Draft Day – Where Every Answer Creates a New Question

Draft day in any sport is supposed to be a day of optimism, of looking forward to the future construction of your club. This year we may have to look through the fog of whether the game itself will be played, even as we watch our teams fortify talent with no place to play themselves.

In Pittsburgh, we’re asking different questions about our draft picks than say the Dodgers. Sure, the Dodgers don’t need their picks to pan out nearly as bad as our Buccos, maybe that’s why theirs always seem to. See if the Pirates take a player with their first pick and he doesn’t pan out, as we’ve seen more than once, it literally sets the franchise back, whereas the Dodgers just fill in the hole left by the failed pick.

I can already hear the outrage should they take Nick Gonzales with the 7th pick. Why do they need another middle infielder? I hear that, but it’s important to keep in mind just because he plays middle infield now, what path he takes in his development is entirely open. Middle infielders tend to be some of the best athletes and hence mailable. In other words, you may be able to turn a SS into almost any other position outside Catcher or Pitcher, but an Outfield prospect may be locked into that position or perhaps First Base.  

Neil Walker for instance was drafted as a Catcher and played all over the diamond before finding a home at Second in MLB. Most pitchers will have a pedigree as having started most of their career, but there is no guarantee that’s how they’ll arrive. The numbers don’t add up for many of them, and I mean that in multiple ways. First, there are way more slots in the pen than in the rotation and further many pitchers find adding length causes a necessary reduction in velocity. Some will struggle to add a needed 4th pitch that keeps hitters off the fastball, while others will never grasp the consistent control and show the ability to maintain it throughout a seven inning start.

Saying all that makes it seem, well, kinda depressing.

It’s not the same for every pick, there’s a reason these picks are projected first rounders. They’ve largely been vetted and there are enough metrics in place to at least feel reasonably assured they will make it to MLB given proper training and opportunity. Looking back to last season, Quinn Priester had already developed a solid 4-5 pitch mix, needing refinement of course but already throwing them put him ahead of the curve. Does this make him a lock to start for the Bucs come 2023? No, of course not, but it gives him a head start on arriving as exactly what the Pirates hoped he would when they picked him.

Travis Swaggerty is another recent pick who has plenty of tools at his disposal, the best of which is speed. His hit tool may never reach the upper echelon that affords him a starter role in the bigs. He of course could prove me wrong, Kevin Newman sure has thus far, but a first-round profile does not always equal a locked in starter on the big club.

There may very well be no riskier pick than a catcher. Think about everything that has to go right, they must pick up the defensive side of the game, understand the responsibility of calling a game, be personable in order to develop relationships with pitchers. It’d be nice if they could hit a little, and on top of everything else they have to endure 4 or 5 seasons of wear and tear on their knees before they sniff an MLB dugout. There are just a few reasons why catchers struggle to develop. Some make themselves so valuable with the bat the club may want to move them just to keep them healthy and or keep them in the lineup every day. There is a sweet spot that very few transcend, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try, just means if they should ultimately choose a catcher like Dillon Dingler or Drew Romo with the competitive balance pick, maybe don’t sit back thinking a problem has been solved.

The draft is a time for optimism and looking forward to a time when these players could come together and form the core that leads your club to the promised land. For best results, it’s best to remember none of them alone will change the completion of your roster. Sit back and enjoy tonight, it’s real sports news, Craig and I will break it down as it happens tonight.

It’s Draft Day

After months and months of studying hundreds of scouting reports, watching countless videos, having some great conversations, writing multiple articles, jotting down mock drafts on the note pad beside my computer and pretty much thinking about it at all hours of the day and night, it is finally almost here; tonight the MLB June Amateur Draft begins. In some ways it has been tough to get myself as excited I have been about the draft in previous years; mostly due to the state of baseball and the world, both locally and globally, at the moment. However, it has brought some normalcy at times to the total and utter chaos.

For a few young men, tonight will bring everything they have worked their whole lives for into focus. Now I know that this pool of talented individuals has been shrunk beyond what any of us would describe as ideal, but there is nothing that can be done about it and we are left to make the best of the situation. This is exactly what I intend to do as I sit down on my couch this evening, patiently waiting to see who my team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, will take off the board with the 7th and 31st picks of the draft.

Over the past few months, weeks and especially days many names have been mentioned as perfect fits for the Pirates Organization; from college bats and to high school sluggers and pitchers with ace potential, as well as the much needed catcher. Some have seemed like “reaches” and/or based solely on need, others have caused me to look deeper into the numbers and talk with people of differing opinions and a select few appeared too good to be true. In the end everyone has their favorites, most of us think we are right and each of us has the same opportunity to be incorrect; whether we be experts or amateurs.

So who do I think the Pirates will select tonight? It sounds like a simple question, but it starts to get a little harder to answer when considering they aren’t the only team selecting players. Many, if not all, of the decisions won’t be made until the board takes shape in front of them and plans B, C, D or E become A because the guy(s) they really wanted ended up going to another team. Based on this train of thought my Pirates Draft Board finally took its final form.

First Round (#7 Pick)

Plan A: Emerson Hancock (RHP)-Georgia

Plan B: Nick Gonzales (SS/2B)-New Mexico State

Plan C: Max Meyer (RHP)-Minnesota

Plan D: Heston Kjerstad (OF)-Arkansas

Plan E: Zac Veen (OF)-Spruce Creek (FL)

Competitive Balance Pick A (31st Pick)

Plan A: Dillon Dingler (C)-Ohio State

Plan B: Jared Shuster (LHP)-Wake Forest

Plan C: CJ Van Eyk (RHP)-Florida State

Plan D: Slade Cecconi (RHP)-Miami

Plan E: Jordan Walker (3B)-Decatur (GA)

Second Round (44th Pick)

Plan A: Alika Williams (SS)-Arizona State

Plan B: Logan Allen (LHP)-Florida International

Plan C: Drew Romo (C)-The Woodlands (TX)

Plan D: Sam Weatherly (LHP)-Clemson

Plan E: Daniel Susac (C)-Jesuit (CA)

In the end I would be happy to see any of theses players join the Pirates. If GMBC goes a different direction, I will obviously scratch my head for a second and then go back to breaking down the videos, stats and scouting reports to see what I may have missed. That’s the fun in this. Now all that is left to do is wait and see; and maybe start to come up with a Plan F.

Top Ten Reasons to Be Optimistic Baseball Will Have a 2020 Season

It’s easy in this day and age to allow yourself to get caught up in the minute by minute roller coaster as social media brings news and opinion to your doorstep. Yesterday within 9 minutes the players rebuttal to the owner’s proposal came out, and as has become usual at this point, it sounded dire. If you leave it there, optimism seems, well, stupid.

Here are ten reasons to believe we will see a season in 2020.

10. The Other Leagues are Coming Back – If all the issues at hand were genuine, this wouldn’t be a consideration, but this is one outside force that truly should matter to both the players and the owners. Nobody wants to be the one league or worse, one entity within said league that fails to get it done.

9. The Looming CBA Negotiations – This item has played a role in causing immense pessimism too. Sure, there are real arguments to be had about pay and how much the owners will pay in 2020 but the posturing is primarily about 2021. Things that would be small skirmishes in a normal year become all out battles in an effort to make the next wave lean their way.

8. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder? – People have said this for generations, but how often do people really have the stomach to put it into practice? That reunion after a long time apart can be sweet, as long as someone is still waiting for you when you get home. I suspect baseball is not prepared to face the possibility that they gave away any percentage of an already dwindling fan base.

7. Safety is No Longer the Focus – Long ago, it seemed safety and health were going to be the biggest concerns, that is no longer the case. I’m no doctor but society at large has begun the process of moving on toward normalcy, and both sides of the argument in baseball have lurched toward money. As soon as the main source of argument left safety and entered money, they lost the ability to blame COVID-19 for missing the entire season.

6. 2 Years Away from Live Competition – Whatever profession you are involved with, take two years off and see how you look when you come back. These are professional athletes and I’m sure they’ll find a way to stay sharp, but there is no replacement for live baseball. I don’t see Chad Kuhl signing up with the Wild Things to hone his skills.

5. Rob Manfred Uses the Power Given to Him in March – That’s right, all this back and forth, all the will they won’t they could very well have a conclusion already written. Craig told us all about it here.

4. Players Won’t Want to Lose the PR Opportunity – If the players refuse to accept any proposal from the owners (fair or unfair) and Rob Manfred exercises his power, the players will miss out on their share of the PR of cooperation. This is the other side of the CBA posturing; nobody wants to overplay their hand.

3. No Fan Silliness Can’t last – This is a reality. I fully support the peaceful protests going on across the country seeking justice and equal treatment for all of us, as do seemingly most politicians. Sure, I’m not stupid, I know it’s politically expedient to show support and I absolutely get some of it isn’t genuine, but none of that can stop the reality that these gatherings are no different than having fans at games. Couple that with the WHO proclaiming that non-symptomatic COVID-19 carriers are not spreading the virus and keeping fans away is going to continue to become less a certainty and more an outlier. This reality should give the owners a bit more bargaining power, perhaps an increase in percentage paid should fans be allowed to attend?

2. City Budgets are Shot – Cities all across our country have, in the name of our safety, destroyed their budgets. Sports bring money to businesses all around the events and missing out on the windfall to jump start recovery seems unlikely to me long term. As with reopening, nobody wants to be first, but Texas and Arizona will quickly show the way forward. Want to let Houston and Arlington boat race other cities? Maybe, but my gut says it sweeps faster than the virus itself did.

1. They Can’t be This Stupid – When adults gather and seemingly go out of their way to out stupid each other, look past it for the hidden agendas. Bottom line, if Baseball is the only major league to not return, they deserve what they get, and I’m sure they know this.

I have from day one and continue now to believe baseball will be back this season. It won’t be normal, and we’ll find some of the ultimate method to be distasteful, but I firmly believe we’ll be watching baseball well into the Fall. Ah man, I can hardly wait to argue about whether they should be playing baseball in New York on Thanksgiving or step aside for the NFL.

National League Central Division Draft Preview

The draft approaches this week, and for many of us it will offer a welcome respite from the day to day will they, won’t they game MLB has put us through. We’ll discuss of course what the Pirates do at length, but we also want to make sure we keep an eye on what our NL Central foes have on tap.

With only five rounds, paying attention to all the picks should be possible for even the most casual of fan and most of those selected have a pretty decent chance of actually making their respective clubs at some point.

Pirates
6 Picks – 7, 31 (Competitive Balance), 44, 3 more picks round 3-5

This includes no compensatory picks and One Competitive Balance Pick in Round A (31)

Cubs
5 Picks – 16, 51, 3 more picks round 3-5

This includes no compensatory picks and no competitive balance picks

Reds
6 Picks – 12, 48, 65 (Competitive Balance), 3 more picks round 3-5

This includes no compensatory picks and One Competitive Balance Pick in Round B (65)

Brewers
5 Picks – 20, 53, 3 more picks round 3-5

This includes no compensatory picks and no competitive balance picks

Cardinals
7 Picks – 21, 54, 63 (Competitive Balance), 70 (Compensation Pick) 3 more picks round 3-5

This includes One Compensatory Pick (70 When Atlanta signed Ozuna) and One Competitive Balance Pick in Round B (63 Received in a trade from the Rays)
I should also note the Cardinals traded their number 37 Competitive Balance Round A pick to Tampa Bay. The MLB draft begins on Wednesday night and Craig and I will bring you analysis and opinion each night as it plays out right here.

A Little Draft Discussion

On Saturday afternoon I had the privilege of sitting down with Keanan Lamb, Senior MLB Draft Writer from Baseball Prospectus, to have a conversation about the Pittsburgh Pirates top 3 picks in this week’s MLB June Amateur Draft and the way that the it could ultimately unfold in front of us. As a novice in the world of draft prognosticators I often rely on feedback and insight from the experts, both from multiple media outlets and different teams scouting departments because how else is one supposed to grow without being open minded to others opinions. Of course I also have my own opinions, developed through independent research, which I enjoy putting up against tests and critiques laid out by skilled professionals such as Lamb.

Over the past week or so I have been slowly putting together my draft board for the Pirates as it pertains to my favorites, players I would like to avoid and the ones that I praying will fall to us and then ultimately the players that would cause the least amount hesitation or possibility for regret with the goal of releasing my official picks the morning of the first round of the draft, Wednesday June 10th. However, I first had to go through the Keanan Lamb Gauntlet. Would my criticisms of Nick Gonzalez hold up? Will Dillon Dingler be on the board for the Pirates 31st Pick? Do I have Blaze Jordan listed to high? Listen below to find out the answers to all of these questions and more.

With the MLB draft coming up in a couple of days please be sure to read Keanan and his colleagues’ work at https://www.baseballprospectus.com/, my draft articles and join him for a live chat on Wednesday night during the draft! I will be there! Will you?

Pirates Sunday Service – 005

Good morning friends. I want to once again apologize for missing last week, I suppose everyone could have used something uplifting but I was too weak to deliver it at the time. Now, let’s get back to business.

Today I’d like to tell you a story, one that shows as much as things change, many of the trials we face stay the same.

The Guild of Baseball – 06-07-46 The Pirates shall play, but the hour was near. The game would change forever but not at this time.

It was June 7th, 1946 and Major League Baseball was in trouble, sounds familiar right? There had been efforts to unionize the players in the past, in fact this was the fourth attempt. Spearheaded by a Harvard-educated labor lawyer from Boston named Robert Murphy, this would be as close as they had ever come under the flag of the American Baseball Guild.

They needed 2/3 of the players to agree to strike and he focused on the Pittsburgh Pirates as they played in an extremely union heavy town.

First a little background, the first post-war season in 1945 saw several changes to the game, changes that prompted the inherent need to at least try. Fist of all, fans came back, and supported the sport like they hadn’t in recent history due to both war and the stifled economy. It was not lost on the players that their salaries did not reflect that growth. Additionally, there was a surplus of talent as many players who served in the armed forces returned and wanted to jump back into the rosters they had left behind to serve.  MLB tried to answer the bell, permitting teams to carry 36 players through June 15th and 30 after that date.

To make matters worse, as 1946 came about, the Mexican Baseball League, offering far more money than MLB had poached a few players like Mickey Owen the Brooklyn Dodgers catcher and openly set their sights on Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Bob Feller to name a few.

As a result, MLB had made some basic concessions in order to prevent a mass exodus, but they did lose 18 players to the rival league. Needless to say, it wasn’t enough to stop the wave. The players had been treated unfairly long enough and with many returning as wartime heroes, the time for being treated as kids who found something fun to do during the Summer were over.

The demands were fairly straight-forward but getting all the players on board was like herding cats.

  • Minimum salary of $7,500 per season
  • Owners may not institute a maximum salary
  • If a player disputed a salary or felt any treatment was unfair, they could seek arbitration
  • If a player was sold to another team, they wanted 50% of the price paid

There were others but these are the ones that were on the table when Mr. Murphy approached the Pittsburgh Pirates. They were set to play the Giants and the team held a vote to strike prior to the contest.

95% of the squad had taken out a guild card and Murphy attempted to bargain with the Pirates president William Benswanger even as he was trying to sell the family owned business. He begged the players to hold off trying to bargain until the end of the season and on June 7th before the game at Forbes Field, Murphy called for a vote to strike. He needed 24 or the 36 players to agree and the vote only netted 20, narrowly falling short.

The strike was killed and essentially so was the guild. Months later MLB would offer minimum salary of $5,500 and a pension plan.

As many of you know the MLBPA would form in 1966 and in 1969 the first successful strike would take place changing the game forever.

Friends, baseball has never been perfect, and it’s been to the precipice more than once. The overall fairness of player treatment improved and its even swung to the opposite in some ways. Fans have lost faith in the game and returned every time, but only a fool tempts fate and every instance of baseball hurting itself is another chance that this time it takes.

When we discuss baseball clubs from the 1940’s and disputes with the players, we certainly are not dealing with Billionaires vs Millionaires, even if you account for inflation, many of these teams had no income outside ticket sales. There was no newspaper empire supporting the Philadelphia A’s, just a family. And many of these players made more in the military. The economics of MLB and indeed professional sports has changed the dynamic, not only between the owners and players but the fans as well.

As a fan, I’d love to just have everyone do well and just watch baseball. As a writer, I’ve had to understand the issues and obstacles the game faces. There is one thing at everyone’s disposal, and I fear as a nation we fail to utilize it often enough, history. Our forefathers, even if you’re first generation American, have gone through things and found solutions to problems you can’t fathom. We didn’t just show up in 2020 and everything happened, and the past shows us the path we traveled.

We should be able to study the lessons of our predecessors and avoid falling prey to the same traps and pitfalls, but another lesson dictates that history is cyclical. How many times have we as a country faced the issue of racial injustice? How many ways have we tried to remedy the situation? Every time it gets a little better, not perfect, but better. I don’t expect that to be enough, but I do take comfort in the fact that rarely do we regress once we’ve gained ground as a people.

The 1946 Pirates were not the trailblazers they could have been, but they were the last failed attempt. Failure is just as much a part of progress as success itself. After all, what is there to overcome if there are not obstacles?

Blessings my friends, let’s make this week better than the last, and keep that train going as long as we can.

Law Of The Instrument: Will Manfred Bang The Gavel?

In psychology there is a theory that attempts to explain an underlying bias based on the over reliance of a certain tool. This concept is often and easily represented by the saying, “when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail”. From everything I have seen and read about Rob Manfred it is completely possible that he has adopted this train of thought as his life’s mantra, as it seems like he treats every situation exactly the same; his opinions and ideas are the only ones that matter. Fortunately for him, as well as his bosses, thus far he has been correct in this assumption, which has truly been unfortunate for the rest of us.

To this point Manfred and the owners that he represents have been getting roasted by players, fans and media members alike for taking advantage of a global pandemic to try to mitigate their losses, put some of the financial and health risk for that matter on the players, get some of plans for the future of Major and Minor League Baseball pushed through and gain some theoretical footing over the MLBA toward the upcoming CBA showdown. Sure some members of the media have continued to carry water for the owners in this situation, but that number is getting smaller by the day; especially as some of their colleagues are losing their jobs with minimal sports to cover. Day by day the court of public opinion is swaying further and further toward the position and plight of the players. The pressure should weigh more heavily on the owners, but it does not because they have held the upper hand in these negotiations since the first agreement was reached on March 26th and Manfred knows it.

In spite of the fact that on the surface it looked like the concessions by each side were fairly even and the respective factions had covered the major sticking points to an agreement for a season, one major stipulation had been overlooked or wasn’t given its full potential gravity. In this case it may not be what everyone is probably thinking of because what is on our minds has taken over our daily lives. The precondition that could ultimately bring all of these good faith negotiations to an end may not be the global pandemic, COVID-19, that brought this all about in the first place. It will more than likely be the power that was given to Manfred to make some decisions on his own, without much or any ability to stop him.

During the original agreement players agreed to a prorated salary based on the number of games being played because at that point it was almost certain that a 162 game season was pretty much out the window. However, it seemed that in everyone’s mind at the time that this would just be a tiny bump in the road and things would be back business as usual in no time at all. We all remember statements about Opening Day being pushed back by a two week delay. Now here we sit over two months later and more than a couple of weeks into a battle between the MLB and the MLBPA; raging both behind closed doors and through multiple media leaks. Some may say we are no closer to having baseball than when it was shut down on March 12th, as I was walking around LECOM Park. Based on the current stalemate that is going on, I might tend to agree; if I didn’t remember what type of person Rob Manfred is. He has a hammer and he sees the nail.

Based on everything I have read on the subject Manfred has the option to implement a season of 50 games, while paying players their full pro rated salaries because ultimately this was what the MLBPA agreed to back in March. The Commissioner has the right to make the schedule and ultimately decide the number of games that can be safely played in today’s environment, as long as there are no bans on mass gatherings, no travel restrictions are still in place and medical experts deem it safe to play games without risk to teams or fans. Currently, as restrictions are being lifted across the country these conditions could potentially be less of a hold up than originally thought. So, what is left to stop Manfred from moving forward with any season that he deems fit? Right now there is really nothing anyone can do because once he decides to bring the hammer down, we all become the nail.

Friday Focus – Not All Games are Postponed in MLB

Here we are. Entering June and still no agreement to get back to the business of baseball. The two sides have effectively injured themselves, primarily with self-inflicted wounds as we’ve watched them step in it time and again.

Sure, we aren’t playing baseball, but both sides are absolutely playing games. My personal favorite is Chicken. The players offered up a 114-game schedule with no further pay cuts and the owners said essentially, nope. More than just nope, they further said they didn’t plan to offer a counter. This is Chicken on a massive scale, and it won’t be as cute as it was watching Marty McFly get his Irish up when he was called one. No this will be more like Fonzie in his car against the rougher version of bikers that appeared on Happy Days and much like that it will eventually lead to jumping the shark.

The league is running out of time to avoid the head on collision coming at them and its fair to ask how this many smart people could possibly be this stupid. And let’s be clear about something else, it is no longer about health and safety, that ship sailed at this point, now the primary issue is money.

When the owners pushed the prospect that they couldn’t pay the straight pro-rated salaries of the players they were rightly met with “show us the books”. One of two things is true, the owners and MLB itself has been lying for YEARS about the financial health of the clubs or they are lying now that they can’t afford to play ball. Either way, yup you guessed it, liars. Hey, all’s fair in negotiation, I get that, but you know what makes that sentiment go away for me, telling the players you won’t even counter.

It creates statements like this:

With the draft coming up quickly, they are actually threatening to kill the potential buzz a sports starved nation would eat up.

At some point, chicken becomes suicide. Both sides believe the other will blink, but what if neither does?

Another question I have is, do either of these sides really want to play? The owners could probably make a case for skipping it easiest as many of them will experience nothing in and nothing out if they don’t play. The top end players can probably be fine sitting for a season too, but the lower tier guys are probably not comfortable to say the least.

Maybe that’s the real issue in MLB when it comes to negotiations. The negotiations are never us vs them, they are instead constructed from four distinct sides. The High Revenue teams, the Low Revenue teams, the High paid players, and finally the lower paid players. For most small issues, the teams join forces and so too do the players. For anything transformative or far reaching, the factions at play tend to have their own agendas to serve. Should MiLB players ever get a seat at the table there could easily be a fifth.

The NFL has the same issue with players, they too have high, and low end pay scales and the owners remain a tight unit. Why? The cap. They fight together because the win together, equally. This just played out this past off-season as the NFL pushed through a new CBA. It had poison pills planted all through it but because the owners are united, and dare I say smart, none of them affected the majority of players, aka the lower paid individuals. The disparity is so great that they were able to force a vote and boom, done.

If there were say 5 NFL teams who weren’t prospering at the same level as the rest, it would introduce another faction and fracture the tenuous power the unity brings. If the players were on closer to equal footing, sure they have power too, they could take their talent off the table and remind everyone how sloppy start up leagues like the XFL looked on TV.

The posturing for the 2021 CBA in MLB is hanging over the head of this entire situation like a medieval axe man. Changes to the game right now could very well stick moving forward, and that fact is lost on no one. Accepting blindly any form of revenue sharing is an admission of willingness to play under a cap the players are nowhere near ready to take. If the owners were indeed united, there is no doubt they could implement a cap. It wouldn’t come without pain to be sure but if the product they return with is more balanced it may very well be worth it. Right NHL?

That’s right, NHL, and boy did they pay the price. Lost a cup. Here is why it was needed though, the Penguins of the early 90s spent well beyond their means to win those cups. As a fan, I’m eternally grateful, but I wonder if I’d feel that way had bankruptcy ultimately led to the club being the Kansas City Penguins. That’s what it took to get past the teams with money like the Rangers or Blackhawks. The cap made building a team fairer and it also made it possible to keep players like Sidney Crosby in black and gold for life. A luxury we haven’t experienced on the North Shore for decades.

For me, I’d like to see these sides all come together and get on the field this season, it would be good for the game, the country and the alternative could very well be devastating. If they fail to get the job done now, I say don’t come back until you fix the economics. If we’re going to lose a season and money is the only reasonable excuse, common sense dictates you fix the money issues. Maybe the possibility of competitiveness will bring back some of the fans alienated further by this overt display of stupidity.

Need Isn’t Always a Valid Criteria in MLB Draft

As the 2020 MLB Amateur Baseball Draft approaches for the Pirates, one thing above all is clear. Predicting how they will go or whom they will pick is next to impossible. I mean, in no way do I consider myself to be a prospect or draft expert, but it’s fair to say I work fairly closely to one.

There are just too many variables at play; Ben Cherington’s first draft in Pittsburgh, drastically shortened draft with no history to draw from as to how it will all play out, and maybe most impactful, the Pirates have so very many needs.

One position has a head start, Catcher. So, the easy call is getting the best catcher in the draft right? Maybe, but what are you willing to pass on to make that call? What if the difference between the best and 3rd best isn’t measurable? Are you convinced 4 or 5 years from now your greatest need will still need filled?

That last question there is one the Pirates rarely have to face, rarely extending players beyond original team control creates a system that if implemented correctly doesn’t’ just want turnover, it needs it. If Jacob Stallings is the answer and the Bucs sign him for 6 years at say 7 million a year, they would still need someone else in the pipeline.

Many people make the mistake of thinking the MLB draft is like the NFL. Your team lost their starting Safety, you try to get one in the draft or sign one. Surely the Pirates could pull off option 2 but unlike the NFL whomever they pick is not going to show up with bells on ready to plug into the major league lineup.

With Baseball, I can’t ever get past one doctrine when it comes to the draft, especially since the slot system was implemented, get the best player available regardless of position. Now, that doesn’t mean take Baseball America’s list verbatim, but trust your scouts. If you have a guy slotted at number five and he somehow falls in your lap, take him. Pitcher, shortstop, catcher, anything.

I think many people reading this remember the Littlefield era, where we chose a pitcher number 1 every draft for the best part of a decade.  Some were a stretch, some were about believing they’d sign for less, others still were overt misses. This wasn’t an accident or simple stupidity. This was a plan, the most expensive position and one the Bucs had struggled with since the early 90’s was starting pitching. The plan was, develop the pitching and the hitting would follow. Unfortunately, neither worked.

That’s not to say avoid pitching, its simply saying if you have 3 pitchers rated top 7, and they’re gone when your turn comes, please don’t reach.

No matter how this draft is handled, the Pirates need to put a foot down right here and now. Number one picks need to start panning out with more regularity. I’m not interested in another Double Fist Tony Sanchez.

Chris Archer – Former Pirate?

From seemingly nowhere an announcement came from the Pirates today.

Pittsburgh Pirates “Yesterday, Chris Archer underwent surgery to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. Archer is projected to return to full competition for the 2021 season.”

So, what does this mean? Essentially, it is a network of nerves that flow from the spinal cord and directly affect the sensations felt in the arms and hands. Sounds kinda important for a pitcher, no? Now, we aren’t without precedent, Nick Burdi, he of the triple digit radar readings seen this Spring too just dealt with this affliction.

I wonder if we’ll ever know how long this has been an issue for Chris, and honestly it hardly matters. What this is plainly happens to be the end of any hope this trade would become anything resembling passable.

Many will say that happened the minute the trade was consummated sending Baz, Glasnow and Meadows to Tampa for the veteran arm, but had he come up big this season and thereby forced the Pirates to pick up his 11 Million dollar option for 2021 he could have at least netted some nice prospects. Today that seems extremely unlikely.

It wasn’t long ago I felt for that very reason his option in 2021 was close to a no brainer. This is all but a death nail in the train of thought that returns anything of value for three big assets.

None of this is Ben Cherrington’s fault of course, he inherited the situation, but many wanted to see him address the situation this past off-season. Maybe he never found a suitor, perhaps he over valued Archer, I pray he didn’t think he was going to get a new coach and become a Cy Young finalist. Regardless of why the Pirates didn’t move him, bottom line, we are where we are.

There is no way to sugar coat this. Bad trade and we’ll be watching the other end enjoy the fruits of fleecing Neal Huntington for years to come. The guy has been fired, so seeking justice is fairly futile at this point, we simply must hope we now have a GM who first of all wouldn’t have made this trade, but also is able to do the same to another club.

When this trade went down, it was a welcome departure from the norm for many Pirates fans, some even felt it was the first example in far too long of the club trying to win now. Over valuing prospects was a trademark of the Huntington regime and finally he was going for it right now. I won’t lie, I was one of them. I was ready to call it quits on Glasnow, irritated that Meadows was included since I felt he was never given a real chance to get a foothold here and beside myself that Baz was somehow a throw in, but overall, felt it was the cost of doing business, even if a heavy price.

It’s clear now, that was wrong in every way it could be. The flip side of the coin happened this Summer, when Cherrington moved Starling Marte for two high ceiling prospects. Given the state of MLB at the moment, who knows if Arizona will get even half a season out of the former Pirate’s star outfielder, but the Bucs are sure to reap at least some reward between the two returned assets.

If Chris is somehow deemed a reasonable risk for 2021, and lord knows they’ll have the payroll capital, his return could be severely compromised. Even that is assuming he performs well.

Its obvious Archer’s performance has underwhelmed here in Pittsburgh on the field, but it’s worth pointing out too what a great guy he has been off the field and in our community. The business of baseball comes first surely, but too often we overlook the real contributions made by men like this and I for one, should this be the last we see of Chris in the Burgh, want to make sure I clearly and loudly say thank you.

Back to this season if we may, because should baseball happen the rotation just took a huge hit. The Pirates are left with Joe Musgrove as the unquestioned “ace” of the staff, with Mitch Keller, Steven Brault, Trevor Williams and some combination of Derek Holland/Chad Kuhl/Brubaker, or the like. Again, anything is possible in a shortened season, but I’d at least like the comfort of someone with more than a season or two of pedigree.

Strange days continue, at least the Pirates being bitten by long term IR is here to bring some normalcy to the community.