The 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Team Season Thread

[Morkle]

Do the Pirates set the prices, or does Aramark?

[robbiestoupe]

I’m going to guess both? Aramark takes a cut as well as the Pirates.

[willeyeam]

[Troy Loney]

The fangraph's prospect guru guy does prospect notes pieces a couple times a week. Sometimes it will link to a youtube video where he just goes through all the minor league box scores on Milb.com. There is some membership that will allow you to watch replays of the games and such and he'll occasionally pull up excerpts from the game. He did it to watch some pitcher that was throwing against the marauders the other day, so you go to see what Dixon, Head and Campana look like as hitter. It's pretty cool, you can easily fast forward to him going through the Pirates' minor league teams and commenting and discuss players.

Anywho, I watched one last week after Florez's start (6 ip, 2h 0r 2bb 10k - also good). And he shat all over Florez. He only threw 40 fastballs or thereabouts. The gist being that Florez has good offspeed stuff, the Pirates are having him throw the pitches he's good at and not working on his weaknesses. Also, he noted how different that was from when the Pirates were making their pitchers throw all fastballs all the time at the lower levels.

Anywho p2, there is a bit of a backstory here, I am not convinced it means that Florez is not that good, or he's only good because he's throwing his good pitches (weird argument imo). I do think Longerhans left open the possibility that his dismissal of Florez is potentially wrong, and that this reliance on breaking stuff and approach could indicate positive things.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

the problem with the pirates fastball first approach is that these guys (keller, kuhl, glasnow, Brault, etc.) came to the major leagues, didn't have good secondary stuff, and still didn't manage to have good fastball command. I never quite understood how an organization that stressed fastball command could have an end product like tyler glasnow (at least pirates the pirates version).

[Troy Loney]

Ok, amateur scouting report, but those breaking ball strikeouts were hanging way up in the zone. Longerhans is probably right here, he’s pitching against hitters that can’t hit breaking stuff yet

[robbiestoupe]

Don't know if I can root for Sid from Toy Story

[Dickie Dunn]

1. Pirates: Marcelo Mayer, SS, Eastlake HS (Chula Vista, Calif.)
Other clubs believe the Pirates have narrowed their field to four position players (high school shortstops Mayer, Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson plus Louisville catcher Henry Davis) but don't have much separation between them and ultimately will take whoever allows them to shave the most off the assigned pick value of $8,415,300. Of course, Pittsburgh also could have a clear preference but letting everyone believe they're unsettled could help from a negotiating standpoint.

[robbiestoupe]

1. Pirates: Marcelo Mayer, SS, Eastlake HS (Chula Vista, Calif.)
Other clubs believe the Pirates have narrowed their field to four position players (high school shortstops Mayer, Jordan Lawlar and Kahlil Watson plus Louisville catcher Henry Davis) but don't have much separation between them and ultimately will take whoever allows them to shave the most off the assigned pick value of $8,415,300. Of course, Pittsburgh also could have a clear preference but letting everyone believe they're unsettled could help from a negotiating standpoint.

The bolded reduces the blood boil to a simmer

[faftorial]

Pretty soon the Bucs will be able to field a team of shortstops.

I thought they were taking a pitcher?

[Troy Loney]

Pretty soon the Bucs will be able to field a team of shortstops.

I thought they were taking a pitcher?

The vandy pitchers leveled off.

Also, this marcelo dude is going to grow out of SS for sure. And peguero is the only real prospect they have who will stay at short. Tucker and Newman suck and O’Neil Cruz is not going to play ss for much longer

[LeopardLetang]

At tonight's Curve game with tickets courtesy Trey McGough who was supposed to pitch tonight - Johnstown (Ferndale) grad

Pretty nice lineup to watch. Too bad bae is out

[Ad@m]

At tonight's Curve game with tickets courtesy Trey McGough who was supposed to pitch tonight - Johnstown (Ferndale) grad

Pretty nice lineup to watch. Too bad bae is out

And you got to see this?

[willeyeam]

So in my mind I've basically has Cruz pegged as the next Polanco due to size and hype and seemingly boneheadedness. However, that's a pretty compact swing for a guy that size.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I saw cruz play pre pandemic and he was smoother than I expected. Not as smooth as the average minor league shortstop but smooth for a large human. I never got the impression that Polanco was actually smooth.

[Dickie Dunn]

In Polanco’s defense, he hasn’t killed anyone yet.

[genoscoif]

Don't know if I can root for Sid from Toy Story

I was gonna say Blake Griffin and Carrot Top's love child, but Sid works too.

[LeopardLetang]

Yeah Cruz destroyed that indeed. I didn't even get excited - thought it was way foul. Never saw it land. Then Smith-Njigba went back to back and Castro hit the next one on the button

Cruz is pretty smooth. I think like 4 straight 6-3s to start the game. His arm was a little long and wild. On one play he was shifted past second and went after a grounder and ended up hip to hip with Castro. They both called for it. Pretty awkward. They seem pretty friendly together but Castro was kinda ticked. If Cruz hadn't gotten the out at First it would have looked like something the major league team would do.

I'd remember more of the game but they serve big gulp sized beers there.

[Dickie Dunn]

What a team

[shafnutz05]

What a team

Dear lord.

[Dickie Dunn]

Just saw that that sucks ass scrub Mitch Keller was sent to AAA. Do Chad Kuhl next. His comedy routine after last nights game where he blamed all of his issues on continually getting a bad batch of baseballs was just absolutely pathetic.

[iamjs]

with the proper soundtrack added.

[King Colby]

Fire Shelton. Enough. Nobody expects you to not suck, but I don't think it's too much to ask to field a hungrier team, or at least one that doesn't look like they're playing in a little league consolation game

[King Colby]

Shelton is John Russell, except his pants fit

[Orlando Penguin]

What a team

Where did the catcher go? There was no base to back up.


As for the draft, if you have the #1 pick and you don’t take a Vanderbilt pitcher, then you should never be allowed to evaluate talent again.