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| Is Big Joe trying to flip a Zoltan?- photo Pittsburgh Pirates |
But not for long. JR (John Ryan) Murphy, yet another new Bucco backstop, got a ball into the jet stream (despite the low score, it is a breezy day at the beach) and drove it well over the fence. It scored Dylan Busby (running for Redbeard, who had walked), and gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. It didn't hold up long. Willams Jerez gave up two singles and a walk around a whiff to start the seventh. The Bucs couldn't turn an around-the-horn DP, and the added life gave the Phils the edge again at 5-2 following a two-out, wind-aided double and triple; the gusts cut both ways. The inning ended on a sharp play; a delayed steal of home was sniffed out and cut down 2-4-2. Pittsburgh, looking much like the SOB, left the bases loaded in their half.
Matt Eckelman put up a zero in the eighth and the Pittsburgh batters went down 1-2-3. Brandon Waddell gave up three straight two-out knocks to give Philadelphia another run in the final frame. Cal Mitchell singled for the Buccos, but that was the extent of their comeback as they fell for the third time, 6-2.
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| JR pulled a ball into the parking lot - photo MLB.com |
Tomorrow: The Buccos host the Red Sox at LECOM Park at 1:05. The game will be aired on AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan.
Notes:
- 20-year-old OF Cal Mitchell had two hits; the Pirates as a team had six.
- JR Murphy's homer was the Bucs first of the spring.
- Kevin Newman, Colin Moran and Gregory Polanco (DH) took their turn in the lineup today.
6 comments:
The list of non-roster invitees this spring is truly impressive and significantly better than anything the previous GM managed to achieve. But I am wondering why so many guys like that were brought in without a full on rebuild? Most of the Pirates' current everyday position players are still pretty young or at least in their prime, and you would think that the kind of cattle call we see this year would be typical of an organization that had just dumped all of its older veterans and was looking to field a team of halfway decent placeholders for a couple of seasons while they wait for the rebuilt farm to start producing.
What gives?
My guess is that the new Pirates suits/management want to get an eyeball on the MLB youngsters, upper level guys and prospects for evaluation purposes. Their commitment to using some standard tech apparently was a revelation to the old boys culture, so the players are prob pretty much starting out from scratch for development/potential purposes.
Looks like they got a couple of guys to add a touch of gray to a young locker room, too, so they're kinda working on a blend. The team is trying to rebuild the pen, figure out the starters and it's becoming pretty obvious that they have no power, so I think any player turnover will be down the line after the new bosses get a handle on the talent at hand.
Right, I get all that. I am saying that they brought in several more players on a make-the-team basis than would normally be called for unless you were in the midst of a rebuild. I suppose the front office might just want to ramp up the level of competition in spring training to send a message, but the point from where I'm sitting is that there are easily at least two or three players and probably more than three who could legitimately be at least platoon starters if not everyday regulars on most major league rosters. There are also at least a couple of pitchers who are capable of taking a regular turn in somebody's rotation, and a couple of bullpen arms, as well. In other words, a lot of quality to just cut loose at the end of spring training unless you have additional trades in mind and you want the replacements on hand and ready to go immediately. Most if not all of these guys have make-the-roster-or-I-get-free-agency contracts, etc.
My sense is that there were placeholders rather than starters brought in, Will. Dyson will start; Heredia and Maile will make the roster, and Riddle has a good shot and Murphy a so-so chance at breaking camp. Holland is the only NRI pitcher with a path to making the team. I don't buy that the FO brought in any true challengers. This is very much a camp for the young guys so far, though I expect/hope the talent level to improve up next year, especially of the pitching.
Ah, yes, the pitching.
I said to a friend of mine at the time that Neal Huntington made the Archer and Kela trades that "I get why he did it, but these are also the kind of deals that get a lot of GMs fired". And so it came to pass.
Kela is a legitimate major league closer and if healthy, he is a good acquisition---just not at the price the Pirates paid to get him. Archer strikes me as the kind of guy who is less than the sum of his parts. He doesn't pass the eyeballs test for me; I don't like his body language and I don't think he is a warrior. He has two seasons on his resume that are genuinely impressive, meaning there aren't many guys in the majors anywhere, anymore, who can say they have two full seasons with 200 innings pitched and 200 strikeouts. But he hasn't approached that productivity since, and he's been awful in Pittsburgh. He also chirped about Hurdle in the wake of Hurdle's firing and I don't like that when it's coming from a guy with all of one season and some change in a Pirates uniform. If anyone was going to say anything about that, it should have been one of the veterans who had been here longer---and even then, it's just bad form to badmouth the skipper right after he gets the axe unless he was a total psychopath. And I don't think that was the case with Hurdle, though he certainly rubbed some players the wrong way.
Anyway, we'll see what happens from here. I am not counting on Archer for anything this year or pretty much ever in a Pirates uniform. I do think Tom Koehler could help a team if he is healthy. He had three decent years for the Marlins not that long ago.
Kela came here with a rep as his own man, and production/2020 under team control did jack up his price, I agree. But as I recall,the Pirates weren't the only caller, so the Bucs had to get into a bidding war. He didn't get along w/Vazquez or Hurdle over usage issues, specifically the save v leverage late-inning call.
Archie didn't rip Hurdle, tho he surely didn't praise him. Tbh, I can't recall a player that boo-hooed when he left. I think he controlled the media message to his advantage quite well in Pgh, letting the blame roll off him/staff and onto NH.
I was one of the ones surprised by the cost for Archer - I personally pegged him as a solid three and shaky two in the rotation - but we don't have this convo if the Pirates didn't fail w/Glasnow and not fizzled in using Archer; their player development sucked. So far as I can figure, the Pgh big wigs thought they'd rejuvenate him with a resurgent sinker, which it ends up even he doesn't have confidence in.
As for useful pieces, we'll see. I still think they're gonna spend quality time evaluating the pups - and that includes Keller, Cole, Cruz and maybe Swaggerty - before they decide whether to tear it down or not.
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