OT: Pirates Talk: Lets Play Ball

[MrBrightside]

So 1B is now who, DJ Stewart?

 

[Empoleon8771]

So 1B is now who, DJ Stewart?

Probably Triolo.

With Horwitz out to start the year, I believe their batters will be:

C: Bart
1B: Triolo
2B: Gonzales
SS: IKF
3B: Hayes
LF: Pham
CF: Cruz
RF: Reynolds
DH: McCutchen

Bench: Endy, Bae, Palacios and Suwinski

I think this lineup is a bit OF heavy but this is what it seems like it will be. Endy will also likely get reps at 1B.

Edit: I actually misread the Palacios news, I didn't realize he was getting DFA'd. He won't be on the MLB team because of that, but it's not exactly clear who will be replacing him. I'm guessing that Horwitz isn't that far off from returning, so Palacios will probably be removed from that lineup and Horwitz will slide into the 1B role.

 

[WickedWrister]

Probably Triolo.

With Horwitz out to start the year, I believe their batters will be:

C: Bart
1B: Triolo
2B: Gonzales
SS: IKF
3B: Hayes
LF: Pham
CF: Cruz
RF: Reynolds
DH: McCutchen

Bench: Endy, Bae, Palacios and Suwinski

I think this lineup is a bit OF heavy but this is what it seems like it will be. Endy will also likely get reps at 1B.

Edit: I actually misread the Palacios news, I didn't realize he was getting DFA'd. He won't be on the MLB team because of that, but it's not exactly clear who will be replacing him. I'm guessing that Horwitz isn't that far off from returning, so Palacios will probably be removed from that lineup and Horwitz will slide into the 1B role.

Not going to lie I'm pretty bummed out that those three are being sent down. They haven't really done shit this spring, so it's not like they deserve to stay up, but this sours my outlook on them a bit.

In Davis' case at least the guys he's buried behind have reasonable upside (Bart, Endy) but I kind of hate that plugs like Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier especially are taking up roster spots. Suwinski and Bae have at least played well

 

[Factorial]

Probably Triolo.

With Horwitz out to start the year, I believe their batters will be:

C: Bart
1B: Triolo
2B: Gonzales
SS: IKF
3B: Hayes
LF: Pham
CF: Cruz
RF: Reynolds
DH: McCutchen

Bench: Endy, Bae, Palacios and Suwinski

I think this lineup is a bit OF heavy but this is what it seems like it will be. Endy will also likely get reps at 1B.

Edit: I actually misread the Palacios news, I didn't realize he was getting DFA'd. He won't be on the MLB team because of that, but it's not exactly clear who will be replacing him. I'm guessing that Horwitz isn't that far off from returning, so Palacios will probably be removed from that lineup and Horwitz will slide into the 1B role.

Palacios DFA'ed.

 

[MrBrightside]

It’s just such a blah set of roster decisions. Would much rather see Yorke or Davis getting a chance than doing another Frazier experience or DJ Stewart.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Not going to lie I'm pretty bummed out that those three are being sent down. They haven't really done shit this spring, so it's not like they deserve to stay up, but this sours my outlook on them a bit.

In Davis' case at least the guys he's buried behind have reasonable upside (Bart, Endy) but I kind of hate that plugs like Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier especially are taking up roster spots. Suwinski and Bae have at least played well

I actually forgot about Frazier in my lineup, he'll be the 13th batter.

Leaves them with:

Catchers: Bart and Endy
Infielders: Triolo, Frazier, Gonzales, IKF and Hayes
Outfielders: Reynolds, Pham, Suwinski, Cruz and Bae
DH: McCutchen

SP: Skenes, Keller, Falter, Heaney and Mlodzinski (assuming Jones is injured and starts on the IL)
RP: Bednar, Santana, Holderman, Nicolas, Mayza, Lawrence, Stratton and Ferguson

 

[bigdaddyk88]

So 1B is now who, DJ Stewart?

I don’t understand this. Don’t think they need to play old dudes like Fraizer and pham and whoever stewart is

 

[MrBrightside]

Nicolas apparently not making the roster either. With Jones' injury I'm not sure how they have 12 guys ahead of Nicolas.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Endy making the team is cool but the idea of him playing some 1B doesn't sit well with me. The Pirates just seem to refuse to learn the lesson that maybe it's not a good idea to have rookies play out of position while trying to adjust to MLB pitching. Endy's played a small amount of 1B before, so it might be less of a big deal than Davis in the OF, but I really think there's a strong argument to be made that the Davis OF experiment messed with his development in a very bad way.

It just seems like some combination of arrogance and stubborness to change it up. The organization clearly has little regard for 1B in general, so in one respect it's whatever that they let a young player make the team to play a position they seem to view as fungible, but more fundamentally: why not use the practice games of spring training to give him some reps?

 

[ChaosAgent]

The Pirates have 1 hit in the last 14 innings. Mid year form.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Endy has 330 career innings at 1B in the minors, I'm not overly worried about them playing him at 1B. Bart is going to be their primary starting C, so Endy being the backup C and playing 1B until Horwitz gets back isn't really something I have a problem with. It's way different than throwing Davis from C to RF.

Nicolas apparently not making the roster either. With Jones' injury I'm not sure how they have 12 guys ahead of Nicolas.

I was wondering about this when I was looking at their lineup last night, I wonder if Wentz is the guy that pushes Nicolas to AAA. Wentz is out of option years and has had a fairly solid spring training, I would imagine they wouldn't want to risk losing someone just to keep Nicolas in the MLB when he still has options.

Leaves them with Skenes, Keller, Heaney, Falter and Mlodzinski in the rotation and Ferguson, Bednar, Santana, Wentz, Stratton, Mayza, Holderman and Lawrence in the bullpen.

 

[TooManyHumans]

I don’t understand this. Don’t think they need to play old dudes like Fraizer and pham and whoever stewart is

Both those pickups suck and show just how far this team still is from even competing. I truly don't know what would need to happen for Cherrington to get fired. This team has shown no progress other than lucking into Skenes.

 

[ChaosAgent]

The "Endy shouldn't be a 1b" argument seems to be a "Henry Davis is not culpable for his historically awful performance in 2023-2024" in disguise.

A catcher was asked to switch positions. Boo hoo. Part of the job description. The difference is Davis failed at it. Most catchers don't.

 

[MrBrightside]

The biggest issues with playing Endy at 1B are (1) while he has a promising bat for a catcher, the same bat would be pedestrian at best and really a minus bat for 1B and (2) they are headed toward having one of the worst defensive teams in the league with Cruz learning on the job in CF, Reynolds and Pham being negatives, Gonzales being mediocre at best, and who knows about how 1B will shake out. But really, if they were going to do this, do it in the offseason and during Spring Training. The learning a new position on the job during real games isn't something a serious organization does, and 300 minor league innings at a position is nothing - it's literally like a month of games over this entire career.

 

[ChaosAgent]

The biggest issues with playing Endy at 1B are (1) while he has a promising bat for a catcher, the same bat would be pedestrian at best and really a minus bat for 1B and (2) they are headed toward having one of the worst defensive teams in the league with Cruz learning on the job in CF, Reynolds and Pham being negatives, Gonzales being mediocre at best, and who knows about how 1B will shake out. But really, if they were going to do this, do it in the offseason and during Spring Training. The learning a new position on the job during real games isn't something a serious organization does, and 300 minor league innings at a position is nothing - it's literally like a month of games over this entire career.

Endy will do fine at 1B because he has actual defensive talent unlike Davis. But you are right that his bat is feeble for that position.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Regarding the Endy to 1B thing, I think an argument to be made is that they should be doing this with Bart instead of Endy. His bat profiles more naturally as a 1B, he complements Horwitz better as a 1B (since Horwitz will be playing every game against righties and Bart mashes lefties) and he's worse defensively than Endy at catcher. That said, I don't see any reason to be upset that they're going to also use Endy at 1B in the MLB when he has played the position in the minors and it's a pretty easy position to play defensively. I don't think there is any team that would go to their starting catcher and say "you're worse defensively than your backup, so we're going to make you learn how to play 1B and your backup will take your job".

I posted this elsewhere, but I think the ideal long-term setup for their DH, 1B and C position is:

Endy: starting catcher, occasionally plays 1B or DHs
Horwitz: 1B against righties
Bart: backup C and 1B against lefties, occasionally DHs
Davis: primarily DHs

Davis now panning out doesn't impact this too much beyond them needing to find a new DH, but those roles for Endy, Horwitz and Bart seem pretty well suited for their skills IMO.

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[WheresRamziAbid]

No update on Jones at this point is getting weird. Also not exactly the Pirates MO to DFA a guy when Jones to the 60 day il would open space. I wonder if there is any hope. Or if this is just cope