Series Thread: Nationals at Pirates

[Darkstone42]

Pedro with a 2-run bomb!

It's about time he did that again. He's been just missing them lately, but he got that one.

 

[Darkstone42]

Morton with some good luck for a change today.

 

[Illinest]

That's the problem with morton. The other team puts the ball in play a lot when he pitches. He either has good luck or bad luck. That said - his ERA is fine. He's one of our better pitchers this year.

Next year is looking a little bit ugly right now. Taillon isn't likely to be ready, glasnow is barely getting started and no telling if he's an early season option or if he'll be held back until june. Kingham was supposed to be making his case but he hasn't been great. Wandy is gone. Volquez and liriano's contracts will be done and gone.

Now you could argue that Neil will go out and sign a good starter with the wandy/liriano/volquez money but he could've done that this year as well.
Re-sign liriano? Not sure how that would work out right now.

Neil will certainly need to do something. We're going to need a top-half starter for the start of the season at a minimum. I think another reclamation project is likely as well. That leaves us with something like
1. Cole
2. Morton
3. FA
4. Cumpton
5. Reclamation Project

But that sounds like a really bad idea to me. The FA would need to be a damn good pitcher. Maybe Kingham/Taillon/Glasnow all arrive later in the year but the start of 2015 looks like a big mess.

 

[Darkstone42]

I never understand taking out a pitcher after a softly hit ball falls in for a hit. And why would we bring in Morris, who has been terrible with inherited runners, with the bases loaded?

 

[Darkstone42]

Oh please let Cole not be hurt. Oh please oh please oh please.

 

[Darkstone42]

Cole came back out and gave us six despite an elevated pitch count and the little ankle tweak (which fortunately appeared to not be serious). Didn't have his best stuff/control tonight (though the velocity was solid), and he had to labor a bit, but he made the pitches when he had to and got the outs.

And now we have won yet another series, and finally seem to be on a little bit of a roll.

 

[thedddd]

As rare as it was seeing two first overall picks face each other both pitched a good game. Great to see the Pirates keep on winning.

As for RF I think they have an answer until Polanco gets called up. They would be stupid to not keep playing Harrison while he is hitting.

 

[TheBurgh88]

Agreed. Harrison has to be given the opportunity to play everyday. He has that competitive fire. Snyder and Tabata show little emotion. Although I liked the Snyder trade at the time, he appears to be one that will never live up to his potential. Tabata we are stuck with and will be no better than a 4th/5th OF. It will suck to pay him 8.5 mil to ride the bench the next 2 years because he certainly won't be playing much barring injury.

On another note, Martin back is huge. When he was signed I never realized how good his defense was. I thought he was on the decline and would be a .220 hitter with a little pop in his bat (10-15 HR). Boy was I wrong.

4 wins in a row.