign a catcher, so that's probably 5-8mm. Guessing they go bargain bin shopping for another starter, so probably topping out at 55mm for the opening day payroll.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Pro: Hoy Park is no longer on the 40 man roster
Con: Somehow the pirates managed to replace hoy park with a crappier hitter

I get that this Lewin guy has good minor league numbers but right now all signs point to this guy being a AAAA hitter with a good glove. Zzzz

[Morkle]

Pirates have done nothing inspiring with their roster at all, GMBC said last week that fans should look at the total organization top to bottom before judging the Pirates success.

I care zero, what single and double a do. Why do these clowns (doesn't matter which one, they've all said it) continually say this **** and think the fan base is gullible?

[Troy Loney]

They/'ve done a good job of dumping the existing roster run-off for other teams' roster run-off this offseason.

I am really curious to see if they get any guys plucked in the rule V.

[Dickie Dunn]

I think the poorly attended, season ticket holder only, not publicly announced or available to the media "Town Hall" the franchise had last week with GMBC, Shelton, and whoever else is the perfect descriptor for the team at this point. Even TL's most conservative fantasies are unlikely at this point.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I think the poorly attended, season ticket holder only, not publicly announced or available to the media "Town Hall" the franchise had last week with GMBC, Shelton, and whoever else is the perfect descriptor for the team at this point. Even TL's most conservative fantasies are unlikely at this point.

My buddy (who I have a 20 game plan with) went. I couldn't go, but he sent notes:

Wanted to recap briefly some of the smoke being blown around. I took a bunch of notes on my phone.

If I had to guess this was a special event for new STH or STH that have been around and were thinking of cancelling. That was what I got from hearing the information being shared amongst the tables. We were like the second group to show up and I would say there were 50-75 people there.

Travis Williams made a point to stop by each table as we were snacking on foods (a surprisingly nice spread of coconut shrimp, cheesesteak egg rolls, veggie potstickers, and pierogies).

Greg Brown was the emcee and Williams, Cherrington, and Shelty were on the stage. Among the items:

BC made mention that major league reps are KEY in development. The more reps at the big league level the better. He called our work done with Keller this year as learning more in the bigs. He did not mention how these reps could have helped Cruz, though he said he did a great job cutting down on K's. Though in a question on bringing up the young guys he had some long answer that there are small things everyone needs to complete before they get these reps in, which seemed odd after making a big deal on the big league reps.

In answering a question on when they can make the playoffs, in his answer BC mentioned specifically 83 wins gets you in the hunt for a wild card. I would assume then that they have some sort of predictive metric then on how many wins they need to get for X or Y if he called out a specific number like that unprompted.

In talking about the new rule changes, which was really a question from Greg Brown so they must feel they need to push information on this, Shelty said he thinks it will be good for the game. He said the game is trending to on base percentage and away from 2 outcomes (not sure where he has those stats). He did say that it should be more exciting baseball. He mentioned a good bit about stolen bases, so I would venture to guess they might do that more.

In regards to the new rules, BC mentioned in the GM meetings in Vegas last week, they reviewed some data from the minors. In that despite the minor league games having essentially the same number of baseball events in a game (pitches, hits, walks, pickoffs) , the game time was much shorter. He said he hopes the majors go that route as it is more fun to watch.

Shelty commented on Davis and Rodriguez both being catchers and if that is a problem. He started talking about position flexibility, so I am guessing they are both going to be catchers and another position and they will rotate around. Maybe that works, who knows. I would not see one just becoming a first baseman, based on what he was saying.

BC commented on the evolution of teams pouring money into scouting and development, and how it is an arms race. He went back to when he started and scouting was just the big league level and draft for guys you would add. Now they scout internally and make up development plans. Rather interesting stuff.

Travis Williams got multiple game day questions,so they must review those surveys. among his comments:
The out of town scoreboard will be back (this was a ranting of a question from some fan complaining about it)

They are getting the new scoreboard that will be the same size as the overall board (basically removing the ads on the side), says they will be able to do more with stats/displays

They are getting a new ribbon matrix board around the upper deck to again show more information

They are getting a new sound system so that the music is not at 11 (apparently this is a Bob Nutting complaint)
The team store is moving to where Atrias and Batys were so it is on one floor. No word on what is going where the store is now.

They are adding all sorts of biometric stuff and updates to Pirate City (this was a comment on spending more)

In general it was the same talking points on spending and when we will compete. I will hand it to them all for doing this, but the story is old.

[Troy Loney]

I have no illusions at this point.

There is no clarity as to how this organization is attempting to achieve success. Truly amazing for this team to have a roster crunch because they have dozens of equally marginal players on the 40-man roster that are “wait and see”.

[robbiestoupe]

Surprised they let him bring a phone into the town hall

[robbiestoupe]

Shelty commented on Davis and Rodriguez both being catchers and if that is a problem. He started talking about position flexibility, so I am guessing they are both going to be catchers and another position and they will rotate around. Maybe that works, who knows. I would not see one just becoming a first baseman, based on what he was saying.

This part of the note-taking has me concerned. With the banning of the shift, good defense will be more important from here on out. The Pirates were terrible on defense last year, and appear to have a bunch of bat-only, not-good-at-any-particular-position players coming up through the minors. Not sure if this "position flexibilty" thing is real or just a way to say these guys are good at no position, but their bat plays.

[LeopardLetang]

It's why they signed a defensive first baseman

[King Colby]

I'm kind of surprised at all this negativity, I think if you look from A ball up things are looking a lot more promising.

Every year around this time there is roster fodder added to and often times quickly removed from the 40 man. I wouldn't put a ton of stock into acquisitions like "Lewin"

[King Colby]

https://theathletic.com/3924085/2022/11 ... ign=601983

This was an interesting article about John Baker's approach to player development. Consistent with a lot of what KTK shared from his friend's summary. Removal of defensive shifts will undoubtedly restore some of the excitement and eliminate some of the emphasis on the long ball.

Of particular interest, baker said a lot of guys will be repeating levels to start. He specifically said you generally see pitchers with better "stuff" in AA and hitters can actually benefit more from facing them than they can from facing journeymen like Max Kranick in AAA.

[LeopardLetang]

there's good reason but that sounds like the excuse to keep peguero down (which i don't mind) and scott and fraizer I'd imagine. The levels below that are sparse enough that no one will be held back.

[MR25]

Man, that's a hot one