4/23 game. Unleash the fury that is Phil Gosselin.

CarolinaBucco · Post by **CarolinaBucco** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 8:29 pm

How in the world did the Pirates win that game?

I am trilled with the win and taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees, but this team has a lot of issues. A LOT.

If it's not baserunning, it's defense. If it's not defense, it's clutch hitting.

I'm trying to figure out what are the actual strengths of this team. Right now it's clearly starting pitching ... but who knows how long that will last.

Tip of the cap to Nova. Dude has been SENSATIONAL since he was acquired last summer.

Tintin · Post by **Tintin** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 9:40 pm

1634273A393C3B34172036363A550 wrote: How in the world did the Pirates win that game?

I am trilled with the win and taking 2 of 3 from the Yankees, but this team has a lot of issues. A LOT.

If it's not baserunning, it's defense. If it's not defense, it's clutch hitting.

I'm trying to figure out what are the actual strengths of this team. Right now it's clearly starting pitching ... but who knows how long that will last.

Tip of the cap to Nova. Dude has been SENSATIONAL since he was acquired last summer.

Despite all the yankee love yesterday, they're not that good.

It's not football. Big and long home runs don't equal good baseballs teams.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:47 pm

1E39282C29340B3F282929344D0 wrote: After getting swept by the Reds the Pirates have went a combined 5-4 against the Cubs,Cards, and Yankees the last 9 games. Hopefully they can keep it up against the Cubs the next 3 games here at home. It would be nice to win at least 2 out of 3 against the Cubs and start the year with a 5-1 record against them.
Actually, after the Reds series they lost the makeup to Boston, swept the Cubs, were swept by St.L while scoring just 3 runs and took 2 of 3 from NY so they have really gone 5-5 since the Reds series. The makeup loss to Boston still counts in sequence. But isn't it nice when we can cherry pick the stats to support whatever we want? Just 18 games into the season it's pretty tough to be selective as to which games we want to focus on. This is a team that has scored 2 or fewer runs in 8 of 18 games while playing defense that would embarrass a Little League team.

skinnyhorse · Post by **skinnyhorse** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 12:58 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8rxPrV ... 8rxPrV-tn4

skinnyhorse · Post by **skinnyhorse** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:37 am

Harrison another unforgivable error at second, not sure what to do but he doesn't need to be playing every day if he can't do better than he's displaying.

dogknot17@yahoo.co · Post by **dogknot17@yahoo.co** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:42 am

According to ESPN, the Pirates are #2 in ERA in the NL and their starting pitching is ranked #4, relievers ranked #10.

In my opinion, there was one really, really bad start by Glasnow and maybe one bad start by Cole (opening day). Other than that, their starting pitching has been very good.

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:36 am

This offense still is going to have problems scoring runs I feel. You can't makeup for both Marte and Kang not being in the lineup. It's way too much production lost from both a power and run producing standpoint. The Pirates I feel have to do something about their bench as well. I don't know if they can go trade for somebody or who is out there but they gotta be able to do better then having 2 stiffs on the bench like Gosselin and Jaso. I think the best lineup the Pirates can put out there now is with JHay in RF and Frazier starting at 2nd along with Cutch, Polanco, Freese,Bell,Mercer, and Cervelli. It gives them the best chance to win and score runs.

PMike · Post by **PMike** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 1:00 pm

6B4C5D595C417E4A5D5C5C41380 wrote: This offense still is going to have problems scoring runs I feel. You can't makeup for both Marte and Kang not being in the lineup. It's way too much production lost from both a power and run producing standpoint. The Pirates I feel have to do something about their bench as well. I don't know if they can go trade for somebody or who is out there but they gotta be able to do better then having 2 stiffs on the bench like Gosselin and Jaso. I think the best lineup the Pirates can put out there now is with JHay in RF and Frazier starting at 2nd along with Cutch, Polanco, Freese,Bell,Mercer, and Cervelli. It gives them the best chance to win and score runs.

Totally disagree about Fraizer and Harrison. Harrison made a terrible error yesterday, but he, by far, the better second baseman. Frazier is bad everywhere. Everyone loves his bad, but he is a butcher in the field right now. He needs to be hidden in the OF and we need to hope the ball isn't hit to him. He can't be in the infield where he is affecting a lot more plays.

Ecbucs · Post by **Ecbucs** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 2:51 pm

091430323C590 wrote: This offense still is going to have problems scoring runs I feel. You can't makeup for both Marte and Kang not being in the lineup. It's way too much production lost from both a power and run producing standpoint. The Pirates I feel have to do something about their bench as well. I don't know if they can go trade for somebody or who is out there but they gotta be able to do better then having 2 stiffs on the bench like Gosselin and Jaso. I think the best lineup the Pirates can put out there now is with JHay in RF and Frazier starting at 2nd along with Cutch, Polanco, Freese,Bell,Mercer, and Cervelli. It gives them the best chance to win and score runs.

Totally disagree about Fraizer and Harrison. Harrison made a terrible error yesterday, but he, by far, the better second baseman. Frazier is bad everywhere. Everyone loves his bad, but he is a butcher in the field right now. He needs to be hidden in the OF and we need to hope the ball isn't hit to him. He can't be in the infield where he is affecting a lot more plays.

It is hard to believe Frazier is so bad. Starting shortstop in college, played there a lot at beginning of his pro career. You would think moving from short to second would help him. He started 162 games at short and less than 80 in outfield in minors.

The team seemed to be very concerned with defense and working on shifts but now it has a lot of players that are below average defensively (Frazier, Bell, Jaso, Cutch, probably Polanco).

SteadyFreddy · Post by **SteadyFreddy** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:40 pm

312C080A04610 wrote: This offense still is going to have problems scoring runs I feel. You can't makeup for both Marte and Kang not being in the lineup. It's way too much production lost from both a power and run producing standpoint. The Pirates I feel have to do something about their bench as well. I don't know if they can go trade for somebody or who is out there but they gotta be able to do better then having 2 stiffs on the bench like Gosselin and Jaso. I think the best lineup the Pirates can put out there now is with JHay in RF and Frazier starting at 2nd along with Cutch, Polanco, Freese,Bell,Mercer, and Cervelli. It gives them the best chance to win and score runs.

Totally disagree about Fraizer and Harrison. Harrison made a terrible error yesterday, but he, by far, the better second baseman. Frazier is bad everywhere. Everyone loves his bad, but he is a butcher in the field right now. He needs to be hidden in the OF and we need to hope the ball isn't hit to him. He can't be in the infield where he is affecting a lot more plays.

I'd still rather have Frazier playing in RF and his good bat then the horrible atrocious bat of John Jaso in RF.