OT: Pirates Talk: That Skenes guy is okay at teh baseball

[ImporterExporter]

Blaming anyone but Nutting and MLB for the state of the Pirates is lunacy.

This is a Mickey Mouse Org. and it all starts with ownership not giving one single f***. So that permeates down to the rest of the personnel.

The ONLY way anything remotely changes is is fans (and you are on this board right now) stop buying anything Pirates related. Stop watching games, in any manner. Cancel your subscriptions. Tell your kids you aren't buying them any more crap. It's that simple. Money talks. And until Nutting and company start losing on their investments, nothing will change.

But that's a pipe dream.

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[Ulf5]

The Blue Jays and outfielder Anthony Santander are in agreement on a deal, pending a physical, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client gets a five-year deal, according to Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. Alexander adds that Santander can trigger an opt-out after 2028, the fourth year of the deal, though the Jays will have the ability to void that opt-out by picking up a club option for 2030. The deal is for more than $90MM, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Blue Jays To Sign Anthony Santander

The Blue Jays have an agreement with free agent outfield Anthony Santander. Read more at MLB Trade Rumors.

www.mlbtraderumors.com

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[Fogel]

I think most fans understand that the Pirates aren't going to make huge splashes, but small, incremental improvements should be expected and they are few and far between and not necessarily in a positive direction. For one, I think they need to look at the batting coaches throughout the organization because Cutch might be the last organization developed above average regular.

 

[MrBrightside]

 

[Fogel]

I think Skenes and Jones is optimistic while the relievers are pessimistic on the pitching side. The relievers were around 3 WAR last year with Bednar having replacement level year.

On the bats side, I think Horwitz, Bart, Gonzalez and Hayes are optimistic. I think the system is pessimistic on Cruz if he has a full year.

On the HOF side, Ichiro, CC and Wagner are getting in. I'd really love to see who the lone nonvote for Ichiro is, but I doubt they will reveal themselves. With CC heading in, I think the voters are doing a bit of a shift in traditional judgement for pitchers since complete games and lasting long into games will impact counting stats.

 

[pistolpete11]

Not a total disaster but definitely some embarrassing moments at PiratesFest lol.

Maybe they should make him player-manager...

 

[MrBrightside]

2025 ZiPS Projections: Pittsburgh Pirates

It wouldn’t be a shock to see the Pirates contend this season, but their stingy ownership keeps their ceiling fairly low.

blogs.fangraphs.com

Zips projections have the Pirates as a .500 team with a low ceiling. Not sure I see .500 with this lineup, but then again it would only be a 5-game improvement from last year and they'll have Skenes from the drop, so maybe.

 

[Goalie_Bob]

I can see .500 with Skenes being Skenes for the whole season. Jones pitching the whole season and being good and Chandler starting from the drop. Keller doing his normal great at the beginning and mediocre at the end cycle. That could get them above .500 heading into August and then they come back down when they don't make any decent trades at the deadline and swoon in August and September.

The issue is that they just don't have enough hitting to be anything else.

 

[Empoleon8771]

A .500 team with a low ceiling sounds about right for what this team is right now. Horwitz will be a nice improvement to their 1B hitting and they're pretty high on Gonzales at 2B, but there are just far too many holes offensively on this team for them to be much better.

They need at least 2 of Hayes, Suwinski, Davis, Yorke, Cook or Endy to break out or return to form to have anything even resembling a respectable offense. I'm confident in Reynolds and Cruz and decently confident with Horwitz, Bart and Gonzales, but everything else is looking really problematic.

It sucks that Suwinski became a shit player out of nowhere because he and Cook platooning in RF would have likely been an effective OF duo, but penciling Suwinski in any role at this point is completely unviable.