Papa Power! Bryan Reynolds Leads Pirates Past Cubs 6-2 in Series Finale

Sometimes we forget that playing baseball is a job. Sure, grown men are playing a child’s game and being paid well to do so, well once they make the majors anyway. It was really evident that something wasn’t right with Bryan Reynolds all season long, I mean I even wrote a fairly lengthly piece breaking down what he’s struggling with and trying to find signs he’ll break out of it.

I heard some people bring up his pregnant wife at home, mostly as a joke explanation, but maybe that did play a role. In fact on the most recent Bucs In the Basement Podcast Chris Lanuti brought it up very colorfully. I laughed, knowing he was only half serious but as I really thought about it, maybe we didn’t give that enough chance at being true.

Hey, one game won’t serve as an announcement Reynolds is back to being Reynolds, just like Polanco having his second strong effort in as many days won’t make anyone believe he’s turned the corner.

That’s baseball. At some point you just look up and realize Polanco is suddenly really doing well, and people start transitioning to whatever that means to them, trade value, excitement for what he can do for the club and even those who would be mad he’ll walk away soon because Nutting, you know.

Regardless, today was a day to see some players that this club will depend on in 2021 start to find themselves a bit. On the other side it was an opportunity to once again watch this team trot out a player who absolutely won’t in JT Riddle. Watch him make another error at third. Watch him continue to not hit. Watch a kid who had a stellar debut performance, followed by a rough 2nd time out in Hayes, sit on the bench and chew on that last shot at it for a day.

If you want to learn about a kid, seeing how he handles the adversity of a bad outing by throwing him right back out there is as old as moves you’d see Connie Mack make. If there is a “way to do things in baseball” this management group takes a left turn. It’ll either work or make them the easiest target since Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle.

Today the Pirates would put all these factors together and beat the Cubs handily, overcoming more less than clean defense again. This is statistically the worst fielding team in MLB and as someone who watches every inning of every game, it could be worse if home teams didn’t make scoring decisions.

JT Brubaker fought through 5 innings, sprinkling 7 hits and two runs around and working around some poor defense. In the 6th Sam Howard came in and retired two batters but loaded the bases on two hits and a walk. That’s when Derek Shelton called on Geoff Hartleib, who left the bases loaded, he’s been quite good at stranding runners this season.

So good in fact Hartleib would pitch the 7th as well.

All of this bulldog pitching was backed by a rare consistent offensive attack from the Pirates, led by Gregory Polanco and Bryan Reynolds. None bigger than the 3 run shot by Bryan in the 3rd that game them a 4-2 lead. The Bucs would add more in 6th on a Cole Tucker pop up that landed in no man’s land.

Turley would pitch the 8th for the Pirates and he walked Kyle Schwarber to get things started but delivered a double play ball in the very next at bat and finished with a quick strikeout.

In the top of the ninth the Pirates decided to go with Richard Rodriguez. Now if you think that was a bad idea, they had Dovydas Neverauskas warming next to him.

Rodriguez gets the job done and the Pirates win 6-2. Double header tomorrow starting tomorrow at 3.

News & Notes:

  • Gregory Polanco had another solid outing today, going 2 for 4. This would be relatively nothing but it’s his second in a row. Good sign for one of the few almost positively on this club in 2021
  • Bryan Reynolds returned from Paternity leave with a bang. Double and a homerun certainly a nice way to re-inject yourself into your profession.
  • Geoff Hartlieb is no longer a guy we should be surprised by, his 2.30 ERA in 14 appearances and ability to strand inherited runners makes him someone to look to in 2021, and not because they’re stuck with him, he’s earned it.
  • Ian Happ left today’s game after taking a foul ball off the eye. Reports came in that he was negative for fractures, so good news there on the hometown kid.
  • Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are really struggling right now, that would continue today as the Cubs continue to strand runners at an alarming pace.

The Future of Ke’Bryan Hayes

We are only one game into the Major League Career of Ke’Bryan Hayes and the Pirates fanbase is already captivated by the potential of this young man; crowning him the third basemen of the future and the cornerstone of the build that first year General Manager Ben Cherington has spoken so much about since taking the helm in November of 2019. This wave of emotions from the Pirates faithful began once the season officially resumed and reached it crest just prior to Monday’s trade deadline. It was always building, but obviously gained more momentum as the Pirates limped to a 10-22 record, clearly one of the worst in all of Major League Baseball. Social media was filled with calls to free Ke’Bryan Hayes, as evident by the Pirates post on Tuesday and their prayers were ultimately answered, BUT no one seems to be thinking about what comes next.

In bringing Hayes up this year, at this time, there was no penalty concerning the extra year of control as we have already passed the threshold for that date. However, there was still the Super Two status for next year that needed to be taken into consideration. Many times clubs have waited to elevate players and made up excuses as to why they needed to be held out in order to keep a player under team control. Kris Bryant is one of the shining examples of this exact scenario for anyone who followed along with his grievance against Major League Baseball and if you are unfamiliar with the circumstances surrounding the situation please look it up as it was a slap in the face to each and every player who is just trying to get what they deserve, but we can save that battle for another day. For now let’s get back to Ke’Bryan Hayes.

After being called up or recalled to be more specific, Hayes still has three pre-arbitration years, followed by three years of arbitration before he reaches free agency, which would take him through 2026. Obviously they could have manipulated this further and technically still could, but to what end? He is up now and I see no reason to stop the development, exposure and clock moving forward. So here we sit; a potential piece of the puzzle on our hands and an off-season to contemplate our next move. How would you deal with this situation? In order to answer this question I think we need to go back in time for a few months, to before the point when the world got turned upside down and baseball was put on the back burner.

Prior to the original start of the 2020 season the idea had been floated around of extending the young third baseman before he even took one rep in the Major League, much like the Chicago White Sox had done with Luis Robert.

Obviously these discussions didn’t result in contracts for any of these players, including Hayes. However, is it something they could still explore, even after Hayes made his big league debut against the Cubs a couple of nights ago?

First of all, before you get the wrong idea, I am not bringing this up based on one performance from an exciting young player. That’s not how my brain operates. I would be just as apt to let him walk after his years of team control and arbitration were over if I didn’t think he could help the ball club. It really makes no difference to me. However, based on his defensive track record and flashes of above average offensive production, I believe that all options need to be considered and evaluated. Luckily for General Manager Ben Cherington the Pirates have the rest of the season to evaluate his play.

As soon as I learned that Hayes was being brought up I started to consider this as an audition to determine the level and length of contract that would suit a player of Hayes’ caliber or if he deserves one at all by establishing what that caliber he is. Now I am not saying that it going to be an easy decision or that it is even going to happen, just that they need to be cautious concerning who they decide is going to be a part of the future and who is not because the last thing a team in a build needs is to be upside down in a contract like they currently are with Gregory Polanco.

In the end we all know that this decision is based one thing, money. For a team that isn’t going to go out and spend in free agency or on their own players at times, creativity has to be used to keep the costs down and maintain control of players. And this is just one way, with one player, that they can accomplish this goal.

Pirates Fall 8-2 to Cubbies in Error-filled Contest

There probably isn’t a more important storyline to tonight’s ball game beyond Joe Musgrove returning to the mound. I expected a shorter start tonight but his three strong innings and command made it look perfectly reasonable to let him stretch it a bit and start the 4th, after allowing the first two batters to reach, Derek Shelton pulled Joe in favor of Nick Tropeano who promptly gave up a missle of a homerun to Javier Baez to make the score 3-1.

So Nick now has an ERA and Joe’s went up, but Tropeano and Holland combined to keep the score there through the 6th.

Holland would surrender hits in the seventh, Holland would surrender runs in the seventh, Holland was hurt by bad baseball behind him in the seventh. Alford made a bad throw in on a single to left allowing a runner to advance turning a potential DP ball into a Rizzo 2 run single, then Colin Moran missed a pop up in fair territory that put runners at the corners again. Holland would work out of it from there.

In the Box score, it will look like Holland blew up in the 7th, but this could have easily been a scoreless inning.

As I mentioned earlier today in a piece about the Pirates roster construction issues Anthony Alford is one of those players very much so on the bubble. Fair or unfair this is his shot and with Reynolds rejoining the club after paternity leave, his opportunities might dwindle a bit. So when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, it was great to see him put a terrific swing on a ball to crush a homerun to center to make it 5-2.

Holland would come back out for the 8th, he was scheduled to start this game before the Pirates decided to go with Joe so he was ready for extended action already but with the stretch of games facing the club this made sense to save the pen. Well intention-ed or no it would not go well and the Cubs added another 3 runs, aided by a Newman error.

Despite the rough inning Holland was tasked with finishing the game, again, he wasn’t perfect, but if the Pirates just play passable defense behind him he probably did enough to keep it close.

Bucs lose and this one just never felt like it was going to go the other direction despite being close until the 7th.

News & Notes:

  • Derek Holland wore special shoes honoring Mr. Rogers and came out to Won’t You Be My Neighbor. It was a nice moment, but things like that serve to remind me how sad I am that I can’t be sitting at the game more than the game itself. Still, nice moment despite my selfish feeling.
  • It was announced today that on September 9th the Pirates will all be wearing #21 in honor of The Great One, Roberto Clemente. I’m a smidge too young to have watched him play, but I’ve never heard a bad word about him and I watch his highlights with the amazement my kids had in their eyes watching Lemieux Highlights. I’m glad this is happening and apparently it was Derek Shelton’s idea, so Kudos.
  • Anthony Alford hit his first Pirates Homerun tonight to deep center field off his old teammate Ryan Tepera.
  • Ke’Bryan Hayes struggled tonight to pick up Kyle Hendricks and struck out 3 times against the veteran junk baller.
  • Kevin Newman continues to struggle in the field, he’s hardly alone but he had a ball go right between his legs allowing two runs to score in the 8th. Not been a good week with the glove for Newman.
  • Gregory Polanco had a nice night going 2 for 4 with a double and single. Normally I wouldn’t note this really but both hits were encouraging as he hit them off the outside corner of the zone. A pitch he’s missed all year. Good to see.
  • Colin Moran hit his 7th homerun on the year and in a normal year he is on pace for over 30. Not bad and it makes me hope that MLB decides what they’re doing about the DH next season quickly.

The Pirates Face a Roster Crisis, and It’s Not Just Bad Players Like Many Assume

The Pirates have been boxed into a corner and while this regime didn’t create it, they’ll be tasked with working around it. See, the Pirates have an impossible amount of arbitration ready players next season, and 2022 is even more frightening.

Make no mistake, if this situation came up and you had a roster that added up to playoff contention you’d be up for GM of the year, in fact in that case Neal Huntington would still be delivering his weekly double talk session to Greg Brown or Joe Block.

Problem number one for Ben Cherington is to understand who is part of the problem, and who is part of the solution right? Well, when a vast majority of your team is populated with arbitration players, out of options, and some of those answers are even younger players like Mitch Keller or Ke’Bryan Hayes you’re going to face some very difficult choices.

Before we get into this too far, most teams in MLB outside of the top tier are predicting budget reductions for 2021, believe it or not the Pirates could actually have a lower payroll as well. Of course, people will say this is Nutting’s wet dream, but not even Bob can make a situation like this come to life, only ineptitude can create it, but I’ll get back to that.

The problem is really this in a nutshell, the Pirates will have to choose to non-tender some players and let them walk in favor of younger players. Sounds nice on the surface, but all the players they’ll have to make a call on aren’t those you’d like to let walk. Want to trade them? So would Ben, but the league isn’t ignorant to the situation the Pirates are in. They know Ben can’t keep all his options, so why pay for what will very soon be free? If Ben wants to take on salary in exchange, that could actually be a nice play, but it won’t solve his problem of making room.

Lets really dig in here, because if I don’t this is just going to be met with a whole bunch of so what’s and spend nutting get nuttings.

They’ll have issues just getting down to a forty man so let’s start there.

Right now, the Pirates project to have 49 players on their 40-man. Injuries will do that and a few of them can be trimmed super easy. Archer, Kela and Holland will all be gone which will bring the number down to 46 if I’ve counted correctly. Then you move on to a list of players you have to choose from to get the rest of the way home. I believe we’ve seen the last of Neverauskas, Bashlor, Davis, Rios, Waddell and then one of the remaining options which would be Holmes, Turley, Fulmer and Alford.

I guess I’d pick Turley, but we have a month left for those guys not named Holmes to show what they have.

So that solves one problem, getting down to 40. Then the real fun comes, nearly half of those 40 players are arbitration eligible and those cuts won’t be nearly as simple but will come with non-tenders galore.

Young players will force their way onto the roster, we’ve all given Keller a spot even though he has yet to really stake claim, but the talent is there, and he represents rotation improvement. We’ve all decided Hayes is here to stay and he probably is, but the move to youth when you already have little else will cause you to pull the rip cord on players you might not be ready to say goodbye to. Osuna is a guy who might not make it, and as much as many of you won’t like to hear this Nick Burdi is a real possibility to not make it. It would be hard to toss one of these spots at a guy who at the very least is a low percentage shot at staying on the field. No matter who they choose, someone talented will walk away.

In fact, as you call for more youngsters like Cruz, Oliva, Swaggerty, Cederlind or Bolton realize what that means. I personally see no reason to hold Cederlind back and need positions matter, but if you feel you need to see Cruz start out of Spring, based on how the roster sits he could hit 10 homeruns in his first 15 at bats and they still might start him in AAA.

This situation is not the goal, you want young controllable players, but not this many that time up together. Left unchecked that number of Arb players will jump from 20 to nearly 30 in 2022. Some guys will be extended or moved obviously but if you are shooting for a window this sets up as one that will slam shut. And they can’t set themselves up for it again.

If you believe they should trade every player on the roster (OK most) and fill the roster with all the young guys, all they’d do is start the process again. To build the roster properly, they need to stagger the youth infusion. This very situation is exactly how the Pirates were able to pick up a player like Alford to begin with, it may lead to losing him as well.

This will start to become clearer as we enter the off-season and moves start being made but realize if it comes down to trading a guy because they want to keep another from walking away for nothing Ben may have his hand forced. Again, other teams aren’t stupid, they’ll understand the situation and have at least a pretty close idea as to the options. This could find a player like Adam Frazier being moved below market value. It could mean a player like Cole Tucker being moved to get something for someone and solve some spacing issues. Ben may not look smart making some of these moves, and I may be first in line to point it out, but we should at least understand he didn’t create this situation.

Now, neither of those are a prediction, I’ll get to that later when we start to really see the options on the table, but suffice to say, it’s nowhere near as simple as trading everyone, or calling up all the young guys. This, despite the belief if was coming at the past deadline, is really where Cherington starts affecting change. We won’t like all the moves, and he’ll let someone go who ends up flourishing elsewhere, too much young talent for that not to be the case, but the construction of this roster is not sustainable and its issue number one for this management team.

Back to that ineptitude I spoke about earlier. How did we get here? Well, who is the last prospect who really forced their way onto the roster through performance rather than necessity? Reynolds? He came here out of necessity and stayed because of production, but he hadn’t forced the club to take notice and make room, not yet. Keller? No, not Keller either, in fact they ignored the necessity and kept him down. Maybe that was Super-2 BS, but it also could be he simply wasn’t making himself impossible to ignore. Now he’ll be entering his third season (yeah, not service time wise) of trying to plant his flag in the rotation.

Realistically, Gerrit Cole or Josh Bell were the last prospects who just could not spend one more day in the minors. So that leads to a team full of projects and spare parts. Controllable yes, but ready for the show, maybe not. Regardless, once you start the clock, and or start using their options in masse you have begun the process of painting yourself into the corner.

You can say Hayes is one of those guys, that’s fine, but because of past sins and miscalculations, he will add to the pile up too. The reason this past deadline would have been a great time to make some moves almost had more to do with making room than it did procuring some spring of youth to “rebuild” the team. It’d be nice to get some of that back and I’m sure they will, but the immediate problem is room. See, young players will tend to get better, Cole Tucker is not what he will be, he’s still a kid relatively speaking. Despite a stellar first game, Hayes is not near the top of his game either. If the Pirates had spent money on say Josh Donaldson last off season, they still wouldn’t be good enough and you’d continue to block one of the very few prospects you don’t want blocked. They’ll get better because that’s what young players tend to do, it’s more about what their top end realistically looks like, and that isn’t quite up to par, especially on the mound.

The Miami Marlins are doing their damnedest to avoid a situation just like this. That’s why they have so many veterans on their club. None of those players will still be there when the next window opens, but it allows them to stagger the youth injection. The alternative is to force young players who probably aren’t ready onto the roster, sure three or four years from now that crop of young players could really look like something, but just as surely they’d all be up for arbitration and ultimately free agency together too. Again, this simply isn’t the goal. Once you’re there though, you can’t backtrack and take that route, you have to be proactive.

Right now someone has only read the headline and have commented that they should trade Nutting. Or even someone as prominent and respected as Bob Pompeani is suggesting the Owner just won’t spend. That’s been true, but look at this roster and ask yourself who goes for every player you think they should go get. If they were one player away, again, Neal would still be here. The Pirates can’t buy themselves out of this situation. Talk to me about Nutting when they get close and he says no to getting what they’re missing. Assuming he will drop the ball is totally fair, but right now his wallet would actually create more issues.

Going to be a wild off season for the Pirates, and that’s not a guess.

After An Extended Rain Delay The Pirates Lose To The Cubs In Extra Innings

Tonight the Pirates were set to begin a normal three game series with division rival, the Chicago Cubs; this was until the announcement was made late in the day yesterday that Pittsburgh’s #2 Prospect according to MLB Pipeline, Ke’Bryan Hayes would be joining the club once they returned to PNC Park. This caused pandemonium to echo throughout Pirates Twitter, causing the fans to completely forget the disappointing trade deadline and the 10-22 record that they had coming into the game, at least for a moment.

As the game began Chad Kuhl took the mound for the Pirates in his fifth start of the season, with his first one coming on August 7th. During that time he has steadily increased his workload, maxing out at 6 innings this past Thursday in the first game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals. On the year Kuhl had posted a 2.50 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP in 25 innings with 20 strikeouts.

Kuhl’s outing did not start out on the best foot as Ian Happ took his second pitch of the night over the right centerfield wall for a home run. In the second inning Kuhl found himself in a bit of trouble and walked in Wilson Contreras for the Cubs second run of the game. Fortunately he was able to escape by striking out the next batter and inducing a groundout, bringing an end to Chicago’s threat. Kuhl would finally settle down in the 3rd, retiring the Cubs in order. In the 4th he appeared to have gotten himself out of another potential jam with a double play, but ended up surrendering another run on an single by Jason Kipnis. Chad would make it into the 5th inning, but would eventually be pulled from the game after giving up a leadoff single.

Kuhl’s replacement was Tyler Bashlor, who was unable to strand the inherited runner and actually end up conceding 3 total runs because of a double from Javier Baez, followed up by Kyle Schwarber’s tenth home run of the season; putting the Pirates behind by a score of 6-1.

Opposing Kuhl for the Cubs was the veteran lefty, Jon Lester. In his previous start against the Pirates back on August 2nd, Lester had given up only one run in 6 innings while striking out 4 Pittsburgh batters. Since then he had only struggled in one start, which was against the South Side Sox; and honestly who hasn’t experienced trouble with that lineup lately.

Lester, after having given up a double to Colin Moran to begin the second inning was unable to stop him from scoring on an Adam Frazier groundout. In the bottom of the 6th the Pirates would finally get to Lester again as Hayes picked up his first Major League hit, a double, which brought in Pittsburgh’s second run. Next up was Frazier with a single, followed by Osuna with a double, which produced two additional runs and lead to Lester’s removal from the game. His replacement, Colin Rea, would allow a sacrifice fly from Erik Gonzalez. At the end of six the Pirates had crept back into the game and only trailed by one, 6-5.

Then came the rain, delaying the game for over an hour. When the weather finally subsided, Pirates fans were rejuvenated by Hayes’ second hit of his career, a home run to straight away centerfield to tie the game at six a piece, which is the way it would remain until extra innings and that silly runner on second would come into play.

Chris Stratton would come in to start the 10th and allow the potential winning run to score on sacrifice fly, while giving up only one hit. The Pirates matched the Cubs on a similar set of circumstances in the bottom of the inning and we all moved on to the 11th. Ian Happ would lead off with a single off of Kyle Crick, bringing in the go-ahead run. Jeremy Jeffress came into to face the Pirates; striking out two with an intentional walk to Josh Bell mixed in as Chicago outlasted Pittsburgh by a score of 8-7.

The Pirates will look to get back on track against the Cubs tomorrow night at 7:05 EST. For Pittsburgh Joe Musgrove is scheduled take the hill for the first time since August 4th after being placed on the IL for right triceps inflammation.

Yinzer Reactions: Recapping The Pirates Series With The Brewers

With a couple of tough late inning loses to the Brewers and a extremely quiet trade deadline, much like we had predicted all along, there isn’t much for Pirates Fans to be excited about following a series loss to the Brewers; who they had swept in fairly convincing fashion just one week ago. However, in a season of evaluation there are bound to be some positives, even if you have to search for them a little bit harder in a sea of negatives.

Positive Takeaways

1) Jacob Stallings just keeps on hitting. Stallings played in 3 of the 4 games, collecting a hit each contest. It should be noted that the last two hits were doubles, which now brings his extra base hit total to five on the season.

2) Cole Tucker’s bat might be coming around. Tucker was a combined 3 for 12 in the series and has raised his average by almost .100 over the last few weeks to .243.

3) Sam Howard is quietly having himself a season. Howard pitched 3 scoreless innings during the four game set, not allowing a single hit during this time. On the year he has compiled a 2.77 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP to go along with 17 strikeouts in 13 innings.

4) Josh Bell looked like his old self for at least two at bats over the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday Bell homered, one from each side of the plate. His home run on Sunday took me back to the river blasts he became known for during his near historic stretch last season.

5) Nick Tropeano has yet to give up a run as a Pirate. Yes I know, small sample size, but it is worth noting. In 6.2 innings of work he has also struck out 6 and also earned a win in Sunday’s contest.

Negative Takeaways

1) Trevor Williams has been healthy to the best of my knowledge, but has continued to struggle. His last start against the White Sox had been a disastrous one as he allowed 8 earned runs on 9 hits, 3 of these home runs, while striking out 3 and walking 2 in 6 innings of work. Last night he was obviously a little better as he allowed only 3 earned runs and struck out 6, but still only lasted 4 innings due to an elevated pitch count, which has been a consistent problem for him this year.

2) Kevin Newman’s fielding has me concerned. In last nights game Newman’s two throwing errors directly led to 2 unearned runs for the Brewers. So far this year he has 5 errors, but when compounded out over a full season this total rises to 24. This would be twice as many errors as he had last year.

3) Nik Turley has struggled in his last two outings. After earning his first career save in the second game of the double header versus the Cardinals this past Thursday, Turley has given up 3 earned runs, while only striking out one in 1.2 innings and two appearances. On the year Turley has also walked almost as many batters, eight, as he has struck out, 10, in 13 total innings.

4) Gregory Polanco continues to be inconsistent. This probably means that he will continue to jump between the positives and negatives for the remainder of the season or eventually get his own category. Polanco homered on Sunday, his 4th of the season, but also struck out 3 times in 9 at bats; bringing his total to 37 Ks in 79 at bats.

5) After dropping 3 of 4 from the Brewers, the Pirates are 10-22 on the season. I know that many of us did not expect the Pirates to be truly competitive, but few imagined it would be this bad. Overall the Pirates continue to struggle in almost every facet of the game.

I would like to say that things are going to get better, but with the 1st Place Cubs coming to town it might get worse. The first contest of the three game series is scheduled for tonight at 7:05 EST, with Chad Kuhl (1-1, 2.52 ERA) scheduled to take on Jon Lester (2-1, 4.55 ERA).

Pirates Trade Deadline Post Op

I have no doubt that things didn’t turn out quite how most of you wanted to see the deadline play out yesterday. I have little doubt Ben Cherington agrees with you. The prevailing reasoning seems to be that the Pirates were not satisfied with any of the offers they received for the players they made available and I’m sure to a certain degree that’s factual, but it’s also not the biggest factor at play.

Any of you who have read our coverage on this site have seen our insistence that the trade deadline for the Pirates wouldn’t be all that active. The reasons ranged from under-performance, to injury, but quite possibly, no single reason is bigger than the simple fact this is already a young team. And it’s actually poised to get younger.

Despite not making any moves at the deadline beyond moving Jarrod Dyson for International Pool money, the Pirates only stand to lose one other player they could have avoided losing for free, Derek Holland. Keone Kela counts too but injury took him off the table entirely as he has not even picked up a baseball, this would put his recovery timetable even in the most optimistic scenario at around a week or week and a half left in the season. In other words, nobody was going to take a chance, no matter how minuscule.

I’d love to break down all the offers received and proposed but the reality is nobody will ever really know what was and wasn’t on the table. the best we can do is look at the other deals that did happen and infer the types of packages that were on the table potentially. Even this will ultimately be a guess, but an educated one.

Sometimes you can gather just as much from deals that didn’t happen, take Lance Lynn still being a Ranger. Here is a pitcher who this season has been very impressive, and throughout his career has been relatively steady, best part, he still has another year on his deal. The Pirates don’t have a single starter who lines up with him career wise but toss in two years of control and solid performance you can make a case that Chad Kuhl is in the ballpark.

Point being, the Rangers were not able to find anyone willing to part with enough value for them to move Lynn, it stands to reason the Pirates were in the same spot.

Now take a look at Mike Clevinger, really solid pitcher, with control but everyone knew his team at least really wanted him gone because of his part in their COVID quarantine misstep. Brutal situation for the Indians really, the last thing a first place team wants to do is move arguably their best pitcher, especially when the top choice to replace him is another guy who your players don’t want to be around. Moral of the story was the league kinda had the tribe by the short hairs on this deal, and it showed. Not to say they got nothing, but this is as close to the Cole deal as we’ve seen since it was consummated, and the return was the same mix of players. Some barely MLBers with upside and some prospects who again have upside with some warts. It may end up working out for them, but being put in a forced to sell position is not where you like to be as a club.

The Pirates now turn the page, 2020 has been about evaluation (or so we’ve been told) but it also needed to be at least a little about showcasing things they had for sale. Did you ever go to Target and see a huge display of mix and match clearance stuff on every end cap? That’s prime real estate for making sales and one might wonder why they would waste it on things nobody wanted. Pretty simple really, if you want to move things efficiently, they need to be in highly visible areas. Give them a good month or two run and if they don’t sell, write them off.

That’s where we should be. We’ve watched a month of that evaluation, display, salesmanship, whatever you want to call it, and honestly whatever they want to call it for that matter. Now it’s about finding out how 2021 looks. That starts with the few ready to play prospects the Pirates have and really nobody more so than Ke’Bryan Hayes.

There are moves that need made and it is very much so a numbers game. I don’t say there will be deals lightly, or with some expectation that the Pirates are building, rebuilding, re branding, again, whatever they want to call it is fine with me. The reality of baseball is there are not very many employed GMs out there who have given away assets for nothing but making room for talent pushing from the lower levels is also part of the gig. That’s where we are now.

Let’s talk about the immediate decisions first. Archer will be bought out. TOS is not an easy injury to recover from and nine million is a bit too much to try to salvage signing him in the hopes he performs well enough to move. What he would return wouldn’t equal what has been spent and more than anything, this isn’t Cherington’s mistake to cover. Game over, bad trade, and the Pirates will only pay more for it by keeping him. It was a worthy risk this season as you’d have the year of control to float, that changes now.

Gregory Polanco will return, and anyone who thinks he’ll just get cut or sit, isn’t paying attention or not being honest. Next year is a legitimate contract year, no options but to keep him and if you hope to get anything for him, play him. 2022 brings about a 3 million buyout option and 2023 can be accomplished for 1 million. If he isn’t dealt, I fully expect at least one of those to be executed.

Point is he’ll be here next season as he hasn’t laid enough foundation to get a trade done and realistically, he may never.

Almost everyone will be back as a matter of fact, and the decisions will become difficult as they’ll have less roster space to play with as MLB get’s back to the standard 26 man units.

It’s too early to start figuring out the roster for 2021, but the targets to move remain largely the same. Bell, Frazier, Polanco (if you can get anyone interested), Williams, Musgrove and I’m not even going to touch the bullpen. Of course there could be others but if the goal is to make room for Hayes to play everyday, someone has to go. If you want to see Will Craig up here he’s clearly a DH or 1B, so if Moran and Bell remain, guess where he lives.

Ideally you’d get Keller back on the mound within the next week or so and see a good month from him, but I suspect we enter 2021 with all the same questions we entered 2020 with. Brubaker is making his case and he could make moving one of the current starters even more likely.

At the end of the day, you know what the 2020 trade deadline provided? More clarity for us and Cherington. Rebuilds (again whatever you want to call it) are much more difficult with young teams, because you are typically dealing with someone else’s failed attempt at it. That tends to leave the cupboard bare or at the very least further away than you’d like. This team is not as bad as it’s looked if healthy, but if healthy, they probably would have moved at least a few more players at the deadline.

Next season when all the players are back, that’s when the real decisions need made, and they’ll at least be partially based on what the market has to offer.

The rest of 2020 will be about deciding who the Pirates want to move, 2021 will be about whether they’ve executed the moves that facilitate roster space for who they choose. It’s easy to say bring up the young guys, its another thing entirely to make room for them to play, because it means making choices and in some cases knowingly losing on trades.

Buckle up, yesterday just started the ride.

Errors Come Back To Haunt Pirates As They Lose 6-5

With trade rumors swirling around several of the Pirates players over the last couple of weeks, and especially in the days and even hours leading up to the 4 PM deadline today, many were unsure as to what Pittsburgh’s lineup would look like as the entered Miller Park for tonight’s contest, a four game series finale, with the Brewers. As it turns out, not much different than it has for the previous 31 games. Trevor Williams, who had reportedly garnished attention from at least one other ball club, took the mound for what would be his seventh start of the year for the Pirates. On the season Williams had posted a 5.38 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP, with 26 strikeouts in 30.1 innings. His last start against the White Sox had been a disastrous one as he allowed 8 earned runs on 9 hits, 3 of these home runs, while striking out 3 and walking 2 in 6 innings of work. Across the diamond the Brewers set up to pitch a bullpen game as one of their relievers, lefty Brett Suter, started for Milwaukee as the opener. In his previous 9 appearances this year Suter had pitched only 13.1 total innings; compiling a 3.68 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He also struck out 18 batters during this time and walked only 1.

After a 1-2-3 bottom of 1st, Williams found himself in trouble immediately in the 2nd as he quickly loaded the bases. Following a strike out and force at home he had almost successfully escaped, but thanks to single and throwing error by Kevin Newman, two Brewers would cross the plate. For Milwaukee the first two innings went smoothly as Suter struck out two and did not allow a single base run. In the top of the 3rd Suter was kept in the game; one of longer outings of the seasons and it began to show. He did retire the first two batters of the inning before walking the third and giving up up a game tying home run to Erik Gonzalez, his third of the year.

The Brew Crew did not allow the game to stay tied for long as the put another run on the board with an RBI single from Ben Gamel in the bottom of the third off of Williams. They would add to their lead in next inning due to another throwing error from Newman at second base, before chasing Trevor Williams from the game in the bottom of the 5th with a leadoff home run from Pirates Killer Keston Hiura. His final line for the game was very reminiscent of the majority of his starts this season as he allowed 3 earned runs on 7 hits, while striking out 6 and walking 2 on 89 pitches in 4 innings.

The good news for the Pirates was that they did get one of the runs back for Williams in the top of the 5th when an Adam Frazier base knock brought in Cole Tucker would had doubled earlier and that they eventually tied the game in the top of the sixth on a two run single from Jose Osuna; wiping away the mistakes by Newman and the other runs given up by Trevor, at least for the moment. Out of the bullpen lefty Sam Howard also kept Pittsburgh on track as he has the majority of the year, pitching two scoreless frames and striking out two along the way. He was replaced my Tyler Bashlor in the 7th, who continued where Howard left off, keeping their Brewers bats at bay for another inning. As for the Brewers they were finally able to find success in their fourth reliever of the night, Devin Williams, who pitched 1.2 innings without letting in a run and striking out four Pirates batters.

As the 8th inning began, Nik Turley entered the game and promptly gave up a double to Gamel for his third straight hit of the night. He would eventually be replaced by Chris Stratton after an intentional walk and ultimately to block the dreaded lefty pitcher-righty pinch hitter matchup. Unfortunately the strategy did not work in the Pirates favor as Orlando Arcia would hit the go-ahead single off of Stratton on an 86 mph slider that stayed in the zone.

Enter Josh Hader, who in his last outing versus the Pirates, walked 5 batter before being lifted from the game. However, things would be a little different as he struck out three Pittsburgh batters in order to record the save, secure the 6-5 win for the Brewers and ultimately take 3 out of 4 from the Pirates in series.

Tomorrow, the now 10-22 Pittsburgh Pirates travel back home to take on the Chicago Cubs at 7:05 PM, with Chad Kuhl (1-1, 2.52 ERA) scheduled to take on Jon Lester (2-1, 4.55 ERA).

Pittsburgh Pirates News & Views

Starting something new here on Inside the Bucs Basement, and we’ll start out calling it News & Views. I plan to have this every Monday and it will be a place to reset the week, recap the news and talk about some things to look for in the next.

Let us know what you think, after all everything we do is for you.

News

  • The Padres have been the most active team at the deadline early on, and what they’ve done may seem excessive but don’t forget they’re not just trying to sneak into the playoffs, they’re trying to ensure they have a legit shot at beating the Dodgers
  • Mike Clevinger being on the block from Cleveland is blocking up the works something fierce. He is far and away the top pitching target publicly available followed by Dylan Bundy and Lance Lynn. After those dominoes fall, the next tier will get their chance.
  • Back to the Padres, they officially have too many catchers, and while Austin Nola may play any of a number of other positions, they still have spares.
  • The Cubs need to add a starting pitcher, and they won’t let this deadline pass without procuring one. Tyler Chatwood hitting the IL puts this into overdrive.
  • Brian Reynolds is a new daddy and should be back with the club soon, until then it seems Adam Frazier is the choice to handle the extra outfield time
  • Colin Moran is eligible to return from the Concussion IL today, that’s not a guarantee he does, but from reports he practiced yesterday and looked/felt good.

Views

  • Jacob Stallings is probably Cherington’s best chip. Problem is, as I stated above the Padres have an extra player available. That means something for a couple reasons, one the Pirates might have competition to move a catcher, and two if the Pirates do move Stallings they might look to San Diego to get a replacement.
  • I think the Braves are the most likely spot for Clevinger, but I also don’t think it will be enough. That’s part of why I think they’ll get this done, because next year he’ll help too and the Braves won’t give up a chip like Waters unless this solves problems for more than just this season.
  • The White Sox are rumored to be in on some of the top pitching available, but I don’t think they have the prospect capital to get it done ultimately. They may be better served to look at the next level, and that is where a team like Pittsburgh could jump in.
  • Keep in mind the Pirates need to trade players because what they have in town is not good enough. That being said, why should we be surprised when they don’t have a ton of players other clubs covet?
  • Derek Holland and Keone Kela are the only two players the Pirates are in danger of losing for nothing. It’s time to understand that Kela just never stayed healthy long enough to make an impact here, and at this point I find it difficult to envision him pitching again as a Pirate. Holland still might get moved, but if not I’d recommend the Pirates converting him to a reliever. If he’s going to be here he might as well help where he actually can.

Oh What a Feeling! Bell Clobbers Home Run Off a Toyota as Pirates Win 5-1

Josh Bell has looked like anything but the Pirates best player this season for the most part. In fact not two weeks ago he was twitching like cat in a room full of rocking chairs in the box. Suddenly since the road trip began, he is quiet in the box and putting nice swings on the ball. When Spring started nobody thought this was a contender, but everyone thought Bell and Reynolds would keep them relevant a bit longer into the season.

Today’s game is an example of how important one of those players can be, and a reminder of what this streaky player in particular can deliver when he lets his talent speak louder than his mind. In the top of the fourth inning Kevin Newman sharply singled to center, and Josh Bell delivered an absolute bullet to right center, leaving a souvenir in the hood of a brand new Toyota in the process. At the time it gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead, one inning after an error led to the Brewers tying the game at one.

There are times when you lose a game you feel you played well enough to win and then there are games like today where the Pirates commit two errors (that were charged) and bungle running the bases but come out on top.

The offense was pesky all day and the pitching was persistent. This felt like a bullpen game, which might have been the intent. Steven Brault went 3 innings on 68 pitches giving up one unearned run. Then Kyle Crick came in for his first appearance after being activated. He threw a scoreless frame, his breaking stuff was on point but his velocity sat around 91 MPH, ultimately he won’t be effective sitting there, but he looked more controlled which might signify a coached throttle back on his stuff.

Nick Tropeano came on in the 5th for his second appearance, remember last time out he tossed four scoreless in relief, well today he put in another good performance going 2.2 innings while the offense continued to add on. And they were lucky to do it as Frazier decided to head to third with two outs and Gonzalez barely beat the tag to score before Frazier was out. Too close.

That lead felt nice when Hartlieb came in to relieve Tropeano he plunked the batter on his first pitch. Then he struck out Smoak on a foul tip, that somehow the umpire CB Buckner didn’t hear and they refused to review it. Next pitch Hartlieb struck him out again. Shelton was hot, like we haven’t seen this season yet.

The Bucs stuck with Hartlieb to begin the 8th and he delivered another clean inning. Another nice outing for Hartlieb who’s flown under the radar, but all he’s done is put together 13 innings of work with a 2.77 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP.

In the bottom of the ninth the Pirates sent Richard Rodriguez out to defend a four run lead. After last night I’m sure many have some questions. The simple answer is if you trust a guy you toss him right back out there. The nuanced answer is probably more like why do you trust a guy with a 4.97 ERA to close games out. Regardless, this was the choice. This time Rich Rod would get the job done and relatively painlessly if not frighteningly close to going very badly.

Bucs Win! 5-1

News & Notes:

  • JT Riddle I hope has played his last game at third. If the Pirates intend to leave Hayes in AAA, they’ll get called on the carpet nightly if Riddle is who plays instead. Charged with two errors today and probably could have had a third. Started a slow double play with a sloppy feed and booted a swinging bunt. No reasoning is good enough, and this is true Hayes or no Hayes. If they must play him, put him somewhere he’s better, third isn’t for him.
  • Frazier is starting to feel it a bit, actively seeking to hit the ball the other way.
  • Erik Gonzalez had zero walks on the season before this road trip. Derek Shelton put him in the leadoff spot and Erik has drawn 4 walks while continuing to hit. Say what you want, but if you feel the same way you did about Erik before the season you were either a hopeless optimist or haven’t been watching. He might be a real player.
  • Gregory Polanco homered in the top of the second, that’s his fifth. In a normal season he is on pace for 27 homeruns. If he improves nothing else, is that good enough? I asked this on Twitter and it seemed most felt no, but this is not far from what Joey Gallo does and I see people call him a star. Think about it and let me know what you think.
  • Steven Brault was rather abruptly pulled after 3 innings today, and his pitch count was near 70. Worth noting because of the deadline approaching.
  • Nick Tropeano has now thrown 6.2 innings for the Pirates, with a 0.00 ERA on 83 pitches. Very small sample size, but also really nice work, he almost has the look of a knuckle baller.
  • In 13 innings Hartlieb has a 2.77 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP. He’s become one of the better options in this bullpen.