OnlyBucs

The heart and soul of this team. But, I wasn't impressed either in the WBC or ST. Anyone else nervous about him? Happy Opening Day everyone! (Today should be a national holiday.)

He always starts out slow, so I won't be concerned about him for a month or so. if he is struggling and the calendar turns over to May then I will be worried.



I'm thinking he'll have a bounce-back year at least offensively.

I'm not overly optimistic that we'll see the return of the old MVP Cutch. I hope that he adapts well to his new position and has a better defensive year than in 2016. As for his offense I guess we'll find out soon enough if he can reclaim the great bat speed that made him an elite hitter.

Off hand, I would guess he's more upset about the switch to right field than the off-season trade talk.

This article seems to indicate the centerfield position was a bigger deal. Very well written piece by Cutch.



https://www.theplayerstribune.com/andre ... ittsburgh/

He needs to focus and hustle and he will be a 4+ WAR right fielder as he should have better range than any RF in baseball.   



He can be a plus defensive RF and if he hustles out of the box instead of watching balls he can have 7+ triples instead of his usual pathetic 3 for a guy with his power/speed ratio. I'm expecting a rebound year and he's in a position now where his defense can be a plus to his value.

Sure would be nice to let McCuthen work out his issues in the 7th spot in the order and let Bell take a shot at the 3rd spot in the order. If we are just going to give Andrew a pass at sucking for a month or so until he wakes up, then lets let him do it lower in the order.

4C6F7A7A7B73707E7B7A6D27271F0 wrote: Sure would be nice to let McCuthen work out his issues in the 7th spot in the order and let Bell take a shot at the 3rd spot in the order.  If we are just going to give Andrew a pass at sucking for a month or so until he wakes up, then lets let him do it lower in the order.


Can't say I agree with this. Bell wasn't very good in ST, or prior to his last AB yesterday. The Pirates are really in a Catch 22 with Cutch 22. I wouldn't be opposed to moving Cutch out of the three hole, but how do you tell your franchise player, the guy who literally brought you back from the doldrums, that he isn't the player he once was anymore? Again...I hope I'm wrong. I would love nothing more than for #22 to prove me wrong.

You don't do it on April 4th. You wait till May at least. Then you just tell him you are going to bump him down in the order till he gets his bat going- assuming someone else it hitting enough to merit moving him to the 3rd spot.

One game is way too soon to change anything. Although I am concerned Cutch's downward spiral will continue, let's give him at least a couple of weeks to prove us wrong. I watched him in the WBC and didn't think he was horrible, he hit the ball hard and had some bad luck in several of the games I got to watch.