Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Pirates Position Grades since the Trade Deadline

Transcript

Pirates Position Grades since the Trade Deadline · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Bucko Territory,
0:12
Speaker 1: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network. I'm your host,
0:15
Speaker 1: Noah Hiles. Joining me, as always, on the show are
0:17
Speaker 1: my co-hosts, Platinum Key, a.k.a. Mark and Josh Harrison. It
0:21
Speaker 1: is Wednesday, September 9th. Fellows, good to be back on
0:25
Speaker 1: the show. Thanks for holding it down for me while
0:27
Speaker 1: I was celebrating my boy Dalton at his bachelor party.
0:30
Speaker 1: Shout out to him. Congratulations. Very exciting for the wedding.
0:34
Speaker 1: But enough about Dalton. More about the Pittsburgh Pirates. They're
0:37
Speaker 1: still hanging around. You guys talked about that on the
0:40
Speaker 1: last show, which I enjoyed. We're going to kind of
0:42
Speaker 1: just evaluate where they are right now from the trade deadline.
0:46
Speaker 1: It's going to be a post-trade deadline grade show. And
0:51
Speaker 1: if you watched this podcast before, when we do our grades,
0:54
Speaker 1: we break it up into three segments because we have
0:56
Speaker 1: advertisements because that's a part of how this works. So
1:00
Speaker 1: the first segment will be starting pitching, relief pitching, and catchers.
1:05
Speaker 1: Second segment will be infield, outfield, and DH. And the
1:08
Speaker 1: third segment will be coaching. So guys, let's just get
1:11
Speaker 1: right into it. We'll start off with the starting pitching.
1:15
Speaker 1: Tough to grade, right?
1:16
Speaker 2: This is a weird one, yeah.
1:18
Speaker 1: So Mark, I'll let you start off. What's your starting
1:20
Speaker 1: pitching grade?
1:21
Speaker 2: I'll go with B.
1:22
Speaker 1: Since the trade deadline.
1:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, since the trade deadline. I'll go with a B. Really?
1:28
Speaker 2: For starting pitching?
1:30
Speaker 1: Yeah.
1:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen some improvement. I mean-
1:33
Speaker 2: It's hard because there's five players. But at the same time,
1:38
Speaker 2: we've seen some of Skeen's best starts since May, June.
1:43
Speaker 2: So we've seen some improvement there. Braxton Ashcraft has a
1:47
Speaker 2: complete game, the eight innings. He's looked really, really good
1:50
Speaker 2: his last few starts. Bubba Chandler has shown some improvement.
1:53
Speaker 2: Jared Jones has been up and down. Mitch Keller, obviously,
1:57
Speaker 2: gone on the injured list. That fifth spot is just
2:00
Speaker 2: kind of a bullpen game now. Uh, carbon Majinsky hasn't
2:03
Speaker 2: been that great with that spot. Um, but I'm not
2:05
Speaker 2: going to judge it really on the fifth rotation spot. Um,
2:09
Speaker 2: and yeah, Bubba Chandler has been better as a rookie. Uh,
2:12
Speaker 2: what he's been showing improvement. So B is probably way
2:16
Speaker 2: too optimistic, but at the same time, I, I've the
2:19
Speaker 2: starting pitching hasn't been where my complaints have been since
2:23
Speaker 2: the trade deadline. What about you, Josh?
2:27
Speaker 3: Um, I was hovering around like this C plus kind
2:30
Speaker 3: of B minus, obviously, because I'm kind of hard to
2:34
Speaker 3: grade when you don't have a fifth starter. That's part
2:36
Speaker 3: of the starting rotation. But within that, I think the
2:39
Speaker 3: starters or the openers have, you know, done justice to
2:42
Speaker 3: where it's like, you know what? They haven't really cost
2:45
Speaker 3: any games. And as a whole, I think the starting
2:48
Speaker 3: pitching could be better. We all know that. But obviously
2:51
Speaker 3: Braxton Ashcraft has been a bright spot. but I don't
2:54
Speaker 3: think one picture is enough to obviously, if you had
2:57
Speaker 3: him and Paul, if Paul was, you know, the Paul
3:00
Speaker 3: form that we had known previous years, I think those
3:03
Speaker 3: two arms are enough to, you know, make this great higher,
3:06
Speaker 3: but just with Braxton kind of carrying a load, obviously
3:09
Speaker 3: Paul has had some better starts. And we mentioned Bubba
3:12
Speaker 3: getting better throughout, you know, post. I still think, you know,
3:16
Speaker 3: that C plus kind of be minus just based off
3:18
Speaker 3: of Ashcraft has really been good kind of carrying a
3:21
Speaker 3: load and, you know, the improvement of Bubba and, you know, Jared,
3:26
Speaker 3: I kind of got, you know, C, C plus, not
3:29
Speaker 3: really hurting the team, but could have helped the team
3:32
Speaker 3: in some other areas, but not really something that we've
3:35
Speaker 3: looked at, you know, the most that we've kind of
3:36
Speaker 3: talked about obviously has been, you know, can Paul, you know,
3:39
Speaker 3: figure out, you know, kind of his, you know, his
3:41
Speaker 3: struggles and obviously Bubba and Jared getting better or picking up.
3:45
Speaker 3: And obviously some of those things have been answered, but
3:47
Speaker 3: like as a whole, I was sitting around like, been
3:50
Speaker 3: average um nothing that's really killing you but you know
3:52
Speaker 3: a little bit better than average if you say but
3:54
Speaker 3: like not that killer like yeah y'all doing it but
3:58
Speaker 3: like that c plus on the verge of maybe a
4:00
Speaker 3: b minus.
4:02
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a lot harder uh because the expectation
4:06
Speaker 1: was for this group to carry it from here on
4:08
Speaker 1: out and they didn't uh i think we're forgetting how
4:12
Speaker 1: bad paul skeens was for All but two starts since
4:16
Speaker 1: the trade deadline. He had a really good start the
4:19
Speaker 1: one time, and it made everyone feel a lot better
4:21
Speaker 1: about him. And then he's had some outings. Yeah, he
4:23
Speaker 1: looked good in his last outing, but he's still five
4:25
Speaker 1: and a third. Only 87 pitches. He's looked like Paul
4:31
Speaker 1: Skeens once since the trade deadline. So I wouldn't say
4:34
Speaker 1: he's had an amazing stretch since post-deadline. Jared Jones has
4:39
Speaker 1: been inconsistent. They've had two good starters. Braxton Ashcraft got
4:48
Speaker 1: it going. And that's huge. There was even a stretch,
4:51
Speaker 1: I believe, post-deadline where he was struggling too. But then
4:54
Speaker 1: he quickly got it going. Braxton carries this group. And
4:59
Speaker 1: Bubba continues to get better. And like you guys said,
5:02
Speaker 1: the bullpen games have been really good. But I'm going
5:05
Speaker 1: to give the bullpen credit for that. Not the starters.
5:08
Speaker 4: So.
5:10
Speaker 1: That's like Lake Baca.
5:11
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can see where you're going.
5:13
Speaker 2: I was going to say, there's our perfect transition. What's
5:15
Speaker 2: your starting picture?
5:17
Speaker 1: I'm going to give a D plus to the starting
5:19
Speaker 1: rotation because they were supposed to be what turned it
5:23
Speaker 1: on here. And they're not the primary source of blame,
5:27
Speaker 1: but they didn't get better as a collective unit. They
5:31
Speaker 1: got worse. The same or if not worse. I think
5:34
Speaker 1: we're forgetting how bad early August was.
5:36
Speaker 5: True.
5:37
Speaker 1: But I'll keep it rolling now over into the relief pitching.
5:40
Speaker 1: I give the bullpen an A-. They have been forced
5:43
Speaker 1: to cover a lot more innings because they don't have
5:46
Speaker 1: a fifth starter, and they've done super well there. Late
5:52
Speaker 1: game situations aren't as scary anymore. I mean, their last
5:55
Speaker 1: two wins, as we're recording this right before first pitch
5:58
Speaker 1: on Tuesday night, they're winning one-nothing games now. They have
6:02
Speaker 1: a ninth inning guy. I mean, Luke Weaver has been
6:05
Speaker 1: maybe their worst relief pitcher post-deadline because he got poison
6:09
Speaker 1: ivy in places we can't talk about. But they've survived it.
6:14
Speaker 1: Could you imagine if their best relief pitcher, their guy, crumbled?
6:21
Speaker 1: That's what plagued them all front half of the year.
6:25
Speaker 1: The fact that they're getting by right now. I mean,
6:28
Speaker 1: they're piecing it together. It's, it's looked really good. I mean,
6:31
Speaker 1: it hasn't been perfect, but like, I think the bullpen
6:33
Speaker 1: has probably been the best area of the team since
6:36
Speaker 1: the trade deadline. So I give it an a minus it's,
6:39
Speaker 1: it's made a dramatic improvement and it's probably the area
6:42
Speaker 1: of the team. I feel most optimistic about heading into
6:45
Speaker 1: next season. Yeah.
6:47
Speaker 2: I'll follow that up and I'll, I'll go with an
6:50
Speaker 2: a for the bullpen. Just the emergence of Mason Montgomery
6:54
Speaker 2: has been so, so refreshing and, uh, just have a
6:58
Speaker 2: guy that is been nails. I mean, he hasn't allowed
7:01
Speaker 2: an earned run as I say that knock on wood. Um,
7:05
Speaker 2: and what, like, I can't like two months or something crazy. Um,
7:09
Speaker 2: it's been a awesome, awesome stretch for Montgomery. Um, but
7:13
Speaker 2: also just overall, the bullpen Lake Bacher has looked really great.
7:17
Speaker 2: We've mentioned the opener role. He's looked really good as
7:19
Speaker 2: an opener. Um, and, uh, Isaac Madsen went to the
7:23
Speaker 2: IL tonight. Um, not the best year for Madsen. We
7:26
Speaker 2: get to see, uh, Britt Isert come up. We'll see
7:30
Speaker 2: how that goes. Um, but yeah, I mean, overall the
7:32
Speaker 2: bullpen is just, it's put them in and forget it. Uh,
7:37
Speaker 2: so yeah, happy with the bullpen, especially with where they
7:40
Speaker 2: were coming from before the trade deadline.
7:43
Speaker 5: For sure.
7:44
Speaker 3: Um, I was originally going to go like B plus,
7:47
Speaker 3: but now that we're putting the opener towards the reliever,
7:50
Speaker 3: I think that bumps them to a minus. Cause you know, obviously, um,
7:54
Speaker 3: the bullpen is what they addressed during the trade deadline.
7:57
Speaker 3: And at some point it was almost like, man, you're
7:59
Speaker 3: acquired these guys and they didn't really get a chance
8:01
Speaker 3: to do much. Obviously they were literally coming in and
8:05
Speaker 3: some blowouts and it's like, man, you know, these guys,
8:08
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, or really been carrying a load. But, um,
8:11
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, I, I bumped into an A minus
8:14
Speaker 3: just cause those openers kind of, I was considering a starter,
8:17
Speaker 3: but now we're going to pull that back. Cause it
8:18
Speaker 3: was the, you know, relievers covering it. So, um, I'm
8:21
Speaker 3: hovering right around that A minus as well. They they've been,
8:24
Speaker 3: as you said, the bright spot and they addressed it
8:27
Speaker 3: during the deadline and it's obviously paying off.
8:30
Speaker 1: All right, real quick, Josh, you can start us off
8:33
Speaker 1: with your catcher grade. What do you got?
8:36
Speaker 3: Man, I'm still going to stick with like a, I'm
8:39
Speaker 3: going to be around a B, B plus because it's
8:41
Speaker 3: two sides to it.
8:42
Speaker 5: Defensively, obviously working with the relievers.
8:46
Speaker 3: I think that in itself, they've had to flip from,
8:49
Speaker 3: you know, getting through a struggle with a starting pitcher to,
8:52
Speaker 3: getting relievers on board, obviously relievers that have been traded.
8:55
Speaker 3: But then you look at Flores, I think it's been
8:57
Speaker 3: a bright spot with Andy going down. And then even
9:00
Speaker 3: Henry's come up with some timely hitting, you know? So
9:03
Speaker 3: I think as far as what the catchers, what we
9:06
Speaker 3: asked for them, I think offensively, you know, Flores has
9:11
Speaker 3: kind of been, you know, kind of a bright spot,
9:13
Speaker 3: obviously Andy, when he was healthy was helping, but you know,
9:16
Speaker 3: I think the catching has kind of been one of
9:18
Speaker 3: the brighter spots helping, you know, with the relievers and, defensively,
9:23
Speaker 3: they've been good too. So I think that's something that's
9:25
Speaker 3: obviously added a bonus in, you know, when the team
9:29
Speaker 3: wasn't even going right, it was still like, you know,
9:31
Speaker 3: the things that we were worried about weren't the issues.
9:34
Speaker 5: You know what I mean? So that, that was kind
9:36
Speaker 5: of cool to see.
9:37
Speaker 3: I won't say cool to see, obviously should have been better,
9:39
Speaker 3: but you know, the things that weren't the issues, at
9:41
Speaker 3: least it was.
9:41
Speaker 5: Like, you know what, the things that they wanted to
9:43
Speaker 5: improve on, they did.
9:46
Speaker 2: I'll follow that up. I'll go with the B minus
9:49
Speaker 2: for catchers. I still think, there's some room for improvement.
9:52
Speaker 2: Rafael Flores has been great behind the plate. His defense
9:56
Speaker 2: is all right, but he's also been calling games a
9:59
Speaker 2: lot better, looking a lot better. lot more comfortable back there,
10:01
Speaker 2: which give him some time to grow. Henry Davis, the
10:06
Speaker 2: bat just still is not there. Obviously, we're saying that
10:09
Speaker 2: after he hit a home run to win a game,
10:11
Speaker 2: won nothing.
10:14
Speaker 5: Timely hit.
10:16
Speaker 2: I think that's his only extra base hit since the
10:18
Speaker 2: trade deadline. So at the same time, yeah, the recency
10:21
Speaker 2: bias is right there, but it's been a tough stretch
10:24
Speaker 2: for Henry. Obviously, he still provides a lot of value
10:27
Speaker 2: with his defense, with his arm just keeping base runners
10:30
Speaker 2: at bay off the base pass. He has such a
10:33
Speaker 2: great pop time in Cannon. It's such a.
10:37
Speaker 5: Weapon of his.
10:39
Speaker 2: So if they can ever get Henry's back going, this
10:41
Speaker 2: grade would be so much higher. But as far as
10:43
Speaker 2: it stands, I think B-, and I'm not disappointed with
10:46
Speaker 2: this position group at all.
10:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think B- is a fair grade, Mark. I
10:52
Speaker 1: just look at it like Rafael Flores has been one
10:55
Speaker 1: of their better players since the trade deadline.
10:58
Speaker 5: He's carrying it.
10:59
Speaker 1: And again, when you take context into it, they needed
11:02
Speaker 1: someone to step up there with Endy getting hurt. And yeah,
11:08
Speaker 1: he's been good. 111 OPS plus heading into Tuesday's game.
11:13
Speaker 1: That paired with what Hank can do defensively, you've got
11:15
Speaker 1: a fine catcher thing. And it is funny, like what
11:18
Speaker 1: Josh said, If the rest of this team that had
11:21
Speaker 1: been winning games for the team all season long had
11:25
Speaker 1: just maintained what it had been doing, this would be
11:29
Speaker 1: a playoff team right now. Because the rotation was up
11:35
Speaker 1: and down all year, I guess. But the guys that
11:37
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about in this next segment, if
11:39
Speaker 1: they could have just maintained what they'd been doing or
11:42
Speaker 1: stayed healthy, I guess, then this is probably a playoff team.
11:45
Speaker 1: But we'll get into that next here on Bucko Territory.
11:47
Speaker 1: But first, a quick break.
11:50
Speaker 6: Kratz football season is back and Fabletics knows all about it.
11:54
Speaker 6: They just paired with the number one wide receiver in
11:57
Speaker 6: the NFL, Jamar Chase, on a new collection.
12:01
Speaker 7: He's going to catch some footballs. You're going to catch
12:03
Speaker 7: some deals when you go to Fabletics because this is
12:06
Speaker 7: all affordable stuff, but the quality is through the roof. Comfortability,
12:11
Speaker 7: like it is ridiculous. Go for it.
12:14
Speaker 5: Yeah.
12:14
Speaker 6: It's about feeling good all day and you need to
12:16
Speaker 6: feel more comfortable in your athletic clothing since you're wearing
12:19
Speaker 6: it all day. It's not just at the gym anymore.
12:21
Speaker 6: And Fabletics is spot on with that theory. Shop now
12:26
Speaker 6: at fabletics.com slash foul to get 70 to 80% off
12:30
Speaker 6: everything when you sign up as a new VIP. And yes,
12:33
Speaker 6: that includes the new Jamar chase collection. Take a quick
12:36
Speaker 6: style quiz and be sure to select foul when prompted
12:38
Speaker 6: to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer.
12:41
Speaker 6: So do not wait again. That's fabletics.com slash F-O-U-L for 70%
12:47
Speaker 6: to 80% off everything as a new VIP.
12:53
Speaker 1: All right, so we pick it back up with the infield. Mark,
12:57
Speaker 1: you can start here. I'm curious to hear what you
13:00
Speaker 1: have to say.
13:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is a tough one because Brandon
13:06
Speaker 2: Lau has been good. But outside of Brandon Lau, that's
13:10
Speaker 2: about it. I think it's like a C minus and
13:12
Speaker 2: that might even be generous. I might have the highest
13:15
Speaker 2: grade here of the three of us. Spencer Horwich just
13:19
Speaker 2: has not been able to get things back on track
13:22
Speaker 2: after his injury. I think he's got like a 400
13:23
Speaker 2: or OPS under 400.
13:25
Speaker 1: He's a replacement level player.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been really bad. So first base, that's concerning.
13:32
Speaker 2: Brandon Lau at second base. And then your shortstop, you
13:36
Speaker 2: finally have Connor Griffin back.
13:38
Speaker 1: A lot better last week. Yeah.
13:41
Speaker 5: Yeah.
13:42
Speaker 2: So that's a lot better, but I mean, the, the
13:45
Speaker 2: Gonzalez experiment just wasn't working at all. Maybe the best
13:50
Speaker 2: option they had still, but just not great. And then
13:53
Speaker 2: Nick Gonzalez over at their base, just the defensive mistakes
13:56
Speaker 2: have continued to cost them games. His bat is cooled
14:00
Speaker 2: down slightly. I mean, he is almost like a few
14:02
Speaker 2: points out from the batting title with his batting average.
14:06
Speaker 2: but at the same time, I just haven't been as
14:09
Speaker 2: impressed with Nick Gonzalez enough to like bump up this grade.
14:12
Speaker 2: So I think C minus might be a little generous
14:15
Speaker 2: just because of what Brandon Lau has done, but it's
14:18
Speaker 2: not been pretty here.
14:21
Speaker 5: What about you, Josh? I'm going D.
14:26
Speaker 3: You know, for me, I'm, I'm, I'm a stickler on
14:29
Speaker 3: there's more than one side of the ball. And as
14:31
Speaker 3: you mentioned, Brandon Lau has obviously been swinging it. Karen,
14:35
Speaker 3: you know, doing what we expected him to do as
14:38
Speaker 3: a second baseman, but, and Nick offensively has been good,
14:41
Speaker 3: but I'm really big on defense. And that was one
14:44
Speaker 3: of my things that I was really concerned about. And
14:49
Speaker 3: I just think, um, this and then the next group
14:53
Speaker 3: we talk about kind of go hand in hand, um,
14:56
Speaker 3: not only defensively, but offensively, cause we have to factor in, um, yes, um,
15:02
Speaker 3: They've swung it here decently against whatever. But facing lefties,
15:07
Speaker 3: that alone, we know what the grade against lefties alone is.
15:10
Speaker 3: So that right there is not good for a weighted
15:12
Speaker 3: grade because in these games that, you know, you're facing
15:16
Speaker 3: some guys that I'm not sitting here saying are power arms. But,
15:19
Speaker 3: you know, if the lefties out there, it's a struggle.
15:21
Speaker 3: And that is reflective, you know, of the offense. But
15:27
Speaker 3: defensively doesn't help either. So it hasn't been pretty. And,
15:32
Speaker 3: you know, yes, offense can win you games, but defense
15:35
Speaker 3: can definitely win or lose you more if you don't
15:38
Speaker 3: take care of the ball.
15:40
Speaker 5: And it's been a lot of that. And that's a
15:43
Speaker 5: lot of the reason why they are in the position
15:45
Speaker 5: that they are.
15:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I go with a D as well. I mean,
15:49
Speaker 1: Brandon Lau has been Brandon Lau all season. He is.
15:53
Speaker 1: And I think that's the best way to summarize this.
15:55
Speaker 5: And not to cut you off.
15:56
Speaker 3: Sorry.
15:56
Speaker 5: And I was going to say injuries obviously have affected
16:02
Speaker 5: that too.
16:03
Speaker 1: Correct. Yeah, I mean, they lost both of their first
16:06
Speaker 1: basemen for an extended period of time. I mean, they're
16:12
Speaker 1: without Horowitz and Lau, really. I mean, they're without the
16:15
Speaker 1: good version of Horowitz. Yeah, because he's clearly not right.
16:19
Speaker 1: And they were without O'Hearn, you know, who's– supposedly going
16:24
Speaker 1: to be coming back here soon. Um, and then, yeah,
16:27
Speaker 1: like what Mark said, I mean, Nick Gonzalez, I mean, it's,
16:29
Speaker 1: it's great when you're hitting three 15 or whatever you're doing,
16:33
Speaker 1: but like you can't, if you're not, if you're giving
16:37
Speaker 1: away all those runs that you produce and you're just
16:39
Speaker 1: an average player and they made a move to help
16:43
Speaker 1: the shortstop position, but it just wasn't enough. And yeah, they,
16:49
Speaker 1: as a group, I think they hurt the team more
16:51
Speaker 1: than help. And, If you look back to when they
16:53
Speaker 1: were winning games, Nick Gonzalez's offensive output outweighed the defense, um,
16:59
Speaker 1: defensive mistakes. Spencer Horowitz was one of the best lead
17:02
Speaker 1: off hitters in baseball. Ryan O'Hearn was healthy when he
17:04
Speaker 1: was playing first base and then they had Connor Griffin.
17:07
Speaker 1: And I mean, yeah, you, you lose some of those guys.
17:10
Speaker 1: It puts more pressure on others to step up and
17:13
Speaker 1: other guys didn't step up. So they get a D
17:15
Speaker 1: and I'll keep it rolling. Now I'm going to give
17:17
Speaker 1: it the outfield to D as well. Um, If there
17:20
Speaker 1: is one person that deserves blame on this whole thing
17:24
Speaker 1: not working out post-trade deadline, aside from Paul, it's Brian Reynolds.
17:30
Speaker 1: He's their highest paid position player. He's their veteran in
17:34
Speaker 1: the clubhouse. He's their most experienced player as far as
17:38
Speaker 1: familiarity with the organization. It's healthy. He's done nothing. He's
17:43
Speaker 1: done nothing since the All-Star break. He's hit like a
17:45
Speaker 1: couple of meaningless home runs. I just, and I don't
17:48
Speaker 1: even need stats to throw out because if you've been
17:50
Speaker 1: watching this team remotely at all, you know, I mean,
17:53
Speaker 1: he's been a ghost. And I mean, we were talking
17:56
Speaker 1: about this guy in July, like he was poised to
17:58
Speaker 1: have this career year. He's been as bad as he
18:02
Speaker 1: was for as bad or for as good as he
18:05
Speaker 1: was in the first half. He's been equally bad in
18:08
Speaker 1: the second half, especially post trade deadline. He's yeah. He's
18:11
Speaker 1: killed them. And this was the time where Brian Reynolds
18:14
Speaker 1: needed to step up. And it just goes to show,
18:16
Speaker 1: and I've said this on the show before, I've talked
18:18
Speaker 1: to people in the Pirates organization. They said this about Reynolds.
18:21
Speaker 1: He is a guy that needs lineup protection in order
18:23
Speaker 1: to produce. And if you look at his best months,
18:26
Speaker 1: it is when that lineup is fully healthy. And that's
18:29
Speaker 1: not an indictment on a guy. That's the case for
18:31
Speaker 1: a lot of big league hitters. Of course, you're going
18:33
Speaker 1: to hit better when you're surrounded by good hitters, but
18:35
Speaker 1: they're paying him to be better than that. They're paying
18:38
Speaker 1: him to be the guy that makes other people better
18:40
Speaker 1: offensively in the lineup. And if you look, Every year.
18:44
Speaker 1: When did Brian Reynolds heat up last year? It was
18:45
Speaker 1: at the end of last season when Spencer Horowitz was
18:48
Speaker 1: healthy and Nick Gonzalez was healthy and he had, and
18:51
Speaker 1: he had a little bit of lineup protection, right? So it's,
18:55
Speaker 1: it's no coincidence. You look at it like, when does
18:57
Speaker 1: he struggle most? It's when he doesn't have O'Neill to
18:59
Speaker 1: protect him. It's when he doesn't have Connor Griffin to
19:02
Speaker 1: protect him or, you know, Ryan O'Hearn, like all of
19:05
Speaker 1: those guys. And obviously that's okay in a sense where
19:09
Speaker 1: it's like, yes, that, it's, it's a realistic excuse, I guess,
19:13
Speaker 1: but just like, this is why they pay you that
19:16
Speaker 1: money to step up to say, get on my back.
19:19
Speaker 1: I'm carrying the team. We're, we're banged up, but like
19:23
Speaker 1: other people got to step up. Roe Flores shouldn't be
19:25
Speaker 1: the one stepping up dog. It should be like Jacob Gonzalez.
19:29
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be asked to like carry the load here. It's, it's,
19:32
Speaker 1: it's you. You're a two time all star. You're making
19:35
Speaker 1: the most money out of anyone playing in the outfield
19:37
Speaker 1: right now. Anyone playing in the field, And for you
19:40
Speaker 1: to put forth your worst showing, that's tough. O'Neal's been
19:45
Speaker 1: great since he's been back. Jake Mangum has been Jake Mangum.
19:48
Speaker 1: Esmeralda Valdez has not been very good at all since
19:50
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, but he's a freaking rookie, and that's okay.
19:55
Speaker 1: To me, this grade is pretty much a whole focus
20:00
Speaker 1: on Brian Reynolds because they needed him to be great,
20:03
Speaker 1: and he's pissed down his leg. Yep.
20:06
Speaker 2: I'll follow that up. I'll go C- again. Just to
20:10
Speaker 2: build off the Brian Reynolds point, Noah, he only has
20:14
Speaker 2: eight RBIs since the All-Star Pack. 650 OPS, just not
20:22
Speaker 2: what you're needing at all from a guy who's supposed
20:25
Speaker 2: to be a bat-first player. So that's been super disappointing.
20:29
Speaker 2: O'Neal Cruz, though, coming back from injury, has been.
20:32
Speaker 1: Awesome.
20:33
Speaker 2: This is the O'Neal Cruz I've always wanted to see
20:36
Speaker 2: as a fan. Just that potential. I feel like he's
20:39
Speaker 2: finally starting to scratch it a little bit. He just
20:43
Speaker 2: looks comfortable, confident. We talked about that a little bit
20:46
Speaker 2: last episode, and I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing
20:49
Speaker 2: with Cruz on both sides of the ball. And same
20:53
Speaker 2: with Jake Mangum. Like you said, he's Jake Mangum. Lots
20:57
Speaker 2: of effort behind Filled in admirably while O'Neal Cruz was
21:01
Speaker 2: out after the lesser break. Yeah, not admirably. Yeah, he
21:05
Speaker 2: did exactly what you're supposed to.
21:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
21:08
Speaker 2: And, yeah, Valdez, that's been tough. But you can see
21:12
Speaker 2: the growth, at least. You can see him making the adjustments.
21:15
Speaker 2: He's still staying patient. I still like his approach at
21:17
Speaker 2: the plate. I think the results will come. I like
21:21
Speaker 2: the work he's putting in. So, yeah, C- for me. Josh,
21:25
Speaker 2: how do you grade this outfield?
21:27
Speaker 3: I said it in our previous segment. It was going
21:29
Speaker 3: to be kind of hand-in-hand with infielders. So D could
21:34
Speaker 3: possibly be a D-plus just from the standpoint there's been
21:37
Speaker 3: a little bit more bright spots, as you said. I
21:39
Speaker 3: don't think O'Neal's been back enough to really push his
21:41
Speaker 3: grade forward that much, but it's been nice to see that.
21:43
Speaker 3: And as you said, Mangum did what he was supposed to,
21:46
Speaker 3: filling in. And as I said, you need more out
21:51
Speaker 3: of those guys as a whole because it really hasn't been–
21:55
Speaker 3: you know, the best going forward. And obviously I told
21:58
Speaker 3: the left-handed, you know, the left-handed pitchers was really an eyesore.
22:03
Speaker 3: And then obviously not taking care of the ball as
22:05
Speaker 3: a whole defensively doesn't help. But so that's why I
22:08
Speaker 3: said they're hovering right around the same. And if anything,
22:10
Speaker 3: O'Neal might push them to a D plus just from
22:13
Speaker 3: his little recent play, but it, you know, he hasn't
22:15
Speaker 3: really been there enough to really say he's really played
22:18
Speaker 3: post trade deadline. So it's not really like he's affecting
22:20
Speaker 3: their grade.
22:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
22:23
Speaker 6: So.
22:24
Speaker 1: Worth mentioning also, they also were without Ryan O'Hearn. But again,
22:31
Speaker 1: this is a group unlike the infield where it's like
22:36
Speaker 1: they have guys who can potentially impact the game defensively.
22:40
Speaker 1: Defense was never a part of the calling card for
22:42
Speaker 1: this group. And when the offense goes to hell... this
22:46
Speaker 1: is the group that deserves playing first, not the infield,
22:48
Speaker 1: especially because Lau is still a part of the infield.
22:50
Speaker 5: Well, I was.
22:51
Speaker 3: Going to say, ultimately, what Lau did for the infield,
22:54
Speaker 3: you would hope Reynolds would have did for the outfield.
22:56
Speaker 5: Like, you know, you got, you know, Lau holding.
22:58
Speaker 3: It down until, you know, Conner's back, Reynolds holding it
23:01
Speaker 3: down to O'Neal and O'Hart.
23:02
Speaker 5: Like, you still got a guy in both areas. Yeah.
23:07
Speaker 1: That extra bat was missing. Yep. Especially with those two
23:12
Speaker 1: at the two and three spot. It would have been nice. DH,
23:17
Speaker 1: real quick. I mean, honestly, I might just give it
23:22
Speaker 1: an A because Marcelo Zuna is not there anymore.
23:23
Speaker 2: That was literally the exact thought I had.
23:26
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just going to say incomplete because
23:29
Speaker 1: it's like, who is their DH?
23:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, not available.
23:32
Speaker 1: Right. I mean, it's just kind of a rotating spot.
23:35
Speaker 5: TBD, like the fifth starter.
23:38
Speaker 1: Yeah. Pretty much. It's a bullpen game, yeah. And honestly,
23:42
Speaker 1: that's kind of– what it should have been all year.
23:44
Speaker 2: I was going to say that's good.
23:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. But right now it's, it's not as impactful
23:51
Speaker 1: because like the guys who they could have been DHing
23:54
Speaker 1: probably would have stayed healthy if they did, uh, weren't
23:58
Speaker 1: here for it. So we're going to take another quick break.
24:01
Speaker 1: When we come back, we will round up the show
24:04
Speaker 1: by evaluating coaching here on Bucko territory.
24:10
Speaker 6: Dehydration is real people. So are quince electrolyte stick packs.
24:15
Speaker 6: All of a sudden, you don't need some big bottle
24:18
Speaker 6: to carry around. Just these little packets if you suddenly
24:21
Speaker 6: feel like you need a little hydration. Raspberry salt, delicious.
24:24
Speaker 6: Citrus salt, my personal favorite. And watermelon salt for those
24:28
Speaker 6: watermelon lovers out there.
24:29
Speaker 5: Very solid.
24:30
Speaker 1: Just in your water bottle.
24:32
Speaker 4: I'm a watermelon guy. It's quick, easy in the morning.
24:35
Speaker 4: Wake up, feeling a little down. Throw some in there.
24:37
Speaker 1: Feeling great.
24:38
Speaker 4: Throw some in there because it'll keep that high going.
24:40
Speaker 4: So stay on it. It hydrates you because of that
24:43
Speaker 4: fermented rice, great tasting, and it makes you feel better.
24:47
Speaker 8: They're made in the USA, rigorously third-party tested. Give your
24:51
Speaker 8: body what it really needs to stay hydrated. Quince.com slash
24:54
Speaker 8: foul gets you free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.
24:57
Speaker 8: That's quince.com slash foul for free shipping and 365-day returns.
25:02
Speaker 8: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and
25:03
Speaker 8: Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure,
25:07
Speaker 8: or prevent any disease.
25:11
Speaker 1: All right. Mark, I'll start with you again.
25:15
Speaker 2: Putting me on the hot seat here.
25:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
25:17
Speaker 5: Oh, I mean, I'll be.
25:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead. I want you to start. Yeah.
25:22
Speaker 2: All right. I guess let's see if I have to
25:26
Speaker 2: think about it that hard. I don't think coaching necessarily
25:31
Speaker 2: was bad or good. I will say Bill Murphy. I've
25:36
Speaker 2: liked what I've heard the players say about him since
25:39
Speaker 2: we last gave these grades. Yeah, especially recently.
25:42
Speaker 1: I wonder why they started talking about it a whole bunch.
25:45
Speaker 2: Right, yeah.
25:46
Speaker 1: That was a forced narrative.
25:47
Speaker 5: Yes, maybe.
25:49
Speaker 2: But I do like the narrative that was forced upon
25:52
Speaker 2: us as a fan. Yeah, but just looking at the
25:56
Speaker 2: results of this bullpen, if this bullpen's going from, I
26:01
Speaker 2: forget what we gave them, probably a D or something,
26:04
Speaker 2: to now all giving them As, I do think Mason
26:07
Speaker 2: Montgomery can at least say, you know, Bill Murphy had
26:10
Speaker 2: something to do with it. maybe it seems like it.
26:15
Speaker 2: So C for that, Don Kelly has been all right.
26:19
Speaker 2: I don't think I can really blame him for anything.
26:21
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's much more he could have
26:24
Speaker 2: done with the roster that was given to him and
26:27
Speaker 2: managing all the injuries and everything. I think that's been
26:31
Speaker 2: pretty good as far as, I mean, like bullpen management
26:34
Speaker 2: seems to be better the second half at least. But again,
26:37
Speaker 2: nothing that's, you know, jumping off the page being like, yeah,
26:41
Speaker 2: we need to bring Don Kelly back this year. This,
26:43
Speaker 2: this guy's a difference maker. Like I like the guy,
26:46
Speaker 2: but it just, nothing has really swayed me one way
26:50
Speaker 2: or the other. What about you, Noah?
26:53
Speaker 1: I like how he's maneuvered with the bullpen and the
26:56
Speaker 1: bullpen games. Um, I wrote down some of the things,
26:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I think their decision to give Paul that
27:01
Speaker 1: extra rest made him better. So that's good. Um, it's
27:07
Speaker 1: hard to fault him for like the left-handed hitter stuff.
27:09
Speaker 1: Because again, like, it's just like, what do they have
27:12
Speaker 1: to work with right now? Um, so yeah, I think
27:15
Speaker 1: I'll probably go like the errors. Yeah. It's just like,
27:19
Speaker 1: where do you play them? Like, what do you, what
27:20
Speaker 1: do you do? Like, you're not scoring runs. You can't
27:23
Speaker 1: take Nick Gonzalez out of the line. Um, I, I
27:26
Speaker 1: don't blame him for making Brian Reynolds a bad hitter
27:30
Speaker 1: in the most important stretch of the year. Uh, I
27:34
Speaker 1: do blame him a little bit for maybe babying O'Neal
27:36
Speaker 1: Cruz when he came back off the IL. And like
27:39
Speaker 1: you said, Mark, I really just struggle to find areas
27:42
Speaker 1: where Don Kelly won this team game. I know players
27:44
Speaker 1: win the games, but good coaches, good managers, they figure
27:48
Speaker 1: out a way to kind of put the puzzle together
27:51
Speaker 1: when it's that, you know, they find a Josh Harrison
27:53
Speaker 1: and send them out the right field and see what happens.
27:55
Speaker 1: And sometimes it saves your season. And, uh, Obviously, there's
27:59
Speaker 1: not a five-war guy on the bench on this team.
28:02
Speaker 1: If there was, he'd be playing every day, but that's
28:04
Speaker 1: just the example I was using because he's right in
28:06
Speaker 1: front of my face. Overall, the point I'm trying to
28:09
Speaker 1: make is I haven't seen, like what you said, anything
28:12
Speaker 1: that shows me if John Kelly is a good manager.
28:16
Speaker 1: I've seen him make some mistakes where he's a bad manager. Overall,
28:21
Speaker 1: it's just like he needed to step up. It was
28:25
Speaker 1: an unfair thing, and he wasn't any worse, but I
28:29
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think he was better enough to
28:31
Speaker 1: like overcome the crappy hand he was dealt. So I'll, yeah, I'll,
28:35
Speaker 1: I'll guess I'll go like C minus Josh round us
28:38
Speaker 1: out here. Yeah.
28:40
Speaker 5: I'm going to go right at that C, um, right
28:43
Speaker 5: in the middle.
28:44
Speaker 3: As you said, there's, there's, it's kind of hard to
28:46
Speaker 3: place blame or fault on, you know, Don, um, you know,
28:50
Speaker 3: he did, he's doing what he, what he can with
28:52
Speaker 3: what the, what he has, but, um, Coaching is everything.
28:56
Speaker 3: And I look at the team as a whole. And yes,
28:58
Speaker 3: the players are the one out there playing. They are
29:00
Speaker 3: the ones that need to be, you know, really being accountable,
29:03
Speaker 3: looking in the mirror. But I also leave it at
29:07
Speaker 3: that C because I think it really could have been
29:09
Speaker 3: a B, honestly, if, you know, I'm not talking, you know,
29:16
Speaker 3: physical mistakes. When there are mental mistakes that continue to happen,
29:21
Speaker 3: there's got to be something that has to come from
29:24
Speaker 3: Sometimes it might not be coming from the manager. It
29:27
Speaker 3: might need to be a position coach. A, these mental
29:29
Speaker 3: errors that are happening facing the lefties. Yeah, Don, DK's
29:34
Speaker 3: the manager. He's right in the lineup.
29:37
Speaker 5: You know, got to take it amongst position coaches sometimes.
29:40
Speaker 3: You know, we talked about certain things, but as you mentioned,
29:43
Speaker 3: they didn't really have many, you know, guys that had
29:46
Speaker 3: experience against lefties. So at the same time, you're trying
29:49
Speaker 3: to figure out, put this piece, this puzzle together with
29:53
Speaker 3: a lot of uncertainty. But I think in those moments,
29:56
Speaker 3: I'm not blaming them for trying to piece something with
29:59
Speaker 3: uncertainty because you have to see what you have. But
30:02
Speaker 3: when mental mistakes continue to happen, I think that are
30:06
Speaker 3: things that need to be paid attention to, especially when
30:08
Speaker 3: you know you got guys playing out of position. You
30:10
Speaker 3: might have to talk to them like they're a kindergartner.
30:13
Speaker 3: It might seem like it is a slap in the face,
30:16
Speaker 3: but one of the greatest coaches said you have to
30:20
Speaker 3: assume your players know nothing because if you're talking to everybody,
30:24
Speaker 3: One person might be here, but somebody else might be.
30:27
Speaker 3: So when you're playing guys out of position, you have
30:31
Speaker 3: to hone in that much more. And I just think
30:33
Speaker 3: a little bit more attention to detail could have got
30:35
Speaker 3: this grade a little higher, which I get it's a
30:39
Speaker 3: long season. But I don't fault, as I said, DK
30:42
Speaker 3: or the position coaches because you got a lot of
30:45
Speaker 3: things moving. But I think they did the best with
30:47
Speaker 3: what they could, but they could have done a little
30:49
Speaker 3: bit more.
30:50
Speaker 1: Yep.
30:50
Speaker 6: Yep.
30:51
Speaker 1: And on the note of attention to detail, one detail
30:53
Speaker 1: I want everyone to pay attention to is that subscribe button.
30:56
Speaker 1: Go ahead and hit it for me if you haven't already.
30:58
Speaker 1: We're on a mission to 3,000 subs. Can't get there
31:00
Speaker 1: without your help. Also want to encourage everyone to check
31:03
Speaker 1: out the Bucko Territory Team Store. Got a lot of
31:05
Speaker 1: good stuff there for you to purchase. Guys, any final
31:09
Speaker 1: thoughts as we wrap up another show?
31:13
Speaker 5: That was a smooth transition, and shout out your boy Dalton. Yeah,
31:17
Speaker 5: shout out Dalton.
31:17
Speaker 2: Just glad to have Noah back. Yeah, we miss you.
31:19
Speaker 1: Yes. I miss you guys. I miss you guys. Yeah,
31:24
Speaker 1: final thoughts would be see what happens if they go
31:27
Speaker 1: 4-2 this week in Chicago. Come back to Pittsburgh with
31:31
Speaker 1: a 500 record. Keep us paying attention. Let's see what happens.
31:39
Speaker 1: He's Platinum Key, a.k.a. Mark. He's Josh Harrison. I'm Noah Hiles.
31:42
Speaker 1: We're signing off saying thanks for tuning in to another
31:44
Speaker 1: episode of Bucko Territory presented to you by the Foul
31:47
Speaker 1: Territory Network.
31:48
Speaker 5: Take care.
31:56
Speaker 3: Thank you.