Fifth Avenue Forum

The pirates really can’t afford to lose games like this (or last night’s game). Especially to teams like the Mets.

The kid has some swagger. I like it.

The pirates really can’t afford to lose games like this (or last night’s game). Especially to teams like the Mets.

Don’t worry, our young pitchers won’t need Tommy John surgery until they are into their free agency period

The pirates really can’t afford to lose games like this (or last night’s game). Especially to teams like the Mets.

I am definitely having trouble coming to terms with what this 2024 team will be.

Their three worst players right now are Cruz, Suwinski, and Davis. If you told me that would be the case before the season, I'd say things are bad and going to be worse.

Reynolds and Hayes are productive major leaguers and could slot into almost anywhere on a good hitting team. But if they're it, then it's 2020-2021 again. I assume developmentally, it's best to just keep trotting those guys out there and hope they improve with more reps. But it's going to make for some ugly baseball this season.

The bullpen is of course out of sorts with all the spring training injuries, so while it's been all over the place thus far, I think it will sort itself out.

But at least on the positive front, what a difference a year makes on the outlook of the starting rotation. It seems like the industry was just assuming Jones would not develop under Pirates' tutelage. As like a box score scouting comparison, I was always looking to see how he was ranked against his fellow 2020 prep pitcher pick Mick Abel. Jones was pushed at higher level and performing with better K and BB numbers, and more workload. And yet always ranked well below him as a prospect (2024 Fangraphs Abel-22 Jones-62).

Long story short, if this is what Jones is, I think we can feel pretty confident that Chandler becomes an impact piece. Skenes is just a freak and they couldn't mess him up if they tried. The rotation will just be getting better every year until 2030.

Cruz has 9 strikeouts in this last 14 at bats. He still has fewer than 500 plate appearances in his career. His lack of experience was of the reasons why my expectations for this year were so muted for this season. Even if he plays well this year, there are going to be terrible stretches for him.

Agree on the positive outlook in the rotation. Jones took a Great Leap Forward I do wonder what will happen when the league adjusts to his style, but I’m having fun watching him. If solometo and chandler end up being useful, and if Oviedo is ok when he is healthy, things could get interesting

Cruz looks like he's guessing the pitches, and guessing wrong a lot. He's not really identifying anything, or even looking like he is trying...which is the most concerning IMO. He's got immense talent and potential but if you're going to swing at everything like its a 4-seam fastball you aren't going to hit a ton at this level.

Thing is with him, as we've seen, he doesn't need to be perfect. His raw talent and power means he can still deposit pitches that he's a little off on. But right now he just looks lost.

I'm still trying to figure out why Shelton pulled Jones yesterday. Did he mention anything in the postgame? I mean, even if pitch count is a thing, 59 is hardly taxed...and he was cruising. Not any hard innings, heat not a factor, cold not a factor. 5 near perfect innings and you're in a 1 run game.

I'm flummoxed.

I'm still trying to figure out why Shelton pulled Jones yesterday. Did he mention anything in the postgame? I mean, even if pitch count is a thing, 59 is hardly taxed...and he was cruising. Not any hard innings, heat not a factor, cold not a factor. 5 near perfect innings and you're in a 1 run game.

I'm flummoxed.

They said that it was a strict 5ip max outing

What a fat turd Bednar ballooned into.

Classic

I’d suggest that it was Davis who the the ball, but we all know Henry just strikes out and hits ground balls to third amirite????

Swept by the Mets. Uh oh

Oh?

Even my 5 year old gets it.

Got a text last night that our town's little league got a grant from the Pirates for 2 free tickets to some of the select Sunday Kids games. I asked him this morning if he wanted to go and said no before I could finish the question.

I imagined @dodint watching the results of this Mets series looking like this:

Pre-Mets it be like:

After the bednar blown save booing thing, where rowdy did his stupid locker room stunt, he said something like “we’re a good team”.

That was the first time I thought, okay, this is 2023 again.

They are who we thought they are.

an above .500 team? a team with outstanding starting pitching but a bad bullpen? jk i know what you mean. the offense and defense is about what we feared. i think they'll be a better team later in the year though so it was nice to get a jump on the league

60 pitches?

L.

Yawn