OnlyBucs

I am not one of the fans who wishes that the Bucs blowup the roster for next season. I do think there have to be changes with the manager, some of the coaches, and possibly some front office personnel. Since we now know that Taillon will miss next season, I think that if Vázquez can return valuable players who can fill holes such as catching, and pitching that trade should be made. Also a player the Pirates should pursue is Michael Wacha who is a free agent this offseason. At this point the Bucs need to add at least two pitchers who could join the starting rotation. Hopefully Kuhl, Santana and Burdi can join the bullpen. I would not be opposed to trading Frazier if the return would strengthen the team. Possibly Polanco could be moved to the American League to become a teams DH.

I would look to trading Bell as well. I suspect next year is his last anyway, for salary reasons (if he has another year like this one), and there is a replacement of sorts for him in Osuna.

2F2322797079717C7B647E490 wrote: I am not one of the fans who wishes that the Bucs blowup the roster for next season. I do think there have to be changes with the manager, some of the coaches, and possibly some front office personnel. Since we now know that Taillon will miss next season, I think that if Vázquez can return valuable players who can fill holes such as catching, and pitching that trade should be made. Also a player the Pirates should pursue is Michael Wacha who is a free agent this offseason. At this point the Bucs need to add at least two pitchers who could join the starting rotation. Hopefully Kuhl, Santana and Burdi can join the bullpen. I would not be opposed to trading Frazier if the return would strengthen the team. Possibly Polanco could be moved to the American League to become a teams DH.


Why do people keep saying that Kuhl will be in the bullpen? He has started every game he has played in professional baseball. He has never not started.



He will only be 27. I'm optimistic that he can return and be a successful big league starter.

05183C3E30550 wrote: I am not one of the fans who wishes that the Bucs blowup the roster for next season. I do think there have to be changes with the manager, some of the coaches, and possibly some front office personnel. Since we now know that Taillon will miss next season, I think that if Vázquez can return valuable players who can fill holes such as catching, and pitching that trade should be made. Also a player the Pirates should pursue is Michael Wacha who is a free agent this offseason. At this point the Bucs need to add at least two pitchers who could join the starting rotation. Hopefully Kuhl, Santana and Burdi can join the bullpen. I would not be opposed to trading Frazier if the return would strengthen the team. Possibly Polanco could be moved to the American League to become a teams DH.


Why do people keep saying that Kuhl will be in the bullpen?  He has started every game he has played in professional baseball.  He has never not started.



He will only be 27.  I'm optimistic that he can return and be a successful big league starter.


yeah, if he comes back healthy and they think he can handle a starters innings he is going to be needed in the rotation.



Unless some decent outside arms are brought in no one is going to predict the Bucs will have a good rotation next year.

052322352333400 wrote: I am not one of the fans who wishes that the Bucs blowup the roster for next season. I do think there have to be changes with the manager, some of the coaches, and possibly some front office personnel. Since we now know that Taillon will miss next season, I think that if Vázquez can return valuable players who can fill holes such as catching, and pitching that trade should be made. Also a player the Pirates should pursue is Michael Wacha who is a free agent this offseason. At this point the Bucs need to add at least two pitchers who could join the starting rotation. Hopefully Kuhl, Santana and Burdi can join the bullpen. I would not be opposed to trading Frazier if the return would strengthen the team. Possibly Polanco could be moved to the American League to become a teams DH.


Why do people keep saying that Kuhl will be in the bullpen?  He has started every game he has played in professional baseball.  He has never not started.



He will only be 27.  I'm optimistic that he can return and be a successful big league starter.


yeah, if he comes back healthy and they think he can handle a starters innings he is going to be needed in the rotation.



Unless some decent outside arms are brought in no one is going to predict the Bucs will have a good rotation next year.
I think when we were being told prior to the season that the Pirates had one of MLB's best rotations that there was an assumption that when Kuhl was again able to pitch it would be in the BP because of his struggles as a starter. But now that we have a starting rotation that's awful and needs arms, I suspect Kuhl will get a chance to win a spot next year.

The most frustrating thing to me is that the total salary is so low that the Pirates could have made a splash while still being one of the low salary teams. I am open to trading Marte, Bell, Vasquez and Moran if they can get pitching. Keep Polanco and hope he can play well enough to get some kind of value in return and go with a core of Reynolds, Newman, Hayes, Keller, Osuna etc...



Right now, what is the rotation for next year? Musgrove, Archer, Williams, Keller and maybe Kuhl, Brault or Agrazal. Yuck.

I don't predict many changes for next year's team, apart from the return of Polanco and the injured pitchers. We need to sign an ace, but we won't. We need to trade for a catching prospect in the high minors, but that didn't happen at the deadline, so I struggle to see it happen before next season.



We may re-sign Melkman and Liriano. We may give up on Erik Gonzalez.



Here's the team:

C Diaz and Stallings - Cervelli should retire

1B Bell, Osuna

2B Frazier, Newman

SS Newman, Tucker

3B Moran, Osuna

LF Reynolds, Cabrera

CF Marte, Reynolds

RF Polanco, Osuna



Martin, Reyes, Kramer and Craig will get call-ups from time to time. There is no catcher currently in the system worth playing in the majors next season.



An aceless pitching staff could include Musgrove, Williams, Archer, Keller, Brault and Kuhl. Bullpen holds Vazquez, Kela, Crick, Santana, Rodriguez, Feliz, Stratton and a lefty, perhaps Liriano. There are so many pitchers on the 40-man that don't belong in the majors that we would see a half dozen DFA's if the system held anyone worth taking their place.



Can you tell how excited I am?