OT: Pirates Talk: Lets Play Ball

[BusinessGoose]

Jesus christ, there's nothing more annoying than a list that is inconsistent between first and last names

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Will IKF hitting a rbi double there after Shelton had him squaring to bunt teach Shelton that you shouldn't have guys who clearly haven't bunted since little league try to move runners over with a bunt?

 

[BusinessGoose]

It's fun when they hit the ball

Huh, strange

 

[BusinessGoose]

Heaney is playing out of his mind in this Angels game

 

[bigdaddyk88]

So the Angels offense is worse than ours

 

[Factorial]

So the Angels offense is worse than ours

Wins. Take 'em where you can get 'em.

 

[Factorial]

Just tuned in.

Those background ads suck.

 

[Factorial]

I'm watching the Angels feed and when Triolo as a pinch hitter came to bat they didn't show his season average, etc.

 

[bigdaddyk88]

I'm watching the Angels feed and when Triolo as a pinch hitter came to bat they didn't show his season average, etc.

There is no stat cast anywhere either

 

[BusinessGoose]

Raise it

 

[Factorial]

Heaney has been good signing.

 

[Factorial]

There is no stat cast anywhere either

There is an article in the Athletic today about how the Angels schedule night games when the team has to play the next day somewhere like Minneapolis/St Paul in day games. They sound worse than Nutting.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

The bullpen has actually emerged as pretty consistently good other than those horrible early meltdowns with Bednar and Holderman. I'm not ready to proclaim Bednar is back after one game, but it's notable that his stuff number on the best pitch didn't fluctuate, so it's gonna be a matter of sequencing the other stuff in for him.

I also don't fully want to punt on Mlod as a starter, but a very obvious way to further bolster the pitching is to see if Bubba can hang as an MLB starter and unleash a more effective Mlod in shorter stints.

Offense would still be Oneil Cruz + cameos from Reynolds / Cutch / Bart, but the pitching has certainly solidified. I was talking to some people tonight who pointed out that the Heaney signing looks fairly surprising in retrospect. He's had some major injury issues but it's not like he hasn't performed at a very high level before. We have him basically for free and now it's starting to look like a terrific signing. If only we had bothered addressing the major weakness of the team with an impact bat (I'm sure the PR machine will hype Horowitz as this as he makes his way back, and I hope he makes us better, but there's no way I'm buying it).

Curious how this road trip will end, but also need to seize the opportunity for a sweep tomorrow. Then I guess you hope Skenes shows out vs. the Dodgers and we at least secure a winning trip, which would certainly be a success.

 

[bigdaddyk88]

Bubba still has not gotten to 5 innings in 4 starts. They are being very slow building up the pitching count and limiting innings. None of the hitters in AAA are forcing the pirates hands.

 

[ImporterExporter]

The bullpen has actually emerged as pretty consistently good other than those horrible early meltdowns with Bednar and Holderman. I'm not ready to proclaim Bednar is back after one game, but it's notable that his stuff number on the best pitch didn't fluctuate, so it's gonna be a matter of sequencing the other stuff in for him.

I also don't fully want to punt on Mlod as a starter, but a very obvious way to further bolster the pitching is to see if Bubba can hang as an MLB starter and unleash a more effective Mlod in shorter stints.

Offense would still be Oneil Cruz + cameos from Reynolds / Cutch / Bart, but the pitching has certainly solidified. I was talking to some people tonight who pointed out that the Heaney signing looks fairly surprising in retrospect. He's had some major injury issues but it's not like he hasn't performed at a very high level before. We have him basically for free and now it's starting to look like a terrific signing. If only we had bothered addressing the major weakness of the team with an impact bat (I'm sure the PR machine will hype Horowitz as this as he makes his way back, and I hope he makes us better, but there's no way I'm buying it).

Curious how this road trip will end, but also need to seize the opportunity for a sweep tomorrow. Then I guess you hope Skenes shows out vs. the Dodgers and we at least secure a winning trip, which would certainly be a success.

I really have to highlight this because it's easy to forget, there was no money to spend. So let's pump the breaks on the seemingly easy task of finding an "impact bat" for more or less league minimum, to a less than stellar destination.

Can we point to a few guys who signed elsewhere for a few million and would certainly be helping the lineup over a few of the regulars so far (namely Pham)? Yes, absolutely. But those gems are few and far between and there is no way of knowing if we did attempt to sign someone performing better only to be rebuffed. It's not as if we should be assuming that just because a logical choice ended up signing somewhere else, there wasn't an attempt to be made on our behalf.

The Heaney signing looms large in a positive light due to needing a replacement for Jones, which was going to be a tall task, again due to budge restrictions.

I've maintained that Cherington has hit on enough arms via trade/FA to look good in retrospect but they simply cannot find/develop cheap hitters. There's just too much talent that has gone through all levels of the system, with far too few results that you are satisfied with. And of course, coaching remains abysmal, but that's largely on Cherington to address and he seems joined at the hip with Shelton who is a certified bum.