OnlyBucs

784D5A5A51685A5A51565A3F0 wrote: Another reason why there's not much to chatter about.
Well, when you do chatter, you add absolutely nothing to the conversation, so yeah, best you don't.


As if this isn't a other example of YOUR value.



Personal attacks say more about you than your intended target. 


You're not just a snowflake with your "personal attack" biz, you're a full blown snowman.

Towards the end of ST there will need to be some roster movement, and I think Cal Mitchell might be one player placed of waivers. Mitchell does have an above average bat, but his defense, and arm strength are below average. The Pirates have several outfielders on the 40 man roster so we can expect one or two may be removed in order to add a backup catcher, as well as another left handed pitcher if Garcia is not ready to go north.

5B57560D040D05080F100A3D0 wrote: Towards the end of ST there will need to be some roster movement, and I think Cal Mitchell might be one player placed of waivers. Mitchell does have an above average bat, but his defense, and arm strength are below average. The Pirates have several outfielders on the 40 man roster so we can expect one or two may be removed in order to add a backup catcher, as well as another left handed pitcher if Garcia is not ready to go north.


Looking like Vilade's spot on the 40-man may be coming to an end as well.

Was able to see a replay of the Pirates/Phils game over the weekend. Bucs were trailing when I turned it on, but I was interested to watch Caleb Smith pitch, as I thought he might be one of those sneaky good signings that could benefit the team.

He had a nice start to his career with the Marlins a few years ago, and I thought he could be resurrected with the bucs,



Alas, he gave up a HR to Darick Hall, on a pitch that seemed to be in a good spot, but Hall is super strong and hit it a long way despite being badly off balance. He then gave up a HR to Mike Kingery on a pitch that was down in the strike zone, but had nothing on it. i guess he'll be sent packing sooner rather than later. He didn't appear to have much velocity or movement on his pitches.



Was wondering if anyone else has seen much of him this spring. The Bucs always seem to be looking for a LH and I hoped Smith could be an answer, but I guess not.

"We have optioned the following players to our Triple-A roster:



RHP Mike Burrows

C Endy Rodriguez

RHP Colin Selby

INF Jared Triolo

OF Ryan Vilade



We have also re-assigned the following players to Minor League Camp:



RHP Wei-Chieh Huang

LHP Caleb Smith

RHP Nate Webb" - Pirates



https://twitter.com/Pirates/status/1635753905500897280

T. Swag having a nice spring,kind of the forgotten 1st rounder. Looks like it will be hard to hold Endy down for very long.

We knew it was coming, and we know every team does it at some point. But the Pirates need to start playing their best.



Endy Rodriguez was having the best spring on the team IMHO. He clearly showed, at least in this small sample, he's a major league caliber player, and undoubtedly showing he's probably top 100 in the majors kind of talent.



So why hold him down? We could say he needs some seasoning at AAA first. But I really thought we'd see the end of the lookee see period. This is now BC's time to show if he's the real deal. His first picks from 2020 and 2021 should be matriculating to the majors, or at least up to AAA if they were college players, and showing a marked leap in talent level over what was left over from the NH regime.



The same goes for the trades of Bell, Taillon, Marte, Musgrove, and to a lesser extent Frazier. Of those 5 guys, I see only two guys who appear to be a quality major leaguer that will be on the team to start the season, Roansy Contreras and David Bednar. Endy is being sent down.



This is year 4 for BC, and I'm still giving him 5 years before passing judgement. But when I say 5 years, I wasn't talking about being "competitive" I was talking about being a division contender. This is the season I expected they should be "competitive" meaning in contention for a WC, similar to Baltimore last season.



Maybe when the team is all together, and the players know what their role is, and the roster is down to the last guy or two in the bullpen and the last guy on the bench for final decisions, that we might see what we really have.



Right now, I'm seeing the best player in spring sent packing, I'm seeing not one of the "young talents" stepping up to knock a guy like Owings off the roster, which is really disturbing. Bae and Marcano are being outplayed by him.



Right now, I'm not seeing a single guy who looks like they want to be starting in the outfield, with the exception of Swaggerty. Reynolds, Smith-Njigba, Mitchell, Joe, Bae, Marcano all look lost on the grass, at the plate, or both.



The team is not making contact, they have shown little power, they strike out like it's going out of style.



The opportunity for the guys in the pen, again, very few are taking advantage and stepping up. For the most part, the starters have had more good outings then bad. They've each been bounced a couple times, but they've also done more good then bad, specifically Keller, Brubaker, and Hill. I haven't seen Contreras pitch in the WBC, not sure he's even pitched yet.



Basically, the team strength right now appears to be a mediocre starting rotation at best, three arms in the bullpen who look reliable, so you know that means we have a weak pen. I look for the vets to step it up some, but so far they have not produced, Cutch, Choi, Santana.



Two other bright spots have been Cruz and Hayes. It was good to see Hayes hit a legit HR a couple days after having it announced he had a sore thumb. He's a gamer, I like that. Cruz has strangely not been getting a lot of playing time, but I'm guessing that's to give Bae and Marcano and Owings a chance to battle it out.



Let's just say ST games don't count, but I was hoping to see much better than what they've shown. I thought this was the season to see a team with a win count in the 80's.

4A6160656560675A7D687D606667090 wrote: T. Swag having a nice spring,kind of the forgotten 1st rounder. Looks like it will be hard to hold Endy down for very long.
Swaggerty drove in another run vs the Yankees tonight. At this point I would think he has a good chance to coming north with the team. The teams outfield play has been very poor this spring, so if Swaggerty continues to hit, he may end up getting playing time in centerfield.

Swag keeps hitting, Pirates must bring him north.Nothing to lose. Maybe catch some late bloomer, thunder bat from heaven sent.  Lots of bad luck injuries, serious family stuff, missed games. Boom everything comes together for him.

I forgot about Maggi and the awesome spring he's having. Would love to see him make the team and get an at bat. Moonlight Graham kind of story.