Fifth Avenue Forum

Troy's tone has definitely changed, and we're all better people for it. He was probably the biggest optimist for the Pirates on this board, which really isn't saying much.

There was a time in this message board's history where the Dunn was posting top flight rants about the Pirates and ever blinding hope for the Pitt football program. Meanwhile, Troy was doing the exact opposite. Made for good MB fodder at the time.

I'm also partially irritated that this freaking topic is flying to the top of the message board Off Topic list and the Pitt thread is bumbling down below Investing and Stock Market news. Although meow's Predator gif in the Pitt thread put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

I honestly don't think troy is all that optimistic. you people are confusing "following the minor league system and observing who will be promoted" with "guys that will get called up will be good"

Question for the masses. Better or worse record in 2022?

Better.

Come home Cutch. This would be a cool start to the next era if it all worked out right

Probably not a terrible idea

Beats Ben Gamel

Pass, rather get someone with some upside if you are going to spend 10+ million on the position.

Oh my ..yearning for Cutch to come back. Reaching for new lows on a bad baseball team.

Who said anything about 10 mill

You'll be able to sign McCutchen for a 1 year deal, but it's easily going to be 10-12mm.

I can't see the pirates spending more than $5 million for a position player in 2022.

It was a 15 mil option they declined. I'd say 10-12 is the high end for him. Either way, 10 mil aint what it used to be and I'd be cool with spending it there. That would get the payroll up to like a whopping 35 mil

This is where I'd like to point out that Clint ****ing Barmes cost like 4-5 mil in 2013ish. Anyone with a pulse is costing over 5 mil imo. But, it is possible that they don't sign anyone with a pulse

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/11/ ... gents.html

Insanely large FA class this offseason. Not sure who is going to be spending big this offseason. I think the Astros and Dodgers are going to be active in resigning their big FA's. The Cubs will probably sign back their 2016 heroes. But there will a nice crop of mid-level guys.

It is very possible they don't sign any position player without a pulse. 2022 will be a year to figure out if these mid level prospects are any good. That means there really is no room for an even respectable position player FA. The 2022 pitching rotation is still suspect, even by our low standards. I could see them spending more than $5 million on a pitcher. I also acknowledge that signing any pitcher between $5 and $15 million means they probably stink. But if they stink and eat innings, then they provide some value to this team.

Not sure there are any mid-level prospects to try for the OF though. They are definitely going to let Newman, Tucker, Chavis, Cruz and Castro fight for 2B and SS at bats, so this tracks for the IF, but I do think they bring in a corner OF type. Of course, this could simply be just bringing Yoshi back.

Ultimately, they should non-tender both Brault and Kuhl, see if they'll come back for ~2mm to be swingmen. But they need at least two actual starting pitchers. Just a question of whether they want to just do like 1 year 8mm to get guys like Happ or Smyly, or go like 3 years 35-40mm for a guy like Gray or DeSclafani.

I agree with all of the above. It would be great to add some even mediocre vets to eat innings to just give the prospects somewhat of a punchers chance at not completely sucking. As well as to give us something to watch. And like TL said, I don't think we have any OF guys on the horizon, so I'd still rather just plug Cutch in to play 100 games than see the next Ben Gamel. That still leaves a spot for Yoshi to prove himself too I'd say

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/pittsburgh-pirates/payroll/

Reminder on what they're actually looking like here. I think the only error on this is that Yoshi is a FA and is not a pre-arb player that they can just keep. Those are arb predictions there, I think Reynolds and stalling could each be a 1 million low and Newman maybe a bit high at 2.5mm. But that's still a massive collection of players on the 40-man that have played in the majors for such an incredibly low number.

I believe that it's time to start trying to get better, you don't have to turn this into a playoff team next year, but you do have to exit audition mode. If Davis, Priester and Gonzalez were set to debut this year, then I wouldn't, but that is the impact prospect wave and it's not until mid 2023 at the earliest. I think the plan should be to start being at least ok for when those guys are ready.

This is where I'd like to point out that Clint ****ing Barmes cost like 4-5 mil in 2013ish. Anyone with a pulse is costing over 5 mil imo. But, it is possible that they don't sign anyone with a pulse

To this day, one of my Top 5 hated Pirates of all time.

Some teams put waiver claims on Wade Miley for $10M. Others use their better waiver position to claim "Greg Allen"

Lol