OnlyBucs

Shelton needs to go to the mound with a suitcase and tell Howard to just keep on going.

456865747362753536070 wrote: So after 4 batters, Sam "I never met a batter I didn't want to walk" Howard has 2 walks and a HBP. I've never understood what the Pirates see in this guy. Other than 2020 when he only pitched 21 innings, he's always been a walk machine who gives up a lot of runs. Howard is a disaster waiting to happen every time he enters a game.
DFA

5D707D6C6B7A6D2D2E1F0 wrote: So after 4 5 batters, Sam "I never met a batter I didn't want to walk" Howard has 2 3 walks and a HBP. I've never understood what the Pirates see in this guy. Other than 2020 when he only pitched 21 innings, he's always been a walk machine who gives up a lot of runs. Howard is a disaster waiting to happen every time he enters a game.
I blame Sheiton for hanging him out to dry. With the bases loaded, he had to bring in Bednar to leave it a 1 run game. Howard had no control tonight- a common problem. Shelton didn't manage to win the game. This was my biggest complaint about him last year.

The bad news: Pirates are now 0-5 vs. the Brewers



The good news: Pirates are 8-5 vs. everyone else.



The bad news: Pirates to have play the Brewers 13 more times.

Slight edit- "against everyone else that they've played."

FWIW (the reader can decide for themselves after a game when we had one hit):



In nine of our losses, we scored fewer than three runs.



I'm thinking that, even with the best of pitching, it wouldn't be easy to win those games.

142136363D0436363D3A36530 wrote: FWIW (the reader can decide for themselves after a game when we had one hit):



In nine of our losses, we scored fewer than three runs.



I'm thinking that, even with the best of pitching, it wouldn't be easy to win those games.
The lack of pitching is no surprises, I think at best we just wanted to see some improvement, for which there has been some for certain pitchers, not so much for others.



The complete lack of offense, especially the strike out rate vs. complete lack of power, is a surprise to me. I really thought this was a much higher contact rate group, with a lot of gap power and some respectable fence power.



Early, but if they don't start hitting, I'm going to quit laughing at your season prediction by the end of May.

Yes, early.  You know what I've written for years- the season doesn't even start until August.  That's when things heat up. Until then, teams just jockey for position.  But, this is our position, and an early concern.



I'm not surprised by the lack of offense.  I've written that we have very few threats.  The last Pirate to hit 40 home runs wore "8" on his back.  We don't have the type of lineup that many opposing pitchers fear.  The few who they're careful with are in slumps.



What surprises me, though, is that the lack of scoring has happened this often.  I never would have predicted it.



It's something to keep an eye on. 



This is why I don't bang on pitching as hard as some.  We aren't winning the majority of those games, anyway.  Few teams would.



Laugh at my prediction?  Dude. All I have to say is- Of all people, you and Dave ought to know better than to laugh at my predictions.

1A303B0B3C2A2A26490 wrote: So after 4 5 batters, Sam "I never met a batter I didn't want to walk" Howard has 2 3 walks and a HBP. I've never understood what the Pirates see in this guy. Other than 2020 when he only pitched 21 innings, he's always been a walk machine who gives up a lot of runs. Howard is a disaster waiting to happen every time he enters a game.
I blame Sheiton for hanging him out to dry. With the bases loaded, he had to bring in Bednar to leave it a 1 run game. Howard had no control tonight- a common problem.  Shelton didn't manage to win the game. This was my biggest complaint about him last year.
Totally agree. It was obvious Howard couldn't throw strikes. Which is no surprise because rarely is he able to throw strikes. Last year he had 32 BBs and 3 HBPs in 45 innings. His walk rate was 6.4 per 9 innings but if you include the 3 HBPs, it was a nice, tidy 7 BB/HBP per 9 innings. Howard has no business pitching in MLB much less the 9th inning of a 2-1 game. So naturally it became 3-1 without the benefit of a hit when he loaded the bases on walks and a HBP and then walked 1 more to force in a run. And that was after having the benefit of entering the game with 1 out already and no one on base. He only needed to get 2 outs! And all the while Shelton calmly watched. Shelton was merely letting Howard get some work regardless of the game situation.



We can argue that it didn't matter because the Pirates only had 1 hit and didn't even get the needed 2nd run, much less a 3rd. But that's not the point. The point is that the manager is either indifferent to winning the game--which is very concerning for a manager-- or is actually clueless to the extent that he actually thought a pitcher as problematic as Howard was not going to let the 1 run deficit be expanded. It's hard to tell with Shelton because sometimes he seems clueless and sometimes he seems indifferent to winning.

He's likely being told to do certain things.  Whether this is one, we will never know.



I dnk what goes on behind the scenes, but things like this makes me wonder who is involved and how much in the decision process. We have a GM, manager, pitching coach, bullpen coach.....and, for all we know, a bench coach. Then, the bean counters.



What's it say?