OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: New season of plundering begins

[Empoleon8771]

The Pirates can have their infield set up for the next 5+ years if they extend Cruz this off-season (which I honestly bet they do) and move Reynolds to 1B.

Reynolds, Gonzales, Cruz and Hayes in the infield looks damn fine to me.

With this game, I am a bit concerned that Keller seems to be getting hit pretty hard. Luckily he’s only at 63 pitches through 5, so he’s on track to be on a reasonable pitch count through 7 or 8 innings.

I’d be hoping for Keller to go at least 7, with Holderman and Bednar coming out for the 8th and 9th.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Game going to a delay. Hoping it’s a shorter delay, it’s supposed to get super nasty out there at about at about 8:30.

Looking at the radar, it seems like it will be about a 45 minute delay. Hopefully loading on the tarp early can keep it shorter.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Rain delay feels like an automatic loss if it burns Keller.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Back at 6:10, so a 20-25 minute stoppage. I'd imagine Keller will continue.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

That was some damn fine work from Keller. His pitch count is in great shape to go up against the 7-8-9 guys in the order in the 7th.

The Albies-Ozuna-Olson part of the batting order is what worries me most.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Gonzales hit by pitch and looks a bit banged up, really hope he’s okay.

 

[BusinessGoose]

The hell did they pull keller for

 

[DJ Spinoza]

It's a tough call there. Keller was pretty locked in, and even though Acuna has struggled in the power department, one swing and it's a new game. I get going with Holderman to lock him down.

The 8th inning feels huge. Albies-Ozuna-Olson is still a tough gauntlet, but if you can get through it, the lower part of the order is not as threatening, and there should be a buffer even if one or two guys get on.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Oh hey look, Bednar's fastball is getting smacked around again.

 

[TNT87]

Two nice back to back wins. Raise it!

 

[WickedWrister]

Raise it!

 

[DJ Spinoza]

That's a nice win. Very bizarre to comfortably take 2 from the Braves, but their lineup isn't as imposing as usual with Acuna down from his MVP level.

We needed that. It's disappointing not to have the 4-2 homestand locked up, but at least we bounced back from the horrible losses. House money tomorrow with Perez vs. Sale.

 

[End of Line]

Translator just got drenched

 

[ChaosAgent]

Not that I mind these presentations, but I feel like they have some sort of ceremony like this every year for the past Pirates teams. Almost feels repetitive at this point.

I just didn't appreciate all the cutaways during the game, so I couldn't see the count, pitch clock, pitch count, etc.
I don't care that much about the 70s Pirates, or certainly not interviews of the 70s Pirates. Just play the interviews audio but stop cutting away to show the camera of the guy.

 

[td_ice]

Gotta admit I was expecting Acura to tie the game up with a homer. Glad to see us win, I just don't expect anything good from our pen, except Holderman.

 

[sovietsanta87]

The Pirates can have their infield set up for the next 5+ years if they extend Cruz this off-season (which I honestly bet they do) and move Reynolds to 1B.

Reynolds, Gonzales, Cruz and Hayes in the infield looks damn fine to me.

With this game, I am a bit concerned that Keller seems to be getting hit pretty hard. Luckily he’s only at 63 pitches through 5, so he’s on track to be on a reasonable pitch count through 7 or 8 innings.

I’d be hoping for Keller to go at least 7, with Holderman and Bednar coming out for the 8th and 9th.

I’m coming around to reynolds at first base. Although that creates a need for another outfielder.

But reynolds sucks in the outfield anyway haha. We also need another bullpen arm. Chapman and tellez are dead weight.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Gotta admit I was expecting Acura to tie the game up with a homer. Glad to see us win, I just don't expect anything good from our pen, except Holderman.

Before Thursday, Stratton had entered my "circle of trust." But he sure lost it.

Holderman is one of our 3-4 most important guys this year.

 

[td_ice]

Our starters are showing that this is absolutely a starting staff that should be competing for a playoff spot. That's a great place to start, no pun intended.



If we can get the rest sorted out, (I know, big if) we can contend for the post season.

 

[BusinessGoose]

Took two from ATL and nearly easily (very late charges not withstanding)

Great weekend start

 

[Empoleon8771]

I’m coming around to reynolds at first base. Although that creates a need for another outfielder.

But reynolds sucks in the outfield anyway haha. We also need another bullpen arm. Chapman and tellez are dead weight.

If Joe wasn't solid defensively in the OF, I wouldn't be advocating for it. But I think playing Joe in LF and Reynolds at 1B (assuming Reynolds isn't heinously bad at 1B) yields more defensive value than Joe at 1B and Reynolds in LF. I don't think it matters where either plays as long as both bats are in the lineup, but them swapping between LF and 1B seems like it would be better than what they're currently running with.

I wouldn't call Joe in the OF a long-term fix, but you can go Joe in LF, Bae/Taylor platooning in CF and Olivares/Suwinski platooning in RF in the short term. You can also juggle Suwinski around there and use him in all 3 OF positions if he's super hot and you want to get him in more.

The other positive of Reynolds at 1B is that you won't ever need a platoon partner for Reynolds, you just need a guy who can occasionally give Reynolds the day off at 1B. With Joe, I still think you want to have a lefty platoon partner with him at 1B even with how well he's hitting. But with Reynolds, you just need a guy that can give him an off-day every now and then, because he can absolutely play 150 games in a season.

 

[Coastal Kev]

I just didn't appreciate all the cutaways during the game, so I couldn't see the count, pitch clock, pitch count, etc.
I don't care that much about the 70s Pirates, or certainly not interviews of the 70s Pirates. Just play the interviews audio but stop cutting away to show the camera of the guy.

It's so annoying. Do a special for those who want to watch. I had to turn on the Braves broadcast for relief and real baseball talk.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Thinking with a bit of a clearer head now that things have normalized:

*The offense has positively regressed to slightly below-average
*The starting pitching will negatively regress, but I doubt it will be bad unless Falter falters.
*The bullpen will positively regress to be better, but how much better could vary wildly. I think the spectrum of the bullpen's outcomes will determine the outcome of the season.

The Offense - saying this before we have to face Sale then Skubal, 2 guys on near-HOF trajectories...

1) The observation that Gonzales changed the trajectory of this offense is spot-on, and I am growing optimistic he can keep it up.
2) Similarly, I am getting very optimistic in what I have seen from Bae in his early return. He is making contact but also looking to drive the ball more, which matches his power increase in AAA. He is an uncomfortable batter to face IMO, and M.A. Taylor has been Tellez-level bad at the plate since the first couple games. Bae should be getting like 80% of starts in center with Suwinski down
3) We will get better production out of 3B either through Triolo getting better luck, or Hayes returning
4) We will get better production out of 1B with Rowdy sidelined, although Joe is definitely getting overexposed. No idea what is going on with Cherington and Tellez, but we need resolution soon. I am confident that Jake Lamb can come up and put up a miserable .630 OPS against righties, which would be a huge improvement over Tellez but also give Joe 2 days off per week.
5) Cruz inspires a lot of emotion, but the best thing I can say about his ABs the last few days is that we've put up good offensive performances without him. He looked bad at the dish today and I can't see a world in which Sale and Skubal don't obliterate him. Wish we could trade Cruzes with the Reds but our Cruz is a gamebreaker when he's locked in.
6) Reynolds and Cutch being above-average hitters is of course helping.

The Bullpen
Just a mess, with no faith outside of the 3 leverage innings we're able to get with Holderman each week.
1) Bednar is doing better now, I guess, to where it feels like the responsible thing to put him in the game.
2) I didn't think Chapman was doing THAT badly until I saw 20 BBs in 16 innings. Ridiculous. Clearly batters have dared him to get 3 pitchers in the zone per AB after fouling some balls off, and he's not capable of it. I think there's a place for Chapman as a strikeout artist or a L3OGY (facing say 2/3 lefties), but he can't be a start of 8th inning guy.
3) Despite his implosion on Thursday I give Stratton another chance. We don't really have a choice and he had many good outings before that.
4) I know Ortiz's peripherals are garbage but he has talent and seems to persistently outperform them. I think he should pitch more given the state of things.
5) Bring up Priester as a multi-inning guy 2x/week. Looking for guys who can get through 2 innings without walking 7 batters. I don't think a ton of Priester but I trust his ability to do that.

 

[MrBrightside]

Skubal is on a HOF trajectory is aggressive.

The stubbornness with Tellez at this point is the same as it was with Hedges last year, albeit without a hot prospect behind him in Indy. It's feeding on itself and it needs to end.

The Royals are 34-19. Are too are too. That's a turnaround for the ages underway.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Skubal is on a HOF trajectory is aggressive.

The stubbornness with Tellez at this point is the same as it was with Hedges last year, albeit without a hot prospect behind him in Indy. It's feeding on itself and it needs to end.

The Royals are 34-19. Are too are too. That's a turnaround for the ages underway.

I'm biased because Skubal won multiple fantasy leagues for me last year

But seriously, in the last 2 years he has like a 2.5 ERA with a 174K/24BB in 140 innings. He is disgustingly good and some contender is going to move moon & stars for him - Yankees with Jasson Dominguez or something. I could see the Phillies paying a stupid price for him as well. After that he will be much more in the spotlight.

I think you could definitely draw parallels between Hedges and Tellez, but I think Tellez is more indefensible. With Hedges:
1) The Pirates didn't believe Davis could play catcher, and they wanted to Super 2 him. They never viewed him as a like-for-like Hedges replacement.
2) Endy horrifically struggled offensively in AAA and simply needed more time.
3) Hedges was/is at least an elite pitch framer and did a good job with the staff.

I think the Hedges situation is more like M.A. Taylor, who as I mentioned has been as bad as Tellez at the dish for at least a month. But Taylor is at least plus defensively.


The other big difference is that Tellez is BC's guy. Going back to his minor league development in Toronto. BC somehow thinks that Tellez is going to snap out of it and he thinks it is going to happen up here and not in AAA. Like if he faces the correct underwhelming righty he'll hit 2 tanks and catch fire. Or that Tellez won't make it to AAA because he'll be claimed somehow. When you read Shelton's comments on Tellez vs. Cherington, it's clear that Shelton is over him and ready to see him go, but the Toronto crew is keeping him here.
This situation is deeply bizarre and indefensible.

 

[MrBrightside]

Skubal is a very nice pitcher, but he's 27 years old and has won 29 major league games and hasn't pitched more than 118 innings since 2021.

I don't disagree with your Tellez situation versus Hedges situation analysis, although I do think you forget how well Endy was hitting in AAA for several weeks before they pulled the trigger. But you are not wrong.