OT: Roansy Contreras

[Pitt2009]

The clueless “Kebryan Hayes…” thread got me thinking of prospect projections. What are your thoughts on how good will Contreras be?

It’s not like he came out of nowhere but his fastball ticked up 3-4 mph after acquiring him. He has a great slider and the demeanor to attack the zone, but has trouble throwing off speed pitches for strikes.

I think he’ll be an above average starter but not a true 1. Unfortunately on the Pirates that’ll mean he’ll go against the other teams top guy.

 

[joeydavid]

The clueless “Kebryan Hayes…” thread got me thinking of prospect projections. What are your thoughts on how good will Contreras be?

It’s not like he came out of nowhere but his fastball ticked up 3-4 mph after acquiring him. He has a great slider and the demeanor to attack the zone, but has trouble throwing off speed pitches for strikes.

I think he’ll be an above average starter but not a true 1. Unfortunately on the Pirates that’ll mean he’ll go against the other teams top guy.

Keller will ultimately be the #1 guy imo but Roansy will be more fun to watch.

 

[Drew1208]

I don't know shit. But from day 1 he looked like their best pitcher to me

 

[CaptainMurphy]

A rotation of Keller, Contreras, Hill, Oviedo, Priester by the end of the year seems like a big improvement over prior years to me.

 

[HailToPitt725]

The clueless “Kebryan Hayes…” thread got me thinking of prospect projections. What are your thoughts on how good will Contreras be?

It’s not like he came out of nowhere but his fastball ticked up 3-4 mph after acquiring him. He has a great slider and the demeanor to attack the zone, but has trouble throwing off speed pitches for strikes.

I think he’ll be an above average starter but not a true 1. Unfortunately on the Pirates that’ll mean he’ll go against the other teams top guy.

I think that’s a fair assessment. Personally, I like him over any pitching prospect in the Pirates’ organization except for maybe Anthony Solometo in terms of ace potential. Then again, I led the Tahnaj Thomas fanclub so what do I know?

Regardless, I think they’ll need to bring in another arm or two next year to solidify the rotation for when our contention window truly opens.

 

[HailToPitt725]

Keller will ultimately be the #1 guy imo but Roansy will be more fun to watch.

I hope this comes to fruition because I’d love to see a complete turnaround for Keller. He began to right the ship last season, and I’m excited to see what he can do in 2023.

 

[h2p_5150]

Him, Keller and Oviedo are decent major league starters. None are top of the rotation guys, but Keller and Contreras have potential to be. Velazquez is a reliever masquerading as a starter. Hill doesn't have enough juice left to play pro baseball anymore.

The Pirates desperately need a few of the farm system arms to turn into aces in the next few years. There is a window that will open next year if they have a good offseason, but they aren't gonna sign or trade for an ace.

 

[upj87]

I don't know shit. But from day 1 he looked like their best pitcher to me

Considering my wife's cooking, I know shit but not that much baseball but I tend to agree with your assessment of Contreras.

 

[CaptainMurphy]

Him, Keller and Oviedo are decent major league starters. None are top of the rotation guys, but Keller and Contreras have potential to be. Velazquez is a reliever masquerading as a starter. Hill doesn't have enough juice left to play pro baseball anymore.

The Pirates desperately need a few of the farm system arms to turn into aces in the next few years. There is a window that will open next year if they have a good offseason, but they aren't gonna sign or trade for an ace.

JT Brubaker was looking to have made some improvement. Not as a front line got guy a reliable 4/5 starter. His loss was a big one but he’ll be back next year. You get improvement out of Keller, Contreras, Oviedo, add back Brubaker, and then one of the top pitching prospects becomes a quality starter (likely Priester). I think that could be a quality rotation from top to bottom.

The 13-15 teams didn’t really have an ace (Cole didn’t usually pitch like one here…Happ was probably the closest for the few months he was here). But they also had a weaker back of the rotation (Jeff Locke hung around here far too long). Even a front line guy like Liriano was maddeningly inconsistent. I think the current staff could be better than that one in a year, even if there isn’t true ace yet.

 

[Pitt2009]

JT Brubaker was looking to have made some improvement. Not as a front line got guy a reliable 4/5 starter. His loss was a big one but he’ll be back next year. You get improvement out of Keller, Contreras, Oviedo, add back Brubaker, and then one of the top pitching prospects becomes a quality starter (likely Priester). I think that could be a quality rotation from top to bottom.

The 13-15 teams didn’t really have an ace (Cole didn’t usually pitch like one here…Happ was probably the closest for the few months he was here). But they also had a weaker back of the rotation (Jeff Locke hung around here far too long). Even a front line guy like Liriano was maddeningly inconsistent. I think the current staff could be better than that one in a year, even if there isn’t true ace yet.

That’s a good point. They had a solid staff and near elite bullpen. I think it was a little different. The Pirates philosophy was to bring in guys with great 2-seam fastballs while no other team threw many 2-seamers. Didn’t have the money for elite pitchers but allowed them to bring in pitchers with an elite type of pitch.

 

[persp]

A rotation of Keller, Contreras, Hill, Oviedo, Priester by the end of the year seems like a big improvement over prior years to me.

You can punt Hill from that list. He is Eddie Harris v2.0.

 

[Pitt2009]

You can punt Hill from that list. He is Eddie Harris v2.0.

It looks like Hill’s throwing BP.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

The clueless “Kebryan Hayes…” thread got me thinking of prospect projections. What are your thoughts on how good will Contreras be?

It’s not like he came out of nowhere but his fastball ticked up 3-4 mph after acquiring him. He has a great slider and the demeanor to attack the zone, but has trouble throwing off speed pitches for strikes.

I think he’ll be an above average starter but not a true 1. Unfortunately on the Pirates that’ll mean he’ll go against the other teams top guy.

i think he's our best pitcher and it's not close. Keller is maybe a 3 or 4 on an avg lineup, not sure why he's held in such high regard here. and yes, i know he looked very good in his last start.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

It looks like Hill’s throwing BP.

i said that same thing last week. his breaking ball looks like my curve ball when i play wiffle ball with my son and like my son, the opposing batters just absolutely Tee off on these..

 

[Pitt_Boss]

The most recent Pirates playoff teams may not have had a true ace, but in those years any of Burnett/Cole/Liriano were close enough to ace material that on given nights they could dominate good lineups and gave you confidence in big games/playoff games. Not sure any of the current staff are there, but I would have most confidence in Contreras right now.

The Hill and Velazquez signings were terrible, even by Pirates standards. I like adding Santana and Cutch to the mix, but the pitching signings say same old Pirates.

 

[HailToPitt725]

I’m excited to see how Roansy does against the Astros today. Could argue it’s the first real challenge for him this season. An old fashioned NL Central matchup from PNC Park.

 

[BigZeke]

Him, Keller and Oviedo are decent major league starters. None are top of the rotation guys, but Keller and Contreras have potential to be. Velazquez is a reliever masquerading as a starter. Hill doesn't have enough juice left to play pro baseball anymore.

The Pirates desperately need a few of the farm system arms to turn into aces in the next few years. There is a window that will open next year if they have a good offseason, but they aren't gonna sign or trade for an ace.

Hill looked like he was pitching BP to the White Sox over the weekend. Hard to watch. Hopefully I‘m wrong but that looks like an atrocious signing at 1st glance.

 

[Drew1208]

I'm going Wednesday I hope I don't get a Rich Hill day. I didn't look

 

[wbrpanther]

The clueless “Kebryan Hayes…” thread got me thinking of prospect projections. What are your thoughts on how good will Contreras be?

It’s not like he came out of nowhere but his fastball ticked up 3-4 mph after acquiring him. He has a great slider and the demeanor to attack the zone, but has trouble throwing off speed pitches for strikes.

I think he’ll be an above average starter but not a true 1. Unfortunately on the Pirates that’ll mean he’ll go against the other teams top guy.

The Bucs have quite a few good young arms in the system like Contreras and Oviedo. I was thinking about Oviedo while watching Hill struggle the other night.

Hill looked like he was pitching BP to the White Sox over the weekend. Hard to watch. Hopefully I‘m wrong but that looks like an atrocious signing at 1st glance.

he has stayed in the majors forever with that junk. Hopefully he wasn’t locating it well and will do better in the future. Because the crap he was dealing ain’t gonna cut it.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Keller is maybe a 3 or 4 on an avg lineup, not sure why he's held in such high regard here.

Well reason number one, for the people just looking at it superficially, would be where he was drafted. If you are drafted that high, you must be a star!

But if you actually look into it a little deeper, over his last 21 or 22 starts last season he had an era of something like 3.25. Which is pretty good for that long of a stretch of games. That's not a good couple of weeks or a month, it was a pretty good 2/3 of a season. You'd hope that someone who could be that good for that long could be good all, or at least most, of the time.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

So much for Contreras providing hope against a good lineup