moonslav59

I think he was battling an injury, last season. When we got him, he was known as a pretty good defensive catcher. It took a while for the staff to adjust to him, but now they seem totally at ease with him and Wong. Wong still has to do a better job blocking bad pitches, but he seems better, too, this year. I've always given some credit to catchers for how the pitching staff does- perhaps more than most do, but our staff is doing very well, despite no Gio, Pivetta and Whitlock and guys like jansen & martin struggling out of the gate. I don't like comparing staff CERA between two catchers, because each catcher often catches different pitchers for vastly different sample sizes, but here is a look of some small sample sizes. This year, there is more balance than last year. Overall: 1.74 w McGuire 3.35 w Wong OPS Against by Pitcher (note sample size differences) Pitchers listed in order of most IP in 2024 Crawford .382 w Wong 44 .491 w McGuire 66 PAs Houck .437 w McGuire 45 .606 2 Wong 60 Bello .547 w McGuire 23 a bit unbalnced .672 w Wong 67 Whitlock .590 w McGuire 39 .643 w Wong 36 Wink .732 w McGuire 47 Big swing, here .916 w Wong 27 Slaten .203 w McGuire 25 Big swing, but still good numbers w Wong. .523 w Wong 24 Anderson .200 w Wong 20 Big swing, but small samples .739 w McGuire 30 Pivetta .520 w McGuire 41 N/A w Wong 0 Weissert .556 w Wong 21 .778 w McGuire 18 Martin .671 w Wong 21 .787 w McGuire 17 Joely .713 w McGuire 23 1.203 w Wong 14 Jansen .267 w McGuire 15 .762 w Wong 21 Bernardino .311 w McGuire 10 .402 w Wong 16 Campbell .000 w McGuire 3 1.148 w Wong 30 Criswell .762 w McGuire 30 NA w Wong 0

MLB SP Leaders (146 Pitchers with 10+ IP) fWAR 1. Crawford 1.1 3. Houck 1.0 48. Whitlock & Pivetta 0.4 67. Bello 0.3 ERA- 4. Crawford 16 6. Pivetta 20 14. Houck 33 24. Whitlock 48 53. Bello 74 xFIP- 5. Houck 52 7. Pivetta 63 28. Bello 79 54. Whitlock 93 66. Crawford 98

Before today's win, our pitching staff was... SP: 1st in fWAR at 3.2 2nd in xFIP- at 81 4th in SIERA ay 3.37 RP: 11th in fWAR 0.5 5th in xFIP- at 88 6th in SIERA at 3.34 Overall: fWAR 3.8 PHI 3.7 BOS 3.2 WSH 2.9 KCR 2.7 NYM 2.5 BAL & OAK xFIP- 84 BOS 85 PHI 86 SEA & MIN 89 BAL SIERA 3.24 MIN 3.33 SEA 3.36 BOS 3.42 PHI 3.49 BAL (Note: we have played 2 of the top pitching teams from each of these 3 categories, already.)

I don't disagree, but I'm not sure they will do this. They may just try to start Whitlock and pull him after 55-65 pitches. Maybe the dreaded "piggyback" word comes out, again. We do have Wink, Anderson and Criswell who can go 2-3 IP (Criswell & Anderson 4 or 5,) so maybe they just stick with the original rotation. I worry about Pivetta being able to return. We might need Criswell or Anderson for him more than Whitlock.

Our top 13 Pitchers all have ERAs below 4.26, counting Pivetta and Whitlock. Listed in order of most IP 0.66 Crawford 27.1 3.04 Bello 26.2 1.35 Houck 26.2 1.96 Whitlock 18.0 (IL) 4.20 Wink 15.0 0.63 Slaten 14.1 2.77 Anderson 13.0 0.82 Pivetta 11.0 (IL) 1.86 Weissert 9.2 4.00 Martin 9.0 5.63 Joely 8.0 2.35 Jansen 7.2 1.23 Bernardino 7.1 12.79 Campbell 6.1 (IL) 4.26 Criswell 6.1 4.50 Booser 2.0 5.40 Jacques 1.2 (DFA'd)

Yup. and Slaten, Bernardino and Anderson.

Grissom is on the 40 but he is rehabbing in AAA, now. He will be called up, soon. I'm not sure who we have, who could be added to the 40 and is better than what we have (besides Dalbec) and can play 1B and or 3B. 1B Kavadas (Jordan AA) 3B Westbrook (might be the best choice) 3B Meidroth (has been hot, lately) UT Sogard, E Alvarez 3B Paulino (AA) 2B Yorke (AA) Nobody jumps out as being held back from greatness. SS Mayer (AA)

No argument from me. We don't really have a 1B/3B guy who is ML ready, but I'd still do it.

Rafaela is our best defensive SS, and SS is the most important defensive position, except maybe catcher. We have 4 good OF'ers when O'Neill returns, so yes.

Maybe. He did go 3 IP- almost as much as the starter.

Indeed

...and the Bucs swept them in '23.

Bloom had his chances to make more moves like the Vaz one, which many hated at the time. That was one of his biggest faults.

Good summary, and this might happen. I'm not sure you sign Soto AND get a top closer, but 2025 does look pretty good. You need your old guys to stay healthy, still, right?

Woo won 7-1 as Uwasawa went 5 strong IP 1 Hit 1 ER 1 BB 7 K Gutierrez walked 3 in 1 IP. Meidroth 2-3 w 2BB (.803, now) Sogard 3-5 Kavadas 1-4 w no BB & 3 Ks. Wikelman came in the game after Bastardo went 3 innings of 1 hit ball.) Wikelman: 3 IP, 1 H, O ER, 1BB, 4 K POR won 8-5 Yorke 2-5 Anthony & Mayer 1-5 Sikes went 3-4 w 3 rbi

I expected nothing less.

Updated

Updated OPS Leaders (no min PAs) 1.209 O'Neill (on IL) 1.169 Refsnyder (SSS) .859 Wong (2 away from team lead in rbi) .857 Casas (10 rbi leads the Sox) .830 Abreu (2nd on team with 4 SBs) .758 Duran (8 SBs) .718 McGuire (10 rbi is T1st on Sox) .700 Yoshida (10 rbi is T1st on Sox) .650 Romy (tiny sample size) .617 Story (was heating up before season-ending injury) .553 DHam .494 Rafaela (3 SBs) .489 Valdez (9 rbi is one away from team lead) .441 Reyes .188 Dalbec (These last 5 are very concerning. They have over 225 PAs, combined!)

The Yanks just knocked the Rays into last place. BAL & TOR are winning, so far, today. Sox are in 4th. If TOR loses, we are in 3rd.

No Devers No Casas No O'Neill No Story No Grissom No Gio No Pivetta No Whitlock Jansen & Martin not pitching nearly as well as 2023, and not needed, today. Yoshida out of the line-up. McGuire, with our 6th best OPS before the game started on the bench. This team is defying all the odds- bad Pirates team or not. The west coast trip was not against all bad teams. True, we have to beat the ALE teams, too, but this is really quite a start to 2024.

Even our pen games are getting the job done. I'm not sure how much longer we can keep this up, but our much-maligned bench has been carrying us quite a bit.

Good point. Keep playing him FT, even if it means sitting Yoshida vs LHPs. (Ref sits vs RHPs.)

Before today's game, only 21 batters in all of MLB have had more PAs and a higher OPS vs LHPs than Refsnyder, since 2022: The guy has to play vs LHPs. (LF or DH preferred.) Some notable vs LHPs with 200+ PAs since 2022: 1.055 Wm Contreras 1.037 Goldschmidt 1.035 Betts 10. JD Martinez .962 21. Bogey .891 23. Refsnyder .885 101. Devers .778 189. Verdugo .660 Casas .815 in 146 PAs Story .778 in 142 Yoshi .735 in 162 Dalbec .714 in 146 Duran .679 in 120 (.805 since 2023 in 78 PAs) Wong .546 in 144

It sure looks that way. 1. On a team that struggles vs LHPs, we need to keep Refsnyder starting every game vs lefties, even when O'Neill comes back. 2. Duran has earned FT status and is doing great v LHPs. 3. O'Neill deserves to play FT, when he returns. 4. Abreu needs to play everyday vs RHPs. As much as Rafaela might be our best defensive OF'er, it makes sense to play him at SS and let Reyes play back-up. Oh, and b y the way, Rafaela is likely our best defensive SS not on the IL and on the current 40. No brainer, for now.

No doubt, but that was not the position I was responding to, and the statement was "very bad." If you think 78 wins is "very bad," then we disagree. I'd say 78-84 is just plain bad. 2020 (.400) 2012 (.426) 2014 (.438) were "very" bad. Just my opinion. Certainly the 3 seasons with 78 wins were disappointing and bad, but they weren't awful. Cherry-picking winning %'s to create and either or situation, I can come up with this: 12 seasons (not counting 2024) 5 seasons at .568+ (92+ wins) 1 season between .482 and .567 6 seasons below .482 In this light, the statement made can be viewed as correct, but I'd say "bad" not "very bad."