Gary’s Five Pirates Thoughts – Adjust, Adapt, and Overcome

7-7-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

The Pirates got a taste of their own medicine in Seattle and while the Mariners pitched very well, the Bucs approach that worked so well for them in their previous two series showed almost no signs of ever having existed.

I mean, a couple players still maintained an approach, while allowing it to adapt to different competition, but others got frustrated quickly and reverted to the all or nothing approach that helped them underachieve for the vast majority of the season.

Of all the things this team has done poorly under Ben Cherington, adapting the offensive approach quite possibly is the biggest.

Lets Go!

1. The Game Has Become Unrecognizable

There are a ton of ways I can describe how much this game has changed in the 2000’s, but I’m going to start with batting average. When things happen slowly, they can almost be unnoticed, but looking at it in this form will show just how drastic a change we’ve watched develop over the years.

The crazy thing is, this has largely been intentional. The reason has been launch angle, in an effort to produce more homeruns, but here’s the thing, it kinda hasn’t.

Now, the 2020 stat obviously means nothing, and 2025 is down so far, but the season is roughly half over with lots of work to do to get back up into the range that makes this look ok.

For what we’ve sacrificed in average, doesn’t it feel like we should have homeruns just skyrocketing? That’s what I expected to see anyway, instead, it actually crept down for the first 15 years of the decade and really spiked in 2019.

OK, so all power isn’t created equally, maybe I need to look at OPS, surely that’s taken a huge leap…

Yeah, not so much.

Look this is just the times MLB has admitted changing the baseball itself.

• 2015 – Start of livelier ball era
• 2019 – Record home run spike, MLB confirmed lower-drag ball
• 2021 – Two different balls used during the season
• 2022 – Humidors standardized across all ballparks
• 2025 – if you believe Andrew McCutchen has raised the stitching and increased drag on the ball

Point is, baseball has tried to add power, and it’s trained their players to hunt homeruns. It hasn’t produced more homeruns, just a bunch of mostly bad hitters who run into one here and there.

I think it would be great for the game to see a team win by just hitting, the way players used to hit, and it’s part of why I was so excited to hear Don Kelly talk about their new philosophy as a hitting unit. Sadly, they don’t have the players to execute that to a high degree of success either, but if you want to see baseball start to value the things we grew up with, you’re probably going to have to see some team succeed at it.

Winning creates copycats.

Pitchers have gotten better, nastier too, it’s not all baseball or hitting philosophy, but it’s always going to be easier to get 100 MPH past a guy swinging for the Allegheny than it is to get it past a guy who just wants to take that pitch to the opposite field.

Pitching is still going to get outs, but more contact will at least even the scales a bit. These things change slowly, and when it does, it’ll probably feel like it happened overnight.

I bet it’ll be a change that started long before we notice though.

2. Edward Florentino

Edward Florentino is quickly emerging as one of the most intriguing young talents in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system. Signed out of the Dominican Republic during the 2024 international signing period for a $395,000 bonus, Florentino has already begun to turn heads with his advanced approach at the plate and physical tools. At just 18 years old, the 6-foot-4 left-handed hitter has shown a rare combination of patience, power, and athleticism that has vaulted him into the Pirates’ top 30 prospects list 

Florentino’s offensive profile is built around excellent bat speed and a natural loft in his swing, which has translated into early power production. Across multiple levels in 2025 — including the Florida Complex League and Single-A Bradenton — he’s slashed a combined .326/.414/.625 with 9 home runs and 12 stolen bases in just 43 games 

His ability to make consistent contact, especially against fastballs, and his mature plate discipline (more walks than strikeouts in his debut season) suggest a hitter well beyond his years.

Defensively, Florentino has seen time at all three outfield spots and first base. While his long, lanky frame might eventually push him to a corner outfield role or first base, Pirates coaches are still giving him reps in center field thanks to his surprising speed and strong work ethic. Scouts give him average or better grades across the board, with a current overall grade of 40 and projection for more as he fills out physically 

What makes Florentino particularly exciting is his upside. He’s still growing into his body, and if he continues to develop his power and refine his approach, he could become a middle-of-the-order threat with defensive versatility. Florentino’s early success and makeup suggest he could rise quickly through the system.

Sometimes a comp helps, but before I do, I’ve chosen a couple recognizable names who’ve been in the system for a lot longer, that in and of itself is impressive.

3. Konnor Griffin is on the Verge of Being Baseball’s Top Prospect

When Roman Anthony graduates from MLB’s Top 100 list, and providing Konnor Griffin is still dominating his season, he’ll likely be the new number 1.

It’s a meteoric rise for a player who was drafted 9th overall to be sure, but just how special is the season he’s putting together?

Welp, when you’re talking about a crazy start, you have to compare it to crazy comps.

Yup, I went there. It’s not my fault either, what this kid is doing, it’s not just “pretty good” or “promising” it’s otherworldly. I tried comping him to much lesser players and honestly I thought it made it look like I was trying to say he was the best prospect ever, lol.

I’m just saying, as it comes to exciting starts, Konnor is up there with some VERY big names in the game.

I can’t see a world in which he doesn’t at least progress to AA Altoona, and from there, it’s anyone’s guess.

Mike Trout and Bryce Harper spent 3 seasons in the minors, and Griffey just 2. All I’m saying is this is the track he’s on, if he keeps running the race the way these guys did, no reason to expect he couldn’t be here just as fast, and I’m not touching whether he’ll become a first ballot Hall of Famer, I swear, not what I’m trying to do here, just pointing out, this is a lot more than just “good”.

I don’t want to push the kid, hell, even his Dad was cautioning fans on X to “let the kid develop” but it’s going to be hard to hold him back if he keeps doing things like this. At some point, talent overrules, well, rules.

4. AAA Talent Ready for a Shot

The Pirates have some guys in AAA who are ready to get a shot, or maybe a last shot. This team needs to work them in because they need to make 40-man room and you can’t sort a bucket of fodder if you still believe some of them are relevant players.

The list isn’t all that long, and it’s categorized.

Decide One Way or Another
Ji-Hwan Bae
Jack Suwinski
Billy Cook
Liover Peguero

Probably Earned a Look
Nick Yorke
Bubba Chandler – Not 40-man
Hunter Barco – Not 40-man
Thomas Harrington
Eddy Yean – Not 40-man
Sean Sullivan – Not 40-man
Malcom Nunez – Not 40-man

This isn’t even an exhaustive list of who they might need to protect from the Rule 5 draft, we’ll write that up closer to the end of the season, but a quick look, you know Chandler and Barco need added, and yes, this trade deadline will change the chemistry, but some of these guys are either done or we’re going to see them.

Ben Cherington on his radio show kept talking about needing left handed bats, which is kinda part of the problem, but not THE problem, so I took it as laying track for the team calling Jack Suwinski back up. His bat has been working in AAA, I’m just saying, we could see it and they might not wait for the deadline to do it. It’s become rather clear the team is no longer interested in giving Alexander Canario bulk at bats.

5. Let’s Make the All Star Game Interesting Again!

Here’s my proposal. Let’s turn this into a 3 day mini tournament and skills competition. I’d also eliminate the requirement that each team be represented, this should be very much so about the best players in the game.

Teams:

1. USA East – Players from east of the Mississippi
2. USA West – Players from west of the Mississippi
3. Latin America – Players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.
4. World – Players from Japan, Korea, Canada, Australia, Europe, etc.

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Schedule (3 Days)

Day 1: Semifinals

• Game 1: USA East vs. Latin America
• Game 2: USA West vs. World

Day 2: Skills Showcase

• Home Run Derby (team-based)
• Fastest Man Race
• Outfield Throw Accuracy
• Pitching Challenge (velocity + command)

Day 3: Championship + 3rd Place Game

• Winners of Day 1 play for the title
• Losers play for 3rd place

Nothing silly like home field advantage on the line, instead, just the National Pride that we’ve seen from the WBC classics we got to watch.

I think this could make for interesting teammates and matchups and if you wanted to add something to the skills competitions, maybe the winner of each category gets to select one player from the other 3 to add to their roster for the last day of competition.

I find all Pro Bowls, All Star games to be little more than annoying times where there are no games that resemble a spirit of competition, I’d like to see if this game could find a way to get some of that back.

Whatcha think?

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