sinicalypse wrote:
i think this is the year to get on the pirates.... while the last two years have had above-.500 starts followed by 2nd half collapses to keep that impressive ~20 year sub -.500 streak alive, nowadays they've quietly been pimpslapping teams around as their decent lil lineup has meshed with league average pitching and they're nice and solid.
they invested some money in mccutchen, pedro alvarez needs to eventually put it all together (hitting ~.275, 30HR, etc) cuz he's had streaks where he's as hot as you can be for a few weeks here or there... i mean he got his 30+ HR last year, but this year his pressure to repeat the success resulted in him battling mendoza, which i think he's finally conquered even tho he'd only be in the ~.210-.220range.
they've got a legit ballplayer in starling marte to bat in front of mccutchen and get on base, and theoretically they've got something in alvarez to bat behind mccutchen (who quietly turned around his early season woes to get to ~.290/6/25/12 with like ~25-30 runs scored, good for #20 overall in 5x5 fantasy baseball) so like, with a decent platoon at first with garret jones and gaby sanchez, i'd love to see them to get another big ol dope who can hit 30HR alongside sentient defense who can be inserted at #4-5 in the lineup and give mccutchen some protection/runs. if they could get a #1-3 starter then that's just tits, cuz idk if we gotta get stoneroses here to talk about teh whole aj burnett thing.... but i wouldn't count on good liriano sticking around to give you a ~3.00/1.10 pitcher who would strike out 200+ in a full 30/+ start season. somewhere he's gonna start getting hit and have that ERA rise up into the mid 4s....
so yeah, i'm interested to see what the pirates do. they've got a good thing going on right now; i don't think the reds are necessarily unstoppable, and sure the cardinals are gonna hang out in the 80s-90s for that win total.... but if pittsburgh can keep on chugging along and win 95+ games and make the playoffs, then yeah, shoot, go get someone larochey (they've had the wrong laroche for awhile) who can give you .270/30/100 and then you can use garret jones in the OF more often, giving you a marte/mccutchen/(jones/tabata) OF (with tabata being your 4th OF du jour, as he too has had solid segments of seasons but he's also prone to go into the tank for awhile) or hell, get a sentient shortstop who can actually hit beyond a clint barmes level.... hope alvarez gets/stays hot (2HR today) and you've got something.
riding the wave of this investment in mccutchen, who signed a ~6-8 year deal ~2 years b4 hitting free agency or something. remember the stuff on here lamenting that the cubs got "beat" in free agency by the pirates cuz mccutchen was the type of guy they'd throw big money at for the next phase of the rebuild and welp, this aint the good ol days where jim hendry can call up and offer a bag of crap for a ~24 year old aramis ramirez)
AHEM. i fucked this all up..... let's see if these guys wanna stick with what they got and start singing "we are family" again and hope that this bunch can get into those 90s wins and have a crack in the tournament come october, or let's see if they really wanna capitalize on a good thing and plug a couple of holes and help out the talent they've got (cuz you could do a lot worse than mccutchen/marte/alvarez in terms of an offensive core trio going forward, cuz ideally that'd be your 2-3-4 of the order) cuz like, seriously, that series against the cubs was really good for the pirates cuz while i forget if they swept outright or took 2/3 or 3/4, but like, all those games were 1-0 or 2-1 or whatever, teh cubs pitched their asses off.... and in tight playoff-style baseball games they had #TWTW and got the job done. now let's see if management is willing to try and make some splashes that help out those core 3 guys plus your neil walkers and garret joneses and these guys finally make the damn playoffs. the dream would be a marquee #1/2 starter who you'd trot out there and go A-HA in the playoffs, cuz like, if they do make it and you're looking at aj burnett leading you into battle.... sorry, i don't believe it. IIRC his last playoff experience was positive as he stepped up for the yankees and kept them alive when everyone said the series was over..... but if you could throw out someone absolutely dealing, even some unknown instastud like patrick corbin (this year's wade miley, save having more of a thoroughly mediocre track record at the MLB level prior to showing up out of nowhere and hanging with clayton kershaw in a pitcher's duel)
blah babbling.... tl;dr = these pirates are fun and a top of the rotation arm alongside a slugging 1B to transcend the garret jones / gaby sanchez thing and help backup pedro alvarez for when he's slumping = the pirates definitely finish above .500 and prolly get a playoff spot, that is, if you consider getting to the wild card play in game as "making the playoffs" --- semantically speaking, you're not in the playoffs unless you're in a series. SHOMER SHABBOS * pounds table *
you want a toe? i can get you a toe. we're dealing with fucking amateurs here, dude....
Agreed on Pirates, the only thing is they have like ZERO margin for error or slumps because they have no money and most of their prospects are already up
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