Pirates Cove XI (2016)

Crusaders

Crusaders

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Pirates non-tendered Pedro Alvarez and traded Neil Walker to the Mets for Jon Niese.

I'm starting to think 2016 might be a bit of a lull for the franchise. The pitching staff is shaping up to be questionable in the 3-5 spots. Morton and Locke are as spotty as they come while Niese is maybe above average for a 3rd starter. It just feels like Huntington is looking for stop-gaptypes until the young guns are ready. The problem is, those young guys who are supposed to fill in the current holes at 1B, 2B, and on the mound (Bell, Hanson, Glasnow, Kingham, Taillon) are still possible summer call-ups; nothing guaranteed.

Unless Searage can pull off a miracle with Niese, Morton, and Locke, I don't see the Pirates making a lot of progress as far as making championship runs goes. 2017 may be the year we see a near complete and very dangerous team.
 
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Pitching news: The Pirates signed a bullpen arm earlier this week, Juan Nicasio, and today traded Charlie Morton to Phillies for a A prospect. The Alvarez, Walker, and Morton moves netted +$17m in the team's budget.
 
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Picked up Vogelsong from Giants. Competent 4-5 guy. Little long in the tooth at 38. Hope his arm hold out.
 
No moves for awhile. Looking more like the franchise is content with what looks to be a bit of a down year to leave room for the young players.
 
Pirates signed local ohio boy, Cory Leubke, originally of Marion Local, to a minor league deal with an invite to Maj League camp. He is a lanky lefty.

He had a 3.25 ERA for the Padres
He avg more than a K per inning and only avg 1 walk per over 3 IP so he had good control.

He was a starter for the padres and signed a good contract...and then had back to back tommy john injuries and hopefully is back to normal right now.

Had the privilege of coaching him between his Frosh and Soph years in HS for a summer and you could tell right away he was gonna be a good one.

Out of HS he was drafted by the Pirates in the late teens if I recall, but went to Ohio State. AFter his soph year (he was 21) the rangers drafted him in the 20's yet he returned to OSU and that was a good decision as then he was a sandwich pick between the 1st and 2nd if I recall correctly by the Padres. He did pitch some in Ft Wayne in the minors which was cool and allowed locals to attend. I do recall that late in that one season Ft Wayne offered dollar beer night and it just happened to be a night he was pitching and when the locals had a bus load of people going up to the game (about an hour trip) and lets just say...they wiped out that stand down where they were sitting..

but I digress.

Few weeks ago when I talked to him he mentioned he was feeling well and had a few offers that he was mulling over....lets hope he does well, resurrects himself!
 
always nice to be able to hit Wainwright a bit.

Franky got out of trouble a couple times.

Freese and Jaso did a nice job in their debuts.

1-0.

wire to wire, boys. :)
 
can't think of a better way to start the season than a sweep of the Cards.

Raise it, boys.

day off, then in Cinci for 3.

i get to see Friday night's game.

Let's goooooo!
 
Relieved they get to miss a Jeff Locke start. No idea what to expect from him this year. Total wildcard.

I did like what I saw from Niese and Nicasio, especially the latter. If Searage can get Niese to limit the implosion innings that have plagued his career, they should be able to stay within striking distance of 1st till the young guys start getting the call-ups in June.
 
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Crusaders said:
Relieved they get to miss a Jeff Locke start. No idea what to expect from him this year. Total wildcard.

I did like what I saw from Niese and Nicasio, especially the latter. If Searage can get Niese to limit the implosion innings that have plagued his career, they should be able to stay within striking distance of 1st till the young guys start getting the call-ups in June.
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So Liriano is going Friday night?
 
What a wild game.

Not the best day for Liriano but the bullpen continues to be absolutely atrocious.

Sean Rodriguez continues to mash.

Cutch struggled a lot but came through with a big hit.

For the Dbacks, Goldy had a couple bad errors, but launched two to the same fan in right field. I think they set to put a pitcher into a fielding position if it had gone one more inning.
 
Crusaders said:
Bullpen has been brutal so far. Much bigger problem than the low BA with RISP, IMO
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Did the over estimate these guys or are they eventually going to come around? Going from the best BP in baseball to so far one of the worse is going to make for a long season. Especially when starters struggle to get 6 innings.
 
They're going to have to bring up some guys/make deadline trades for bullpen arms without a doubt. They cannot go a full season like this.
 
i don't know what Jeff Locke did during the day, what he ate for breakfast, lunch, etc, but whatever it was, please do the exact same thing before every start. please.

when Locke goes 6 innings and only walks two guys, that's a bonus. even if he had given up 3-4 runs. just don't walk guys.

our offense is just fine. we don't have a lot of power but we put enough guys on base to cause trouble for the opposing team's pitcher. and we're starting to hit better with RISP.

bullpen needs to improve and i'm sure our starting rotation will need an arm at some point. not sure if that will be someone in AAA or a trade, but we will need it to get a WC, because we aren't catching the Cubs. minus Schwarber, and that lineup is still ridiculous.
 
Bballer05 said:
i don't know what Jeff Locke did during the day, what he ate for breakfast, lunch, etc, but whatever it was, please do the exact same thing before every start. please.

when Locke goes 6 innings and only walks two guys, that's a bonus. even if he had given up 3-4 runs. just don't walk guys.

our offense is just fine. we don't have a lot of power but we put enough guys on base to cause trouble for the opposing team's pitcher. and we're starting to hit better with RISP.

bullpen needs to improve and i'm sure our starting rotation will need an arm at some point. not sure if that will be someone in AAA or a trade, but we will need it to get a WC, because we aren't catching the Cubs. minus Schwarber, and that lineup is still ridiculous.
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This has been Locke's MO since day one. two bad outings and one good. Probably the most inconsistent pitcher in the NL. Not sure why he can"t duplicate his delivery, release point, or whatever the issue is start to start. I think we see Glasnow or Taillon (sp) in June, maybe both. I don't see the Cubs faltering with that Starting pitching unless they have a rash of injuries.
 
Taillon has been pretty remarkable so far. Without having pitched for two seasons, after three starts he's tossing something like a 1.65 ERA, a K rate of our 8 per 9 ip, 6 total hits, and 0 BBs. He had a no-hitter going last time out after the 5th and finished with 1 hit in 6 ip. His only issue is getting behind in counts; he hit 80+ pitches in 6 innings. If he works that out and continues his current run of form, he'll probably be up in June.

Glasnow has more work to do. I read somewhere the Pirates are still concerned about his command and his change up.
 
Cutch hits 3 hr last night. Hopefully the start of many more. I didn't realize the Pirates were leading the Majors in Hitting (.293) way ahead of the next closest club, if only they could hit better with men on base.

Kang homered in Indy yesterday. When he comes back the dynamics of the line up will change for the better.
 
Irwin20 said:
Cutch hits 3 hr last night. Hopefully the start of many more. I didn't realize the Pirates were leading the Majors in Hitting (.293) way ahead of the next closest club, if only they could hit better with men on base.

Kang homered in Indy yesterday. When he comes back the dynamics of the line up will change for the better.
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right when i post "this lineup doesn't have a lot of power" and we hit 5 HR's. of course.

it is Coors Field so not reading too much into it, but it was nice to see.
 
They have the potential. Marte, Cutch, Polanco, and Kang all have the power to hit 20-30 HRs. We shall see.

It was good to see Glasnow have a really good outing yesterday: 2 H, 0 ER, 11 Ks, and 1 BBs in 87 pitches over 6 innings. Brought his ERA down to 2.57.
 
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