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

[Pens1566]

Well, now Chapman can piss this away.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Even when Arenado is clearly not what he once was, he still plays to his best against the Pirates.

 

[WickedWrister]

I like it. Dude is the ace of this team, let him go through the teeth of the Cardinals lineup to show it.

Yeah I like it too, was just a little surprising. Maybe he asked to go for 100 pitches.

Standing O from STL fans lol wtf

 

[metalan2]

I have as much faith in Cruz as I do Suwinsky if there are risp with less than an out.

Well, now Chapman can piss this away.

We never really had anything to piss away. We scored zero runs.

 

[Coastal Kev]

I hate bunting with a guy already in scoring position........ hate it

 

[WickedWrister]

Just squandering any opportunities

 

[Coastal Kev]

and that's why I hate it..... even if it worked I hate it.

dorks

 

[metalan2]

Just let Taylor try to get a hit. If he bunts him over, you have Grandal up who will for sure not be getting a hit, so you just wasted two outs.

Terrible managing again.

This loss is a lock.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I think Walker is spot on there when he's saying Taylor should have been given the go-ahead to swing away there. I don't mind bunting in that situation normally, but the Cardinals were completely selling out for the bunt there.

The bunt was a good bunt by Taylor in normal circumstances, but with them collapsing towards the plate, it wasn't the right call in that situation. Even if Taylor had a perfect bunt, I think Gonzales would have been thrown out.

 

[Empoleon8771]

With how good Skenes looks, I'd be offering him a decade+ deal this off-season to be the ace of this team for as long as possible.

12 years and $200 million probably gets it done just because of his pre-arb and arb years left. That's $50 million over his pre-arb and arb years (assuming 3 pre-arb and 4 arb years) followed by 5 years at $30 million a year.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Nice Joe makes it 1-0 on a rocket.

They need to get some more breathing room here. Bednar has been great recently, but a 3-0 lead vs a 1-0 lead would be a massive difference.

 

[WickedWrister]

Ok a tiny bit of breathing room... lets get it done

f***

 

[TNT87]

WTF

 

[WickedWrister]

You can't challenge a foul tip I thought????

Edit: catchers interference I guess

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

If Grandal was actually hitting, his terrible catching could be forgiven.

 

[WickedWrister]

RAISE IT!!!

 

[Empoleon8771]

MLB umps not even knowing the rules for what can and can't be challenged just shows how much of a joke umps are in this league.

But whatever, a win is a win. I'll take it.

 

[TNT87]

Now Raise it!

 

[Coastal Kev]

That was a heart challenging watch

 

[BusinessGoose]

MLB umps not even knowing the rules for what can and can't be challenged just shows how much of a joke umps are in this league.

But whatever, a win is a win. I'll take it.

HORSESHIT call

But Raise It!

 

[ChaosAgent]

Credit to Paul Skenes, the best Pirate pitcher ever.

Mikolas is just a nightmare matchup for this team. Not to excuse Cruz and Suwinski for their terrible ABs. His fastball has a lot of vertical movement which this team struggles with. They are so much more comfortable facing Helsley than a Mikolas.

 

[ChaosAgent]

I'd pump the brakes on any of this talk and just ask why the rush to ditch Davis when his value is low? It's not like other teams are not going to have the book on him being totally unable to hit velocity high in the zone.

The main scenario where another team comes asking for him in a trade is if they think he's a good buy low guy to fix his approach. That doesn't scream "trade ASAP" to me.

It depends on his value. I think he can still get value like a 75-100 ranked prospect in the game. He has actually answered questions about his defense this year. Just opened so many more about his bat.

I don't see the next inroad to improving his value up here, either. Grandal and Bart are clearly better all-around catchers. With each successive AB Davis looks worse. We are looking for an impact bat, he is right here and no one trusts that impact bat to be him. It's a lost season offensively and then our actual franchise catcher returns next year. Davis also proved incapable (which still shocks me) of fielding another position.

Hopefully he goes to Indy and hits the hell out of the ball again to accelerate his value in the next 6 weeks.

 

[WickedWrister]

Looks like the most curveballs he's thrown in a start so far (20)

 

[BusinessGoose]

Lol good luck hitting that pitch

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Probably stating the obvious here, but that was a sneakily huge win. It would have been deflating to drop that one after the nice home stand, not to mention setting the tone for the season series with the Cardinals.

Now they are on their heels a bit even though the pitching matchup favors them tomorrow. Maybe we can squeeze some more magic out of Falter, but regardless, Gray has been good, but not exactly dominant. Three starts in a row of five innings or less, so it will be important to grind out ABs and make him work, even if he rings up a lot of Ks. Seems like a tough draw for Davis to start, but I also sort of doubt he catches for Keller on Thursday.

It depends on his value. I think he can still get value like a 75-100 ranked prospect in the game. He has actually answered questions about his defense this year. Just opened so many more about his bat.

I don't see the next inroad to improving his value up here, either. Grandal and Bart are clearly better all-around catchers. With each successive AB Davis looks worse. We are looking for an impact bat, he is right here and no one trusts that impact bat to be him. It's a lost season offensively and then our actual franchise catcher returns next year. Davis also proved incapable (which still shocks me) of fielding another position.

Hopefully he goes to Indy and hits the hell out of the ball again to accelerate his value in the next 6 weeks.

I'd say that this is possible, but I also don't think his value will change that much between now and the deadline no matter what. He still struck out at a high clip in his brief AAA stint, and him likely being demoted a second time doesn't bode well.

It's yellow flags in a few places, even if it's true that becoming more defensively passable and making the team out of spring training are positive signs to look at.

Ultimately I just think about the risk/reward and potential payoff. If you trade him along with Chandler and another highly rated prospect for Robert, it's hard to argue with that, but I imagine that package could be beat. If you fully load up a package to Robert and then Robert continues not to be on the field for huge chunks of time, then the fallout might be really bad.

The place I think I'd most consider flipping him would be to Miami for Chisholm, though he's also had injury issues. I think his ceiling is a little lower than Robert's, but still something like a 4-win player at his peak, and I would suspect he doesn't cost quite as much. Miami might want a scorched earth rebuild, which would make a player whose clock has started less than ideal, though I suppose if he was back in AAA, you could keep him down there for the remainder of 2024.

Still, it's not an ideal situation. Catchers usually take longer to develop than other players. Even if Endy hits the ground running next year, he will have missed a whole season of playing time and development. If you are solving a need at CF for multiple years, it's hard not to be receptive, but even then I think patience is probably the only path for now.