OnlyBucs

-Polanco homers again last night



-Diaz came up empty but almost got another one, guy continues to really thump the ball.



-Holmes couldn't find the strikezone, but largely survived.  it was a bad outing but could have been much, much worse had the dodgers capitalized on all the hitters counts they were in.   However, the balls stayed in the yard.



-Glasnow:  4 batters.  0 outs, 2 ER, 1 HBP, 1H, 2BB and a balk. 



-Marte was 2-4 with a double



-Meadows 0-5 with the golden sombrero (3ks)



-Moroff I thought had a solid game.  1-3 and worked a good walk.   But I'm biased and think he should get a significant look



-Mercer also 1-3 with a walk.  his ability to be offensively relevant this time of year isn't a surprise.   pretty good bat for a SS if the season were to start Mid-May every year.

Holmes I could understand a little bit. He'd pitched only slightly over the preceding ten day and pitchers can have control issues in that sort of situation. Glasnow is another matter entirely. I would also like to see Moroff get more of a chance. I would like to think that by the end of July a number of those people at AAA will get a chance to play, so we can start to see what there is there.



Seemed weird there was no game thread last night. Says a lot about interest in the team.

Glasnow was no more good after hitting his first batter. His psyche seems pretty fragile anyway and that finished him for the night.



I'm also a Moroff fan. Last year I attended the final 2 games of the season in DC. Moroff went 3 for 5 with 4 walks, a 2B, a 3B and 7 RBIs. That was pretty impressive.

in AAA, Holmes was 3.39 ERA 1.4 WHIP in 12 starts.  and that's with a 0.1 HR/9! number need to be much better than that not giving up any homers.    his walk rates are too high in the minors year over year.



I would prefer we not waste innings on Holmes as a starter, if possible.   I don't see any possibility that he can be a ML starter.  Possible bullpen arm.    likely organizational fodder.



Glasnow?  He needs to stay in the bullpen for a long time, I think pretty likely forever.  He may have a career there, or may not.     

The one thing I liked about last night is that Hurdle actually seemed to be managing to try and win the game.



He pulled Holmes before he completely imploded and went to Rodriguez, who is arguably the team's second best reliever.



When Glasnow struggled (badly), he yanked him after 4 batters and went to Santana.



Bringing Smoker in in the 8th likely speaks against my initial thought, but hey, Smoker actually survived and thrived.



I also didn't like batting Polanco 3rd against a very tough leftie, but do recognize that Polanco has been hitting lefties better as of late.



All-in-all, a miserable series. Bucs never appeared to have much of a chance in any of the games. They were simply overmatched.



Lastly, hard to believe that so many average players on the Dodgers have hit so many HR's. If Muncy, Taylor and Hernandez were starting for the Pirates they would be batting a collective .230 or so with perhaps 10 HR's between them instead of the 45 HR's or so that they have hit.



Looking forward to today that does not involve a Pirate ballgame.

3C353D2C22580 wrote: -Polanco homers again last night



-Diaz came up empty but almost got another one, guy continues to really thump the ball.



-Holmes couldn't find the strikezone, but largely survived.  it was a bad outing but could have been much, much worse had the dodgers capitalized on all the hitters counts they were in.   However, the balls stayed in the yard.



-Glasnow:  4 batters.  0 outs, 2 ER, 1 HBP, 1H, 2BB and a balk. 



-Marte was 2-4 with a double



-Meadows 0-5 with the golden sombrero (3ks)



-Moroff I thought had a solid game.  1-3 and worked a good walk.   But I'm biased and think he should get a significant look



-Mercer also 1-3 with a walk.  his ability to be offensively relevant this time of year isn't a surprise.   pretty good  bat for a SS if the season were to start Mid-May every year.
I would play Moroff pretty much everyday for an extended period to see what he can do. He draws walks and has some pretty good pop.

Harrison needs to get playing time between now and the end of July in the hopes that he can begin to hit a bit again and raise his trade value. That said, second baseman/jack of all trades who are hitting under .260 with an OPS under .700 and only 4 HR's and who are earning $10 mil likely won't bring much in return.



Harrison is rapidly reaching the level of a sunk cost.

Pirates need to go 23-53 the rest of the way for me to defend my preseason prediction title. This year I picked 63-99.



Sadly, and depressingly, 23-53 seems very possible for this bunch.



When you think about it, this team has no strengths. None.

Most bad teams do at least one thing well. The Pirates don't excel at anything.



They excel at being consistently bad across the board in all categories.

48646C6B6047706676050 wrote: The one thing I liked about last night is that Hurdle actually seemed to be managing to try and win the game.



He pulled Holmes before he completely imploded and went to Rodriguez, who is arguably the team's second best reliever.



When Glasnow struggled (badly), he yanked him after 4 batters and went to Santana. 



Bringing Smoker in in the 8th likely speaks against my initial thought, but hey, Smoker actually survived and thrived. 



I also didn't like batting Polanco 3rd against a very tough leftie, but do recognize that Polanco has been hitting lefties better as of late.   



All-in-all, a miserable series.   Bucs never appeared to have much of a chance in any of the games. They were simply overmatched. 



Lastly, hard to believe that so many average players on the Dodgers have hit so many HR's.  If Muncy, Taylor and Hernandez were starting for the Pirates they would be batting a collective .230 or so with perhaps 10 HR's between them instead of the 45 HR's or so that they have hit.   



Looking forward to today that does not involve a Pirate ballgame.
I was thinking the same thing. Most games it's pretty clear he doesn't make too much of an effort to give his team their best chance of winning. Seemed like last night he decided he didn't want yet another series sweep. But then they got to the 8th trailing by only 2 and Crick had only thrown 11 pitches in the 7th and Hurdle just couldn't help himself and decided to take a look at Smoker. At least Smoker didn't implode.

2D242C3D33490 wrote: in AAA, Holmes was 3.39 ERA 1.4 WHIP in 12 starts.  and that's with a 0.1 HR/9!  number need to be much better than that not giving up any homers.      his walk rates are too high in the minors year over year.   



I would prefer we not waste innings on Holmes as a starter, if possible.   I don't see any possibility that he can be a ML starter.  Possible bullpen arm.    likely organizational fodder.



Glasnow?  He needs to stay in the bullpen for a long time, I think pretty likely forever.  He may have a career there, or may not.     


The problem is its hard to find replacements for two starters on the DL in this organization, let alone one. We have few options here. Our last two call ups - Smoker and Lithuanian kid aren't MLB pitchers. There has to be a drastic change in the way thing are done in order to be competitive. There aren't any answers and if Keller isn't by next year, then ...