The Pirates - 20 Games In

I usually wait for more than twenty games to be played before commenting on how the Pirates are shaping up in any given season, but the start of the 2023 season has been so surprising, so above expectations, and so downright fun, that I couldn't wait any longer to opine on the subject.

The team now stands at 13-7, in second place in the NL Central, 1.5 goes behind the Brewers, and they are tied for the second best record in the National League.  Who besides Pirates Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown saw that coming?  They are playing good and winning baseball, and they are doing so with a  joie de vivre that is so infectious, that you can't wait to watch the next game.  From the drawing of an imaginary sword when someone gets a hit, to the rubber sword that they wield in the dugout after someone hits a home run, to the outfielders doing jumping chest bumps and the infielders doing that goofy dance after every win, you just see a spirit there that you haven't seen for a number of years with the Bucs.

Then there was the McCutchen-like leap from Ji Hwan Bae after his walk-off three run home run against the Astros earlier in the month.

There has been excellent starting pitching led by Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, and Juan Oviedo (the team has had a dozen consecutive games from pitchers going at least six innings), some excellent relief work from guys like Dauri Moreta, Robert Stephenson, Colin "H.R." Holderman, and Duane Underwood, leading to All-Star closer David Bender.

The hitting was led by Brian Reynolds who has cooled off a bit from a first week of the season where he had 5 HR's and 14 RBI's, but his cooling off has been accompanied by Jack Suwinski heating up and hitting 5 HR's is recent games.  Perhaps the most amazing performance thus far, however, has been that of Andrew McCutchen.

McCutchen's signing in the off-season was seen by many, including The Grandstander, as a cynical attempt by Cheapskate Bob Nutting to sell tickets and spread a coat of whitewash over the generally lousy performance of the team over the past three seasons.   Through the first 12.3% of the season, however, the signing of McCutchen may prove to be one of the best moves that the Pirates have made since, well, drafting Andrew McCutchen back in 2005.  He has seemed to eagerly adopt the "elder statesman/leader in the clubhouse" role on a team that for the most part is comprised of younger players.   And he has shown that he can still play.   While playing right field and DH'ing, he has hit .290 with 5 HR, 9 RBI, 10 Runs scored, and carrying OPS of .943, and you could make the case that he has been the best player on the team.

Of course, it hasn't all been sweetness and light, and the one event of the year casting an early shadow was the fractured ankle of Oniel Cruz during the first week of the season.  The most optimistic outlook mentioned thus far is that Cruz will be out for four months, which would get him back in the lineup in mid to late August.  The team has weathered his absence thus far, but it is almost impossible not to think that the long term effects of that injury will be disastrous for the Bucs.  To their credit, no one connected with the team has taken a "woe is us" attitude.  Rather, it has been, "we'll get guys to pick up the slack and move on."

The team still is a flawed one, and no one expects pennant or even post season contention for the Pirates, but they have shown improvement, and they have been, as I said at the outset, a blast to watch.  It would be nice to think that they could maintain this level of performance through, say June, and then, well, who in the Hell knows what might happen.  So in the meantime, we'll just keep raising the Jolly Roger.

Beat 'em Bucs!

 

Cutch Comes Home, The Playoffs Begin, and Jim Thorpe

It's been a jam-packed week, so let's get right on to various topics, as indicated in the headline.

CUTCH COMES HOME

The Pittsburgh Pirates made news this past week with the announcement that they had signed free agent Andrew McCutchen, 36, to a one year, $8 million contract.   This, of course, was greeted warmly by the Bucco fan base since it brings back, arguably, the greatest and most popular Pirates player of this century.  I, for one, will love seeing Cutch back wearing #22 for the Pirates and will be glad that he will get the chance, maybe, to "retire as a Pirate."   However, let's just suppose that the Pirates had signed some other 36 year old free agent who can be described as being well into the back nine of his career?

Would we be saying "same old cheap skate Pirates"?  I think that we probably would.  But, you say,  as the Post-Gazette's Jason Mackey did, "Cutch can still play."  Can he?  Last year for the Brewers, Cutch played in 134 games, had 515 at bats, hit .237 with 17 HR and 69 RBI, and sported a .700 OPS.  He's 36 years old and those numbers don't figure to get better come 2023.  Of course, Cutch will provide a veteran presence and elder statesman leadership in a clubhouse filled with young players, particularly outfielders Cal Mitchell and Jack Suwinski, and there is certainly value in that.  McCutchen is also expected to serve as a band-aid for the possible, if not probable, departure of Brian Reynolds, the man obtained from the Giants when Cutch was first traded away.  Why is Reynolds leaving?  Because the Pirates won't pay the market value price for him.  Surprise.

And don't think that this might not possibly occur.  Let's say that McCutchen discovers the fountain of youth (possibly from one of the new bars the team is putting into PNC Park) and by the All-Star Break has 15 HR, 50 RBI and is hitting in the .270 range.   The team still stinks and is headed for a 90-95 loss season.  Will GMBC then try to trade Andrew McCutchen to a contender in need of a hot bat in exchange for a basket full of prime prospects?  Will the Pirates become the first franchise in history to be pilloried TWICE by its fan base for trading the same player?

THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN

Wild Card Weekend, oh, excuse me, Super Wildcard Weekend, took place with five of the six games being incredibly good and exciting.  The only game that was not in that category was last night's easy win for the Cowboys over the Bucs, but that game was intriguing because it may well be the last time that we see Tom Brady playing.

Some quick hit thoughts and impressions....

• The 49ers looked incredibly good in their win over Seattle.  I see them playing in the Conference Championship game in two weeks.
• The comeback of the Jaguars from being down 0-27 to the Chargers to winning 31-30 was an unbelievable gag job by the Chargers.  
• The matchup between Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert could be this decade's version of Tom Brady v. Peyton Manning of the '00's.  Two incredible talents.
• Both Buffalo and Cincinnati won their games, but didn't look dominant in doing so, and it could be said that they were fortunate to win.  QB's Josh Allen and Joe Burrow did not play their best games, but, in the end, they won.  They meet this weekend in a rematch of the Monday Night game of two weeks back that ended up not being played.  One of them will end up playing the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game in two weeks.
• The Giants beat the Vikings, who may well have been one of the worst 12 win teams in history.   The Giants will meet the Eagles this weekend for the third time this season.  Philly finished shakily in the regular season, in large part due to Jalen Hurts injury.  I'm sure that the Eagles would rather be playing the Vikings instead of their divisional foe this weekend.

I am figuring that the 49ers, Eagles, and Chiefs will win their games this weekend.  The Cincy - Buffalo game will be the most intriguing one.  I am guessing the both Allen and Burrow will bounce back and perform better this week than last week.  I'll call it a win for the Buff Bills because the Bengals are, well, the Bengals.

JIM THORPE

I finally finished David Maraniss' massive (568 pages) and meticulously researched biography of Jim Thorpe.  As he was beginning the project, Maraniss had numerous people say to him something along the lines of "Jim Thorpe?  I think I read a book about him when I was in fourth or fifth grade."  I think that I did, too, and like many people, I knew the basics of his story.  American Indian born on Oklahoma, sent to the Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA, great football player, won decathlon and pentathlon gold medals at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, then had medals stripped from him because he played bush league baseball in 1910.  One of the first great players in what is now the NFL, played major league baseball.  In 1950, he was Named the Greatest Athlete of the First Fifty Years of the 20th Century.   Had a movie of his life made with Burt Lancaster playing him on screen.  That was about the extent of my knowledge of Thorpe.

Maraniss give you more, a whole lot more, of what Thorpe's life was.  He pretty much spent his whole life scuffling to make ends meet.  He played minor league and barnstorming baseball well into his forties, he appeared in dozens of movies, usually as an extra, often uncredited (he was one of the native dancers in "King Kong"), fought for the rights of American Indian actors in Hollywood, dug ditches in California during the depression.  He was the front man for numerous bars, restaurants, and even a Nevada casino that always failed.  He drank too much, was married three times, and was an absent father to his seven children.   He died of a heart attack at age 65 in 1952.  He is buried in a town renamed Jim Thorpe, PA in the north east corner of Pennsylvania, an area where, for all of his travels, Thorpe never set foot.  Maraniss tells the story of how that came about in fascinating detail.

You will learn a lot about the plight of the American Indian when you read his book.  You will also learn who some of the villains were in Thorpe's story.  You  might be surprised to learn that one of them was fabled football coach Pop Warner.  You will not be surprised, if you know anything at all about the man, that another was Avery Brundage, Thorpe's teammate on the 1912 Olympic team and later the President of the USOC and the IOC.

"Path Lit By Lightning" (the english translation of Thorpe's Sac and Fox native name) is at times a ponderous read, but in the end, well worth it, I think.   I enjoyed Maraniss' books on Vince Lombardi and Roberto Clemente more, but I am glad I read this one.   It gets Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

In 2000, ESPN did a poll of the 100 Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century.  Thorpe, as noted above, topped the list in 1950, but in ESPN's 2000 poll, he fell to seventh, behind Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, and Jesse Owens.

 

Painting of Jim Thorpe 

that hangs in the Oklahoma State Capital 

Building in Oklahoma City

The Pirates at the 24.69% Pole

The Pirates have now played 40 games, almost, but not exactly, one-quarter of the season. (I have gone for strict mathematical accuracy in the headline so as to save my pal Fred Shugars the bother of correcting me.)  Their record is now 23-16.  They are in a virtual tie for second place in the NL Central with the Cardinals, one-half game behind the first place Brewers.  They are on a pace that would win 94 games over the course of 162 games.

If you tell me that you saw that coming back in Spring Training, and your name is NOT Neal Huntington or Clint Hurdle, I simply do not believe you.

A couple of observations:

• The much reviled trade of Andrew McCutchen was and will perhaps always remain an emotional gut-kick to all Pirates fans.  From a baseball standpoint, though, it seems that the time to move McCutchen had indeed arrived.  He is being thoroughly out performed by the man who replaced him in the lineup, Cory Dickerson.  However, it should also be pointed out that the jury is still out on whether or not the players received from the Giants for Cutch, Kyle Crick and Brian Reynolds will prove to be sufficient value received over the long haul.
• The Pirates have certainly proved to be a winning, exciting, and thoroughly likable team to watch in 2018.  Dickerson has probably been the best position player on the team thus far, Colin Moran appears to be a solid, if unspectacular guy at third base, and Francisco Cervelli would be the NL's All-Star catcher if the game was being held today.
• On the down side, Josh Bell needs to bring his hitting up to the levels that it approached last year, and I have my doubts that Gregory Polanco will ever achieve the superstar status that many had hoped that he would obtain.
• The pitching concerns me.  Starters with ERA's over 4.00 cannot, it would seem, be sustainable over the course of a long season.  The bullpen has shown some signs of improvement in recent weeks, but you still have to worry about whomever comes in to bridge the gap between the starter and Felipe Vazquez.

The big message is that the Pirates have proven thus far that they have earned the right to be taken seriously.  They are exciting to watch, and with 24.69% of the schedule behind them, it is no longer "still early" in the season.  A summer that looked to be a moribund one, baseball-wise, back in March now shows promise of giving us some hope and excitement here in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of Andrew McCutchen, Marilyn and I did make our way to PNC Park on Friday night to see Cutch's first game back in Pittsburgh, and I managed to get these pictures of what I though was the emotional highlight - Jameson Taillon, Francisco Cervelli, and home plate umpire Chris Segal stalling for time during McCutchen's first plate appearance in order to let the ovation continue for a sustained length of time.  It was also cool that Taillon struck him out, and that the Pirates won the game 11-2.

Buccos and Ex-Buccos

We are 35 games into the 2018 Major League Baseball season, the Pirates sit at 19-16, third place in the NL Central, and 2 and 1/2 games behind the Cardinals.  Way better than I thought that they would be at this point.  Starting pitchers have all accumulated six or seven starts by now, and hitters have accumulated over 100 at bats.  Time to look at some of the stats and play my pal Len Martin's favorite game. "How Are All the Ex-Pirates Doing?"  I'll also take a look at how the current Pirates are doing.  All statistics are through the games played through May 6.

First, let's look at this interesting comparison.  

	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Corey Dickerson	32	124	39	5	24	0.315	0.888
Andrew McCutchen	33	114	28	3	14	0.246	0.765

Left fielder Corey Dickerson is the guy who replaced Andrew McCutchen in the Pirates lineup.  There can be little argument as to who has been the better player thus far.  It cannot be quantified in numbers, or at least I can't quantity it, I'm sure advanced SABRmetricians could, but it just seems  that Dickerson is getting hits when the Pirates really need them.  It should also be noted that since I  last ran these numbers, back on April 14, McCutchen is picking it up just a bit.  Back then, he was hitting only .214 and had a .647 OPS.  It will be interesting to follow these two as the season progresses.

Here is the total picture for the Ex-Buccos.  Since last time, I have added Francisco Liriano to the mix.

Hitters	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Neil Walker	25	90	17	0	8	0.189	0.504
Pedro Alvarez	30	78	16	7	14	0.205	0.811
Andrew McCutchen	33	114	28	3	14	0.246	0.765
Russell Martin	22	76	11	4	9	0.145	0.615
PITCHERS	G	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR Allowed	Sv/Sv Opp	BA Against
J.A. Happ	7	41.2	4-2	3.67	1.08	53	11	7		0.218
Gerrit Cole	7	50.2	3-1	1.42	0.69	77	9	3		0.151
Charlie Morton	7	41.2	4-0	2.16	1.03	46	17	5		0.178
Tony Watson	15	15.2	1-1	0.57	0.89	17	3	0		0.200
Francisco Liriano	6	36.1	3-1	2.97	1.07	26	16	3		0.187
All stats through May 6

My $.02.....

• We always hear what a genius Ray Searage is.  If that is true, then who is the Astros' pitching guru?  So far, he's getting results out of Cole and Morton that Searage never even approached.
• Pedro Alvarez is what we thought he was.  A guy who can hit home runs but can't hit.  He has found his niche with the Orioles as a platoon DH.  Only four of his seventy-eight at bats came against left handed pitching. (FYI - he went 1-for-4, with a HR and 2 K's)
• Is Neil Walker, at age 32, done as a player?

And now the current Buccos.

Hitters	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	BA	OPS
Josh Harrison	14	57	15	1	5	0.263	0.679
Gregory Poanco	32	121	25	6	18	0.207	0.741
Starling Marte	35	136	38	5	16	0.278	0.819
Josh Bell	35	130	31	2	17	0.238	0.661
Corey Dickerson	32	124	39	5	24	0.315	0.888
Colin Moran	31	97	27	2	15	0.278	0.774
Francisco Cervelli	28	93	28	5	22	0.301	0.950
Jordy Mercer	32	113	27	1	8	0.239	0.636
Adam Frazier	32	92	24	2	5	0.261	0.654
Sean Rodriguez	23	51	8	3	6	0.157	0.617
David Freese	24	48	13	3	9	0.271	0.845
Elias Diaz	16	39	15	2	6	0.385	0.967
PITCHERS	G	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR Allowed	Sv/SvOpp	BA Against
Jameson Taillon	7	36.2	2-3	4.42	1.28	30	11	4		0.254
Ivan Nova	7	42.2	2-2	4.01	1.22	35	6	6		0.269
Trevor Williams	7	41.0	4-2	2.63	1.10	26	18	3		0.193
Chad Kuhl	7	39.1	4-2	4.12	1.30	36	12	7		0.264
Steven Brault	8	31.1	2-1	4.60	1.31	21	16	3		0.223
Joe Musgrovew
Felipe Vazquez	13	13.0	1-0	3.46	1.38	15	6	0	6/6	0.235
Michael Feliz	16	14.0	0-1	3.21	1.21	19	6	1	0	0.208
George Kontos	16	15.1	2-3	4.11	1.37	4	5	2	1/1	0.271
Tyler Glasnow	8	16.1	0-1	7.71	1.71	23	12	1		0.246
Nick Kingham	2	12.1	2-0	2.92	0.65	16	1	2		0.159
Kyle Crick	10	8.1	0-0	3.24	1.44	13	4	1		0.235
Stats through May 6

Some observations...

• Four starting pitchers have ERA's over 4.00.  That's a concern.  One of those guys. Steven Brault, has been moved to the bullpen and has been replaced by Nick Kingham, who has looked good in two starts.
• Since I last did this on April 14, Gregory Polanco has had 1 HR and 3 RBI.
• Of the guys obtained for Gerrit Cole, Colin Moran has been a solid player at third base, Michael Feliz has been a pretty good set-up reliever, Joe Musgrove is still on the DL and has yet to make an appearance, and minor league outfielder Jason Martin is, presumably, somewhere in the Pirates minor league system.  Cole is an early Cy Young Award candidate.  The jury is still out on that trade.  
• David Freese has proven to be a very good bench guy.
• If I had to select the "Pirate to Make the All-Star Team" today it would be Francisco Cervelli.

Will check back in on all of these guys in another month or so.