The Bucs Start Here - A Pirates Do-Over

[luckymann]

... those 10 walks must have made it a hairy old no-no indeed. All looks the same on the scoreboard, though.




That's just the second no-hitter so far this decade and 27th in history.

[luckymann]

An unbelievably untidy start to the new season sees our pitching look like this after the first week:



We are fortunate that the bats are hot enough to limit the damage and we do improve somewhat from there to finish the month at 12-6. But Train's ERA remains just under 8 with a 128 FIP- and this is a huge concern. I do not want to rush McDonald like I did Streeter last year, and it's not as if I'm going to shunt Train off to the pen anyway until all other avenues are exhausted. So we just have to ride it out and hope he can find his mojo.



At the other end of the spectrum is Count Leblanc, who goes 4-0 to win the monthly pitching award, while Pie Traynor slashes a scorching 438/438/658 (yep, that means he had zero walks) with 3 dingers and 15 RBI to win the batting prize.

Here's all the news that's fit to print.









S+ HOME

REPORTS HOME

PIRATES HOME

[luckymann]

Biggest Delta Between Times on Base and Runs Scored (Minimum 10 Games Played)

[luckymann]

Again, this achievement comes around less often than one might expect. This, despite a bit of a flurry in the past two years, is just the 21st in the league's history. One would think the juiced-up ball has something to do with the increased frequency of late.

[luckymann]

The old bod is just starting to show signs of wear and tear as Spoke goes down with injury for the second straight year. He'll get a month knocked off this under the Legacy Player rules, but still it rips the heart out of the season and, with Grimes out as well, the Brooklyn boys can ill afford this.

[luckymann]

I have long held concerns about our lack of a contingency plan should injury or poor form befall one of our middle infielders. The acquisitions of Gerber and then Terry give us depth in this area of the diamond but neither is a front-line everyday type. With this trade, we now have the ideal player in this regard.

TRADE 1 OF 3 (05/16/20)

IF / OF Bernie Friberg and P Dutch Reuther traded to Cincinnati for IF Dobie Moore and P Ed Warner

Bernie has been fantastic for us and is a great talent who – at just 22 – still seems to have plenty of upside, but with his IF defence only passable he was expendable for this purpose. Dobie is only 26, so I’m not worried about offloading such a young player. He is still recovering from a thumb injury so I'll give him a bit of rehab time at Wilkes-Barre before calling him up.

Dutch just never really did much for us, despite numerous chances, and when he pretty much became the fulcrum for this deal I decided we had enough depth to cover him. Ed Warner will start at the parent club but seems destined for AAA once we make the move with McDonald.

I think this makes us a much better club, but is a strong move for Cincy as well.

[luckymann]

A nice milestone for one of the league's elder statesmen.

[luckymann]

A stunning 21-7 month from the lads with us playing some of the best baseball I've ever seen from us.








Our bats, led by Williams who slashes 430/514/710 (!!) with 6 HR and 25 RBI for the month yet doesn't win the best batter gong because Hornsby has an even better month (see below), score an average of over 5 runs per game.



But it is in our pitching ranks the biggest turnaround has taken place. Cooper rediscovers his winning ways and nails down the Pitcher on the Month Award for his 6-0 / 0.67 effort. Johnson is still up and down, but how well they are going right now is best summed up by the three straight shutouts they pitch to close out the month. Quite the exclamation point.




The big question is, of course, can we keep it up? We'll need to stay pretty hot, I know that for sure, as the Cards are looming and looking dangerous.




Awards, news, leaders. This is shaping up as another ripper season.






S+ HOME

REPORTS HOME

PIRATES HOME

[luckymann]

Babe and Rogers are each putting in a season like we've not seen before, so I thought I'd track their progress each month and see what they come up with.

The Sultan




The Rajah

[luckymann]

A big loss for the Reds, as George has flown out of the blocks in his rookie season.

[luckymann]

Even with the Legacy Player cap reducing this from 6 to 3 months, it's a cruel blow for the Pinstripers who are finally competing for the AL pennant this season.

[luckymann]

...quite literally, in this timeline, as Esteban does what only Biz Mackey has done before him.

[luckymann]

An understandably streaky 17-10 month for us as we are hit by a few injuries and just come off the boil a bit. Mueller and Streeter need stints on the IL, while Cobb and Johnson pick up little niggles. All things considered, a valiant effort by the group.




Led by Williams and Cobb, our bats continue to run hot and it just feels at the moment that if our pitching keeps the runs to a respectable amount then we're going to win the game.



Streeter's injury means McDonald gets the call-up and he responds with 3 wins from 3 and an ERA of sub-3. He'll stay up when Lefty gets back and will work in the pen for a while until we settle on a longer-term plan. Johnson is still struggling but has improved, and there's no doubt the approach of 400 has had something to do with it. Cooper sits at 12-2 / 1.92. Amazing.




Both ourselves and the Browns have pinched a break on our respective division race, but with us not even at the halfway point anything can happen.




Awards, news, leaders.






S+ HOME

REPORTS HOME

PIRATES HOME

[luckymann]

Most Batters Faced Per Game (Minimum 10 Appearances)

[luckymann]

Both still going strong with just the slightest hint of a tapering off. Babe now projected to reach the 50 HR mark while Rogers is looking increasingly likely to take out the NL Triple Crown this year.

The Sultan




The Rajah

[luckymann]

Only a short while after Shawkey goes down, the Yankees lose another vital cog in their pitching wheel.

[luckymann]

Rather strangely, Joe's stamina has returned but we are mainly using him as a two-way reliever with the occasional start if needed, as was the case in the game where he reached this milestone.

[luckymann]

... as the Babe's big bat goes quiet (0 HR in the first fortnight of July), Biz Mackie has closed to within 4 of him and others less likely are picking up the slack.

[luckymann]

Hippo Vaughn becomes just the 9th player to notch 250 wins, which should guarantee him a plaque in C-town, while Bombin Pedroso finally gets #200, probably his last mark of note as his ratings have really fallen off the cliff the past couple seasons.

[luckymann]

The out-and-out quality of the group we have assembled shines through with a 21-8 month despite the universe throwing plenty of challenges at us and some pretty raggedy play on numerous occasions. We lose Mueller for a month, Streeter for the season (to a ruptured finger tendon) and various other players for shorter periods and yet these fantastic ballplayers of ours just keep on keeping on.

Williams is having a career-best year, slashing 366/464/589 with 14 HR, 71 RBI, 4.1 WAR, a 441 wOBA and 175 OPS+, and with plenty of others chiming in we are averaging more than 5.5 RPG. The pitching has settled right down - even The Train, who wins the monthly award and is now only a handful of wins shy of the big milestone. Our run diff is a massive +177, which tells you how dominant we have been for most of the year.




All of which means we are fairly much in control, up by a dozen games with 50 to play. Despite Bottomley having arguably the best rookie season on record and Hornsby being Hornsby, once again the long-awaited challenge from the Cards has failed to materialize. The Browns have just come back to the pack a bit with the surprising Indians in the mix for the first time. The Yankees' injury toll has hit them hard, and Ruth picked the wrong month to go quiet (see next post), so it looks like their drought will persist for at least another year.




Awards, news, leaders.






S+ HOME

REPORTS HOME

PIRATES HOME