Speaking of your Battlin' Buccos...

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Good to see with a new regime that things in Florida seem to have gotten off to a great start.

https://937thefan.radio.com/articles/radiocom/orioles-smash-4-homers-shtout-pirates-13-0

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Me to Nutting

 

[Gary77]

Unless/until Nutting sells the Pirates nothing will change.

MLB could help by requiring teams that get luxury tax money to put that money into their major league payroll. Setting a reasonable payroll minimum would also help.

The rich will remain the rich, but 'profit driven' owners like Nutting will likely jump off the 'goodie-train' if their easy profits are gone.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for MLB to act!

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

Good to see with a new regime that things in Florida seem to have gotten off to a great start.

https://937thefan.radio.com/articles/radiocom/orioles-smash-4-homers-shtout-pirates-13-0

They're already in midseason form!

 

[HailToPitt725]

Lowest payroll in baseball in a very competitive NL Central.

The ace pitcher is out with Tommy John and the top closer is facing life in prison.

They lost 13-0 to a team that lost 108 games last year.

Somehow their o/u is at 69.5 wins. Hammer the under!

 

[HailToPitt725]

With that being said, I’ll probably still tune into every game this year. They’re a Pittsburgh team and I like baseball. Can’t see a world where I’m not a Pirates fan. I’ve stuck with it this long, why stop now?

 

[Parkview57]

They’re a Pittsburgh team and I like baseball.

Good for you, this pretty much explains my affection for Pitt....

 

[pittbb80]

It’s preseason so normally these games mean nothing. But this team is epically awful That’s why I somewhat sarcastically posted that they’d approach 120 losses. No bullpen suspect pitching and no punch in the lineup

 

[BFo8]

Lowest payroll in baseball in a very competitive NL Central.

The ace pitcher is out with Tommy John and the top closer is facing life in prison.

They lost 13-0 to a team that lost 108 games last year.

Somehow their o/u is at 69.5 wins. Hammer the under!

The Westgate has a prop up on which team will lose the most games this year. Sensing there might be some value on the Pirates at 14-1.

 

[HailToPitt725]

It’s preseason so normally these games mean nothing. But this team is epically awful That’s why I somewhat sarcastically posted that they’d approach 120 losses. No bullpen suspect pitching and no punch in the lineup

The way I see it, these games mean a little more than normal because with how cheap they went this off-season, there’s a better chance than not that quite a few of these guys will get time in the majors. And if Josh Bell doesn’t return to his first half form from last year, they’re really in trouble.

 

[HailToPitt725]

Also, they actually have some solid prospects in their farm system, including

- SS Oneil Cruz (might move to RF; just an absolutely wild physical specimen)
- RHP Tahnaj Thomas (could very well be a Top 30 prospect in a year)
- 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (might become one of baseball’s best defensive third basemen)

Also have guys like SS Cole Tucker who are already up in the MLB and a few that are still a year or two away like CF Travis Swaggerty.

You figure if they lose 90+ games for three or four years, not unlikely, and get some top selections (and apparently drafting and developing is supposed to be Cherington’s forte), they might have a few years where a lot of young talent is in Pittsburgh. Would love to see them find a stud catcher or LHP since they have very few of those in the system.

Of course, there’s also a good chance that they could botch it all and the talent they do discover gets shipped out...

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

Also, they actually have some solid prospects in their farm system, including

- SS Oneil Cruz (might move to RF; just an absolutely wild physical specimen)
- RHP Tahnaj Thomas (could very well be a Top 30 prospect in a year)
- 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (might become one of baseball’s best defensive third basemen)

Also have guys like SS Cole Tucker who are already up in the MLB and a few that are still a year or two away like CF Travis Swaggerty.

You figure if they lose 90+ games for three or four years, not unlikely, and get some top selections (and apparently drafting and developing is supposed to be Cherington’s forte), they might have a few years where a lot of young talent is in Pittsburgh. Would love to see them find a stud catcher or LHP since they have very few of those in the system.

Of course, there’s also a good chance that they could botch it all and the talent they do discover gets shipped out...

You know our farm system is depleted when we're using the term "defensive third baseman" to advertise guys, lol.

 

[HailToPitt725]

You know our farm system is depleted when we're using the term "defensive third baseman" to advertise guys, lol.

Laugh all you want, but his glove seems to be legit. Was voted the second best defensive prospect in the minors, regardless of position, a month ago. If he can limit the ground outs I’ll be even more excited about his potential.

Also, while I think the farm system certainly can improve, FanGraphs previewed the Pirates system a few days ago and called it one of the better systems in baseball both in terms of top end talent and depth.

If our’s is the best, can’t imagine what the rest of baseball has in their’s!

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

Laugh all you want, but his glove seems to be legit. Was voted the second best defensive prospect in the minors, regardless of position, a month ago. If he can limit the ground outs I’ll be even more excited about his potential.

Also, while I think the farm system certainly can improve, FanGraphs previewed the Pirates system a few days ago and called it one of the better systems in baseball both in terms of top end talent and depth.

If our’s is the best, can’t imagine what the rest of baseball has in their’s!

Haha, I don't mean to downplay it. It's just funny, because third base is traditionally where you bury one of your least talented defenders due to the lack of range they have to cover. And we are just so far away that it just seems funny to even talk something like that up. It just sounds like the Bengals talking about their punter or something right now. Haha, but it could just be me.

I wasn't aware of our farm system being anywhere near the top, though. I thought the general consensus is we were somewhere in the lower half these days. It's encouraging if that's the case.

 

[HailToPitt725]

Haha, I don't mean to downplay it. It's just funny, because third base is traditionally where you bury one of your least talented defenders due to the lack of range they have to cover. And we are just so far away that it just seems funny to even talk something like that up. It just sounds like the Bengals talking about their punter or something right now. Haha, but it could just be me.

I wasn't aware of our farm system being anywhere near the top, though. I thought the general consensus is we were somewhere in the lower half these days. It's encouraging if that's the case.

I thought the same thing re: the farm system until I read that. It seems like outsiders are much higher on it and our prospects than we are.

Perhaps they might’ve had good prospects all along and we just completely botched their development once they reached the majors? Would explain why guys like Cole, Mikolas, Meadows, and Glasnow really emerged after they left.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

SS Oneil Cruz (might move to RF; just an absolutely wild physical specimen)

Cruz is the ultimate super high ceiling, super low floor prospect. He could be a spectacular flame out. But if he reaches his ceiling he will be a great one.

Seeing that it's the Pirates, I think we know which is more likely.

 

[BurghGuy68]

Beat the Twins today 2-0