2K24: Pittsburgh Pirates

[revo]

When they "went for it", they traded away Meadows, Glasnow and Baz for Chris Archer. Had they not traded those three, perhaps they keep Musgrove, Bell and Taillon this offseason. And they had Starling Marte on an affordable contract. That represents a nice collection of home grown talent graduating to the majors (well, Musgrove was really Cole, but they couldn't reasonably have kept and resigned him, could they?).

The front of the rotation could have been Glasnow, Musgrove and Taillon. The OF could be Marte, Meadows and Polanco, with Reynolds as the 4th OF. They could have had Bell and Hayes at the corners. That's the foundation of a very solid team.

That one trade set their franchise back a decade.

[joncarlos]

I'm reviewing the Pirates in my analysis today, and it struck me -- how can a team that constantly dumps be so completely devoid of talent across the board?

No hitting. No starting pitching. No bullpen. Few MLB ready prospects. Hardly any MLB top prospects.

If there's one thing they have a lot of, it's stink. They all stink (except for a very tiny handful of players). Sad!

They've done a lot of things wrong.

Aside from the comical Archer trade, their returns on Cutch and Cole and Marte were all very light. Time will tell how they did trading Taillon and Bell and Musgrove. I actually think they did OK.

They haven't done a great job of developing the talent they do have.

They had a run of a couple good years which got them later picks in the draft.

Their first round picks since 2010 are Taillon, Cole, Appel, Meadows/Reese McGuire, Cole Tucker, Kevin Newman, Hayes, Will Craig, Baz, Travis Swaggerty, Quinn Priester and Nick Gonzales. I don't even know what happened to Craig. Newman/Tucker don't seem like they'll be that great. Priester is their #2 prospect, Gonzales their #3, Swaggerty their #8. Hayes looks legit. Baz and Meadows were traded. McGuire was traded and hasn't amounted to much.

[revo]

They fired Huntington and replaced him with Cherington, which I assume will help, but they did also keep their farm director and scouting director.

[madducks]

I'm reviewing the Pirates in my analysis today, and it struck me -- how can a team that constantly dumps be so completely devoid of talent across the board?

No hitting. No starting pitching. No bullpen. Few MLB ready prospects. Hardly any MLB top prospects.

If there's one thing they have a lot of, it's stink. They all stink (except for a very tiny handful of players). Sad!

If former GM Neil Huntingdon would have intentionally sabotaged the team, i don't think he could have done any worse of a job his last few seasons. The only way i can explain it is that he must have been given an ultimatum by ownership to win or else during his final years. That's the only reason i can see for him giving up a kings ransom for Archer. Glasnow and Meadows were thought to be 1-2 years away from realizing their potential and Huntingdon must have been told to win now or be fired. He ran the Pirates like a man who was very desperate to turn the team around in a hurry.

[madducks]

SP Steven Brault has a lat muscle strain and may not be ready for the start of the season.

[madducks]

Pirates signed RHP Steven Wright to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

The knuckleballer was an all-star back in 2016 but has pitched just six games since 2018. The 36-year-old right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in October of 2019, missing all of last season.

Some thoughts on knuckleball pitchers:
I didn't think knuckleballers threw hard enough to blow out their elbow ligament.
You would think knuckleballers would be more effective the first season back from TJ surgery since they don't need to generate a lot of velocity to throw a knuckleball.
And age 36 is like age 26 in knuckleballer years.

[chancellor]

SP Steven Brault has a lat muscle strain and may not be ready for the start of the season.

Out for at least a month and not ready until about 10 weeks into the season based on latest I read.

[madducks]

Todd Frazier has exercised the opt-out clause in his contract and is once again a free agent. Thirty days in the hole was more than enough for Todd.

[TranaGreg]

Todd Frazier has exercised the opt-out clause in his contract and is once again a free agent. Thirty days in the hole was more than enough for Todd.

if you can't crack the starting lineup in Pittsburgh maybe there's a deeper message there ...

[madducks]

Hellooooo Newman.
Pirates SS Kevin Newman went 3-for-4 with a single on Saturday to raise his spring training BA to .714. The spring training record (min 30 PA) for BA is .586 by Todd Linden in 2008. Although, spring training records have only been kept since 2006.

[joncarlos]

Hellooooo Newman.
Pirates SS Kevin Newman went 3-for-4 with a single on Saturday to raise his spring training BA to .714. The spring training record (min 30 PA) for BA is .586 by Todd Linden in 2008. Although, spring training records have only been kept since 2006.

Newman is an interesting guy. He hit 12 HR and stole 16 bases in 2019 which would make him a heck of a sleeper if he could do that again. But his projections are all single digit homers, and in watching him, he doesn't hit the ball super hard. He's also not a great defensive SS even though he seems like he should be better than he is. But all he has to do is beat out Erik Gonzalez. So I do like him as a late flier this year.

[Gregg]

[QUOTE=joncarlos;401747]Newman is an interesting guy. He hit 12 HR and stole 16 bases in 2019 which would make him a heck of a sleeper if he could do that again. But his projections are all single digit homers, and in watching him, he doesn't hit the ball super hard. He's also not a great defensive SS even though he seems like he should be better than he is. But all he has to do is beat out Erik Gonzalez. So I do like him as a late flier this year.[/QUOTE

He went for either 17 or 19 in our 12 team NL only. Ha, I had 3 dollars set aside for him.

[madducks]

Right now, i'm liking the Pirates chances for getting the #1 draft pick in the 2021 draft.

[joncarlos]

Right now, i'm liking the Pirates chances for getting the #1 draft pick in the 2021 draft.

They already have it. They're working on the #1 in 2022 right now.

Hey at least this year they get either Rocker or Leiter.

[madducks]

They already have it. They're working on the #1 in 2022 right now.

Hey at least this year they get either Rocker or Leiter.

Yeah, i meant to say 2022.