Taking Off The Fan Hat: Cheering For The Name On The Front Of The Jersey

I am a Pittsburgh Pirates Fan; always have been. In my 35 years of cheering on the Buccos there have been ups and downs, players have come and gone, ownership has changed hands, a new park has been built and another was torn down and through it all I have persevered. Always trying to keep the faith, while remaining somewhat grounded, which is not easy to do as a fan. From time to time I have found myself pulling for a guy that I knew in my heart of hearts was not going to pan out. I have tried to will myself into believing that if he gets just one more shot, things will turn somehow be different. There have been prospects who gave me hope, only to be disappointed yet again.

Now I am not going to lie, there have been some moments of excitement, when everything looked like it was going to work out for the team as a whole as well as some of the individual players who I have put my faith in, but for the most part this has been the exception, not the rule. This has given me perspective to draw from; as a fan of the Pirates and a fan of baseball in general. Sometimes I have to remind myself to take a step back and look at the player from a different lens; not as a fan, but from an analytical perspective because statistics are clear, concise and can’t be influenced by emotion.

Before you get too angered by what seems like me telling you how to be a fan, take a breath. You can be any type of fan you want to be, cheer for any player for a reason you see fit to and hope for the success of the team, along with your favorite guys. Just don’t take it the wrong way when I point out what I see as some of your misconceptions and clouded emotional views because in the end we both want the same thing, a winning team to return to Pittsburgh. There might just be a different path to achieving this and some of the guys who we have fallen in love with may not be a part of this.

Go ahead and get excited about a nice play or hit, but don’t let this become the entire narrative. Sometimes this reaction is our way of trying to prove that we were right about a particular player. However, if this is the only evidence you have in your favor, the argument you are trying to make doesn’t hold much water. It is only prolonging the inevitable, which is a career that does not reach the potential we have imagined or hoped for. Take each player’s overall performance at face value in order to be fair and objective in your assessments. It will save you a lot of pain, agony and frustration, possibly with me, if the player you like doesn’t end up being exactly what you want them to be.

The same can be said for player’s who outperform our expectations. Don’t try to hold them back just because your initial impression was incorrect and they may be taking a job from your favorite player. Be happy that they are helping your team perform well or at the very least giving them a fighting chance. As it usually is with a team that is building/rebuilding/refreshing, players could be constantly changing and the vision for the future will be continuously evolving and we as fans need to be open and willing to move along with it.

A Tale of Two Exhibitions Pirates fall 11-7 to the Indians

It’s early, hell it doesn’t even count yet, but pitching remains an issue for your Pittsburgh Pirates. It donned on me sometime in the 6th that unless you count Brault and Kuhl, the Bucs have yet to have a reliever toss a scoreless frame.

This trend would continue on this night as Cleveland teed off on Williams, Stratton, Rodriguez, and Feliz.

Now, Williams escaped trouble for the most part giving up solid contact regularly and being bailed out by Dyson and Heredia multiple times. Really nice plays and they prevented Williams from a slash line reflective of his outing.

Stratton was just cleaning up for Williams but gave up one of his own on top of allowing the inherited run. Rich Rod was a mess from the start, single, walk, blast. He and Crick both looking very much like the worst versions of themselves early on here.

Feliz actually had good stuff, but he still gave up a bullet to the wall that, um, veteran center fielder Cole Tucker tracked down, and nearly crippled himself in the process, nice catch, but whew. Then the bomb nobody could get.

Another theme that continues is the Pirates inability to score runs when runners reach third with less than two outs. The first time was when Dyson singled and stole second, a wild throw moved him to third, Newman and Reynolds failed to move him home. Again in the 7th the Bucs loaded the bases, which itself was a failure as Osuna slipped and should have scored. Nobody out and a weak ground ball, Tucker strikeout and Adam Frazier finally broke through drawing a walk to drag the Pirates back into the game making it 8-5.

To the plate came Josh Bell, who looked out of sorts all night from the left handed batters box but fluid and on time batting right, in fact earlier he bombed a homerun to right field and it looked effortless. This at bat would see him step up as a left hander again, and he rather quietly struck out to strand the bases loaded.

It’s early but Bell’s timing and swing were all over the place from that side. His stance noticeably changed from last game to this one, hopefully a sign of coaching and not his characteristic tinkering that has led to confusion in the past.

In the bottom of the seventh Neverauskas came in and started the inning the only way he knows how, a single and a ringing double that missed leaving the yard by no more than a foot or two. Luplow almost made him eat it again just missing a homer on a long fly to left that Brito tracked down. A hung breaking pitch later and another run was in making it 10-5. He provides a nice window into how different this management team could be, he clearly is not cutting it and is out of options, what do they do?

We head to the 8th and Colin Moran continued his hot start, leading off the inning with a homerun, balls were flying in Cleveland tonight. Evans followed with a Double and it was sharply hit, he’s not getting hits by accident, piling this on top of the homerun he hit earlier in the evening. Osuna reached on an infield hit and moved to second on an error that scored Evans. 10-7 Tribe.

At this point you’re thinking, this looks like last season, pitching can’t keep the runs down but the offense keeps fighting to make it a contest. Of course this also leads to those 10-1 blowouts that we became so accustomed to in 2019 when the bats fall silent.

A walk and an infield hit by Brito would load the bases for the Pirates again. Second inning in a row with the bases juiced and nobody out. Erik Gonzalez owner of another hot Bucco bat steps up and promptly strikes out. Sometimes these guys can just feel the theme of what you’re writing ya know? The job moved to Tucker who had already provided a nice play in the field, clearly he is not all the way there with his new swing, it doesn’t look comfortable, he too struck out, sensing a theme? Last chance in the 8th, Jacob Stallings steps up, and one thing you can say about Jacob, he takes a professional looking at bat, and knows the strike zone like Mozart got music. That said, this at bat would end in a groundout. Again, runner at third, no outs, no runs.

Next the Bucs would turn to Robbie Erlin, a NRI player who surely must be better than what we’ve seen, right? Yeah, nope, three pitches in Bauers absolutely demolished a ball left on left.

The pitching rightly steals the show in a game like this, you score 7 runs and hit 4 homeruns, you should win more games than you lose, but leaving at least three free runs sitting there waiting for a fly ball on a night where neither side could keep it in the park is a fundamental issue that has plagued this club for far too long.

Nobody is going to expect 100% conversion, but its got to become a heck of a lot more frequent. This wasn’t some hard luck situation where the bottom of the order was up and failed, this was three distinct sets of players and it must improve.

Tonight’s tilt ends 11-7 Indians and it could have been worse.

Shouldn’t the Pirates be Answering Questions Instead of Creating New Ones? Maybe Not.

Tonight, the Pirates head to Cleveland for the second tune up game and we just found out we’ll see Cole Tucker in the outfield for at least part of this contest.

Heading into this restart the Pirates had a laundry list of questions to answer, that doesn’t make them unique, most teams face plenty of unknowns and position battles, but the Pirates list seems to be growing rather than coming to resolution.

What do I mean? Well, let’s start with what we knew the Bucs would face once we were sure they were going to try to play this season.

Would Hayes start the season with the Pirates?
How healthy is Polanco?
Who fills the holes in the Bullpen?
What are they going to do with the DH?
Who’s the fifth starter, for that matter who’s the fourth?

Oh, I’m sure there are more, but suffice to say we’ve done nothing but add to it and here’s the kicker, some of the new questions are longer range.

The most recent of which is what exactly are the Pirates doing with Cole Tucker? Versatility? Really see him as an outfielder long term? Not part of the future Pirates infield?

Hey, maybe we’re overreacting here, it’s just an answer to finding at bats for the guy and filling a hole at the same time, right?  If I knew what they were up to this column wouldn’t be littered with question marks. But maybe we’re asking the wrong questions.

See, we all heard Ben Cherington say he wanted to evaluate what he had here before diving headfirst into making moves, but we all heard it as we wanted to. We didn’t hear the actual words. For instance, I saw it as, ok, lets see what these guys can do with a new coaching philosophy before I move on from anyone. Maybe he meant it even more literally, maybe nobody is a lock, maybe our preconceived notions of who was the future and who should be traded, who was a starter and who is a bench piece were all, well, off.

Perhaps hearing Colin Moran is going to continue to see a lot of playing time is only a surprise to us. Maybe believing the Pirates have an absolute glut of middle infielders isn’t exactly how the front office sees the organizational depth chart. Perhaps despite our own individual visions for who will and won’t be here moving forward won’t line up with what the new management team is doing.

It would be fair to say I’m making too much out of one move with one player, sure, but regardless of that fact, one thing has come from it that can’t be denied, none of us know what to expect and honestly after 12 years of Neal Huntington, it’s kind of refreshing.

With Huntington you could plot his moves from a mile away, maybe not the exact trade partner or return but you knew who was going and when, so did everyone he traded with. Being less predictable alone could make Cherington more successful in that arena.

Think about how we discuss this team, be honest with yourself when you do so. We aren’t like other markets for reasons I’m not going to bog down this piece with, but you all know the economics of baseball and Bob Nutting play a role.

A great for instance is Adam Frazier, personally I’ve had him listed as trade bait number one for over a year now. Not because I dislike Adam or think there are better candidates stuck behind him begging for playing time, no, I put Adam on the block because with what’s in the system I don’t see him being extended. Waiting until he has less control would net less in return, so I figure, why wait?

I’m sure a lot of you are with me there, it’s what we’ve seen and it’s what we expect so we start to push out what the roster looks like in the future. We put maybe Tucker at short and we move Newman to second, and some of us don’t settle there, we look past those two and onto the Peguero and Gonzalez era. You know, the guy the Bucs just traded for and the guy they just drafted number one. Ok, some people leave room for Cruz in there too. But maybe, just maybe we don’t know what Cherington has planned for any of them. Maybe they’re just athletes and their current positions mean a whole lot less than we believed.

Maybe the Pirates will start handling youngsters a whole lot more like the Cubs and Cardinals than, well, the Pirates. Positional flexibility allows those clubs to fast track players to the majors when their bat looks ready. In fact some of them stay that way, if superstars like Kris Bryant can be at third base or a corner outfield spot to make the lineup work of course Ian Happ would have the same expectation. Kyle Schwarber was a catcher who’s defense wasn’t coming along as the Cubs wanted, but the bat was there, so what do they do, play him in the outfield. He’s not a bust, he’s just a guy who changed positions.

I’m still guessing to be sure, but you know what, its kinda nice to wonder. We just haven’t had cause to do so in such a long time it feels foreign.

Tell you what I’ve learned, we’re going to have to be patient to see how Cherington handles this roster and leaving a little room for how it happens could make this a whole lot more fun and interesting than we’re accustomed to.

Cole Tucker, Outfield Prospect?

On Saturday the Pirates GM Ben Cherington confirmed that we weren’t just seeing Cole Tucker shag flies for fun, instead the club plans to give him some time out there and more so this isn’t some long-range project, they plan to use him there soon.

This caught me flat footed if I’m honest but almost every comment on the subject immediately, and rightly in my opinion, suggested Frazier would be the guy to move out there if we needed to use an infielder to fill in for Polanco.

I mean that’s how I’d go right now, but thing is I’m not even sure you need to play with it at all. Let’s look at the options here, and keep in mind the actual season doesn’t start until Friday. We found out about Polanco had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and he is in quarantine for 14 days, if you don’t count Thursday that means he’ll already be on day 8 by the time Friday rolls around.

Of course there is no telling if he’ll be healthy right when his 14 days are up, but a good guess is that he misses about 7 -10 games, no joke in a 60 game season but surely not the crippling blow you’d assume would necessitate a drastic move like this with a young prospect.

Before we get to off the wall options for filling in, lets begin with what is already available and has played the position professionally. Heredia who actually started there last night is certainly an option, but I could see wanting to keep him away from right-handed starters as often as possible. Osuna actually moved there from DH at some point during the game as well, he has an underrated arm and his lack of range won’t hurt much with the Clemente wall out there. He can handle the position. Martin was called up from the Altoona squad for last night and he actually handled center for a while as well as right field. His question is the bat but defensively he can handle it. Of course Frazier is in the mix, I know he was a finalist for the gold glove at 2B but he’s a pretty good fielder everywhere.

How about another last-minute call up from Altoona, Will Craig? The club started toying with him there last season and then you’d still get to get a young guy some looks.

So, why am I against Tucker getting the shot in the outfield? Well, I’m not entirely, I’m against the timing of this for the potentially very small window in which you’d want to use him there. We know Tucker is an above average fielder at short or second, we’ve seen nothing else from him. Hell, we’ve even seen Newman handle the corner outfield, he’s no Parker but the guy held his own.

I just don’t see the urgency to do this, if it’s about Cruz, ok. If you’re worried about Peguro or Gonzalez already, well, don’t be, slow down with that, they have nowhere to really progress this season and are a couple away anyhow.

Nope, I just can’t make sense of it. So, it put me on a different track, what if organizationally, Cherington wants position versatility as a theme? What if his goal is to have a roster with 4 or 5 players, 4 or 5 athletes who can bounce wherever the skipper wants to allow lineup construction based more on matchups and analytics than position need?

Toss in the DH variable and you could have a lineup with 3 or 4 rocks who stay put positionally and hold their spots in the lineup while maximizing what all the other roster components do well. Some guys can’t hit off speed, so they don’t face the crafty vet starter. Some lineups could be generated to combat a sinkerball guy with speed.

Do I know any of this to be true, no, but it beats the hell out of thinking the new GM has already lost his damn mind? We’ll have to wait so see what his vision really is for more members of the club to be his decision, but for right now, my guess is he’s trying to get creative with the mix he inherited and chose not to improve.

Pirates Are Up a Crick, if He Keeps Pitching Like That. Bucs Fall 5-3

Tonight at 7:05 the Pittsburgh Pirates took the field and faced off against the Cleveland Indians in the first exhibition game of Spring 2.0.

Much of the game saw promising performances, Joe Musgrove pitched three scoreless and struck out five on the way. More importantly he looked unhittable doing it, mixing his pitches masterfully while Jacob Stallings stole 7 by my count strikes off the plate to make it even better.

Let’s stick with the starters because they all performed really well, Brault and Kuhl each handled their two innings and looked in control though Brault started looking fastball heavy again in the beginning. Really positive results through seven innings.

The bats were sporadic but that’s to be expected early in any season, the pitchers always have the advantage. Reynolds got the ball rolling in the first with a sharp single up the middle. Bell doubled off the wall, but Erik Gonzalez and Colin Moran were dialed in leading to a 3-0 lead as the game reached the 8th.

Then the Pirates called on Kyle Crick, closer candidate, and no that doesn’t change because of one night, but it sure looked familiar. Up 1-2 on the first batter and he gave up an uncontested walk, I mean to tell you there was nothing to induce a swing. Next batter goes down 3-0 and battles back to 3-2 where he tosses a noncompetitive slider about a foot outside. This is when I started feeling the homerun was coming.

First pitch was an absolute piped, center center slider that the batter let go. Exactly the script from last year, walk yourself into trouble and pipe one to get a strike, boom. The next pitch was popped up and I briefly sighed in relief. Then a sharp single to right that was played nicely to prevent a score, but you felt it coming. Next batter catches a slider hanging a bit too high and belts it over the left fielder’s head for a bases clearing double.

Neverauskas came in and gave up his requisite single to make it 4-3 then settled down to escape the inning.

The ninth brought in promising Nick Burdi who showed great stuff but gave up a lead off double and an error brought home the fifth run of the game for the Tribe. All things considered though, Burdi showed what we knew he would, 98+ stuff and biting breaking balls, insane stuff he has really.

Kyle Crick is for better or worse expected to contribute in the back end of this bullpen, and it doesn’t matter if he’s a closer or set up guy, he still needs to get outs. This fact has been amplified by the absence of Keone Kela but he’d still be someone the club is counting on regardless.

It’d be one thing if Crick just got jumped and gave up a couple hits, you could just dismiss it as that, a couple hits, it happens to everyone. Instead Crick repeated his formula, get ahead with great looking stuff then fail to put the guy away by never sniffing the zone again. Or sweating the walk so much that he pipes one. The high fastball still sails a foot over the zone far too often and it leaves his slider exposed. The spin is impressive but if you have to look like you’re hitting a righty to maybe nibble the outside corner, maybe it needs toned back a bit.

Because a pitcher with great stuff who can’t hit the zone is like a Ferrari without a steering wheel. I’m no pitching coach, but Oscar Marin is, one thing I’m far more confident about this season is there will be adjustments made. They better be good ones, because Crick is one of those guys a bit too important to the cause to fall on his face.

All that said, one game. It was great to watch baseball again and even better to write about an actual game. Back to action Monday Night in Cleveland.

Making A Call To The Pen

Last year, every time then Manager Clint Hurdle would reach for the bullpen phone in the dugout it was almost always a total crapshoot as to which pitcher, and more likely which version of each particular pitcher, would rise from his chair to begin warming up on the mound. In a season of inconsistencies, injuries, mismanagement and a virtual rotating door between Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, the Pirates Bullpen became the epitome of all of these things wrapped into one tightly wound up ball, with a big giant bow on it. For the season the Pirates Relievers posted a 4.91 ERA (23rd), gave up 102 HRs (9th), walked 304 batters (4th) and struck out 687 (7th), while only producing 57 holds (28th) and blowing 24 saves (15th). By just looking at the numbers I don’t think I have to tell you that this isn’t going to get it done, even in a shortened season. So what has changed, what hasn’t and are there any real reasons for hope? Some of these questions may be easy to answer and what isn’t could certainly cause a little bit of pessimism to exist for the future, in the short term at least.

When you look in the Pirates Bullpen a familiar face, Justin Meccage, will be peering back at you. The Assistant Pitching Coach for the past two seasons and the Minor League Pitching Coordinator before that, Meccage has taken on a new role. However, with a new philosophy brought in by Pirates 1st Year Pitching Coach, Oscar Marin, changes have already started to take place and it is my belief that Meccage was retained because he embraces the use of technology, which was frowned upon by previous regime.

Some familiar faces also exist on the pitching staff; including Kyle Crick, Michael Feliz, Chris Stratton, Richard Rodriguez, Dovydas Neverauskas and Clay Holmes. Each of these guys have experienced success to some degree in the majors, but have also been known for their inconsistencies and struggles. Nick Burdi has returned from injury with a bang as he has regularly been caught on the gun throwing 99 mph+ and JT Brubaker is making a case for himself with a strong spring and summer, but is still quite unproven at the Major League level and has spent the majority of his time as a starter. Throw in veteran left-hander Robbie Erlin and once promising prospect Nick Turley for good measure and you have an unpredictable conglomeration of arms set to carry the load in 2020. Of course, Keone Kela and Blake Cederlind will figure into the mix if they ever make it on the field. However, until it is certain, they unfortunately cannot be counted on to make an impact.

Other players are waiting in the wings at the Pirates Alternative Training Site in Altoona, but many of them have little to no experience beyond AA, let alone in the majors. This is not saying that they can’t or won’t be able to perform, it just makes the outcome a little more unpredictable, which is unfortunate because this how the Pirates got into trouble last year; not enough depth when injuries arose. This scenario could easily be repeated during the season due to the possibility of normal injuries, coupled with the fact that a global pandemic is also taking place. Young arms could be called upon in high pressure situations, with more on the line than normal; less games to play equals less room for error.

So what are my expectations and hopes for the Pirates Relievers in a shortened 2020 season? Honestly it is not much different than it was prior to the shutdown in early March; clear evaluation of players with limited or no options, assessment of players returning from injuries, as well as those who have shown promise at times in their young careers and providing experience to those who could be relied on in the future to play a bigger role as the team moves forward with the rebuild/build/refresh. Of course this all sounds well and good until the rubber actually meets the road and the plan gets turned on its head. At that point in time Derek Shelton and Oscar Marin will face some unique challenges and their decision making abilities and new philosophies will truly be tested.

What is the Path to Playing Time?

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with some Bucco fans on the Tweet box about Jose Osuna. Someone proposed that Jose was one of those players who won’t look good with increased exposure.

This could be right, honestly there are some signs that he could never be much more than a decent bat off the bench and a utility guy, hey they all can’t be Bryan Reynolds, right? But how do you know? I mean I could say the same about Josh Harrison, but the difference is I saw that happen. We already watched it transpire and that’s what brought up this question for me.

What are all the reasons players are provided a path to playing time?

Pure Position Improvement
Let’s take Ke’Bryan Hayes for example, and yes, I know he isn’t here, and we don’t know why, all that out of the way, why is the consensus that he is ready? From what I’m seeing people say, it’s a very Colin Moran focused ascension for Mr. Hayes. It’s really all about defense, and that’s fine but the root of this is to at least part of the population Hayes is ready because he is a perceived improvement over who’s here.

OK, that seems like a reasonable way to approach it, real tangible belief that you can improve the club by playing a youngster is probably the purest reasoning there is.

Keep in mind this is not about validating the reasoning, you needn’t believe Hayes is ready to understand this path to playing time.

Pipp’d
Who doesn’t know the Wally Pipp story? Lou Gehrig, it’s a whole thing. An example from this past season was Kevin Newman who returned from a much less severe injury months ahead of the named starting short stop Erik Gonzalez. Kevin latched on to the position and never let go. Now in order for this to take place there has to have been a pretty close competition for the spot to begin with.

Pipp’d Plus
I’m not sure Bryan Reynolds is the sure-fire starter/star on this club he is today if Marte doesn’t run smack into Egon. Maybe he would have tore up AAA anyway and this was inevitable, I mean can you imagine that guy in AAA against lower level pitching?

Either way, Pipp’d Plus is basically finding playing time and instead of directly replacing the injured guy permanently, you latch on at another position.

If Bryan did indeed take that other approach, I mentioned he’d be our next path.

Under Matched
Tyler Glasnow is a perfect example. There was simply nothing left to be gained by leaving Tyler in AAA to miss his spots with fastballs and still rack up 13 strikeouts over 8 scoreless. He was just not facing the kind of competition that would force him to take the next step in his evolution. Force him to understand that high fastball with no movement at the belt won’t be a strikeout against Christian Yelich, it’ll be gone.

An under matched player left to continue to cruise will often regress and providing them playing time at the next level is the only option before some of the bad habits fully set in. Once the evidence is hammered home it allows a coach to point to his performance rather than just repeat a mantra. A player like this will have probably excelled at every level he’s ever participated in, facing adversity for the first time is a necessary step to accept and it can lead to arguably the biggest jump they ever take in their progression.

Quad A Player
This is a guy who is too good for AAA but has just not taken hold of any opportunity when called up. Sometimes these players need some settle in time and that can be a tall ask when your club is competitive. Steve Pearce is probably my favorite example of this type of player. He was given shots with the Pirates, and you can argue none of them were long enough or he didn’t get a fair shake but reality is, he never put a strangle hold on his playing time until he went to Baltimore and a team in worse shape than Pittsburgh (yes they exist) gave him a full on audition.

Steve came up aces and it left some of us bitter Bucco fans feeling a bit cheated.  Reality is we’ve had an absolute ton of these players and being out of options is a direct reason. We’ve seen it with Alen Hansen, Rajai Davis and Keon Broxton.

Sometimes they just never pan out, anywhere. Nick Kingham, Tony Sanchez, oh forget it I could go on and on.

My fear Will Craig is one of these players. And while its easy to say play him so we don’t get into that position, where? I think we’ll get easily through this year before his position in the depth chart comes up and that’s not to say he’s untalented. He is very good defensively and shows some power, but those strikeouts in AAA are ripe to increase even more at the next level. Here’s hoping the new coaches can reach him.

Necessity
My belief right now is that the Bucs don’t think Jared Oliva is ready to be a regular contributor in the bigs. That’s pretty clear from how they’ve constructed the roster here but should say Heredia and Dyson get hurt or sick, Oliva, a guy who you just know they’d love to be locked in for a solid season of AAA could be forced into action.

For this one to lead to a path a player must answer the questions the club had before he can really threaten Pipping anyone.

The best example I can think of for this probably The Fort, Michael McHenry. The Bucs if you remember were on catcher 4 or 5, maybe even 6 before they stumbled on The Fort. Now he came from another organization, but necessity is what spawned his opportunity, and he took it.

When we look at the youngsters coming up, how they get to the point of getting on the field can vary, that much is obvious as we’ve covered. Even given all those options you still need to be fortunate enough to play a position that’s open.

In-fact maybe it’s not fair to skip mentioning what gets in the way. Service time and Super 2 are probably strong enough to stand alone, both of these ask a club who is relying on aligning all the stars, to pick a window before starting the clock. This same type of club is more often than not moving that player before his control is up so the window is even tighter. If a team makes an expensive mistake at a given position the team may be inclined to get their money’s worth out of the player, even if a younger option is available. The DH in the NL will open some doors for getting young bats involved we Senior circuit veterans have never enjoyed. In fact that is the very best reason to like the DH, it helps with the overall flow of prospects. Used properly it can be almost a proving ground or a wild card so you no longer need a perfect hand to trial balloon a guy. Not that the prospect has to be the DH, but you have a place to keep that veteran bat in the lineup and still get to test the youngster. Hate it all you like, its still a real benefit.

Injury is another big one, and it can wreak havoc on a players development and opportunity. See Brubaker who was on track to beat Keller to MLB and it could be argued has more command of his pitches. Even with expanded rosters in 2020 he may struggle to make it, and reports from management sound like he’s impressing.

Pedigree is the last one I’ll mention. This is a weird one so bear with me. Cole Tucker is my example, here is a number one pick, slick with the glove, switch hitter, good approach at the plate, but it just never really came together for him. Not average, not power, he’s just not put it together. His pedigree says he’s a first round pick, so when he reaches the majors we expect him to well, look like a first round pick. Then he does pretty well right away, and you start picturing him as the future and where he fits and how good he can be. While you’re thinking of all that for a couple weeks you kind lose focus and look up to see he’s down to .245 and made two errors last week. Playing time decreases, now he’s not so exciting. Thing is not every prospect, even number one picks, come up ready for everything, and he may never evolve to meet that draft slot, but this is his second year and he’s already changing his swing, double the work too since he hits both ways.

He plays the same position as a player who himself came up with those expectations, fell on his face, then got a second chance that he still has hold of. Don’t count Tucker out, sometimes the pedigree is an albatross.

At the end of the day, for playing time, you’re either going to hit, pitch or catch your way to the proving ground. Ask yourself, who fits that bill? Maybe it is Hayes, maybe it’s Brubaker, Cederlind, hey maybe most of us will run to Craig to ask about whoever it is. This year, starting in AAA and forcing your way to opportunity isn’t in the cards, but some of these guys have already made their case.

Let’s see what they’ve got.

The Art of Vague Information

It’s starting to feel like this will be a theme as we go through the season, journalists notice a player hasn’t been on the field, and inquire as to where he might be. Coaches answer with a vague confirmation that the player was indeed not there. That’s it, end of story.

It is driving some people nuts, and I get it. I’m sure it’s frustrating for the reporters too, its not like they can just wander around the bowels of PNC Park digging for answers and it’s unprofessional to straight guess. Don’t want to push because it might be COVID related and everyone understands keeping it private is entirely up to the player affected.

I’m not saying Derek Shelton is lying or using this incorrectly, but you could absolutely assume someone will. A player is off doing cage work and trying to fix something in his mechanics, so he isn’t seen for a few days, a coach sees no reason to share. See, last year someone would have done exactly what I suggested above, walked around in the lower levels of PNC and seen this going on and asked a pointed question. Today if it doesn’t happen on the field, and you don’t want to talk about it, it didn’t happen.

We’re used to coaches being vague, especially if you’re a hockey fan. I could watch Evgeni Malkin take a skate in the face and Coach Sullivan will know for sure everyone saw it happen, he’ll still come out with “upper body”. Baseball has never been like that; I mean most of the time when a player winds up on the IL it sends fans to Google to research the entire nervous system of an elbow or hamstring.

2020’s parade of weird continues and this is simply one more thing we’ll have to deal with. Right now, the Pirates have three players who are in this situation. Gregory Polanco who has missed the last two days with no explanation beyond a confirmation he isn’t on the field. Ke’Bryan Hayes, nothing. Keone Kela, nothing.

There have been two players who publicly tested positive for COVID, Blake Cederlind who is reportedly feeling better but not cleared to return and Socrates Brito who just returned to the field. They publicly tested positive because they chose to.

On the surface I think, well if that’s what’s going on with the other three, why not just say it? Why would the players not all want to just put it out there? Well, stigma I guess, maybe there is some kind of thought that they weren’t as careful as they should be, as untrue as that probably is, I could see some thinking that. Maybe the team itself wants to keep it internal so as to avoid answering questions about contact tracing that inevitably would lead to the club having about 5 players left?

Who knows, but the point is I think we can expect baseball to continue to be vague about players missing time for the entire season. I think digging too deep into the plan, which is essentially a positive test puts you into a quarantine, just you, means we can expect teams to avoid publicly stating much of anything unless they can feel reasonably sure it has been contained.  In other words, they’d rather not say Polanco has tested positive (and no I don’t know either) then have people posting pictures of he and Bell hugging or standing 3 feet away from one another with questions about why Bell too isn’t quarantined.

There will come a point where it becomes more of an issue. For now, it’s just a curiosity, but as we move forward, we’ll see benign things like a day off for Bell in the middle of a 17-game stretch and our minds will immediately go to, what if. I expect scheduled days off for players who are everyday types to be announced in an effort to prevent the speculation.

Add less certainty about who is and isn’t available to the list of things that will make this season a little tougher to follow, but I’d say jumping to conclusions won’t help anyone. We’ll just have to do something we Americans don’t particularly enjoy, be patient.

Relative Unknowns and Overlooked Role Players: The 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates

It has been less than nine months since the regime of General Manager Neal Huntington was ushered out the door of the Pittsburgh Pirates Front Office. Since that time a meaningful game of baseball has yet to be played, a truncated Spring Training was followed by an extended layoff and Summer Camps have just recently gotten underway in Pittsburgh and Altoona. However, it seems like people are very quick to assume that the flaws in his process of acquiring and developing talent have vanished just as quickly as the nameplate on his desk as calls are being made to elevate players who were the victims of an inadequate farm system and overall organizational philosophy. Even worse is the push to do so is often made at the expense of playing time for more proven players, mostly because a particular prospect has been touted as the future of the organization. How can one trust these assertions to be true and still continue to question the failures in development and assessment by the previous baseball operations department? As hard as I try I just can’t wrap my mind around this way of thinking and based on the moves that General Manager Ben Cherington has made thus far in his limited time with the Pirates, I believe he can’t either.

Cherington put his stamp of disapproval or at least recognition of the lack of Major League ready talent for Pirates front and center with the non-tender of Elias Diaz and the contract for Erik Gonzalez to avoid arbitration; along the subsequent signings of Luke Maile, Guillermo Heredia, JT Riddle and eventually Jarrod Dyson. These guys were not brought back or brought in to compete for jobs on the opening roster. They were identified and acquired/retained to play, fill holes/deficiencies in the lineup and possibly stick around because other than Dyson the still have a decent amount of team control to work with. If GMBC was so sure about the readiness of the next line of Pirates Prospects to contribute in a meaningful way at PNC Park this year, these guys wouldn’t be here.

Maile was signed as a clear defensive upgrade over Diaz. Over the past three seasons, in limited action, Maile has posted 8, 5 and 3 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved); while Diaz put up a -21 last year. That is a 24 run swing for the positive if you are keeping track at home. If the bat ever comes around that is a bonus, but is not to be expected or counted on. He did hit .248/.333/.700 and a couple homers two years ago during the season when he got the most consistent playing time, which would count as a win for the Pirates; provided these numbers are duplicated in a shortened season and as far as I have seen people, including himself, believe he is starting to get on track at the plate.

Heredia is a defensive minded 4th outfielder with platoon ability, especially against left handed pitchers. Last year for the Rays he batted .281/.339/.795 with 3 home runs against lefties in 124 plate appearances. He also sports a 7 DRS for his career as an outfielder. A once prominent Mariners Prospect, having defected from Cuba at the age of 25 in 2015, he hasn’t been able to establish himself as an everyday player. However as a role player he fits on a roster very nicely and he has been seeming to fit in with his new teammates in Pittsburgh as well.

His performance on the field and at the plate thus far can’t be overlooked either.

As far as JT Riddle is concerned, I see him more as the new Adam Frazier/Super Utility Man on the Pirates as he has the versatility to play multiple infield and outfield positions and had been a fairly solid offensive player in the Marlins system up until he caught the injury bug last year. Since some struggles during his first year in the minors, Riddle had performed well with a career .275 AVG and a little bit of pop in his bat. Some of his power transferred over to the majors as he had 9 home runs in 2018 as one of the teams regular shortstops. He also became a fan favorite during his time with the Marlin, which has carried over to his brief time with the Pirates.

Add in the previously mentioned Erik Gonzalez and Minor League Free Agent acquisition, Phillip Evans, former of the New York Mets Organization, who hit 17 homers last year in the minors as a utility infielder and you have a roster packed with little known or overlooked role players who are blocking the so called future of the Pirates; at least for now.

Now I know that this is not what Pirates Fans want to hear or see, but it is the reality. Does it make the team markedly better? Possibly, possibly not. Does it make them any worse? Absolutely not! For me it only goes to reinforce what I stated in the beginning about the lack of MLB ready talent in the system, that this is a year of evaluation and development under a new organizational philosophy and that for the Pirates it made more sense to fill holes in the present rather than continuing to bucket out water on Neal Huntington’s sinking ship.

128 Days

Feels so much longer doesn’t it. That’s how long it will have been since the last time the Pittsburgh Pirates have played any semblance of competitive baseball when they take the field on Friday against the Cleveland Indians for the final tune-up series before the 60-game sprint starts.

It’s been quite a journey for all of us and we still aren’t sure where we’ll land are we? Playing games isn’t going to shut off the rest of the issues we need to deal with or protect the population from COVID-19, but it will provide a much-needed boost of normalcy.

I know, some of you would rather they just skip the whole thing, and I’m not here to try to change your mind. I can’t identify with it in any way but I’m also not in the business of strong-arming people to see things my way, all I can do is offer my thoughts and if any of them click with you, great. If not and you just want me to document why this whole thing is a dangerous and useless example of America believing it can will away a virus, I’d advise you to not hold your breath.

I’m also not the type to worry about being wrong on speculation. Now this doesn’t mean I dispute hard facts as fake, it simply means when we’re trying to settle on how a prospect will turn out or how a trade will turn out, if I’m wrong, I’ll admit it and move on. Over time you’ll either trust what I believe because I’m right more often than not or the opposite.  I feel no different about diving headfirst into this season. I’d rather not be wrong of course, I mean, who wants opinion from someone who has zero care as to the outcome of their musings?

Point is, if I’m going to write about the Pirates, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to pretend the floor could cave in at any moment and start every sentence with “If” or back up every statement with all the caveats involved. No different than my choosing to take the given economic system in baseball and the owner of the club I follow himself being a loathsome cheapskate, accept it, and realistically discuss what they can do right now, as it is.

This is going to be a sprint of a season, there will be adjustments some of us will love and some of us will hate, but above all it will be baseball. Pitching, hitting, coaching, spectacular plays and towering shots will all make the trip with us into the weirdness.

We won’t learn as much about our young players as we’d like. Someone could hit .400 in this shortened bastardized season and then we’d have a big discussion about its validity. Or, dare I go so far as to suggest an asterisk. Yeah, we’re going to have to deal with it. It won’t invalidate everything that happens in the game, it’ll just be different. Surely, we can handle some nuance. In a world that has taken a beating, surely, we can take a small dose of what we find unpalatable in order to experience a bit of joy.

I mean, isn’t that life in a nutshell? Dealing with things we’d rather not in order to do the things we really enjoy. Of all the players in MLB the majority have chosen to play, maybe money was their motivation, but know what, regardless of their motivation they’ve chosen to accept the dangers and put in the effort to go out on that field and give what they have to the betterment of, well, us.

MiLB players have had their season completely cancelled, and knowing how their journey to MLB often is, one would think they’d predominately be concerned about their pocketbooks. Instead the majority have focused on staying in shape and disappointing the fans. You know, you and I the people that will ultimately call half of them bums when they can’t play like Ken Griffey Jr.

The players offer to entertain us, despite the dangers and I’m quite sure they don’t need me to remind them of that fact every time I sit down to write, or you for that matter.

That’s a very long way to say, hey, let’s enjoy what we can. This Friday, we can enjoy baseball. It won’t fix everything, it won’t make the virus go away, nobody can promise it’s entirely safe, but it could just help us feel like we will get through this.

If it ends, it ends, but something tells me once we remember what we’ve missed, we’ll be hard pressed to let it go again.

The normalcy offered by being immersed in the season will take over, headlines will start to include scores or in-game moments. Stories will begin to take shape as lineup choices begin to be informed by real baseball stats and observations. Players who have heard what they can’t do for an extra 3 or 4 months will finally get their chance to show you were wrong or perhaps show how prescient you were.

Either way, potential becomes actual and we’ll watch it unfold as questions get answered on a nightly basis. Something benign to argue about, something harmless to take sides on, sports. I encourage everyone to take this season as the Miller Lite when you wanted a nice IPA that it is. It might not taste as good, it certainly won’t completely satisfy the craving, but if it’s all you’ve got, and you like beer, drink up.