2015 Pittsburgh Pirates Thread

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Sun May 10, 2015 11:51 pm

Charismatic

Postby **NailedPenguin** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:06 am

http://www.bucsdugout.com/2015/5/10/858 ... -cardinals

I've never seen Andrew McCutchen act as strangely as he did today. He laid on the floor of the dugout gesturing with his hands after making an out, then proceeded to lecture a towel, as if it were a dog he were telling to keep still. Later, he ran up the wall in center after making a catch, even though he easily could have stopped. I'm not sure if he would have done that if his knee were still bothering him, but it was still weird.

Cutch is definitely a weirdo. And he's obviously going out of his way to show off that his knee is okay, which is good. Like how he slid into 3rd the other night on a foul ball for no reason. Thank goodness he seems to be feeling better but its just strange given Hurdles comments and he seems to have taken offense to people thinking his knee was hurt lol. I mean, no one was saying you sucked at baseball Andrew, we just thought you were injured and that's the reason you weren't playing well. Excuse the hell outta me.

Postby **FreeCandy44** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:21 am

Drugs are bad....

Postby **Faubert5** » Mon May 11, 2015 10:16 am

Drugs are bad....

m'kay

Postby **Troy Loney** » Mon May 11, 2015 2:51 pm

Even general manager Jed Hoyer has openly wondered if seeing more pitches is as effective as it used to be. Getting to the middle of some bullpens -- Cubs pen aside -- isn't what it used to be. More teams are moving toward the Kansas City model where they can shorten the game by having middle guys who throw lights out. The Cubs see nearly four pitches per plate appearance, good for second in baseball. Oddly, the Royals see the least yet have one of the best offenses. There are different ways to get the job done but it sounds like this is the Cubs team: seeing pitches, striking out but also increasing their walk totals and eventually hitting home runs.

Caught this from an article on the Cubs. But I think it applies to the Pirates just as well. I think it was probably 2013 when the Red Sox won the World Series with Ellsbury, Pedrioa and Ortiz wearing starters down at the top of the order, and I think the focus on pitch counts has been too high, because of the success of that approach in the past. I'm not sure exactly where the pirates are at laying off strikes, but I don't think guys like Harrison, Alvarez and Marte benefit from watching fastball down the middle of the plate. They aren't good enough two strike hitters.

This strategy should only apply to teams with good starting pitching and crappy bullpens. The strategy at the plate can't be so transparent.

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:03 pm

The Pirates are 7th in hard hit ball percentage yet have an average of .237, good for 23rd if my count was correct. They're due for a little outburst, I'd say.

Postby **King Colby** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:24 pm

Pirates need to take at least 3 of 4 in philly. Just go get the job done and don't mess around. These are the series where you pad your stats and W/L total.

Postby **NailedPenguin** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:31 pm

Hard hit ball percentage is a for real stat?

Postby **Troy Loney** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:39 pm

Their BABIP (18th overall) aligns pretty well with their LD% (15th overall).

I don't know, I'm pretty sure the offensive metrics point mostly to guys needing to be better as opposed to bad luck.

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:41 pm

Hard hit ball percentage is a for real stat?

New as of like a week ago on fangraphs.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:56 pm

Hey, MLB.tv Premium is now 50% off. $57 and change for the rest of the season. I had it last year and it's a great product - far superior to GameCenter Live.

Postby **FreeCandy44** » Mon May 11, 2015 4:36 pm

Kang in for Harrison tonight.

Postby **FreeCandy44** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:11 pm

Nice to see the Phillies fans coming out to support their team.

Postby **Viva la Ben** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:32 pm

The Kang Show delivers again

Postby **NailedPenguin** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:54 pm

You could almost tell as soon as that left the pitchers hand Marte was going to crush that

Postby **meow** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:55 pm

That was surprising. I was sure we'd strand two.

Postby **Faubert5** » Mon May 11, 2015 8:10 pm

If there are 5,000 people watching the game in Tampa 4,000 are rooting for the Yankees.

Postby **FreeCandy44** » Mon May 11, 2015 8:58 pm

Meh.....3-2.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Mon May 11, 2015 9:24 pm

Caught this from an article on the Cubs. But I think it applies to the Pirates just as well. I think it was probably 2013 when the Red Sox won the World Series with Ellsbury, Pedrioa and Ortiz wearing starters down at the top of the order, and I think the focus on pitch counts has been too high, because of the success of that approach in the past. I'm not sure exactly where the pirates are at laying off strikes, but I don't think guys like Harrison, Alvarez and Marte benefit from watching fastball down the middle of the plate. They aren't good enough two strike hitters.

This strategy should only apply to teams with good starting pitching and crappy bullpens. The strategy at the plate can't be so transparent.

Bullpens these days are out of hand, it is no wonder why teams are seeing fewer pitches. Consider the pirates pen: even Liz, Caminero, and Rob Effing Scahill throw heat. Scahill was bringing it around 95 mph over the weekend when he pitched, and he's the last guy in the pen. It makes no sense to take a strike and get down in the count when there is essentially a 1 in 3 odds that the pitcher will strike you out anyway.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Mon May 11, 2015 9:28 pm

lol jenmar

Postby **Faubert5** » Mon May 11, 2015 9:57 pm

Melancon can keep things interesting.

Postby **Faubert5** » Mon May 11, 2015 10:02 pm

Raise it!

Postby **FreeCandy44** » Mon May 11, 2015 10:33 pm

Back to .500

Postby **King Colby** » Tue May 12, 2015 10:53 am

Josh Bell is really playing great in Altoona - .355/.421/.505 in 127 plate appearances with 14 walks and only 9 strikeouts.

Won't be long til he moves on to Indianapolis, maybe another month or so.

Postby **King Colby** » Tue May 12, 2015 11:01 am

Charlie Morton and Clayton Richard are both close to returning. Morton should be back in the rotation within about 3 weeks, and Richard will stay in AAA until needed.

I'm interested to see who they move out of the bullpen to accommodate Worley. Scahill has an option, so that's probably the most likely choice even though he has pitched pretty well. Hughes has an option but he's been very solid. Liz hasn't been great but they like to have a long man - plus it's hard to tell in only 11 innings.

Maybe it's not too soon to see if you can get another outfielder for Melancon?