Fifth Avenue Forum

Dang

We're about to be .500

McKenry has all the enthusiasm of telling a cancer patient they’re terminal.

McKenry is truly terrible. How did he get this gig?

The Neil Walker Experiment can't come quickly enough

I'm pretty sure the construction guy in the middle scene is the janitor from Scrubs.

Has the bullpen coughed up any leads yet this season?

Looks like someone knows what their doing on the pitching side, RichRod and Crick have been a good back end of the bullpen, aside from the new guys, Feliz even looks like a perfectly competent reliever (till he got hurt)

The rotation, well, the thing about the rotation is that each starter is equally unpredictable. So, it's not like they have one or two guys carrying the load and duds blow the rest of the games. They are all capable of either winning or losing a game for the team.

The offense is really being carried by Frazier and Reynolds, with Moran and Evans admirably filling prime lineup spots. Polanco will probably show up at some point, then fade back off, but this is really pretty unbelievable that a lineup anchored by the guys mentioned have been leading a .500 baseball team.

I'm mostly just going to keep an eye on the starters to see how often they compete into game, and those 4 guys in the lineup, they will have to keep hitting like actual top of the lineup guys to keep the bottom from falling out.

The bottom will fall out but it's great to see these guys competing. If they can stay competitive (not .500 but competitive) thru June, that will be a huge deal for trade values. Then they can go like 10-50 in August and September lol

Sam Howard took a loss in the 4th game of the season when he came into a tied game in the 7th and gave up a run.

Oviedo took a loss in the san diego series when he entered a tie game in the 6th and gave up 5 runs.

Those are the only two losses from pirates relievers.

sidebar mike trout has a 1.325 OPS to start the season

does that guy ever take time off from being gr8?

sidebar mike trout has a 1.325 OPS to start the season

does that guy ever take time off from being gr8?

Nope. One of the best ever already and he's only 29. It's a shame he's buried on a mediocre team out west

sidebar mike trout has a 1.325 OPS to start the season

does that guy ever take time off from being gr8?

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx? ... &page=2_30

He's 43rd on the fangraphs all-time WAR leaderboard, and he hasn't turned 30 yet.

Sam Howard took a loss in the 4th game of the season when he came into a tied game in the 7th and gave up a run.

Oviedo took a loss in the san diego series when he entered a tie game in the 6th and gave up 5 runs.

Those are the only two losses from pirates relievers.

That's pretty impressive. It's also crazy that neither Crick nor Rodriguez have given up a run this season.

I'm pretty sure the construction guy in the middle scene is the janitor from Scrubs.

It is.

McKenry is truly terrible. How did he get this gig?

I didn't think he was bad when he was in the studio. But having him on the game? I'm sorry, but he is... I want to be nice when I say this. He's... ummm... ok, he's been terrible. There's no other way of saying it.

OTOH, Capps has been decent from the few times I've seen him.

DK is practically insufferable when the Pirates when.

My only issue with them winning is that they will not stockpile higher draft picks and thus will develop into a middling team, like the Maple Leafs or even the Steelers, teams that aren't allowed to tank.

I don't think this is going to happen, as I don't think the bats and pitching will hold up for the season. I mean Polanco had three hits yesterday.

I'll enjoy the wins while I can though...

DK is practically insufferable when the Pirates when.

I was gonna make a similar comment over the weekend. It's not just DK, although he's one of the more notable ones. It seems like there are quite a few local reporters that are like "I told you so" after every **** win.

No, nobody told us so. Unless I missed a one-off prediction somewhere that had them in next to last place, I'm almost sure everybody had the Pirates as a cellar-dwelling, "maybe next year", "trust the rebuild" type of team.

DK is practically insufferable when the Pirates when.

I was gonna make a similar comment over the weekend. It's not just DK, although he's one of the more notable ones. It seems like there are quite a few local reporters that are like "I told you so" after every **** win.

No, nobody told us so. Unless I missed a one-off prediction somewhere that had them in next to last place, I'm almost sure everybody had the Pirates as a cellar-dwelling, "maybe next year", "trust the rebuild" type of team.

This whole "you can't comment on the Pirates if you don't watch them" schtick is awfully annoying and grating. The media acting like this is some kind of revelation that the Pirates are better than expected and taking a gatekeeper stance to this screams media schill.

The only Pittsburgh or Pirates' sports reporter of recent that has had any grasp on modern baseball is Sawchik, and he's been long gone.

There is absolutely nothing to be gleaned from reading the trib / post gazette or listening to the fan. Except for maybe some micro insights on injuries and such that they discuss on the pre-games. As to whether the Pirates are good or bad, none of these people know anything.

You have guys like Tim Williams that read Moneyball and judges every pitcher and hitter on walks (hitter = good, pitcher = bad), and directionally, the team has to either tank or go all-in, everything else = bad. Basically, everything you hear from Mackey, Zeise, Cook, Dunlop makes you actively less informed about the Pirates and probably just dumber in general. Pompeani poses the correct questions I think, so you at least don't get actively dumber about the Pirates.

Seems like a consensus is forming, i think in hindsight the offloading of guys last offseason sped up the rebuild. If they were going to be a shoe-in for the top pick next year, they could have gone with lawler to pair with green. The timetables for leiter/rocker didn’t really mesh with green.

This pirates team isn’t young, but they are all mostly under control for years, (specifically guys like brubaker, stallings, evans and Bednar). They could decide to spend some money to try and keep Reynolds or Frazier around, I doubt they will, but their payroll is so low, they could try to make some continuity decisions

Was interested to see how our offseason castoffs were performing and if they could have helped this ragtag bunch exceed expectations and continue to ruin their draft position. I know it was mentioned here at one point that Neverauskas made his way over to Japan but I was surprised to see that Osuna is now a Yakult Swallower. I imagine the NPB pays more than whatever he would make as a AAAA tweener in MLB. Osuna doesn't have the same raw power, but given that Brad Eldred spent 7 successful seasons in Japan despite not crossing over until he was on the wrong side of 30 I'll be surprised if Osuna doesn't find success over there.

As far as the headliners, Musgrove is obviously killing it, Williams still sucks , Jameson looks like a dude recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, but Josh Bell... damn dude. I don't know what happened to him after May 2019 but he can't hit ****.

Osuna will crush it over there I think. Also lol'd at the "Swallowers"

The Bell return looks like complimentary pieces. Crow is probably a future Brault type and Yean, best case scenario becomes a reliever.

Musgrove has already netted a long term bullpen piece, then the two young position prospects (Hunter Head and that catcher) who both have to take large steps forward in the next year or two to be on clear path to the majors.

The Taillon return is by far the most interesting. Yajure is Crow with more upside and will at least be able to eat innings if needed. Roansy could be adding another Tahnaj Thomas type to the system, and that Escotto dude is basically another 2019 DS2 dream team hitter, like Rodolfo or Mojica, so that just adds to that crop of international prospects migrating to the states in 2021