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2015 Pirates thread

Agreed. He's a better fit in the AL as a DH somewhere
 
Neil Walker for Jon Niese. Kind of a meh move, but Niese has some upside in his contract if he has a good 2016(2 team options). Walker will be missed but we have guys that can cover him and will be cheaper.
 
Meh is exactly how I feel about it as well. Not sure if the Pirates will have enough on the roster to make another run.
 
hated to see this, but not surprised....hopefully Niese is better than Locke.
 
Trading Walker for Niese, dumb move. Walker was as steady as there was at second and proved it over time. Niese is a ****** pitcher and proved it over time. Again, Nutting penny pinching cost us. I like Kang, but they are putting too much faith in him recovering from injury and also having the same kind of year he was having last year. Plus we still have a HUGE hole at first.
 
Trading Walker for Niese, dumb move. Walker was as steady as there was at second and proved it over time. Niese is a ****** pitcher and proved it over time. Again, Nutting penny pinching cost us. I like Kang, but they are putting too much faith in him recovering from injury and also having the same kind of year he was having last year. Plus we still have a HUGE hole at first.

Nutting is back to his old self. Unfortunately he has said in the past that once his family buys something, they never sell it.
 
The Pirates offer Niese a couple advantages: a good home ballpark for left handed pitchers and
better defense than the Mets had. Also a pitching coach who is getting reputation for improving pitchers.

It would be nice to keep a Pittsburgh kid, but Walker was getting expensive for a 2nd baseman with limited fielding range and
trouble hitting left handed pitching. He also has a back issue that made a long-term contract risky.
 
This isn't a salary dump. They're paying more for JN then Neil was going to get in arbitration.
 
This isn't a dump at all. We have Kang/Mercer/Harrison for the 3 IF spots. They'll make due at first until Bell is ready in June or July. Alen Hanson also spent his age 22 season in AAA learning 2B. He has speed and his bat has some upside. Not extending Walker makes a ton of sense. Plus we've also been stocking up on infielders in the draft.

Walker is a great guy and a good Pirate but this was the time to part ways. If Niese even has an average Niese season he will be worth 9M dollars.
 
Heyward to the Cubs. Bend us over, put it in, and break it off. $23M/year for eight years. Be finishing second in the division at best for several more years.
 
Heyward is seriously overrated. We have at least 2 OF better than him and Polanco could catch up soon enough. I love advanced stats and all, but Heyward can't hit.
 
Our window closed last year. They'll be competitive but just not good enough. Need a first baseman.
 
I saw an interesting stat the other day....Over the last 4 years only 10 players have had more home runs than Pedro.

As for Walker, hate to see a guy like go, but he was getting expensive for what he was. He was an average hitter with steady defense. Just hope that Kang can duplicate his past season.
 
I saw an interesting stat the other day....Over the last 4 years only 10 players have had more home runs than Pedro.

As for Walker, hate to see a guy like go, but he was getting expensive for what he was. He was an average hitter with steady defense. Just hope that Kang can duplicate his past season.

I wonder where Pedro stood in the way of strike outs during that period? Probably near the top. He is a DH, nothing more. Not a real clutch hitter and definitely a clutch choker with the glove. He needed to go. Thing is, we probably could have gotten something for him in return had we traded him last season.

Walker was no more expensive than Niese, really. I just don't like what we got in return in that trade. Niese sucks. A career .500 pitcher.

They are putting a lot of faith in Long Duc Dong recovering fully from his injury and also repeating the year he was having last year.

STILL have a huge hole at first. I guess Morse is the next man up now, but he is nothing more than a platoon player, probably with Sean Rod.

Pitching staff, as we've seen, is good but not good enough. I don't know why, but Melancon scares me. I know he had great stats last year, but it seems he always gives up a hit or two to make it interesting before shuts the opponents down. Always living on the edge.
 
I think the Pirates deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Niese, due to their track record of improving pitchers.

Their scouts see something in him that Searage can work with, just like with JA Happ.

Overall, this is still a really talented team that will probably win 90+ games.
 
now if we can just dump Locke we'd be good to go.
 
Mat Latos would be another good reclamation project. The risk on Niese is pretty small. If they can slightly fix him it will be a good investment and they have two very affordable team options. If he's bad again, they can simply waive him after the season. I'm assuming they know that Kang will be fine within a month or two of the season starting and that's why they traded Walker.
 
What's the word on Glasnow and Taillon being called up in 16? Thought Josh Bell was tracking for 2016 at 1B also.
 
I doubt we see Bell before August....they just were saying they messed up rushing Pedro, and we've seem how the org does things since....unless he goes all Polanco on AAA pitching....I like Latos or Neise better than Morton or Locke, but one of them has to be Burnett or Happ....

Pedro?...meh...lotsa HR's, but quite a few were solo shots, and more than a couple were in games that were already lost and his fielding was terrible.

Morse and a LHB can platoon, or they go and get a "somebody", but I doubt they will.

Cutch is gonna break the bank in a few years....I can see them saving for that starting now,
 
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