The Pirates made some roster moves over the weekend and proved once again that they have no interest in winning. As I predicted, the 13 best players will not be on the opening day roster. Not all of the moves were bad; they designated for assignment Josh Palacios and optioned Henry Davis to AAA. Unfortunately, they did the same thing with Billy Cook and Nick Yorke. Now, you could make an argument that Cook was not ready, but Yorke should be on the team. Is Yorke better than Adam Frazier? Is Yorke better than some non-roster player that they are going to put on first base? Is Yorke better than Jack Suwinski and Ji Hwan Bae? Yes, to all three questions. They put Hunter Stratton on the 40-man roster. That does not mean that he definitely will make the team. The Pirates have already done a great job of putting their better pitchers in AAA. All of this is done to keep players from getting their major league service to become arbitration eligible. The Pirates are the masters of this. I would love to see the Indianapolis Indians play the Pirates in a three-game series with something on the line. I am sure the Indians would sweep them. Stratton’s stats at first glance look really good. Consider this: in his last 33 appearances of 2024, the Pirates lost 24 of those games. This guy only performed well in low-leverage situations. If he makes the roster, he will replace another young arm. That young arm should make the team. The final 26-man roster of the Pirates will securely entrench them in mediocrity. I just read that the young arm is most likely Kyle Nicolas. Hunter Stratton the king of blow out games is most likely going to make the team. It just keeps getting worse.
You can tell that the Pirate players are pretty much fed up with the organization. They will do anything to try and get off the team. The perfect example of this is the horrible spring that Liovar Peguero had. He routinely booted ground balls in the field, batted .133, and swung at just about every pitch. You could tell he had no interest in making this team. I am sure he would love to go to another team or be DFA’d. Who wants to play for Derek Shelton? He routinely throws his players under the bus to hide his managerial blunders. When he fails to make an obvious managerial move, he will say that the player that was incorrectly left in the game should have executed better. The first sign that this organization is serious about winning is when they show Shelton the door. This is a team that finished last in their division. They will most likely open the season with the same team that finished in last place and somehow be weaker defensively. All of this when you have the best pitcher in baseball. As I have written before, this could all change in a heartbeat if a trade is made. The chance of this happening seems to get less and less with every passing day. I really do hope that I am all wet about this and that they will contend this year. I will gladly eat crow for a playoff run.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 