Thank you to everyone who pledged during the drive. We collected $1,410 which was $410 more than the goal so thank you for the opportunity. Here’s a few things I have on tap for you.
I am close to finishing a new site that will be integrated into this one where everything will be housed. The Grand Opening is scheduled for March 26th. So far I have secured scouting correspondents who will watch some of the Bradenton and West Virginia games over the year, I am talking with a retired ACC head coach to see if he will scout some games for us, I’ve secured a statistical consultant who has worked with an MLB team to do a weekly column on the Pirates (offense, defense, and pitching), and I’ve finished the plans with Inside Edge scouting service to be able to publish their scouting reports and Fantasy matchup data for your enjoyment. I’m still looking for a scout to cover the Curve as the one I had was recently hired, but I’m hopeful that will come sooner than later.
This is the first year trying this so expect a few bumps along the way but we’ll manage. Just remember that the scouting correspondents and consultants I’m bringing in are not cheap by any means, not to mention the cost of being able to publish proprietary scouting reports from Inside Edge, so don’t expect daily updates within the system because it’s not going to happen unless this venture gets bankrolled by someone. But we will get no less than three deep looks at the players of each of the three minor league teams during the year while also getting the weekly consultant updates and the daily Inside Edge updates on the Pirates.
And more.
Those who have pledged will become “members” at the new site and have even more opportunities and receive tokens during the year. I’ll extend the “members” opportunity to anyone who pledges before the 10th since I’ve had a couple people ask for a couple of days to be able to make their pledges. Look for the “Donation” button on the right sidebar to make a pledge.
Get stoked.
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First off, I didn’t listen to this game because after I did some research on the pitchers the Twins planned to bring it was pretty obvious it was going to be a long game.
Duensing and Swarzak are Minnesota Twins number five type starters, Waldrop a non-roster invitee, and Burnett and Delaney grade C’ish prospects. Only Duensing could be considered as having some upside (Twins fans might argue that Swarzak has more raw potential but I’m not so sure myself) but not like he’s projected to ever be a middle of the order guy or anything despite a wonderful second-half last year. He’s a pitch-to-contact guy like Duke and sports an upper-80′s fastball with a plus changeup while working around the plate. The fact we were able to square up on him some isn’t surprising to me. Swarzak is another pitch-to-contact guy with a fastball around 90 with an average curve and change. The stuff the other three guys has isn’t even worth talking about although Waldrop has been around some.
So we came out ready to make contact and we did just that pounding out 15 hits with 6 of them for extra bases. Swarzak gave up both the home runs of the day to Jones and Church which isn’t too surprising as he gave up the equivalent of 2 per nine innings in the 59 innings of his rookie season last year and left hand batters have always had their way with him. Throw in a moderate wind blowing out to right, and BAM.
Overall I think the key is that we finally handled inferior pitching because up to this point we’ve been dragging our butts against them. Perhaps the bats are starting to come around? The other oddity in the box score was a triple by Alvarez.. nice to see big boy be able to chug around the bases but, come on, was Tosoni asleep on the play or something? Hilarious.
Ohlendorf had yet another case of the mechanical blues I see as something like 6 of his first 7 pitches were off the plate as he opened the game. I mentioned the last time he didn’t seem to be taking things very serious and I hoped he didn’t end up hurt.
Jakubauskas was mauled but I don’t know enough about his stuff to know whether he just needs more time to get his arm loose, if he is just that pitiful, or what is going on with him. Maybe one of you guy can fill me on with a scouting report on him. I thought it was interesting they brought Bryan Morris out for an inning of work on his pitching day instead of having him throw a simulated game in the bullpen. Shades of motivation? I hope it works.
Vinnie Chulk with 5 K’s.. wow. He had a 3.0 K/9 last year with Cleveland and a 4.5 K/9 the year after with the Giants, but dominated batters in the lower levels of minor league ball. Maybe his arm was pooped out for a couple of years and that’s why Huntington signed him so quick after walking away from the Indians this winter? We’ll see.
Since I didn’t listen to the game I don’t know how we did on defense but I assume we were rather tight since we converted balls in play to outs for the most part with only two stand outs according to readership e-mails.. Moss on a fly ball early and Alvarez who dropped a win-pushed pop up. There was also some talk about Raynor having a hard time on a play.
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Just listened to the last part of the Neal Huntington Show and here are the highlights:
Clement.. early returns are that he is progressing ok. He may look awkward, may be out of position here and there, but he’s getting it down. For him to break with the club out of camp he has to show his bat and glove will play everyday. (I think they have already made their mind up myself, but we’ll see.)
Dotel.. minor ribcage injury has him sidelined and it’s possible he’ll be ready by opening day.
Hanrahan.. inflammation has subsided and he should be back with the club a couple of weeks into the season. (Sounds like he might begin on the DL.)
Camp cuts.. first round possible next week but the deeper cuts will start mid-month.
Related posts:
Jake, I was at the game today and in fact the past three games. You asked for observations of our defense. On top of Moss’s horrible attmept to catch a flyball he also made a foolish attmept to throw out a runner at home on a sac fly. The throw was horrible and allowed the runner at first to advance to 2nd. That runner scored on a single next play. After watching Moss for three days it is obvious this man does not deserve a MLB spot… even on our roster.
Thank you for the observation Steve.. you aren’t the only one talking about him. Three thoughts immediately come to mind.. one, pro scouts are in the stands from other orgs observing his play and word gets around fast; two, he absolutely needs 500 consistent AB in 3A to ever have a chance of putting it all together; and three, Milledge isn’t our short-term answer in left unless he finds a lot more game and makeup than I think he’s capable of so it will have to be Tabata leaving an opportunity for Moss short-term.
Now Moss knows he’s not going to make another club’s 25-man and stick so if you are him what do you do? If you said ‘play like crap on both sides of the diamond’ so that he can sneak through the wire to get those AB he needs so bad, you’re probably dang close. The question is, will he get claimed off the wire? Timing is everything.
One person wondered aloud last year if he lost his heart after the trade. I dunno.. it happens but I don’t know.
I think Huntington has to allow him to break camp and then put him on the wire immediately to get him to 3A so I expect we’ll see a few guys on the DL to cover for some of these types of moves. Just a wild guess.
There was the PG article where he said he pretty much never got back to normal after an injury last year. That he couldn’t really use his lower half in his swings, which he says is key to his swing.
Is his swing still messed up from all the tinkering last year to help him swing w/o relying on his lower half? Is he just having trouble in the field now because of crazy FL winds? Does he need more seasoning as you suggested (though I thought you said before you thought he could have a break out season this year so I’m a bit confused on your view of him now)? He did well in the Boston system, but not well in the Pittsburgh system. Is the Pittsburgh system so bad that otherwise good players stink in Pittsburgh? Or is he really just an untalented hack?
I have a few cuts – Virgil Vazquez, Steven Jackson, jackbackuasstoAAA, even though claggett had 3k’s today and a 0.00era he should pitch in AAA, jeff warning track karstens. Indians fans called Vinnie Chulk – Vinnie the terrible.
Moss, I believe was a physical mess last year. Management told him before the season was over that he would not be a starter this season. He’s had time to regroup and maybe he’s trying to overdo all aspects of his game. Or maybe he’s just not any good. I thought he was a decent pick up when acquired and thought he’d do well, but I just don’t see it happening with the PBC. Meanwhile, Raynor is stealing his thunder and more importantly, his job.
Vasquez must have had a deal that if he resigned with the PBC he’d get the opportunity to compete in S.T. We’ve seen what he has and it wasn’t good. Karstens has an outside chance of sticking in the pen and Chulk could be a midseason callup. Neither are particularly good, but as a 7th pitcher they’re better than most. Jackson wasn’t sharp over the weekend, but was victimized by poor infield support in his other outing. FWIW, I think Karstens and Jackson stick close to the end, maybe one of them even making the 25 man. What I would like to see more of is the lefty relievers getting more looks.
We’ve got roughly a little more than 3 weeks for Clement to cement the 1B job. Let’s see him start hitting.
According to Neil Huntington: “We can never say never, but I will say again that the days of us needing to move players in order to get multiple players in return to rebuild the system, those are over”.
Hmmm I smell a load of bullcrap
that is a make up a milestone to show some sort of progress comment
Chapman was a beast today…