Derek The Shadow Shelton was fired yesterday as manager of the Pirates. I am going to miss calling him the Shadow. There are many out there cutting Shelton a lot of slack. They are saying he had no players to work with. MLB Now even stated that he was a good manager. He was not a good manager; he had major weaknesses. He was a horrible in-game strategist. He would bring in the wrong pitcher or not bring in a pitcher at all when one was needed. He did not pinch-hit enough when the matchup called for it. He played the wrong players. He would not have guys warming up in the bullpen when they should have been. He managed the bullpen badly; he would have guys rested too much or overused them. He ignored high-leverage situations and would bring in an ineffective reliever. His worst sin as a manager is that he did nothing to protect his players. Rather than admitting his own mistakes during a game, he would criticize players about their execution. He was especially hard on pitchers. I am not sure if he was totally responsible for this, but those starting lineups and batting orders were horrible. Shelton is a thing of the past. Will other changes be made?
As I always say, here are the changes that need to be made but probably won’t happen. There are 13 position players on the team. Here are the ones that should be promptly removed from the team: Enmanuel Valdez, Tommy Pham, Adam Frazier, Henry Davis, Jared Triolo, and Alexander Canario. I know this is almost half the team. There are four players that are coming off the IL shortly: they are Spencer Horwitz, Nick Gonzales, Endy Rodriguez, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It is hard to say when these players will be activated. I am not too sure we can wait for that to happen. I would bring up Abrahan Gutierrez to replace Henry Davis. He is a AAA catcher with a slash line of .320/.370/.380. Not a lot of power, but he gets on base. Next, and hold on to your hats, I would bring up Jack Suwinski. Since going down to AAA, he is slashing .294/.405/.529. I would make sure that he never sees a left-handed pitcher for at least a month if he lasts that long. Bye-bye, Canario. I would bring up 30-year-old 2nd baseman Nick Solak. He is killing it in AAA. His slash line is .361/.423/.581. Triolo, take the train. Last but certainly not least, I would bring up Nick Yorke. He had an injury issue early but seems fine now. His slash line is not as impressive: .258/.333/.392. He certainly would do better than Tommy Pham, who just needs to be cut loose. Frazier and Valdez I would keep until the IL reinforcements come in. The One Hundred Club needs to hit the road.
The pitching situation is even worse with the talent that is down in AAA. The Mlodzinski experiment would end, and Bubba Chandler would be brought up right away. Carmen Mlodzinski would move to the bullpen. Tanner Rainey would go to AAA. Even though I do not think that Joey Wentz has done that bad of a job, I see no need to have 3 lefties in the bullpen. Down he goes, and I would bring up Mike Burrows and his 3.18 ERA. I would have short leashes on Kyle Nicolas and Colin Holderman. I like Holderman’s new approach with increased usage of the fastball. He had some bad luck in his last outing. He may be on the comeback trail. Regardless, the Pirates have so many arms down in AAA. If these two pitchers falter, they can be replaced.
We will see if new manager Don Kelly makes any changes to the batting order. Despite Oneil Cruz’s success at the leadoff spot, I still think Andrew McCutchen should lead off, as his experience and leadership could set a strong tone for the game. The Pirates are trying to create another Kyle Schwarber. They tried with Jack Suwinski, whose struggles at the plate might be attributed to the pressure of expectations, probably contributing to his downfall. Cruz should bat either 3rd or 4th, where his power and slugging capabilities can truly shine and have more of a chance of driving in some runs with men on base. It will be interesting to see if there is any uniqueness to the Pirate lineup tonight and how it reflects Kelly’s vision for the team moving forward. I am sure of one thing: the players will give more of an effort for Kelly than they did this year for Shelton, as a fresh approach can often reinvigorate a team’s spirit. I am not sure if this will translate into more wins. They are going to face a brutal stretch of games, which will test not only their skills but also their resolve as a team. If they can even go 4-5 over these next 9 games, then I think there may be hope yet for the season. I would see even more hope if the above changes were made to the team and if they could develop a more consistent offensive strategy. Finally, could there really be a trade that will help this team’s offense? Who knows? I write it for the last time: only The Shadow knows.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 