2014-2015 Pirates Offseason Thread

[Mr. Colby]

I was a big Snider fan, too bad.

Hopefully there is something else brewing. Otherwise, what's the point?

[Rocco]

Hell yes another season of sitting around wondering if lambo will get a chance. This is seriously great news because there is no better way to kill the time at the ballpark when liriano is taking his jolly old time between pitches than wondering if lambo will turn the corner

I don't think Lambo's more than a AAAA player and I get the feeling the Pirates agree since they usually look for ways to avoid giving him a shot, but they don't want to move on from him for some reason. He's raked in the minors the last two years and is only 25 (I thought he was 28 before I looked). He's had 72 PAs with the Pirates over two years and he was so bad in spring training he made Ishikawa look like a good option. He probably would have gotten a shot in May but he dislocated his thumb so the Pirates gave Harrison a crack at RF.

[Rocco]

I wish we could have gotten Steve Pearce out of this deal. That was weird and uncomfortable to type.

Pearce put up 5.9 WAR last year according to B-R. He'd put up .6 WAR for the rest of his career combined. We're sure there are no more PEDs in baseball? Did he have Brady Anderson's old locker?

[ulf]

I wasn't a Snider fan at all last year, but he proved to be a pretty good, if not very good, bench option and pinch hitter as a 4th OF. Kind of bummed by this, depending on who ends up as the 4th OF. Lambo reminds me of Steve Pearce, a AAAA player, mashing AAA pitching but sucking in the bigs. Oddly enough, Pearce turned out, but I don't want to give Lambo 5 years to figure it out like Pearce.

[columbia]

"Payroll flexibility" (per NH) mentioned on da FAN as a factor in the deal.

[Troy Loney]

I see sort of an indirect benefit of this trade, sort of how in Moneyball Billy Beane had to trade Carlos Pena so Howe wouldn't use him over Chris Pratt.

Polanco needs to be the everyday right fielder and one 0-4 day with a misplayed ball in RF can't result in 3 straight starts from Travis Snider.

But this does hurt the strength of the bench, Snider was one of the better pinch hitters in the league, unfortunately those small sample sizes didn't extrapolate over a full season. He was best served as a part time/bench role, if you can flip that for pitching depth when you don't want to pay him $2M, might as well.

[Mr. Colby]

2m is about the minimum you can pay for a warm body these days

[Troy Loney]

They can pay Jaff Decker or Andrew Lambo a quarter of that.

[Mr. Colby]

Especially with how great both of their career trajectories have been

[Troy Loney]

Especially with how great both of their career trajectories have been

I don't think anyone is going to question that statement.

They stocked up on infield depth with Kang, Rodriguez and Hart. Harrison can provide outfield depth. Moving Snider provides roster flexibility as they can use that 5th bench spot for a guy with options so that they can move someone up and down. I think the move is smart because it gives them more roster flexibility. Moving Snider isn't worth questioning, the 25th roster spot isn't worth questioning. I'm sure money played a part, but there are other reasons for using that last bench spot differently.

[Troy Loney]

Keith Law had some positive things to say about Tarpley in his top 100 chat. Had him as the 4th best prospect in the Orioles system, live arm, lefty that can hit 97.

I think the situation was similar to where the Pirates were last year with Mike Carp. Carp was a guy with a limited roll in Boston, and the Pirates would want him for a larger role in Pittsburgh. The Red Sox probably asked for a certain player, pirates said no and neither budged.

This Snider deal had been in the works for a while, it seems like the Orioles caved.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

If there is one thing that is true about the pirates since hurdle has been here, it is that they truly don't care about the piece of crap that is the 25th man on the roster

[Crankshaft]

I liked Travis Snyder but I'm not upset about the trade.

[ville5]

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/ ... =prospects" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ulf]

7 in the top 100

[Troy Loney]

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit ... ion-013015" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Encouraging story about Marte. An in depth look at some of the adjustments that he made to go from a .700 OPS guy in the first half to a .975 OPS. The writer was really impressed that Marte was able to increase his contact rate at the same time lowering his ground ball rate. So basically just hitting more line drives, while reducing ground balls and swings and misses.

And in unrelated Marte news, my friend told me he was at the superbowl wearing a tank top.

[Rocco]

The Pirates have traded cash for Steve Lombardozzi. NH is going to be prepared if the middle infield gets vaporized by injuries this year.

[FreeCandy44]

Who dat?

[JS©]

I think he was the Brooklyn Brawler in the WWF.

[FreeCandy44]

The Pirates could use a Barry Horowitz.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Two more weeks people.

[FreeCandy44]

So who has tix for the upcoming year? Right now since im saving every penny for a new suv, ill only be attending one game Sunday August 30 vs Rockies.

[pittsports87]

So who has tix for the upcoming year? Right now since im saving every penny for a new suv, ill only be attending one game Sunday August 30 vs Rockies.

I usually just go on a random day. There are always cheap tickets available on stubhub for weekday games for under $10.

[SolidSnake]

Adding to the Pen

http://m.pirates.mlb.com/news/article/1 ... om-marlins" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mr. Colby]

Good low risk high reward add there. Plus a phenomenal name.