Pregame notes: Pirates-Brewers

good time to get Cutch a day (or even two) off. weak opponent, at home, and he likely needs a day after the fairly brutal day at the plate yesterday....

Really don't like Josh Harrison batting 2nd.
Really prefer Gregory Polanco not batting Leadoff.
I guess Clint just moved his lefty, righty, lefty, righty list up one each with McCutch riding the pine.

No outfielder is playing in his regular place!
Hope that doesn't forbode a hesitation that leads to outfield mistakes.

Glad Jordy is at short with ground ball guy AJ throwing.

Brewers

1. Carlos Gomez (R) CF
2. Jonathan Lucroy (R) C
3. Ryan Braun (R) RF
4. Adam Lind (L) 1B
5. Aramis Ramirez (R) 3B
6. Gerardo Parra (L) LF
7. Jean Segura (R) SS
8. Jimmy Nelson (R) P
9. Luis Sardinas (S) 2B

I have to admit:
The Brewers line-up looks more full of hitters——dangerous hitters——than the Pittsburgh line-up.

That "hole" in which McCutch normally resides sure changes the look of the Bucs.

Looks can always be deceiving Groat!

I hope you're right, McBeam.

I'm hoping pitching is the great equalizer tonight. AJ can school 'em.

Thanks for that clarification! It sounded awful strange that the Pirates would release a player who just made an All-Star team.

Yeah, Osuna took the place of Keon Broxton in Altoona when Broxton was promoted to Indy. Buccos have depth at OF in the minors that is starting to show up this season.

Glad you made this comment JAL. The way it was worded in the pregme notes was sloppy and misleading.

I honestly knew nothing about him till this year. Couple places I've looked, low 90s average secondary stuff, back of the rotation type.

I hear that complaints about Locke. And while I think they could do better, I doubt it's internal. Clayton Richard has been hit down there. Sadler might be okay in a spot. Sampson, I honestly don't know. Plus you got make a roster move. Not sure that makes sense yet, until someone forces their hand.

They don't have the option flexibility out of the bullpen like they did in 13 and 14.

Throw in excellent command and gets ground balls too.

Good life and sink to the fastball too.

Liz has control issues and better to work on it at Indy. He's a pen option or if they stretch him out, a starter. He still throws high 90s. But his roster status at Indy is 'Reserve' - is that an admin thing and if so, has he reported?

I noticed he gave up a lot of hits, steel. High WHIP. Pitch to contact it seems. Nothing wrong with that. Just not a guy who will dominate. Your typical 4,5. That's Morton/Locke.

He is listed as #24 in their top 30 prospects.

Agreed bpn...his scouting report reflects just that...back of the rotation as you said. Definitely not an impact arm.

You know Brad, I think Liz was a better pen guy. The walks, you mentioned were a problem. I wonder what kind of life his fastball loses over 5,6 innings. Not sure on the status. JAL would know.

KDKA is saying rain will hit around 730

Here's hoping Meghan Klingenberg is a softball player for US!

Thanks. The SS hit a home run, the team advances to the College World Series, and he gets picked first in the draft. Not a bad four hours.

2 SEC SS's picked 1&2 in the draft. Bregman from LSU went to the Astros at 2.

So true

Thundercrack is there.

*shag

I was going to mention on Yohes article, maybe HE should go to first. Josh Bell is having problems with it.

In all fairness to Polanco, this is only his third game playing in LF, so different angles, and reading th

*the ball off the bat.

No, that's true. But we've seen NH was right a year ago, where the D needs work.

Here's a great update regarding Bell and where he's at both hitting and fielding:

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20150602&content_id=127986726&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

Just saw on the national news their captain is 39 years old

Abby Wambach is 35, captaining the first game. Christie Rampone was the captain last World Cup, starting on the bench right now, is 39. 1-0 US in the 12th minute.

Still pretty cool to be a world class player at that age

Absolutely. I give her all the credit for making the top ranked national team in the world at 39.

So much for those hot bats.....

Yep. They started to get things together, but Solo has been huge.

There was talk on the four letter network about Solo' past and that she should not be on the team

She's had some off the field issues that make people question why they would keep playing her and keep dealing with it. The first half is why. She is the only goalie in the world that makes both those saves like that.

Final: USA 3 - AUS 1. Rapinoe with 2, Press with 1. Played very well the last half hour of the game. Finished out strong. Back to the Pirates now. Although from the rest of these comments maybe I should watch TB-CHI

On the clock now...

I bet they take the pitcher from Stroudsburg...

I wanted Bickford. I'm guess Kirby.

Wow...we draft a no power, all defense SS...

Sounds like a contact hitter. I didn't see many AZ games. Maybe Cmat knows him.

Gammons was talking him up...a "coach's player"...

Sounds a lot like Cole Tucker...

He struggled against PAC 12 pitching.

I don't know man. Him, Tucker, Jacoby Jones. Trying to get one them to stick. Makes sense I guesd.

He did hit well in the Cape Cod league with back-to-back batting titles..wood bat league there. Seems like Tucker is coming along. I have always liked JaCoby Jones all the way back to LSU, but he is an older prospect who really needs to surge this year and stay healthy.

Not a big fan of this pick tonight, but who knows. Wish they would take a projected power bat.

Jim Callis of MLB.com said of Newman that hitting is really his only plus tool, might end up more as a 2B, but can hit his way to the bigs....

Very similar profile as Cole Tucker....

CRAP!! Being dominated AGAIN by a divisional pitcher....

I'm really surprised to hear you say that Biz.

Why? Its part of the draft now adays, plus I can't see this guy being worth slot money

Could be Biz....maybe spend more with the pick at 32....

I'm kinda trying to give NH the benefit of the doubt here

The difference in slot between 19 and 32 is negligible. This isn't 6 million for one guy. Unless they save beyond that. But they only sign half their picks anyway.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2015-mlb-draft-slots/

If I'm Newman, you're paying me 2.25 at least.

Lets wait and see, I'm guessing, they may already have a deal with him

It's not how it used to be. Or at least the way it's designed it's supposed to avoid the 50th best player taken 4th because he's easier to sign. They capped the spending. They can still shuffle some around but it's not like the Pirates giving 5 million to Bell in the 2nd rd.

You only have so much, your cap, to spend on the top 10 rounds, after that anything over 100k costs you cap wise. If you don't sign one of the slot picks, you lose the cash that goes with it

Yea, I think that was part of Houstons Aiken fiasco last year....But I don't think the system or the Pirates are like they were ten years ago. That's what I was saying. It's not like it's McClatchy with no money.

Ok, just don't understand the pick, unless one of our minor league SS is getting traded

They can always move to 3rd or 2nd. I thought when they took Tucker he was almost guaranteed to move.

OK, just talking, peace

Nope....

And continues to struggle in low scoring games...

Yep they need to figure out how to win a 2-1 game sometime. Only one of those wins all year.

Totally ridiculous how this guy dominates them.

Broxton however has a 14.40 ERA vs the Buccos at PNC...

Twice!!

Cards are losing 9-1...so much for picking up a game on them tonight.

Holiday got hurt too.

Mike Lange always talked about that

Lance Lynn was having forearm stiffness last night too.

Holiday has a right quad strain...

Spot on Mad...this team just can't take care of business within the division.

Yep

23. Needs to shorten his swing.

That's my fear tonight that they will call it after 7...

...and if they don't get the last 2 in, that's no excuse for losing tonight they way they did.

And I just checked the Cardinals score -wow. Let's just say that that eases the effects from this performance (only a little bit).

This is where some baseball rules are idiotic. Just suspend the game and finish it tomorrow. It's not a get away game. Give anybody holding a ticket a discount on a future game.

cdeardo...I agree...should just continue tomorrow...

Always wondered why they didn't do it lin little league, you would be sweating bullets while nasty clouds came in

Avoiding Boras clients like the plague

Quite a few teams are it seems, at least a couple prospects.

Buccos 2nd rd pick is another line drive hitting/no power SS with a balky shoulder...could end up at 2B...from UCLA.

Pirates El Stinko within the division though...

12-16 vs Cards 19-8

Can't expect to win a division if you can't beat the teams in your division.

+1
Chases the ball in the dirt, then the high hard stuff, then gets dotted on the corner. Sometimes it is way too predictable

Yeah, he fails 7 out of 10 times, or even a bit more.

If you fail 7 out of 10 times... You are a perennial all star and a possible HoF player.

#RecencyBias alert! Bunch of mediocre pitchers out West. Took them all to the woodshed.

What's the word?

Another rain delay, but supposedly there is a window

Game-on! Not sure I should get my hopes up though haha

I don't really think they know why he's around....

Haha at least a lefty is actually coming up now. Brewers aren't very good against southpaws i guess either

Second that Bob....

Why bother?

Seriously, this is why I don't buy into the idea that the Pirates are anything special. The bullpen is awful; they have no more than 2, maybe 3, pitchers that you can count on getting anybody out on any
given day. No team can overcome this.

Good. That's one way to keep him from appearing in any games

That's a good thing, right?

Trying to add a little levity to this rain-trodden malaise game.

game. set. match.

The Pirate's hate to admit mistakes, and Bastado is a big one

so are tabata and hart

Relax Steel...this team is not going to catch St. Louis. They could play into the next millennium and still not catch St. Louis. They're a wild card team at best and without a better bullpen that's doubtful.

And still stinky in winning these low scoring affairs.

Yep...Jimmy Nelson has an ERA of around 1 against the Pirates, well over 5 vs everyone else...