Official 2012-13 Pirates Off-Season Thread

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Sally league baseball is pretty fun. Its a bunch of talented guys who dont know what they are doing.

[Rocco]

will we see cole this year?

If not, something has gone horribly wrong. He'll likely be up sometime in June.

[Rocco]

I would think pressure situations. I don't know, mitch williams was talking about this on MLB network a while back. He endorsed what the Rays did with Price, this allows young pitchers with great stuff to come into the majors and not have to worry as much with the mental stuff. They only need to worry about getting guys out once and not have to go through the lineup multiple times. This allows them to get some comfort and confidence and ML hitters. It puts the guy in a position to succeed.

Ideally, the Pirates would be competiting for a playoff spot and Cole can be a weapon as a setup guy.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TBR/2008.shtml

The 2008 Rays had that luxury with Price because they didn't really have an open spot in the rotation and their manager has a higher IQ than a turnip and didn't think a 6 man rotation out of nowhere was a good idea. If the Pirates rotation this year is killing it and they want to bring up Cole and let him be a setup guy/long reliever, that's fine. I don't think the rotation will hold up its end of the bargain.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

the 6 man rotation was a good idea only because crybaby kevin corriea's feelings were hurt when he was yanked out of the rotation.

[LeopardLetang]

Pirates Prospects is basically releasing their top 10 prospects for the pirates today with the writeup on #7 coming today.

(1-6 will assuradely be Cole, Taillon, Polanco, Heredia, Hansen, Bell)

I assume it will have to be Barrett Barnes, I'm not sure I agree with having Glasnow and Barnes ahead of Clay Holmes. Out of all the prep pitcher, Holmes had the most success at State College in his first full pro season. I think Kingham was impressive too, but Holmes has much more upside than him.

yeah, it's barnes.

i've never gotten the impression holmes had more upside than kingham and, personally, i think glasnow has more upside than either of them. glasnow is 6'7 and only 195 and already sits higher (93 touching 96) than holmes who is more filled out at 6'5 230. glasnow is only half a year younger and played a level lower, but his K% was awesome and holmes' was terrible. i could see putting kingham above glasnow because he's had more of a track record and has shown better control than the other two. also, i think his offspeed pitches rate higher. but in general, they're all close.

[Rocco]

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2013/1/29/39265 ... er-preview

With each season, the Pirates figured out what made sense (Neil Walker at second, Garrett Jones at first, Ronny Cedeno at nowhere), and they added more raffle tickets every year. Correia out, McDonald in. The Bedard gambit didn't work out, but the Liriano gambit might. Andy LaRoche wasn't the world-beating youngster at third; Pedro Alvarez might be. They've been tinkering and fidgeting, upgrading the faulty cogs and keeping the important pieces.

[canaan]

the whole team needs deer whiz extract or whatever ray ray is taking.

[Rocco]

http://www.piratesprospects.com/2013/02 ... nchez.html

Interesting, and makes me think the Liriano deal is off for good. I worry about putting him and James "strikes are overrated, I'm going to walk everyone" McDonald on the same team.

[ulf]

Minor League deal. Meh

[Rocco]

The Cards will likely be without Chris Carpenter this year. One of the 24 breaks the Pirates need to win the Central.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

The Cards will likely be without Chris Carpenter this year. One of the 24 breaks the Pirates need to win the Central.

one of those 24 breaks involves homer bailey renouncing baseball and joining a monestary or something like that.

[Rocco]

The Cards will likely be without Chris Carpenter this year. One of the 24 breaks the Pirates need to win the Central.

one of those 24 breaks involves homer bailey renouncing baseball and joining a monestary or something like that.

That's in the general "Dusty Baker melts the Reds rotation" break.

[schreibdog]

Rays DFA Reid Brignac...should the Bucs pick him up? Can't be worse than Hopeless, right?

[Loaf31]

Rays DFA Reid Brignac...should the Bucs pick him up? Can't be worse than Hopeless, right?

Worth a shot

[Mr. Colby]

When I saw Brignac was DFA'd, I immediately wanted to pick him up for a bench infielder

[Mr. Colby]

he's excellent defensively and can play every infield position

[beerman]

Rays DFA Reid Brignac...should the Bucs pick him up? Can't be worse than Hopeless, right?

Brignac hit .231 in 400 AB's last year, in AAA. He's hit .185 in 200+ MLB AB's over the past two years, that makes Barmes look like a batting champion.

I wouldn't mind him as a utility guy to backup the entire infield as Mr. Colby suggests but I think there's a rather good chance he'd be worse than Barmes if he were to "replace" him.

[Rocco]

Rays DFA Reid Brignac...should the Bucs pick him up? Can't be worse than Hopeless, right?

He was actually a fair bit worse than Hopeless last year according to WAR, mostly due to his glove. I wouldn't mind him because the Pirates should be willing to take chances on highly touted guys that have fallen but I wouldn't expect much from him.

[Mr. Colby]

No chance he could outperform Barmes offensively or defensively, but he could outperform J-Hay or Mercer

[Rocco]

No chance he could outperform Barmes offensively or defensively, but he could outperform J-Hay or Mercer

But what would Hurdle do without Harrison's scrappiness? He needs someone who will never take a pitch.

[Mr. Colby]

No chance he could outperform Barmes offensively or defensively, but he could outperform J-Hay or Mercer

But what would Hurdle do without Harrison's scrappiness? He needs someone who will never take a pitch.

Yeah without J-Hay who would sit on the end of the dugout making obscure references from mediocre 12 year old movies

[Loaf31]

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/statu ... 6060600321

Liriano deal is official

[Beveridge]

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/statuses/299946376060600321

Liriano deal is official

Over/Under 10 starts in 2013

[Mr. Colby]

Pretty good offseason by the Pirates standards

[Rocco]

Pretty good offseason by the Pirates standards

They didn't sign Hamilton. They don't care about winning.