Merry Christmas Everyone!
12-25-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
It’s Christmas, so I’ll keep this one punchy. The Holidays are all about hope and today, let’s try to have a little. It shouldn’t take much, the roster looks at least a few games better already and they don’t sound like they plan to be done. So smile, think about what you do have, even while you know you can’t ever have what some will.
1. Be Kind to Each Other
One thing many don’t seem to grasp is that all fans aren’t created equal. From my position, I talk to fans of all shapes and sizes. When I first started I think it’s fair to say I assumed everyone genuinely wanted to know all the nitty gritty, I mean, more than that even, I honestly thought they needed to know all of that stuff. I assumed everyone thought like I did, and knowing why something crappy happened would help them make sense of it and you know, cope.
Now, some of you do indeed think like that, and look for that type of stuff, but for some fans, its really this simple. When they turn on the TV do the Pirates hit? Can they pitch? Do they win? Did Bob Pompeani say they were good and not mention payroll?
The Pirates are, whether you want to hedge your bet and refrain from saying it or not headed in the right direction. Maybe not as fast as you’d like, certainly not as fast as if they spent some cash, but it’s trending the right way.
As this happens, let’s all try to remember some fans don’t know they cut that reliever back in May, because bluntly, they don’t care.
If this team does anything meaningful, fans like this, will be cheering right next to fans who have lived and died with every AA prospect taken in the Minor League Rule 5 Draft, and all of them will sound the same.
Be patient online, people who haven’t looked in a long time are about to return or find it for the first time, be a welcoming fan base.
2. The Potential Defense Might Not Match Their Additions
Marco Gonzales and Martin Perez are both veteran lefties, and neither are really strikeout specialists. They’re soft contact pitchers and that requires some excellent defense. I’m not sure I’m seeing that lining up.
A big part of these two rebounding is getting back to what they do best, which is getting ground balls and letting the defense do the work. Hayes of course will lock down 3rd base and honestly, Jared Triolo backing him up will provide the same.
Oneil Cruz at the very least is a question mark. He’s healthy, but the defense wasn’t exactly clean to begin with. You’d hope he continues to show the ability to throw less than his best heater over there like he started to and it just takes hold. Not to worry, I’m sure they’ll have a great receiver over at first to clean it up a bit. Well, as it stands now, not so much, Rowdy Tellez is simply put, not a great first baseman.
Second base is hard to figure. Bae didn’t impress me, but it might be his best path to playing time, Nick Gonzales is a first round pick, you’d hope he’d push, Peguero showed some chops but struggled at the plate and Triolo himself could wind up stealing the job full time.
And then, you have catcher. I mean, you can say Jason Delay can catch these guys, but ok, you have Keller too. I mean, is this going to come down to Henry is good enough or he isn’t? Could we wind up with Ali Sanchez and Jason Delay with a sprinkling of Henry?
Listen, we don’t know the full picture, but put a pin in this, these pitchers require defense, right now, I’m not sure I like where it is, let’s see how it plays out.
3. Fruitcake of the Roster
Bullpens are a lot like fruitcake recipes. Some can be gross and rock hard paper weights filled with candied fruit. Some can be fresh and light and loaded with booze. Point is, there are 100s of ways to build a bullpen and this year I think we’re going to get what Ben Cherington considers to be?fairly fleshed out and it’s even deep with talent with options.
The Pirates bullpen should be a strength, with David Bednar, Carmen Mlodzinski, Colin Holderman, Dauri Moreta and Ryan Borucki making up 5 of the 8 spots, it’s easy to see why there should be at least some optimism as it comes to the pen. If this team is in position to win by the 5th or 6th, they should on most nights have a great shot to win.
This year I’d also suggest, some of their biggest MLB trade value pieces reside in the pen as well. Aside from Borucki, everyone on that list has 3+ years of team control remaining, and on top of being valuable for what they do, they could be valuable in helping land a big fish should the Pirates choose to acquire something like that top line starter we’re dreaming of.
Fruitcake is the almost universally reviled, but I’ll just say this, if you live in a family where Grandma knew what she was doing, your family likely doesn’t have that feeling about the butt of every 90’s sitcom. Well, if you live on a team that cultivates bullpen pieces, you almost always have a really nice and constantly rejuvenating commodity you can move for something to help where you’re really hurting elsewhere.
I know the team could extend David Bednar, honestly, I probably wouldn’t go crazy with how long, but don’t let your head go there and shut this conversation out. Even when the team is competitive, come deadline time, man, a reliever, so long as you have backing can really help bring back something you’re missing. Maybe a lefty off the bench, or a swing man.
Ideally, your team can develop starters like this, but pitching is always important, even if it winds up in the pen.
4. Andrew McCutchen Always Makes Me Think
I am not shocked that Andrew McCutchen wanted to come back, he’s always loved Pittsburgh, and I’m talking the first time, this season felt much more like a forgone conclusion. What I am shocked about is how someone like Cutch could have such a vocally good relationship with an owner so many of us fans as being an absolute sore spot in our relationship with the Pirates.
Think about it. This is Cutch, the ultimate team guy, the ultimate anything it takes to win guy, the blackout game creator, I mean, how could he be ok with Nutting? That guy doesn’t want to win, doesn’t care about winning, he’s just downright bad for baseball, I bet 99% of you completely agree with that characterization.
All I can say is, I respect the hell out of Cutch, and at the very least, it makes me wonder how their relationship came to be. Hey, I’m friends with a bunch of guys I don’t agree with on everything, it just hasn’t ever cost me a shot at a championship.
In fact, we’ve all heard stories about how last time Cutch, and Neil Walker, among others helped nudge Bob into spending for that run. I’m not sure how much of that is folklore or even just some revisionist history but it’s fair to say perhaps that’s where the relationship was really formed, and maybe Cutch isn’t here blindly believing he’s the straw that stirs this drink as much as he sees the same willingness he saw last time and wanted to be a part of it.
Hey, it’s Christmas, its just a bunch of guessing put into a pretty story, maybe mine can wind up being true too.
5. The NRI Speech…
It’s becoming my Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation rant in the vestibule, a yearly tradition in which I can’t help myself but to try to help you not have an aneurism over signing a guy like Jake Lamb.
Guys, it’s cool, really. And yes, you’ve seen these guys make the team before out of Spring training.
It’s not 2021 though anymore. Those guys were brought in to compete with other guys they brought in and some prospects they didn’t feel strongly about and the “won” in Spring about as much as I “won” the honor to fill up my gas tank last week, I showed up and didn’t break my leg.
Those guys were brought in to buy time. Rather than rush guys from AA, which by the way they mixed in some of that too, but MLB experience even if underwhelming is MLB experience. You at least know you don’t have to teach them how to get to the charter on time and routine probably looks routine.
You don’t do that once you get where the Pirates are now. They now have a 40-man you have to be pretty serious about trimming, and a 26-man that’s already bulging a bit with top prospects likely on the border.
No, now guys like this are brought in for AAA depth, or even to buy time down there. Maybe even to teach someone something. A lesson like, hey, I was a number one pick, this is my 10th team, I have 147 ABs in MLB, still think you don’t need to lift today or take that cage session?
Sometimes they’re brought in because hell they might just pop off. This guy hit 55 dingers in a season and a half then busted up his shoulder and looks healthy now. Hey, for 400K, let’s see what happens.
Many of them can and will refuse AAA placement. Some will excel and have the Pirates cut them loose because sorry, we just don’t need a 3B on this roster.
Mostly though, these just don’t matter and they certainly shouldn’t send you to the Clemente Bridge thinking Seth Beer is your opening day starter.
Relax, the world needs ditch diggers too, and MLB orgs need MLB experience stashed in all areas of the system they can get them.
Merry Christmas everyone!
