OnlyBucs

0C5A4C58574D5D565B4C7E59535F5752105D3E0 wrote: In today's Post-Gazette, Cherington said Polanco is playing regularly because he's healthy and the club wants to give him an extended period of playing time to see what he can do. 



This is out of step with his other decisions, which supports the case some have made that Nutting has commanded Polanco play in order to earn for his pay.  Looks like we might be forced to watch this train wreck for the rest of the way.
I wonder if BC said that with a straight face. Polanco once had a very strong arm. Now he weakly slings the ball sidearm to the cut off man. And that injury was 2 years ago. He may be as healthy as he's going to get but he doesn't look "finally healthy" as BC stated. And it's hard to believe that shoulder injury totally decimated his ability to throw but doesn't have any effect on his ability to swing the bat. And they want to see what he can do now that he's "finally healthy?" He's an 8 year veteran with over 2,800 career ABs. Never hit better than .258 or more than 23 HRs. A career .241 batter who has ALWAYS struggled to track down fly balls and never figured out how to play them off the wall at PNC Park. He has had injuries but he's also had plenty of time in his career to show what he can do when healthy. And the bottom line is that healthy or not, hitting or not, they are not bringing him back at 12.6 million next year.



Whatever the reason is (desperate to have him get hot enough to be claimed on waivers or using their kind treatment of him as a Dominican recruiting tool) it can't possibly be the reason given by BC.

Since Uncle Bob went around the league at the end of 2019, concocting his latest plan, what major league player have the Pirates acquired who is better than Polanco?

5A697574777F49746F73686F7E72751B0 wrote: Since Uncle Bob went around the league at the end of 2019, concocting his latest plan, what major league player have the Pirates acquired who is better than Polanco?
Probably only Gamel. But when it comes to acquiring major league players the Pirates generally restrict themselves to waiver claims. So it's not as if Polanco is better than so many other major leaguers. It's just that the Pirates only search the bottom of the barrel.

Until the Pirates acquire someone better than Polanco, I'll bang on the others before I bang on Polanco.

183538292E3F28686B5A0 wrote:

Probably only Gamel. But when it comes to acquiring major league players the Pirates generally restrict themselves to waiver claims. So it's not as if Polanco is better than so many other major leaguers. It's just that the Pirates only search the bottom of the barrel. 


I'm not saying Polanco is better than other major league players. I'm saying he's the level of player they want. If he did magically "get it going," they wouldn't keep him - he'd be traded at the first opportunity and you'd still have Tom and Alford and whoever out there.

1B283435363E08352E32292E3F33345A0 wrote:

Probably only Gamel. But when it comes to acquiring major league players the Pirates generally restrict themselves to waiver claims. So it's not as if Polanco is better than so many other major leaguers. It's just that the Pirates only search the bottom of the barrel. 


I'm not saying Polanco is better than other major league players. I'm saying he's the level of player they want. If he did magically "get it going," they wouldn't keep him - he'd be traded at the first opportunity and you'd still have Tom and Alford and whoever out there.


I don't believe they want players who are no better than Polanco. It's all about the money. Polanco is grossly overpaid because he agreed to an extension at a time the Pirates thought he was going to be a much better player than he turned out to be. Polanco's 2016 season was modest by MLB standards (.258, 22 HRs, 86 RBIs) but they thought this was the beginning of bigger and better things to come. But it never panned out for him.



When it comes to other major leaguers, the Pirates don't want to take on high salaries so that precludes most good players. It wouldn't at all surprise me if BC (and NH previously) sometimes turn down better offers than the ones they accept because of the salaries of players being offered. So they trade for prospects because it adds to the talent in the system and doesn't involve taking on salaries of productive veteran players. And when they have a need at the MLB level and don't have prospects ready at that position, they look at who's being DFA'd, waived, etc. So I guess it's fair to say they want players at the level of Polanco but only because such players come cheap.

784D5A5A51685A5A51565A3F0 wrote: Until the Pirates acquire someone better than Polanco, I'll bang on the others before I bang on Polanco.
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