OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Fire Sale Edition?

[Winger for Hire]

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Really hope Newman can keep this up next season

To go with the others who will be called up(Kramer, Tucker, Hayes, Craig). Pretty sure we wont see a dropoff from Reynolds since hes basically hit everywhere hes played but hopefully Newman continues this. Solid base runner to go with his great avg and decent power. We have alot like that in the system right now, whether they do that in MLB is a diff story but its something to look forward to

 

[DanielPlainview]

They should all be playing right now. Ridiculous that we have to watch Reyes play 3B and Gonzalez stink up the field

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Yup. No reason not to at least have Kramer and Craig up who are both 25. Not to mention Kramer already playing 20 games last season. They're just playing Egon for no reason other than he was injured most of the year and want to get him some starts. They know hes not apart of the future.

Im fine with waiting on Tucker and Hayes til Sept but the other two should be up. This should be about getting those guys some experience for next season. Indy isnt making the playoffs...we better see them all up as soon as Sept hits.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I feel like they're playing Gonzalez right now because they didn't get a chance to see him much earlier in the year. They obviously liked him enough in the off-season to think that he could challenge for the starting SS spot. I don't think there's a chance for that anymore because Newman has locked in the starting SS spot for at least next year, but as a defensive utility guy, I think he may have some value going forward.

For a team who is ass defensively, a guy that is good defensively at SS and can play any infield position has value IMO.

 

[Winger for Hire]

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

The Twins have hit 228 (!?) already.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I'm glad somebody wrote this up. Truly, truly putrid, starting with the luck: The Pirates Crumbled Before Our Very Eyes

Think of it this way: the worst team in baseball since World War II, by winning percentage, was the expansion New York Mets of 1962. They were cover-your-eyes awful, going 40-120, a .250 winning percentage. Let’s assume, despite its absurdity, that the Pirates suddenly transformed to a team with a .250 winning percentage overnight. Their odds of going 5-24 or worse over a 29-game stretch would still only be 23%. Even the worst team in baseball history, in other words, would be unlikely to look this bad over a month of play.

Choose even a slightly better team — the 47-115 2018 Baltimore Orioles, say — and the odds vanish to the point of nothingness. Those Orioles managed a measly .290 winning percentage, but their odds of reeling off a 4-24 or worse stretch are less than 12%. The 2019 Orioles, the team with the lowest projected winning percentage in baseball, clock in at 1.1% odds. If you think the Pirates are a true-talent .471 team, as our odds do, wowzers — their odds of going on this ignominious run were a mere 0.08%. In 10,000 sets of 29 games, in other words, they’d project to play this badly only eight times.

If you’re a Pirates fan, there are no silver linings here. Most of the team has been terrible, and the 10% playoff odds at the break and general good feelings around a few promising players have evaporated.

I don't really have strong views on the current roster construction. Keller getting up ASAP was the crucial thing, because just a handful of starts is far less meaningful for assessing him than a full six or seven weeks. Gonzalez is truly awful and I'd rather not see him or Reyes on the field again, but I'm hopeful that this is a longer period of assessing what we have in various players, and that includes depth and flexibility options, even guys who a sane GM wouldn't want as more than emergency depth.

The rookies will all factor in to some extent in September, which is just two and a half weeks away or so. I still think the key position player is Tucker, because he can move some players into more ideal positions (Newman at 2B, Frazier at Util), but that still doesn't quite move the needle. We need a player like Grandal at catcher, and the half measure, still basically hoping for 85 wins move, is d'Arnaud, which makes fixing 3B production also critical.

We certainly could use a sudden offensive breakout for Hayes, and on this point it is worth bearing in mind Cutch's numbers at a similar point in his minor league career, even though they are slightly different players. But at the end of the day the player we need to stick and perform at a high level is Keller, which will at least start to move the needle back in a hopeful direction.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Pirates interleague records-

2019: 12-4 (West)
2018: 15-5 (Central)
2017: 10-10 (East)
2016: 9-11 (West)
2015: 13-7 (Central)
2014: 11-9 (East

Forget banning the DH, the Pirates should be hash-tagging Move to the AL. They are roughly a 98 win team vs the AL.

Personally with expansion on the horizon, I just hope they do away with the leagues altogether.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Swap the Twins and Pirates

MLB adopting the DH in both leagues, then killing both leagues and going single table would be interesting. No league in this country does a single table and the season is actually long enough to pull it off. The downside is the one dimensional playoff race means fewer teams in the hunt during the season, so would probably come with a post-season expansion

 

[Winger for Hire]

I don't want a single table, I don't think that works at all for a league with a playoff system.

I'd rather have 6 divisions with no league designations under the same set of rules. That way no one is benefiting from a weak league or hurt by a strong league- 98 win Pirates having to face the 97 win Cubs in a 2nd best vs 3rd best MLB teams in a WC card while the AL WC had 86 win Astros vs 87 win Yankees.

 

[DanielPlainview]

It works fine with a playoff system, you just take the top whatever teams. But I get it, people are used to divisions.

 

[Winger for Hire]

It works fine with a playoff system, you just take the top whatever teams. But I get it, people are used to divisions.

I guess I should clarify that, yes it does work, but personally I don't think it works well for 30-32 teams for 6-8 playoff spots in an uncapped league for 162 games. I would think by the end of July you'd have pretty much 1 or 2 races for playoff spots and just jockeying for playoff positioning, which seems kind of boring for the remaining 2 months.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Well yeah, that's why I said there'd probably have to be a playoff expansion, likely to 12. My biggest hangup with divisions is the loss of regional rivalries if they're cut funny. Like now, the Pirates only play Cleveland, Baltimore, Toronto, etc. one series every three years, which is really dumb.

 

[Winger for Hire]

I would think the league elimination and expansion would also lead to division realignment, especially since moving to 32 teams (Portland and Montreal) would force you to move to the NFL's 4/4 division structure and reevaluate the postseason. Something like Top 6 teams make it with 2 WC teams playing the two lowest division winners. I can't see the league expanding the playoffs two more than 4, 7 game series in the first round, unless they also trim down the schedule by roughly 20 games.

 

[Winger for Hire]

If I were to put out a realignment solution, it would be something like:

Atlantic: Boston, Yankees, Philadelphia, Baltimore

South: Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa

Great Lakes: Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, White Sox

East: Pittsburgh, Mets, Montreal, Toronto

Midwest: Cubs, Minnesota, Cincinnati, St Louis

Plains: Kansas City, Texas, Houston, Colorado

South-West: Arizona, San Diego, Anaheim, Oakland

West: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle

I wouldn't mind switching Oakland and Seattle, but I would think people would flip shit splitting LA and SF. I also thought about Philly in the East, but would rather have them in with two other market giants and let the East be similar minded teams.

Just a quick thought experiment.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

The Angels are so depressing. Trout and Ohtani deserve better.

 

[DanielPlainview]

I know MLB is looking at Charlotte, Nashville, Las Vegas, Montreal, Portland, and Vancouver. Assuming they're all in eventually:

NE: Boston, Montreal*, NYM, NYY
East: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
Midwest: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis
North: ChiCubs, ChiSox, Milwaukee, Minnesota
NW: Colorado, Portland*, Seattle, Vancouver*
South: Atlanta, Charlotte*, Nashville*, Miami
SW: Arizona, Houston, San Diego, Texas
West: LAA, LAD, Oakland, San Francisco, Vegas*

 

[Empoleon8771]

Taillon requires TJS, yikes. What a bust of a pick.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Blow it up. Rebirth 2022

 

[DJ Spinoza]

 

[domaug]

I'm now convinced that only Pirates fans know true darkness

 

[DanielPlainview]

The black hole of MLB

 

[Winger for Hire]

 

[Coastal Kev]

Machado was the obvious pick and who knows how the Pirates history changes if they had made the easy and obvious pick...... gj nh