Ramblin Thoughts on a Tuesday

[MaineBucs]

1 - When are the Pirates going to stop messing with Peters? Why pitch him an inning last night if they are expecting him to start on Wednesday? Peters has been one of the few bright spots among the pitchers, but it looks to me like the Pirates are trying hard to end his success. (Note - made similar comment last week).



2 - I recognize that Surge has regularly been reminding folks to question Reynolds under-performance to date. The concern I posted last week is that Reynolds 2022 season is beginning to look a lot like a repeat of 2020. He is swinging through a lot of pitches, and as Surge noted, he is not driving in runs.



3 - I know team records in the minors are often deemed irrelevant. In the case of the Pirates, let's hope so. The club's 4 minor league teams have records similar to the parent club:

Indianapolis - 17 - 17

Altoona - 14 - 19

Greensboro - 14 - 19

Bradenton - 16 - 17



4 - Like others, I don't get Hayes riding the pine so frequently. If he is still feeling the effects of his early season injury, just say so. If not, he should be in the line-up.



5 - Lot's of coming and going this month. Six players were both called up and sent packing in the first 15 days of May alone. Howard and Suise were called up but were quickly DFA'd and claimed by other teams. Aldred, Marcano, Fletcher, and Kranick were all called up but are now already back in the minors with the Pirates. Quite a few other changes as well, Cole down, Castro up; Marisnick and Perez lost to injury; Underwood and Banda return from injuries; Heinemein in, Knapp out at catcher; Beede picked up from the Giants; and Yajure sent back to AAA. So --- in 15 days or so, the Pirates have turned over about 40% of their active roster. And, in looking at the current roster and the number of poor on-field performances, I would expect this merry-go-round to continue.



6 - Last night's game was hard to watch after the Bucs falling down by 8 runs in the first. Based on his performance last night, Miley would have been a nice pick-up by the Pirates this past off-season.



7 - He's currently strugglin' at the plate, but I am glad that the Pirates are still regularly using Suwinski in the OF.



8 - In my off-season prediction for this season I thought that the Pirates would have trouble winning many games. It doesn't look too promising for things to turn around, and there are signs that the team's overall record is better than it should be.

The 2 wins against the Dodgers could be the high mark for the year.

[Bobster21]

I think the Pirates (be it Shelton, Cherington or both) are trying to be uber innovative for the purpose of being innovative. For too long they put their only middle of the order power threat at leadoff where his slowness could clog the bases and a multi-run HR required the bottom of the order to get on base. A team with an abundance of power could get away with that. But the Pirates were squandering their only power threat in the name of innovation.



They constantly rest their players regardless of how it weakens the lineup. That rest does not seem to be helping and might even be hurting based on the team performance.



They want to limit their SPs even when doing well. Several games were lost because the BP could not duplicate a good performance of the SP they replaced.



They want to do things like have Peters pitch the 1st inning and then bring in Wilson. The 1st inning was a disaster and Wilson ended up pitching 5.1 innings anyway. 



It seems like the Pirates are trying to be unconventional as a concession to the fact they lack the talent of other teams. But these "innovations" seem to only be making a bad team worse. 

[skinnyhorse]

This team is not getting better under Cherington and the awful Shelton. The managerial moves are just awful, slowest runner leading off, then worst batting average hitter leading off, then resting your best player even while only playing 3 games in the same week. This is a royal mess and unwatchable. This team has hit rock bottom and is going nowhere with this current management team. I can't take it anymore.

[GreenWeenie]

20383A3D3D2A3B3C212036530 wrote: This team is not getting better under Cherington and the awful Shelton.  The managerial moves are just awful, slowest runner leading off, then worst batting average hitter leading off, then resting your best player even while only playing 3 games in the same week.  This is a royal mess and unwatchable.  This team has hit rock bottom and is going nowhere with this current management team.  I can't take it anymore.


We haven't agreed often. I agree with much of this, but particularly your first sentence. The question is- what, if anything, will be done to improve matters?



My biggest complaint under Nutting ownership hasn't been "money." It's the continuing lack of urgency. If losing isn't a big deal to its fans, then how can we expect winning to be a big deal for the franchise?



You can't collectively bargain for a sense of urgency. That has to come from the top of the organization. We don't have it in the Pirates organization.

[bucs607179]

083D2A2A21182A2A21262A4F0 wrote: This team is not getting better under Cherington and the awful Shelton.  The managerial moves are just awful, slowest runner leading off, then worst batting average hitter leading off, then resting your best player even while only playing 3 games in the same week.  This is a royal mess and unwatchable.  This team has hit rock bottom and is going nowhere with this current management team.  I can't take it anymore.


We haven't agreed often.  I agree with much of this, but particularly your first sentence.  The question is- what, if anything, will be done to improve matters? 



My biggest complaint under Nutting ownership hasn't been "money."  It's the continuing lack of urgency.  If losing isn't a big deal to its fans, then how can we expect winning to be a big deal for the franchise?



You can't collectively bargain for a sense of urgency.  That has to come from the top of the organization.  We don't have it in the Pirates organization.


I don't follow the financial side of sports. Is Mr. Nutting making money off the Pittsburgh Pirates???? If he is why should there be a sense of urgency?? Does attendance make or break an owner???? I'm guessing it has little to do with it with what I'm seeing in the stands. Maybe the seats that are empty have been bought??



I hate that you have to pay to get the better players in MLB. I'm positive Nutting would never do that. His only concern IMO is to make a profit, is he????

[WildwoodDave2]

697173747463727568697F1A0 wrote: This team is not getting better under Cherington and the awful Shelton.  The managerial moves are just awful, slowest runner leading off, then worst batting average hitter leading off, then resting your best player even while only playing 3 games in the same week.  This is a royal mess and unwatchable.  This team has hit rock bottom and is going nowhere with this current management team.  I can't take it anymore.
Can't take it anymore?Do what doc does. Play Golf

[WildwoodDave2]

487D6A6A61586A6A61666A0F0 wrote: This team is not getting better under Cherington and the awful Shelton.  The managerial moves are just awful, slowest runner leading off, then worst batting average hitter leading off, then resting your best player even while only playing 3 games in the same week.  This is a royal mess and unwatchable.  This team has hit rock bottom and is going nowhere with this current management team.  I can't take it anymore.


We haven't agreed often.  I agree with much of this, but particularly your first sentence.  The question is- what, if anything, will be done to improve matters? 



My biggest complaint under Nutting ownership hasn't been "money."  It's the continuing lack of urgency.  If losing isn't a big deal to its fans, then how can we expect winning to be a big deal for the franchise?



You can't collectively bargain for a sense of urgency.  That has to come from the top of the organization.  We don't have it in the Pirates organization.
Continuing lack of urgency? Evidently Nutting doesn't plan on checking out any time soon

[GermanTownship]

Anybody that will go in person when this Massive Joke of a team (?) is at PNC is unbelievable! Had hope that the “so called “ top prospects would do well, particularly the position players, would be on the 26 man roster this summer. They are also do poorly. Going back in time, these guys remind me of the Rickey Dinks of the 50’s. They may be lucky to win 45 games. Football can’t come soon enough.

[2drfischer@gmail.c]

Reading through the comments above, I understand the frustration.  We've been living through the nightmare that's the Pittsburgh Pirates since the end of the 1992 season.  With the exception of the three playoff years, it's been historically awful.



However, I'm not sure why there's such anger and frustration now.  We all know what Cherington is trying to achieve, all while being hamstrung by an owner who doesn't share BC's goal of winning.  The two of them are operating in two different worlds.



There's only one way for BC to bring a winner to Pittsburgh:  drafting, trading, and developing on the cheap.  He's been here for two and a half years, one negated by a pandemic that suspended the development of some of the young players he's counting on to resurrect the organization.  It's unreasonable to expect that the young acquisitions he's obtained would've been ready to be winning major league players in 2022.  No GM in the history of baseball could've pulled that off.



I was curious about the roster BC inherited in November, 2019.  There were some decent players who would be helping this current team, if they all agreed to stay.  But after what we saw happen following the 2015 season, we know Nutting has no intention of ever signing players the likes Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, Joe Musgrove, Jacob Stallings, or Jameson Taillon to large enough contracts to keep them in Pittsburgh.  So Cherington did what he knew - what we all knew - he had to do with those players.



For me, it's not worth it to be angered by what's taking place this year.  I don't like the losing, either.  But the objective is to get one more high draft pick in 2023.  So far, all's going well in meeting that goal.  Later this season and next, we'll begin to see BC's acquisitions arrive and the core of the next winning club begin to form.  Sustaining the winning year after year (like Tampa does), under an owner like Nutting, will be the real trick.

[GreenWeenie]

Given his record in Boston, it's anyone's guess how well the suspects will perform. It's by no means assured.