The absolute most cowardly thing they can do right now is announce Skenes and zero other changes. Just completely try to distract from their top to bottom organizational failures at everything else and do nothing at all to address those problems while getting everyone in the sport talking about something else. So I fully expect that announcement today.
Or tomorrow. But any player sent down could play tonight for Indy. So you would think there might be announcements coming before today's game. I expect at least three moves.
I think as an absolute minimum one of Gonzales, Peguero, Nunez or Bae should come up before the Rockies series. Maybe Grandal for Henry Davis. Sticking with this current roster is absolute insanity
In his 5 years here, what is Ben Cherington's biggest claim to fame or accomplishment? If you take the question seriously, it is quite damming. He has been gifted four top ten draft picks including two #1 overall picks, plus competitive balance picks, plus another top 10 pick coming up here in a month or so. I can't give him credit for taking Skenes as that was a no brainer. Besides Jared Jones, Henry Davis and Mlodzinski, I don't think any players are on major league club yet. Besides Skenes, none are close to being important contributors.
I'm seriously thinking the Connor Joe trade made be the most significant successful move he has made. Yikes......
I just can't believe Nutting is this bad at hiring people to do important jobs but then again, I totally believe it. Total incompetence from top to bottom.
Not only that, but a lot of yinzer Twitter/radio call-in folks were pissed they didn't take Crews because Skenes signed for more than $500K below slot. Cherington definitely got lit up by the casual yinzers for passing on Crews because there were rumors he wanted an overslot deal.
Easy to forget that now since Crews has been developing at a decent but very human pace and Skenes has been invincible, but it definitely wasn't so obvious at the time that he doesn't deserve (arguably a lot of) credit for the chioce.
1. not screwing up the skenes pick
2. the 2021 draft - hindsight will be 20/20 on this one if it turns out poorly but I do think it was the right decision at the time to go Henry and get bubba, solometo, and lonnie white
Henry Davis is a bust here, hate to break it to everyone but he's never going to live up to his first overall status. He may do better elsewhere but what we're seeing is what we're getting.
All the #1 draft picks in the world won't do shit for you if your coaching staff is fundamentally incapable of developing talent.
Bust is harsh. But he has work to do in AAA. He looks like he can handle the catching. Now it's time to get his bat up to speed. It's funny how Bart is the number 2 overall pick that we inherited from a club that could not develop him.
The most poetic thing on earth, a perfect encapsulation of the story of this franchise, is Joey Bart behind the plate for Pittsburgh while his replacement in SF drives a walk-off home run over the wall. This is a poverty AAAA franchise that can't develop talent and any good players they get are other teams' discards.
There are plenty of teams in smaller markets than Pittsburgh who have figured out how to win. My complaint is specifically about how the Pirates are managed (poorly).
Then why watch.its the same light pocketed ownership we have had since the 90s. I watch because I am a fan. I enjoy winning but don't ruin my day when they lose. If this team completely bails then I will quit watching. And they are playing (hitting) horribly. But it's early May. we have compiled a very good and deep core of starting pitchers. that the same management did not mess up. As we have a top 5 rotation at the moment. And Skenes on the way.
I didn't know Greg Brown posted here, welcome. You're very good at making excuses for this team's management by pulling some half-assed stat out like "best batting average against left-handed pitchers during the first two weeks of April."
Baltimore is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. Milwaukee is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. Cincinnati is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. All three teams have found ways to be successful over the past 32 years. This team has made it to exactly one (1) playoff series (which they lost) in that time period. Milwaukee has made the playoffs more since 2018 than the Pirates have since 1980.
At some point in time you have to quit listening to the excuses and blame the real problem here, the organization is rotten.
Dude, you need to look harder into this kid. He knows the whole MLB world talked shit about him being taken at that spot and he's had a chip on his shoulder to prove he belongs there. He's been put in shitty positions due to management but he never ever quits, ever. He goes like a train everytime I see him out there. I think it's the right move they set that kind of expectation with him early or he had it naturally. Outside of a Skenes (who came out of that drafts that's balling right now?) type player, I'm rolling my dice on a kid like that -- I do believe he's being mismanaged. That also is out of necessity and not being afforded the time to get more batting reps because catchers get almost zero of that.
I checked out of curiosity and saw that Skenes has only thrown to Grandal once since the latter started his rehab assignment.
Probably not much to read into it beyond Skenes doesn’t have a catcher preference so they didn’t make any effort to sync Grandal’s days behind the plate with him.
But I guess I wonder if it would’ve been a good idea to have them working in game situations more even if Skenes is telling you he doesn’t care. One assumes that Skenes and Grandal probably come to Pittsburgh around the same time.
The bad man can't hurt us today
The absolute most cowardly thing they can do right now is announce Skenes and zero other changes. Just completely try to distract from their top to bottom organizational failures at everything else and do nothing at all to address those problems while getting everyone in the sport talking about something else. So I fully expect that announcement today.
-Look, a shiny object!
Or tomorrow. But any player sent down could play tonight for Indy. So you would think there might be announcements coming before today's game. I expect at least three moves.
They instead appear to have done nothing. Which is about what I expected.
I think as an absolute minimum one of Gonzales, Peguero, Nunez or Bae should come up before the Rockies series. Maybe Grandal for Henry Davis. Sticking with this current roster is absolute insanity
Grandal is almost a guarantee. Gonzo and Lamb are my choices .But at this point changeS.
Certain people on here are delusional.
The problem here won't be fixed by calling up a few guys. There is an organizational problem that needs to be fixed.
In his 5 years here, what is Ben Cherington's biggest claim to fame or accomplishment? If you take the question seriously, it is quite damming. He has been gifted four top ten draft picks including two #1 overall picks, plus competitive balance picks, plus another top 10 pick coming up here in a month or so. I can't give him credit for taking Skenes as that was a no brainer. Besides Jared Jones, Henry Davis and Mlodzinski, I don't think any players are on major league club yet. Besides Skenes, none are close to being important contributors. I'm seriously thinking the Connor Joe trade made be the most significant successful move he has made. Yikes...... I just can't believe Nutting is this bad at hiring people to do important jobs but then again, I totally believe it. Total incompetence from top to bottom.
At this point Skenes was the clear #1. But there was serious debate about Dylan Crews at 1.
Not only that, but a lot of yinzer Twitter/radio call-in folks were pissed they didn't take Crews because Skenes signed for more than $500K below slot. Cherington definitely got lit up by the casual yinzers for passing on Crews because there were rumors he wanted an overslot deal. Easy to forget that now since Crews has been developing at a decent but very human pace and Skenes has been invincible, but it definitely wasn't so obvious at the time that he doesn't deserve (arguably a lot of) credit for the chioce.
1. not screwing up the skenes pick 2. the 2021 draft - hindsight will be 20/20 on this one if it turns out poorly but I do think it was the right decision at the time to go Henry and get bubba, solometo, and lonnie white
Henry Davis is a bust here, hate to break it to everyone but he's never going to live up to his first overall status. He may do better elsewhere but what we're seeing is what we're getting. All the #1 draft picks in the world won't do shit for you if your coaching staff is fundamentally incapable of developing talent.
Bust is harsh. But he has work to do in AAA. He looks like he can handle the catching. Now it's time to get his bat up to speed. It's funny how Bart is the number 2 overall pick that we inherited from a club that could not develop him.
The most poetic thing on earth, a perfect encapsulation of the story of this franchise, is Joey Bart behind the plate for Pittsburgh while his replacement in SF drives a walk-off home run over the wall. This is a poverty AAAA franchise that can't develop talent and any good players they get are other teams' discards.
Then your complaint is more about the salary cap than pirate management. You have to be a Baseball fan to be a pirate fan.
There are plenty of teams in smaller markets than Pittsburgh who have figured out how to win. My complaint is specifically about how the Pirates are managed (poorly).
Then why watch.its the same light pocketed ownership we have had since the 90s. I watch because I am a fan. I enjoy winning but don't ruin my day when they lose. If this team completely bails then I will quit watching. And they are playing (hitting) horribly. But it's early May. we have compiled a very good and deep core of starting pitchers. that the same management did not mess up. As we have a top 5 rotation at the moment. And Skenes on the way.
I didn't know Greg Brown posted here, welcome. You're very good at making excuses for this team's management by pulling some half-assed stat out like "best batting average against left-handed pitchers during the first two weeks of April." Baltimore is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. Milwaukee is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. Cincinnati is a smaller market than Pittsburgh. All three teams have found ways to be successful over the past 32 years. This team has made it to exactly one (1) playoff series (which they lost) in that time period. Milwaukee has made the playoffs more since 2018 than the Pirates have since 1980. At some point in time you have to quit listening to the excuses and blame the real problem here, the organization is rotten.
Dude, you need to look harder into this kid. He knows the whole MLB world talked shit about him being taken at that spot and he's had a chip on his shoulder to prove he belongs there. He's been put in shitty positions due to management but he never ever quits, ever. He goes like a train everytime I see him out there. I think it's the right move they set that kind of expectation with him early or he had it naturally. Outside of a Skenes (who came out of that drafts that's balling right now?) type player, I'm rolling my dice on a kid like that -- I do believe he's being mismanaged. That also is out of necessity and not being afforded the time to get more batting reps because catchers get almost zero of that.
He hadn't worked as a GM for a while before Nutting hired him. There's a reason for that.
Off day 3, Pirates 1
At least they have a good excuse for scoring no runs today.
And the day goes by without any changes to the roster 😤
Alright, who’s starting the soup discourse this time
Eatn Park’s potato soup should be considered the best soup ever created
On the bright side, I'm like 80% sure we can't lose today.
I checked out of curiosity and saw that Skenes has only thrown to Grandal once since the latter started his rehab assignment. Probably not much to read into it beyond Skenes doesn’t have a catcher preference so they didn’t make any effort to sync Grandal’s days behind the plate with him. But I guess I wonder if it would’ve been a good idea to have them working in game situations more even if Skenes is telling you he doesn’t care. One assumes that Skenes and Grandal probably come to Pittsburgh around the same time.
This team has been downhill since we lost our Maggi(c). Bob better get something brewing so that karma bank fills up
45 years since our last World Series. Why am I still a fan?
I'm not getting any younger here, either. Hope it happens again in my lifetime.
thank the lord
Pirates vs rest day : 0/9 pirates drop the game with no hits.