The Pirates - A New Beginning indeed!

[moore4807]

After meetings with Manager Esposito and his coaching staff, where our slight drop (from #20 to #23) in Power Rankings is noted by me, we then turn our attention to our current roster and what plans we have to improve. We decide to shore up the back end starting pitcher's position as our most productive short term move. Making sure that Operations V.P. Penny Layne is included in the talks and the owner listens in on speakerphone we begin the meeting again.

After going through the available free agents and waiver wire we make two minor league contract offers to relievers, but still searching for a Steady Eddie type SP when Asst. GM Neal Huntington brings up Mike Wright of Baltimore who we have looked at before but moved on from him. This time I call GM Mike Elias, who seemingly had a ready list of players he wanted from us to make the deal. We discussed quite a few and Asst. GM. Huntington didn't think that the player we decided on was equal in trade to SP Wright. I overruled him and authorized the trade since we have so many 2B/SS prospects in the pipeline, that it makes 2B Glendinning expendable in the short term. The deal is processed and approved by the league in less than 5 hours.

In MLB news;
Chicago(A) White Sox and Houston Astros players got dusty with each other during Sunday's game and after the dirt cleared two players got suspended for their roles in the fracas. White Sox 2B Yolmer Sanchez was suspended three games, while Astro's RP Tony Sipp was suspended for seven games.

In Milwaukee, long time fan favorite LF Ryan Braun reached a career milestone is dramatic fashion, Braun now has two thousand hits, going 3-5 while the Brewers went down to defeat to the Cincinnati Reds. Fans applauded long enough for Braun to have to make two curtain calls.

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The Pirates lost some ground but stayed out of the basement, with the 2-4 win/loss record not pleasing anyone from the owner on down.

With the acquisition of SP Mike Wright as our 5th starter, that moves Conner W Jones back to the long man role in the bullpen. RP Chad Kuhl and RP Kyle Keller both were sent down to AAA for a lack of competitive performance, while SP Wright takes up one of the vacancies, we turn back to RP Nolan Blackwood and hope he has worked out his problems in AAA.

There are no roster moves for the offense, we are keeping an eye on RF Hunter Renfroe - his four HR performance in the thin air of Colorado looks good, but pales when we see there were only 5 hits total for the week for Hunter, hes become an all or nothing hitter, and we hope to get him going this week before RF Myles Straw comes off the I.L.

All of our games this week are at home. We start with a two game set against the New York(A) Yankees before welcoming the Toronto Blue Jays for the weekend - this means we have two days off this week and a chance to rest some bodies.

[moore4807]

We will see the New York(A) Yankees in the friendly confines of PNC Park for two games. Here is the scouting report for today and tomorrow.

Scouting Director Phillip Humber has gotten together with Asst. GM Neal Huntington to get a scouting report ready for me about adding 26 y/o RHP James Bourque to our minors.

Since Bourque has declined our offer of a minor league deal, I take Neal's suggestion of a low level two year deal (2/$650K) to offer to Bourque's agent. The agent indicated Bourque is happy with the deal, but wants to check other offers first before signing.

[moore4807]

Pitching was off from the start, we never recovered from all those walks that turned into runs scored.

Pitching Report - SP Demarcus Evans (3.1 IP, 2H 1ER, 4BB, 3K's) never got in a groove and a high pitch count drove him out early. RP Corbin Clouse (1.2 IP, 1H, 3ER, 2BB, 1K HRA) gave up a three run blast to C Gary Sanchez in the fifth inning, and New York(A) never looked back from there. RP Nolan Blackwood (1IP, 1H, 2ER, 4BB, 1K) gave up a 2 run HR to LF Giancarlo Stanton, showing everyone he has not gotten over his control problems yet. RP Ryan Brasier (1IP, 0R, 0BB, 0K) actually had the first inning with no baserunners in the seventh, then RP Thomas Burrows (2 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K's) kept the Yankees from adding to the damage already done.

Batting Report - Three runs on seven hits, against a monster mash lineup? It wasn't nearly enough! No multi hit performances by the Pirates, 1B Josh Ockimey got walked twice, the only respect shown to any of the Pirates hitters.

The only thing we would note is the Yankees scored six runs on only four hits, the ten walks issued was ridiculous and I totally understand PH Greg Birds frustration with the home plate umpire tonight.

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While we were out shopping for pitchers, Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore (no relation) replied to our offer of 25 y/o RHP Jesus Liranzo by offering up one of his young pitchers, 23 y/o RHP Edgar Garcia, in return. Asst. GM Neal Huntington and Scouting Director Phil Humber said it would be a good trade based on current stats and scouting for each. RP Liranzo was stuck at AA for us and wasn't setting the world on fire there either, so we pick up someone who can hold his own in a MLB bullpen in exchange.

Asst. GM Neal Huntington has made progress on his own projects, coaxing a RP into signing a minor league deal. 24 y/o RP Daniel Procopio signed yesterday and was assigned to Class A+ Bradenton to begin his Pirates career.

In MLB news;
San Diego Padres C Francisco Mejia suffered an MCL injury that is going to sideline him for 4-5 weeks.
New York(A) Yankees 1B Greg Bird was suspended for two games for making contact with an official during a disputed call.
Oakland Athletics 2B Jurickson Profar is headed to the I.L. with a knee sprain, team doctors expect 2B Profar to miss 5-6 weeks with the injury.

[moore4807]

We were competitive, just not enough pitching depth to match up with the Yankees.

Pitching Report - SP Jameson Taillon (6 IP, 9H, 2ER, 1BB, 6K's) pitched well, but had to wiggle out of a couple jams along the way. RP Ryan Brasier (2 IP, 1H, 0BB, 3K's) got out of the seventh and eighth innings with no damage and CL Archie Bradley (2 IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 2K's) did the same for the ninth and tenth innings as well. RP Wyatt Mills (1 IP, 1H 1ER, 0BB, 1K, HRA) gave up the go ahead run on a solo blast by 2B DJ LeMahieu in the eleventh inning.

Batting Report - Two runs on five hits isn't gonna get it done versus the Yankees on most days. SP Jameson Taillon (1/1, 1RBI) hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead 1-0, then CF Tim Witt (1/4, 1HR, 1R, 1RBI) had a solo HR in the seventh to tie the score at 2-2.

[moore4807]

Contract negotiations with James Bourque have hit a snag. RP Bourque's agent has called us back reporting that another team (probably Colorado Rockies) has offered RP Bourque a better deal, but they do not want to break off negotiations with us yet.
Well let me do that for them! RP Bourque falls into the nice to have category, it is not worth it to get into a bidding war over a two star player who is a free agent. I tell Neal Huntington to let them know we won't be moving off our contract offer and if they have a better deal, to probably take it and we wish them well.

In MLB news;
Los Angeles(N) Dodgers 3B Justin Turner has injured his shoulder and will need time off to heal. Dodgers trainers have announced 3B Turner will be out for five to six weeks.

[moore4807]

We have a three game weekend series at home against the Blue Jays. After dropping both games against the Yankees we need a sweep to have a positive week. But not getting ahead of ourselves, lets concentrate on the first matchup first!

We also received a trade offer from Brodie Van Wagenen GM of the New York(N) Mets. 27 y/o LHP Jacob Lindgren a good stuff, medium movement, poor control RP... gee where have I seen that lately?? (sarcasm provided free of charge) In return for last years #1 draft pick ?? NOooo I don't think so, but I will kick the tires and see what NYM have under the hood, or if I can flip an underachiever for Lindgren is also a possibility.

** I did try leaving RP Lindgrens stats up on the screen when I screen shotted it to see how it looked. If it looks good I will probably do that instead of separately screenshotting each player mentioned. ** Don't worry folks I promise I'll forget or mess this up too later

[moore4807]

What to write here? That the game was at least competitive until RP Wyatt Mills got in there. arrgghh!

Pitching Report - SP Kyle Freeland ( 5.1 IP, 8H, 3ER, 2BB, 3K's) was facing a RH heavy lineup for his second start for the Pirates. RP Corbin Clouse (1.2 IP, 1H 0R, 1BB, 3K's) let in the third run of Freeland's night, but escaped further damage. RP Thomas Burrows (1 IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K) pitched the eighth inning without giving up any runs, then along came RP Wyatt Mills (0.2 IP, 4H, 7ER, 3BB, 1K, HRA) whose flamethrower arm from earlier in the year now looks like he's pitching softballs at the batters. Wyatt couldn't even finish the inning out and RP Conner W Jones (0.1 IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K) got the last out... I said to Wyatt after the game... "Suck it up buttercup - you aren't going anywhere... YET!"

Batting Report - One Run on seven hits. Pathetic, as in Poor, as in I took my foot off the neck of Brian Esposito to see if he learned anything from the past week, and so far the answer is no. CF Tim Witt (2/4) and SS Jose Iglesias (2/3, 1R) were our only multi hit players tonight.

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Lose last game by blowout, win this game by the skin of our teeth. This game will drive you to drink, and eat Tums by the handful. But a win is a win and we need all we can get.

Pitching Report - SP Jimmy Nelson (6.1 IP, 7H, 1ER, 1BB, 7K's) pitched well and that was exactly what we needed to rebound this game. RP Thomas Burrows (0.2 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K) came in to relieve Nelson as he reached his 95 pitch limit and got two outs on nine pitches to get out of the seventh inning. RP Edgar Garcia (1 IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K's) made his Pirates debut and only gave up a leadoff double to CF Dalton Pompey before getting his three outs, last two by strikeouts. CL Archie Bradley (1 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, SV) pitched a clean ninth inning for his seventeenth save.

Batting Report - Two runs on seven hits will not win a lot of ballgames usually. 3B KeBryan Hayes (3/4, 1RBI) led all hitters with his three singles, CF Tim Witt (2/4) was our other multi hit player. LF Andrew Toles (1/3, BB, 1R) and C Reese McGuire (1/3, 1HR, 1 R, 1RBI) scored all the runs needed in this game.

in MLB news;
Oakland A's 2B Franklin Barreto and Houston Astro's RP Phil Maton will each serve two games suspension for their parts in a skirmish at Oakland Coliseum yesterday.
San Francisco Giants RP Sal Romano made the trek up "Heartbreak Hill" as his season was officially declared over yesterday. RP Romano is suffering from radial nerve compression and team doctors have shut down any chance Romano has for returning this year.

[moore4807]

Does anyone remember the movie "Top Gun"? After getting chewed out for buzzing the tower, Goose says to Maverick "Maybe I can learn how to be a truck driver? Mav, you have the number for that truck driving school? Truck Master? I might need that..."
This is pretty much how I feel about this team right now, as soon as they show some promise - they then screw up so they are worse off than before the ray of hope happened.

Pitching Report - I thought I was getting a decent fifth starter in the trade for SP Mike Wright (3.2 IP, 6H, 7ER, 2BB, 2K's 2-HRA), but after his first start for the Pirates, I'm wondering if I had gotten a bag of used baseballs might have been a better deal. RP Conner W Jones (3.2 IP, 4H 1ER, 2BB, 2K's, 1HRA) did marginally better, giving up SP Wright's final charged run in relief. RP Ryan Brasier (2 IP, 1H, 1ER, 1BB, 3K's) gave up the final run allowed.

Batting Report - One run on two his just shows we still haven't figured it out yet. CF Tim Witt got on base and SS Jose Iglesias knocked him in well after it would have made a difference in the game.

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American and National League All Star Teams voting as of 6/21/20.

[moore4807]

We went 1-5 on the week, even worse than last week's performance. I cannot understand how players can so consistently underperform. We have been swept by teams with worse win/loss records than us for the past two weeks. I used OSA ratings to tweak the lineup over Scouting Director Phillip Humber's scouting numbers, and it doesn't seem to matter.

What is true is I'm operating the smallest budget in MLB besides Miami, its not that I won't spend the money, but there is not much money to spend either! I'm looking to have a trio of medium budget players ($7M-$10M range) as our core players. but I cant afford to spend the money on players that won't perform consistently either.

CF Tim Witt is one player I am looking at locking up long term. SP Jameson Taillon is another player. I would like to make a player one of our core, but a few like 1B Josh Ockimey need a slightly better track record before I go dumping millions of dollars in his direction.

IF I'm around long enough to do it, that is.

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Well I wasn't going to stand pat and do nothing after last week, but one now former player made my decision for me. 2B/3B Eduardo Nunez sent me a trade me demand at exactly the right time.

When I shopped Nunez around there were no offers for prospects, only overpaid and aging stars. With that in mind I went digging a little deeper and started with the top payroll - the Yankees. I found what I consider to be an adequate trade for; a 21 y/o SS candidate who will have superior defense but only middling offense. We swapped minor leaguers of no real consequence to balance out Neal Huntington's desires, then got approval of the boss and our V.P. of Operations. We ended up coming out roughly $500K ahead, so a little more money to invest now.

In other team news our Power Ranking unsurprisingly dropped all the way to 27th after this horrible week.

We also have a four game series at Washington starting today. Details are found below.

Finally in MLB news the Yankees not only announced the trade on their end, they also announced that SP Luis Severino is done for the year again. This top talent now has been derailed by injuries for two straight years.

** Roster Moves **
2B/3B Eduardo Nunez traded to Yankees.
RF Myles Straw optioned to AAA Indianapolis.
2B Stephen Alemais contract purchased from AAA Indianapolis.
OF/1B Austin Slater contract purchased from AAA Indianapolis.

[moore4807]

Game has been rained out and will be part of a doubleheader on Tuesday 6/23/20
Game one will kick off at 1:05pm, second game will commence at 7:05pm

[moore4807]

I admit defeat and declare the DeMarcus Evans experiment over. We will move Conner W Jones back into the SP slot and see where this ship sails us to... The pitcher from Washington (RP Austin Adams) who hit three consecutive batters got the ire and attention of Manager Brian Esposito, who angrily fumed afterwards at the post game press conference about it. The media sensing a story here, took Esposito's comments back to the National's Mgr. Dave Martinez who simply said "He's a rookie manager who's wet behind the ears, I'm not worried about it, it was unintentional." That really set off Esposito who had to virtually be tied to his desk to keep from going over to the home lockers. Maybe it will fire the players up too was my thought...

Pitching Report - SP DeMarcus Evans (2 IP, 7H, 8ER, 2BB,2K, 3-HRA) conclusively proved he is not SP material. RP Edgar Garcia (3 IP, 2H, 2ER, 3K's, 0BB, 3K's, HRA) went further in the game than the starter did. RP Ryan Brasier (2 IP, 1H, 1ER, 1BB, 2K's) did his usual good job, and RP Corbin Clouse (1 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K) pitched the eighth inning with no damage.

Batting Report - Eight runs on ten hits is usually a good day. SS Jose Iglesias (3/4 1R) led the Buc's attack while C Reese McGuire (2/5, 2-2B, 2R, 3RBI) and 2B Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (2/3, 2B, HR, 1R, 3RBI, HBP) we the other two multi-hit performers in the lineup today. CF Tim Witt (0/2, 2R, 3BB, HBP) had the strangest line on the scoresheet today, but scored twice on the walks.

[moore4807]

For the third time playing this season this game freezes up and this time I was trying to save the game and it froze - I restarted the game and simulated the fist game of the Series against the Nationals and the simulation gave Washington a 7-2 win. I cant change it so it will have to suffice it was another Pirate loss.

Moving on to the night time doubleheader...

[moore4807]

We split the doubleheader.

Pitching Report - SP Jameson Taillon (6 IP, 7H, 2ER, 1BB, 3K's, 2-HRA) had a QS and probably could have pitched farther into the game. RP Ryan Brasier (1.2 IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB, 1K, HRA) looks like he is wearing down a little and could use a break. RP Wyatt Mills (0.1 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K) got the last out in the eighth inning. CL Archie Bradley (1 IP, 0R, 2BB, 0K, SV) walked two, but it didn't hurt him or the team as he collected his eighteenth save on the year.

Batting Report - Six Runs on ten hits wins this game and this GM digs the long ball baby! Four Players had multiple hits in the game, led by 1B Josh Ockimey (2/5, 2HR, 2R, 2RBI) with contributions by LF Tim Witt (2/5, 1HR, 1R, 1 RBI), RF Hunter Renfroe (2/4, 2B, 1R, 1RBI), and C Jin-De Jhang 2/4). 3B KeBryan Hayes (1/4, HR, 1R, 2RBI) made his only hit count, a MAMMOTH 434' two run homer that made the Buc's lead 5-1

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We have won two out of three games, this time in extra innings. One more to go.

Pitching Report - SP Kyle Freeman (5 IP, 5H, 3R 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 2-HRA) didn't really impress anyone, but he left with a lead, SP, Conner W Jones ( 1 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K) was called in for relief and held Washington scoreless, RP Thomas Burrows (2 IP, 1H, 2ER, 1BB, 2K's HRA) was this games pitcher who was left in too long and we lost the lead because of it. CL Archie Bradley (1 IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K) managed a scoreless ninth inning despite allowing two baserunners. RP Wyatt Mills (1 IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K SV) picked up his first save of the season, while CL Archie Bradley got the win upping his record to 3-1.

Batting Report - LF Andrew Toles (4/5, HR, 2R, 4RBI) was the player of the game with his two run tenth inning blast providing the final 7-5 margin of victory. 3B KeBryan Hayes (2/3, 2B, HR, 1R, 1RBI) was the other multi hit player and also went deep with a solo shot in the fourth inning.

We recently made some offers to players agents and our first response came back from OF Hunter Renfroe... original offer was $2.5M for 3 years. I'm going to our max contract for OF of $3.25M for one year and see if he accepts, his agent said he would look it over.

[moore4807]

That game was carried by the offense as was most of this four game series. We win three out of four in Washington and now head to Milwaukee to try to continue the good fortune.

Pitching Report - SP Jimmy Nelson (4.2 IP, 4H 4ER, 4BB, 3K's) walked way too many people and wasted too many pitches, he was actually ahead 7-1 when he left the game but had three baserunners due to walks that RP Edgar Garcia (1.1 IP, 1H, 1ER, 0BB, 0K, HRA) then allowed to score. We still had the lead as RP Corbin Clouse (2.2 IP, 3H 1ER, 2BB, 2K's) got to the last out of the ninth but couldn't finish, so RP Thomas Burrows (0.1 IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 0K SV) allowed a walk and then got a flyout to end the game and earn the save.

Batting Report - Eight runs on eleven hits gets the job done today. RF Hunter Renfroe (3/4, 2-2B, HR, 2R, 4RBI) was all extra base hits today with two doubles and a three run homerun. LF Andrew Toles (2/5,1R) and SS Jose Iglesias (2/4) were our other multi-hit players today. 2B Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (1/3, 2RBI) singled home two baserunners in the fourth inning to give the Pirates a 3-1 lead at the time.

In MLB news;
Colorado CF Jackie Bradley Jr. went five for five in a 22-4 rout of Kansas City Royals. Bradley Jr hit three doubles and two home runs, scoring four times and driving in six on the day while raising his batting average to .194.
Seattle SP Yusei Kikuchi (9 IP, 3H, 0R, 4BB, 4K) threw a complete game shutout yesterday leading his Mariners to a 5-0 victory.