Andrew Heaney has made 23 starts for the Pirates this season, but manager Don Kelly told reporters (including Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) today that Heaney will be utilized out of the bullpen for the remainder of the season. The news creates an immediate vacancy in the Bucs’ rotation, as Heaney was slated to start Sunday’s game against the Cubs.
Just to quell any immediate speculation, Hiles reports in a follow-up message that star prospect Bubba Chandler won’t be called up to take Heaney’s spot. Chandler is scheduled to start for Triple-A Indianapolis today, and fellow prospect Hunter Barco just pitched on Wednesday, so he doesn’t have enough rest to be ready for another start tomorrow. Turning to Triple-A pitchers already on the 40-man roster, Johan Oviedo just pitched yesterday, and Tom Harrington is on Indianapolis’ injured list. It is possible the Pirates could just use a bullpen game tomorrow, with Carmen Mlodzinski the likeliest candidate to soak up the majority of innings.
However Pittsburgh decides to ultimately fill the rotation spot, it is noteworthy in its own right that Heaney is headed to the pen. Heaney has posted a 4.99 ERA over 119 innings, with lackluster advanced metrics pretty much across the board except for a decent 7.4% walk rate. The long ball has once again been a problem for Heaney, as only four pitchers in all of baseball have allowed more homers than the left-hander’s 24 big flies. After being a very adept strikeout pitcher earlier in his career, Heaney’s strikeout rates were middling in 2023-24 and have now plummeted to just 16.1% this year.
The Bucs inked Heaney to a one-year, $5.25MM free agent deal last winter, and the thinking behind the signing was that the southpaw would be a veteran bridge for the rotation until some of the younger minor league arms were ready for prime time in the latter half of the season. This tactic assumed that Heaney would’ve been dealt at the trade deadline, though the Yankees were the only team publicly linked to Heaney’s market, and ultimately the southpaw stayed put since Pittsburgh apparently couldn’t find an acceptable offer.
The move to the pen will have an impact on Heaney’s wallet, as his contract contains up to $750K in incentive bonuses related to his innings totals. He’ll receive an extra $50K for pitching at least 120 innings, a $100K bonus for hitting 130 innings, plus an extra $150K for the 140, 150, 160, and 170-inning thresholds. The 120-inning bonus is a lock and 130 innings seems plausible, though the higher bonuses will be harder to achieve with a more limited relief workload.
Between Heaney’s lack of production and the fact that the Bucs never saw him as a long-term option, there are plenty of legitimate baseball reasons behind the southpaw’s removal from the rotation. However, given the Pirates’ notoriously tight budget, the financial element to Heaney’s role change can’t be ignored. It was just last season that Rowdy Tellez was released in late September when he was just four plate appearances shy of unlocking a $200K bonus from his Pirates contract.
Heaney has mostly worked as a starter during his 12 MLB seasons, but he has made his share of bullpen appearances and worked as a swingman. Posting some good numbers as a reliever might help him finish 2025 on a high note, and perhaps give him another way of promoting himself in free agency. It seems likely that Heaney would prefer a starting job if he can find it, but working as an innings-eating reliever or as a swingman could help open up his market to teams wary about his recent results as a starter.
I was very surprised that Heaney was not traded.
So you never seen him pitch since end of April or looked at his data or seen the better players who were traded.
The move to the BP looks like it was to prevent him from reaching the incentives.
Somebody would have given up a lottery ticket prospect for the depth. Or cash considerations. Or just release him.
If they wanted to prevent him from reaching incentives they would simply dfa him. They are greedy and want more. They will sacrifice reaching couple incentives in attempt for him to gain value and get claimed. Maybe. But if they didn’t want to pay him a bonus they would just dfa release him. Just ask Rowdy Tellez if you don’t believe me.
Not a single team wanted Heaney as far as I know. No one wanted IKF. Neither of those are surprising. So no lottery ticket. No international $. The Pirates would had to give something to dump them. No one wanted Pham which I found surprising. I asked multiple people who would know and nothing. Cherington couldn’t trade them. No interest. Technically no interest. Teams had called and had discussion what if I can’t get who I am targeting. It was a good deadline and their was enough better options available. No one needed the break glass in case of emergency.
Not saying he deserved to be in the rotation to earn the bonuses but jeez the Pirates come across that way after what they pulled last year
Pirates don’t care what fans think. Really don’t care what media thinks.
Not sure anyone cares what you think
Sure they do. People like you just keep on reading my comments.
They likely will pay him the 1st 2 bonuses as stated in the post, but they total $150 K. Each 10 innings after add another $150 K. That’s what they’d be dodging while hoping he shows enough to be claimed on waivers and get them out of much more.
Nice comment. They are really walking the cheapskate tightrope on this one.
Except Heaney has been awful in his last ten starts since mid June.
He was very good before.
But bonuses are based on performance criteria in business and MLB is a business.
His 4.99 ERA does not cut it and he knows that.
I wasn’t saying the move is unwarranted. They are just holding onto him as an emergency starter. Hoping he can do something to make himself claimable on waivers. Understandable from the teams perspective. I do wonder why they don’t just cut bait.
Andrew Heaney has a record of 3-9 with an ERA of 6.16 and 52 strikeouts in 19 appearances since April 24
Probably because they think that Bubba is not ready and for Barco it might be too soon.
Around this time of year they have historically resorted to calling up the Osvaldo Bidos of the world but I had hoped that they were past that.
This is a big reason why Falter should not have been traded.
They may also think that someone will claim him later on if he is semi successful and they are competing for the playoffs and have plenty of money.
I’m fine with keeping him. No one else wanted him. Not like you are loaded with amazing pitchers and he is blocking them. You are paying him so use him to eat innings. Maybe he does well and gets claimed.
Falter wasn’t anything special. Just a back end starter on a losing team. They need to have better. Glad they traded him. Right move. Just the return seemed a bit light but maybe that’s all they could get. But maybe they should have waited and tried again in November. I dunno.
He supposedly had a 3.33 era on June 18 but it is about 9.00 since then.
Why trade Falter?If Heaney is not holding anyone back how could Falter?
He had a 1.18 whip and 3.74 era and he was still pitching decently.I know that he does not throw 100 mph but here’s a revelation,maybe he will not get arm trouble.
Just a stupid trade for a ML ready leftanded reliever who evidently is not quite ML ready and the proverbial A prospect who is more of a suspect who they will not develop anyway.
These are the inconsistencies and inadequacies that clearly illustrate why BC needs to be fired.
By the way,did you see how just another hitter Andujar is doing for the Reds?
His Era April 23 was 1.72 so do with that information as you wish.
You scolded me the other day for joking you weren’t analytics. So if you have any analytics in you use them. Other than extension Falter is well below average to extremely below average in everything. Fake era. Should be high 4 something pushing 5. Pirates sold high. Might not have received high but sold high.
With their offense they need a better starter than him.
It’s not that they choose Heaney over Falter. If they could have they would have traded him as well. Seasons over. They could start Ash Mlod Oviedo some random waiver claim wouldn’t matter to them.
speaking of trades, Adam Frazier is hitting over.300 and jas has 22 hits including a homer since arriving in KC.
Between April 23 and June 18 it would have been 4.30 which is still respectable.
He did have a great first four weeks and a terrible last two months.
Unlike Falter he was only controlled for this year though.
That means a candidate to get traded.
Falter is a decent fifth starter who can be a long man if necessary.
He is depth at the very least and good depth at that.
Once again like Bednar they got nothing in return.
Just because his statistics and projections based on analytics say he is less than that does not mean that he is.
He was pitching pretty well this year and dependable and is not going to be a Jared Jones sensation who falls apart after a few months.
Dependability is not really measured by metrics.
But along with depth it is a key to having a good team.
And there are no analytics that predict that.
Well done! Impressive. Way to move the dates around a bit to fit your narrative.
I will counter with April 24th thats one day past your 23rd and June 24th which is 6 days past your 18th. And we are back to over a 6 era!
@AI GM If you remove his dozen worst starts he has a cy young contender era.
I don’t know you call analytics or teams for that matter. Pirates couldn’t even figure out giddy up 409. I project large sample sizes like take the most important useful data and project what a player would do after 10000 100000 million etc innings abs. Goal is to remove as much luck as possible. I don’t care what they done in the past only what they will do moving forward.
I wasn’t impressed with Falter trade return. For that I would just kept him. I also know very little about those players and had no desire to do a deep dive on them. Maybe Cherington is going to develop them into something good. If they got a higher tier prospect I would love it. Falter just a guy. Easily replaced by Mlod Ashcraft Burrows Oviedo Barco Bubba heck even Harrington maybe and you know I called Harrington a fake top 100 prospect.
If they kept Falter I was fine with that. Maybe even preferred they did. But he’s expendable as it gets.
@TJ Been replying to a lot of notifications so apparently people care.
Even funnier someone the other day told me they only came to the comments section to see what I had to say! You believe that?
I might have to start charging people. Not much. And it would go to charity. But just so I am not so overwhelmed. Maybe $5 I read your comment. $10 gets you a thumbs up. $20 gets you a reply but if you want more than 1 paragraph it’s $50. Maybe get some vip thing for $100.
I still have the same pay structure for answers to questions.
These $ amounts are from 15 years ago so with inflation over the last four years multiply by 1544.
Intelligent knowledgeable answers are $1.
Average responses are 50 cents.
Dumb looks are still free.
It’s for the kids though!
Personally, I don’t see your comments as being worthy of payment
I’m already paying to post here by being a member of this site
Except your tab is running at a quarter each time you use the term Mendoza Line in reference to it.
That reminds me that I should double it now with inflation over the last nine years.
I viewed him as a project that other teams might think they could repair to get a cheap number five starter.
“I viewed him as a project that other teams might think they could repair to get a cheap number five starter.”
So did the pirates when they signed him!
He was pretty awful. Really awful. You never know. Pirates would have given him away you would think. Just so many better pitchers were available. No one thought he was worth more than 5m and after the season he had their mind shouldn’t have changed and his value should be even lower.
IKF no surprise either. Pham though I thought maybe. Just because he gets traded historically.
Surprised the padres didn’t get him they always acquire a Pittsburgh lefty arm (dick mountain, Martin Perez)
Probably because no one wanted him
I was very surprised the Pirates were trying to peddle their garbage on other teams at the deadline this year. See where I’m goin with this? 🤦♂️
Maybe nobody wanted him.
Probably a good thing because Cherington would have screwed it up, asking for another middle infield prospect when the Pirates already have two dozen in their system.
It still has to be Chandler eventually. There’s no reason to replace Heaney with Mid-Zinski.
Eventually if when he becomes good.
Yeah. Good thinking. We don’t want him to upset this vaunted rotation and hurt the Pirates’ momentum for the playoffs.
Easier to work on things in the minors. Walks too many. Being in the spotlight is probably not gonna help. If he’s not ready he’s not gonna feel real good about his future when he starts getting lit up every other start. Best to call guys up when they have a good chance of experiencing success. Look at Waldrep. Something clicked and within a couple weeks he was in the majors dominating big league teams.
The main thing that “clicked” for Waldrep is getting to pitch to Sean Murphy in the majors.
He is good enough to be the Pirates’ third starter right now. His future is as secure as it can be. He’s not trying to crack the rotation for the 1998 Braves.
He had a nice small stretch before getting the call. The game before he got called up particularly. In that game he went seven and walked only one batter which was a big deal for him. I know what you’re saying but that’s a bit of a unique case with Murph and Waldrep and the work they’ve done together starting in AAA. Idk who the Pirates have catching in AAA but there’s often a defensive specialist backup catcher stashed down there, not to mention very good coaches (ideally).
The one thing I would say is there are also times where a guy really benefits from just getting the call unexpectedly/perhaps undeservedly even. It could take pressure off of trying to get to the show.
With that thinking that the season is lost no playoffs why waste his service time right?
He’s not pitching good. Ideally you don’t even want him great but freaking dominating demanding a call up. Like no doubt there’s nothing in minors for this guy to benefit from he needs to be in MLB. Watch him pitch heck just look at his stats. He’s not that.
Chandler got disgruntled when he wasn’t called up after 18 dominating starts. They clearly WERE manipulating his service time at that point because they were afraid he’d get the full year like Skenes did.
Now they can say “well he hasn’t been good lately” and keep him down, but all they are really showing is how to fumble the bag with a top prospect.
The Pirates claim they want to be competitive in 2026. Of course that’s a joke, but if you take them at their word they should be getting Chandler MLB exposure this year so that he is more prepared to hit the ground running next season.
So Chandler got disgruntled performed poorly and gave the pirates the perfect excuse they were looking for. Not a great plan.
I could see both sides. He had some good stretches this year. It seems a little inflated to be disgruntled to the point where it’s a known thing when you’re in the position/stage of development he is in. Even if he didn’t get a call it’s only been a few months of having proven himself and even in that time there have been some pretty big inconsistencies.
I’m not worried about it. He gets here when he gets here and no matter how bad he does he will get chance after chance. If fans want to watch him watch him in minors. No need to call a guy up just because you are bored and want to see him or the it’s good for his development to have mlb hitters destroy him. If it’s he’s disgruntled or whatever well he 100 percent shouldn’t be called up until he grows up and gets mentally tougher. Cherington said he probably gets called up so he probably does even for just a taste. I’m fine either way. Maybe the only thing that people can say the Pirates can do a lil bit is develop pitching so I say let them develop him.
I think that Bubba was bummed out that he was not called up when he was pitching well but it seems that they were limiting his innings.
He is only human and probably reading his press clippings as the number one pitching prospect in baseball.
If they were smart they would have brought him up so that he could pitch enough this year so as not to be able to get the Rookie of the Year award next year.
I think that if they used him as a three inning starter it may maximize his chances to limit problems.
He obviously has talent.
ROY only matters for current year. If you call someone up and they still have time to win or 2nd it’s a factor. If you call them up now they will still be a rookie and you would want them to win ROY next year.
Decision now is give him month and half to get mlb experience to win ROY. Or don’t and hold him out until mid April and force him ROY or wait longer so he can’t and avoid super 2. Or he’s so good in spring you start with him and hope he ROY.
All of these have pros cons. People like to yell manipulation but most of the time it isn’t. The player tells you when they are ready and you decide what’s best.
Right now I wouldn’t call up Bubba. If he finishes strong I would give him a short start last week of season. Lil reward. Get it over with. Reevaluate again in spring.
I believe that there is an innings limit for ROY.
There is no way that he could win it this year at this point.
But I think that he can pitch enough this year still to eliminate him for next year.
That way they could not lose the extra year like they did with Skenes.
They aren’t worried about him winning this year. And if they call him up for his next start he will be eligible to win it next year and gain them a pick. If you call him up now you want him to win next year. If you wait until mid April or later you don’t want him to win unless you are a playoff team.
It’s overblown. The player will let you know when they are ready and you call them up. Maybe you rush or delay slightly to take advantage of the rules.
You’re missing my point.
It would clearly be manipulation.
But they do not want him to be another Skenes and lose a year.
Who cares about another draft pick other than you.Are they going to develop that draft pick?How many really make it for any team.
You have said that Bubba was Skenes 1a,you not saying that he was his equal,but not too far away from him.
I think that 50 innings is the max that one can pitch and no longer be a rookie.That may be undoable at this point.
I agree with you promotion rationale.But to lose a second star pitcher to the same reason within basically a year would be even more stupid than some of the stupid things that Cherington has done.
according to the Bucs website,Carmen is the starter in today’s game
Who cares about another draft pick other than you
Umm all the MLB teams that have received the draft pick? All the other ones that had tried to get it?
I think I am missing your point. Bubba hasn’t performed well enough yet to justify a call up so there hasn’t been any manipulation yet. Will there be I dunno. Probably. And they 100 percent should. But they didn’t with Jones so it’s not a given.
Speaking of putting words in ones mouth. IMO the extra season of team control is way way way type until your fingers get tired more valuable than the draft pick.
Of course all teams want draft picks including the Pirates but is it worth losing a whole year of an ace’s career here?
If Bubba is as good as everyone says he is he will get out of town in six years like Skenes will.
We saw that with Cole and that he was traded for not a prime package.
This is a moot point anyway if 50 innings is the cutoff because in this day 5 innings for young starting pitchers is not a given and Bubba would only have maybe eight starts anyway
My point is though that if they had brought him up after the All Star game he would not have enough time to win the ROY this year but could not do so next year as he would have exceeded the 50 innings limit.
Plus,those draft choices unless they are pitchers have not been developed here and position players are what they need.
I got your point now clear. What I thought all along but wanted to be sure. You maybe haven’t thought this out though.
If they called up Bubba today he isn’t getting 50 innings. The 50 innings is irrelevant. They will manipulate the service time. “Late in season, young arm, want to protect it, thats why Bubba won’t go more than 5 innings” oh and we need to keep him under 50. The 50 innings isn’t a issue whatsoever. 45 days was though. Need to be under 45 days to be a rookie. That’s no longer issue obviously. So Bubba can be called up any time now and Pirates are eligible to win after 1st round draft pick.
So by June July he was most likely not winning ROY. But Pirates season was over. The extra year you are talking about losing is this year 2025.
If the Pirates called up Bubba in June or waiting until today they have Bubba rights for 2026 27 28 29 30 31.
So the choice’s are #1 you could had him for meaningless baseball for 2 more months June and July and won’t be eligible to get a draft pick.
#2 Miss out on Bubba pitching 2 months for a loser team but still have a month and a half of mlb experience for him and be able to receive draft pick.
#3 Give him a cup of coffee this year. Don’t have him make opening day roster. Call him up in mid April. As long as he isn’t so good that he wins or 2nd ROY you will have his rights for the 2032 season as well.
Every fan I recall seeing wanted option 1.
Option 1 to me is by far the worst option. I would call it awful.
I probably over explained it but for anyone who wasn’t sure how it works there you go.
Where did I put words in your mouth specifically,or are you are just interpreting what I said incorrectly?
I was not sound in my reasoning because the time has passed and he evidently needs more seasoning anyway.
My posts could have been more cogent.
And yes my rationale was not losing that extra year.
But one of the reasonings behind bringing up Skenes then was to limit the amount of pitches wasted in the minor leagues.What did they have to lose in trading Heaney at his peak in mid June and bringing up Bubba when he was pitching well a little later on but too late to get the ROY?
Everyone speaks highly of Bubba but maybe he is not as good as they say that he is.
“Who cares about another draft pick other than you”
I don’t care about the draft pick. I’d much rather keep him in minors until mid April to June to gain the 2032 year. If I ran the Pirates Bubba wouldn’t be called up at all this season or just for 1 start. I’ll take draft pick over no draft pick but I would go for the additional year.
Heaney peak was April 23. You can trade then and May and June but most trades are July. You need innings. What starting pitcher was traded in May? After that it was too late Heaney already turned into a pumpkin. But any traded in June? I don’t know of any but if some where you have a argument. If not is it reasonable to think that Cherington is the only gm to trade a starting pitcher? The term innings eaters is a term for a reason. Pirates were extremely lucky with injuries this year. Today we know they might have got through the season without Heaney. Would take a crystal ball reader to know that in April May.
I’d rather have Bubba in 2032 vs 2025. 2025 was over in April. Still possible to win in 2025. Why fans want to waste a year of Bubba in a lost cause I can’t understand. Even if he was ready I don’t care because the rest of the team isn’t. It’s not like he has a 0 something or 1 something era and it a tragedy he isn’t in MLB.
True that few are traded in June.
They also would have needed a taker.
But one point that I have is even though they are not taxing Bubba’s arm they only have so many pitches until they need Tommy John.
And it is better to be promoted with little to no pressure as being a rookie is pressure enough.
I understand your reasoning on Bubba and Cherington evidently does too.
And he may have floated Heaney’s name early and got no takers.
But my point is it could have been best to do it like I said but Cherington is so conservative that he cannot think outside of the box and plan ahead.
And Falter would have been his backup plan as he had an outstanding May instead of being traded for two guys who really do have no promise.
You seem to think Falter is better than Heaney by my understanding? Not trying to put words in your mouth but that’s how it reads. And you didn’t think much of Falter return or even it’s bad. Falter free agent 2029 Heaney 2026. What return did you expect for Heaney even if someone was interested?
I think that you are right in saying that at the trade deadline there was no interest in Heaney.You later brought up about the bonus design.That paired with his 7.30 era since June 18 would tend to dampen enthusiasm for him,no?
Falter’s era this year with Pittsburgh was like 3.76 for the same period that Heaney’s was 4.99.
Who has been the better pitcher for Pittsburgh?
Who was good enough to have an historic May?
Who is a free agent at the end of this year while the other evidently has four more years of control?
You’re a smart guy.
Who do you think that I would choose to be clearly the best pitcher to keep?
For Heaney in June,a highly rated prospect maybe 5-10 in an average system.
For Heaney at the end of July,international bonus money if they could get it.
I would like to see Ashcraft in the rotation instead of being the long reliever
He started yesterday’s game and did well
Mid-zinski is the starter in today’s game
My guess is Cherington is so clueless he forgot that the draft just switched to a lottery format, hence encouraging teams not to tank..
Lottery made tanking a even better strategy.
What a role
One inning shy of a bonus. Cruel.
Bob Nutting strikes again.
He might get it in pen. Just gotta make sure he doesn’t reach the 150s tier.
Pirates should have traded him when he had value.
I’ll never forgive that jabroni for the Field of Dreams game
Heaney pitched against the White Sox in the Field of Dreams? Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve seen a good White Sox seems like 2021 season was a mirage…
Yes he did and he gave up like 7 ER
Heaney’s highest value was during the first month of the season
Yep. Trade him end of April they could. Even mid May. But by time May was over it was obvious he was toast. Unfortunately most trades happen at deadline end of July. And Pirates needed someone to eat those innings up.
Looks like fornication from the pirates once wasn’t enough.
At first I thought what more does bubba chandler have to do to get called up
But this is the pirates we’re taking about, of course they want to manipulate service time
Bubba has not been pitching well at all for most of the last 2 months or so.
If the Rockies didn’t exist they would be the slam dunk worst franchise in MLB.
The rules the players union agreed to even wanted make teams want to manipulate service time.
This is just he isn’t ready or performing well enough.
Jones mad opening day roster. They could have sent him down end of season but didn’t so he got full year of service time. Skenes they called up early enough that he could win ROY and get full year of service time.
Hey, this is no place for reasoned, thoughtful posts. Hot takes only, sir!
So when he gets called up in 5 days to fill the short rotation then what’s your argument?
He’s past the point of risking losing ROY status for next year. Skenes was brought up for the fan boost and possible PPI pick bonus.
But none of that corroborates your argument of no service time manipulation, which is far from the the facts overall vs your individual idiosyncratic arguments to the contrary
If addressing me and it seems like you are even though I didn’t make a argument. I have no idea when Bubba gets called up. Just I don’t see any service time manipulation occuring yet. If you weren’t addressing me then please stop reading because I am going to give you a verbal beat down. So please stop reading.
“Skenes was brought up for the fan boost and possible PPI pick bonus.”
Applause! Well done! I love the attitude and snarkiness. You even used that word of the day calendar grandma got you!!!!
1 lil problem though. If you are going to cosplay as the smartest person in the room you still have to have a bit of intelligence and baseball knowledge right?
There’s was no possible PPI pick because they called him up well after the date that would have been needed to qualify. Hence the no PPI pick when Skenes won ROY. Oh since you don’t know much about baseball that stands for rookie of the year.
Great effort though. Thanks for playing.
They couldn’t trade him. Not a single team interested. Obviously they don’t want to pay the bonuses. Move to pen will drastically cut down the bonuses with the fantasy dream hopes that he looks well enough that a team will claim him when he is dfa end of month.
They had a day off this week….Paul Skenes will be next up on normal rest tomorrow.
Seems like simple math to me.
The time is now for Chandler. I get the feeling Pittsburgh delaying his MLB clock for service time. Tampa Bay did that tactical strategy for several years.
And he pitches tonight in AAA so it he’ll have to wait a little while longer sadly.
No manipulation. Go look at his stats past month. Even season long but last month especially.
Green Acres (bullpen) is the place for me ..
The Pirates kicked his Hiney off the rotation heh
100% a money decision
That’s fine. Heaney has been one of the worst pitchers in the league the last 2.5 months. He doesn’t deserve an additional cent.
100 $ would be including a prospect to trade him or forcing him to be part of Hayes Bednar trade or something.
They could have just dfa him with no chance of getting any bonus.
Phillies should have traded for him if he’s worthy of being in rotation. What you have better options and don’t want him? Pirates feel the same!
And that wouldn’t be a bad thing if the saved money was reinvested in the on-field product for next year. We’ll see.
It’s not a bad thing if Nutting pockets the $. Heaney stunk. Doesn’t deserve any bonus. Rowdy didn’t either. If he pockets $ I feel like he is only hurting himself. Personally I would invest in my product. I want more attendance. Bigger tv streaming deal. Franchise value to increase.
Even if I didn’t want to spend $ I would be cycling through employees until I found good ones. What’s it’s take to wake Bob up. They say guy loves $ I don’t think so because he does things that prevent him from making more of it.
Hire the previous front office back. They made Bob look a lot smarter. I used to think Bob was pretty decent and maybe he was but Williams Cherington administration show him to be a idiot.
It’s not a money decision….the guy stinks
Tellez being released still had nothing to do with $.
He should have been released long for that. Why open yourself to that pr problem?
Benching IKF who played all the time the final game of year so he couldn’t get his bonus was way worse but Rowdy is the famous one.
Tellez should have never been signed to begin with but because Carlos Santana wanted $2 million dollars more to return, Ben went with Rowdy
That’s just another example of how cheap this organization is
I disagree. I just think they thought Rowdy was better. If you thought Santana was better the $ wouldn’t make you not sign him you just wouldn’t sign MAT Grandpal Chapman. 10.5m for a reliever is a luxury you would do without if I meant getting a superior everyday player. And they could have signed Tauchman 1.9m Verdugo 1.5m Canha minor league deal instead of Pham for 4m right? If it’s about saving $ they wouldn’t sign Pham. Use Delay instead of Grandpal. Jack instead of MAT.
One year they traded for Choi AND signed Santana. That’s not a $ saving move. I suggested they did that sign Rowdy and Santana. Platoons. Matchups. Injuries. Rest days. Slumps. DH. You need more than 1 guy. Pinch hitters. Real teams trying to win games have a bench!
Santana was far better than Rowdy was in 2024 and was the runner up for a Gold Glove at first base
Excellent observation except he wasn’t runner up.
Profar was better than MAT
Santana was a finalist
better?
He won. Santana 2024 gold glove winner.
you’re killing me Dream
By informing you he was even better than you thought?
I love to mess with you but no agenda here. Santana even better than runner up he won!
The excellent observation was messing with you. Like wow!!! Santana better than Rowdy. Thanks for pointing that out captain obvious! But gold glove was legit. Like he didn’t just get votes but even better he won.
I feel bad for Chandler he should have been up months ago prior to his bad stretch when he started over compensating
Well hopefully Chandler is working his but off and not giving himself the lame excuses for his performance that fans are giving him. If what you guys say is true then keep him in minors until 2027 2028 until he matures some.
I hope they don’t start Mlodzinski.
Players that shouldn’t be brought back next year
Alexander Canario
Henry Davis
IKF
That’s it? Only 3?
Those are their better players!!!!!
Unless they move KG off a SS Canario is their 2nd best Outfield prospect. Jack is #1. I know their not prospects but they aren’t fully developed to their potential yet and likely never will be but just saying it’s all they got!
Davis solid glove only back up catcher. Best catching prospect by far in their system.
IKF should be cheap and can play multiple positions. Sounds perfect for the Pirates.
Canario hasn’t had a hit since July 7
No surprise that AI GM’s takes on the other Pirates players are as bad as his takes on Bubba Chandler!
At least I have takes and have been mostly right on numerous things throughout the years.
You haven’t contributed anything. I never even noticed you until today.
And not really much of a take in this article. Just been explaining service time and receiving draft pick rules etc.
People have different brains obviously. In my mind talking about Canario Davis Jack wasn’t praise for them but I shot at how bad the talent is at AAA for those positions. For some reason your minds went to I was bragging those players up or something completely different than my mind.
If you look around baseball you will see numerous prospects called and being called up. In Pittsburgh Jack Canario are still here.
Add Andrew McCutchen.
He is turning 39 at the end of this season.
Cutch has played well for three years and has been one of their best hitters.
But that is damning with faint praise on this team.
DH’s hitting 241 who cannot play the field are not in high demand.
The Pirates need power and that is the best position for it even if the hitter does not hit for average nor walk a lot.
What I would like to see is for him to announce his retirement for the end of the year and get kudos at every stadium.
Otherwise,it could be embarrassing for all next year.
Power cost $. Pirates aren’t spending $.
How about all the fans that been saying Cutch needs to go for years? Lol. He’s blocking the prospects lol. We have 2 stud catchers Endy and Davis. 1 needs to dh when not catching lol.
I’m just grateful Cutch married a girl who is from Pittsburgh and loves it. Cutch for 5m a year is one of the few things the Pirates have done well.
Yeah, Davis has proven that he can’t hit major league pitching and Endy can’t stay healthy enough to play 45 games
Rumbunter has an article in today’s edition where Cutch is openly complaining about how cheap this organization is in terms of not being able to field a competitive team
But if he’s hitting 200 and the Pirates actually do have a decent record do you keep him on the roster?
Release him mid season?That is if they actually care to win.
Who would pick him up?He cannot play the field.
Wouldn’t it be better to go out when you still can contribute?
How many almost 40 year olds are ML hitters?
Shouldn’t the Pirates try to do better?Let some of the players alternate in that spot like many teams do to give them a rest.
Or just stay the same?
Other than less than a handful of years the Pirates have stayed the same for 33 years.
Isn’t it time to think outside of the box?
And they need power period.I don’t care if he strikes out 180 times and walks 50 and hits 230 if he can hit 25-30 home runs so what?
DK sports is often the only media that goes on road with Pirates. Does rumbunter even go in locker room for home games? What story has rumbunter ever broke? Does Cutch seem like the type who would opening complain?
Sounds like click bait and they found their clicker.
I’ll wait for the video or at least post gazette report.
I can see Cutch make a suggestion of this nicely in a cryptic hidden message type way. Openly complaining though I will wait for the video proof of that.
When there is 12 hitters with a average better than Cutch we will talk. Right now there is 3. Pham IKF are free agents. Bart doesn’t play enough. Bring Pham IKF back that’s 5. When we get to a dozen then yes get rid of him. Get to 9 he can go from full time dh to part time dh pinch hitter. Right now it’s at 3 or 5.
they do alternate players in the DH position, Canario, Jack and cutch.
Cutch draws walks and leads the team in nases on balls.
Canario strikes out more often than he hits and Jack is just now hitting better.
I would happily take Cutch over anyone else who Kelly uses as the DH
I was just repeating what I had read.
No need to become condescending
You don’t even know what condescending is. It wasn’t that. I was just giving you my thoughts on rumbunter. If you want to see condescending see below a copy of what I replied to someone else.
“Skenes was brought up for the fan boost and possible PPI pick bonus.”
Applause! Well done! I love the attitude and snarkiness. You even used that word of the day calendar grandma got you!!!!
1 lil problem though. If you are going to cosplay as the smartest person in the room you still have to have a bit of intelligence and baseball knowledge right?
There’s was no possible PPI pick because they called him up well after the date that would have been needed to qualify. Hence the no PPI pick when Skenes won ROY. Oh since you don’t know much about baseball that stands for rookie of the year.
Great effort though. Thanks for playing
doing it again
being condescending
Rumbunter is easily the most useless, biased, non-news site on the internet. If they like the player, he’s slashing “a respectable .222/..340/.562 with an acceptable 27% K rate”. If they hate the player, he’s hitting “a paltry .255/.500/.755”
By the quality of the reporting, they haven’t looked up from analytics sheets to actually watch a game in a good long while.
Guys not good enough to be in Pirates rotation after they already traded a starter but somehow he should have been traded
Heaney was throwing 92-93 at the beginning of the year and he was effective. Now at 88-89 and getting bombed
There’s kids currently in little league that will get called up before Bubba Chandler at this rate, sheesh.
Smart, justified move. Heaney wasn’t deserving of staying in the rotation and should have been spent to the bullpen right after the trade deadline. Actually, he should have been sent a month or so ago to the bullpen, but I imagine they were letting him start in hopes he’d turn it around and someone would want him in a trade. Didn’t happen. The guy has made over $50 million. Unless he has not handled his money well, the lost incentive money will not affect his life in any appreciative way.
Service time manipulation? If you have a player only for a limited time, why would you call him up when the team is not competitive and his addition isn’t going to change that? To make some posters happy?
Question for Pirate fans. Would you promote Konnor Griffin to Altoona at this time? Second, question. Do you fast track him to the majors early next season?
I think that Griffin should go up to AA this year.
Start out there next year and then proceed to AAA.
If he is tearing apart AAA then bring him up to the Majors later on in the year like the Red Sox did with Anthony.
I would not force feed him though.He must earn it like everyone else.
My sense is that he may get a cameo at the end of next year.
Do not set him up for failure.
That is why they are keeping Bubba in AAA but I would bring him up now.If he is no good for a game or two then just send Bubba back to AAA like they did with Harrington.
Yeah, agree 100%. Why rush the kid unless you’re absolutely sure there are no challenges for him at a given level?
Griffin himself isn’t going to change the fortunes of this franchise.
And that’s the overall problem here. I said it a year ago and it’s still pertinent: they are in a real predicament here. They have an MLB roster with little talent. They have pitchers and Griffin in the minors and little else.
Their answer to all of this will be the idea of franchise-wide confusion on how to proceed. Keep the front office and add patchwork. More of the same this off season and a predictable 2026
Dream says no one wanted Heaney. Could be, but any prospect with promise at any level should have been acceptable.
There is no appreciative talk about who they got in the Bednar, Hayes and Falter deals. That’s beyond troubling and again, indicative of a GM who dumped salary in return for little, or a front office that continually fails to identify promising young talent
It’s six years now. There’s only one thing they can do: burn it all down beginning with the front office. Trade anyone you can. Build a franchise from the ground up
Try again
yes its time for the annual rebuilding project by the most incompetent G M in baseball
Rebuilding? From what? It looks like simply building to me.
They traded Taillon Marte Bell Frazier Musgrove Stallings whoever else. The only thing to really show from that is Bednar who is gone.
Rebuild was over long time ago. Traded all those guys. Locked up to long term contracts the key components of the next winning teams in Pittsburgh Hayes Keller Reynolds. Loaded farm system with Priester Malone Peguero Davis Endy Yean Contreras TJ.
Now it’s just treading water. No one wanted to give a top 50 prospect for Keller. Too early to trade Skenes Cruz. You hope enough of the current prospects can make a difference and Cherington can supplement them with free agents and trades.
Disagree on last statement.Rest makes too much sense.
One cannot rebuild when it was never rebuilt in the first place
Trade Cruz.
Hitting 130 against lefthanders?
Casually looking at batted balls that go under his glove?
Over hyped because of how hard he can occasionally hit a baseball when he isn’t striking out?
The more that I think about it he is Hayes part dieux,only even worse.
No fundamentals.No baseball sense.
He is a platoon DH in waiting.
Trade him while they can get something for him in the off season to some stupid GM who thinks that he can get more out of him.
And make sure that the GM trading him is not named Ben Cherington.
Is there someone that stupid? Maybe this is peak as good as it gets Cruz.
He is another one though who I think would benefit from a change of scenery.The problem is that he has no baseball instincts and at this point cannot be taught that.
I would bring up Bae who has hit very well over the last six weeks or so and raised his average in AAA probably 40-50 points.
He did lay down a bunt earlier this year so maybe he is starting to get it.
Same thing with Alika.He is still the best shortstop in the organization,He has raised his average 50 points in the same time period.
They have Devanney playing third base in Indianapolis so maybe they are planning on giving Triolo some competition.
I think that Jared is best served as a utility man unless he really gets his bat going this year playing regularly.
Old- The only disagreement that I have is this ss that they got from the Reds I think has some promise and that trade was a salary dump known to everyone.He got as much as he could and became a hero in Nutting’s eyes for dumping the salary.
And Mendoza, I rely on your ideas about potential. The Pirates have succeeded in changing me after decades of fandom. I don’t watch baseball anymore and read even less. Thanks. I’ll hold out some hope
I appreciate the comment but I go on what I read and your and my “Dream consultant” who knows a lot more about these things than you and I do.
But you and I know how well he will be developed under these clowns.
After a rough start Hayes is doing OK with a 234 batting average,two home runs in 47 at bats,and a 684 OPS.
I think that you and I both agree that he needed a change of pace and the Pirates to get out from under his contract.
I like that term consultant. It hits home. I get called a know it all often but I believe I just share with others what I know. Often I don’t know anything. Like I have no idea when Bubba will be called up. No idea who the gm will be in 2026. No idea if Keller will be traded. Etc etc etc. Lots I don’t know. Just what I do know I’ll share.
Like above with Bubba I didn’t say I’m right your wrong. I broke down the options. Gave my opinion. But if you think that June July is more important than a draft pick or the entire year of 2032 that’s fine. I completely disagree but it’s fine. And I may have misread you but I put the information their for others. Because go back and read, people been calling for Bubba to be in MLB for a long time. Many wanted him opening day or even 2024.
You brought it up about BC being the professional so he should clearly know the best and I have almost always agreed with him on these internal personnel changes.
You don’t have a crystal ball any more than the rest of us do.
These are basically just opinions shared on this website except for the trolls and knuckleheads.I do not react negatively unless they prove themselves to be either and either knock my posts or the Pirates in an unfair and troll like way.
Most people try their best.
You do have a broader depth of knowledge than almost anybody on here.I think that most of us who know you best can often see your humor or sarcasm or lack of patience with posters who do not see the whole picture.
We can agree to disagree on the predictability of analytics as sometimes things can change in the player affecting his performance.They are human and not robots.That is why good managers can sense when to play and when to rest certain players.
I hope that Bubba turns it around soon as the Pirates could use another starting pitcher.
You don’t have a crystal ball any more than the rest of us do. I think I actually said that somewhere today. Said something about my balls maybe.
Sometimes I ham it up too much. Sometimes I have a bad day. Sometimes I am trying to get someone to mute me. Often it’s like in this article. Someone who I wasn’t even talking to came in all snarky and going to show me. Even used their word of the day calendar grandma got em. And they did well. I even gave them credit on that. But they said something that was wrong and 100 percent easily proven wrong. So I of course absolutely destroyed them. And that happens all the time. The most snarky arrogant people will attack someone and they are wrong. Why you see so many new user names all the time.
Most people are just too sensitive. I said good idea genius to someone who said a captain obvious statement. Pirates should hire good scouts and development people from other teams. So I was like yeah good idea! Steal good employees from another company. After all these years why hasn’t anyone else thought of this! I think most even myself say some captain obvious things sometimes. Instead they took it as a insult in their intelligence and they were a pro scout and Harvard graduate degree. Then not put words in my mouth but just had me saying things I never said may got me confused with someone else. I drove them to mute me because you can’t have conversations with someone like that and 2 they don’t know anything and aren’t even fun to talk to. It was more entertaining verbally destroying them then any future conversations would provide. And every single person who has muted me still reads what I say anyways. I will get them fired up enough to unmute me just to reply. Or they create another account. Many have multiple accounts.
Bright eyes is the unicorn though. I can’t live in his head. He muted me and hasn’t replied since. Even instantly muted my new name before replying.
It was hilarious though because you or washed or paul got fed up with him one time and was like whatever bright eyes.
Again someone just misunderstanding me and they are too sensitive. Bright eyes was by far the smartest man animal on the planet of the apes. It was a compliment but he took it wrong. The insult was to you or paul or washed or all of mlbtr. Only one person understood what I was explaining. Bright eyes!!!!! It was the greatest compliment I ever gave anyone and he muted me for it.
Actually, I’ve grown accustomed to your writing style and the sarcasm. The occasional shot goes right over my head
And for the record. I gave Bright Eyes a chance when I opened this account. He muted me. Easiest thing to do when your analytics look downright silly
@Washed welcome to the party pal
Also playing sports it’s a long season. You need humor and lots of it to survive. I was that guy on every team. If you don’t like my style or think I am attacking you or whatever then you never played any sport. Heck never had any friends. If someone made fun of me or pulled a prank on me I knew I was liked and part of team. I know the more I liked someone the more I gave to them. Sounds crazy but that’s how I always seen it.
Paul though is the exception
I used to only kid people who I liked.
Same thing as you said.
But some people can be too sensitive and they do not like to be kidded.
both of my grandparents died before I was born and I graduated college with a degree in Environmental Science so understanding definitions of words was essential
no matter how much you try to insult me I won’t mute you Dream
Disagree. If KG is who he is capable of being inserting a good defensive SS who can hit 30 hrs and steal 50 bases makes a difference.
Sign Pham and Tauchman and hope they have 1 more year left in the tank. Better yet trade for a younger controllable hitter.
Or you just hang around at 500 and at deadline you trade for 2 big rental bats. Then August 15th call up KG. He gets a month and a half experience vs mlb pitching to get ready for playoffs. Pirates win world series. Next year KG wins ROY so Mendoza gets that stupid draft pick he is so concerned about getting. City constructs a Bob Nutting statue. We all live happily ever after.
Mendoza could care less about the stupid draft pick.
And you man would lose a year like Skenes which you said is your most important consideration.
And you know that just like all of the other young hitters being listed the reason why most of these young players have not hit in the ML’s vs AAA is because the pitching is that much better.
You may think Griffin is Superman but you also thought that about Bubba.
What,no more Jessie Winkler or Randall Grichuck?
How about that first time free agent Miguel Andujar?
You can tell about a starting pitcher in one or two games.
Batters take much more time.Ask Coby Mayo.
Winker I wanted last year at trade deadline but he cost too much in prospect return so I was fine. He cost way too much this year in free agency.
Grichuk I 100 percent wanted. Him with Tauchman or Hayes and Tauchman. Grichuk has 734 ops. Where would that rank on Pirates? You’re dang right I wanted Grichuk.
You’re dang right I want to treat Bubba like Skenes. Call him up late and get that extra year. And if he pitches like Skenes like cy young contender I am not going to complain about not getting the draft pick.
You don’t understand or don’t care but the year you are trying to save is 2025. 2025 is over. Been over ever since Nutting decided to bring back Cherington Shelton Willams.
By calling up Bubba this season he is for certain gone in 2032. My strategy is he is for certain here in 2032 unless he pitches like a cy young contender.
Obviously they will likely trade him before he becomes a free agent.
2025 is garbage. Losers. Draft lottery again. Dang right I want Bubba in 2032 vs 2025. 2032 hasn’t been eliminated from playoff yet vs 2025 which is soon to happen. But non mathematically it’s happened long ago.
Yes,you are always looking forward.You have a quite good understanding of the young players which is much better than many of the rest of us.
But you rely on that as a never ending cycle because it feeds what your interest is and what you are good at and interested in.
And,no,I realize that 2025 is a free year because of Nutting et als incompetence.
What you have never quite understood is that many of do not give a crap about prospects as we have seen way too many over the years be nothing but suspects.
We do not have the number of garbage seasons left that you do.
Some of us at this point would be happy with a team that is fundamentally sound,plays hard,and has winning seasons.
We just have a more realistic plan on what we want.
And the sooner that we find out about Bubba the better.
As a kid on my video sports games I would trade all the old players. All the expensive ones. All the soon to be free agents. Get young players and even lots of rookies and develop them. I would look for competitive advantages. On older player I would always trade for in football games was Vernon Davis a tight end. He was too fast for linebackers to cover and too big for corners. Get fast rbs against linebackers in coverage. Anyways as I got older I realized some teams actually do much of what I been doing. So got me interested in baseball. As a dumb kid I had no idea who Bob Nutting was. I was a Yankees fan. Then Pirates traded for AJ. Stewart. Signed Martin. And I am like Pirates know what they are doing. Meanwhile Yankees sign the worst free agent in history of baseball Ellsberry.
These teams rebuild though. My motto is always contend. If you are always working to bring in new prospects and developing well there is no need to rebuild.
Oh well that just works in a video game. No it works in real life. Rincon for Giles and Giles for Bay. Problem is they got nothing for Bay. Nothing for their other assets. Didn’t draft scout develop etc well enough. Someone to get Hanrahan then Melancon the Rivero then all the prospecta from the dodgers oh nevermind. Cutch for Reynolds Reynolds for oh nevermind. Cole for Musgrove then Bednar then never mind. And cole Musgrove should have brought more.
But come on Mendoza. I sold the always contend to tired washed years ago. He’s a believer. Jump on board.
I am a realist so I am in the middle.
A proud Independant who votes for who he wants to.
Tired Old Dude,as I still prefer the name that he was born with,has figured you out as he mentions below.
What you are describing is the theoretical.
Some teams that are well managed and owned can achieve that.
Not so much with Pittsburgh.
The only smooth sailing is losing at least 90 games.
Tired is smarter than the average man animal. Didn’t want to be assistant dream gm though.
Cleveland Milwaukee Tampa have low payrolls and do pretty much what I said pretty dang good. Gotta be more extreme though. Like Milwaukee traded Burnes with 1 year left. Why not 2 years? They are so good this year but didn’t do much at deadline. Protected the farm. You have to trade your none blue chippers and go for it. Cleveland added that one reliever and almost won world series.
Tampa goes to world series and then trades Snell. Bold. Extreme. Why they are Tampa and Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh. Basically if you win a trade you make the trade. Always adding talent. Always trying to get better. Cherington talks like this. Just doesn’t get results.
I didn’t say no one wanted Heaney. Every baseball insider I read heard talked with said. As expected. Heaney is awful. Why would anyone want him even if given away?
Pirates probably playing out their fantasy that he does well enough in bullpen and tet dfa him and someone claims him. Could happen.I won’t be placing any $ on it. At deadline though just so many better options.
My point was that there may very well have been teams who wanted him on June 18 when his era was 3.33.
Hindsight is 20-20.But he had to plan on bringing up Bubba this year until he hit the skids.
Heaney may have gotten a good prospect at that point when he was still pitching well.
There were several teams looking for starters in general.
Cherington said that trading Falter was to open it up for younger starters but he could have started Ashcraft in his place.
Ben might be your buddy now but he has myopic vision.
“Cherington said that trading Falter was to open it up for younger starters”
You think Falter is better than Heaney? Would releasing Heaney not have opened up a spot for younger starters?
You want to believe Cherington go right ahead. I personally think he is a lying sack of it.
He traded Hayes just to open up playing time for Triolo at 3b!
Rowdy Tellez 4 abs away from bonus had nothing to do with his release!
We had no idea IKF was 1 ab away from getting his bonus when we didn’t have him in lineup last game of season!
I didn’t not have sexual relations with that woman! Ok maybe Ben didn’t say that one.
I got some cnn msnbc fox ny times for you to eat up as well if Cherington isn’t feeding you enough. The onion news still around? Star or sun or whatever? You can read about how Elvis is still alive dating a sasquatch from Mars.
Remember teams thought so highly of Heaney the pirates got him for 1 year 5 million. That was the winning bid. Him and Quintana were about the last options left.
IKF is overpaid.I guarantee that he is not making $8M next year.
Rowdy would not have given himself the bonus.
Ben has to follow the company line.That would have been told to him as a requisite for hiring.
Those are not outright lies just stretching the truth.
Quintana has a $15M option by the Mets and would not have wanted to come here anyway.Cohen has so much money maybe they give it.
Elvis has left the building and Sasquatch are from America and we do not know that they are unattractive because no one has seen them.
I believe that Cherington outthought himself trading Falter and maybe because he was saving more money.You know my thoughts on that trade.I think that Cherington makes dumb decisions sometimes which may or may not be influenced by the money.
Pirates wanted Quintana over Heaney. He said no way Jose.
The Pirates did give him a reprieve though for which he should be thankful.
Do you want to force Bubba? 22 runs allowed in last 6 starts. Walking people. Or are yoi one of the ones saying it’s just because he is disgruntled he didn’t get called up in June!
Being disgruntled should not be a reason to languish.These guys are professionals.
But they are also young and we do not know about their mental and emotional makeup.
Posters lose sight that these guys are human beings.
My point about Bubba is that he has gotten so much hype that one cannot disregard the point that non call ups in comparison to Skenes could have affected him adversely.
After all he is Skenes 1a.
Skenes is such a competitor that he would have blown it off.
but not everyone is like that.
Your point is clear. For some strange reason you would rather Bubba be pitching for the Yankees in 2032 instead of the Pirates. Because you are bored or something and wanted to see Bubba pitching this year in a losing meaningless season.
See above post.
2032 is farther off for some of us than others.
Now you are just being greedy. What about the kids? They are the most precious resource! Our future! Let them have winning baseball in 2032. He would likely be traded in 2031 but more prospects for the next generation!
That’s where you get me wrong. I don’t want the never ending cycle of veteran for prospect never win. I want to win and I trade those veterans for prospects but the prospects I traded for drafted 2 3 years ago replace the veterans I just traded and these new prospects are for the next wave of never ending talent.
Cole was our ace, Musgrove replaces him, Keller replaces Musgrove, Skenes replaces Keller. Bubba replaces Skenes. Hernandez replaces Bubba.
Problem is that’s only 1 position! The guy replacing mvp Cutch is old washed up Cutch because Polanco failed. Peguero isn’t panning out from Marte trade etc etc etc.
And not only are you going to miss but you should. You can’t be perfect. It’s even possible for me to miss believe it or not. You miss on your trade. So like you missed on your Jason Bay trade. Thats ok because you drafted Machado #2 overall all…… Um nope sorry you took Taillon. But thats ok because you signed a stud international kid opps sorry you got Polanco.
You can afford to miss. But not in every single area. Davis Gonzales Endy Peguero Head ( remember him) TJ etc all don’t have to be all stars but what about half of them or a third of them? “What about none of them?” Ok Ben Cherington
I do amuse myself
You are a legend in your mind.
And that’s why you burn it all down from top to bottom
Look, it’s a no brainer. So incredibly obvious that a guy like Zeise is saying it in the PG. There’s no other recourse IF they wish to win at some point in the future. 2032 looks optimistic at this point.
But that would mean an admission of failure. It would mean that the lunkheads who still go to games might feel they were duped by the hype. The fireworks wouldn’t look as pretty. The pierogi racers, not as unique. The bobbleheads…well they never have enough of them anyway. Hot dog launches. That would be the selling point
And the millions Bucko Bob spent on developing the area around PNC would look rather empty with sparse crowds.
It’s a joke. If you tried to run a franchise into the ground—really tried—you couldn’t do a better job
Burning it all down is the only option but instead. It’ll be more patchwork and annual speeches from Nutting at Bradenton telling the true believers like Bright Eyes that they’re not far away and that losing is unacceptable
I think that we all know that many of these young players did have talent(not Head),but the lack of development for almost all of them has doomed the Pirates to years of below average mediocrity.
Huntington had it right,trading for ML ready players.
It was a shame about Rivero as the Dodgers could have had him for Gavin Lux and Keibert Ruiz,neither of whom are all stars.
They were both highly touted but young players are often over rated.
The problem with your design is shown by the Pirates.You need very competent people running the train.
And instead of one or two very bad years the best that you achieve is 76 wins.
I kinda like the patchwork. What’s there to burn down? Skenes that’s it. They tried to burn it down. Not much interest in Reynolds and they wanted to keep him. But they wanted to trade Keller. Teams wouldn’t give up a top 50 prospect for Keller. I’d rather just keep Keller then.
Everyone says Bubba is amazing and ready now! Well Skenes Bubba Keller is a heck of a rotation. Don’t care who the others are but there’s something to like and you all seen something in Jones Ashcraft Burrows. Barco looks like a starter.
Zeise never seen KG play. If he did and how fast he advanced you wouldn’t want to burn it down. He’s going to be here much sooner than expected. He’s better than anyone expected other than himself and his family. Even me! And I called him black and gold Trout. Well Trout can’t play SS can he?!!!!!!!!!
If you can’t build around that rotation and KG then you don’t need need new players you need a new gm. Mendoza’s buddy Dave would have this team in the playoffs no later than 2027.
Head had a arm bar. I didn’t like that. Had and still have no idea if it can be fixed. Pirates weren’t the team to do it.
But does SD know anything about identifying talent? They gave him like 3m bonus largest ever for 3rd round or whatever pick he was. They valued him. And not like he was a bust. They just drafted him and traded him that winter. It was like getting a late 1st round pick. Just like Malone!
You’re right and it’s a sad fact
Outside of Skenes, what kind of return are you gonna get?
So trade Cruz and Keller even if it means A players in return.
Are you being sarcastic about KG? He’s a modern day Roy Hobbs?
Dream, he’ll be the Skenes of the position players.
And yes, Dombroski would have this team in contention quickly. But he’d do it by getting rid of a great deal of deadwood here
And I do agree with Mendoza. We’ll never know why Huntington abandoned the blueprint and decided to ransack the monies. But he was head and shoulders above this guy
You could argue Skubal is better than Skenes. Won’t be able to argue anyone is better than KG.
Anyone surprised that Pittsburg has great difficulty attracting free agents other than those trying to hang on in the last parts of their careers, or keeping good players who have the choice to leave as free agents….
rocky, is there any proof PITTSBURGH has ever tried to sign an even mid-level free agent? Seriously, given what this franchise has done to dump salaries over the past six years, I don’t believe they’ve made an offer to anyone except the bottom tier types
MLBTR will often report that PITTSBURGH is sometimes “interested” in a player or that PITTSBURGH would be a logical landing spot, but I think this owner has made it clear he wishes to spend little to nothing
Pittsburgh has an H in its spelling
Yes, hence my capitalization
Still, beats Leveon Bell thinking he played in “Pissburgh” or the locals who call it “Pixburg”
Education. What a concept
They could be trolling. More likely just don’t know better.
I used to leave the H off just to get Paul fired up but he knew what I was up to and didn’t take the bait.
Leveon was not the brightest bulb in the pack Old Timer.
He might have had one too many linebackers tackle him.
You saying he had his Bell wrung too many times? Is wrung the word? Never typed it before and I didn’t go to Harvard grad school.
Your spelling is not the best.
Rung is the proper word.
Wrung is for a dish cloth,
There is still time to go to Harvard.
I never typed that word before. My spell check is awful. Auto correct even worse. I went to school. All the way. But can’t say school was my top priority. And about 6 months to 2 years I forget anything and everything about grammar and math. I couldn’t do a 7th graders homework. I could study and ace any test but it didn’t stay in their long lol. Unless it was completely useless information that I found interesting. That I have no issues with.
Uh, I think you have a great deal of insight about players, teams, owners, fireworks, bobbleheads and pierogis, but Dream, proofreading works for all of us. Sentence structure, spelling…Mendoza, TheMan and I are happy to help you in this regard.
Old Timer-With all due respect to AI née Dream GM he is beyond help.
Or at least the type that we could provide!
Give this guy credit though.
He is never boring.
Paul-You may know this but for about 30 years around the turn of the last century it did not have the H.
But I digress.
Early turn of last century, Paul would have been 8 or 9 years old then so he should remember and know that.
I did know that, Mendoza.
There’s also 2 other cities in America that are named “ Pittsburg” but without the H.
In Kansas and California
Since I am 70, I wouldn’t have been alive 125+ years ago
Shouldn’t be any surprise. Free agents usually go where they can make the most $ and win. That’s not Pittsburgh.
Tell you what, and maybe Dock or AAAA can verify this, but I’ll disagree with you
Let’s say Mark Cuban somehow buys the Pirates in October and declares he wants to bring a winner to his hometown and their long suffering fan base
Everyone applauds. But nothing changes
Now Cuban opens up the checking book
Instant validation
Point is, your rendering of going with a winner and loyalty among everyone from players to scouts to development people to the janitors is a lot of hooey
Loyalty went out decades ago
Everyone has their price and everything is corrupt. I can count on one hand the number of loyal athletes these days.
Please save your consultancy to focus on the tangible.
No. Small markets don’t have billionaire owners. You don’t see big time free agents signing with them because quite honestly, there’s no effort to sign them to begin with
Milwaukee has done nicely signing mid tier guys to augment their youth and they’re smaller than Pittsburgh
KC had some bad years and then an ok year but was still able to sign some good players
It’s not that no one wants to sign in PITTSBURGH but rather, the Pirates either aren’t trying to sign anyone but bargain basement types or are making half hearted attempts to save some face in the industry
If you’re willing to spend it, they will come. I heard it whispered in the cornfield
I’ll give you 3 examples right off the top of my head. More came so give them as well.
Corbin Burnes Randall Grichuk. Both live and train in Arizona. Both signed with Arizona. If the $ was the same they probably wanted and even said I believe want to play in Arizona. I’m sure they have price that would change their mind but it is higher than Arizona price.
Charlie Morton. His family lives in Florida. Signs with teams who have spring training nearby.
Santana even playing in Philly Seattle KC Pittsburgh kept his house in Cleveland. $ is the same or just a million more he is signing with Cleveland. He actually finally sold his house 2 weeks or something before Cleveland signed him.
90 95 98 percent of players are mercenaries sure. But if the $ is the same why would you sign with a loser team owned by Bob Nutting. If it’s a few million more why would you.
And do you believe endorsements sponsorships are the same in Pittsburgh as Boston Chicago Toronto NY LA?
What if you like the beach? Surfing? Warm weather? Faster flights to Dominican republic or Japan Korea. Family lives on west coast.
What if you would rather win 90 100 games instead of 60 70? Or simply want playoff bonus $ or that big stage to showcase what you can do?
PNC park is good for a left handed pitcher looking to rebound and increase their value but what about a right bat?
Your struggling. Need coaches to get you back so you can get big contract next year. You going to Pittsburgh or Milwaukee Tampa Dodgers?
Everyone has a price but Pittsburgh isn’t an ideal destination for many.
Disagree all you want but $ isn’t everything for a lot of people. And Pittsburgh Nutting ain’t the city or owner to be bribing people to go where they don’t want to. And some want as seen in the old lefties trying to get a better contract next year. Pittsburgh signs them just find. Our outfielders who can’t see. Catchers who can’t throw ball back to pitcher. Guys named Rowdy. Guys who love fireworks.
I actually like that you have a sense of humor.
On your good days.
Even mild sarcasm can be entertaining,especially if some poster deserves it or worse.
I think that the problem can arise when new posters cannot understand what you mean by both.
I think the old posters realize not to poke the bear. I try to contain myself most times most days. Save the real savage stuff for those who are worthy or supposed to have me muted. I slip sometimes.
But yeah. Too sensitive. Maybe never encountered my style. I kinda like Howard Stern Mark Madden more than the fan the pomp ryan seacrest.
The Bear? No reason to bring Jarzynka into this. He’s likely off on a thread about the Rockies or ChiSox and blaming their troubles on their fans
Madden the columnist is on point about almost everything (When he called Led Zep a greater band than The Beatles, I blew coffee through my nose. Moron) His writing style often reminds me…of me. Reminds me a lot of a guy I once worked with, Bruce Keidan. Madden the radio guy is a caricature. Nothing more
Dream, you’re not him. Or Howard. Happily, you’re not Bright Eyes or Punxsutawney Richard, either.
As an old poster, I’m not afraid of any bear. I’m from Pissburgh, after all
Somebody on here has said that Leveon Bell used to say the name that way!
Hope you all enjoyed the show. Drive home safe. Got busy day so need early start. See you at some point in afternoon or evening. Let’s go Bucs!
Good talking to you née Dream GM
I heard a rumor this morning about Dream being in the Epstein files
I don’t believe it though
I wish I was that rich and powerful. I had a hard day.