Latest / Foul Territory / Pirates offseason to-do list: Trade Keller? Will they actually spend?

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Pirates offseason to-do list: Trade Keller? Will they actually spend? · Foul Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: Harby.
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Speaker 2: Noah Hiles is going to talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates
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Speaker 2: right now in their offseason to do lists. You can
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Speaker 2: check out those work in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette where
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Speaker 2: he's their sports enterprise reporter, and also the brand Spank
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Speaker 2: and New Bucko Territory which is out there and he's
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Speaker 2: one of the three Superstar hosts, so make sure you
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Speaker 2: check out that show. QR code side of your screen. Note,
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Speaker 2: great to have you on, man. You want to lay
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Speaker 2: out the list for us of what you think the
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Speaker 2: Pirates should accomplish this offseason.
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Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'd be happy to and thanks for always having
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Speaker 3: me on. I think the list can really be boiled
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Speaker 3: down to one item. Back up your talk. The last
0:41
Speaker 3: couple of weeks, we've heard more about how the Pirates
0:44
Speaker 3: intend to try hard than we've heard them say things
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Speaker 3: of that matter in the last three years. So now
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Speaker 3: it's time to do it. That's probably bullepoint number one
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Speaker 3: is just yeah, back up the talk. You talked about
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Speaker 3: how you want to spend You talked about how you
0:59
Speaker 3: want to ban in a bring in a big name.
1:01
Speaker 3: We'll go do it. You're attached to all of these
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Speaker 3: sexy free agents, right, Kyle Schwarber, jt Real, Muto, Ryan O'Hearn,
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Speaker 3: Hore Polonco, a couple of guys coming over from Japan.
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Speaker 3: Land one of them, and land one of them early
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Speaker 3: enough where you can continue to build. I think that's
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Speaker 3: the first step. Point Number two in the checklist is
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Speaker 3: nail the Mitch Keller trade. We've been hearing for a
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Speaker 3: year now about how they intend to trade this guy.
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Speaker 3: The rumors started last year at the Winter Meetings. They
1:30
Speaker 3: flirted with the idea of moving him at the deadline.
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Speaker 3: It didn't make sense. I intend or I expect him
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Speaker 3: to be moved sometime this offseason. I think the Winter
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Speaker 3: Meetings make a lot of sense. And when they make
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Speaker 3: that move, they have to get it right. It cannot
1:43
Speaker 3: be something underwhelming. It can't be a project. It has
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Speaker 3: to be a return better than their big return last year,
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Speaker 3: which was Spencer Horowitz, who for all intentsive purposes, was
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Speaker 3: the best hitter on their team. But they need a
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Speaker 3: little bit more for Mitch Keller. If you're gonna give
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Speaker 3: away a Mitch Keller, you've got to get Keller value
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Speaker 3: in return. This guy is a valuable piece to this team.
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Speaker 3: I think a valuable piece of the rotation, which is
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Speaker 3: the team's greatest strength. If you're going to part ways
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Speaker 3: with them, you need to make it a worthwhile move.
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Speaker 3: Third thing is just keep going just because you might
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Speaker 3: sign one free agent. Let's say they do. Let's say
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Speaker 3: they sign an O'Hearn or a Polanco, and let's say
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Speaker 3: they get the Keller trade, right, they get a pre
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Speaker 3: r player of equal value, someone with years of control,
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Speaker 3: someone who's also a little proven. That is not enough.
2:29
Speaker 3: That plus Connor Griffin is still not enough. You need
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Speaker 3: to keep going. You need to keep spending. You need
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Speaker 3: to keep building around this pitching staff if you have
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Speaker 3: any chance of being competitive, because that is what teams
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Speaker 3: who are seriously trying to compete do, and that's what
2:42
Speaker 3: the pirates claim they're trying to do. They're trying to
2:44
Speaker 3: do things different, is what they say. They're trying to
2:46
Speaker 3: be competitive. Back up all that talk. Let's see it happen,
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Speaker 3: all right, No, let's just start with the first one.
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Speaker 1: Are they really going to do this? Because we've seen it, right,
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Speaker 1: And listen, we make fun of them all the time
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Speaker 1: because they don't spend, and we get it. But they oh,
3:02
Speaker 1: we were in on Josh Naylor. We were just fifteen
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Speaker 1: million dollars below what Josh Naylor got. So we tried, fans,
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Speaker 1: is this going to be like? We also made fun
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Speaker 1: of the Red Sox because the Red Sox are always
3:14
Speaker 1: We were in it, guys, We were in it. So
3:15
Speaker 1: where the Pirate's going to give the old We were
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Speaker 1: in it? But oh no, he got twenty million dollars more.
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Speaker 1: Because if I'm the Pirates, I know I have to overpay.
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Speaker 1: So if I'm Bob Nutting and I'm Ben Cherrington, I
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Speaker 1: got to overpay. They know this going in. Will they
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Speaker 1: actually do it? Or are they just going to do
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Speaker 1: the old college try. We tried, guys, but oh come
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Speaker 1: watch us play because we have Paul Skans and Paul Skiens.
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Speaker 3: They better hope they found a way to get it done.
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Speaker 3: I think of last year's Pirate Fest, which is a
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Speaker 3: free festival for all the fans to come down to
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Speaker 3: the Convention Center in downtown right before spring training starts.
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Speaker 3: Last year was a total debacle for the organization. In
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Speaker 3: addition to selling expired soda and spelling Andrew Mcutchen's wrong
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Speaker 3: on a name sheet right in front of where he
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Speaker 3: was signing autographs. They do this annual Q and A
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Speaker 3: with friend or with fans of the team, and they
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Speaker 3: bring up the manager, they bring up the team president
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Speaker 3: and the GM to answer questions, and that session was
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Speaker 3: not a good time for anyone on stage. Fans were
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Speaker 3: really upset. And if they do all of this talking
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Speaker 3: this offseason and show up to Pirate Fest twenty twenty
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Speaker 3: six without the likes of a Jorge Polanco, a Ryan O'Hearn,
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Speaker 3: a Kyle Schwarber or someone of that caliber in a
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Speaker 3: Pirates jersey ready to sign autographs or fans, it's going
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Speaker 3: to be an absolute disaster. This. This front office or
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Speaker 3: whoever has been expressing their desires to do things differently
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Speaker 3: and make a big splash. They've written a lot of
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Speaker 3: big checks. Well not technically yet, but hopefully these checks
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Speaker 3: can be cashed because if this is just all talk,
4:54
Speaker 3: which history shows it's it is all talk until they
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Speaker 3: actually do something. If this this ends up just being
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Speaker 3: a whole bunch of words and nothing else, it is
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Speaker 3: going to be a nightmare of not only just Pirate Fests,
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Speaker 3: but just a nightmare of a season because the SPAN
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Speaker 3: base is fed up. They had three sellouts last year,
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Speaker 3: all three games resulted in sell the team chance. You
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Speaker 3: can expect a lot more of those chants if they
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Speaker 3: sit on their hands and don't get any big deals
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Speaker 3: done this offseason.
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Speaker 4: No, not to pile on, but I'm going to you
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Speaker 4: forgot about the bricks and covering up the one of
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Speaker 4: the greatest pirates of all times wall in Roberto Clemente
5:31
Speaker 4: because they wanted to sell some vodka sodas don't know
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Speaker 4: something that agent drinks.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in therapy because I want to forget those
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Speaker 3: things craps. So thanks for bringing that up. I'm gonna
5:43
Speaker 3: have to add a couple hundred dollars onto my therapist
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Speaker 3: bill now. But yeah, I mean that's it. And when
5:48
Speaker 3: all of those things happen, when the on field product
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Speaker 3: takes a step back after a seventy six weeks win season,
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Speaker 3: it still takes a step back. When you have off
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Speaker 3: field issues like they did with the ricks with surfside,
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Speaker 3: with a whole bunch of other things that went along
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Speaker 3: with it, and everyone's frustrated, including the players. You have
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Speaker 3: to do something different. It's not gonna be different personnel
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Speaker 3: wise as far as the people running the show. The
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Speaker 3: manager who got promoted after Shelton was fired in early May.
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Speaker 3: He got extended and I think he's the right guy
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Speaker 3: for the job. The general manager's back, the team president's back,
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Speaker 3: and the owner is still the same guy. So if
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Speaker 3: you're not going to change the people running the show,
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Speaker 3: you have to change the way things are being ran.
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Speaker 3: And yeah, the pressure is on. I can't imagine how
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Speaker 3: bad things are going to get if things remain the
6:38
Speaker 3: same heading into opening day next year.
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Speaker 4: All right, well, the second point on your list was
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Speaker 4: trade Mitch Keller, and you also said don't screw it up.
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Speaker 4: So as Pirates fans, people are going to roast me
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Speaker 4: because they're like, well that was a different regime. But
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Speaker 4: I bring up Garret Cole, Tyler Glass, now, Shane Mosse,
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Speaker 4: Jamison Tyne. What did they ever get from that that
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Speaker 4: made them a winning team? And yes, it's different regime,
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Speaker 4: I get that, but it's the same ownership. And when
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Speaker 4: you sell a piece like Mitch Keller, fans need to
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Speaker 4: understand the ownership has to approve that. They're not just like, oh,
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Speaker 4: we traded Mitch Keller, Okay, great, I hope we got
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Speaker 4: something that has to be approved by the Bob Nutting.
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Speaker 4: So how do they not screw this up, because, in
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Speaker 4: my opinion, with this pitching staff, I don't think the
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Speaker 4: Pirates are as far as the history of the Pirates
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Speaker 4: will tell you they are.
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Speaker 3: I don't think so either. I don't think that they're
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Speaker 3: incredibly far away. I think there are a couple of
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Speaker 3: bats away from being I don't know, maybe something similar
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Speaker 3: to what the Reds were this past season, which for
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Speaker 3: a lot of fan bases you would laugh at that
7:45
Speaker 3: and say, well, that's not good enough. Well, in Pittsburgh,
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Speaker 3: five hundred is good enough for some fans because it's
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Speaker 3: only happened four times in the last thirty plus years.
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Speaker 3: So and I know the bar is much higher when
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Speaker 3: you have Paul Schemes on your roster. But you've got
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Speaker 3: to take some steps forward, and yes, nailing the Keller
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Speaker 3: trade is a huge piece to this. You have to
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Speaker 3: bring in I think either a veteran hit or equivalent
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Speaker 3: to Mitch Keller, someone who's gonna be a two to
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Speaker 3: three win player, someone who's gonna play every day, someone
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Speaker 3: who might not be the centerpiece of your lineup, but
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Speaker 3: someone who can certainly lengthen that lineup and just be
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Speaker 3: an abovely gaverage hitter. Because they only had one of
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Speaker 3: them all of last year. Or you go the other
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Speaker 3: route and you try to get two young, controllable pieces.
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Speaker 3: Obviously that's a bigger gamble. I don't know what kind
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Speaker 3: of value Mitch Keller has for that type of trade return.
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Speaker 3: And you just look at their history of returns under Charrington,
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Speaker 3: they have not won a lot of trades, especially in
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Speaker 3: trades that bring back young prospect hitters. So if you're
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Speaker 3: gonna go and try to acquire a guy who's major
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Speaker 3: League ready but isn't proven, you better be darn sure
8:53
Speaker 3: these guys are not only ready to play, but play
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Speaker 3: a lot. Be an everyday starter, because this lineup needs
9:00
Speaker 3: to have at least three to four new faces. As
9:03
Speaker 3: far as everyday contributors are concerned, I would.
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Speaker 4: Say, but you watch the Pirates more than I do.
9:10
Speaker 4: Like you make it to eighty three wins. That's what
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Speaker 4: the Reds got to to get into the playoffs this year.
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Speaker 4: If you make it to eighty three wins and you
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Speaker 4: have Jerry Jones and you have Paul Skeins pitching two
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Speaker 4: of your games in a five game series, you saw
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Speaker 4: what Trek Scoobel's done. So if they trade Mitch Keller
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Speaker 4: for two possible future prospects. Isn't that a fail to
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Speaker 4: the fact that you're gonna lose Paul Skeens in two
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Speaker 4: years anyway?
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Speaker 3: Potentially, I mean, it depends on what type of prospects
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Speaker 3: you're getting. If you're getting someone like not to say
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Speaker 3: that this is gonna be the exact thing, but you
9:46
Speaker 3: look at a team like Baltimore per se and you
9:48
Speaker 3: get a guy like Kobe Mayo who didn't have a
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Speaker 3: great rookie year but could come in and has that
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Speaker 3: upside potential. If you could get two players like that
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Speaker 3: for Mitch Keller, then yes, that's I think that that's
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Speaker 3: worth the gamble because you could potentially get guys who
10:04
Speaker 3: can a impact your team now and be help you
10:07
Speaker 3: further down the line. Now, again, I think the safer
10:09
Speaker 3: route to travel is by just getting a one for one,
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Speaker 3: get your Mitch Keller hitter equivalent, and take that win.
10:18
Speaker 3: Because you're already getting an upgrade at shortstop with Connor Griffin,
10:21
Speaker 3: and apparently you're going to spend some money on some
10:23
Speaker 3: free agents. So if you can just sign two free agents,
10:26
Speaker 3: get a position player for Keller, and then you up
10:29
Speaker 3: you promote Connor Griffin. That's almost half a new lineup
10:32
Speaker 3: right there, and there's still more work to be done,
10:35
Speaker 3: but I think that's the route to go. And you
10:37
Speaker 3: talk about the pitching, I mean, yes, Keller is going
10:39
Speaker 3: to be their number three, but you got to remember
10:41
Speaker 3: you got Bubba Chandler here, who I think is poised
10:43
Speaker 3: to contend for a Rookie of the Year award this
10:46
Speaker 3: upcoming season, and you've got some other young arms who
10:49
Speaker 3: can cover a lot of innings as well. Keller is
10:52
Speaker 3: a luxury on this team. He's going to be their
10:54
Speaker 3: highest paid player, and if he sticks around, there's a
10:57
Speaker 3: chance that he might be their number four in the rotation.
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Speaker 3: So it makes sense to move them. But if you're
11:01
Speaker 3: gonna move them, you've got to get it right.
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Speaker 5: Okay when you say keep going, Noah, what are you
11:07
Speaker 5: talking about, Because you know McNeil has been possibly linked
11:11
Speaker 5: in Brandon Lau and j Trio Muto and Kyle Kyle
11:15
Speaker 5: Schwarper's not going to the Pirates unless you grossly over Pam.
11:17
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean, yeah, cool, sounds like a cool story.
11:19
Speaker 1: JT probably not going there either. Most veteran guys aren't
11:22
Speaker 1: going to go to the pirates because they don't see it.
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Speaker 1: So you're gonna have to do it in trades. And
11:26
Speaker 1: I get Connor Griffin could be a special player, but
11:29
Speaker 1: and Mitch Keller can get you. You know, if you're
11:30
Speaker 1: saying Kobe Mayo, I mean, okay, but he hasn't proven
11:34
Speaker 1: anything right, So what can they What else do they
11:36
Speaker 1: have to trade to keep going? Because once you trade
11:39
Speaker 1: Mitch Keller, then you're gonna have to trade. If you
11:41
Speaker 1: want veteran guys and you're Ben Charrington, you're Bob Nutting
11:43
Speaker 1: and you're the Pirates organization, you're gonna have to trade
11:46
Speaker 1: from your surplus, not just Mitch Keller.
11:49
Speaker 5: Do you have the.
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Speaker 1: Prospects to go out and trade, because more than likely
11:52
Speaker 1: Bob Nutting is not gonna want to pay the price
11:53
Speaker 1: it's gonna take to get a JT.
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Speaker 5: Realmuto or someone.
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Speaker 1: Like that, because they want to go somewhere with their
11:58
Speaker 1: guaranteed they're gonna have a shot in the are not
12:00
Speaker 1: a guarantee.
12:02
Speaker 3: I totally agree. And when I say keep going, I
12:04
Speaker 3: mean they've got to keep going in a direction that
12:07
Speaker 3: they haven't gone before. I mean it's going to require
12:09
Speaker 3: more than just one multi year deal. Which hasn't happened
12:14
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh. Said, you know, since I was a senior
12:17
Speaker 3: in college like seven years ago, so it's been quite
12:20
Speaker 3: some time. You need to just sign deals that to
12:24
Speaker 3: the rest of the baseball world might not seem remarkable,
12:27
Speaker 3: but finding guys who could just be a serviceable player
12:31
Speaker 3: on half the league's rosters. The Pirates have been lacking
12:34
Speaker 3: those guys. You need some veteran presences. You need just
12:37
Speaker 3: some steady, consistent it that's one through nine in the order.
12:41
Speaker 3: You need guys who know how to win baseball games. So, yeah,
12:44
Speaker 3: you might only be signing one marquee free agent if that.
12:48
Speaker 3: But when I say keep going, it's adding the pieces
12:50
Speaker 3: around them, the guys who've been missing, Guys who are
12:53
Speaker 3: well within their price range. Even with this this low
12:56
Speaker 3: budget that they have. I mean, if they move Keller,
12:59
Speaker 3: they're gonna have hardly any money committed to their payroll.
13:03
Speaker 3: Next year, They're gonna have to spend money just to
13:04
Speaker 3: get back to that ninety million dollar mark that they
13:07
Speaker 3: were last year on opening Day. So signing a few
13:11
Speaker 3: two year, twenty million dollar deals shouldn't be out of
13:14
Speaker 3: the realm of possibility. Maybe trading a couple of other prospects.
13:17
Speaker 3: They have some really high ranked guys who are years
13:20
Speaker 3: and years away from reaching the major league level. If
13:22
Speaker 3: you're Ben Charrington, you have to ask yourself why am
13:25
Speaker 3: I hanging onto these guys if I won't even be
13:27
Speaker 3: able to likely enjoy their talents, Because if they have
13:30
Speaker 3: another losing season, he's probably gone. So maybe you explore
13:33
Speaker 3: the idea of trading a Seth Fernandez and Edward Florentino,
13:36
Speaker 3: or even some lower rank guys and Esmerlin Valdez and
13:39
Speaker 3: Antoine Kelly. They have a ton of great young pitchers
13:42
Speaker 3: that I anticipate being top one hundred prospects one day.
13:45
Speaker 3: Trade them early, get something in return for him. Again,
13:49
Speaker 3: just find a way to get seven league average hitters
13:52
Speaker 3: in this lineup, and this team can probably contend for
13:55
Speaker 3: a wildcard spot.
13:57
Speaker 4: Wait no, the reason he can't get rid of those
13:59
Speaker 4: guys is because somebody told Bob a long time ago,
14:03
Speaker 4: prospects are capital and we do not trade those. So
14:07
Speaker 4: Ben Jerrington season writing on the wall, He's like, they're
14:09
Speaker 4: never getting rid of the owner. They're gonna get rid
14:12
Speaker 4: of me, and other gms get the blessing to get
14:15
Speaker 4: rid of their prospects, but their biggest prospect has he
14:19
Speaker 4: been turned into a salesman. Also, Paul Skeens trying to
14:25
Speaker 4: recruit guys to come to Pittsburgh. Is that a team ploy?
14:31
Speaker 4: Is that a Paul Skeens is so focused and utterly
14:36
Speaker 4: just focused on being a pirate and winning as a
14:38
Speaker 4: pirate that he wants to do that or is this
14:40
Speaker 4: just is it hogwash?
14:42
Speaker 3: I think it's the latter, not hogwash. I think Paul
14:45
Speaker 3: Skeens is just a guy who wants to win. I
14:48
Speaker 3: think he is very cognizant of how hard it will
14:51
Speaker 3: be to win here in Pittsburgh. I think he knows
14:54
Speaker 3: he only has a few more years left to try
14:56
Speaker 3: to win in Pittsburgh, and he rather than sitting here
14:58
Speaker 3: and pouting and being upset about the situation he's in,
15:01
Speaker 3: he says, you know what, screw it, I'm going to
15:03
Speaker 3: try to recruit some people to come here and we
15:05
Speaker 3: can be legends, we can be heroes. I mean, the
15:07
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen Wildcard team, a team that ultimately ended up
15:11
Speaker 3: winning just three playoff games, gets talked about in the
15:13
Speaker 3: same light that like Steelers Super Bowl teams and Penguin
15:17
Speaker 3: Stanley Cup teams get talked about in this town. That's
15:20
Speaker 3: how starved for baseball success Pittsburgh is. So if they
15:24
Speaker 3: could just bring people here, who knows what will happen.
15:27
Speaker 3: It's just been an issue of not being able to
15:29
Speaker 3: bring anyone here for reasons that we're aware of. So
15:32
Speaker 3: Paul Skins, yeah, he's going to do his part for
15:34
Speaker 3: as long as he's here, because Paul Skeins is going
15:36
Speaker 3: to try to win on any team in any environment
15:40
Speaker 3: that he's placed him, because that's just who he is.
15:43
Speaker 1: Okay, I just have one question before can they do it?
15:47
Speaker 1: And will they do it? I keep going back to
15:49
Speaker 1: this no because I just don't. You got to go
15:52
Speaker 1: off history of people, right, Yeah, will they so give
15:54
Speaker 1: me yes or no? Will they actually go all in
15:57
Speaker 1: and do what they need to do to make this
15:59
Speaker 1: team competitive? And will they make the fans happy? Because
16:02
Speaker 1: last year I remember Opening Day people were like Bob
16:05
Speaker 1: Nutting walk through the crowd and they were like sell
16:06
Speaker 1: the team in his face and he like ran away.
16:09
Speaker 1: So he knows what's at stake. Sherrington knows what's at stake.
16:13
Speaker 1: Everyone knows what's his stake. The Pirates fans are pissed.
16:15
Speaker 1: Off and good for them, but will they actually do
16:18
Speaker 1: what they need to do?
16:20
Speaker 3: Probably not. I mean again, like, so.
16:24
Speaker 1: Well, no, We're having this whole conversation and I'm just like,
16:28
Speaker 1: all this sounds great, all this sounds wonderful, but at
16:31
Speaker 1: the end of the day, he has to actually do
16:32
Speaker 1: what he wants he says, right.
16:34
Speaker 3: And I'm sure you know, people from the pirates are
16:37
Speaker 3: going to hear this conversation like they've heard all the
16:39
Speaker 3: other conversation. It's it's going to piss him off. And
16:42
Speaker 3: I'll just say what I've always said, if it pisses
16:44
Speaker 3: you off, through something to change it. Prove everyone wrong,
16:48
Speaker 3: prove everyone wrong. No one believes that anything's going to
16:51
Speaker 3: be any different, and they've earned that stigma. They've earned
16:56
Speaker 3: the situation that they're in where no one will ever
16:58
Speaker 3: believe them until something actually gets done. The way to
17:02
Speaker 3: fix that is by actually doing something. If they were
17:06
Speaker 3: to go out and sign a Schwarber, which I know
17:08
Speaker 3: is not going to happen, or someone may be a
17:11
Speaker 3: tear beneath him. People are so desperate to buy in
17:15
Speaker 3: on this team. They would sell more tickets, they would
17:18
Speaker 3: have a more bought in fan base, and I think
17:21
Speaker 3: it would also give a huge spark to the players
17:24
Speaker 3: in that clubhouse who have gone on record saying that
17:28
Speaker 3: they need help, that what they did last offseason was
17:32
Speaker 3: not enough. Everyone is desperate for this team to do
17:35
Speaker 3: something different, but you can't believe it's gonna happen until
17:39
Speaker 3: it actually does.
17:41
Speaker 4: Andrew McCutcheon, one of my favorite teammates of all time,
17:44
Speaker 4: my son's first ever favorite player when we played together
17:48
Speaker 4: in Indie. Andrew McCutcheon fake news, fake rumor, real rumor.
17:53
Speaker 4: Do you see him coming back? Just like it was?
17:56
Speaker 4: North Shore nine? Said it. In a redditt Ama, Alex
18:01
Speaker 4: Stump was asked if thinks Cutch is coming back due
18:04
Speaker 4: to frustrations on both sides, he's leaning towards no return.
18:08
Speaker 4: Do you want to see Cutch back in the black
18:09
Speaker 4: and gold? And Cutch responded, which we didn't even need
18:12
Speaker 4: Josh Harrison to respond. Wow, that's news to me.
18:17
Speaker 3: Man. You guys are gonna get cutching my Twitter mentions
18:20
Speaker 3: now too by asking me this. So I don't appreciate that.
18:23
Speaker 3: But if I had to answer honestly, I as things
18:26
Speaker 3: currently stand, yeah, I think it's probably less likely. I
18:29
Speaker 3: wouldn't completely write it off, but toward the end of
18:32
Speaker 3: the season, I sensed a lot of tension on both sides.
18:36
Speaker 3: It seemed like Andrew McCutchen was very frustrated with the
18:39
Speaker 3: state of the organization and how they've continued to operate
18:42
Speaker 3: in the last couple of years, and it seemed like
18:45
Speaker 3: there was some frustration on the organization side as well
18:48
Speaker 3: with you know, mccutchen's comments. So if those two sides
18:51
Speaker 3: can get over it, then yeah, I think a deal
18:54
Speaker 3: could be done. I think McCutchen wants to play here,
18:56
Speaker 3: but he doesn't want to play in a place that
18:58
Speaker 3: was like the one that he played the last three seasons.
19:00
Speaker 3: He wants to play on a team that's actually trying
19:03
Speaker 3: to win. I think he needs to be sold on that.
19:06
Speaker 3: I think the Pirates owe it to him to try
19:08
Speaker 3: to sell him on that, and after they make a
19:10
Speaker 3: couple moves, if there's still space for Andrew McCutcheon, I
19:13
Speaker 3: have no doubt that if he wants to be here,
19:16
Speaker 3: he'll be there. But they've got to make him want
19:19
Speaker 3: to be there. It has to make sense for both parties,
19:22
Speaker 3: and just going off the vibes at the end of
19:25
Speaker 3: the season, I think there was a lot of work
19:27
Speaker 3: to be done and getting that relationship to a point
19:29
Speaker 3: where he would want to sign up for another year
19:31
Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh.
19:32
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, Cutch, he's gonna watch this.
19:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, And.
19:40
Speaker 5: We all love him.
19:41
Speaker 2: He's a lovable guy, right, And the things that like
19:45
Speaker 2: he's even being quote faulted for is what wanting to
19:48
Speaker 2: be competitive to win?
19:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, he wants to win.
19:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, he wants to see additional players come in and
19:58
Speaker 3: not force him to be the only leader for three
20:00
Speaker 3: straight years, the only guy who has any sort of
20:04
Speaker 3: voice in a clubhouse. There needs to be a little
20:06
Speaker 3: bit more than him. I think that's a fair gripe
20:09
Speaker 3: on his end.
20:10
Speaker 2: I'm going to quote something that he definitely said, but
20:12
Speaker 2: I can't prove it, Like I didn't get this from anyone.
20:15
Speaker 2: I'm just guessing here. There were probably times last year
20:17
Speaker 2: where he was like, why am I the best hitter
20:20
Speaker 2: on this team right now?
20:23
Speaker 3: I wouldn't I wouldn't go against that, bet. I mean,
20:26
Speaker 3: it's more just why is this the same thing that
20:30
Speaker 3: we've just gone through? And I wrote that it's just
20:33
Speaker 3: you look from it, you look you go back to
20:37
Speaker 3: July twenty twenty four, the Pirates went on a little
20:40
Speaker 3: win streak. They added a little bit at the deadline.
20:43
Speaker 3: They were a couple games out of the wildcard. But
20:45
Speaker 3: from the moment August twenty twenty four arrived, nothing has
20:49
Speaker 3: gone right for this franchise. And a few bad months
20:53
Speaker 3: to end the season that's tough enough, But when that
20:57
Speaker 3: same vibe continues for an entire twenty twenty five campaign,
21:01
Speaker 3: that's exhausting. And few people want to bring winning baseball
21:05
Speaker 3: back to Pittsburgh than Andrew McCutcheon. He's done it once before.
21:08
Speaker 3: And to see him be a part of a team
21:11
Speaker 3: that's kind of just seemingly going through the motions, or
21:13
Speaker 3: at least that's how he probably felt the circumstances where
21:17
Speaker 3: that has to be very frustrating.
21:20
Speaker 2: All Right, so this gets talked about on Bucko Territory.
21:23
Speaker 2: Encourage everyone to check that out. Noah, great stuff, man,
21:26
Speaker 2: We love talking to you, we love having you part
21:28
Speaker 2: of the FT network.
21:29
Speaker 1: Man.
21:30
Speaker 3: Good to see it, absolutely, guys, I have a happy holidays.
21:33
Speaker 2: Thank you you too, And again, Bucco Territory is the
21:36
Speaker 2: show that you should be listening to if you're a
21:38
Speaker 2: Pirates fan or if you just want to learn more
21:41
Speaker 2: about an organization that frankly has been a disaster for
21:44
Speaker 2: the last while. Okay, but maybe things turn around coming
21:48
Speaker 2: this year. If they do put their money where their
21:50
Speaker 2: mouth is, you can hear much more from Noah, Josh Harrison,
21:53
Speaker 2: and Platinum Key on that show. You get two a
21:56
Speaker 2: week in the off season, and you'll get more during
21:58
Speaker 2: the season