OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: More of the same

[lordstanley91]

Hahahahahaha

 

[lordstanley91]

2-23 with RISP this series and 6-46 of you count the Twins series.

 

[Rakell67]

Frazier goes Balls Deep!

 

[bathroomSTAAL]

I was about to give up if we didn't score in the 11th. Good game

 

[DJ Spinoza]

It's still over, and for some reason Newman is just gonna sit on the bench, but winning is better than losing.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Was I right about Frazier?

Keep the f***er in

We would have swept the Cubs if he played the first two. Ridiculous.

2 in a row now...hopefully this leads to a big run . One more push. Archer vs Gausman tomm tho. I dont like it. Gausman has been doing much better...up to Archer to prove hes the better acquisition

 

[PensandCaps]

Hurdle is dumb af. Starting bums like Srod and Harrison over good players like Fraizer just because they're vets... Smh.

If Fraizer started all year, that's atleast 2-3 wins.

 

[PensandCaps]

Also, really sucks that our best Hitter(Cervelli) is always hurt.

I'd think of somehow putting Diaz at catcher and making Cervelli a 3rd baseman? Idk. His bat is too good to sit but he's too injury prone to play Catcher. And Diaz is very good himself.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Also, really sucks that our best Hitter(Cervelli) is always hurt.

I'd think of somehow putting Diaz at catcher and making Cervelli a 3rd baseman? Idk. His bat is too good to sit but he's too injury prone to play Catcher. And Diaz is very good himself.

Cervelli cant play 3rd but can platoon at 1st. They just wont sit Bell tho.

Not starting Frazier in 8 of last 15 was a crime(and this is when he was already batting .450 in the previous 7 games) . We lost 5 in a row..1-6 stretch before these 2 wins. Worst part is if we just go 4-3 in those 7 instead(all winnable games and tons of mistakes throughout lol) we are 66-59 instead and right in the WC race since all those teams ahead of us have went 3-7 or 4-6 in their last 10 as well.

So even after all of the ups and downs this year...the ugly losses..we can just look back to the spot start with Holmes where we went 1-6 since. Each loss leading to another. No way we get swept by the Twins if that Giants series didnt go the way it did. Just like we dont get shutout the first two games this series if the Twins losses didnt happen. Offense went completely cold(and no frazier) basically giving up on season.

We are lucky the pitching has kept it going tho. They didnt give up and we could possibly go on one more run if we have both the bats and pitching on same page. Starts with Archer...we know what we are gonna get from Taillon, Musgrove, and Williams. Even Nova lately.

If the bats score 4 or 5 tomm and we still lose...you know its not our year lol.

Regardless if we can make it or not this year...this rotation and especially pen are reminding me of 2013-15. Add some more talent to the lineup(mainly power bat or two) and we should be making the playoffs starting next season

If we stay healthy...which of course is always a concern for Pitt sports.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Speaking of Cervelli, I do wonder how likely it is that the Pirates will still have him for next season. On one hand, you'd think that a catcher with concussion problems would have very low value for obvious reasons. But on the other hand, Cervelli can also play 1st base and he's also 2nd in WAR for catchers in the entire majors this season according to FanGraphs. I'd probably just say to keep Cervelli, since he can play 1st and him and Diaz is arguably the best catcher duo in baseball, but I'd be intrigued to see if they look to shop him and use his money elsewhere.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

Speaking of Cervelli, I do wonder how likely it is that the Pirates will still have him for next season. On one hand, you'd think that a catcher with concussion problems would have very low value for obvious reasons. But on the other hand, Cervelli can also play 1st base and he's also 2nd in WAR for catchers in the entire majors this season according to FanGraphs. I'd probably just say to keep Cervelli, since he can play 1st and him and Diaz is arguably the best catcher duo in baseball, but I'd be intrigued to see if they look to shop him and use his money elsewhere.

Keep him. We should be getting rid of Mercer and Srod who are FAs. Trade Harrison. So we will be pretty young. Id keep Cervelli and Freese around one more season for their leadership(and can actually produce) to help this team make the playoffs.

Diaz should get more starts and in 2020 fully take over. As for Freese..another year platooning at 3rd. 2020 Hayes should be ready. Who knows with Moran, if he doesnt start showing something we should add him in a trade as well.

2019

LF Dickerson
CF Marte
RF Polanco
1B Bell
* 2B Frazier/Kramer
* SS FA/Newman
* 3B Moran/Freese
C Diaz / Cervelli



* alot of questions for the IF. at 2nd Frazier should be starting. With Kramer coming up and getting games in off the bench. At SS we should sign a quality FA(theres good ones available) with Newman as an option as well. And no Huntington, Hech isnt an above avg shortstop(his interview earlier). We need to add someone better than that to go with Newman . Cant expect him to be consistent his first year. At 3rd, Moran is a mess. If he doesnt improve then look to move him while hes still young enough where GMs think their team will get the most out of him. Then we would have to trade for a rental 3B to platoon with Freese. Hayes will be ready by 2020.

Thats an improvement.

2020 should be even better

 

[Empoleon8771]

Keep him. We should be getting rid of Mercer and Srod who are FAs. Trade Harrison. So we will be pretty young. Id keep Cervelli and Freese around one more season for their leadership(and can actually produce) to help this team make the playoffs.

I tend to agree, but the argument for trading Cervelli is using his money elsewhere to improve the roster. Without a clear idea of what to improve, I'd say no to moving him, but I'd be intrigued if an option came along to get a power hitting infielder or something like that. I think Moran and Freese will be the 3rd base duo for next year and Bell is the 1st baseman as long as he's healthy, so if you have the opportunity to use Cervelli's money to get a 2B like Zobrist (just using him as an example), I think it might be worth looking into.

 

[JimmyTwoTimes]

I tend to agree, but the argument for trading Cervelli is using his money elsewhere to improve the roster. Without a clear idea of what to improve, I'd say no to moving him, but I'd be intrigued if an option came along to get a power hitting infielder or something like that. I think Moran and Freese will be the 3rd base duo for next year and Bell is the 1st baseman as long as he's healthy, so if you have the opportunity to use Cervelli's money to get a 2B like Zobrist (just using him as an example), I think it might be worth looking into.

Agree with that and I wanted them to do that he was on a tear before the ASB. But a couple.more injuries since Im not sure about the return anymore. When it would have been pretty good if he stayed healthy. Yeah we could use his money elsewhere but he could add more value to our staff, Diaz(until fully comfortable...already learning alot from Cervelli), and the clubhouse again. Guys you want during a playoff run. Him and Freese. Trade Harrison instead to free up money.

Also freeing up space from not signing Mercer, Srod. At least they better not re-sign them. Could also trade Nova which would clear even more. We have some guys due for bumps in salary along with needing to re-sign CD but we should have plenty of money for FA. We wont go back up to league avg right away(120 mil like we were at during the playoff years) but we can afford to replace Mercer/Harrison with upgrades. Along with Nova..adding a 3rd type as our 5th would be ideal. So theres no pressure on Keller.

Problem with 2016 and 17 is we had too many of our prospects come up and take over at once. Taillon, Glasnow, and Bell all taking over in 2016. With injuries to Marte and a few others and Liriano falling off(along with others) we fell apart late in the year. And 2017 even worse. No Kang that year. Polanco hurt for half of the season. Cole not giving his all because we werent winning lol...etc.

NH should have learned from the last two years and make sure we have a good vet to go along with rookies like Newman, Kramer , Hayes who are all ready soon. We didnt do that with Bell, he had a solid rookie season actually but struggled this season. Hopefully next year he can get back to 25+ HRs. Id take 20 at this point. But with his defense we need more power. Same with Moran but even worse. He better add power or we should trade him before its too late.

Anyway, Hurdle has his obession with vets..but its overboard. Dont need the whole lineup fillled with them. Especially if they are hurting the team and blocking someone. Should have a mix of both. Also improving the bench at the same time.

 

[Winger for Hire]

 

[lordstanley91]

Marte and harrison out. Frazier in the OF and Newman at 2B

 

[pistolpete11]

I have mixed feelings on Cervelli.

On one hand, there are the injuries and despite his great year, if he gave you his career averages, his offensive numbers would be mediocre at best for a 1B. Trading him at his peak value might not be a terrible idea. Especially since you have a pretty damn good replacement with Diaz.

On the other, he probably doesn't bring back a ton in a trade and the money saved would probably go right into Nutting's pocket. So keeping him and hoping he can duplicate this year is probably the best route.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I agree, keeping him and just hoping for the best is probably the simplest result for him, likely with a situation where Diaz is more the 1A catcher, and Cervelli the 1B. We probably can't get much of use on the FA market, and don't really have someone close to ready who would bring much as a backup. That's one of the reasons that this year is an overall disappointment -- it's hard to be absolutely confident in peak performances and health from certain players next year.

 

[cookthebooks]

archer throwing way too many pitches and basically getting no swings and misses. pretty brutal to watch tbh

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I think what is most concerning to me about Archer so far (in general, not only tonight) is that on multiple occasions, hitters have been able to go down and get really bad sliders way below the zone and flip them into the outfield. Some of that is a credit to the hitters, but I think a ton of it, and Archer's biggest problem in general, is that he just isn't too deceptive. In one sense, this makes his swinging strikes even more impressive, and he's most dominant when he has guys swinging through the fastball. This seems to happen a decent amount, but only intermittently, like for an inning or a batter or two, and not a game.

Hopefully he can work on this, because I don't really think it's rocket science that if I'm right about this, struggling is the logical outcome when you only throw two pitches for the most part. He will need to get his game into the next gear for the trade to have really been worthwhile, although in some ways I'm also willing to be patient about his transition to the NL. There's some tradeoff - tonight has been tough to watch on the whole, but with that said, he also ended up getting Freeman and Markakis the second time through. 5 IP and just 1 R would feel fine tonight, even if that isn't really anything to right home about.

Offense looks predictably putrid against a guy who only has flashes of looking very good. Need to get some guys on base and force this rookie to make a few mistakes.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Getting routinely owned like this, even when it is against decent or good pitching prospects, is probably the most embarrassing aspect of being a Pirates fan. Cervelli just totally giving up his at-bat and then Moran not doing much better. Surely it happens to every team, but nothing feels as hopeless as the Pirates vs some unknown guy.

 

[cookthebooks]

i feel like moran might not even finish next season in the majors. he cant hit the ball hard and is a below average defender

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Brault seems like a nice enough guy, but he also seems like he was designed in a lab to be the most un-fun pitcher to watch in the world. Dude can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Pretty impressive to nail Acuna like that.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

It's not like there's any hope we're going to score runs tonight, or even if we do, win this game, or even if that happens, keep winning games to the point where we become kind of relevant again, but leaving Brault in this game once it got to Duvall is the height of stupidity. We got lucky that he was able to get us through 6 innings needing just one swing of the bat to tie the game, and we have several lights out one inning options. Why not turn to one of them to dominate in the 7th inning? I can see wanting to get through the 6th without tapping into these pitchers, but now whoever comes into the game has a more stressful pitching situation anyways.

It's really just a small thing when compared to the rest of it all, but it's systematic poor management all the same.

 

[cookthebooks]

motherf***er

 

[DanielPlainview]

I think Hech was safe