Pittsburgh Pirates - A new beginning...

[moore4807]

Here are some reports that came from Mrs. Layne for me while we were flying back home.

First off we slid down to 17th in the power rankings, that's not good...

Got notes from Asst. GM Neal Huntington that our two top prospects SP Mitch Keller and CF Travis Haggerty are banged up and out for a short period of time, but nothing serious.

1B Josh Bell is on the MLB combined leaderboards for his hitting and walks, Well done needs to be sent his way

The team leaderboards are still a mixed bag of good news and bad.

On the injury front RP Jordan Lyles came off the DL and was immediately put on a rehab assignment to AAA. 1B Jose Osuna comes off this week and will need to be optioned to AAA.

looking at the minors, Bradenton A+ team is 1-11, Asst. GM Neal Huntington had better get on top of that situation. Nobody likes losing!

[Denville Dog]

Following along and enjoying!

[moore4807]

Ok my first positional review and analysis starting with our catching. Top 5 is covered here

** Note here, players in CAPS are shortlisted and I use the shortlist as my "eye on youth's" (or utes ). Age 26 is the cutoff and if they are, they cant be shortlisted here. **

Francisco Cervelli is our entrenched MLB starter, beloved by Buc's fans and teammates, and paid like it ($11.5M/yr. Final year of 4 yr deal). At 33 years old he has peaked and his scouting numbers from both the Pirates and OSA are not rosy. if you look at the third chart down, Cervelli's arm strength doesn't even make it on the chart! (top 21 listed) Cervelli doesn't have the contact or power numbers to make him worth converting into a corner IF/OF. and his arm is one of the weakest for a starter in our organization and likely MLB! Cervelli's batting slump isn't doing him any favors here either. (Contact 49/49 - Gap 42/43 - Power 42/42 - Eye 66/66 - Avoid K's 51/51)

Elias Diaz is the next in line talent wise, but he started the season on the IR. 28 years old and still under team control for another season, he is a defensively elite catcher who will supplant Jacob Stallings as the backup and hopefully push Cervelli into better numbers offensively. (Contact 51/52 - Gap 47/47 - Power 42/42 - Eye - 37/37 - Avoid K's 67/67)

Jacob Stallings is a 29 y/o former prospect and serves well as a backup and swingman between AAA and the Majors. He is defensively challenged and near the bottom of the boards in nearly every catcher metric. His value is as a team leader and average bat off the bench. (Contact 44/44 - Gap 64/64 - Power 26/26 - Eye 46/46 - Avoid K's 57/57)

Steve Baron is a 28 y/o journeyman who is the exact opposite of Jacob Stallings in the defensive categories. His strong defense is betrayed by a average arm, his offense is what keeps him in the minors. (Contact 34/34 - Gap 19/19 - Power 15/15 - Eye 37/37 Avoid K's 42/42)

John Bormann is a 26 y/o former prospect who now is stuck in AAA, his offense is not quite good enough to make the show, while his defense grades out as good enough to be a top 15 catcher in MLB. (Contact 36/41 - Gap 39/41 - Power 1/7 - Eye 36/40 - Avoid K's 58/60)

Coming soon 1B...

[moore4807]

Ok after mulling the waiver situation over with scouting and managers/coaches, P John Gant will be claimed, while we also will attempt to swing a trade with SD for OF Powell after he clears waivers. Stay tuned - will post as I get some free time

[moore4807]

Before flying out to Detroit for a two game set, the managers, coaches and scouts have finally agreed on a game plan:

1) OF JB Schuck has been waived with plans to send him to AAA - even though Clint wanted to keep him here, we simply had too many other needs at this time.

2) 3B Jung-Ho Kang has been waived to alleviate the overpopulation at 3B. His $3M salary is a tough thing to eat, but we also put him on the Trade Block to help garner some interest.

3) 31 y/o OF Trayvon Robinson has been called up from AAA. He is hitting .295 in 11 games and playing good defense so far. He is not the permanent answer, but neither is our other inhouse options. Monte Harrison (AA) and Jared Olivia (AA) don't have the offensive chops yet to jump to MLB just yet.

4) SS Kevin Newman is hitting .400+ down in Indianapolis and is MLB ready, He held the job of SS last year, but was in the minors when I arrived. Our managers/coaches think he is a defensive improvement as well as an offensive one too. Erik Gonzalez's performance has been simply sterling so far, but coaches say SS Newman will do better.

** League News note - 2B Dee Gordon (SEA) broke his kneecap (too bad he wasn't a third baseman!) and is lost for the season. **

[moore4807]

** Above should read #16 / not 316... **

We win but same old story...

Matt Wisler doesn't impress in his opening start. Trayvon Robinson doesn't impress (0-5) in his first start. Kevin Newman doesn't impress (0-4) in his first start.

So who did impress? Only our #2 thru #8 hitters who did all the heavy lifting, scoring 8 runs. There is our bullpen (5.2 IP, 1R, 5K, 1W) and another save from Vazquez.

[moore4807]

Woot!!
Colorado has claimed Jang-Ho Kang! Normally I would be disappointed I didn't wait to trade him there, but this move cleared $3M off the cap and its early in the season so most of that money stays here. There is also the benefit of opening up a 40 man roster spot for P Gant or OF Powell.

[moore4807]

This is where I need to shut my mouth, curb my attitude, and trust my staff! A very nice win here to sweep the set with Detroit.

Sorry for Detroit but playing both games in front of just over 14,000 fans felt odd, like a minor league game, you could even hear regular conversations in the stands.

I did not mention that Detroit has 2 former members of the Pirates in 2B Josh Harrison and SS Jordy Mercer, they were glad to see their friends and former teammates.

I watched the HUGE change in moving SS Kevin Newman into the second batting spot , CF Trayvon Robinson went 2-5 with 3R, 1RBI and a SB, Kevin meanwhile was en fuego (on fire) going 4-4 with 2R, 4RBI and 2 SB!!

The coaches told me these were the right moves, and after two games the players have made a early push.

[moore4807]

Manager Report Waivers Mystery?

** In one of the stranger things found in this game, on April 15th 2019, OF Herschel Powell was on waivers with no claim for him listed. On the 16th OF Hershel Powell now appears on the Cincinnati Reds roster BUT no transaction record exists in ANY of the teams transaction lists or MLB transactions... Hmmm. There goes that plan..

** Found it! - on 4/16/19 Hershel Powell was claimed by Cincinnati Reds. The funny part and I didn't screenshot it the first time - there were only three transactions listed for the team. When I went to Herschel Powell's history, it said he was claimed by CIN on 4/1619. WHEN I went back to Cincinnati's transaction page - it NOW shows four transactions with Powells being tacked on the last one...

Worse when a divisional rival gets the player you are targeting! Gant hasn't come off waiver list yet, but we are still listed on transaction screen for claiming him.

[moore4807]

If you are a regular player on OOTP and have done reviews and analysis of teams, you recognize that pitcher/catcher are the two specialist positions with only a few other position players found there.

IF/OF are such a hodgepodge of positions and skill sets, sometimes its hard to decipher what is, or what makes a good position player at a single spot. Most use offensive skills at corner positions and defense up the middle, while some will say it's power hitting at 1st base and live with the errors.

A LOT of players have skill sets at multiple positions and can play 1B either in a pinch or as a regular player.


Pirates Top 5 @ 1B

1B Josh Bell - 26 y/o primary 1B and under contract for one more year at league minimum. Due to his very good offensive skills and lack of competition at the position, he will likely get a new contract, I'm looking in the range of 3 yrs/$4.5M and hopefully he will sign. The thought I have is that will take him to 30 y/o and it gives the Pirates 3 years to draft/trade for his eventual replacement. (Contact 67/69 - Gap 68/68 - Power 66/66 Eye 70/73 Avoid K's 59/59)

1B Jose Osuna - 26 y/o primary 1B, Started the year on IR just recently moved to AAA. Jose is below average defensively, he also has minor skills also at 3B, LF, RF but below average speed and no running ability makes him an emergency replacement at those other spots. (Contact 43/45 - Gap 86/86 - Power 44/44 - Eye 35/37 - Avoid K's 60/61)

1B Adam Lind 35 y/o journeyman at AAA Indianapolis is slightly above average defensively, but with little range and NO speed at all. Coaches reportedly are NOT fond of him and he is not coachable at this point. (Contact 41/41 - Gap 36/36 - Power 52/52 - Eye 45/45 - Avoid K's 50/51)

1B Nick Franklin 28 y/o journeyman also at AAA. Nick can play all IF and corner OF positions. Nick has well below average defensive skills, slightly below average range but prone to lots of errors. His strengths are slightly above average speed, very good stealing ability and is a good baserunner. (Contact 43/43 - Gap 63/63 - Power 52/52 - Eye 50/52 Avoid K's 53/53)

1B Will Craig - 24 y/o prospect Started 2019 at AA and hit his way into AAA already. Will has slightly above average defense, but poor range and just under average ability to avoid errors. Will has no speed to speak of and slightly below average baserunning skills. A note about scouting here - Will is a future two star according to scouting here, the OSA ratings are four star and have him a hitting STUD. Time will tell but he's hitting .346 at AA, got him the callup to AAA where he's .500 in limited AB's. (Contact 22/36 - Gap 43/43 - Power 43/49 - Eye 55/66 - Avoid K's 33/33 ***** OSA Ratings ***** (Contact 36/77 - Gap 49/72 - Power 42/67 - Eye 50/53 - Avoid K's 40/58)

** Honorable Mention here to 3B Colin Moran - skills are just above minimums but bat is good - will cover him in 3B analysis.

[moore4807]

Joe Deli Taki outti - was too busy I guess to do his job

** ARZ SP Godley is injured and out for the year.

RP Gant is now a Pittsburgh Pirate! He is DFA and I'll leave him there until after the series wraps up Sunday.

[moore4807]

This game is acting wonky - I hit the next day button to get to Friday, I don't see the scouting report. Now once I closed and reopened the game, there it is? This is the second time (OF Powell disappearing with no claim ever showing) something wonky happened - so I'm now saving EVERY time I advance a day...

Stay tuned folks, game being played here shortly

[moore4807]

Team, your lunch is served... Seems like we weren't ready for that game, we fell behind by 2 runs in the top of the 1st and it was 7-0 before we responded.. in the bottom of the 6th. Even then it was too little, too late.

The S.F. homers? ok Bumgarner, for a player is a good hitter, as a pitcher, its just not fair. Duggar? power rating of 15 and he jacks homers against two different pitchers? Just bellyaching here... not the end of the world, just a don't let your emotions get to high or low in this game.

It's another night game tomorrow and a afternoon game Sunday, hopefully the team will respond to this the right way.

[moore4807]

** Giants announcement injury report. LF Gerardo Parra is out for the year due to injury. **

This was a good rebound game, we did the same damage to them as we suffered last night. Now go for the series win tomorrow afternoon. CF Robinson had a good game and that is definitely going to help him stay in "The Show".

The bullpen struggled again tonight after SP Jameson Taillon scattered 11 hits and gave up 2 runs over 8.1 innings. P Matt Wisler struggled again and CL Vazquez had to come in and get the last out.

[moore4807]

See saw battle that went our way in the end. Pirates got the series win, which is only our 3rd series win out of 6 this month. The Good news is we are 12-8 on the season and we have a lot of offensive good news.

(GM Moore answering a reporters question about Adam Frazier)
"Kudos to Manager Clint Hurdle in getting Adam Frazier in the lineup today - he's swung a hot bat, but has been squeezed out lately to others playing time. Adam sure gave the manager and coaches a good headache to have - where do they get him more playing time?"
(Next Question to GM Moore is about our starting pitching)
" Our starting pitching is being evaluated, we can't keep giving up big leads and expect we are gonna come back every time... We will advise you of any changes as soon as they happen".
(GM Moore is asked what about players coming back from injury?)
"We are happy to get back our injured players, our first priority is the players health and we will not rush back anyone only to see them get reinjured. Once fully healthy we will evaluate where and when to integrate them back into the team and where that benefits the team most."

[moore4807]

This week we saw some high scoring games, huge deficits, and big comebacks. The team went 4-1 with two days off this week and nobody got injured at MLB level.

I'm including the monthly schedule here and it shows the Pepcid inducing roughly three week start of this team.

A rundown of transactions this week affecting the Pirates club.
1) 4/15 OF JB Schuck cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA. He was NOT put back on 40 man roster at this time.
2) 4/15 SS Kevin Newman contract purchased and promoted to MLB
3) 4/15 3B Jung-Ho Kang was waived and picked up by COL.
4) 4/15 OF Trayvon Robinson's contract was purchased by PIT. Placed on 40 man roster. Was promoted to MLB club as CF.
5) 4/15 RP Jordan Lyles was comes off IR and placed on 30 day injury rehab assignment. Promoted to MLB on 4/22
6) 4/17 RP Dovydas Neverauskas comes off IR. Immediately optioned to AAA.
7) 4/17 1B Jose Osuna comes off IR. Immediately optioned to AAA.
8) 4/18 RP John Gant claimed off waivers from STL. Placed on 40 man roster and promoted to MLB team on 4/21.
9) 4/21 SP Steven Brault optioned to AAA.
10) 4/22 SP Dario Agrazal optioned to AAA.
11) 4/22 C Elias Diaz comes off IR and placed on 20 day injury rehab assignment.

Picking up the pieces - our most improved player is C Francisco Cervelli, Since our looking at his production from last week, Cervelli raised his BA .041 points (.184 to .225) to above the Mendoza line. Cervelli also improved his defensive metrics by throwing out 5/9 base stealing attempts for a CS% of 55.6 and his ZR is now +1.2. with ZERO Errors this season.

Our office received a call from Atlanta looking to get Brian W Anderson in return for a middling AA OF Justin Dean (1.5 stars/ OSA 2.0 stars) who's claim to fame is 99 speed but can barely make contact with the ball. Trade? P A S S

Checked on RP Nick Burdi and SP Clay Holmes down in AAA. Burdi is the CL right now but still struggling with a 5.08 ERA and no saves, Holmes is RP setup man and getting shelled with a 8.44 ERA and10 ER in 10 IP. (ouch!)

In the GOOD news Dept. out of AAA, 2B Pablo Reyes has captured the Player of the Week honors. hmm. ANOTHER hot hitting 2B... what to do? what to do...

[moore4807]

Continuing the West division invasion of Pittsburgh Arizona drops in for a 4 game set and details are below. Lets Go Bucs!!!

Figured I would throw in the MLB standings - I should do this weekly with the Managers Report, but sometimes the 5 pix limit gets in the way

In interesting League News - Washington Ace Max Scherzer is going on the shelf for approximately 6 weeks, THAT cant help the struggling Nats!

[moore4807]

We made some roster changes hoping for stability this week, so of course the first game was the come from behind victory in the 7th inning! We're gonna do this cardiac kids act all season?

[moore4807]

As I reviewed in 1B earlier, the ability of the IF positions to overlap causes the waters to be a little murky. Today we look at 2B which is usually a bookend review of SS too. The Pirates are a little weak here, but have gotten outstanding work so far from four of the five top spots here.

Pirates Top 5 at 2B.

1) 2B Adam Frazier - a 27 y/o LHB under team control for one more year... Wait? What? How is Adam Frazier top dog at the 2B position but NOT the starter you ask? How indeed? First his offense is good, his defense is slightly below average and he is below average speed/baserunning with average basestealing skills. Adam grades out as a 2.5 star position player (2.0 OSA rating), he can play LF at a below average level but can play the other outfield positions in a pinch. (Contact 60/61 - Gap 72/72 - Power 28/28 - Eye 46/48 Avoid K's 71/71)

2) 2B Kevin Kramer - 25 y/o primary 2B and LHB, also under team control for one more year. Kevin grades out as a 2 star position player with 2.5 stars being his ceiling.He displays good defense, an slightly under average arm but very good error ratings. Kevin's speed/baserunning are average but stealing is very good. Kramer's offense is average, with below average eye his greatest weakness. Kramer can play 3B & SS in a pinch.(Contact 46/54 - Gap 62/62 - Power 45/48 Eye 37/42 Avoid K's 47/50)

3) SS Kevin Newman - 25 y/o Primary SS again under team control for one more year. Kevin is a poor 2B defensively, his metrics are good, error rating is AWESOME, he is more natural shortstop, but scouting believes he could adapt nicely with playing time at 2B. Kevin's offense is average, again a weakness at eye is his lowest offensive trait. (Contact 49/56 - Gap 67/67 - Power 19/24 - Eye 32/39 - Avoid K's 75/78)

4) SS Erik Gonzalez - A 27 y/o natural 2B playing out of position at SS. Just like the others, Eric is under team control for one more year also. All of the defensive metrics are good to very good at 2B for Eric, his offensive numbers should beholding him back, but NOT so far! (Contact 42/43 - Gap 53/53 - Power 36/36 - Eye 12/13 - Avoid K's 45/45)

5) LF Pablo Reyes - 25 y/o utility IF/OF who's abilities at 2B make him a poor choice for starter, but his defensive metrics are mostly good. Scouting believes he could improve to average defense if played there regularly. Pablo has good speed and baserunning ability, he is very good at swiping bags too. (Contact 44/49 - Gap 59/59 - Power 39/42 - Eye 49/53 - Avoid K's 58/61)

** There are a number of youngsters down on the farm that have promise, but haven't delivered on that promise yet. A 24 y/o AA player 2B Stephen Alemais is the best of the bunch, he's an Ozzie Smith type impersonator, absolutely phenomenal defense and a very good defensive SS too. Stephen has no batting skills and being a 24 y/o he may not make it to "The Show" here in Pittsburgh, but he makes some interesting trade bait. **

[moore4807]

This is starting to become routine, but as long as we keep winning, I'll just keep my Pepcid supply handy and white knuckle each game

My biggest fear was when SS Kevin Newman had to be removed from the game after getting plowed into by 3B Jake Lamb while covering 2B on a potential double play. Newman is reportedly banged up but not injured and can play, according to the trainers.

** With the win we take over 1st place in the Central Division. It's only by decimal points, but considering we were picked to finish last, its a nice place to be today. **