2020-2021 Pittsburgh Pirates Off-Season Thread

Postby **Rocco** » Mon Feb 15, 2021 10:15 pm

With all measure of pressure removed, polanco emerges as a triple crown threat, propelling the pirates to the third worst record in baseball.

He'll manage to be injured at the trade deadline, making it impossible to move him.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:01 am

With all measure of pressure removed, polanco emerges as a triple crown threat, propelling the pirates to the third worst record in baseball.

He'll manage to be injured at the trade deadline, making it impossible to move him.

Luckily, were Polanco to exhibit anything indicating that he is worthy of his salary commitment, he'll be out the door with the Pirates picking up some money in return for a PTBNL. So I don't think there's any real way that Polanco can materially harm the 2021 tank season.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:51 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Anderson

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:05 pm

Is he fat? If so I'm gonna call him Jimmy and hate him.

Postby **willeyeam** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Guys there is a baseball god

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:57 pm

Postby **willeyeam** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:18 pm

Random thought. I feel bad for Shelton. Prob gets fired next year at some point and there's not a coach on earth that would win with this roster

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:23 pm

With all due respect, playing the best defensive shortstop at shortstop isn’t proof of a baseball god.

Postby **Ad@m** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:37 am

Postby **King Colby** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:40 am

Hes right. They are going to win. 48 times.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:12 am

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2021-top-100-prospects/

Pirates place 8 in the Fangraphs list (133 total, i think all the guys they rank 50 and above).

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:21 am

Nice to see them include Thomas. Who the **** is Yajure? Swaggerty sneaking in at 125 still seems optimistic. Interested to see why they are so down on Cruz.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:22 am

it is hard to get a straight answer on the I-net, but I think today is officially pitchers and catchers report day for the pirates

it is currently 15 degrees in the city of pittburgh and the pirates are well on their way to losing 110 games. those two facts are inconvenient but wont stop today from being a good day

Postby **Troy Loney** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:28 am

Nice to see them include Thomas. Who the **** is Yajure? Swaggerty sneaking in at 125 still seems optimistic. Interested to see why they are so down on Cruz.

From the writeups:

Thomas - will need something beyond the fastball to remain a starter.
Yajure - part of the Taillon return. Seems like a finesse starter
Swaggerty - value largely driven from CF defense. Could be like a Leonys Martin even if bat fails to develop.
Cruz - They went over his legal problems, I think every year that he neglects to raise his floor harms his prospect value. They basically just note he has crazy potential but high risk.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:33 am

So Cruz is going to slowly devolve into a dud every year until they lose him in the Rule 5 Draft and he proceeds to hit 300 HR for his next team.

Postby **King Colby** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:28 am

Keep in mind most of these guys haven't played in 18 months. Mid-season rankings will tell us much much more.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Wed Feb 17, 2021 11:12 am

I think ultimately the takeaway is that they have a deep pipeline for players that will likely at least make it to the major league team.

They are not considered a top farm system because they don't have many top tier guys, the teams with multiple guys in the top ~25 are always going to be considered a top farm system. So next year, when the Pirates have Priester and whoever they take #1 as both top 10-15 prospects, then the rest of their ~depth looks more impressive, and they automatically become a top 5 farm system in baseball. I think the organizational rankings are mostly worthless because an entire farm system is difficult to judge, and even harder to rank. The Pirates were considered the best farm system in I think like 2015, and that was simply because their top 4 (Taillon, Bell, Glasnow and Meadows) at the time. I bet if you go back and look at their top 30, it's a bunch of duds, and all it took was serial mismanagement at the ML level to absolutely destroy the value of those prospects.

Moral of the story, BC did a good job turning their ML assets into prospects. Tanking is really the best strategy unless you are Tampa Bay and teams like the Pirates and Cardinals give you star players. BC sneaking a tank into 2020 was a golden move and I think going to pay dividends in the not too distant future. And I can't imagine watching the ML team in 2021, I think whether they match last year's winning percentage is irrelevant.