Gerrit Cole is in California, having his right elbow examined, which means the Pirates are likely to hit September with exactly zero of their original starting pitchers in the rotation.
Francisco Liriano and Jon Niese have been traded, and Jeff Locke and Juan Nicasio have been shuffled off to the bullpen. Now Cole is in the waiting room of a specialist, thumbing through a stale People magazine and hoping there's nothing wrong with his elbow.
This has been an incredibly disjointed season. The Pirates' ability to contend for the postseason speaks to the mediocrity of the National League beyond the Cubs and Nationals more than anything.
If you're old enough, this should remind you of 1973.
The Pirates were defending National League East champions, coming off a 96-59 record, but it was a different team. Roberto Clemente was gone, and the Pirates would soon discover that 19-game winner Steve Blass had lost the ability to control his pitches.
The '73 Pirates sputtered all season in a mediocre division, There were never more than six games over .500, as many as eight games under that mark. Their longest winning streak was seven games, the longest losing streak was six games. They had one winning month.
It seemed like it was a season-long ordeal of win a couple, lose a couple. They could never get separation from the pack.
General manager Joe L. Brown, who was always a cool hand on the throttle, gave in to panic and fired manager Bill Virdon on Sept. 6, with the team in second place, just three games out. Brown thought bringing Danny Murtaugh back could salvage the season. But the Pirates split their last 26 games under Murtaugh.
That led to one final agony. They played a make-up game the day after the season ended. The San Diego Padres had to fly across the country for the afternoon game at Three Rivers Stadium, which drew 2,572 ticket buyers.
Although the Pirates had beaten the Padres in eight of 11 games, they lost the last one 4-3. The result was a moot point anyway, because the Mets had clinched the division by winning their own make-up game earlier in Chicago. The Mets won the division with an 82-79 record. The Pirates finished 80-82 and went home. No wild card in those days, kids.
The good news? The Pirates made changes and won the division in 1974 and '75, came close in '77, came very close in '78 and won the World Series in 1979.
So as agonizing as 1973 was, it was just a painful detour along the way to more success.
---
--BUBBLE BURST
If you ever needed proof of the media conspiracy to keep valuable information from the public, this is it:
It appears Clint Hurdle has given up his bubble gum habit and switched to sunflower seeds.
Those hundreds of shots of Hurdle in the dugout used to catch him working on a giant wad of pink Dubble Bubble. Spies report he would chew eight pieces at a time.
There are still buckets of gum in the dugout. (A fresh supply is imperative because Dubble Bubble is formulated to lose its flavor in less than 45 seconds).
But Hurdle doesn't seem to be indulging. He's gone from the sweet to the salty, chewing on seeds and spraying the shells.
What happened? Dental issues? Trying to change his luck in a subpar season? Jaw fatigue from working that big hunk of gum?
We don't know.
Seems like this should be a story that's right in Robby (Root) Incmikoski's investigative wheelhouse.
---
--BUSY STREETS
Pitt opens the football season this Saturday with a home game against Villanova.
Down the street, the Pirates will have a home game against the Brewers that evening.
In between, the annual Ribfest and its free concerts will be staged outside of Heinz Field. Considering the limited surface parking and road closures, you should probably leave the house now.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Altoona Mirror, August 24, 2016
The Pirates signed David Freese to a two-year extension, guaranteeing him $11 million.
Good move or bad?
Wishy-washy answer: It depends.
It depends on what happens with Jung Ho Kang, who is currently being investigated for a sexual assault charge brought by a woman in Chicago in June.
In Kang is charged, he's in big trouble. Should be charged and convicted, his MLB career is over.
It's that serious.
If Kang is going to wind up missing significant time, then the Pirates have locked in Freese to play third base at an affordable price. They don't have a viable option for third base otherwise.
If Kang is cleared and returns to the form he showed last season, the Pirates have an expensive back-up player in Freese, who will be paid $6.25 million next season.
There were some troubling comments made after the signing was announced. Both general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle praised Freese for his value in the clubhouse and the community.
Those are great qualities, but they shouldn't be a big priority when deciding to sign players. The main factor is whether the player can help the team win games. That will make him popular in the clubhouse and with the fans.
Freese is 33. There is a possibility the Pirates have seen the best he has to offer this season.
Signing position players over 30 is always a gamble because players inevitably decline in those years. Freese is something of a different case because he isn't being counted on as an everyday player. Ideally, he should play about two-thirds of the time, and some of those would be pinch hitting appearances and coming into games late.
But 33 is still 33, and he'll actually be 34 next April. That's dangerous territory.
If he can maintain this season's level of play, and if he winds up being a replacement for Kang, the Pirates will get value on the contract.
Otherwise, that's a lot of money for a team like the Pirates to spend on a back-up.
Good move or bad?
Wishy-washy answer: It depends.
It depends on what happens with Jung Ho Kang, who is currently being investigated for a sexual assault charge brought by a woman in Chicago in June.
In Kang is charged, he's in big trouble. Should be charged and convicted, his MLB career is over.
It's that serious.
If Kang is going to wind up missing significant time, then the Pirates have locked in Freese to play third base at an affordable price. They don't have a viable option for third base otherwise.
If Kang is cleared and returns to the form he showed last season, the Pirates have an expensive back-up player in Freese, who will be paid $6.25 million next season.
There were some troubling comments made after the signing was announced. Both general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle praised Freese for his value in the clubhouse and the community.
Those are great qualities, but they shouldn't be a big priority when deciding to sign players. The main factor is whether the player can help the team win games. That will make him popular in the clubhouse and with the fans.
Freese is 33. There is a possibility the Pirates have seen the best he has to offer this season.
Signing position players over 30 is always a gamble because players inevitably decline in those years. Freese is something of a different case because he isn't being counted on as an everyday player. Ideally, he should play about two-thirds of the time, and some of those would be pinch hitting appearances and coming into games late.
But 33 is still 33, and he'll actually be 34 next April. That's dangerous territory.
If he can maintain this season's level of play, and if he winds up being a replacement for Kang, the Pirates will get value on the contract.
Otherwise, that's a lot of money for a team like the Pirates to spend on a back-up.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Altoona Mirror, August 21, 2016
The hot question circulating last week was simple:
If the Pirates reached the one-game wild-card playoff round for the fourth consecutive year, which pitcher should they start?
The issue was spurred by the ongoing disappointment of Gerrit Cole's season and the corresponding rise of Jameson Taillon, who has now made 11 major league starts.
The question was ultimately pointless, though.
You don't designate an Oct. 4 starter on Aug. 21. Too many things can happen over that time.
Depending on how Taillon is used over the rest of the season, he may be at his innings limit after missing two seasons of competitive pitching.
The question also presumes the Pirates will be able to ease into the wild card game and set up a preferred pitching rotation. They may have to win the last game of the season just to qualify, so the wild card starter could be the next man up.
So, aside from killing hours on sports talk radio, the question serves no real purpose. Just something to fill the time between commercials for libido problems and bars with $2 draft specials.
---
--BIG SPLASH
You can get all weepy about the stories of courage and perseverance that are part of the Olympics, but this is reality:
The headlines can be easily hijacked by a band of drunken swimmers who misbehave, then lie about what happened.
People love a scandal, and that's why the story of the partying pool boys took over for a few days.
---
--SCARY STORY
ESPN is running a "30 for 30" film called "Darryl & Doc," a look back at the disappointing careers of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden.
It's a story of what could have been. They had the ability to be Hall of Fame players, and their team, the Mets, had the ability to win more championships than the Bill Buckner-aided World Series victory in 1986.
The takeaway from the show is that Gooden, who is 51, appears to be at least 20 years older than that.
It's been a hard life.
---
--INTRODUCTORY PRICING
Pirates rookie utility player Adam Frazier did an autograph signing Saturday.
The promoter ran radio commercials announcing it was Frazier's first appearance in the area.
The tab was $19 per signature.
Seems like that's a lot for a guy who has fewer than 100 major league at-bats, whose career arc may wind up resembling that of Rob Mackowiak.
Makes you wonder what the price would be for a star's autograph.
---
--SUBTLE FAIL
The Pirates have had a number of disappointments this season, large and small.
One that's mostly gone under the radar has been the lousy season of Jared Hughes.
He was valuable as a sixth or seventh inning reliever, especially coming into situations where he inherited runners. He had an almost Houdini-like ability to escape those jams with minimal damage.
There's been none of that this year, and his failure has been a factor in the need to reconfigure the bullpen on the fly.
---
--BAD IDEA
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seems amenable to just about any bad idea that's proposed.
When he was initially asked about reconsidering Pete Rose's case, he offered some hope. Thankfully it turned out to be false and Rose remains rightfully banished from baseball.
Agree now, think later seems to be his philosophy.
It was recently suggested that in the ongoing zeal to trim game times, MLB might consider limiting the number of relief pitchers a team can use.
When the Players Association gets done laughing at that one, it will disappear. The union won't stand for a measure that deprives its members of opportunities to work.
---
--FACE THE NATION
You have to love it when Le'Veon Bell posts a video apology and directs it to "Steeler Nation" as though it's a sovereign state unto itself.
Come to think of it, it may be.
If the Pirates reached the one-game wild-card playoff round for the fourth consecutive year, which pitcher should they start?
The issue was spurred by the ongoing disappointment of Gerrit Cole's season and the corresponding rise of Jameson Taillon, who has now made 11 major league starts.
The question was ultimately pointless, though.
You don't designate an Oct. 4 starter on Aug. 21. Too many things can happen over that time.
Depending on how Taillon is used over the rest of the season, he may be at his innings limit after missing two seasons of competitive pitching.
The question also presumes the Pirates will be able to ease into the wild card game and set up a preferred pitching rotation. They may have to win the last game of the season just to qualify, so the wild card starter could be the next man up.
So, aside from killing hours on sports talk radio, the question serves no real purpose. Just something to fill the time between commercials for libido problems and bars with $2 draft specials.
---
--BIG SPLASH
You can get all weepy about the stories of courage and perseverance that are part of the Olympics, but this is reality:
The headlines can be easily hijacked by a band of drunken swimmers who misbehave, then lie about what happened.
People love a scandal, and that's why the story of the partying pool boys took over for a few days.
---
--SCARY STORY
ESPN is running a "30 for 30" film called "Darryl & Doc," a look back at the disappointing careers of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden.
It's a story of what could have been. They had the ability to be Hall of Fame players, and their team, the Mets, had the ability to win more championships than the Bill Buckner-aided World Series victory in 1986.
The takeaway from the show is that Gooden, who is 51, appears to be at least 20 years older than that.
It's been a hard life.
---
--INTRODUCTORY PRICING
Pirates rookie utility player Adam Frazier did an autograph signing Saturday.
The promoter ran radio commercials announcing it was Frazier's first appearance in the area.
The tab was $19 per signature.
Seems like that's a lot for a guy who has fewer than 100 major league at-bats, whose career arc may wind up resembling that of Rob Mackowiak.
Makes you wonder what the price would be for a star's autograph.
---
--SUBTLE FAIL
The Pirates have had a number of disappointments this season, large and small.
One that's mostly gone under the radar has been the lousy season of Jared Hughes.
He was valuable as a sixth or seventh inning reliever, especially coming into situations where he inherited runners. He had an almost Houdini-like ability to escape those jams with minimal damage.
There's been none of that this year, and his failure has been a factor in the need to reconfigure the bullpen on the fly.
---
--BAD IDEA
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seems amenable to just about any bad idea that's proposed.
When he was initially asked about reconsidering Pete Rose's case, he offered some hope. Thankfully it turned out to be false and Rose remains rightfully banished from baseball.
Agree now, think later seems to be his philosophy.
It was recently suggested that in the ongoing zeal to trim game times, MLB might consider limiting the number of relief pitchers a team can use.
When the Players Association gets done laughing at that one, it will disappear. The union won't stand for a measure that deprives its members of opportunities to work.
---
--FACE THE NATION
You have to love it when Le'Veon Bell posts a video apology and directs it to "Steeler Nation" as though it's a sovereign state unto itself.
Come to think of it, it may be.
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Altoona Mirror, August 14, 2016
Did you watch the Steelers' preseason opener on Friday?
Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell did. If the Steelers had a starting tight end, he probably would have watched from the sidelines, too.
It wasn't the Steelers vs. Detroit Lions as much as it was Guys Who Are Temporarily Wearing Steelers Uniforms against the Lions.
The coaches got some video tape on marginal players who will be sent packing in the coming weeks (or starting at tight end). It was basically a continuation of the combined practices the Steelers and Lions had in Latrobe earlier in the week.
Fans must buy preseason games as part of their season ticket package.
It probably worked out. People got a chance to scout for an increasingly rare parking spot on the North Side and got a head start on their tailgate drinking routine.
---
--WORKING OVERTIME?
Jameson Taillon is looking more like a major league pitcher every time he starts.
His success is welcome after the rotation has struggled so badly, but it does come with a caveat. Taillon didn't pitch competitively for the last two seasons because of injuries, including Tommy John surgery.
He's never thrown more than 147 innings in a professional season. He's currently at 121 innings.
Will there come a time the Pirates have to start consciously curtailing Taillon's innings?
---
--NUMBERS PLEASE
Every time designated hitter Pedro Alvarez hits a home run for Baltimore, some irrationally angry Pirates fans yell, "See?....see?"
Easy does it. The Pirates' offense is actually better than it was last year, and they're hitting more home runs, too.
After 112 games, this year's team is superior in runs (503 to 475), home runs (103 to 95), on-base percentage (.329 to .320), slugging percentage (.401 to .394) and OPS (.730 to .714).
The only decline is a negligible one in batting average (.259 to .257).
The difference between last season and this one has been sub-standard starting pitching for more than half a season.
---
--WORTH REPEATING
There was a court date last week for the woman who was hit in the head by a foul ball while standing behind the home plate screen at PNC Park.
Exhibiting the kind of restraint common to local TV news, KDKA-TV showed her getting conked in the head five times in less than 30 seconds. There would have been a sixth replay, but the script on the voiceover ended.
The record was probably broken later by the guy who face-planted his own plate of nachos.
---
--MORE OF THE SAME
Just when you thought those post-game interviews on Root Sports couldn't get more unctuous, Robby Incmikoski established a new standard on Friday.
He ended an interview with Andrew McCutchen by pointing to the camera and telling McCutchen, "Say goodbye to everybody in Pittsburgh and thank them for staying up this late."
McCutchen looked at the camera, nodded, and walked away without saying a word.
---
--REACHING DEEP
Some of Steve Blass' random digressions on Pirates broadcasts are taking on that "crazy uncle" flavor.
OK, you understand there will be a Bob Gibson reference at some point. (Gibson, who's now 80, last pitched in 1975).
But the presence of Travis Jankowski in the Padres lineup led Blass to reference a 1965 instrumental hit, "A Walk In The Black Forest" by Horst Jankowski.
It reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart, but probably hasn't been played on radio since 1965.
If Casey Kasem were still around, it's doubtful he'd remember the record.
---
--COUPLES TRIP
Thirty Pirates wives are accompanying their husbands on the current trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Wonder if there would be as much participation if the destinations were Cincinnati and Milwaukee?
Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell did. If the Steelers had a starting tight end, he probably would have watched from the sidelines, too.
It wasn't the Steelers vs. Detroit Lions as much as it was Guys Who Are Temporarily Wearing Steelers Uniforms against the Lions.
The coaches got some video tape on marginal players who will be sent packing in the coming weeks (or starting at tight end). It was basically a continuation of the combined practices the Steelers and Lions had in Latrobe earlier in the week.
Fans must buy preseason games as part of their season ticket package.
It probably worked out. People got a chance to scout for an increasingly rare parking spot on the North Side and got a head start on their tailgate drinking routine.
---
--WORKING OVERTIME?
Jameson Taillon is looking more like a major league pitcher every time he starts.
His success is welcome after the rotation has struggled so badly, but it does come with a caveat. Taillon didn't pitch competitively for the last two seasons because of injuries, including Tommy John surgery.
He's never thrown more than 147 innings in a professional season. He's currently at 121 innings.
Will there come a time the Pirates have to start consciously curtailing Taillon's innings?
---
--NUMBERS PLEASE
Every time designated hitter Pedro Alvarez hits a home run for Baltimore, some irrationally angry Pirates fans yell, "See?....see?"
Easy does it. The Pirates' offense is actually better than it was last year, and they're hitting more home runs, too.
After 112 games, this year's team is superior in runs (503 to 475), home runs (103 to 95), on-base percentage (.329 to .320), slugging percentage (.401 to .394) and OPS (.730 to .714).
The only decline is a negligible one in batting average (.259 to .257).
The difference between last season and this one has been sub-standard starting pitching for more than half a season.
---
--WORTH REPEATING
There was a court date last week for the woman who was hit in the head by a foul ball while standing behind the home plate screen at PNC Park.
Exhibiting the kind of restraint common to local TV news, KDKA-TV showed her getting conked in the head five times in less than 30 seconds. There would have been a sixth replay, but the script on the voiceover ended.
The record was probably broken later by the guy who face-planted his own plate of nachos.
---
--MORE OF THE SAME
Just when you thought those post-game interviews on Root Sports couldn't get more unctuous, Robby Incmikoski established a new standard on Friday.
He ended an interview with Andrew McCutchen by pointing to the camera and telling McCutchen, "Say goodbye to everybody in Pittsburgh and thank them for staying up this late."
McCutchen looked at the camera, nodded, and walked away without saying a word.
---
--REACHING DEEP
Some of Steve Blass' random digressions on Pirates broadcasts are taking on that "crazy uncle" flavor.
OK, you understand there will be a Bob Gibson reference at some point. (Gibson, who's now 80, last pitched in 1975).
But the presence of Travis Jankowski in the Padres lineup led Blass to reference a 1965 instrumental hit, "A Walk In The Black Forest" by Horst Jankowski.
It reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart, but probably hasn't been played on radio since 1965.
If Casey Kasem were still around, it's doubtful he'd remember the record.
---
--COUPLES TRIP
Thirty Pirates wives are accompanying their husbands on the current trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Wonder if there would be as much participation if the destinations were Cincinnati and Milwaukee?
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Altoona Mirror, August 7, 2016
Mike Tomlin is starting his 10th season as Steelers coach, which is something of a miracle.
Had his status been put to a public referendum, he probably wouldn't have lasted 10 games.
The only thing people like more than the Steelers is complaining about their head coach, even though he's never had a losing season.
Understand that people not only complained about Bill Cowher, they spread vicious rumors about him, too. Coaching the Steelers is not for the faint of heart, or for those who are tempted to punch up sports talk on the radio when they're driving home from work.
The successful coach needs total focus, and Tomlin appears to have that locked.
So he doesn't hear the critics, and he doesn't hear the sad cases who seem to think his presence is nothing but payback for Dan Rooney's advocacy for minority hiring.
Like anyone else, Tomlin is not perfect. He could use a wise old assistant who could help with clock management and other details. The sideline can often be chaotic.
But Tomlin is clearly among the NFL's best coaches, although you wouldn't know it if you read about him on message boards.
One of the criticisms about Tomlin that falls short is pinning blame on him for drug issues that some players have.
Martavis Bryant is sitting out this season after running afoul of the NFL drug policy, and Le'Veon Bell is likely facing a four-game suspension.
The fault for Bryant's penalty lies with Bryant. If Bell winds up missing those four games, blame Bell.
Players are adults. They make choices. When they make wrong choices, it's on them.
When Mike Adams winds up being stabbed after some sort of middle-of-the-night incident on Carson Street, it's not Tomlin's fault. No coach can keep his players under 24-hour surveillance.
The Steelers had drug issues when Chuck Noll was coaching. Joe Gilliam's once-promising career was derailed in part by drug issues.
Tim Worley was suspended for an entire season for missing drug tests.
Gilliam and Worley were not minor players. Gilliam was the starting quarterback for the first six weeks in 1974, the first season that led the Steelers to the Super Bowl. Worley was the team's No. 1 draft pick in 1989, the seventh player taken overall.
At the end of the workday, the players go home. They do the same at the end of the season.
There's a misconception that Bill Cowher has a disciplinarian who tolerated very little. Part of Cowher's routine was fielding a weekly call from Kordell Stewart's agent, who brought him up to date on how Kordell was feeling about things.
Bam Morris was still employed by the Steelers the first time he was arrested for marijuana possession. Plaxico Burress had a lot of drama.
Players know right from wrong. When they choose, it's their decision. Don't blame the coach.
---
--CHANGES COMING
You say watching Jeff Locke pitch is bad for your heart? Your blood pressure spikes as soon as he wraps his hand around the baseball?
Rest easy. Relief is on the way.
Locke won't be with the Pirates next season. He's being paid $3.025 million this season, which was his first under arbitration eligibility. Because the system rewards another year of service time regardless of performance, Locke would probably be looking at something around $5 million next season.
The Pirates aren't going pay that for that. Nor should they.
---
--WORTH WATCHING?
Inside word is the Pirates think they have something in Drew Hutchison, the pitcher acquired from Toronto in the Francisco Liriano deal.
They don't think that Hutchison is a project or a warm body, but rather a starter who can make a positive contribution in next year's rotation.
---
--HEAD COUNT
The USA has 554 athletes at the Olympics.
Heck, the Russians probably have that many chemists there.
Had his status been put to a public referendum, he probably wouldn't have lasted 10 games.
The only thing people like more than the Steelers is complaining about their head coach, even though he's never had a losing season.
Understand that people not only complained about Bill Cowher, they spread vicious rumors about him, too. Coaching the Steelers is not for the faint of heart, or for those who are tempted to punch up sports talk on the radio when they're driving home from work.
The successful coach needs total focus, and Tomlin appears to have that locked.
So he doesn't hear the critics, and he doesn't hear the sad cases who seem to think his presence is nothing but payback for Dan Rooney's advocacy for minority hiring.
Like anyone else, Tomlin is not perfect. He could use a wise old assistant who could help with clock management and other details. The sideline can often be chaotic.
But Tomlin is clearly among the NFL's best coaches, although you wouldn't know it if you read about him on message boards.
One of the criticisms about Tomlin that falls short is pinning blame on him for drug issues that some players have.
Martavis Bryant is sitting out this season after running afoul of the NFL drug policy, and Le'Veon Bell is likely facing a four-game suspension.
The fault for Bryant's penalty lies with Bryant. If Bell winds up missing those four games, blame Bell.
Players are adults. They make choices. When they make wrong choices, it's on them.
When Mike Adams winds up being stabbed after some sort of middle-of-the-night incident on Carson Street, it's not Tomlin's fault. No coach can keep his players under 24-hour surveillance.
The Steelers had drug issues when Chuck Noll was coaching. Joe Gilliam's once-promising career was derailed in part by drug issues.
Tim Worley was suspended for an entire season for missing drug tests.
Gilliam and Worley were not minor players. Gilliam was the starting quarterback for the first six weeks in 1974, the first season that led the Steelers to the Super Bowl. Worley was the team's No. 1 draft pick in 1989, the seventh player taken overall.
At the end of the workday, the players go home. They do the same at the end of the season.
There's a misconception that Bill Cowher has a disciplinarian who tolerated very little. Part of Cowher's routine was fielding a weekly call from Kordell Stewart's agent, who brought him up to date on how Kordell was feeling about things.
Bam Morris was still employed by the Steelers the first time he was arrested for marijuana possession. Plaxico Burress had a lot of drama.
Players know right from wrong. When they choose, it's their decision. Don't blame the coach.
---
--CHANGES COMING
You say watching Jeff Locke pitch is bad for your heart? Your blood pressure spikes as soon as he wraps his hand around the baseball?
Rest easy. Relief is on the way.
Locke won't be with the Pirates next season. He's being paid $3.025 million this season, which was his first under arbitration eligibility. Because the system rewards another year of service time regardless of performance, Locke would probably be looking at something around $5 million next season.
The Pirates aren't going pay that for that. Nor should they.
---
--WORTH WATCHING?
Inside word is the Pirates think they have something in Drew Hutchison, the pitcher acquired from Toronto in the Francisco Liriano deal.
They don't think that Hutchison is a project or a warm body, but rather a starter who can make a positive contribution in next year's rotation.
---
--HEAD COUNT
The USA has 554 athletes at the Olympics.
Heck, the Russians probably have that many chemists there.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Altoona Mirror, August 3, 2016
This is likely how things happened:
In the run-up to Monday's 4 p.m. trading deadline, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington gathered his staff and asked a simple question:
"Is this team a championship contender in 2016?"
The answer was probably a resounding "no," confirming what Huntington already knew.
So while they didn't overtly give up on this season, they started making moves for next season.
The biggest, and most controversial, was sending Francisco Liriano to Toronto with prospects Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire, for pitcher Drew Hutchison. Is Hutchison that good? It wouldn't appear so. He has major league experience, but he's pitching at Class AAA, and the Pirates plan to keep him at that level.
The priority here was getting rid of Liriano's remaining contract obligation. With the rest of this year and next year, that's somewhere around $17 million. In order to take that on, Toronto demanded the two prospects. To dump a $13 million albatross from next year's budget, Huntington agreed.
The Pirates are well-stocked in the outfield, but that doesn't negate the fact that Ramirez could have been dealt for something rather than relief from Liriano's contract.
McGuire was the team's first-round draft choice in 2013. He's considered an excellent defensive catcher, but there are major questions about his ability to hit.
In the short term, the Pirates are OK at catcher with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart signed for next season, and Elias Diaz prepared to move up soon.
Liriano's career has run hot and cold. He's been awful this year, one of the worst starting pitchers in the major leagues. With an abundance of pitching prospects on hand, it's not wrong to give up on Liriano at this point.
The other deals are less stress-inducing.
Starter Ivan Nova comes from the New York Yankees to help stabilize the rotation for the rest of this season. The Yankees will choose two players (probably B-grade prospects) from a list the Pirates make available.
Jon Niese goes back to the Mets, and Antonio Bastardo comes back to the Pirates.
Niese was a disappointment who had recently been banished to the bullpen with no hope of parole.
It's hard to figure what went wrong. He had a profile as a ground ball pitcher and he was coming to a park that favors lefthanded pitchers. He somehow wound up leading the league in allowing home runs until his innings were cut back.
People are saying the Pirates traded Neil Walker for Bastardo, but that's not accurate. Niese wasn't good, but he won eight games while he was here and ate 110 innings.
So now the starting rotation will be shaped with an eye on 2017. Opportunities abound, and there are plenty of young pitchers to compete for the spots.
Without the burden of Lirianio's contract, the Pirates can also trade for at least one starter in the offseason.
It was a dizzying day, with a major hidden meaning behind at least one of the deals, the one with Toronto.
That's baseball in this era, where revenue potential is so radically different.
Cold reality is he Pirates are getting poor production from center field (Andrew McCutchen), third base (Jung Ho Kang) and first base (John Jaso). David Freese can only cover one of the corner positions at a time. They're also below expectations offensively at second base (Josh Harrison) and catcher (Cervelli).
They have no chance to win the division. They have little chance to overtake St. Louis and Los Angeles for a wild card spot.
They're unlikely to win this year. Nobody has to like that it, but it would be foolish not to confront that truth.
If you're not a championship level team in 2016, better start working on 2017.
In the run-up to Monday's 4 p.m. trading deadline, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington gathered his staff and asked a simple question:
"Is this team a championship contender in 2016?"
The answer was probably a resounding "no," confirming what Huntington already knew.
So while they didn't overtly give up on this season, they started making moves for next season.
The biggest, and most controversial, was sending Francisco Liriano to Toronto with prospects Harold Ramirez and Reese McGuire, for pitcher Drew Hutchison. Is Hutchison that good? It wouldn't appear so. He has major league experience, but he's pitching at Class AAA, and the Pirates plan to keep him at that level.
The priority here was getting rid of Liriano's remaining contract obligation. With the rest of this year and next year, that's somewhere around $17 million. In order to take that on, Toronto demanded the two prospects. To dump a $13 million albatross from next year's budget, Huntington agreed.
The Pirates are well-stocked in the outfield, but that doesn't negate the fact that Ramirez could have been dealt for something rather than relief from Liriano's contract.
McGuire was the team's first-round draft choice in 2013. He's considered an excellent defensive catcher, but there are major questions about his ability to hit.
In the short term, the Pirates are OK at catcher with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart signed for next season, and Elias Diaz prepared to move up soon.
Liriano's career has run hot and cold. He's been awful this year, one of the worst starting pitchers in the major leagues. With an abundance of pitching prospects on hand, it's not wrong to give up on Liriano at this point.
The other deals are less stress-inducing.
Starter Ivan Nova comes from the New York Yankees to help stabilize the rotation for the rest of this season. The Yankees will choose two players (probably B-grade prospects) from a list the Pirates make available.
Jon Niese goes back to the Mets, and Antonio Bastardo comes back to the Pirates.
Niese was a disappointment who had recently been banished to the bullpen with no hope of parole.
It's hard to figure what went wrong. He had a profile as a ground ball pitcher and he was coming to a park that favors lefthanded pitchers. He somehow wound up leading the league in allowing home runs until his innings were cut back.
People are saying the Pirates traded Neil Walker for Bastardo, but that's not accurate. Niese wasn't good, but he won eight games while he was here and ate 110 innings.
So now the starting rotation will be shaped with an eye on 2017. Opportunities abound, and there are plenty of young pitchers to compete for the spots.
Without the burden of Lirianio's contract, the Pirates can also trade for at least one starter in the offseason.
It was a dizzying day, with a major hidden meaning behind at least one of the deals, the one with Toronto.
That's baseball in this era, where revenue potential is so radically different.
Cold reality is he Pirates are getting poor production from center field (Andrew McCutchen), third base (Jung Ho Kang) and first base (John Jaso). David Freese can only cover one of the corner positions at a time. They're also below expectations offensively at second base (Josh Harrison) and catcher (Cervelli).
They have no chance to win the division. They have little chance to overtake St. Louis and Los Angeles for a wild card spot.
They're unlikely to win this year. Nobody has to like that it, but it would be foolish not to confront that truth.
If you're not a championship level team in 2016, better start working on 2017.
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