OffSeason Moves

[magnumo]

Apparently, the Pirates have sent Kyle Kaminska to the Red Sox to complete the earlier trade for Zach Stewart.

Red Sox acquire Kaminska, complete Stewart trade - Extra Bases - Red Sox blog

 

[thecrow124]

Apparently we are bringing Grilli back for just under $7 million over 2 years. Nice move just as long as we keep Hammer. There is no reason not to. If no one is going to give value for Hammer then there is no reason to trade him. With Hammer and Grilli we basically shorten games to 7 innings. Without one or the other there is much less certainty.

I do not think this team has any shot at competing, or even .500 for that matter, but subtracting and not getting better elsewhere is not good business. Keep Hammer until the deadline then trade him for the best offer you can get, Capuano for Hammer is not a good deal now and will look even worse with the return we can get in July.

 

[ramburgh]

Seattle now has Bay and Perez. They need Nady to reunite the trio. I am not sure of the timing, but it is possible that they have been teammates in San Diego, Pittsburgh and NY Mets.

 

[magnumo]

So..... the Grilli deal is official: $2.75 mill for 2013, including a $500K signing bonus, and a $4 mill salary for 2014.

Like most Pirate fans, I'm glad they kept Grilli. On the other hand, I hope I'm wrong but I gotta feeling that by 2014, the Pirates (and Pirate fans everywhere) will regret this deal. I fear that Grilli will either get hurt or flame out before 2014..... and I don't believe the Pirates will be competitive in 2013, anyway.

I remain hopeful that Huntington will do SOMETHING during the off-season to improve the team. However:

- Retaining Grilli clearly doesn't IMPROVE the team, since Grilli was a Pirate in 2012 (and probably over-performed).

- If they dump Hanrahan, any trade probably will not improve the 2013 Pirates, either.

- Sorry, but I don't see the acquisition of Russell Martin (he of the consistent 5-year decline, culminating in batting averages of .237 and .211 for the Yankees over the past two seasons) as a significant improvement over Barajas-McKenry..... and we all know how bad Barajas was (except for that awesome slide at home plate).

- The release of Karstens seems inexplicable.

- The marginal pitchers NH has acquired don't look promising (at least to me), either.

Meanwhile.....

- Cincy has made what appears to be a significant improvement already.

- St. Louis can usually be counted on to do something positive during the off-season.

- Houston is gone from the NL Central.

- Chicago has money (certainly more than the Pirates) and new management (Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer)..... and I fully expect the Cubs to make progress.

- I wonder if anyone expects the Pirates to overtake Milwaukee.

It will be interesting to see how the experts predict the NL Central will finish in 2013..... but I expect them to be as pessimistic as I am about the Pirates' chances. Nothing would please me more than to see Huntington and the Pirates prove me wrong..... but I won't hold my breath.

 

[element1286]

Hanrahan for Porcello is the rumor du jour, which I would like from the Pirates perspective. Porcello is on his way up, IMO. And getting him before his prime is a good strategy.

 

[element1286]

Meanwhile.....

- Cincy has made what appears to be a significant improvement already.

- St. Louis can usually be counted on to do something positive during the off-season.

- Houston is gone from the NL Central.

- Chicago has money (certainly more than the Pirates) and new management (Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer)..... and I fully expect the Cubs to make progress.

- I wonder if anyone expects the Pirates to overtake Milwaukee.

It will be interesting to see how the experts predict the NL Central will finish in 2013..... but I expect them to be as pessimistic as I am about the Pirates' chances. Nothing would please me more than to see Huntington and the Pirates prove me wrong..... but I won't hold my breath.

I think the improvement of the NL Central is a good thing for the Pirates organization in the long run. They must get better and better to even tread water. It creates a race to the top, where they must be good in both the long run and short run to compete, see AL East. To contrast, the AL Central is in a race to the bottom. Where even the best team makes a large amount of questionable decisions, and probably wouldn't compete in a better division.

 

[steelparrot]

The Pirates improvement, if it happens, will come internally.


The biggest improvement can come from 2 spots.

corner outfield: luckily we have 4 players for the 2 spots.

rotation: Locke and/or McPherson showing the ability to keep their eras under 4.5 would be huge for the Pirates future.

We need young players to get going.

It can happen easy enough, we have like 10 players competing for the 4 'open' positions.

Thats not even counting:

June 25th
The Pittsburgh Pirates have purchased the contract of Garrit Cole from the Indianapolis Indians.

 

[thedddd]

I was looking at the Non-roster invitees, I remember them inviting Felix Pie but I don't remember Darren Ford nor do I care or ever heard of him. Anyway looking at the guys numbers it screams Willie Mays Hays....

 

[thedddd]

Pirates Pushing To Move Joel Hanrahan: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

Well if they couldn't get Porcello or Capuano for him then they better either lower their expectations or sweeten the pot going the other way.

 

[magnumo]

Pirates Pushing To Move Joel Hanrahan: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

Well if they couldn't get Porcello or Capuano for him then they better either lower their expectations or sweeten the pot going the other way.

That article links to another which indicates that teams are concerned about Hanrahan's physical conditioning. That doesn't surprise me..... the few times I actually saw Hanrahan during the 2012 season, he appeared to have "porked up" quite a bit.

Poor conditioning seems to hurt some players more than others (see CC Sabathia and Babe Ruth for a couple of guys who do/did OK without being in top physical condition). Nonetheless, the Pirates seem to be adamant about ALL of their players maintaining good conditioning. That may be one of the reasons they seem so intent on trading Hanrahan. At any rate, given the reports and rumors (and the signing of Grilli), it will surprise me if Huntington's able to get anyone of value for Hanrahan. Probably another asset squandered.

 

[Illinest]

Grilli is my #1 candidate to blow up. That'll be a nice story. Sign Grilli to close, then Hanrahan is traded for crap, then Grilli single-handedly blows a bunch of winnable games. Sounds like a plan.

 

[magnumo]

Grilli is my #1 candidate to blow up. That'll be a nice story. Sign Grilli to close, then Hanrahan is traded for crap, then Grilli single-handedly blows a bunch of winnable games. Sounds like a plan.

I share your concern (as I noted in a previous post). Seems that a Grilli blow-up is likely..... just a question of when.

During 2012, Grilli was usually pretty good when coming into a game with a lead. However, I was struck by how many times he came into a TIED game and blew it. I don't know whether that was a statistical anomaly or some kind of mental block. If Grilli DOES wind up closing in 2013, I hope Hurdle doesn't find much need to bring him into tied games.

At any rate, I think the probability is pretty high that Huntington will indeed trade Hanrahan for crap (in hindsight, it's obvious that NH missed the boat when he didn't trade Hanrahan at the 2012 deadline when he had a lot more value)..... and that Grilli will be significantly less successful than Hanrahan has been over the past couple of seasons.

If those expectations come to pass, I can't see Huntington surviving as GM (as well he shouldn't).

 

[Illinest]

Finally got around to catching up on porcello. He has elite groundball rates and poor k rates. Apparently detroit took away his curveball and made him throw a slider that usually gets hammered. I wonder why they took the curve? That was supposed to be his strikeout pitch when he was drafted. Well it might be the tigers that are holding him back by insisting that he not use it. His fb velocity is good, good gb rate, good command, decent change. A revived curve or improved slider could make him a very good pitcher but i wouldnt count on it.

 

[thedddd]

I fully expect Grilli to regress and him as a closer is not all warm and fuzzy but the Pirates don't need to pay a ton for one because they won't be that good.

As for Porcello the positive over him vs Hanrahan he is younger and can start I would be okay if they made that move but I see the Tigers don't like it straight up and I don't blame them. Never considered Hanrahan in the tier with that type of value but if NH dumps for trash he knows his does are numbered in Pittsburgh.

He really screwed up by keeping Hanrahan last year at the trade deadline. Seriously wonder level of SP at the deadline he could have gotten for him?

 

[element1286]

Finally got around to catching up on porcello. He has elite groundball rates and poor k rates. Apparently detroit took away his curveball and made him throw a slider that usually gets hammered. I wonder why they took the curve? That was supposed to be his strikeout pitch when he was drafted. Well it might be the tigers that are holding him back by insisting that he not use it. His fb velocity is good, good gb rate, good command, decent change. A revived curve or improved slider could make him a very good pitcher but i wouldnt count on it.

Yea, strange considering the horrendous defense they surrounded him with in the infield as well.

 

[thedddd]

Pirates To Sign Francisco Liriano: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

This is an overpaid panic move in my mind.

 

[Illinest]

So now we have 14 million in new contracts? Sweet! Dont like this signing btw. Neil is obviously banking on having better results than his last team got. He is a strikeout pitcher who doesnt seem to pitch very well out of the stretch. His FIP is consistently lower than his ERA which is probably the angle neil is playing. I dont think our defense is going to bail him out when he's getting behind in the count and serving up fat homerun pitches.

Very high risk, high reward move with a lot more risk than reward.

 

[element1286]

Not sure what to think about Liriano. He has great stuff, an it doesn't seem to have deteriorated at all, if you look at pitch speeds. But he has started walking a lot of guys the past two years.

His peripherals are solid, but even when he was at his best, his ERA was higher than his FIP and xFIP. He seems have a problem stranding guys who do get on base. And he doesn't really have a problem with HR's or hits against. They just seem to happen at the wrong time.

I don't really like guaranteeing 2 years, and 14 million, but it seems to be the going rate now. It's a risk I'd be willing to take to upgrade the rotation. Plus, if things aren't working out, he could make a move to the pen, since he has pitched out of the pen a significant amount in his career.

 

[thecrow124]

My only real problem with the deal is that we have Justin Wilson who is basically the same pitcher, in the minors seemingly ready for a major league rotation spot. The money could have been better used on someone like Adam LaRoche. I don't believe I will ever figure out what runs through Neil's head.

 

[thedddd]

Red Sox Closing In On Deal For Joel Hanrahan: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

Curious to see that the return will be if this does go through.

Anyway for Liriano I don't get it for that money, except it means Hanrahan can be dealt for a Position player instead? My biggest concert with Liriano is that high walk rate and the below average Pirates IF to protect groundball pitchers.

Lets hope Martin can throw out at least one baserunner after Liriano walks them.