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Bill Brink's Pirates chat: 6.13.18
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Bill Brink
12:00
Good morning and welcome to this week's Pirates chat. Thanks for the questions you've already sent, and keep them coming. Here we go ...
Bill
12:01
When you have a team that is struggling and several players have been struggling for extended time, why the resistance to make changes? Guys like Kingham, Osuna, Newman, etc have performed well in AAA and for the first two they did well at MLB and yet no urgency to bring players up that perform well. Losing is tough, but losing with the same guys not performing well is the definition of insanity.
Bill Brink
12:02
Hurdle sometimes says he needs to be the last guy out on a player, the last guy to believe in him. That plays well in the clubhouse, but it can lead to waiting longer than necessary to make changes. It's not just him -- the front office is involved in personnel decisions. I thought the losing stretch would force some personnel changes before the road trip, but I have to imagine the Cubs and Diamondbacks series, taken in context with the rest of the past 30 days, will force some changes.
Too Tall Ball
12:02
Bill, I thought Trevor Williams was supposed to be a pretty smart guy. He looked like a dufus in the first inning last night. With a chance to escape the 1st, 2-0, his first pitch to Marte is a high fast ball that the guy was so late on it was ridiculous. So what’s he do? Comes back with 2 straight change ups, down > boom, gap shot, 4-zip.  THEN, the 8th hitter gets the IBB to get to the pitcher, and he makes a pick off throw? What?? Boom again, 6-0.  Does Diaz get blamed for the pitch calls?  Does someone signal Williams to make a pick off throw?  After that it was straight to bed and more sleep than expected.
Bill Brink
12:04
Williams is a smart pitcher with a good changeup, so I've got nothing wrong with that sequence. The pickoff throw was a physical error, not a mental one. There's a lot going wrong for the Pirates right now, and Williams is in the middle of it with his past three starts, but his issues were with execution, not intelligence.
Past five* starts for Williams.
Dinosaur
12:04
It was not that long ago that the pirates were one of the better teams in baseball. They were 9 games over and leading the division. They were playing with a ton of confidence and finding ways to win games. In not so many words can you describe what happened that let the bottom fall out?
Bill Brink
12:07
In not so many words: the bullpen. Pirates relievers have a 5.38 ERA in the past 30 days, 26th in all of baseball. They've walked four batters per nine and given up nearly one and a half home runs per nine. It's not that simple, Williams and Nova (except for his one start back) struggled and the lineup went quiet for a few games here and there, but the bullpen has been an issue.
MjB
12:07
Now seems to be about the time that most folks will begin the "fire the manager" discussion.  I'm not on that train, but I am on the "it is time for the manager to be more accountable train."   If Clint Hurdle is the man making the lineups every day and deciding when to change pitchers, then, I would like to hear him admit that he has been doing a lousy job lately.  Is that unfair?
Bill Brink
12:10
No, it's not unfair. Hurdle makes the lineups and decides who plays, and as the manager, whether it's his fault or not, the performance of the team reflects back on him. There has been some lack of performance from players from whom you'd expect more, like Bell and Polanco, but he has also played Polanco ahead of Meadows at times (I'm OK with that in a vacuum in some sense because of Meadows' injury history but at some point performance has to play a larger role) and he's played Rodriguez too much. With regard to the pitching changes, there's no one in that bullpen that he can rely on.
Dinosaur
12:11
Why is Clint Hurdle still the manager of this ball club. Don’t get me wrong I love the guy. There are many life lessons that can be taken from his story, and he did a nice job getting this franchise relevant for a short period of the time a few years back. But unfortunately the last few years the team has greatly underperformed due to the fact that there is no accountability on this ball club. It is most evident on the offensive side of the ball with all the baserunning blunders. It is most evident on the defensive side of the ball with all the boneheaded errors. And it is ultimately most glaring looking at the lineup that is assembled on a daily basis. These 3 aspects ultimately reflect on the manager. Either Hurdle starts implementing some acccountability and fundamentals or he must go. Your thoughts...
Bill Brink
12:13
I must note that Hurdle signed an extension and it's unlikely Nutting and the ownership group will choose to pay two managers at once. But that's more of a bottom-line answer. I don't think Hurdle is responsible for everything that has gone wrong with this team -- don't think it's his fault the bullpen can't get outs, don't think it's his fault Nova and Williams have struggled, or that Bell hasn't been good. It is his decision to play Rodriguez as much as he does, or to remove Kingham from the rotation, or to play Polanco over Meadows. Those are the things he could be criticized for, but I don't think that's enough for him to lose his job.
Josh Harrison
12:14
When will I get traded from this clown act of a franchise?
Bill Brink
12:14
Hey Josh. Hope the shoulder blade's feeling better. You'd be a piece that has drawn interest in the past and will again, so if it's not done this season, I'd imagine this offseason would be the time.
Dinosaur
12:15
I like the fact that Musgrove stood up for his teammates on Monday up 5-0. That fight is much needed on this club and he gets a 10 in my book. But how would this series have been different if he just goes out there and pitches to Owings in the 7th?
Bill Brink
12:16
I don't have a time-turner so I don't know, but it's not unreasonable to think they get out of there with the lead, or even turn a double play. Musgrove hitting him opened the floodgates in that one game, but teams get the leadoff man on and don't score, or score one or two, all the time. The nine unanswered runs was the exception.
Jim
12:16
I've looked everywhere but cannot find the actual attendance numbers for Pirates home games this year. I know teams now announce tickets sold as attendance, but April's "attendance" figures of 10,000 plus for most games belies actual numbers. I understand why the Pirates--especially this year--would not want people to know how few people came through the turnstiles. Are the numbers (even guess-timated) available somewhere, or do we just add the attendance figures to a growing list of "facts" from the Pirates?
Bill Brink
12:17
If someone counts fans in the seats and compiles them somewhere, I don't know about it. The tickets sold numbers do not reflect attendance, especially in April when it was 41 degrees every game, but as to exact numbers, I don't think we know for sure.
Dinosaur
12:18
Give me the case to why SRod and Freeze are not only on this club but are getting significant playing time. Seems like Osuna and Kramer (Kang when he  is deemed fit) would make this a better ball club.
Bill Brink
12:20
I don't have a good case to make for Rodriguez given his production this year. Freese still has some offense in him, especially if he ever starts hitting lefties again, and plays a league-average defensive third base. Osuna is a below-average defender. Kramer to me is the interesting one, especially given the fact that Mercer is heading to free agency and Harrison's name has been mentioned in trade talks for a while now.
Mark
12:20
Bill, I kind of understand why the Pirates didn't sign a free agent for their starting rotation because I do think they have some talented young arms there.  But, how did Neal H. think they could compete with that low budget bullpen?
Bill Brink
12:22
Nobody, me included, thought it would be this bad. In spring, I actually thought Feliz-Kontos-Vazquez (in spring, technically, he was Rivero) with Crick as a sixth or seventh-inning guy would be solid, and I was less sure about Brault and Glasnow. I think the criticism is not so much that it's been dreadful but that it's still dreadful and nothing has been done about it yet.
Bill
12:22
How safe is Williams' starting spot? He's proven he can pitch out of the bullpen and Kingham has been better.
BobbyToledo
12:22
Williams and Kuhl have fallen off the cliff. Kingham should replace one of them and soon after Glasnow should get his chance. Any reasons why not?
Bill Brink
12:23
Much less safe now than two starts ago. They'll need both of them in the next few years if they want to compete, so they both need the experience. If they still think they can contend this year, Kingham is the choice for now, but if they are looking ahead, might make sense to let Williams sort it out. As for Glasnow, he's looked good if inconsistent in relief, but I don't think they'll want to remove him from the bullpen now and stretch him out to start.
Bill
12:24
Do you think we'll see Newman before Sept?
Bill Brink
12:24
More and more I'm starting to think that way, especially if the team continues to lose and they're looking ahead (or if they start winning and think he's an upgrade over Mercer).
Dinosaur
12:24
How can you say Williams throwing to first error was “mechanical and not intelligence”? There are two outs and the pitcher is up. The guy on first means nothing. The guy on third means nothing. Yes the errant throw was mechanical but the fact that he threw it in the first place shows a lack of intelligence. Go after the pitcher and get him out.
Bill Brink
12:25
At this level, you should be able to execute a pickoff throw without throwing the ball away. You shouldn't have to worry about an error with the pitcher up.
Kk
12:25
How long do you think it will take Hurdle to start Frazier over Rodriguez, Moran over Freese against lefties? Frazier and Moran both bat well against lefties and if Hurdle is all about giving guys equal chances, why can’t he give Frazier and Moran a chance? Also, I understand why Frazier was sent down, but when is he coming back up? And if he doesn’t soon, how does Hurdle justify keeping him in AAA and Rodriguez on the team?
Bill Brink
12:28
Freese has a .505 OPS against lefties and Moran has 27 plate appearances against them (with six walks and five strikeouts). If it hasn't happened by now, I don't know what will change that. The issue is not Rodriguez vs. Frazier but Rodriguez on the roster vs. not, because Hurdle likes having people who are capable of playing shortstop should Mercer get hurt or need a day. Rodriguez used to be that, but recent errors have called that into question. Moroff, not Frazier, would be the replacement for Rodriguez because he can play shortstop and I don't think the Pirates call up Newman unless he has a chance to play every day (although I didn't think they'd keep Meadows either).
Stop the silliness...
12:28
Would you be opposed to a lengthy suspension--I'm talking 30-50 games--for Joe Musgrove? Take actual action to stop "old-school baseball" ridiculousness and you'd think it'd be gone pretty quickly.
Bill Brink
12:29
I would definitely oppose it now because that's not the precedent. If MLB and the union wanted to add the punishment through collectively bargaining, that's one thing.
Dinosaur
12:29
Can you give us a Kang update?
Bill Brink
12:30
He was promoted to Indianapolis and is 0 for 8 in two games there after tearing up the Florida State League in seven games.
Morty
12:30
How does Hurdle justify leaving pitchers in the game long enough to absorb eye-popping deficits and making games effectively out of reach.  I know someone has to pitch but he seems to give an awfully long leash to poor performers
Bill Brink
12:31
I think you got to it with the "someone has to pitch" portion. The bullpen is pitching poorly and working it harder won't help things, so he's trying to get what outs he can out of his starters.
Morty
12:31
Has PBC management considered the impact of taking so many PR hits this offseason that the attendance may prevent them from making necessary moves for next year when they were supposed to be more competitive?
Bill Brink
12:32
They definitely did. Liz Bloom wrote a nice piece about that this spring (http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2018/03/26/neal-huntington-...) but the quote that addresses this issue, from Coonelly, is: "“Double-digit percentage decreases in attendance has some impact on how we can build a roster in 2018 and moving forward,” Coonelly said. “My very poor job of selling Pittsburgh Pirates baseball over the last two years has a meaningful impact on how we can build a roster in 2018.”
Dinosaur
12:32
What can you tell us about the clubhouse? How has the dynamic changes over the past 7 series compared to when they were winning?
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