Discussion I meant to post before the upgrade

[thecrow124]

So it seems the Pirates were lo0oking for an 8th inning guy at the trade deadline and most of us on the other board were wondering why. Well, it seems over this 1-9 stretch that upgrading that one spot could have won us a couple of games that we lost.
Odd, I was one thinking that Resop and Veras were good enough to hold down the 8th. I am still not jumping ship on them, but they have both been overused to this point and can't be expected to continnue their early season success. Maybe the Pirates brass knew what they were doing after all.

 

[Darkstone42]

We've got a lot of starters approaching or exceeding career highs in innings pitched and a lot of relievers getting way up there in innings, too. It was only a matter of time, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the pitching is starting to fail in correlation to these high innings.

That's the big problem with a young and overachieving team. It takes so much to succeed, and then they just exhaust themselves. It's not just the pitchers, but the position players as well, who look plain tired lately. It's not a lack of effort, I just don't think the guys have a whole lot left in the tank this season.

Hopefully, though, they can use this season as a stepping stone for next season, build on their successes and reduce and correct their failures. They'll all be used to a full season's grind next year, and that will help them, in addition to the invaluable experience they gained this year.

 

[magnumo]

No doubt that both the rotation and the bullpen have hit a rough stretch lately. But just about all pitching staffs hit rough stretches from time to time. The staff still has an ERA of 3.53..... much better than last year and 8th of 30 MLB teams. Like others, I hope what we're seeing is not just a regression to the norm..... but rather a rough patch that they will get through.

On the other hand, the offense has been weak for the entire season. Lee replacing Overbay should result in an at least a small improvement over the final third of the season..... but the fate of the team lies with the rest of the lineup. Will Alvarez ever get it going? Can McCutchen and Walker get hot and move toward .300? Will Doumit bring enough to the table to offset his downgrade on defense? This team needs Presley and/or Tabata back pretty badly! I don't see Ludwick helping much, and the current lineup just doesn't seem to generate much excitement.

Of course if the pitching doesn't get stabilized, an improved offense won't make much difference.

 

[element1286]

So it seems the Pirates were lo0oking for an 8th inning guy at the trade deadline and most of us on the other board were wondering why. Well, it seems over this 1-9 stretch that upgrading that one spot could have won us a couple of games that we lost.
Odd, I was one thinking that Resop and Veras were good enough to hold down the 8th. I am still not jumping ship on them, but they have both been overused to this point and can't be expected to continnue their early season success. Maybe the Pirates brass knew what they were doing after all.

It made sense, since both Veras and Resop aren't really 8th inning guys, they are 7th inning guys in a good pen. But the wear and tear has made them much less effective for a few weeks. Would be nice to plug a healthy Ohlendorf into the pen soon.