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Pirates 2, Twins 1
AB R H BI
Pham LF 4 1 1 1 HR
Tommy Pham’s second-inning home run was the Pirates’ 66th of the year, fewest of any team in the league, though not any kind of first-half record. Their slugging percentage of .339, though, that’s brutal. The Pirates are just the seventh team this century to reach the All-Star break slugging under .340, and they have a chance to be the lowest-power team of the century. The 2013 Marlins slugged .335, and the 2010 Mariners slugged .339; those are the only two teams since 2001 that failed to reach .340 in a full season.
I have been a defender of Ben Cherington in the past, and I still regard him as a strong baseball mind. Looking at these Pirates, though, I really have no idea what they are doing. Eight Pirates have at least 200 PA. One is 38, one is 37, one is 33. Throw in Bryan Reynolds and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and most days they play more guys in their 30s than in their 20s. What are you building with that? What does giving Adam Frazier 262 plate appearances do for you now or in the future? Andrew McCutchen is one of the great players in franchise history; he’s 38, a tick above replacement, and fourth on the team in PAs. What are we even doing here?
I posted my annual opinion about the draft last night. I think about Paul Skenes, who never had any choice but to be a Pirate. We let these teams dictate the futures of hundreds of young men, denying them any agency in what organization they wish to join. Would you let your son or daughter join the 30th-best organization in their field, or would you encourage them to choose one with a greater chance of success? Skenes deserved to pick his own future, and what the Pirates have done since selecting him without his input to join their diseased organization is one of the best arguments against sports drafts that I can muster.
I can make a similar argument about Royce Lewis, assigned to the Twins just after his 18th birthday and unlikely to be able to select his own employer until he’s 30. Lewis is a less-sympathetic character, though, part of the reason the Twins are such a disappointment this year. An offense I thought would rank seventh in baseball is instead 17th, providing most of the gap between their expected performance and their actual one. I still think they have the talent to make a second-half run. They play their last seven games against the Tigers over a two-week span in August, and that’s their chance to make a stand.
AB R H BI
Pham LF 4 1 1 1 HR
Tommy Pham’s second-inning home run was the Pirates’ 66th of the year, fewest of any team in the league, though not any kind of first-half record. Their slugging percentage of .339, though, that’s brutal. The Pirates are just the seventh team this century to reach the All-Star break slugging under .340, and they have a chance to be the lowest-power team of the century. The 2013 Marlins slugged .335, and the 2010 Mariners slugged .339; those are the only two teams since 2001 that failed to reach .340 in a full season.
I have been a defender of Ben Cherington in the past, and I still regard him as a strong baseball mind. Looking at these Pirates, though, I really have no idea what they are doing. Eight Pirates have at least 200 PA. One is 38, one is 37, one is 33. Throw in Bryan Reynolds and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and most days they play more guys in their 30s than in their 20s. What are you building with that? What does giving Adam Frazier 262 plate appearances do for you now or in the future? Andrew McCutchen is one of the great players in franchise history; he’s 38, a tick above replacement, and fourth on the team in PAs. What are we even doing here?
I posted my annual opinion about the draft last night. I think about Paul Skenes, who never had any choice but to be a Pirate. We let these teams dictate the futures of hundreds of young men, denying them any agency in what organization they wish to join. Would you let your son or daughter join the 30th-best organization in their field, or would you encourage them to choose one with a greater chance of success? Skenes deserved to pick his own future, and what the Pirates have done since selecting him without his input to join their diseased organization is one of the best arguments against sports drafts that I can muster.
I can make a similar argument about Royce Lewis, assigned to the Twins just after his 18th birthday and unlikely to be able to select his own employer until he’s 30. Lewis is a less-sympathetic character, though, part of the reason the Twins are such a disappointment this year. An offense I thought would rank seventh in baseball is instead 17th, providing most of the gap between their expected performance and their actual one. I still think they have the talent to make a second-half run. They play their last seven games against the Tigers over a two-week span in August, and that’s their chance to make a stand.
