Sunday sit-down chat.

[Illinest]

The Pirates are terrible.

Okay I guess it could have been worse considering who they were playing against but 3-6? that's about the best I could've hoped for considering the gauntlet of pitchers that we just run through. The pitching - especially the starters - have done pretty well. The bullpen has had a few problems but what can you say? It's the bullpen.
The lineup on the other hand. Well I have to be fair and admit that I DID see a relatively reasonable argument for bad luck. Our line drive percentage has been high, our BABIP low.

On an individual level I think we should congratulate Correia. Still want him out of the rotation as soon as possible but you've got to give him credit for what he's done.
McC is raping the ball. Not a surprise. The one solid regular.
I also liked what I've seen from McGehee, Presley and to a lesser extent Navarro and Hague. Garrett Jones continues to be Garrett Jones. McKenry is having a pretty ridiculous start but my gut says he's still a weak-hitting backup catcher.

On the other side - Barmes doesn't look as good in the field as I'd hoped. Barajas hasn't contributed much. Tabata has been pretty bad.
But the number one sucky Pirate is Pedro Alvarez. Nine strikeouts in his last 10 abs. His batting average is .053.


Moving right along...
AAA - Marte is doing well. Mercer, Boggs, Watts. All performing well but not doing anything too remarkable.
Jeff Clement has been kinda remarkable. His OPS is 1.131. What does that mean though? I don't know if I can get excited about Clement.
All of the Indianapolis pitchers aside from Locke are doing reasonably well but nothing that seems noteworthy.

AA - Sanchez has had a decent start at the plate. .355 OBP and .800 OPS. Brock Holt has been alright at the plate but he's got 3 errors. Can't be good. Grossman has started slow but I think he'll warm up. I think it's just the jump in difficulty from A to AA.
Only noteworthy pitching performances (to me anyways) are Alderson and Nathan Baker. Both have a WHIP under 1.00.

High A - Mel Rojas, Taillon - good. Cole - not so good last start.

Low A - Alen Hansen is hot hot hot. Also encouraging is Josh Bell who recovered from a rough start to raise his average up to .308. Bell is going to be my new favorite prospect I think. He's got talents.

 

[element1286]

Most of the WV lineup is interesting; Carvajal is hitting well, Jose Osuna has upside, and Gregory Polanco is 6'4" and is playing CF. And best part is they are all either 19 or 20, so they are fairly young for their levels at this point.

 

[stillmatic32]

My expectations for Sanchez have dropped quite a bit. Now it would be great if he could just get to the majors and get a .700 OPS and play above average D. A hitting prospect at any position besides outfield would be great, too.

 

[element1286]

Considering the downward trend of offense the past few years, a .700 OPS and above average defense is borderline all star caliber for a catcher.

 

[element1286]

Good to see Rojas hitting, need some of those toolsy types to make something of themselves.

 

[Illinest]

Sanchez doesnt seem like a .700 hitter to me. I think if hes able to handle anything at all then youll see a good obp and slugging figures from him. When hes hitting at all his obp and slg are usually pretty good. Not much slappiness in him. Im convinced that his defense may never be as good as we originally thought but it wouldnt be such a shock to me if he becomes a pretty good offensive catcher.

 

[stillmatic32]

I don't necessarily think he will achieve the .700 OPS and above average D, but like I said, it would be great. I do think it is a possibility, though.

I agree about Rojas. Very good to see. Hope he keeps it up.

 

[Illinest]

I feel like I said that in a really confusing way so maybe I can try another way.

Look at a guy like Ronny Cedeno. He doesn't walk much. His OBP is almost purely dependent on batting average. Not such a big deal if you're capable of hitting .330 every year but that's not Ronny. Then look at the slugging figure. Some guys only have a good slugging figure if they're hitting .330. That's Gorkys Hernandez. He only contributes singles so he has to contribute a lot of them.

I'm not sure if disguise is exactly the right word - but I'm saying that a good batting average can kind of disguise deficiencies in the other parts of a player's game.

With Sanchez I don't think that we need to worry about that disguise. His value comes from walks and power. If his batting average is good then his walks and power should be good too. I believe that if he can hit .250 then he'll probably be getting on base at least a third of the time. .340-.350 OBP. I think if he's hitting .250 then he'll probably be slugging better than .400.
Of course I'd say that something similar holds true for Alvarez as well. If Alvarez ever finds out how to get his batting average up to .250 then he'll probably hit 30 homeruns.

 

[stillmatic32]

I got ya. That makes sense. By drawing walks and slugging somewhat, it will make .700 much easier to get to than it would be for a singles guy that doesn't walk.

 

[Darkstone42]

I feel like I said that in a really confusing way so maybe I can try another way.

Look at a guy like Ronny Cedeno. He doesn't walk much. His OBP is almost purely dependent on batting average. Not such a big deal if you're capable of hitting .330 every year but that's not Ronny. Then look at the slugging figure. Some guys only have a good slugging figure if they're hitting .330. That's Gorkys Hernandez. He only contributes singles so he has to contribute a lot of them.

I'm not sure if disguise is exactly the right word - but I'm saying that a good batting average can kind of disguise deficiencies in the other parts of a player's game.

With Sanchez I don't think that we need to worry about that disguise. His value comes from walks and power. If his batting average is good then his walks and power should be good too. I believe that if he can hit .250 then he'll probably be getting on base at least a third of the time. .340-.350 OBP. I think if he's hitting .250 then he'll probably be slugging better than .400.
Of course I'd say that something similar holds true for Alvarez as well. If Alvarez ever finds out how to get his batting average up to .250 then he'll probably hit 30 homeruns.

I agree on your assessment for both.

I think Sanchez is mostly suffering from missing so much time so far. If he puts together two consecutive healthy years, I think he'll hit. But if you keep getting hurt, that affects your timing, and hitting is all about timing.

Alvarez just needs to trust himself and his swing. Relax. Take it easy. Just play. He's tweaked his mechanics too much. His swing was beautiful in college, why change it? Now he's got all these adjustments in his head, and he can't focus on what's important: see ball, hit ball.

 

[Darkstone42]

And another thing!


Tabata's pulling off the ball. I think it got in his head that the first few games he was putting the ball in play without reward, and now he's pressing, trying too hard to hit the ball too hard, and he's pulling off the ball. That's why he's striking out and putting the ball weakly on the ground so much now. He needs to get back to staying in the swing.

Additionally, Barmes is not very balanced when he hits. He lunges on almost every swing. No wonder he's got a super low career batting average.

McCutchen's awesome.

Walker looks to be starting to work his way out of his funk.

Presley is bittersweet atop the order. I'd like to see him put the ball in the gap a little more like he did last season, walk a little more, and strike out a little less, but right now he's probably been our second best hitter, so he at least has that going for him.

McCutchen is awesome. (Did I already say that?)

Okay, that's all.

 

[thedddd]

Well so far this season a lot of what we all expected is occuring.
McCutchen is this team with a few role players. Presley is showing he deserves to start and Tabata like a few others stated probably is not a major league starter.
They desperately need Walker to do something (like tonight).

I keep saying this because of how unbelievable it is the fact that Alvarez has NOT advanced one runner this season in 19 PA's. Wonder how long before Hague (2nd in team in RBI's so far) is back and Alvarez is in AAA?

 

[Darkstone42]

Well so far this season a lot of what we all expected is occuring.
McCutchen is this team with a few role players. Presley is showing he deserves to start and Tabata like a few others stated probably is not a major league starter.
They desperately need Walker to do something (like tonight).

I keep saying this because of how unbelievable it is the fact that Alvarez has NOT advanced one runner this season in 19 PA's. Wonder how long before Hague (2nd in team in RBI's so far) is back and Alvarez is in AAA?

I still think the talent's there for Tabata, but he needs to get back in his swing. He's hit at every level, including a pretty significant sample at this level. And he's the best baserunner on a team with a lot of dumb baserunners, so we kind of need him to hit if we want to have a successful offense.

I really do think he's pressing right now because the ball wasn't falling in for him in the first couple series. Once he gets over that mental block (and I think he will), I expect him to be a contributor offensively.

 

[steelparrot]

Our hitters cant possibly be this bad, except for maybe Alvarez, we need to give all the young players 200 abs before making decisions.

 

[stillmatic32]

At some point, someone besides Cutch is going to start hitting better than me. I hope so anyway.

 

[element1286]

Klaw tweet on Alen Hanson from Yesterday:

[MEDIA=twitter]191963171874029568[/MEDIA]

 

[Illinest]

Alen hanson save us. I really hope he is good. If he can leap to AA that would be so sweet.

 

[Darkstone42]

Call him up now.


"Chance to hit" is better than Barmes right now...


(Of course, I'm not serious, but I also kind of am.)

 

[thecrow124]

Taillon was dominant tonight. 8 innings, 1 run, 9 k's, no walks. It is early, but it looks like maybe they are taking the kid gloves off a little, and he looks every bit the top prospect that everyone says he is.

It is probably just me, but i would rather the organization let him pitch deep into games, and build up the endurance for that more than i would like to see him get pulled after 5 innings every game. If they have to shut him down a month early due to innings, so be it, but let him go deep into games as often as it is plausible. I am not sure of his innings limit this year, but it should be around 130 based on past pitchers in the system, so he should be able to comfortably get 22 starts with that many innings. I would not be happy to see him get to 115 innings and move to the pen either, let him get to his limit and shut him down. Sets him up for a full season at AA next year, with no restrictions.

 

[thecrow124]

Another good sign today, but take this for what it is worth, Tim Alderson pitched 3 innings in Indianapolis and was outstanding, 1 hit, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. Lets hope he can continue this throughout the season.