OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

[td_ice]

Still alive.

7-3 now, bases loaded still. 2 outs.

Come on J Hay! Oh man, just foul.

Rockies win.

 

[TNT87]

Go get 'em tomorrow.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I don't know much about either pitcher, but Marquez has significantly better peripheral stats than Freeland. Scouting reports paint Freeland as a command guy with an average/fringy 4 pitch mix, whereas Marquez has two potentially plus pitches but was typically thought of as a future reliever. I certainly hope we're able to hit a guy with a 5.62 k/9 and extremely poor BB:K ratio.

I don't know a ton either, but Freeland has looked better in the limited amount I've seen him. Marquez looks fairly successful on paper this year, but I can see the reliever peg.

In any case, we definitely need to make him work, get some real traffic, and then pile on the big hits. Hopefully Nova trends back in a positive direction, but the peripherals favor us a good bit.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

I know we've been down this road a few times before, but why does Jaso get all of the playing time in the outfield when somebody gets hurt?

You hear Hurdle praising Osuna and lamenting that it is difficult to find opportunities for him to play and then opportunity knocks and Hurdle locks the door.

Osuna is the better option by the simple fact that he can hit righties and lefties. Also, Jaso is horrific in the outfield. Jaso has like 70 more plate appearances than Osuna. How? How is Osuna supposed to get in a rhythm when he is getting a few ab's a week?

 

[ResignCraigAdams]

I know we've been down this road a few times before, but why does Jaso get all of the playing time in the outfield when somebody gets hurt?

You hear Hurdle praising Osuna and lamenting that it is difficult to find opportunities for him to play and then opportunity knocks and Hurdle locks the door.

Osuna is the better option by the simple fact that he can hit righties and lefties. Also, Jaso is horrific in the outfield. Jaso has like 70 more plate appearances than Osuna. How? How is Osuna supposed to get in a rhythm when he is getting a few ab's a week?

Osuna is pretty bad defensively too.

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

Osuna is pretty bad defensively too.

Did I say otherwise?

Jaso has been worth nearly an entire win less than a replacement level player on the season. Do you know how bad you have to be to be sitting at -.9 war half way through the season? Going with 7 position players and leaving right field wide open is only a slightly worse option than playing John Jaso in right field in a humongous park.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Osuna's gotten better in right the more he's played.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Sounds like the usual...

Thanks to a recent surge that has helped them climb over the .500 mark, the Pirates have ruled out trading either outfielder Andrew McCutchen or utilityman Josh Harrison prior to the deadline, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (video link). However, they’re not necessarily going into the deadline as full-blown buyers. Rather, the team could both buy and sell, as it did last year, and is willing to listen to offers for complementary players such as left-handed setup man Tony Watson, righty reliever Juan Nicasio, third baseman David Freese and first baseman/outfielder John Jaso. As for starter Gerrit Cole, the likelihood is that he’ll stay put, though the Pirates could still entertain offers for him, per Rosenthal.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

The hybrid buy-sell idea is probably the most sober approach to the deadline, given that totally selling would be a nightmare, and moreover wouldn't clearly be the right move.

It will hurt to lose Nicasio, and possibly Watson, but there might be some value plays available, and we have young arms that we can give a look to down the stretch. I tend towards keeping Nicasio unless the offer is really good, simply because it's a lot easier to work one bridge to him and Rivero than two or more bridges to Rivero all the time. I also don't know what Nicasio would be able to garner: he's excellent, but I doubt he's viewed as quite in the same class as Britton, Hand, Reed, and even Wilson.

Today's game feels like such a crucial one if we want to keep the momentum going strong. The Rockies are definitely a viable opponent, and we had our two weakest pitchers going in this series, but you'd feel a lot more confident about continuing to play well if we can pull this out and march ahead on this road trip. Really hoping that we see an Ivan Nova more like his Cubs start before the break, with just a few scattered hits, than someone who is trying to spread out 9-10 hits in just the right combination to stay alive.

I agree strongly about Jaso. He's looked and sometimes hit the ball better than the results he's gotten, but he's average at best defensively, and Hurdle has definitely fallen into a pattern of using him way too often. Osuna should be in there today against the lefty, and I really hope Harrison is at 3B with Moroff or Frazier playing 2B.

 

[td_ice]

Hopefully Polanco is back soon.

 

[TNT87]

For those who work out and are into fitness could Polanco's added muscle gain from offseason workouts have contributed to his twice pulled hamstrings this season?

Hopefully the ten days off will be enough time for it to heal and he can contribute.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Well it's no Sunday lineup today and Osuna is in there so people should be pretty happy. Same lineup as yesterday with Osuna in for Jaso in the 6 spot and Freese and Bell flipped in the 4/5 spots. Freese could use a day off for Frazier or Moroff, but Freese is also a far better hitter vs lefties so today doesn't really make sense for the day to do it.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Freese needs to prove something today. I agree vs. lefties that it's a tough call, but he's a black hole right now, and we can't afford to miss any opportunities to pile up runs in Coors Field. If he's going to play, I'd rather leave Bell in the cleanup spot, bat Cervelli fifth, Osuna sixth, and Freese seventh. Regardless, we need a better day at the plate than we saw yesterday -- only Cutch and Bell looked good to me.

 

[Shrimper]

Do any of you watch the large majority of Pirates games? I'm watching today's game but it is hard to find it "fun" to watch when little happens. It is weird as I'm okay watching Test cricket which can be slow at times but I find baseball really hard to watch sometimes. Is it just me - or is it quite hard to watch?

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Weak contact city so far. We're probably going to really need a big performance from Nova today.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Do any of you watch the large majority of Pirates games? I'm watching today's game but it is hard to find it "fun" to watch when little happens. It is weird as I'm okay watching Test cricket which can be slow at times but I find baseball really hard to watch sometimes. Is it just me - or is it quite hard to watch?

It certainly is for a lot of people, but I think a lot depends on how well you know the game and the little things. I'm not sure how much you follow baseball, but I still find it entertaining and feel like there is enough to watch and evaluate even when it's slow. I watch a lot of games for sure, but a lot of times it's not fully focused and on in the background and not super closely watching start to finish. I'm definitely not a baseball expert in terms of evaluating players and mechanics and things that come from playing, but I feel like I have picked up enough from watching and following over the years to understand enough about all the decisions, and more minor things going on within a game to usually have things to focus on.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Man... a healthy Polanco in RF prob makes that play there.

Badly need a DP ball here, but of course it's Arenado up with the bases loaded.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Yeah, that's really disappointing. Walk is trying to justify it, but he misplayed that. Hopefully Nova stops the bleeding - the offense has looked pathetic against Freeland. This is not good.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

****. No luck on the ground ball. Offense better show up in the next inning.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Yeah, the middle of the lineup in the 4th needs to get at least a couple back now to stay in this and give ourselves a shot in the later innings.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Nova actually pitched pretty well in that jam, although he hurt himself with the badly timed walk. Gotta get something in this inning... hopefully J Hay puts a good at-bat together and gets on. The Rockies clearly don't want any parts of Cutch or Bell, and it's hard to blame them. We need to see them up in situations with guys on base where it's harder to pitch around them.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Good to get on the board here, but we really need one big hit to put up a crooked number and be right back in it.

 

[Pick87your71Poison]

Man that's a killer by Jordy there to only get the 1.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

This offense is just not good enough. Without Polanco, we're back to square one in that we're a bottom-10 team. Even with a fully healthy squad, we're middle of the pack. There's been one hard hit ball off Freeland all day.

Nova needs to put up a quick zero here.

 

[DanielPlainview]

Hurdle continuing to play Freese is just another reason why I don't trust him. It's not like Frazier can't hit lefties.