Email a copy of 'Offseason In Review: Pittsburgh Pirates' to a friend
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By Tim Dierkes | at
Email a copy of 'Offseason In Review: Pittsburgh Pirates' to a friend
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Dave Pierce
Yamaico Navarro came over from the Royals, not the Red Sox (was in previous deal for Mike Aviles).
twenty1thirteen
Haha, you beat me to it.
Tacho Bill
I wouldn’t call any of those losses “notable.” Beneficial, maybe.
gmenfan 2
I fear that its going to be another very long summer in Pittsburgh.
Smrtbusnisman04
Why is that? The Pirates signifcantly imrpoved last year’s roster, which was in 1st place going into mid-july.
Veras struggled down the stretch, Cedeno is an offensive enigma, and Maholm is an average finesse starting pitcher
goner
it pains me that Jo-Jo Reyes was a “notable” minor league signing
crashcameron
is Clint Barmes “one of the game’s best shortstops” ??
notsureifsrs
that isn’t a quote from this post
crashcameron
uh, yeah, it is.
specifically it says “defensive shortstops” but point being I’m, uh, ‘not sure if’ I’ve ever heard that before, even as general/generic impression-turned-accepted-belief. You? haven’t seen him too much past early-on days (pre deer disaster) with the Rox. fer comparison, if someone dropped that about Jason Bartlett, yeah. just surprised since ‘solid all-around’ is more like the impressions I’ve always heard.
notsureifsrs
“one of the game’s best shortstops” and “one of the game’s best defensive shortstops” are entirely different propositions though. and only one of them can be found in this post
now, is it true? debatable, but probably. DRS has him at more than 60 runs saved in only 3700 innings (~3 seasons). TZL says 35 and UZR says 21. on a rate basis (e.g. UZR/150, his worst metric), his numbers are as good as anyone else in the game over the last 3 years
he is not a productive offensive player and is not in the conversation for the best shortstops in the game. but it seems clear he’s elite defensively
crashcameron
BTW, never been sure what the “srs” is!?
goner
Barring a slew of injuries (which applies to all teams), I think the Pirates will crack .500 and contend in the NL Central this year, though they likely won’t go to the postseason. As the article notes, with fewer soft tossers in the rotation and better defense overall, their pitching staff (which last year gave up their fewest runs since the Pirates moved into PNC Park in 2001, and posted their highest bWAR in that span) could take another leap forward in 2012.
The bigger wildcard for 2012 is their bats… if Pedro Alvarez provides even league average production at 3B, their offense should be healthy enough.
Henry Limpet
Ronny Cedeno has his head in the clouds, making one mistake after another whether at bat, running the bases, or fielding a routine ground ball. Barmes is a significant upgrade. Anyone who follows every Pirate game knows who the real Ronny Cedeno is.
The bench is shaping up to be very good with Josh Harrison, Matt Hague, Nate McLouth, Yamaico Navarro and Casey McGehee.
McLouth could take over the starting job of anyone not producing, and currently Jose Tabata fits that profile. McLouth, healthy now and intent on getting back a starting role, has out-played Tabata in every phase of the game this spring.
It is expected that Starling Marte will take over Tabata’s job by next year, but Nate could take the job away even sooner.
leowalter
Do you think Mc louth might have out played Alex Presley by an even wider margin than he did Tabata ? When I saw the Pirates in Florida for 3 games McLouth was getting a lot better swings than Alex,and not so much Tabata. Also,Marte is a better defensive center fielder than McCutchen with a more powerful arm and better instincts throwing to the correct cut off man.To me,that means someone is going to have to change positions if Marte continues to develope offensively. You take a guess who !
Henry Limpet
No, definitely not. Presley leads the team in hits and has hit well above .300 all spring, and also has extra base power, something Tabata has shown none of. Tabata is a singles hitter.
Singles hitting outfielders are a dime a dozen. Tabata has shown nothing the past year that would make him anything more than a fourth outfielder for any other team.
Henry Limpet
I might add that Tabata has a knack for hitting very hard line drives, so that may have been the ‘good swings’ you saw. The problem though is that his line drives have no rise or loft to them, making them no more than 6-8 feet off the ground. Most of them result in outs.
On the other hand Presley, though a small guy, has great strength. He has a tendency to hit balls off the wall, and his fly balls often fool the outfielders and carry over their heads. Last year Presley hit more balls off the wall and over heads of shocked outfielders than anyone else on the team, and he was barely in the majors for half a year.
leowalter
Singles hitters are a dime a dozen ? I don’t know what you have been watching,but good leadoff men are not “a dime a dozen ” my friend. I am a fan of Alex Presleys also,but I will promise you this : when and if Starling Marte is ready for MLB,Alex will be wearing another uniform not long after.