Three out of four, my bad!

posted by justincredible

Yoooo…

Thought it was the Bears over the Steelers for a minute ....

Team is actually playing well right now. Sweeping the Dodgers on the road and taking 2/3 from the D'backs at home. Only four under .500, which is about 6-8 games better than I'd have given as an optimistic opinion.

Seems a lot of that has coincided with guys who were lousy getting hurt or cut (sorry, Cole Tucker, but you still have Vanessa!) and being replaced by young guys who are actually *gasp* contributing. Like, today, of the established guys, they got an RBI single from Hayes, but nothing else. But the bottom of the order kicked ass with people like Cal Mitchell and Jack Suwinski (young) and Heineman (older) doing well. And while he didn't do anything today, Marcano was huge in that Dodgers' series with homers in back-to-back games.

And the pitching has improved. Bednar is as good as any closer in the game, while a couple of their young starters have been really impressive at times.

Against my will, I'm actually getting a bit impressed with what I'm seeing. Maybe not every night (thanks, Brubaker and your elite-tier home-run-surrendering skills), but more and more frequently as the year goes on. Sure, now that I said it, they'll go in a 6-34 tailspin, but it's been fun for a week or more.

And now they've lost 4 in a row. Seems to happen every damn time I say something complementary about how they're performing. I have to learn from this sometime, don't I? Just never say anything good about them no matter what. They win 15 in a row, I need to sit here and type on this site like I'm shelbucks and completely miserable in life because that damn team is thisclose to ripping out my heart. And then, maybe they'll not fuck it all up.

Why is Oneil Cruz not up yet?

posted by birddog23

Why is Oneil Cruz not up yet?

Maximizing contract leverage and service time, so "he needs more seasoning in the minors".

posted by Heretic

Maximizing contract leverage and service time, so "he needs more seasoning in the minors".

That's just frustrating when there is young stars around the league getting their chance and making things happen....Bobby Witt Jr, Julio Rodriguez, Wander Franco, Spencer Torkelson, Adley Rutschman, etc.

I fucking swear, if they keep giving worthless Yu Chang regular playing time, I will snap. Dude can't hit, strikes out constantly (ie: not bad luck metrics, he just can't handle MLB pitching) and sucks at everything except helping a team tank.

Wow, I looked up Chang’s stats and if you add in his 10 at bats with no hits with Cleveland, he is batting .097.  I didn’t even realize that the Pirates bought him. 

I found this on my Facebook newsfeed:

I like the young stars. This team isn’t a bad watch.

posted by Ironman92

I like the young stars. This team isn’t a bad watch.

Cruz throw from ss was red

At the least, this has been an interesting year. They've had periods where they look like utter shit (either getting wrecked for 15+ in a game or going a week averaging 1.3 runs per game) and while they've had at least tolerably decent power, due to sucking at things like batting average, it seems an inordinate amount of their homers have been solo shots, so they have multiple guys with lines like 15 homers and 32 RBIs (which is Bryan Reynolds exact line, but he's not an outlier). But they've managed to at least not be horrible and a lot of potentially promising young guys are getting playing time, so you can see a nucleus starting to form and there is promise for improvement down the road.

This Pirates fan took a picture with Pirates owner Bob Nutting wearing a ‘Sell the Team’ shirt. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SAVAGE 🤣🤣🤣pic.twitter.com/B2nlvtjiQk

— Baseball King (@BasebaIlKing) August 4, 2022

Heh, the Brewers might be regretting trading Hader if that's how Williams is going to lock down the 9th.

Three straight over the Brewers. Considering how they tend to regularly dominate the Pirates (and had been this year through the first 10 or games between them), that is a nice thing to see.

Watching Pirates not winning

My congrats to Professional Playing Time Thief Josh Van Meter for sucking so bad, I don't even have to pay attention to today's loss to Atlanta while at the office.

The game was close through three innings and easily could have been tied, but Cruz' record-setting exit velocity hit smacked the top of the wall and was only a single instead of a homer. But then, in the top of the fourth, Van Meter -- a guy who still has a job despite being bad at everything AND not actually being a prospect -- committed two errors to lead to five unearned runs being recorded to turn 2-0 into 7-0. I mean, dude bats .188 with nearly 200 ABs and doesn't have anywhere near the amount of power it would take to make that shitty of hitting even be considered a Joey Gallo-esque necessary evil.

I'd say it'd be a shock if they don't DFA him after this shitshow of a performance, but I've said that about 5 different times with him just over the summer months and his worthless ass is still kicking around, stealing time and ABs from guys who potentially might have an actual future.

Hard to believe they trail the Reds after the Reds started about 2 - 24 ...............

posted by QuakerOats

Hard to believe they trail the Reds after the Reds started about 2 - 24 ...............

I think, since the All-Star Break, their high water mark is getting 1-of-3 in a series and they have to be around a .250 winning percentage. At the break, I thought they still had hopes of winning 70 games or 75+ if the young guys really gelled. Instead, they've turned into a team with inconsistent pitching and consistently horrible offense.

On the plus side you can get a great seat for probably $15

posted by Heretic

I think, since the All-Star Break, their high water mark is getting 1-of-3 in a series and they have to be around a .250 winning percentage. At the break, I thought they still had hopes of winning 70 games or 75+ if the young guys really gelled. Instead, they've turned into a team with inconsistent pitching and consistently horrible offense.

After checking out the standings from the All-Star Break until now, I was exactly right. Well, exactly right as of now; a bit off when I typed this.

Since the break, they've been 8-24, which is an actual .250 winning percentage. With the annoying part being how there definitely seems to be signs of regression among a lot of integral players. If the team does ANYTHING after this year, firing the batting coach should be #1 on that list. For some fun numbers:

29/30 in batting average

28/30 in on-base percentage

28/30 in slugging percentage

28/30 in OPS

3/30 in most strikeouts

20/30 in walks

28/30 in RBIs

18/30 in homers

28/30 in runs scored

So, the only number they're even close to being middle of the road in are walks drawn and homers. And with them being at the bottom of the league in RBIs, the whole thing where they're bottom of the league in batting average and on-base percentage means that an inordinate amount of those dingers are coming with no one on base.

Oh, they're also worst in the league in fielding percentage and, as far as pitching goes, 26/30 in ERA and 27/30 in WHIP. Although, as far as pitching goes, it seems their main problem is "when it rains, it pours". They'll go 3-4 days with decent-to-good performances and then give up 19 runs in a complete shitshow the next day. And they might (LOL!) move up a spot or two if you take out the 21 runs in 5 innings surrendered by two position players mopping up in games like that. One of whom is Josh Van Meter, who has been with the club much of the year despite sucking at every single aspect of the game. Still, it says a lot when your win leader is a pair of relievers tied with five each, while you have three starters currently with 10+ losses.

To be fair to the hitting coach a lot of these guys don’t really belong in the majors 

Just ran across this meme:

posted by geeblock

To be fair to the hitting coach a lot of these guys don’t really belong in the majors 

My issue is that no one really seems to be progressing under him with the exception of Castro, who has been raking after coming back from AAA and having that "phone in pants" incident.

At least, they're mainly working with young guys. I'd rather watch kids like Cruz, Castro, Marcano, etc. try to get established than watch sub-par vets steal at bats even though they have no future with the team. I was happy as hell when they released Tsutsugo because fucking Shelton seemingly stuck him in the line-up nearly every game even though he sucked horribly this year. At least Van Meter is rarely playing now, although I'd rather have him get cut so the temptation to use him would no longer be a possibility, but they seem determined to keep him on the roster.