Things Pirates

I am off to PNC Park shortly to take in a getaway day matinee game between the Pirates and the Mets.  The Pirates are six games into a critical ten game stretch with games against the Cardinals, Mets, and Brewers.  All are teams that are divisional opponents and/or teams with whom the Bucs are embroiled with in a battle for a Wild Card Playoff slot.  Thus far, the Pirates are 2-4 in the games that have been played, so things haven't gone exactly as hoped.

Here are the Wild Card standings as of this morning:

Not only are the Pirates 4.5 games out of the last WC slot, there are also three teams ahead of them in the standings for that spot.  Maybe, just maybe, if they beat the Mets today and sweep the Brewers in Milwaukee this week, they can get back into this race, but otherwise, things are not looking good, and the chances of GMBC making any significant moves at the trade deadline to improve the 2024 team grow slimmer by the day.

There is more to be written about this team, and I will get to it in the days and weeks ahead, but until then some happier Bucco news:

Both Reynolds and Skenes are fully deserving of making the All-Star team, so congratulations to them both.

Paul Skenes has easily been the Story of the Year for the Pirates, and one of the biggest stories throughout all of MLB this season.  If Major League Baseball had any sense of the dramatic, or of what the People Want To See, Skenes would be the starting pitcher for the National League.  The fact that it does make so much sense is probably why it won't happen.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised of the Pirates tell the Powers That Be specifically NOT to pitch him in the game.  Gotta keep those innings limits in tact, you know.  

Off to PNC and root, root, root for our Home Team.  

#letsgoBucs

The Reynolds Contract and Twelve Key Games Upcoming for the Pirates

From the long term point of view, yesterday was a very good day for the Pittsburgh Pirates when it became known that the team and outfielder Brian Reynolds agreed to an eight year contract extension worth $106 million in guaranteed money.   It is the largest guaranteed contract for any Pittsburgh professional athlete in history, and it came from Bob Nutting and the Pirates.  By all accounts, this is a good deal for both sides (I'll spare all the nitty-gritty details; you can find such info elsewhere in the interwebs if you so desire), and it gives the fan base what we have all been screaming about for years: a sign that the Pirates are willing to finally pay to keep a key player.  

Time, of course, will tell if this turns out to be a good deal for the Pirates, but for today at least, we all need to give the team - and Bob Nutting - their due.  They've stepped up to the plate and delivered for once.  Will they continue to do so?

All that aside, five days ago I wrote about how surprisingly well the team had been in the opening weeks of the season. At the close of this past  weekend, the team's record was 16-7, the best in the National League.  Admittedly, save for three games against the Astros, the Pirates had faced weaker teams in the the League.  Last night, however they began an 18 game stretch wherein twelve of those games would be played against stronger teams with winning records: the Dodgers, Rays, Blue Jays, and Orioles.  It could be said that how the team fares in those twelve games will tell us a lot in how sustainable the Bucs' early success might be.  What would be considered a successful record for the Pirates in those twelve games?  What would convince you that maybe, possibly, perhaps the 2023 version of the Pirates are on the brink of something really good? 

On the theory that you should beat up on the bad teams and break even with the good teams (generally speaking, of course), then I would say that anywhere from 5-7 to 7-5 or better in this stretch would be considered a good run for the team.  4-8 or worse would certainly make one nervous, would it not?  This run began poorly last night when the Pirates blew a 7-2 lead and lost to the Dodgers, so let's hope that they can bounce back tonight and tomorrow.

Oh, and sandwiched among those twelve games are three games apiece against the Nationals and Rockies.  The Bucs swept Colorado in a three game series in Denver last week, and the Nats are well on their way to contending for the worst record in MLB this year, so it behooves the Pirates to take care of business in those six games as they battle against the Big Boys in the league over the next three weeks.

 

And In Pirates News....

The 2022 major league baseball season begins one week from today, and here has been the biggest news items regarding our Pittsburgh Pirates this spring training.

• They are projected to have an Opening Day payroll of approximately $35 million, which puts them in 29th place among all MLB teams.
• They have no players - zero, none! - signed beyond 2022.
• They have opted to take their best player, Brian Reynolds, to salary arbitration over the measly difference of $650,000.  Yes, 650K is a lot of money to you and me, but it's couch cushion money to Bob Nutting and all other MLB owners.  Look for Reynolds to be dealt at the trade deadline this year or next before he becomes eligible for free agency when the Pirates would then have to pay him real money.
• There were also reports that the team tried to sign Reynolds to a long term extension, but he wouldn't accept it.  Would you were you in his position?
• Some of Mitch Keller's pitches hit 100 MPH on the radar gun, but based on what we have seen from Keller over the last several seasons, does that news actually excite you?

And in the big news out of Bradenton yesterday, the team has indicated that Oneil Cruz will be sent to Triple-A to start the season in Indianapolis. Yeah, I know that Cruz' defensive talents are "unpolished", that he's only played a handful of games above the Double-A level, and that the team doesn't want to hinder his "development."  Cruz has also been hitting the cover off the ball in Spring Training (and, yes, I know that that is not always a good indicator) and he has shown jaw-dropping power this spring, too.  He is also 23 years old, so he's not exactly a baby anymore, either.  He is perhaps the best prospect to come out of the Pirates organization since Andrew McCutchen.

In short, Oneil Cruz would be a player to get excited about and make you want to see in action at PNC Park.  Can't this penny-pinching outfit throw us a damned bone every once in awhile?  Apparently not.  Let's keep him under "contractual control" an extra year so we can wait an extra year to low ball him in arbitration when the time comes.

Baseball Fever - It's hard to catch it if you're a Pirates Fan!

The Pirates and MLB at the Halfway Mark

On Friday, the Pirates played their 81st game of 2021.  It was, literally, the halfway point of the season for them.  Yesterday, was the 4th of July, a traditional halfway mark of the season, and in another week or so we will contest the All-Star Game, another traditional halfway point of the season. 

So, where are we?

Before delving into that, let us first salute the Pirates' two representatives on the National League All-Star team, seciond baseman Adam Frazier, who was voted into the starting lineup, and outfielder Brian Reynolds.

This is a not case of "even the crummy teams need to have someone on the team."  Both of these guys are absolutely deserving of being on the teams, so good for them.  Shadowing over this bit of good news is the assumption that Frazier is likely to be traded for prospects by the end of the month, and tells us more about the state of MLB and the Pirates than it does of Frazier, who has been nothing but a good guy during his time with the Bucs.   His All-Star selection will serve as a fitting coda to his Pirates career.

Back to the original question, where are we?

In 2020's shortened season, the Pirates had the worst record in MLB, 19-41. After sixty games this year, the Pirates were 23-37, a four game improvement over last year.  And Frazier and Reynolds are All-Stars.  And Ke'Bryan Hayes seems to be the real deal at third base and at the plate.  You want good stuff...that's it, that's the list.

The Pirates today sit at 30-53, on pace to go 58-104.  They are what we thought they would be - terrible.  Amazingly, they are NOT the worst team in baseball, Arizona and Baltimore have worse records.  How bad must they be?  All that we Pirates fans can do is place our trust in GM Ben Cherrington as he rebuilds the Pirates following the "Astros Model" and hope for the good times to start rolling in 2023 or 2024.

As for the rest of the Majors...

• The Mets have a 3.5 game lead in the NL East, a surprise to me.   The Braves, whom I thought would win that division, are in second place and one game under .500.
• The NL Central is proving to be a one team division as the Brewers have a seven game lead, seventeen games over .500.  Only the Reds are over .500 and the Cardinals, always a contender it seems, are in fourth place, ten games behind the Brewers.
• In the NL West, I was under the impression that the Giants weren't going to be any good, but they sit in first place in what has to be the biggest surprise in the NL so far this season.  However, the Dodgers are .5 game behind and the Padres are 4.5 behind, 22 and 14 games over .500 respectively.  The West could be the best race in baseball in the second half of the season, and my money says the the Dodgers are still the team to beat.
• The biggest surprise in the American League has to be the New York Yankees: 42-41, fourth place in the East, ten games behind the Red Sox.  "Stink" is a relative term when describing bad baseball teams, and using the same word to describe the Pirates and a 42-41 Yankees team is absurd on the face of it, but I wonder how many fans up in the Bronx are using that tern to describe the Yankees these days?
• The White Sox with a six game lead appear to be the goods in the AL Central.  Only Cleveland is over .500 behind them.
• The Astros hold a 3.5 game lead in the West over the always competitive Athletics, and the Mariners are in third only 7 games back.  As it is in the NL West, the race in the AL West could be a fun one to watch down the stretch.

The most amazing story of this season is being written by the Angels' Shohei Ohtani.

In twelve starts as a pitcher, he is 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA and 83 strike outs in 60 innings pitched.  As an outfielder/DH, he is batting 2.78 with 31 home runs and 67 RBI.  He has made the AL All-Star team as both a DH and a pitcher.  The last time anyone did anything like this playing both positions on a full time basis was in the 1919 when a guy named George Ruth did it for the Red Sox.

Yes, we are writing Ohtani's name in the same sentence with that of Babe Ruth.  BABE RUTH!!!

Here's to the second half of the season.

Bucs At the Break

On June 25, the Pirates sat at 36-40, had come off of a recent seven game losing streak, were continuing to parade a string of minor league pitchers out of the bullpen, and were about to embark upon a series of thirteen games against teams with better records than they had (Astros, Brewers, and Cubs).  The potential certainly existed for the Pirates to totally blow themselves out of any hopes of contending for post-season positions.  

And it certainly looked that way when they dropped that opening game of the stretch to former teammate Gerrit Cole and the Astros.  However, they bounced back with two blowout wins over the Astros, and finished up that thirteen game span leading up to the All Star Break with a record of 8-5.  They are still in fourth place in the NL Central, but they are only 2.5 games out of the wild card spot, and, more significantly, only 2.5 games out of first place in the division.  And they have won many of these games in simply amazingly exciting ways.  

I have to admit, I did not see them coming through this stretch as they have.  After the Break, they face another thirteen games against teams above them in the standings, Cubs, Phillies, and Cardinals.   If they can fashion another 8-5 record, or better, in those games, then you have to think that the Front Office will simply HAVE to make an effort to add a piece or two to put the team into a position to make a run for a playoff spot.

They have gotten to this point mainly with an unbelievably potent offense, led by the two guys you see above, Brian Reynolds and Josh Bell.  Reynolds, came to the team in the Andrew McCutchen trade two years ago and is a solid candidate for  Rookie of the Year honors.  In 67 games, he is hitting .342 with 7 HR, 33 RBI, and an OPS of .950.  Bell has been other worldly this season.  In 88 games, he is hitting .302 with 27 HR, 84 RBI (best in all of MLB), and a 1.024 OPS, and while it is totally unfair to make such a comparison, he is having  they type of season the likes of which I have not seen with the Pirates since Willie Stargell was in his prime.  I was in attendance at Friday's game and saw him hit a three run home run that was LOUD off of the bat, with an impossibly high arc to it, and that cleared the PNC Park right field stands with ease.  The only word for it was "majestic".  Even thought he Pirates ended up losing that game, it was worth everything to be there just to see that home run.

I am still concerned with the Pirates pitching.  Starting pitching, thought to be the strong point coming not the season, has been wracked by injuries and inconsistencies.  The bullpen, save for Felipe Vazquez, has been terrible, as pitchers like Geoff Hartleib, Montana DuRapau, and Doyvadas Neverauskas keep getting trotted out and getting pummeled.  Something has to be done to improve upon the pitching staff if the team is to contend.

In any event, this team has earned the right to be watched closely, and I, for one, am looking forward to see how these next thirteen games evolve.

#letsgobucs