2015 Pirates

[element1286]

Of course, for some reason Tony has reverse splits in his time in the major leagues, for whatever that is worth.

 

[Darkstone42]

Of course, for some reason Tony has reverse splits in his time in the major leagues, for whatever that is worth.

Could just be limited opportunities. He might just not have seen enough Major League lefties to hit them well yet.

 

[Darkstone42]

I think DFAing Gaby is just opening a spot for Tony. He could be the third string catcher, and spell Pedro once a week at first.

That almost feels like giving up on him, though, which I'm not sure we should do. At the very least, he could carry value as a trade piece if folks still think he can be a catcher. And I do think he has a chance to sort himself out and be a decent, cheap backup for us.

I like his bat well enough, but he's just so much more valuable as a true catcher.

Then again, if they want to start Diaz every day in AAA, this does make some sense.

 

[sychmd]

so we have a bench of
stewart/cervilli, snider, rodriguez, and tsnachez.
do we keep an extra infielder (the brightest defensive infielder utility guy recently acquired) or lambo for a big bat in late innings off the bench who can also be a 5th OF in case the SB guys get dinged up and out a couple games.

 

[Darkstone42]

There are some interesting names on this list if most of the dollars go to pitching, which, incidentally, is where I think most of the dollars should go.

All the Affordable Right-Handed Power, By the Projections | FanGraphs Baseball

Banks, Morse, and Hart are most intriguing to me, personally. I think each of them could be had on a one-year deal for reasonable money. I also think each of them could be a decent right-handed option if Pedro needs to platoon. Hart and Morse in particular, I think, could be passable security blankets to serve as everyday first basemen if Pedro completely fails. Hart and Banks are also options in the outfield if absolutely necessary. Morse would be in an apocalyptic sort of worst-case scenario.

 

[steelparrot]

so we have a bench of
stewart/cervilli, snider, rodriguez, and tsnachez.
do we keep an extra infielder (the brightest defensive infielder utility guy recently acquired) or lambo for a big bat in late innings off the bench who can also be a 5th OF in case the SB guys get dinged up and out a couple games.

We always seem to have a Defensive SS on the bench, and Lambo has an option left.

 

[thedddd]

First Brad Lincoln and now Gorkys Hernandez.
Minor Moves: Leach, Nix, Pirates, Martin, Brown ? MLB Trade Rumors

Gee the carousel continues so who is next?

 

[Darkstone42]

First Brad Lincoln and now Gorkys Hernandez.
Minor Moves: Leach, Nix, Pirates, Martin, Brown ? MLB Trade Rumors

Gee the carousel continues so who is next?

Hernandez has very specific uses, mostly as minor league depth and an option in September strictly for pinch running and defense when such specialized players aren't a burden on the roster. I imagine that's why they signed him back.

 

[element1286]

There are some interesting names on this list if most of the dollars go to pitching, which, incidentally, is where I think most of the dollars should go.

All the Affordable Right-Handed Power, By the Projections | FanGraphs Baseball

Banks, Morse, and Hart are most intriguing to me, personally. I think each of them could be had on a one-year deal for reasonable money. I also think each of them could be a decent right-handed option if Pedro needs to platoon. Hart and Morse in particular, I think, could be passable security blankets to serve as everyday first basemen if Pedro completely fails. Hart and Banks are also options in the outfield if absolutely necessary. Morse would be in an apocalyptic sort of worst-case scenario.

Morse is the best player, not much of a platoon split, not sure he signs for one year though considering what Butler, Loney, Laroche have gotten the last two years.

Hart makes sense if he is actually healthy, no clue on that.

Blanks makes the most sense as a strict platoon option.

 

[Darkstone42]

Morse is the best player, not much of a platoon split, not sure he signs for one year though considering what Butler, Loney, Laroche have gotten the last two years.

Hart makes sense if he is actually healthy, no clue on that.

Blanks makes the most sense as a strict platoon option.

Yeah, he's actually less good than Gaby at that role, unless the Pirates think Gaby will be in steep decline and/or that Blanks will pick up his game a bit.

I have no interest in him, but it kind of amuses me that there was a Brad Eldred sighting in that article. Of course, if he takes a minor league deal, he might be worth giving another shot as a depth/emergency option. That was one strong man coming up through our system.

 

[Darkstone42]

Morse is the best player, not much of a platoon split, not sure he signs for one year though considering what Butler, Loney, Laroche have gotten the last two years.

Hart makes sense if he is actually healthy, no clue on that.

Blanks makes the most sense as a strict platoon option.

Also, on Morse, I would wonder if he would even sign with us if we gave him a good deal simply because he might want to be a starter, and I'm sure an AL team would love to have him as a DH. He's a good hitter, but his glove is made of rocks and his shoes of lead. Pretty useless in the field, really.

We could hide him at first base, and I would prefer him as an everyday guy over Pedro, but it seems the Pirates want Pedro to be the primary first baseman, which would make Morse a bench signing, and I don't know if he'd go for that, even if the money is good.

Morse as the starting first baseman and Pedro as a left-handed power bat off the bench and to spell Morse against righties once or twice a week, though, is a pretty tempting scenario to me.

 

[thecrow124]

Also, on Morse, I would wonder if he would even sign with us if we gave him a good deal simply because he might want to be a starter, and I'm sure an AL team would love to have him as a DH. He's a good hitter, but his glove is made of rocks and his shoes of lead. Pretty useless in the field, really.

We could hide him at first base, and I would prefer him as an everyday guy over Pedro, but it seems the Pirates want Pedro to be the primary first baseman, which would make Morse a bench signing, and I don't know if he'd go for that, even if the money is good.

Morse as the starting first baseman and Pedro as a left-handed power bat off the bench and to spell Morse against righties once or twice a week, though, is a pretty tempting scenario to me.

Sign Morse and designate Pedro would be a pretty tempting scenario to me.

 

[Darkstone42]

The Pirates have signed 3B Deibinson Romero to a minor-league deal. I like that signing as depth. We're going to have injuries, and we're going to need to recall an infielder from AAA at some point, and Romero is a not-bad one to have for emergency depth. Steamer projects him as a roughly average player, for whatever that's worth. But it seems likely, at least, that he'll be better than any of Nix, Morel, and Martinez, so it seems the Pirates have learned their lesson about compiling appropriate security blanket replacement players from last year's debacle.

His ceiling, incidentally, appears to be in Yangervis Solarte territory, which is a pretty nice ceiling for what likely amounts to a bench or depth signing.

 

[element1286]

He's hit at every level, and has never had a MLB at bat at 28, always strange to see that.

 

[Darkstone42]

He's hit at every level, and has never had a MLB at bat at 28, always strange to see that.

I'm sure he'll get a shot at the Major League roster this year out of Spring Training, so maybe he'll get that first Major League at bat in 2015.

Also, his career walk rates are encouraging, and his BABIP is always around .300, which seems reasonable. It seems like there's no glaring red flag in his stats to suggest why he never got a shot in the Majors, so I guess he must have always been blocked or something, or there's something about him we simply don't know from the numbers, like a personality issue.

 

[element1286]

I'm sure he'll get a shot at the Major League roster this year out of Spring Training, so maybe he'll get that first Major League at bat in 2015.

Also, his career walk rates are encouraging, and his BABIP is always around .300, which seems reasonable. It seems like there's no glaring red flag in his stats to suggest why he never got a shot in the Majors, so I guess he must have always been blocked or something, or there's something about him we simply don't know from the numbers, like a personality issue.

Yeah, no idea, crappy defense maybe?

 

[Darkstone42]

Yeah, no idea, crappy defense maybe?

Given the stats about the bat, crappy defense would have to be an understatement. I think he was in the Twins organization, though, and they seem to have had a lot of third basemen in the mold of Romero over the years, so perhaps there just wasn't much reason to promote him. Simply wasn't in the cards in that organization.

Hopefully, he turns out for us like Brian Harper did for the Twins. A guy who hit well in the minors for his position (catcher) for a while, but was always stuck behind someone, then had a reasonably productive Major League career when he finally got his [very late] chance.

Here's some video of Romero, though. I like his swing. Looks pretty smooth. Obviously, these are highlights and show him at his best, but still, seems like a decently athletic and talented guy.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/just-videos-of-deibinson-romero-is-mostly-all/

 

[Illinest]

I think we should do the same thing that we did with the bullpen. We should sign Brad Eldred to a multi-million dollar contract even though he hasn't even been playing baseball in the US. He'll probably hit at least 30 homers for us.

I'm being facetious.
I bet that if we did make that signing there'd be plenty of fans who'd say it was a good move and totally not a waste of money at all.

 

[Darkstone42]

The Bucs have also made Liriano a priority, which is a good move. However, with none of Lester, Scherzer, or Shields having signed, and the market not yet set, it seems unlikely a deal will be signed soon.

However, it might be good for the Bucs to get that deal closed out and set that market with Liriano if it's possible. Then move on to trying to get maybe Santana, who should cost the same as Liriano, to really strengthen the rotation.

 

[HammerDown]

Will miss him on the Padres. I sure wish he had stayed healthy.