Couple stories from the Pirates today, one that's been talked about all day long already and one that probably doesn't need to be talked about at all.
The Pirates cut Andrew Lambo this morning, which means he'll start the year in AAA Indianapolis, where he spent the majority of last year and frankly tore up the level. Lambo had a dismal spring and clearly wasn't very confident at the plate, so they're sending him to Indy to relax him a bit and try to get him back in some kind of groove at the plate.
Gregorious? Why Not
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by Brandon Posa
When I first heard the rumor today that the Pirates and Diamondbacks may have been discussing a deal involving young shortstop Didi Gregorious, my first reaction definitely wasn’t “what about Jordy?!” The Diamondbacks seem to be scavenging for starting pitching due to the loss of Patrick Corbin, and the Pirates certainly have a lot of depth in those ranks—albeit not as much as they did last year. Let’s face facts: the Pirates have no long-term answer at shortstop beyond Jordy Mercer, because there are still doubts that remain that top prospect Alen Hanson has the range and arm strength to remain at shortstop for the long haul (many scouts have said that his likely calling in the majors is at second base). Jon mentioned in an earlier post that the Pirates and second baseman Neil Walker have both made efforts to come to terms on a long term deal, with no resolution as of yet. And, honestly, we have to wonder if Neil would be worth much more than whatever the Pirates have all ready offered him. He will become a free agent after the 2016 season at age 31, the same year as Pedro Alvarez. Personally, I believe Walker still has a lot left in the tank to be a productive, above-average second baseman, but it is hard to imagine him getting a true free agent deal from the Bucs after 2016; what I’m saying is that any deal with Walker should occur now to buy out his arbitration years for cost control, and then add a year or two by options or by permanent clauses.
When I first heard the rumor today that the Pirates and Diamondbacks may have been discussing a deal involving young shortstop Didi Gregorious, my first reaction definitely wasn’t “what about Jordy?!” The Diamondbacks seem to be scavenging for starting pitching due to the loss of Patrick Corbin, and the Pirates certainly have a lot of depth in those ranks—albeit not as much as they did last year. Let’s face facts: the Pirates have no long-term answer at shortstop beyond Jordy Mercer, because there are still doubts that remain that top prospect Alen Hanson has the range and arm strength to remain at shortstop for the long haul (many scouts have said that his likely calling in the majors is at second base). Jon mentioned in an earlier post that the Pirates and second baseman Neil Walker have both made efforts to come to terms on a long term deal, with no resolution as of yet. And, honestly, we have to wonder if Neil would be worth much more than whatever the Pirates have all ready offered him. He will become a free agent after the 2016 season at age 31, the same year as Pedro Alvarez. Personally, I believe Walker still has a lot left in the tank to be a productive, above-average second baseman, but it is hard to imagine him getting a true free agent deal from the Bucs after 2016; what I’m saying is that any deal with Walker should occur now to buy out his arbitration years for cost control, and then add a year or two by options or by permanent clauses.
Pirates entering unprecedented decision time
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If you thought the Pirates being a competitive baseball team would be all sunshine and roses you were wrong.
Not only does it cost $80 to sit in section 315 for Opening Day, we are also nearing the time when some of the young talent that helped the Pirates bring the franchise back into relevancy are weighing the advantages of the dreaded free agency. Pirates fans have suffered the consequences of being a small market team in a big market world from one side of the spectrum already - the side where their team has no chance of signing any big name free agents to instantly add to their big league roster. Now we're faced with the side that makes it more appealing for the good players we already have to leave Pittsburgh for the biggest contracts.
The Pirates brilliantly dodged facing this issue with their franchise player Andrew McCutchen a couple years ago when they signed him for a pretty affordable $51.5 million contract the year before he really showed what he was capable of. They're now trying to pull the same thing with Starling Marte, but he and his agent aren't going for it. We learned recently that Marte has already rejected two extension offers from the Pirates, which honestly is probably in his best interest. There's a very good chance that Marte does what McCutchen does and puts up pretty monster numbers in one of the next three seasons and instantly sees his free agent value skyrocket. For his bank account's purposes, signing now would be a horrible idea - especially with what the Pirates probably offered him already.
Not only does it cost $80 to sit in section 315 for Opening Day, we are also nearing the time when some of the young talent that helped the Pirates bring the franchise back into relevancy are weighing the advantages of the dreaded free agency. Pirates fans have suffered the consequences of being a small market team in a big market world from one side of the spectrum already - the side where their team has no chance of signing any big name free agents to instantly add to their big league roster. Now we're faced with the side that makes it more appealing for the good players we already have to leave Pittsburgh for the biggest contracts.
The Pirates brilliantly dodged facing this issue with their franchise player Andrew McCutchen a couple years ago when they signed him for a pretty affordable $51.5 million contract the year before he really showed what he was capable of. They're now trying to pull the same thing with Starling Marte, but he and his agent aren't going for it. We learned recently that Marte has already rejected two extension offers from the Pirates, which honestly is probably in his best interest. There's a very good chance that Marte does what McCutchen does and puts up pretty monster numbers in one of the next three seasons and instantly sees his free agent value skyrocket. For his bank account's purposes, signing now would be a horrible idea - especially with what the Pirates probably offered him already.
The Jameson Taillon scare
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Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects was my first Twitter follower. That was back in the day when his site was called B.U.C.C.O FANS and nobody knew why Bucco was made into an acronym. If I remember correctly he had a few hundred followers and was just starting out. Now he runs what is probably the #1 Pirates site on the web and has made it his full time job. It's been pretty cool to see the insane amount of success that he's had. Now he's the main source for Pirates prospects news and analysis, and he broke a pretty terrifying story this morning concerning top pitching prospect Jameson Taillon.
Apparently Jameson Taillon is being shut down for two weeks with elbow discomfort, which is about as scary a headline as you could read. The good news is that it's just a little bit of discomfort and they're just shutting him down for precautionary reasons. He isn't expected to miss a significant amount of time. However, you never want to hear about any level of elbow pain from your pitchers, because those issues can tend to linger and then turn into something serious. It seems like every major league pitchers and their mother have had Tommy John surgery, so it's not something that teams really try to avoid. You'd hate to see that happen to a high profile pitcher like Taillon, because it basically knocks you out for a calendar year. That's big time speculation, and there's no signs that Taillon is anywhere near needing such a procedure, but those are the thoughts that pop into your head when you read a story like this.
Apparently Jameson Taillon is being shut down for two weeks with elbow discomfort, which is about as scary a headline as you could read. The good news is that it's just a little bit of discomfort and they're just shutting him down for precautionary reasons. He isn't expected to miss a significant amount of time. However, you never want to hear about any level of elbow pain from your pitchers, because those issues can tend to linger and then turn into something serious. It seems like every major league pitchers and their mother have had Tommy John surgery, so it's not something that teams really try to avoid. You'd hate to see that happen to a high profile pitcher like Taillon, because it basically knocks you out for a calendar year. That's big time speculation, and there's no signs that Taillon is anywhere near needing such a procedure, but those are the thoughts that pop into your head when you read a story like this.
Pirates spring training stats mean...
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Everyone says that spring training don't matter in baseball. What's funny about that is that most of the time that's said to make people feel better about a guy playing poorly in spring. If some guy is having a monster spring, you never see people being rational saying that the stats don't matter, they automatically plan for that guy to have a huge regular season as well. But when a guy is having a bad spring, they'll just sit there and shrug it off. That's how we are in a lot of facets of life - we're very selective in what we hear and what we choose to believe. Without getting too philosophical, let's talk about all this.
The reasoning behind the limited stock taken in spring training stats makes sense. First of all, everybody is getting back up to speed, it's the first time in a number of months that any of them see big league level pitching, and you can't just expect them to be back where they normally are. The same goes for the pitchers throwing to them, they aren't at the top of their game or even necessarily trying to get batters out as a main priority. In that sense, yeah, the stats aren't really going to tell you much. Also, it is a fairly small sample. Spring goes for about a month, and the main guys don't play every day either, so you basically three weeks of games worth of data which will never tell you very much no matter when you take them from. I'm sure if you went and did a huge study on the correlation of spring numbers against regular season numbers you wouldn't see much connection.
THAT SAID, what Andrew Lambo and Edinson Volquez are doing this spring is telling. If you're telling me that Lambo's approach is different because it's spring I'd say you're crazy. The guy is up there trying to do what he always does, he's trying to hit the ball hard, and he isn't doing it. Here's the stats for Mr. Lambo:
The reasoning behind the limited stock taken in spring training stats makes sense. First of all, everybody is getting back up to speed, it's the first time in a number of months that any of them see big league level pitching, and you can't just expect them to be back where they normally are. The same goes for the pitchers throwing to them, they aren't at the top of their game or even necessarily trying to get batters out as a main priority. In that sense, yeah, the stats aren't really going to tell you much. Also, it is a fairly small sample. Spring goes for about a month, and the main guys don't play every day either, so you basically three weeks of games worth of data which will never tell you very much no matter when you take them from. I'm sure if you went and did a huge study on the correlation of spring numbers against regular season numbers you wouldn't see much connection.
THAT SAID, what Andrew Lambo and Edinson Volquez are doing this spring is telling. If you're telling me that Lambo's approach is different because it's spring I'd say you're crazy. The guy is up there trying to do what he always does, he's trying to hit the ball hard, and he isn't doing it. Here's the stats for Mr. Lambo:
Five Prospects to Watch in 2014
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by Brandon Posa
For as long as I can remember, there has been nothing more exciting to me than following the PIrates minor league system. As much as I thoroughly enjoy watching the big club night after night, there are some times where I find myself actually enjoying checking up on how the young guys on the farm are doing. Tim William's Pirates Prospects literally became like a dream come true, as it got even easier to find up-to-date statistics and reports on both the big-time players and the depth options alike.
Even though at any given time throughout the season and the winter, it would be easy for someone like me to put together a current Top-10 list of Buccos prospects, I still get excited like it's Christmas when the big outlets produce their "official" lists after the New Year. It's very exciting to me to see how the national pundits view the system, who they believe is on the cusp of breaking out, and who fans in Pittsburgh should be prepared to see that summer.
Now make no mistake: it's just as exciting, to me, to follow Gregory Polanco's wonderful rise through the system, as it was hoping that Yoslan Herrera would somehow make it to the big leagues and be, oh, a potential number 3 starter in the rotation (sounds like someone from the 2002 draft). Just below, Jon wrote about how Gerrit Cole is "primed" to build off of his success rookie campaign and continue developing into the ace that Pirates fans dreamt of when he was drafted first overall in 2011. This summer, expectations are all around that Polanco and right-hander Jameson Taillon will be graduating to Pittsburgh sometime after June 1. There is reason to be excited, but not just because of the big names that are thrown around all the time. How about the guys in the lower levels that aren't discussed much beyond the diehard fans? Based upon my own opinions, as well as the reports that come from a variety of sources, here is my Top 5 list of prospects that I am most excited to follow this year:
For as long as I can remember, there has been nothing more exciting to me than following the PIrates minor league system. As much as I thoroughly enjoy watching the big club night after night, there are some times where I find myself actually enjoying checking up on how the young guys on the farm are doing. Tim William's Pirates Prospects literally became like a dream come true, as it got even easier to find up-to-date statistics and reports on both the big-time players and the depth options alike.
Even though at any given time throughout the season and the winter, it would be easy for someone like me to put together a current Top-10 list of Buccos prospects, I still get excited like it's Christmas when the big outlets produce their "official" lists after the New Year. It's very exciting to me to see how the national pundits view the system, who they believe is on the cusp of breaking out, and who fans in Pittsburgh should be prepared to see that summer.
Now make no mistake: it's just as exciting, to me, to follow Gregory Polanco's wonderful rise through the system, as it was hoping that Yoslan Herrera would somehow make it to the big leagues and be, oh, a potential number 3 starter in the rotation (sounds like someone from the 2002 draft). Just below, Jon wrote about how Gerrit Cole is "primed" to build off of his success rookie campaign and continue developing into the ace that Pirates fans dreamt of when he was drafted first overall in 2011. This summer, expectations are all around that Polanco and right-hander Jameson Taillon will be graduating to Pittsburgh sometime after June 1. There is reason to be excited, but not just because of the big names that are thrown around all the time. How about the guys in the lower levels that aren't discussed much beyond the diehard fans? Based upon my own opinions, as well as the reports that come from a variety of sources, here is my Top 5 list of prospects that I am most excited to follow this year:
Gerrit Cole "primed for big season"
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Earlier today I saw an article from a scouting website that said that Gerrit Cole was "primed to have a big season". The article included an interview with Cole, which I am almost positive the entire article was based off of. I would know more about it, but it was one of those stupid sites where you have to have a paid membership just to read their stuff and nobody's really going to do that.
One of my biggest beefs with sports articles is that they actually take what an athlete says as meaningful. Gerrit Cole says he's in the best shape of his life and he feels like he's going to strike out a million batters this year? Get hyped, Pittsburgh! Imagine a professional athlete having self confidence and not wanting to exude a lack of trust in themselves to the media and all their fans, insanity.
At this point, I'm not even sure why they bother interviewing players, at least in terms of asking about how they're feeling or how they expect to perform. You get the same exact answer every time. Andrew McCutchen thinks he can win MVP this year, and if you're going by interviews alone, so does Clint Barmes.
The fact is that Gerrit Cole has one of the best arms in the league and to me he's the number one reason to be excited to watch the Pirates this year. He's not fully developed yet, he still has some work to do in terms of not relying so heavily on his upper 90's fastball, but watching him improve as last year went on was just an indicator of what he might turn in to as early as this year. Show me the numbers, show me the highlights, but leave the player's commentary out of it.
One of my biggest beefs with sports articles is that they actually take what an athlete says as meaningful. Gerrit Cole says he's in the best shape of his life and he feels like he's going to strike out a million batters this year? Get hyped, Pittsburgh! Imagine a professional athlete having self confidence and not wanting to exude a lack of trust in themselves to the media and all their fans, insanity.
At this point, I'm not even sure why they bother interviewing players, at least in terms of asking about how they're feeling or how they expect to perform. You get the same exact answer every time. Andrew McCutchen thinks he can win MVP this year, and if you're going by interviews alone, so does Clint Barmes.
The fact is that Gerrit Cole has one of the best arms in the league and to me he's the number one reason to be excited to watch the Pirates this year. He's not fully developed yet, he still has some work to do in terms of not relying so heavily on his upper 90's fastball, but watching him improve as last year went on was just an indicator of what he might turn in to as early as this year. Show me the numbers, show me the highlights, but leave the player's commentary out of it.
A Fun Comparison Between Andrew McCutchen & Barry Bonds
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by Brandon Posa
Heading into the 2014, Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen is reigning king. He's fresh off an MVP award, one which came a season after he was a runner up for the award. He has a gold glove, two silver sluggers, three all star appearances, and the ultimate Swagger. Since his call up to the big leagues in June 2009, Cutch has become a fan favorite, electrifying the new wave of Pirates fans that have come through the gates of PNC Park.
An interesting thing I had been thinking about was the early career of former Pirates outfielder Barry Bonds. Similarly to McCutchen, Bonds was highly touted, highly athletic, and highly successful in his career with the Pirates. He later went on to take the Home Run Crown amid his steroid allegation; but while just focusing on his time with the Bucs, those seasons were truly enjoyable for Pirates fans. As I was a 90s kid, I wasn't able to start watching and understanding until after he was gone (but well before big-bopper Johnny Van Benschoten was drafted as a pitcher). I thought it would be kind of interesting though to take this generation's superstar in Cutch, and compare his statistics so far with Bonds' at the same point in his career. Now this is merely for fun and water-cooler talk: I'm not saying that McCutchen is Bonds, is better than Bonds, or anything of the like.
As a refresher, the seasons compiled for Bonds are 1986-1990; for McCutchen, it's 2009-2013 (statistics were compiled from Baseball Reference; click on the charts to expand and have a better view of the statistics):
Bonds:
McCutchen:
In some of the key, old-school statistics, it's pretty interesting to see how close the two are in terms of career totals: McCutchen has the advantaged in total hits, doubles, triples, and RBIs, while Bonds has a slim lead in total home runs by 14. Bonds has a fairly significant advantage in the stolen base department, which is one area McCutchen has stated numerous times that he will strive to get better in. Even when comparing their OPS' and WAR, the two are close: Bonds had a career-OPS thus far of .835, trailing McCutchen's .869, while Bonds has the WAR advantage, 32.1-26.3. As a Pirates fan, it's obviously pretty cool to see our best player now in McCutchen having similar or superior statistics to one of the best outfielders to ever roam in Pittsburgh in Bonds. It definitely makes you wonder where McCutchen will rank in the all-time great outfielders for the organization when he hangs up his spikes.
What do these statistics say? No, this doesn't mean that in just a few years McCutchen is going to start reaching home run totals of 50+. For one, it means that both players were both very special talents in their first few years in a Pirates uniform. We all know what type of career Bonds went on to have, but even if his home run totals were not completely jacked up, he still would have been one of the best outfielders to play during the last 25 years. If he can stay on this same career progression, McCutchen is destined to carry the same recognition someday. McCutchen will forever be remembered as the center piece and pillar of the magical 2013 season, and complete turnaround of the Pirates organization. In fifteen more years, he could be remembered for bringing the first NL Pennant to Pittsburgh since 1979, winning multiple MVP awards for the first time since Bonds, and many other noteworthy achievements. I guess the biggest takeaway from these numbers is quite simple: enjoy Andrew McCutchen. His very team-friendly deal allows him to stay with the Pirates currently until 2018. If we're lucky, the front office could hopefully offer a similar deal that Evan Longoria signed with the Tampa Bay Rays a few years back, allowing McCutchen to play the entirety of his prime years in Pittsburgh, and hopefully longer. The Pirates are definitely doing the right thing, in terms of a small market team, in preparing future successors in the outfield, but McCutchen may just be special enough to not only warrant staying in Pittsburgh for a long time, but his desire to stay in Pittsburgh may equal that.
Heading into the 2014, Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen is reigning king. He's fresh off an MVP award, one which came a season after he was a runner up for the award. He has a gold glove, two silver sluggers, three all star appearances, and the ultimate Swagger. Since his call up to the big leagues in June 2009, Cutch has become a fan favorite, electrifying the new wave of Pirates fans that have come through the gates of PNC Park.
An interesting thing I had been thinking about was the early career of former Pirates outfielder Barry Bonds. Similarly to McCutchen, Bonds was highly touted, highly athletic, and highly successful in his career with the Pirates. He later went on to take the Home Run Crown amid his steroid allegation; but while just focusing on his time with the Bucs, those seasons were truly enjoyable for Pirates fans. As I was a 90s kid, I wasn't able to start watching and understanding until after he was gone (but well before big-bopper Johnny Van Benschoten was drafted as a pitcher). I thought it would be kind of interesting though to take this generation's superstar in Cutch, and compare his statistics so far with Bonds' at the same point in his career. Now this is merely for fun and water-cooler talk: I'm not saying that McCutchen is Bonds, is better than Bonds, or anything of the like.
As a refresher, the seasons compiled for Bonds are 1986-1990; for McCutchen, it's 2009-2013 (statistics were compiled from Baseball Reference; click on the charts to expand and have a better view of the statistics):
McCutchen:
In some of the key, old-school statistics, it's pretty interesting to see how close the two are in terms of career totals: McCutchen has the advantaged in total hits, doubles, triples, and RBIs, while Bonds has a slim lead in total home runs by 14. Bonds has a fairly significant advantage in the stolen base department, which is one area McCutchen has stated numerous times that he will strive to get better in. Even when comparing their OPS' and WAR, the two are close: Bonds had a career-OPS thus far of .835, trailing McCutchen's .869, while Bonds has the WAR advantage, 32.1-26.3. As a Pirates fan, it's obviously pretty cool to see our best player now in McCutchen having similar or superior statistics to one of the best outfielders to ever roam in Pittsburgh in Bonds. It definitely makes you wonder where McCutchen will rank in the all-time great outfielders for the organization when he hangs up his spikes.
What do these statistics say? No, this doesn't mean that in just a few years McCutchen is going to start reaching home run totals of 50+. For one, it means that both players were both very special talents in their first few years in a Pirates uniform. We all know what type of career Bonds went on to have, but even if his home run totals were not completely jacked up, he still would have been one of the best outfielders to play during the last 25 years. If he can stay on this same career progression, McCutchen is destined to carry the same recognition someday. McCutchen will forever be remembered as the center piece and pillar of the magical 2013 season, and complete turnaround of the Pirates organization. In fifteen more years, he could be remembered for bringing the first NL Pennant to Pittsburgh since 1979, winning multiple MVP awards for the first time since Bonds, and many other noteworthy achievements. I guess the biggest takeaway from these numbers is quite simple: enjoy Andrew McCutchen. His very team-friendly deal allows him to stay with the Pirates currently until 2018. If we're lucky, the front office could hopefully offer a similar deal that Evan Longoria signed with the Tampa Bay Rays a few years back, allowing McCutchen to play the entirety of his prime years in Pittsburgh, and hopefully longer. The Pirates are definitely doing the right thing, in terms of a small market team, in preparing future successors in the outfield, but McCutchen may just be special enough to not only warrant staying in Pittsburgh for a long time, but his desire to stay in Pittsburgh may equal that.
Opening Day tickets
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Opening Day of baseball season has been of my favorite days of the year for quite some time. Now we're less than two weeks away from this year's Opening Day, and this one's a lot different than the rest.
I believe I've gone to five Pirates Opening Days in my life, and I don't believe I had ever paid more than $35 for a ticket. Until this year. I wasn't planning on going to the game this year, I was just going to go to work and miss the game. However, I fortunately (maybe) got the night shift that week (something I have to do on occasion for my job), so I was fully available from 1-6 on March 31st. How exciting, right?
I told my buddies this, and we set off to find tickets. Next thing I know I'm handing over more than $80 for a seat in section 316. You used to be able to start in right field for $80. Now you can't even see the field.
Making the playoffs and being competitive is great and all, but it's a real bummer when it comes to going to the games. Sure, Opening Day is probably the most in-demand game of the year, but I never imagined a day when I would have to pay $80 to see a Pirate game from the 300 levels.
You got on sites like StubHub and look for seats and the first 100 some results are Standing Room Only's for $50-$60. First of all, how many standing room tickets can they sell? And how early do you have to get in to the stadium to claim your spot to stand at for 6 hours just to see the game in the (probably cold) late March weather? Doesn't sound all that great.
All said and done, money isn't everything, and as always it'll feel real good to be back at PNC Park watching the Pirates play again, especially since we can legitimately have positive hopes for the team this year and not feel stupid about it. And at the end of the day, it could always be worse, I could be this guy.
I believe I've gone to five Pirates Opening Days in my life, and I don't believe I had ever paid more than $35 for a ticket. Until this year. I wasn't planning on going to the game this year, I was just going to go to work and miss the game. However, I fortunately (maybe) got the night shift that week (something I have to do on occasion for my job), so I was fully available from 1-6 on March 31st. How exciting, right?
I told my buddies this, and we set off to find tickets. Next thing I know I'm handing over more than $80 for a seat in section 316. You used to be able to start in right field for $80. Now you can't even see the field.
Making the playoffs and being competitive is great and all, but it's a real bummer when it comes to going to the games. Sure, Opening Day is probably the most in-demand game of the year, but I never imagined a day when I would have to pay $80 to see a Pirate game from the 300 levels.
You got on sites like StubHub and look for seats and the first 100 some results are Standing Room Only's for $50-$60. First of all, how many standing room tickets can they sell? And how early do you have to get in to the stadium to claim your spot to stand at for 6 hours just to see the game in the (probably cold) late March weather? Doesn't sound all that great.
All said and done, money isn't everything, and as always it'll feel real good to be back at PNC Park watching the Pirates play again, especially since we can legitimately have positive hopes for the team this year and not feel stupid about it. And at the end of the day, it could always be worse, I could be this guy.
Options aplenty coming out of spring training
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by Brandon Posa
The word out of Bradenton today is that the Pirates may be willing to shop around outfielders Jose Tabata and Travis Snider. The Pirates front office clearly has to be pleased with the progress that top prospect Gregory Polanco had shown while in Major League camp, as well as his success playing winter ball. As long as he starts out well with Indianapolis, it's easy to see Polanco roaming right field in Pittsburgh by the middle of June this season. This isn't any breaking news, but it's something that needs to be thought about with the excess amount of outfielders the Pirates could have come the middle of the summer.
The inevitable call up of Polanco will create a logjam of outfielders on the big league club. Tabata is owed $12+ million, while Snider is still in his arbitration years. If everything goes according to plan, there are simply no starting spots in the future for both guys, as Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Polanco are the future of the Buccos' outfield. That being said, it would certainly be nice to have one of these two bats coming off the bench as the fourth outfielder for the next few years, so it will be interesting to see which direction they decide to go. The mantra that is heard across every camp, every year is that one player is "in the best shape of his life," or looks "hungrier" than ever before; Snider has fit that role this spring, all the while collecting 8 hits in 26 at-bats so far, while Tabata has seen his share of struggles at the plate with only three hits as of March 17. A platoon in right field has been the default solution this winter, but if Snider proves that he is able to handle a starting spot until Polanco is ready, then it may be time to see if a package can be created around a cost-controlled Tabata for either another first baseman, catching depth (now that Chris Stewart may be destined for surgery), or however else the front office sees fit.
In addition, reliever Vin Mazzaro is rumored to be the odd man out of the Bucs' 7-man bullpen. Heading into the Spring, Jason Grilli, Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, and Justin Wilson were all locks due to their performance last season. With three spots left, the Bucs had four possible pitchers to fill those spots: Stolmy Pimentel, Bryan Morris, Jeanmar Gomez, and Mazzaro. All four are out of options, so the only choices are to make the team, be traded, or be cut. The potential of both Pimentel and Morris is just too much to give up on right now, as both could be late-inning power guys, fill the long-relief role, or even make the occasional spot start. In 80.2 innings last year, Gomez contributed 8 starts for the Pirates, as well as sported a WHIP of 1.15, compared to Mazzaro's 73.2 innings and a 1.20 WHIP. Both pitchers are comparable in the sense that it is not difficult for Neal Huntington & company to pluck these types of pitchers out from the market; with that being said, it's even easier to replace a guy like Mazzaro, despite his great statistics from last season. This is just the type of problem that a small market team like the Pirates wishes they could have every year, with every position on the roster. Depth is crucial for every team, as evidenced last season by the Buccos use of 12 starting pitchers during the regular season. The Pirates have shown recently that they can effectively create a successful bullpen out of a collection of low-profile guys, and then when there are too many competing for jobs, move one or more for other necessary pieces for the club and/or depth. Time will tell to see if there are any interested bidders in the next 13 days before the 2014 season opens up.
The word out of Bradenton today is that the Pirates may be willing to shop around outfielders Jose Tabata and Travis Snider. The Pirates front office clearly has to be pleased with the progress that top prospect Gregory Polanco had shown while in Major League camp, as well as his success playing winter ball. As long as he starts out well with Indianapolis, it's easy to see Polanco roaming right field in Pittsburgh by the middle of June this season. This isn't any breaking news, but it's something that needs to be thought about with the excess amount of outfielders the Pirates could have come the middle of the summer.
The inevitable call up of Polanco will create a logjam of outfielders on the big league club. Tabata is owed $12+ million, while Snider is still in his arbitration years. If everything goes according to plan, there are simply no starting spots in the future for both guys, as Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Polanco are the future of the Buccos' outfield. That being said, it would certainly be nice to have one of these two bats coming off the bench as the fourth outfielder for the next few years, so it will be interesting to see which direction they decide to go. The mantra that is heard across every camp, every year is that one player is "in the best shape of his life," or looks "hungrier" than ever before; Snider has fit that role this spring, all the while collecting 8 hits in 26 at-bats so far, while Tabata has seen his share of struggles at the plate with only three hits as of March 17. A platoon in right field has been the default solution this winter, but if Snider proves that he is able to handle a starting spot until Polanco is ready, then it may be time to see if a package can be created around a cost-controlled Tabata for either another first baseman, catching depth (now that Chris Stewart may be destined for surgery), or however else the front office sees fit.
In addition, reliever Vin Mazzaro is rumored to be the odd man out of the Bucs' 7-man bullpen. Heading into the Spring, Jason Grilli, Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, and Justin Wilson were all locks due to their performance last season. With three spots left, the Bucs had four possible pitchers to fill those spots: Stolmy Pimentel, Bryan Morris, Jeanmar Gomez, and Mazzaro. All four are out of options, so the only choices are to make the team, be traded, or be cut. The potential of both Pimentel and Morris is just too much to give up on right now, as both could be late-inning power guys, fill the long-relief role, or even make the occasional spot start. In 80.2 innings last year, Gomez contributed 8 starts for the Pirates, as well as sported a WHIP of 1.15, compared to Mazzaro's 73.2 innings and a 1.20 WHIP. Both pitchers are comparable in the sense that it is not difficult for Neal Huntington & company to pluck these types of pitchers out from the market; with that being said, it's even easier to replace a guy like Mazzaro, despite his great statistics from last season. This is just the type of problem that a small market team like the Pirates wishes they could have every year, with every position on the roster. Depth is crucial for every team, as evidenced last season by the Buccos use of 12 starting pitchers during the regular season. The Pirates have shown recently that they can effectively create a successful bullpen out of a collection of low-profile guys, and then when there are too many competing for jobs, move one or more for other necessary pieces for the club and/or depth. Time will tell to see if there are any interested bidders in the next 13 days before the 2014 season opens up.
The Pirates best offseason addition
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So last year the Pirates made the playoffs for the first time in twenty years. In those two decades, the Pirates were more often compared to a AAA team than a team that had any real shot at making a run at the World Series. But that all ended last year and now we're on to a new era of Pirates baseball.
So what did the Pirates to do to start it all off? They got rid of their AAA featured soft drink and promoted themselves into the big leagues. This year when you go the ball yard and need some refreshment, you'll be buying Coca Cola, which is fantastic news.
Listen. Pepsi sucks. It's always sucked. You'll go to a restaurant and ask for a Coke and if by chance you're in a really bad restaurant, you'll get the old "is Pepsi okay?". Most people aren't complete assholes and they'll just agree to drink the inferior product, which is nice of them, but I really think sometimes in life you gotta look out for yourself and just disappointedly ask for an iced tea or something.
If you're going to pay $73 for a hot dog and a soft drink, you might as well get something that doesn't taste like shit, and at PNC Park this summer you'll be able to do just that. Enjoy itPirate happiness fans.
So what did the Pirates to do to start it all off? They got rid of their AAA featured soft drink and promoted themselves into the big leagues. This year when you go the ball yard and need some refreshment, you'll be buying Coca Cola, which is fantastic news.
Listen. Pepsi sucks. It's always sucked. You'll go to a restaurant and ask for a Coke and if by chance you're in a really bad restaurant, you'll get the old "is Pepsi okay?". Most people aren't complete assholes and they'll just agree to drink the inferior product, which is nice of them, but I really think sometimes in life you gotta look out for yourself and just disappointedly ask for an iced tea or something.
If you're going to pay $73 for a hot dog and a soft drink, you might as well get something that doesn't taste like shit, and at PNC Park this summer you'll be able to do just that. Enjoy it
Andrew Lambo and quiet offseasons
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So I really like playing basketball. I played in high school, I played a lot of intramural in college, and I recently competed in a Pittsburgh Sports League. When I was a kid I was really into it and imagined being in the NBA and all that crap. Through high school I grew up mentally a lot more than physically and now, here I sit at 23 being a skinny 5'9'' white guy. At some point you have to realize that when your parents tell you that you can be anything you want to be, they aren't being truthful. Pound for pound, I'm pretty decent at baseball, but life isn't pound for pound. And neither is Major League Baseball.
I think that story is important for Pirate fans. Baseball isn't a fair sport. It really sucks rooting for a small market team, frankly I'm not sure why anybody ever does it. The Pirates finally rewarded some of their fans loyalties last year, but before that is was pretty miserable. You consciously took the short stick, but despite that, you still get upset when the obvious consequences of having that short stick show up? Grow up. I can't get to the NBA in this body and the Pirates can't play in free agency. It's the same exact thing, there are literally no differences between the two things I just described.
If that's all understood, why are people complaining about the Pirates not making a splash in free agency this year? They point to the Andrew Lambo/Gaby Sanchez platoon at first base and bring back the old comments about how terrible Pirates management is - obviously it's not on the same scale but it's still there. What's wild is that I saw that stuff consistently the last few months without trying to pay any attention to Pirates talk. I don't listen to 93.7, I unfollowed the majority of Pirates tweeters, and none of my friends are the people I described. Unless it's a coincidence, I think there was a ton of negativity out there.
My first question is why do the Pirates have to have a good player at every position? No team has that. If you look at the depth chart they're pretty solid at catcher, second base, third base, and two of the three outfield spots. That along with a pretty decent pitching staff and bullpen are a pretty good start. You can see that team being competitive, right? The best teams in the league have weak spots, 9 positions is a lot to fill all with really good players. I have a super cool personality, so I think it's fair that 90% of guys my age can lift more weight than me. Seems like a fair tradeoff to me, I'm not complaining.
My other question, who really was available? The names we heard (once again, I didn't pay as much attention this offseason) were Ike Davis, James Loney, and Mitch Moreland. We heard the Mets were asking a pretty penny for Ike Davis, a guy who hit .205/.326/.334, not sure why you'd be too anxious to give up much for those numbers. Mitch Moreland was even worse at .232/.299/.437 last year. Not sure why anybody would be excited about paying that guy actual money for numbers that you could see Andrew Lambo replicating without issue. The only one that you can argue is that they didn't push hard enough for James Loney, who signed back with the Rays for $7 million a year for three years. Twenty million dollars is a lot for a small market team to invest, obviously the Rays are in a similar boat that the Pirates are, and they thought it was worth it, but I'm not going to be upset about letting Loney go somewhere else for that much money.
My point is, there weren't obviously better options out there that would have warranted spending the money. The first base position isn't going to determine where the Pirates go this year. Andrew Lambo has the potential to be better than all three of those options this year, and they don't have to pay him. Makes sense to me just to let him have a crack at platooning with Gaby Sanchez. The Pirates money is better spent elsewhere. That's how they've been doing things the last five years and it's gotten them to a pretty competitive spot.
I think that story is important for Pirate fans. Baseball isn't a fair sport. It really sucks rooting for a small market team, frankly I'm not sure why anybody ever does it. The Pirates finally rewarded some of their fans loyalties last year, but before that is was pretty miserable. You consciously took the short stick, but despite that, you still get upset when the obvious consequences of having that short stick show up? Grow up. I can't get to the NBA in this body and the Pirates can't play in free agency. It's the same exact thing, there are literally no differences between the two things I just described.
If that's all understood, why are people complaining about the Pirates not making a splash in free agency this year? They point to the Andrew Lambo/Gaby Sanchez platoon at first base and bring back the old comments about how terrible Pirates management is - obviously it's not on the same scale but it's still there. What's wild is that I saw that stuff consistently the last few months without trying to pay any attention to Pirates talk. I don't listen to 93.7, I unfollowed the majority of Pirates tweeters, and none of my friends are the people I described. Unless it's a coincidence, I think there was a ton of negativity out there.
My first question is why do the Pirates have to have a good player at every position? No team has that. If you look at the depth chart they're pretty solid at catcher, second base, third base, and two of the three outfield spots. That along with a pretty decent pitching staff and bullpen are a pretty good start. You can see that team being competitive, right? The best teams in the league have weak spots, 9 positions is a lot to fill all with really good players. I have a super cool personality, so I think it's fair that 90% of guys my age can lift more weight than me. Seems like a fair tradeoff to me, I'm not complaining.
My other question, who really was available? The names we heard (once again, I didn't pay as much attention this offseason) were Ike Davis, James Loney, and Mitch Moreland. We heard the Mets were asking a pretty penny for Ike Davis, a guy who hit .205/.326/.334, not sure why you'd be too anxious to give up much for those numbers. Mitch Moreland was even worse at .232/.299/.437 last year. Not sure why anybody would be excited about paying that guy actual money for numbers that you could see Andrew Lambo replicating without issue. The only one that you can argue is that they didn't push hard enough for James Loney, who signed back with the Rays for $7 million a year for three years. Twenty million dollars is a lot for a small market team to invest, obviously the Rays are in a similar boat that the Pirates are, and they thought it was worth it, but I'm not going to be upset about letting Loney go somewhere else for that much money.
My point is, there weren't obviously better options out there that would have warranted spending the money. The first base position isn't going to determine where the Pirates go this year. Andrew Lambo has the potential to be better than all three of those options this year, and they don't have to pay him. Makes sense to me just to let him have a crack at platooning with Gaby Sanchez. The Pirates money is better spent elsewhere. That's how they've been doing things the last five years and it's gotten them to a pretty competitive spot.
One pitch Cole
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Don't you hate it when you're playing fantasy sports and someone wants to make a trade with you but then they're a total ass about it? Maybe my high school friends are just nincompoops, but I can't tell you how much frustration I've gone through with them trying to work out deals. Today, I get a text from my buddy (let's call him Steve... cause that's his name) saying he needed an upgrade in his utility spot, which is a little bit of a stupid request in the first place, but I let him slide there. He asked me what I would be looking for in a trade, and I told him I could use an extra starting pitcher that doesn't suck as much behind as Dan Haren. So he said that he would be willing to trade Gerrit Cole, which I responded positively too, mainly because I really like watching the guy pitch, and he obviously has a ton of upside. In an ideal world, the person that initiated the trade talks should probably come up and offer some kind of rough draft deal for you to start working with, but STEVE over there wasn't having any of it. He just went straight into asking me who I would want exactly and who I would be willing to give up. Don't you hate that? It's like someone coming to you asking to borrow some toilet paper, but then asking you to drive to their house to deliver too. Greedy.
In our opening discussions about Gerrit Cole, I did my best to talk him down a bit on Cole's stock. Any idiot who follows baseball knows that the guy has stuff that you just don't see very often, but fantasy baseball is a "what can you do for me right now" sport, so potential doesn't always factor in. My best plan of attack to lowering Cole's stock in Steve's mind was to go straight his pitch selection. Here's what pitches Cole threw last year:
Cole has one of the best fastballs in the league, nobody would dispute that. But you don't see many pitchers that get away with throwing one pitch anywhere near 80% of the time like Cole did last year, and for good reason. I'm no Joe Kerrigan here, but I'm saying that if a big league hitter sees a really good pitch enough, he'll figure out a way to hit it pretty hard. That doesn't bode well for Cole.
The good news is that the Pirates have a history with making their young pitchers throw a ton of fastballs. Their first few years in the minors are very tightly focused on throwing the fastball for strikes. There's good reason for that, and there's no evidence that it doesn't work. It wasn't a surprise that Cole avoided his offspeed pitches last year, and there is no way that we'll see him continue in that trend as he matures. He will absolutely throw more sliders and changeups as he progresses, which will probably be a very good thing for him considering how effective those pitchs can be, potentially. He put up great numbers with his slider and changeup last year, which was probably highly influenced by the fact that they were so rarely coming at hitters. There was solid evidence at the end of the year that Cole could mix it up and be very successful in the process.
Cole had one of his best starts of the season on September 19th against the Padres when he struck out 12 batters in six innings, allowing four hits and a lone run. Here's the pitch distribution for that start:
In that start, he threw about 60% fastballs, which is much closer to where the average big league starter is at. That was Gerrit's highest strikeout performance of the year, which certainly isn't a coincidence.
The question for 2014 becomes if Gerrit Cole can learn to mix his pitches and stay ahead of big league hitters. The fastball alone can keep him in the majors for years, but if he's going to meet the ace potential we've all heard about, he's going to need to fully develop the change and one of the breaking pitches. It will be interesting to see what pitch selection Cole and his counterparts go with early on in the year and how it progresses. I'll be keeping a close eye on that right here on the newly risen from death mceffect.(blogspot.)com.
Still working on the banner and stuff btw.
In our opening discussions about Gerrit Cole, I did my best to talk him down a bit on Cole's stock. Any idiot who follows baseball knows that the guy has stuff that you just don't see very often, but fantasy baseball is a "what can you do for me right now" sport, so potential doesn't always factor in. My best plan of attack to lowering Cole's stock in Steve's mind was to go straight his pitch selection. Here's what pitches Cole threw last year:
Cole has one of the best fastballs in the league, nobody would dispute that. But you don't see many pitchers that get away with throwing one pitch anywhere near 80% of the time like Cole did last year, and for good reason. I'm no Joe Kerrigan here, but I'm saying that if a big league hitter sees a really good pitch enough, he'll figure out a way to hit it pretty hard. That doesn't bode well for Cole.
The good news is that the Pirates have a history with making their young pitchers throw a ton of fastballs. Their first few years in the minors are very tightly focused on throwing the fastball for strikes. There's good reason for that, and there's no evidence that it doesn't work. It wasn't a surprise that Cole avoided his offspeed pitches last year, and there is no way that we'll see him continue in that trend as he matures. He will absolutely throw more sliders and changeups as he progresses, which will probably be a very good thing for him considering how effective those pitchs can be, potentially. He put up great numbers with his slider and changeup last year, which was probably highly influenced by the fact that they were so rarely coming at hitters. There was solid evidence at the end of the year that Cole could mix it up and be very successful in the process.
Cole had one of his best starts of the season on September 19th against the Padres when he struck out 12 batters in six innings, allowing four hits and a lone run. Here's the pitch distribution for that start:
| Pitch | Percentage |
| 4-Seam Fastball | 41% |
| 2-Seam Fastball | 19% |
| Changeup | 9% |
| Slider | 13% |
| Curveball | 17% |
In that start, he threw about 60% fastballs, which is much closer to where the average big league starter is at. That was Gerrit's highest strikeout performance of the year, which certainly isn't a coincidence.
The question for 2014 becomes if Gerrit Cole can learn to mix his pitches and stay ahead of big league hitters. The fastball alone can keep him in the majors for years, but if he's going to meet the ace potential we've all heard about, he's going to need to fully develop the change and one of the breaking pitches. It will be interesting to see what pitch selection Cole and his counterparts go with early on in the year and how it progresses. I'll be keeping a close eye on that right here on the newly risen from death mceffect.(blogspot.)com.
Still working on the banner and stuff btw.
Back into it
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So it's been since October of 2012 that I was serious about blogging/writing about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Throughout the 2013 season I can't say I missed it, it was a refreshing year off, especially with me graduating from college and trying to get my life figured out and whatnot. Apparently I picked a pretty bad season to skip out on - I heard the Pirates made the playoffs or something last year. Regardless, I'm almost sure that I want to get back into it now. I still don't have my life figured out, but I have a full time job downtown and still have a good amount of free time, and frankly I'm attention starved. So let's talk about the Pirates again.
I can't promise that the blog is going to get back to its former glory days (if it ever even had glory days), I wouldn't expect many game recaps or news reports or anything like that. Why you want those things from a non professional blog is beyond me anyways, that's information you can literally get anywhere. I'm also not trying to make a career out of this anymore, so it's going to be significantly less formal and significantly more edgy. I think that'll help it. Basically I just want to provide some insight, intelligent or not, that's original and interesting. I'm also not going to care if you yell at me, so feel free to do that.
Baseball is just too good of a thing for me to stay away from for too long. I think it'll be a fun summer. Posts coming soon.
Oh, and just ignore the blog header for now. The McEffect brand isn't going away, even though there really is only one significant Mc left on the team. I'll fix all the visuals later.
Also, if anybody wants to help, I'm still all about contributing writers. And if anybody knows why mceffect.com is unavailable for purchase or how I could get that back, let me know. I'm on twitter at @JonPGH.
I can't promise that the blog is going to get back to its former glory days (if it ever even had glory days), I wouldn't expect many game recaps or news reports or anything like that. Why you want those things from a non professional blog is beyond me anyways, that's information you can literally get anywhere. I'm also not trying to make a career out of this anymore, so it's going to be significantly less formal and significantly more edgy. I think that'll help it. Basically I just want to provide some insight, intelligent or not, that's original and interesting. I'm also not going to care if you yell at me, so feel free to do that.
Baseball is just too good of a thing for me to stay away from for too long. I think it'll be a fun summer. Posts coming soon.
Oh, and just ignore the blog header for now. The McEffect brand isn't going away, even though there really is only one significant Mc left on the team. I'll fix all the visuals later.
Also, if anybody wants to help, I'm still all about contributing writers. And if anybody knows why mceffect.com is unavailable for purchase or how I could get that back, let me know. I'm on twitter at @JonPGH.
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