-- M. Spiciarich of The Sports Banter thinks that Garrett Jones and Lyle Overbay are the same player, and has some stats to bolster his point. The general tone of his post is captured by its head "Piling On the Pirates."
-- Jen Langosch of MLB.com writes that Garrett Jones accepts his platoon role, but is going to spend the off-season shortening his swing so he can handle LHP better.
-- Matthew Leach of MLB.com looks at the 2011 NL Central race, and calls it "wide open." But for the Pirates, he says "...the better tactic might still be to keep 2012-14 in mind. Pirates fans are obviously sick of looking to the future, though, so you can understand where the front office is coming from. Either way, the question for the '11 Pirates is the continued development of the kids..."
-- Keith Law of ESPN touched on these draft topics that may be of interest to Bucco fans during his chat yesterday:
Anthony Rendon isn't assured to be the Bucco pick in the draft this year. "Rendon is not the lock that Strasburg and Harper were. Cole, Springer, Gray, Barnes, Starling ... it's a good list of high-end talent." But if he is, Law is high on him. "Rendon should be in the big leagues in a year, 18 months at the most, and fairly productive out of the chute."
And he doesn't feel that Rendon will influence Pedro's position on the diamond. "I think Alvarez is going to 1b no matter what."
-- Mike Puma of New York Post writes that the Mets are looking at ex-Bucco Tom Gorzelanny, whom the Cubs are shopping. Gorzo was 7-9 with a 4.09 ERA and averaged 7.9 K's/9 and 4.5 W's/9 last season.
-- The Orioles announced that they have reached a one-year deal with reliever Jeremy Accardo, who the Bucs were said to have on their short list. He signed for $1.08M next season, according to a tweet by Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.
As for snarky posts that pile on the Pirates, I'm really tired of them. Don't get me wrong, I've indulged in some of that myself, but a lot of what's written about the Bucs is just gratuitous.
ReplyDeleteAs for Overbay, I agree that there's not much difference between him and Jones, at least not at this point in Overbay's career. However, I'll gladly take double Jones' production for a season. The point is that you now have two Garrett Joneses in the lineup (so to speak) and that's better than what we had last year even if it's still nothing great. Overbay is also far and away the best defensive 1B on a team that desperately needs any upgrade it can get in terms of infield defense. I'll take it, I'll take it, I'll take it.
Dang, Wil, must be practicing your keyboard skills, lol! Chulk was serviceable, but he was behind Ledezma & Thomas at Indy as LHP goes. Him or Chris Leroux on the 40-man? Toss a coin.
ReplyDeleteIf they're going with an AL template, they're sure going about oddly - no power from the middle infield, much less the corners except for Pedro, and they don't seem to draft or trade for bangers, either.
That's why I'd like to see them grab Rendon instead of a college pitcher, although a credible argument can be made for one.
I think their direction may be for a speed team with eventual power at the corners. The AL model they like is the power pitching, so I'm guessing after a break-in period, they're headed toward a sorta hybrid.
Finally, the Pirates deserve snarked until they show themselves capable of competing.
But you're right that people do assume the worst; without diminishing the hitting at all, they've shored up the D both in RF and 1B considerably, and that's worth something.