OnlyBucs

Vazquez was clearly hurt. They're only saying left forearm discomfort. But this could be significant.

5B7A725B70781F0 wrote: Don't blame the bullpen, Clint, or Polanco among those blamed today.  Simply blame the Ol' Possum for this one.  Was at family reunion in Somerset Co and as things wound down there and I headed home with Mrs. Possum I turned on the game and the Bucs were up 4-1 and Taillon was doing a great job on the mound.  It was just about the time that JaMo deflected the grounder that I tuned in.  Things went south from there and I had to listen to it all the way home.  What a disappointing loss.  The bullpen just sucked big, big time today.  Valezquez needs to get his crap together soon or they need to find another closer.  Glasnow anybody?
You didn't fool anybody, Possum. The call-in shows are all blaming you!

746C6E69697E6F68757462070 wrote: Brilliant move by Clint putting Sean Rod in for Frazier. Rodriguez has been horrific against right handed pitching. Plus, he already used Dickerson already today which was a waste. Not a well managed game position player wise by Clint today so far.


They were up 4-1 and put in his best defensive player for his worst. That's how Rodriguez should be used. He shouldn't have had an important at bat. The bullpen caused that meaningful at bat.



Dickerson will probably sit again this year. Hurdle has been very good playing the starters and not resting them this year. This game is on the Bullpen and their All Star Closer, not Hurdle.


I'm beginning to see why the Nationals traded Rivero.  His name change and pitching this year makes me think he has some issues that aren't physical.  He's starting to remind me of the pitcher we had a while back that had one great season and refused to through inside because Prince Fielder threatened him once he got to close.  Rivero has really done some off the wall stuff this year and I'm not just talking about his pitching.  There's nothing worse than having a closer who can't close a game out in a tough spot.  Looks like we need to find another setup man and a closer, you can't give away games like this.  It will most likely take Clint months to figure this out and by that time it will be about 8 weeks to late.  I hate being a Pirate fan.




Almost nothing worse in baseball than a blown save. Demoralizing. I don't know about Vazquez's mental makeup, but his mechanics seem to get out of whack now and then.



Makes me truly appreciate the great work Mark Melancon did while he was here. Since the rebirth in 2013, I don't think any Pirate player did his job better than he did.

Yep that's it, Rivero is turning into Ian Snell, not sure what he changed his name to but he was a head case, worst I ever saw, sure hope we don't have another one on our hands.

Vazquez is hurt. But I agree about the blown save. I've always said the stat on blown saves is far more important than the number of saves because getting a save is pretty easy. Usually (1+ inning saves are rare), all you have to do is hold a 1, 2 or 3 run lead thru 1 inning. All you have to do is "not blow it." When you fail to do that, you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and it's devastating to the team that thought it had the game won. Blown saves should be rare. When they aren't, there's an inexcusable problem.

Well this one was another tough one to take today but I’m done stewing over it. The Cubs are playing right now and it’s only in the 4th inning so the Cubs are going to get here most likely probably around 230-3 AM maybe even later. The Pirates have to take advantage of that tomorrow to start this series with the Cubs and use it to their advantage and if they don’t then shame on them.

Oquendo. Ian Snell --> Ian Oquendo

59505849473D0 wrote: Hey, we're significantly better than I expected.   Even after the hot start, I expected us to be under .500 by Memorial Day. 



We aren't.  overperforming my expectations
Yeah, we are heading back to reality. This is an average team at best. There are going to be ups and downs all season. No consistency with this roster.

With the team in a tailspin, Clint Hurdle really needs to step up now. But I don't expect him to. Vazquez is hurt, Feliz is struggling. Hurdle needs to get creative with the bullpen now. BP by committee? By matchups? He can't just designate someone to close by default. And maybe let a starter who's been effective on 85 pitches try to get out of a jam in the 7th instead of following a formula that says a starter has to replaced in the 6th or later as soon as he gets in a jam even if the BP has been struggling.



Bell is not having a good season. He needs to move lower in the order. But he bats 4th EVERY day because that's how Hurdle set it up before the season began. Dickerson is having a more productive season, which is consistent with his track record. But he can't bat 4th because that's not how Hurdle set it up originally. Polanco has been dismal since week 2. But he's batted 2nd in 42 of his 46 starts because that was Hurdle's plan. Yesterday, barely above .200, he was dropped to 7th for the first time since April 11. That should have happened weeks ago, but Hurdle doesn't like to deviate from his plan regardless of whether it's working or not. Meadows has been a whirlwind. .441 OBP, 3 HRs, 3 SBs, 1.290 OPS. But until yesterday he had not hit higher than 7th, as Hurdle did not want to move Polanco from the #2 hole. It was only Cervelli's illness that required Hurdle to change the order. So the Pirates finally got production from the #2 spot as Meadows had 2 hits, a run, an RBI and a SB. But Hurdle announced that his 4 OFers would all share time because Meadows (.455), Marte (.305) and Dickerson (.310) have to share time with Polanco (.205 and 1 for his last 24).



In a game yesterday to decide the series winner, Hurdle decided to rest 2 of his top hitters: Dickerson and Harrison. He has a theory that resting players makes them stronger later in the year. That's fine but how do they make up for the losses earlier in the year when key players sat out? Sure, they would have won yesterday with his lineup if the BP hadn't blown it. But maybe with more runs from a more productive lineup they could have weathered the BP meltdown and won the game anyway. And last year, his theory on rest resulted in 75 wins.



A manager has to do more than set up a formula and stick to it for better or worse. He can't wait a quarter of the season (Polanco) or forever (Bell) before making needed changes. At least he moved Kontos out of his BP role. He needs to be proactive in other areas as well.

Like you mentioned before the game yesterday Bobster there just doesn’t seem like there is enough of a demand to win like Freese pointed out when Spring Training started in February. The Pirates have had I believe 4 or 5 days off total in the last 3 weeks or so. There was just no need to rest guys like JHay and Dickerson either against a division rival in a game you really needed to win. It just feels like at times that Clint who I still do like a lot manages like he is the players friend more so then he is their manager.