News/views: GM has Harrison’s back

especially today.

Amen, Milo!

He didn't drop a ton of cash on a utility infielder. He dropped a ton of cash on his every day third baseman.

And let's be fair, it's only May 10.

Yeah, but... Our 'everyday 3rd baseman' has played 3 positions already this season. Just sayin'. Part of Josh's value is that he can be a utility guy.

Or maybe he's just not very good.

As has been the unanimous of him for all but five months of his professional career.

Maybe his major league career, NMR, but not his professional career.

Never once made a Cubs or Pirates Top 10 prospect list as a minor leaguer, in the years where Zac Von Rosenberg and Chase d'Arnaud were top prospects.

What does that tell you?

@NMR: It tells me you don't have to be a top 10 minor league prospect to be an All-Star.....runner-up in the batting race......and lead the league in fielding at your primary position.
Will he repeat.....its unlikely.
But.....it was also unlikely that he would do it in the first place.

@ all of you
Maybe he is somewhere between not very good and very good. As is the case with most players. With almost all guys there is a window of very good followed by a window of mediocre. Its the length of those windows that determine whether or not their a super star

That's a very fair point.

Because 2011-2013 didn't happen? Right. Small sample size.

Zero chance Walker goes back to 3rd. More likely he eventually moves to 1st if Pedro can be traded for something

NMR, 48% of Harrison's major league plate appearances came in 2014. It's just about as likely that's his true skill level as all of his plate appearances from 2011-2013 was.

No, it's not.

His "true talent" is most certainly somewhere in between, the only question is how close to each extreme. He's not going to walk, and at this point it seems fairly obvious that he's not going to maintain his power spike.

That leaves BABIP left to provide any value on offense. Without the ability to run high BABIP's he's a league-average hitter, at best.

OK?

945 innings in the minors; 109 innings with the Bucs.

Ok 109 in the Majors. That's my point. To say Walker should be out third basemen makes ZERO sense. Hurdle will figure out a way to get JHay, Mercer and Kang the right amount of PT that will help the Bucs. But again, moving one of your best players to a position he rarely played is plain stupid

WHO is hitting the panic button over Kang?
In his last eight games he has 12 H....2 HR.....5 R.....5 RBI.....and raised his season average to .333!!

*was*

He wouldn't play regularly if here, and he doesn't have the best attitude when not playing regularly.

Good points Bill. I got excited about the batting average and forgot about past history with Jose here.

Because the Pirates prefer to have at least one left handed bat on the bench.

well said

You mean draw walks

Nailed it.

Pitchers have reacted exactly as one should've expected, coming off a season where Harrison did so much damage on inside pitches. I think the real issue is selectivity, however. Hitting that cutting fastball or slider breaking off the plate solidly into right field sure as heck isn't easy; that's why they call them "pitcher's pitches". Gonna be a long year if Harrison continues swinging at anything sniffing the zone.