The Bucs could have a tough assignment tonight. Kyle Freeland is having a very strong season. He is 8th in WAR at 4.8 for all MLB pitchers, 10th in ERA+ at 148, and he has a stout 2.45 ERA Coors Field.
Some of those numbers would be even better had the Bucs not handed him his worst outing of the season...a season high 5 ER in a season low 4 inning stint in April. Hopefully they will have his number again tonight.
8/6 vs the Rockies
Moderators: SammyKhalifa, Doc, Bobster
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DemDog
8/6 vs the Rockies
Dickerson - 7
Marte - 8
Polanco - 9
Freese - 5
Cervelli - 3
Diaz - 2
Harrison - 4
Mercer - 6
Musgrove - 1
What no S-Rod?
Marte - 8
Polanco - 9
Freese - 5
Cervelli - 3
Diaz - 2
Harrison - 4
Mercer - 6
Musgrove - 1
What no S-Rod?
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Bobster21
8/6 vs the Rockies
Freese had a bruise so bad he couldn't even PH yesterday but today he's batting cleanup and playing 3B??? 
8/6 vs the Rockies
2nd straight game our Middle infield blows a double play urgh..
-0.2 WAR = Mercer
0.2 WAR = Harrison
Boy do these two guys suck this year. No point in saying it differently.
-0.2 WAR = Mercer
0.2 WAR = Harrison
Boy do these two guys suck this year. No point in saying it differently.
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SteadyFreddy
8/6 vs the Rockies
The Pirates better start winning some games and they better start winning games very soon or they are going to find themselves out of this wildcard race. They are now just a game over .500, they are 5.5 games out of the 2nd wildcard and have just about lost 3 games in the standings the last 3 days, and have lost 3 in a row overall and 7 out of their last 11 games. You’re not going to stay in contention playing like this with under 50 games left now. Better win these next two at Coors with Taillon and Archer on the mound.
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SteadyFreddy
8/6 vs the Rockies
133E33222534236360510 wrote: Freese had a bruise so bad he couldn't even PH yesterday but today he's batting cleanup and playing 3B??? Yea I’m with you here Bobster this makes not even attempting to use Freese in the game on Sunday look that much worse. If this bruise or “contusion” as Hurdle liked to call it was that severe and that bad Freese wouldn’t have been able to play the very next damn day last night and bat cleanup and start at 3rd base. So I’m sorry I’m definitely not buying this injury now, and I think it was more of a case of Hurdle being stubborn in his ways and wanting to give Freese an entire game off and doing whatever it took to not use him in Sunday’s game over him being so so so hurt there was no way in hell he could pick up a bat and pinch hit a possible 3 times in a 1-2 run game Sunday in a key part of the game. So maybe I’m being too hard on Hurdle and that’s fine, but I don’t believe him and I just don’t trust him in these kinds of situations I think he is arrogant and full of crap.
I said it before and I’ll say it again Hurdle has become a huge liability on this team with his decision making and he literally costs them both Saturday and Sunday’s games against the Cards by using McRae on Saturday in a tie game when he didn’t need too, and not using Freese at all on Sunday in a 1 run game. I’m tired of it and while the Pirates definitely will not do this they really need to consider making a change at manager moving forward here. Hurdle has reached his expiration date in my opinion and is not the man to lead this team and take this team where it potentially can go in the next several years.
Yea I’m with you here Bobster this makes not even attempting to use Freese in the game on Sunday look that much worse. If this bruise or “contusion” as Hurdle liked to call it was that severe and that bad Freese wouldn’t have been able to play the very next damn day last night and bat cleanup and start at 3rd base. So I’m sorry I’m definitely not buying this injury now, and I think it was more of a case of Hurdle being stubborn in his ways and wanting to give Freese an entire game off and doing whatever it took to not use him in Sunday’s game over him being so so so hurt there was no way in hell he could pick up a bat and pinch hit a possible 3 times in a 1-2 run game Sunday in a key part of the game. So maybe I’m being too hard on Hurdle and that’s fine, but I don’t believe him and I just don’t trust him in these kinds of situations I think he is arrogant and full of crap. I said it before and I’ll say it again Hurdle has become a huge liability on this team with his decision making and he literally costs them both Saturday and Sunday’s games against the Cards by using McRae on Saturday in a tie game when he didn’t need too, and not using Freese at all on Sunday in a 1 run game. I’m tired of it and while the Pirates definitely will not do this they really need to consider making a change at manager moving forward here. Hurdle has reached his expiration date in my opinion and is not the man to lead this team and take this team where it potentially can go in the next several years.
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Bobster21
8/6 vs the Rockies
57706165607D42766160607D040 wrote: Freese had a bruise so bad he couldn't even PH yesterday but today he's batting cleanup and playing 3B??? Yea I’m with you here Bobster this makes not even attempting to use Freese in the game on Sunday look that much worse. If this bruise or “contusion” as Hurdle liked to call it was that severe and that bad Freese wouldn’t have been able to play the very next damn day last night and bat cleanup and start at 3rd base. So I’m sorry I’m definitely not buying this injury now, and I think it was more of a case of Hurdle being stubborn in his ways and wanting to give Freese an entire game off and doing whatever it took to not use him in Sunday’s game over him being so so so hurt there was no way in hell he could pick up a bat and pinch hit a possible 3 times in a 1-2 run game Sunday in a key part of the game. So maybe I’m being too hard on Hurdle and that’s fine, but I don’t believe him and I just don’t trust him in these kinds of situations I think he is arrogant and full of crap.
I said it before and I’ll say it again Hurdle has become a huge liability on this team with his decision making and he literally costs them both Saturday and Sunday’s games against the Cards by using McRae on Saturday in a tie game when he didn’t need too, and not using Freese at all on Sunday in a 1 run game. I’m tired of it and while the Pirates definitely will not do this they really need to consider making a change at manager moving forward here. Hurdle has reached his expiration date in my opinion and is not the man to lead this team and take this team where it potentially can go in the next several years.
In the Trib's story of Sunday's Freese-free game, Freese said the explanation for not playing the day after hitting a HR and the day before batting cleanup and playing 3B was because of the upcoming "long flight" and 10 day road trip. That made no sense unless they were expecting him to push the plane (which may be feasible if it saves Nutting money). Forearm bruises are not exacerbated while sitting on a long flight. That plus the comment about the 10 day road trip sounds a lot like he was just given the dreaded "scheduled day off." As J-Hay said, “Not having him changes the whole dynamic of what has to happen in the game.” What a shame if it wasn't necessary. Only Hurdle and Freese know for sure but the explanation was lame, Freese's ability to play the days before and after, Hurdle's obsession with resting even key players in key games and his apparent lack of interest in winning (as demonstrated Saturday) all cast doubt about Freese's "inability" to even PH on Sunday.
Yea I’m with you here Bobster this makes not even attempting to use Freese in the game on Sunday look that much worse. If this bruise or “contusion” as Hurdle liked to call it was that severe and that bad Freese wouldn’t have been able to play the very next damn day last night and bat cleanup and start at 3rd base. So I’m sorry I’m definitely not buying this injury now, and I think it was more of a case of Hurdle being stubborn in his ways and wanting to give Freese an entire game off and doing whatever it took to not use him in Sunday’s game over him being so so so hurt there was no way in hell he could pick up a bat and pinch hit a possible 3 times in a 1-2 run game Sunday in a key part of the game. So maybe I’m being too hard on Hurdle and that’s fine, but I don’t believe him and I just don’t trust him in these kinds of situations I think he is arrogant and full of crap. I said it before and I’ll say it again Hurdle has become a huge liability on this team with his decision making and he literally costs them both Saturday and Sunday’s games against the Cards by using McRae on Saturday in a tie game when he didn’t need too, and not using Freese at all on Sunday in a 1 run game. I’m tired of it and while the Pirates definitely will not do this they really need to consider making a change at manager moving forward here. Hurdle has reached his expiration date in my opinion and is not the man to lead this team and take this team where it potentially can go in the next several years.
In the Trib's story of Sunday's Freese-free game, Freese said the explanation for not playing the day after hitting a HR and the day before batting cleanup and playing 3B was because of the upcoming "long flight" and 10 day road trip. That made no sense unless they were expecting him to push the plane (which may be feasible if it saves Nutting money). Forearm bruises are not exacerbated while sitting on a long flight. That plus the comment about the 10 day road trip sounds a lot like he was just given the dreaded "scheduled day off." As J-Hay said, “Not having him changes the whole dynamic of what has to happen in the game.” What a shame if it wasn't necessary. Only Hurdle and Freese know for sure but the explanation was lame, Freese's ability to play the days before and after, Hurdle's obsession with resting even key players in key games and his apparent lack of interest in winning (as demonstrated Saturday) all cast doubt about Freese's "inability" to even PH on Sunday.
8/6 vs the Rockies
Hurdle is ensuring all these guys will get plenty of rest in October.
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SteadyFreddy
8/6 vs the Rockies
Getting back to the wildcard standings to put things in perspective the Braves who are currently leading the 2nd wildcard have 5 games in hand on the Pirates and are currently 60-48 to the Pirates 57-56. So if 87 wins is gonna be the magic number to win this 2Nd wildcard like we think the Pirates need to go 30-19 in these last 49 games and the Braves who have 54 games left the Pirates need them to play .500 the rest of the season at 27-27 and even that might not be good enough. This right here is why those two losses against the Cards hurt a lot over the weekend and why you just cannot afford to give games away. So as I said before the Pirates better stop the bleeding and start winning soon if they seriously want to be a factor in this wildcard race.
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SteadyFreddy
8/6 vs the Rockies
I think splitting that 4 game series with the Mets here last weekend instead of winning 3 of 4, and losing both those games to the Cardinals this past weekend instead of at least getting 1 win really really hurt the Pirates wildcard chances. Even having something small like 2 more wins now has you at 5 games over .500 at 59-54 as opposed to 1 game over .500 as we sit here today at 57-56. It probably has you closer to 3 games out in the wildcard standings right now as opposed to almost 6 games out right now. These are the results you get when you have a manager more times then not who is more concerned about resting players then winning games which is exactly how Hurdle operates and why he needs to go.