The Official 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Season Thread

[robbiestoupe]

I sat in the right field bleachers during what may have been Pedro's last game in a bucco uniform (too lazy to look it up). It was against Cincy 2-3 years ago, last game of the season. He hit a laser only 20 feet or so to our right. I would have had no part in trying to catch that home run ball.

[Blue Canary]

Good win. Why was the crowd "woo'ing"?

No idea why, but you could hear it plain as day on the Phillies' broadcast during the last couple of innings.

[Blue Canary]

Brewers dumping a bucket of whoop-ass on the Cubs at Wrigley today.

[NailedPenguin]

I sat in the right field bleachers during what may have been Pedro's last game in a bucco uniform (too lazy to look it up). It was against Cincy 2-3 years ago, last game of the season. He hit a laser only 20 feet or so to our right. I would have had no part in trying to catch that home run ball.

I was nearly decapitated by a Miguel Tejada homerun out in left. It was the early-mid 2000s and we were in standing room only (you read that right) Why SR tickets? The Bucs had won a few games in a row to bring them to 30-30 and baseball fever was back in the city for that weekend.

Anyway I see this thing coming the entire way until it gets to the point above the wall and just hear it whizz past my ear like you hear that "zooooom" when nascar has a camera in the corner of the track. It absolutely smacked off the wall behind us and went about 8 rows down 2 sections over. That thing would have broken my hand even if I did catch it.

[Factorial]

"Couldn't crack that bell".

[willeyeam]

Well the Buccos are on their way to taking 3 out of 4 against the Phils. Like they should against a crappy team. That Giants series is really frustrating

[Ad@m]

https://mobile.twitter.com/jaysonst/sta ... 2184731648

[Blue Canary]

Well the Buccos are on their way to taking 3 out of 4 against the Phils. Like they should against a crappy team. That Giants series is really frustrating.

Indeed.

Nice to see the Bucs rebound in the 8th tonight and in this series overall.

Damn Brewers.

[robbiestoupe]

https://mobile.twitter.com/jaysonst/sta ... 2184731648

A Cecil Espy and Dale Murphy reference? I feel old knowing who both those players are.

[Dickie Dunn]

Marte Partay Suspension Counter 33-39

- I found the Diaz-Bell error to be hilarious.
- Do you know who sucks at baseball? Max Moroff sucks at baseball. Completely lost at the plate. Time to go back to Indy.

[willeyeam]

Moroff is so bad. I feel bad for him he's clearly out of place yet keeps getting trotted out there. Martes return will be welcome in more ways than one because Frazier can get those middle infield ABs that Moroff is getting

[Troy Loney]

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?pl ... g/2017/ALL

Strong OF prospect emerging in the Pirates system. Drafted out of college in 2014 in the third round. A bat first prospect that was considered a tweener because he didn't really have a defensive position and his bat didn't profile well enough as a first basemen. Fast forward to 2017, he seems to really be putting it together and has found a defensive home in LF. A power bat that only strikes out ~16% of his at bats, he could push for a starting job soon.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

shocked that the pirates would promote a guy from AA to AAA after 250 at bats

[DigitalGypsy66]

Looks like he was a 3B at Fresno State, now a converted LF. Ironically, Marte is probably taking ABs from him now (although I think Marte was DH'ing recently).

Edit: Actually Luplow was DH yesterday.

[willeyeam]

shocked that the pirates would promote a guy from AA to AAA after 250 at bats

The Bucs get a lot of flack for slow playing prospects for various reasons such as super 2. Has there been a prospect promoted in recent memory that came up and played so well that we all thought he should have been up sooner? Even Polanco who was absolutely destroying baseballs in Indy came up and sucked. I can't really complain with how quickly they promote anyone

[Troy Loney]

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?pl ... tion=3B/OF

Looking at Luplow's fangraphs peripherals, there are some flukey numbers. 19.8% HR/FB% in Altoona seems really high, his ground ball % is also a little too high this year, and that probably explains the low BABIP this season. He still has the low strikeout numbers so he's putting a lot of balls in play, but a lot of those are grounders. He might need to adjust his approach to try and add more loft to his swing at the expense of some more strikeouts.

[Dickie Dunn]

Professional Pirates Shill Joe Starkey did some shilling today:

Neal Huntington didn’t put together a bad baseball team this season. He could have done more, obviously, and really should add a player or two. But he put together a decent baseball team, and his best players screwed it up.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/joe- ... 1707070043

- Not a bad team? They went 78-83 last year WITH Kang and Marte and the only noteworthy upgrade to the roster was Bell over Jaso at first base.

- The bench was downgraded from Freese, SRod, and Joyce (plus opening day scrubs Morse and Figueroa) to Freese, Jaso, Gosselin, and Hanson.

- The opening day rotation was a cheap ass excuse for a hope and a prayer. Cole-Nova-Taillon-Glasnow-Kuhl. The back end is pathetic, the ace is questionable, and Taillon is still a rookie.

- Watson was pathetic in the closing role after the Melancon trade yet the team still forced him into that role this season and then stubbornly kept him in the role for too long, costing the team at least a couple games.

- The team went 5-7 in Glasnow's 12 pathetic starts, over which he averaged 4.5 innings, taxing an already suspect bullpen. At least fans had the pleasure of watching him pitch instead of the franchise trading him away for someone that makes more than $500k.

- Same can be said for Kuhl, with the team going 5-12 in his 17 starts, over which he has averaged less than 5 innings.

- Hurdle forfeits Sunday games.

- Kang and Marte are dolts, but what did the franchise do to overcome their loss? No trades or free agent signings were made. The "financial flexibility" gained from not paying half of Marte's salary and all of Kang's salary went straight into Nutting's pockets. Instead of improving bench depth or finding replacement players Freese gets marched out until he dies of old age, the team has spent nearly all of the season with two outfielders by trade on the roster, and the bench has been populated by career minor leaguers, overmatched prospects, and now two catchers.

- To Starkey's other player related points, yes Cole has been not good, McCutchen sucked until June, and Polanco is a turd blossom. Guess what, last year Cole was not good, McCutchen sucked all season, and Polanco was the same Travis Snider shaped turd blossom. GMNH did nothing to rectify those issues in the off season. Did nothing protect the team from Cole still not being an ace. Did nothing to improve depth at the outfield position. These were all known issues and nothing was done to correct or compensate for them.

Yes, Kang and Marte hurt the team and their teammates, but even with them this is essentially the same mediocre at best team from last year, with all the advanced projection nerds putting them at roughly an 82 win team. Now without them and their combined 7.2 WAR from last season the Pirates are on pace for 75 wins. Crazy how that works. GMNH had plenty of opportunity to improve this team, both with Kang and Marte and then without Kang and Marte, and he didn't do it.

TLDR: Starkey is a shill. Nutting is still cheap. GMNH did nothing to improve the team. Even with Marte and Kang this is basically the same crappy team from last season.

[Dickie Dunn]

shocked that the pirates would promote a guy from AA to AAA after 250 at bats

The Bucs get a lot of flack for slow playing prospects for various reasons such as super 2. Has there been a prospect promoted in recent memory that came up and played so well that we all thought he should have been up sooner? Even Polanco who was absolutely destroying baseballs in Indy came up and sucked. I can't really complain with how quickly they promote anyone

I think they took too long with Bell and then sending him down after the ASB last season was a complete joke, but other than that it's hard to complain about it because most of the heralded prospects end up sucking anyway. That will be my new complaint. The Pirates suck at developing their prospects.

[columbia]

[columbia]

btw: that was a fairly epic rant

[willeyeam]

shocked that the pirates would promote a guy from AA to AAA after 250 at bats

The Bucs get a lot of flack for slow playing prospects for various reasons such as super 2. Has there been a prospect promoted in recent memory that came up and played so well that we all thought he should have been up sooner? Even Polanco who was absolutely destroying baseballs in Indy came up and sucked. I can't really complain with how quickly they promote anyone

I think they took too long with Bell and then sending him down after the ASB last season was a complete joke, but other than that it's hard to complain about it because most of the heralded prospects end up sucking anyway. That will be my new complaint. The Pirates suck at developing their prospects.

That is definitely a valid argument

[Troy Loney]

shocked that the pirates would promote a guy from AA to AAA after 250 at bats

The Bucs get a lot of flack for slow playing prospects for various reasons such as super 2. Has there been a prospect promoted in recent memory that came up and played so well that we all thought he should have been up sooner? Even Polanco who was absolutely destroying baseballs in Indy came up and sucked. I can't really complain with how quickly they promote anyone

I think they took too long with Bell and then sending him down after the ASB last season was a complete joke, but other than that it's hard to complain about it because most of the heralded prospects end up sucking anyway. That will be my new complaint. The Pirates suck at developing their prospects.

Homegrown players currently on the Pirates roster:
McCutchen, Cole, Taillon, Kuhl, Williams, Watson, Frazier, Harrison, Bell, Polanco, Marte, Osuna, Diaz. There are two legitimate complaint about this organization, one is that they didn't up the payroll when it was necessary to do so to stay competitive. And two, they've been too unwilling to trade top prospects to add to the ML roster.

[willeyeam]

On the roster doesn't mean they're good

[Troy Loney]

Which of those guys don't belong on a MLB roster?

[DigitalGypsy66]

Moroff is a Pirates prospect on the roster that isn't on the list above and shouldn't be on a MLB roster.