Ownership: Robert Nutting is the principle owner. He has received a good deal of scorn from Pirates oriented commentators who nicknamed him "Bottom Line Bob." He finally cleaned house on the management team and made it clear he expects the new team to upgrade the analytics to find new forms of undervalued assets and win with limited budgets. It remains to be seen if he will open the purse strings if a new contending window presents itself. BTW, Nutting is reported by moneyinc.com to be the 17'th richest owner in MLB at $1.1 Billion.
Grade D
Management: As noted above this is a completely new management team from Team President on down to Field Manager. The key man is Ben Cherington who you may recognize as the guy who succeeded Theo Epstein in Boston then didn't win another championship soon enough and was replaced himself by Dave Dombrowski. It remains to be seen if Cherington is the guy to take the Pirates to the next level of baseball analytics. New Field Manager Derek Shelton is largely unknown.
Grade C.
Current Roster:
Starting Eight: Jacob Stallings C, Josh Bell 1B, Adam Frazier 2B, Colin Moran 3B, Kevin Newman SS, Bryan Reynolds LF, Jarrod Dyson CF, Gregory Polanco RF.
Bench: Luke Maile C, Erik Gonzalez IF, Phillip Evans IF, Guillermo Heredia OF, Jose Osuna OF.
Starting Rotation: Chris Archer RHP, Joe Musgrove RHP, Trevor Williams RHP, Mitch Keller RHP, Derek Holland LHP, (Jameson Taillon RHP- likely to miss all or most of 2020 after surgery to repair flexor tendon and revise UCL).
Bullpen: Keone Kela RHP(Closer), Kyle Crick RHP, Nick Burdi RHP, Robbie Erlin LHP, Chris Stratton RHP.
This seems like a roster which could contend with a few modest, medium cost additions. Alas, it competes with the Giants for worst Current Roster in MLB.
Grade D.
Farm System: #1 Mitch Keller is a lock for the 2020 rotation. #2 Ke'Bryan Hayes is the son of former Giant 3B Charlie Hayes and has a 60 hit tool. #3 O'Neil Cruz is a freak as a 6'7" shortstop who will almost certainly move to another position. #7 Brennan Malone is a young RHP with a high ceiling. #12 Cal Mitchell had a rough second half in 2019 but has a plus hit tool. I have a personal rooting interest since he is my cousin's wife's nephew.....or something like that. Former first round draft pick Cole Tucker SS has officially graduated from prospect status and is on the 40 man roster but was optioned to the minors.
Grade C+
Although the Giants fleeced Pittsburgh badly a lot of years while building division winners and a pair of WS teams, it still hurts to look at their roster today.
ReplyDeleteMaybe karma balances out.
Eh, I don't think it's going to make any significant difference in the end. You win some deals and you lose some. Pirates have Bryan Reynolds. The Giants have a similar player in Mike Yastrzemski who they didn't give anything up for. Over the years, the Giants have won way more trades and minor league signings than they have lost. Right now, the long term future looks very bright for the Giants. A lot of that is due to players Bobby Evans brought into the system and it looks like FZ is doing a great job of building on that foundation. So yeah, Karma balances out.
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