2014 Pittsburgh Pirates thread: Will it be two in a row?

• Heretic

  

  Wandy DFA'd.
  
  And there was rejoicing. He was a solid innings-eater (if not an elite starter) with Houston, but during his time with the Pirates, he was hurt most of the time and just seemed to be completely shot during his few actual starts this year. I don't know what the potential future of guys like Cumpton or Casey Sadler is as a big-leaguer (as in: a legit starter or, at best, a guy like Jeff Locke who can give a strong half-year or so before opponents catch on to them and their fortunes quickly go south), but I'd rather try the unproven young guys instead of older players who obviously just don't have it any more.
• Ironman92

  

  Just ordered 4 Row B seats in the 200's....all you can eat. Ticket prices seem a little high but it's vacation stop #1 so I didn't want to be tight on things. They look like very good seats to view game and also the great views. Being vs Phillies probably drives up prices a touch.
• Heretic

  

  Lose 2/3 to the shit Mets, win 3/4 over the solid (great talent, average results) Dodgers.
  
  Just another week in Inconsistency-Land!!!
• Heretic

  

  Gregory Polanco finally called up. Unfortunately, the reason was because Neil Walker, who's been having an All-Star-caliber season at 2B (at least offensively), is on the DL due to an emergency appendix removal.
  
  Still, with all the hype Polanco has, I fully expect a 513-game winning streak to commence, starting from yesterday.
• Heretic

  

  Polanco with a 5-hit game last night, including the game-winning homer. Yeah, this kid might be good.
• Heretic

  

  Back to .500 after last night. Team will have some interesting decisions to make soon.
  
  Walker's about to return from the DL. Question 1: How do they keep Harrison's surprisingly strong bat in the line-up at least reasonably regularly? Question 2: Which bench player goes down? I'd guess Travis Snider, especially with how Tabata has a longer-term contract, but who knows?
  
  Cole is also about to return from the DL and Liriano will be eventually. Question 3: What will be the revamped rotation, as Cumpton (minus one horrible start), Locke and Worley all have done very well in place of those two and the released Wandy?
• Heretic

  

  Heretic;1629388 wrote:Back to .500 after last night. Team will have some interesting decisions to make soon.
  
  Walker's about to return from the DL. Question 1: How do they keep Harrison's surprisingly strong bat in the line-up at least reasonably regularly? Question 2: Which bench player goes down? I'd guess Travis Snider, especially with how Tabata has a longer-term contract, but who knows?
  
  Cole is also about to return from the DL and Liriano will be eventually. Question 3: What will be the revamped rotation, as Cumpton (minus one horrible start), Locke and Worley all have done very well in place of those two and the released Wandy?

  Question 2 has been answered with Tabata being outrighted.
  
  And then Marte apparently immediately had to leave a game with a head injury that may or may not be a concussion. Which would, at least, temporarily answer Question 1 if he has to mention any amount of time.
  
  But they're above .500 for the first time since starting out 6-3 or so, so FUCK YEAH WORLD!!!!
• Heretic

  

  Took 3/4 from the Mets over the weekend and traded Grilli to the Angels to get Frieri. Giving up an older guy whose performance has declined from being the best closer in MLB for over half of last year, to being removed from that role a couple weeks ago for a younger guy who also apparently got removed as a closer. Advanced stats say he's good, but just gives up the long ball too frequently. And he'll be under contract for a couple years to help out in the 6th or 7th.
  
  So, in other words, it looks like a potential steal for the Pirates. That's what I love about teams like the Angels. Super deep pockets and will overpay like crazy, but just utterly stupid as far as decision making goes. I figured that due to his performance this year, Grilli had next to no value and definitely wouldn't bring back a legit major league arm.
• Heretic

  

  Up to 4 above .500. Team has been playing pretty good for the last month or so. From 20-28 to 44-40 I think. If so, that's a long stretch of .667 ball.
• Ironman92

  

  I'll be at Saturday's game....we are sitting in the all you can eat section on one of the lower levels of 1B side.....they look like good seats
• Heretic

  

  Ironman92;1632863 wrote:I'll be at Saturday's game....we are sitting in the all you can eat section on one of the lower levels of 1B side.....they look like good seats

  Nice! Hope you have a good time. At least as long as the Pirates win because screw Philly.
• Ironman92

  

  Great stadium
  
  
  
  All you can eat seats...my view
  
  
• Ironman92

  

  Cutch bomb....the guy just hits everything hard
• End of Line

  

  Bucco's complete the sweep this weekend.
• Heretic

  

  Cutch, Watson, Harrison all made the All-Star game.
  
  Cutch gave the team their first fan vote entry in, I think, forever or so.
  
  Watson shows how important more advanced stats can be. It used to be, not that long ago, if you were a reliever that wasn't a closer, you had no chance. Watson spent a lot of the year as the 7th inning man and moved to set-up when Grilli was on the DL early in the year and then after he was demoted from the closer role and traded. Well deserved. Dude has great peripherals and probably has pitched and succeeded in more high-leverage situations than anyone else on the team.
  
  Harrison had a great first half as far as exceeding expectations goes and is the ultimate fan favorite (scrappy guy, plays most positions, clutch hits, etc.), but is probably a pretty big stretch. One of those inclusions that's probably based on wanting good teams to be better represented at the All-Star Game moreso than getting the best possible guys to fill out the squad. And with Pittsburgh being a team who had one obvious pick and then a lot of guys who were borderline, he got the nod from Matheny. If Walker hadn't missed about 3 weeks or so with the appendix removal, it probably would have been him.
• Midstate01

  

  I was shocked when I saw Harrison's name. Doesn't even really make much sense.
• Heretic

  

  Midstate01;1633525 wrote:I was shocked when I saw Harrison's name. Doesn't even really make much sense.

  Not on any level beyond "good teams need more players and other than Cutch, they don't have any overall standouts, so let's get this guy because he's popular with their fanbase" level combined with how the picking manager is on a division rival and is probably trying to avoid that ever-so-dreaded "bulletin board material" stigma.
  
  But at the least, it does mean the Pirates are the decisive winner in the trade with the LOLcubs when they acquired him! Not bad for a minor league infielder who was the third wheel of what they got behind two pitchers who wound up not doing much of anything. Can't remember the latin pitcher they got, but I have a fond memory of a game Kevin Hart pitched against a young Homer Bailey when Chris Welch all but said the slow pace both guys were taking along with all the nibbling making high pitch-count ABs was making the game borderline unwatchable. Good times...
• Heretic

  

  They won three over the weekend while I was partying at Mid-Ohio. Come back to the real world and, boom, they get beat by the Dodgers.
  
  Right now in a stretch where they're destroying bad teams like clockwork, but put them against a decent-to-good team and they are struggling badly.
• Gblock

  End of Line;1633367 wrote:Bucco's complete the sweep this weekend.

  I was at Sundays game nice crowd for a Rockies game and a great comeback. Pirates are very aggressive on the bases
• Heretic

  

  Tonight is sort of a big game (as big as any one game in late July can be). Taking 2/3 from the Dodgers would be nice, both in the wild card race (as they're the #1 team of the two that make it) and for keeping pace in the division and making it so the Brewers don't get more than 2.5 game in front. The Reds actually beating the Brewers would help, too, but I can't say too much on that, being how the Pirates are about 3-13 or something like that against them so far.
• Heretic

  

  Currently, the team is in the second wild card position and only a game behind the Brewers thanks to being the only team in the division that's been better than mediocre over the past month or so.
  
  Pretty good for a team that was 20-28 at one point and which doesn't really excel in anything other than late-inning relief. Hopefully, Liriano being a lot better since coming off the DL is a trend that continues, as if there is one thing they legit need, it's an ace starter since what they currently have are 5 guys (6 when Cole comes off the DL) who can give strong performances, but haven't really shown a great deal of consistency. And when it comes to potential playoff match-ups, you really need more than that from your starting rotation.
• Heretic

  

  Well, it looks like Lester won't be going to Pittsburgh, since Boston traded him to Oakland.
  
  That hurts in the whole "improve starting rotation" thing, which after Charlie Morton's 5 innings yesterday is sort of a necessity if the team wants to be a truly legit contender.
• Heretic

  

  Hmmm, completely quiet at the deadline. Wasn't what I was expecting, but I don't know that I'd have liked them to deal an elite prospect for something like a two-month rental of Lester. And I guess traders wanted ML talent, so they were at a big disadvantage as their strength trade-wise is in prospects and not established players.
• gport_tennis

  That was some bullshit the Dbacks smacked cutch in the back. I hope the pitcher and the bitchass manager get suspended for the rest of the year. Quit whining about these damn unwritten rules and start following the written rules.
• Heretic

  

  gport_tennis;1641100 wrote:That was some bullshit the Dbacks smacked cutch in the back. I hope the pitcher and the bitchass manager get suspended for the rest of the year. Quit whining about these damn unwritten rules and start following the written rules.

  Pretty much. Looks like Cutch will be hitting the DL now with oblique troubles after leaving yesterday's game with back issues...one day after getting hit in the back because Kirky was all pissed off about, essentially, bad luck and had to play the "unwritten rules" card despite the simple fact that nowadays, anyone who plays the "unwritten rules" card comes off like a giant, stupid, fucking bitch (like that Colby Lewis fuck on Texas or whatever his name is).