OnlyBucs

Since the day it happened I have maintained the following.



* Trading for Archer was a good thing. The Pirates needed an established, proven MLB starter.



* Trading Glasnow made sense.



* Trading Meadows was tough but understandable in order to get someone like Archer.



* THAT RIGHT THERE would have been a fair trade that made sense ... even if Tampa ends up "winning" the trade because Glasnow and/or Meadows blossoms into a big-time star. I can live with that.



* But then throwing in a No. 1 pick who throws high 90s (from an organization that is desperate for elite level pitching) seemed ridiculous and excessive. I have no idea if Baz will ever amount to anything or not ... but I thought it was crazy to just sort of "throw him in" as a PTBNL.



To me, that was put the trade over the edge and made it a bad deal for the Pirates.

Moan and groan about the Archer trade all you want, that is what OBN is for. But for me, the deal is done and there is not way-back machine in Buccoland to redo the deal. I'm just going to sit back in my lounger and watch Bucco baseball and crochet my evenings away. That is unless I am at the Bucco or BlackBears game. ;D

Making that trade last year for Archer made sense if we were going to contend in 2019. More specifically, land a free agent in the off-season. We knew that was not going to happen, so if/when Meadows becomes a stud the scouts and Huntington can continue to look like fools.

Meadows had bad numbers just a couple games ago. I wouldn't worry too much about him.



Glasnow being a good starter the minute he landed in Tampa is a huge problem. That makes no sense and is an indictment on this organization.



We sit on him for literally years while he does essentially nothing but sux, he gets off the plane and is an effective starting pitcher?



Who is getting fired for that one? Oh thats right. Nobody as usual! Ole' "Uncle Ray" just wasn't listened to, yeah that's it lol

212820313F450 wrote: Meadows had bad numbers just a couple games ago.   I wouldn't worry too much about him.   



Glasnow being a good starter the minute he landed in Tampa is a huge problem.   That makes no sense and is an indictment on this organization.   



We sit on him for literally years while he does essentially nothing but sux, he gets off the plane and is an effective starting pitcher?



Who is getting fired for that one?  Oh thats right.  Nobody as usual!  Ole' "Uncle Ray" just wasn't listened to, yeah that's it lol


Maybe he could have been a good starter for us last year if they'd actually, you know, let him start a game.

5D515855421E44595D5F445849020070575D300 wrote: Meadows had bad numbers just a couple games ago.   I wouldn't worry too much about him.   



Glasnow being a good starter the minute he landed in Tampa is a huge problem.   That makes no sense and is an indictment on this organization.   



We sit on him for literally years while he does essentially nothing but sux, he gets off the plane and is an effective starting pitcher?



Who is getting fired for that one?  Oh thats right.  Nobody as usual!  Ole' "Uncle Ray" just wasn't listened to, yeah that's it lol


Maybe he could have been a good starter for us last year if they'd actually, you know, let him start a game.
Maybe. We'll never know. But it's not as if they never used him last year. He appeared in 34 games in relief. He walked 34 batters in 56 innings (a very ugly 5.5 per 9 innings). He was scored upon in 13 of those 34 appearances (38%) despite averaging only 1.6 innings per appearance. And at the time of the trade his ERA (4.34) was the 4th highest on the staff. He had been very problematic as a starter in 2016 and 2017 and was one of their worst pitchers in the bullpen in 2018. I hold the Pirates responsible for not getting thru to him and enabling him to reach the potential he showed immediately upon joining TB. But I see nothing to suggest he was just 1 start away from turning it completely around with the Pirates.

676B626F78247E6367657E6273383A4A6D670A0 wrote: Meadows had bad numbers just a couple games ago.   I wouldn't worry too much about him.   



Glasnow being a good starter the minute he landed in Tampa is a huge problem.   That makes no sense and is an indictment on this organization.   



We sit on him for literally years while he does essentially nothing but sux, he gets off the plane and is an effective starting pitcher?



Who is getting fired for that one?  Oh thats right.  Nobody as usual!  Ole' "Uncle Ray" just wasn't listened to, yeah that's it lol


Maybe he could have been a good starter for us last year if they'd actually, you know, let him start a game.




LOL and the trade sucked.

This trade was made for decorations only. NH was desperately trying to look like he was trying to win when in fact picking up a pitcher who had a higher ERA than Nova, but was hyped as the salvation of this team. Yeah he was better a few years back but that was a few years back. Obviously some fans bought into the excitement. NH gave up prospects with high ceiling for a guy who can't throw strikes and whose best days are most likely behind him. At best Archer might have 1 or 2 mediocre years, and we don't know about Meadows and Glasnow but certainly they could be good be very good for 5 or more season.



The way we handled Glasnow was bush league at best. When he came up initially he struggled mightily but they kept running him out there while he struggled again and again. It totally destroyed his confidence which just kept compounding the problem. I said this while it was happening and it's documented somewhere in the board. He should have been sent to the bullpen after the first few outings and worked out of the bullpen until he found some success, which they did a year later, but the damage had been done. While I'm on that subject, the other young totally mishandled pitcher was Kuhl. It was obvious he was going to hurt his arm the way he had changed his pitching approach. I wrote on here that I would hope his dad or someone close to him would advise him to go back to his more control type pitching and quit trying to throw the ball 98 when most of his career he was a 93-94 pitcher. Sadly he injured his arm a few months later. Just seems a little strange that how obvious adjustments are just missed by folks who are suppose to be experts and getting paid big bucks. This organization needs changes made, but Ownership has no idea about baseball and has surrounded itself with folks who have been in and around baseball but make mistake after mistake. Someone said it best they're looking for lighting in a bottle (McCutchen) by stupid luck nothing NH or Hurdle had anything to do with. Sustained success has to be systematically planned with disciplined execution. None of which I've seen out of NH. Hopefully NH will be gone in another year and then a non serious baseball owner will bring in another clueless FO with a line of bull and the beat goes on. I just wish the city of Pittsburgh would get serious about baseball again. They must demand better.

303C35382F73293430322935246F6D1D3A305D0 wrote: Meadows had bad numbers just a couple games ago.   I wouldn't worry too much about him.   



Glasnow being a good starter the minute he landed in Tampa is a huge problem.   That makes no sense and is an indictment on this organization.   



We sit on him for literally years while he does essentially nothing but sux, he gets off the plane and is an effective starting pitcher?



Who is getting fired for that one?  Oh thats right.  Nobody as usual!  Ole' "Uncle Ray" just wasn't listened to, yeah that's it lol


Maybe he could have been a good starter for us last year if they'd actually, you know, let him start a game.


He wasn't in a short relief role.   He was the low leverage long man.   He couldn't even do that effectively right away.    Then, he got pretty OK with it.   still 5.5 BB/9.  Good FIP, small number of total innings, 0 starts.



Gets on a plane in Pittsburgh, get's off a plane in Tampa and finishes season with a 3.1 BB/9.  Never ever came even close to those control numbers before. and in 3 starts this year so far 1.6 BB/9.



Sure.  We had nothing to do with it.  He gets off the plane, takes a breath of Tampa Bay air, and the ball magically starts going over the plate.    It's a festivus miracle.   



Where's mythical Ray Searage??  ::)    



I'll tell you whose fault it's not.  I'll start with me, Dmetz.  It's also not your fault.  It's also not Bobster's fault.   Eventually, we can get through this list of possible people who are to blame for this joke. I've crossed off everyone on onlybucs.net and every sesame street character, so far. The investigation continues.



I mean, It's not like he was re-tooled and found success after hard work and mechanical changes... he got off a darned airplane and was virtually cured of what was holding him back so mightily.   



Come on NH.   Jeez

MLB network's evening show just had a bit on Meadows and Glasnow and were raving about the two - saying both are incredible players and this was really a miss by the Pirates.