OnlyBucs

4C616C7D7A6B7C3C3F0E0 wrote: The Pirates play 13 of their next 19 games starting Tuesday at PNC Park. At the end of this stretch on June 24th the Pirates will just about be at the halfway point of the season at 78 games played. So right now this team sits just 1 game over .500 and 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. If the wins don’t start picking up soon these numbers are going to continue to decrease and look worse and worse. I expect us to either still be hanging around at the end of this stretch in 3 weeks or for us to be completely out of it. Time for Hurdle to start playing his best lineups. No excuse period to be resting guys like Harrison or Dickerson especially this week. There is an off day today and both didn’t play yesterday. I don’t want to see Rodriguez starting any games in this 19 game stretch. He stinks and shouldn’t be playing period. Play your best guys Clint period and stop acting like this is Little League.
Mark Madden agrees with you. I don't like Madden but I have to agree with him on this one.

  The Pirates are off today and are off next Thursday the 14th as well  after playing a day game in Arizona on Wednesday the 13th so that is two off days for this team in the next 10 days. And with these games now being so critical after this terrible stretch of baseball these last two weeks you can’t afford to be giving guys like Harrison, Dickerson or even Meadows a day off so that guys like Rodriguez can get 4 extra at bats a game and do nothing. I don’t expect Clint to change much at all in this next stretch of games.

What games aren't critical? What stretch of games isn't critical?

133E33222534236360510 wrote: There are about a dozen turds in today's punch bowl,  so I will pick out this one.  Matt Carpenter grounds a ball to Bell about 20 feet behind the 1st base.  Carpenter is about 45 feet from the bag.  Rather than run and tag first, Bell makes Brault run about 35 feet to 1B and he tosses it to him.  WHY? 


Oh he does this all the time.   There are a lot of balls he could take himself, bit instead risks the pitcher getting stepped on, or the play being botched .



It's what you can expect from the worst +1bman in the NL.   We need to set the bar lower!
It's standard procedure for any first baseman to take it himself whenever possible and not toss to the pitcher unless the 1Bman can't get to the bag ahead of the runner. It makes no sense to make the out depend on a good toss, a catch by a running pitcher who has to make sure he steps on the bag, and isn't run into by the runner. Just another fundamental error. Hurdle's teams seem to have a problem with fundamentals. I'm sure the coaches must be telling Bell to take the play himself. So if the message is not getting thru, it needs to be reinforced by immediately pulling him from a game the next time. Maybe even give him a few days off. It's not as if losing his bat from the lineup will make a difference. And since Hurdle is obsessed with having a cleanup batter who hits like Mercer, he can just move Mercer there.



Year after year, there seems to be a problem with Hurdle and his coaches being able to get thru to their players and correct mental errors. 




With how frequently Bell won't take the out himself when available, it's difficult not to question if he's even been told to do so.

I guess he doesn't have the 1b background that others do who have played the position in PONY league.



Relatedly, the defensive metrics hate Bell.  He's not Pedro, but he's defensively the worst 1b in the league.  Last year the metrics only had him as bad.   This year, terrible.   So as the sample size grows and he continues to botch simple plays on a semi-daily basis it has become abundently clear (to me) that he will need to have a batting line something like this to be a GOOD starting 1bman:



.280 35 .850+ ops.   Basically he needs to be 125 w/RC+ or better, for those so inclined.   He plays 1b.  You've got to hit especially if you can't field.  Otherwise you're just another name.



Right now, he's John Jaso careerwise.

Bell has to get it going as well. He has been just as bad as Polanco in other ways. I just can’t believe that Rodriguez continues to play as much as he is with his numbers. It’s mind boggling why Clint continues to run him out there essentially every other day. Kang hit a grand slam last night in the Minors so might be time to start looking into getting him up here and taking Sean Rod’s spot on the roster.

725544404558675344454558210 wrote: Bell has to get it going as well. He has been just as bad as Polanco in other ways. I just can’t believe that Rodriguez continues to play as much as he is with his numbers. It’s mind boggling why Clint continues to run him out there essentially every other day. Kang hit a grand slam last night in the Minors so might be time to start looking into getting him up here and taking Sean Rod’s spot on the roster.
Way too early to get excited about Kang. The GS was nice. But it's only 2 games, only 7 ABs. 2 for 7 and 3 Ks. And this is against A-ball pitching.

Yeah I'm not counting on Kang for anything.

I’d rather have Max Moroff up playing now over Rodriguez I don’t care who really play over him. It’s ridiculous that Rodriguez plays as much as he does hitting .167. I think Hurdle started Freese yesterday personally because he wanted to get him one more standing ovation in St Louis. So I just understand any of the decision making by Hurdle because these guys definitely aren’t starting and playing based on production. So why are they playing so much then??

1F38292D28350A3E292828354C0 wrote: I’d rather have Max Moroff up playing now over Rodriguez I don’t care who really play over him. It’s ridiculous that Rodriguez plays as much as he does hitting .167.  I think Hurdle started Freese yesterday personally because he wanted to get him one more standing ovation in St Louis. So I just understand any of the decision making by Hurdle because these guys definitely aren’t starting and playing based on production. So why are they playing so much then??
Freese was a career .467 hitter vs Wacha prior to yesterday.

Oh I don't think it's too early to get excited about Kang at all. I'm getting a good chuckle out of all the low expectations though.

6A636B7A740E0 wrote: Oh I don't think it's too early to get excited about Kang at all.   I'm getting a good chuckle out of all the low expectations though.   






Not a gig at all, just wondering what someone waiting on Kang expects from Kang?



OPS =?

HRs =?



My expectations are fairly low. I hope I’m wrong.