Steel City Pirates Q&A – All Star Break Questions…

7-17-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

Good questions, had a good time answering them, thanks!

Lets Go.

Question 1

Who would you have pitch the three games this weekend against Philadelphia? Do you throw Skenes this series or against St. Louis? – JGor492

I know this isn’t where fans have their headspace right now, but I’m taking the easy inning relief here with Paul. It’s not fun to talk about, but it is a reality and they can buy him almost 10 days of relative rest without “skipping” him.

They also have an opportunity to set their rotation up a bit better.

The Phillies are a wagon, I won’t go so far as to say it doesn’t matter who you throw against them, but instead I’ll say the Pirates have 2 guys you expect to give you a great shot, and 4 guys you hope do.

Against the Cardinals, listen, I know they have a better record, but they have a -38 run differential, the Pirates don’t have a starter I’d shy away from.

So I get the logic of trying to make sure Keller and Skenes go in Philly. I think I prioritize the rest personally though.

I’d start out with Marco Gonzales, for one thing, he’s just started getting himself built back into handling innings, and it’s a really bad time to have him sit longer than normal. He’s also not a bad foot forward against a team that’s demolishing fastballs, just coming off some down days. I like the idea of crafty that day.

I’d then move to Keller who had a short outing last time out, got an All Star snub and should be chomping at the bit.

From there, Martin Perez or Luis Ortiz would be my series finisher and I’d lean Ortiz, he’s shown a lot this season, I’d like to see him get a shot at working through that lineup and see just how convicted he is about throwing strikes.

In St. Louis, I’d use all three. I’d start with a 6 man rotation coming out of the break, so against the Cards I’d go some variation of Perez, Skenes and Priester, even if Priester is with an opener.

Another way they could go, they could use Priester as a backer for Perez, he’s scuffled, but it’s really hard to have the flexibility of planning for two starters, while also planning to let either of them run a bit if they get going. In other words, Perez could go 5-6 and then Priester is not likely closing out the game and he’ll get fewer innings. Might not be the best use of the tools they have at hand.

I guess if I were mapping it out, Gonzales, Keller, Ortiz, Perez, Skenes, Priester for me. I don’t look at deciding where Skenes pitches as choosing the series I “want” to win though.

Question 2

Is Cherington making moves? What should we expect at the end of the month? – Shawn Wheeler

I know at the very least they plan to add a bat. They’ve said that, I’ve been told that, and it’s painfully clear it’s what they’re missing most.

Couple things about this “bat”…
– They aren’t married to it being a lefty or a righty specifically
– They aren’t pinning themselves to one position but they’d prefer an outfielder
– They’re looking for a starting level player

What should we expect? Well, them to find someone, minimally, who meets at least some of those criteria. If they can’t get one player who does all that, they might get two.

Lastly, they are not afraid to use options or move veterans to make room. Bringing in an outfielder or two might mean optioning Jack and trading/cutting Michael Taylor. Just an example of what I’m getting at.

I won’t predict any big moves because I don’t really believe any I like are out there. I wouldn’t be in on Robert Jr. or Jazz personally. Both have injury history, both have at least in my opinion hustle issues, and both of them will require star payment to acquire, for me, I need to be more sure than I am about those two in order to get on board.

If they go that route, don’t get me wrong, they’d improve the team, I just think I’d rather go after a smaller name like Doyle from Colorado. I bet I’d get the same punch (if not more) for way less prospect cost, simply by not being under the microscope.

End of the month, they will on paper look like they changed for the better, even if only marginally.

Question 3

I have 2 questions…

1) I’ve been waiting to see German on the club all year. I’m I expecting too much from him?

2) everyone is talking about them being buyers. Who do you think they will be willing to move and what return do you expect? – Greg Roland

Well Greg, before I start, the Pirates just released Domingo German, but I still think it’s worth explaining what they were thinking, and maybe where you were off. I think maybe you were underestimating how much work he had to do both on and off the field to prove to the Pirates and MLB he’s worth redeeming. His contract was designed to give him a fair shake, in exchange for the Pirates getting a very cheap top end pitcher in 2025 if he capitalized on it.

They paid him 1.5 million this year on a minor league deal. He’s not on the 40-man so the Pirates couldn’t call him up unless they cut someone else. He has a 2.5 million dollar club option for 2025, meaning it’s was entirely up to the Pirates whether they want him or not.

A lot would have had to happen to see him used in 2024. I think you’d have to have 2 more injuries to starters and even then you might see Ashcraft and a bullpen game instead. Nah, to me, German was a very late season innings eater or an offseason decision if they wanted to bring him to Spring or not.

The unmentioned here, he’s played 11 games and had a 5.00+ ERA. He’s wasn’t exactly pushing either brother.

Now question 2, Kinda talked about the return I expect in The Question 2, not your question 2. Who they’d part with? Perez, Grandal, M. Gonzales, Olivares, Taylor, I mean, those guys are all possibilities. If you want me to start listing off prospects, man, I’m just not gonna do it.

I’ll instead tell you, they only have maybe 2 or 3 guys they won’t move, and they could probably still play in most conversations. Bubba Chandler, Termarr Johnson are probably not available, and if I had to guess, they probably wouldn’t want to move Thomas Harrington either.

Question 4

Only asking because I don’t recall it ever being mentioned: What is Andy Haines’ supposed strength as a hitting coach? A lot of guys, you hear about hands-on approaches or great communication skills, but all you hear about Haines is “he works hard.” So do washing machines. – Nick Cammuso

First, the National Lampoon reference is noted and appreciated, if you know, you know. He’s supposedly very good at organizing and presenting information to players. Now, I’ve had this characterized to me as “information overload” unsolicited from at least 3 prospects over the past couple years, but for more seasoned hitters, it’s very welcome information that they look forward to getting both about their competition and their own swing mechanics.

That’s another thing he’s supposed to excel at, swing mechanics. None of us are in on any of this, including the people who actually get paid to cover the team. Nobody who isn’t directly in that room knows 100% how this process goes, especially in season. For instance, Rowdy Tellez showed up to camp already trying something different than he did before he was signed. I stress that part, Rowdy showed up like that. Then Rowdy decided sometime in May to talk to his Dad and some old trusted coaches who encouraged him to revert to what he used to do. Haines was blamed for making him suck, and blamed for taking so long to let him find help to not suck. Truth, Haines had told him his new tweaks weren’t working too.

I hate this stuff Nick, because it always comes across like I’m cool with Haines or whatever, I hope I’ve said often enough, I’m not, I’m just also not a guy who is going to claim he has no value at all. I still think they need better hands on options at the MLB level, but I’d also say, this is the first year they’re actually trying to have more of this “information overload” presented to players in the lower levels more frequently. The hope being, it helps in their adjustment struggles.

It’s like hiring a guy to pick up trash in the city, you know he isn’t real good at emptying the truck at the dump, but he can pick it all up just fine. Rather than hire someone to help do the actual dumping, they’re just ok with him missing the hole once in a while and having a bunch of office workers shovel up the mess.

Like doctors, First, do no harm. I feel pretty good about this one, he’s not hurting guys, he just isn’t really helping them either. His suggestions are just that, guys don’t go to the plate doing what they don’t want to do. Except Yasmani bunting of course.

The overall philosophy, well, they’ve already changed it. Derek Shelton stepped in and told his guys to get more aggressive up there, I think you’ve seen, they listened. Even that isn’t to say Haines said don’t swing and Shelton said swing, it’s instead to say, guys, we’re leaning too far into being patient and it’s hurting your chances to produce. It clicks for some and confuses others.

They need to improve this area. To me, they can do that and keep Haines if they like in some capacity. I don’t have to be 100% right to the degree he’s unemployed, I just know I’m right enough that they have to make some kind of change even if it’s just structurally.

Question 5

The Pirates have extended a player each of the last 3 seasons. Do you think that trend will continue this off season? – Robert Hagelin Jr.

I do Robert. I think there would have been two had David Bednar not gotten hurt this Spring as a matter of fact. I still think they’d like to extend him, although I’d advise against it, so I for sure think they could have another this offseason.

I also think they’ll approach Paul Skenes about buying out his arbitration and popping a couple years on the end.

Aside from that, who might you want? Cruz? I mean, I could see it, but I’m not sure how you write up the value. He might not feel he’s had a chance to be himself 100% and they might feel he’s close enough to that figure that he’s not worth what perhaps they thought even last season. Still, there could be a conversation here, there’s no doubt the bat is top 3 on the club currently and I don’t see him getting nudged aside.

So, yeah, probably.

Question 6

What’s your opinion on the idea mentioned of trading draft picks? I’ve always thought it was odd teams could trade CB picks, but not regular ones. – Longbeards

I’ve always thought this should be on the table, and I also understand why it isn’t. For one thing, with the slotting system it could invite more party games than they want played with bonus pools. That spending room would have to travel, and you could get back to having some top picks demand over slot because the team picking 8th acquired the number 13 pick and they have more available to give the guy. If it’s a big enough player that could be worth burning that 13th pick with say a late first round profile and now we’re right back to “signability” remember talking about that every draft?

That said, it works in other sports, difference being, they all have a salary cap system to prevent anyone from being incapable of being in it almost immediately. For those sports the best of the best draft picks have instant impact, for MLB that list is like Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford in like the last 25 years.

I’m ok with it in principle, I’d be much more open to it if they had more controls on spending though. The other side of this, I don’t see people doing it a whole lot.

Let’s say the Angels are trying to trade Mike Trout and the Pirates in this brave new world can move their number 1 pick in 2025 and 2026 along with say a AA good prospect pitcher and the Angels picking up 20% of his salary. Great deal right? Well, maybe not for the Angels. As it stands now, the Pirates probably settle in at like 14-17 for a pick, now give them Mike Trout (in our happy little world he’s healthy sometimes, it’s right behind the Bob Ross bushes) and suddenly, they aren’t a team finishing there are they? You erode the pick value and in MLB there is a huge drop from top 10 to next 10 at least in scouting confidence.

Teams like the Dodgers would probably sell them instead of lottery tickets, if teams want to essentially get a Comp B pick cause they’re almost always 25 and up. Some years you’d want to trade back I’d imagine, like if the Pirates had the number one overall this year, I’d beg them to do it, my luck though, they’d have traded their 2023 pick in 2022 and Skenes would be on the Rockies.

Question 7

What have you heard regarding team efforts at “internal improvements”? – Douglas Smith I mean, aside from hiring a new top dog in amateur scouting director Justin Horowitz? That’s really the biggest thing they’ve done, but it’s also not a position that you’re going to hire and immediately see results, the dude just participated in his first draft for the Bucs. If nothing else, that says we aren’t happy with our scouting in some aspect. Certainly not pitching right?

Secondly Doug, it’s like this. You know how Nick Gonzales didn’t look like he was ever going to bust through last year and this year he looks like he at least has a good chance of hanging onto second base?

Internal improvement.

Know how Kyle Nicolas and Carmen Mlodzinski are kinda killing it in the pen now.

Internal improvement.

Know how Oneil Cruz couldn’t walk last year and now he can at least jog enough to have yinzers call him lazy?

You guessed it, Internal improvement.

When Henry makes it back this year or next…

Yup.

Doug, we get caught up in these silly buzz words and we decide what they mean to us or what we should see when “it” happens and we forget there’s a whole bunch of stuff that happens on the way there.

You’re talking Gigantic overarching premises here. Like walking into an elevator with 12 accountants and saying, man, how about that economy huh? It doesn’t work that way.

Ben Cherington was expected to clean house when he came in, and he replaced several positions, but before he could really dig in, COVID hit.

They stood pat.

COVID Ended, they felt they still needed to make changes, they did, albeit less than originally planned. The next year, the final bits and pieces. And now, a changing of the guard at the top of scouting.

They also made some changes internally to try to drag the hitting program up to where they have the pitching program. Not unlike what I mentioned about Andy Haines’ information trickling to the minors more often, but fans are never going to be ready to admit, they simply don’t have as much offensive talent as they do pitching talent.

Internal improvement may piss you off to hear, but you’re literally watching it every day. Every time Quinn Priester takes a positive step on the mound, every time Nick Gonzales shows off his “inferior range” to field a ball on the short stop side and still nail the runner, you’re watching internal improvement.

If you’re keeping a ledger of those who regress to balance the scales, have fun, that number outweighs those who succeed everywhere, even the places where they look to be churning players out ever offseason.

It’s also like turning the Titanic, you don’t just turn 45 degrees with a flick of the wheel. Every small adjustment changes things potentially a lot. You make those adjustments like ripping off a band aid at first and carefully as you can after that if only because this stuff snowballs and you catch good while tossing the bad in the wastewater.

Question 8

This time of the season always a ton of trade speculation etc.

Also, a lot of salary talk etc.

Given the extremely high failure rate of their recent top picks(Swaggerty, Tucker, Craig, Newman to a lesser extent)has anyone heard of a change in direction with drafting and development? – Neil Davidson

Well Neil, there’s nobody left who makes decisions on drafting or development who remains from that era. I also just mentioned to Doug in his question earlier, they just hired a new scouting director.

You could have gone back and started naming all of Littlefield’s as well, I’d have the same answer. They’ve had a lot of swing and misses, but I can’t blame them for failing to develop 4 guys who have done absolutely nothing anywhere else either. That’s just poor drafting. Many of which fans called out at the time.

I’m just not ready to hang them at the gallows someone else earned. Feel me? We now have Nick Gonzales, Carmen Mlodzinski, Paul Skenes, Jared Jones and Henry Davis who have all made it to MLB, four of them have stuck. The one who didn’t is absolutely nowhere near done getting chances. They’re doing ok turning the draft into MLB help but bluntly, we’re just getting to the point where we can truly evaluate it.

Nobody has a 100% hit rate, that’s just real life, but every year from here on out, more and more the players coming up will be draft picks by this regime. I personally think we need to see it play out a bit longer before we decide it’s the same as the last. I’m already leaning that they’re better.

Question 9

Who is the next extension? Can they do just 1 without causing trouble with others (especially among the rookie types)? – Jack Mycka

I kinda answered this one up there, but the second part is interesting. I don’t think we’ll have the Gerrit Cole problem with Paul Skenes, but I also think he’s the only one who might have a case for being miffed. I wrote in 5 thoughts why I thought they should go after a Skenes extension and avoiding this feeling is a big part of why.

Question 10

Do you agree with this if the Pirates had handled Henry Davis right, he would be the first string starting catcher and someone like Endy or Joey Bart would be the second or third string? Then, on days when he’s not catching, he’s DHing because Cutch should not be what feels like he is the full time DH? That it should be Davis, Davis, Cutch, Cutch, Reynolds, Reynolds DHing? How do you think they could have handled Davis better? – Neal Kokiko

First, this isn’t a question as much as implanting your idea of an alternate universe like Ancient Aliens and then going “isn’t it possible?”.

Yeah, I’m sure that saying a team that selects a catcher 1:1 hopes that he one day becomes their perennial starting catcher.

If Endy weren’t hurt, it’s my belief they’d still have signed a veteran catcher and Henry would have probably had to beat Endy in Spring.

I wouldn’t rule that out, because Endy barely hit all of 2022. I expect Henry to push back, in fact, I expect Henry to make it back this year.

Bluntly, Joey Bart isn’t here if Endy isn’t hurt.

Henry is young. He flew through this system because he can hit minor league pitching. The only thing I can say I’d have done different is I’d have made him fall in the minors and recover before calling him up, thing is, that potentially never would have come.

His story isn’t written. His development isn’t over. Who is the long term starting catcher? Who the hell knows? They have options and when you’re building a baseball team, that’s kinda the goal. Get you more than one avenue.

If it take Hank a year to catch on, and it costs him the Catching position, hey, thems the breaks. If Endy’s injury cost him his shot at it, well, it happens.

This stuff isn’t the conglomeration of wishful thinking and boneheaded decisions fans want them to be. They’re real people, doing something really hard. Something that far more fail to do than succeed.

Henry is 24 years old. Joey Bart is 27 and was drafted with every bit the same pedigree as Davis, the Pirates just picked him up off Waivers. Now he’s the starting catcher here.

Try to paint that as a plan for anyone involved.

Question 11

Is there anyway Marco plays himself I to the Pirates picking up his option? Even if for offseason trade – Adam Yarkovsky

I doubt it Yark. The buyout is reasonable at 3 million and I don’t think I see a 12 million dollar arm do you?

Even if he was crucial for the next say 10-14 starts he gets, is he worth a mil a start? It would take something Bailey Falter first part of the season like, and even then, Bailey is cheap and under team control for a lot longer.

I suppose if they really like him and that’s kinda what they planned to spend anyhow, they could go that way, but I think it’s much more likely they bail.

Question 12

Along the lines of Greg’s question, I only count seven teams that will be sellers at the trade deadline: Blue Jays, White Sox, Angels, and A’s (and perhaps the Tigers) in the AL. Nationals, Marlins, and Rockies in the NL. The other 23 clubs should be buyers. How does this situation impact the trade approach from the Pirates? – Dale Merchant

I think there will be more than that Dale. A five game losing streak and it’ll push another team into this talk.

That said, I question how “seller” these sure fire sellers are. The Rockies have pieces to sell, they also have said they don’t want to move them. The White Sox have two big chips and some fringe players they could move, they also have some really nice players coming and could just sit until the offseason but move guys like Pham.

The A’s aren’t going to move guys like Miller or Bleday, they’re trying to time up being good with moving into Vegas, but they have some guys that could be chiseled away. Blue Jays are on record saying Vladdy and Bichette are staying.

Point is, a shallow pool might be more shallow than it looks.

I think the Pirates are likely going to have to look for someone being used in a bench role they feel has more in them (which sometimes looks like Brian Giles and sometimes looks like Edward Olivares) or, they need to be willing to pay more than other teams to convince a guy into being available.

It’s certainly not a great time to have a long shopping list. Fortunately what they need most is pretty generic. An outfield bat. They could get more picky than that, but bare minimum, they need something that should be available.

If they needed say a Starting Pitcher, man, there isn’t much.

Question 13

How many different writers do you employ? – FStover1
What makes you cover the Pirates? Where did your love for them come from? – James Littleton

James continuing conversations we started on the golf course and never finished here a bit…

Employ is a mighty strong word for a completely free site. We currently have 8, 9 if you count me. Some write a lot, some write very specific and seasonal things, some just like to be in the group chat I think.

I mean, I started because I made friends with some writers, specifically Michael DeCourcey from The Sporting News and Dejan Kovacevic from DK Pittsburgh Sports. They read some stuff I wrote and critiqued it, but also both told me to do something with this. I then met Jared Smith, a guy trying to get a local Sports Illustrated Pirates Page started and I reached out. Worked there for about a year, met Craig Toth and when it closed down, we started this site up. Now, that’s my story. Why the Pirates? Well, DK told me focusing would make me better, and looking back now, I totally agree. Second, I thought the coverage of the Pirates was by leaps and bounds the worst in the city, so why not try to work in that desperate space?

It’s hard to find people who not only want to write, but want to write about the Pittsburgh Pirates, have something to say, be literate enough to at least have autocorrect help them put something together, and have them meet a standard of being fair in coverage. Oh, and do it completely for free.

The people that write here like Ethan Smith, Michael Castrignano, Josh Booth, Jud Verno, Joe Boyd, Corey Shrader, heck even Douglas Smith wrote some really cool Bradenton history for us. Drew Cagle just joined recently, he’s a Senior focusing on Digital Communications and already has his own blog, just looking for another avenue to get some bylines out there. Has some cool ideas for how he wants to proceed.

They’re special people. When I get on here and start crowing about everything we do on this site, it’s because we put something new and in my opinion quality, out just about every day about this Pirates team, with a diverse group of voices and we all do it because we love the Pittsburgh Pirates and want fans to be able to hear about their team in a thoughtful way.

That’s it. You read, you click, you don’t, great. We do it because we think it’s important. It’s free so if you reply and don’t read, I can just reply DERP.

I’ll add, many of us, Ethan, Michael, Josh and Myself have podcasts that we do make some measure of bank for, so the site offers another avenue to push those shows and give people a reason to listen to what we have to say by writing too.

Right now, I really like watching the skill sets kinda dictate who does what.

Like Michael is super good at looking at stats and tendencies, he’s also a pretty even handed editor. So, he’s the Co-editor and he’s gravitated to his almost daily Starting Pitcher Spotlights that really should be more aptly called If the Pirates are gonna beat this sucka, here’s how. Ethan loves just gobbling up news or lists or even opinion, he’s a great catch all and he uses the site to try to help him build out his daily Locked on Pirates show. Thinking up topics is the single hardest part.

Josh is a stats guy and he loves diving into them with some volume so he’s done his Trendline feature monthly.

Corey lives on the West Coast and he pays a lot of attention to the league at large, so he focuses on trade pieces and digging into what the Pirates competitors do, all the way into their systems. That distance really helps him stay objective about some deals that names alone would shut us off to.

Jud is a tireless trade nut. Like, he never stops thinking about them. The day after a mythological World Series victory he’d be in the chat suggesting trading someone at peak value. He brought us Joe Boyd who actually has some chops writing about other sports and they started the Two Guys Talkin’ Trades pieces on our site which Corey has stepped in to help with now. Joe still pops by for his yearly comp piece after the draft we all love so much.

Who knows, maybe Craig will even come back one day if he ever gets itchy to write again.

Why? You interested? lol

Question 14

We’re two weeks away from the trade deadline. Will be see Ben Cherington make a trade soon or will we have to wait until closer to the deadline? – Voice from the Graves

I know they’re talking. I also know they’re talking to some teams that aren’t 100% sure what they’re doing yet.

They’re looking for a bat, and they’ve been pretty publicly vocal about it. I have no doubt they’ll get one. Now, as to the timing, if it were up to them, tomorrow. This isn’t the same as selling rentals, that almost always comes close to the deadline.

Feels to me like a few teams will emerge as suitors for Jazz and Robert, then the other teams will get serious about the offers they have going out for the next wave of players they might want.

I have heard some specific names like Randy Arozarena, Taylor Ward, Lane Thomas and Brent Rooker but nothing I could classify as close. Just hearing the names though, should tell you the kind of pool they’re looking to splash around in.