OnlyBucs

Bobster wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 6:12 pm

Babe Adams wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 5:17 pm

fjk090852-7 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 1:50 am
All kidding aside, maybe they could have an heir of the Waner’s , or Pie Traynor throw out the first pitch on Opening Day.

John Waner.

John Wehner is not a Waner.

John Wehner will do just fine for Nutting’s purposes. He’s the generic form of Paul Warner, and you know the difference in price between the generic drug and the real drug.

The Pirates are putting their hopes on players who could, possibly, play well this season. Davis could hit ML pitching, Endy might be recovered and hit acceptably well, Bart may even turn out to be the real deal. There are others as well but the point is, any marked improvement depends on these players having good seasons. But in keeping with the upbeat nature of this thread, it occurs to me that they don't all have to hit well. One or two doing well could boost the team's win total. The starting pitching should be improved, even the relief pitching if the manager can pull back just a touch from that 'let them pitch through their problems' approach. So there is hope for sure of a .500 season. Keep in mind, with none of those things last year, they got close. And now it's time to be reading of how the older players are returning in the best shape of their lives, and others talking of their new, improved swing, and pitchers mentioning their new pitch - indeed, it's time. Enough of this snow and ice crap - let's get this spring training thing underway!

With a 37 year old in LF with a chronic temper, a first baseman with a chronic bad wrist, a third baseman with a chronic bad back, a center fielder with a chronic head injury, a 38 year old DH with a chronic bad knee, a GM with a chronic prospect hoarding problem, a field manager with a chronic fundamentally undisciplined team, an owner with a chronic shoulder injury that prevents him from reaching his wallet, the Pirates lead the league in chronics.

On the optimistic front, keep in mind that the team is looking for Horwitz to be around for three years. It's not uncommon for a team to give a pitcher a two-year deal, knowing in year one he'll be recovering from TJ surgery and won't play at all. If Horwitz recovers by the end of spring training and then has to play twenty or so games at AAA while he gets back into baseball shape, he still has plenty of time to contribute this year and going forward. Long season, etc.