The 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Team Season Thread

[Dickie Dunn]

He sucks too!

This is the most checked out I have been of any Pirates season that I can remember.

[willeyeam]

[King Colby]

He sucks too!

This is the most checked out I have been of any Pirates season that I can remember.

This is the most checked out from baseball for me too

[shafnutz05]

[shafnutz05]

.497 OPS is Gift Ngoepe territory

Another name I thought was magically going to turn into an all star.

[King Colby]

Newman is now .511 and still last on the team but Kaaaaaaaaaai Tom is fast approaching at .520

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Oakland took him rule 5. Pirates claimed off waivers from oakland

Even if the A's waived him, he is still a rule 5 guy. if the pirates put him on waivers, some other team can claim him or he would go back to wherever he came from.

[Morkle]

He sucks too!

This is the most checked out I have been of any Pirates season that I can remember.

This is the most checked out from baseball for me too

It's been so bad, I'm thinking I'm going to have a hard time even coming back again if they are even an average in the future. I just have no desire to watch this team operate anymore.

[Dickie Dunn]

CBS Sports mock draft has the Pirates taking Henry Davis with the first pick. “Best hitter in the draft”. Fangraphs has them taking Marcelo Mayer but delved into the decision making process for the pick, which is infuriating and is what will make everyone pissed about the pick regardless of who it is.

EL: I think some part of what will ultimately drive what Pittsburgh does will be influenced by the way the couple of teams picking behind them line up their boards. If the Pirates have a group of players evaluated at a similar level and one of them doesn’t have another potential landing spot until several picks later, it’s a mutually beneficial situation for the player to sign for well under slot (so the Pirates have can flex bonus pool space later in the draft) but also for more than he’d have gotten otherwise. The names our sources typically put in the Pirates mix are high school shortstops Jordan Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, and Louisville catcher Henry Davis. It’s likely that whoever the Pirates do at 1.1 will come in at least a little under slot, even if we’re talking about Jack Leiter. An epic first pick haircut — let’s say a deal for $2 million under slot, which means adding either an additional elite high schooler or two solid ones — would mean the player in question’s next highest home would need to be Baltimore. The names mentioned with Pittsburgh right now are also mentioned right behind them, so a cut that big feels unlikely at this point. Ben Cherington’s tenure with Boston (as GM) and Toronto (as an assistant GM) saw those clubs select college players (remember Trey Ball?) with their highest picks.

KG: The only consensus with the Pirates seems to be that the team itself has no consensus on who the top player is. This might come down to a day of the draft game of chicken to see who among Mayer, Lawlar and Davis will take the biggest haircut with the top pick and allow the Pirates to redistribute the largest bonus pool in the draft elsewhere.

.

I get the thought process but “this guy was the cheapest”, for whatever reason that might be, has been inflicted on this fan base far too frequently to not be cynical about it. Do your **** job as scouts and front office personnel and have some god damn conviction in who you take with what will inevitably be a wasted first overall opportunity. Don’t just try to free up extra money so you can take a flier on another high school kid 35 picks later.

[Morkle]

Yea, that reasoning doesn't inspire confidence and certainly fuels that "this team is cheap" even if they're going to use that money later.

This is the top pick, you're putting your fans through this to get that top pick. Money should be the least of the concern.

[willeyeam]

Well now that this story is out, no matter who the pick or how much conviction they have in the pick, everyone will think it was because he was the cheapest guy. So that's fun too.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

the optimist would say that maybe the top part of this draft is full of duds and future versions of colin moran and clint frazier and it is the smart move to allocate draft dollars elsewhere

but 99% of people that read that will assume it is the pirates being cheap. they've earned the right to be called cheap

then again, if they spend the max that they can spend in the draft, is it really being cheap?

[Troy Loney]

Also, those dudes are just spitballing a potential bonus pool strategy. They are saying, "if the Pirates have not arrived at a consensus choice", they would negotiate with the players in the running and draft the one that takes the lesser bonus so they can buy some HS players later in the draft.

[Nuge]

[Dickie Dunn]

True that they’re just spitballing, but it’s a strategy that’s been referenced in every mock draft I’ve looked at for a month. It’s a big part of why Keith Law had Davis rocket up draft boards to be the Pirates first pick. He’d be the cheapest out of all of them. If there’s a consensus at this point it’s that the Pirates don’t particularly like any of the options and are looking for a way to increase their draft volume. If we were living in John Steigerwald’s world and it was possible, I’m convinced they would be trading away the top pick.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

conclusion: they are gonna **** this up

[King Colby]

If they take Davis they should move him from catcher day 1

[willeyeam]

cynic in me aside, if they truly are evaluating the top 4 guys at around the same level, then picking the cheapest one to use the money later is a smart play. However, the Pirates don't deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to being cheap at this point.

[willeyeam]

conclusion: they are gonna **** this up

and this. but we knew this

[King Colby]

Jeff King ceiling with Bryan Bullington floor

[Freddy Rumsen]

Ironically the pool started because the Red Sox moaned about the Pirates giving Josh Bell $5 million.

[King Colby]

He should be forced to pay that back

[Dickie Dunn]

Josh Bell needs to find a hitting coach he isn’t related too. Meanwhile, I see that Josh Harrison picked his career up off the mat that is the Detroit Tigers and is putting together another respectable season at the plate. If he makes it through this season and next season he’ll hit his 10 years of service time.

[willeyeam]

good for JHay

[willeyeam]