SB Nation User Blog: GTrain

Crasnick story on the Bucs makeover

GTrain — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:34:20 -0000

Today, Jerry Crasnick posted an objective, interesting article about Huntington's complete overhaul of the Pittsburgh Pirates on ESPN.com I thought it was a good read and definitely worth checking out, even if most of it isn't news to us.

Andre Mccutchen is very good at baseball. In fact he is so fast that in the time it took me to write these extra words he rounded the bases three times.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=4373943

NON PIRATE DEADLINE THREAD

GTrain — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:49:26 -0000

I just figured that since this is where a lot of us come to talk baseball and there is no current post for it that I would put one up. I wanted to keep it separate from Pirates Trades and talks because that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

A few things in play right now:

-The biggest thing that is flying under the radar to me is that Adrian Gonzales is some what in play. If you are the Red Sox I don't know how you don't give up a Halladay like package for him. You lost out on Texiera, but Gonzalez may actually be better and is signed pretty cheap the next few years. I honestly think he's the closest thing there is to Pujols. He has 27 homers right now with a 390 OBP and an OPS over 900....playing on a crap team in Petco park. Additionally he is a top tier/ possible gold glove defender at 1B. I think he puts up better #'s than Tex if he goes to Boston. If possible maybe even take on San Diego's worst contract in the deal to lessen the package you'd have to send...only because you cannot send but so much cash due to MLB rules.

Check out his #'s. His average is lower than it was earlier in the year...but he sees almost no pitches. He's already walked more than he did all of last year when he hit .280 and his OBP is 30 points higher.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7054

-Josh Fields wants a trade. This guy has never hit for average but wants out and it seems the White Sox have given up on him a la Lastings (although without the behavior problems). It seems like he could be had on the cheap and has proven power in the majors hitting 23 homers in 300-som-odd at bats his rookie year. What would it take to get him? Could the buccos get him for slightly more than the delwyn deal? Could he play 2B if Andy cant? I know I said non-pirates, but I was referring more to trading away our guys 9freddy, grabow, jack, capps, duke snell etc)

Thoughts? new deals?

Dominant teenagers on the DSL/ VSL Bucs

GTrain — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:45:26 -0000

I was wondering if anyone knew more about, or had scouting reports for a few guys tearing up the DSL and VSL.

DSL

Fraylin Campos

19 YO P has an era of 2.01, 12 K/9 and a 4.5 K/BB as a starter. Sounds Filthy. He only pitched 17 DSL innings last year.

Eric Avila

19 YO 3B is hitting .350 with an OPS of 937 4 HR's and tons of doubles but has 16 Errors so sounds like the glove could use a lot of work. This is his second year in the DSL.

VSL

Basically the whole team is raking. I've heard Jorge Bishop is the big prospect. He's 18, hitting .313 with 8 HR's with 21 SB so that sounds about right. They also have a number of other 18 and 19 year olds tearing the cover off the ball: Barrios another SS who's OPS is 860, Aponte who's hitting .400 , David Pino who's OPS is 950

Trinidad is probably their the best hitter, but much older.

Ruiz and Espinoza stand out as SP who are putting up great numbers. They are 19 and 17 respectively.

I don't know much about these guys as they are very young internationals. The VSL looks like a hitter's league, or is the team really that good? Any addition info would be awesome to check out during the break.

Is anyone else very excited about the Gulf Coast Pirates?

GTrain — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:47:38 -0000

First of all, I think it's worth noting that the collection of nationalities on this team is insane. They have 2 pitchers from India, a pitcher from Australia, and a 2B from South Africa in addition to the usual mix of Americans, Dominicans, Purto Ricans and Venezuelans. Must be an interesting clubhouse.

Team Stats are here:

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&cid=470

From what I see the pitching is nothing to write home about so far, but the roster includes

Lastings Milledge just for some rehab, but at least he's showing power and taking walks. If he wanted he could swing away Pedro style and I'm sure he's seeing plenty of bad pitches.

Rinku and Dinesh showing some promise, as opposed to falling on their faces. Rinku gave up his first run last time out and Dinesh has yet to allow a run in his first 2 IP

Wes Freeman. 2008 Bonus baby is 19 years old and is 6'4" 215 Scouts said he had great tools when he was drafted and he is tearing it up so far with an OPS over 1000 and 2 HR inhis first 27 AB's

Does anyone know more about Ramon Cabrera, 18 year old catcher with an OPS over 1000 (only 13 ABs though)?

Gift Ngoepe, our 2B from South Africa has yet to draw a walk and has been caught 2 of 3 SB attempts, but he is hitting .333 Also 19 years old

Brooks Pounders got knocked around his first time out, but come on. BROOKS. POUNDERS.

Also Neil Walker is rehabbing there. Sorry "Pine-Richland's Neil Walker" is rehabbing there.

All in all there's some guys to be excited about and I look forward to following them. If anyone could fill me in with more about these guys besides just their stats through 10 games I would love to hear it.

Tale of Two Lastings Milledgeseses

GTrain — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:09:58 -0000

First off, let me preface this by saying I loved Nyjer! Morgan aka Mr. Tony Plush. After Nate, my favorite player was traded, he became my favorite. He was a former hockey player and quote machine that usually had about 4 ounces of chew in his mouth. He played awesome D, hit for a decent average, and ran fast as hell on the bases (although often 3 feet too far, or 1 second too early, thus turning his previous hit into an out). His uniform was always dirty and you couldn't not like him. He won me over from the "I-can't-believe-this-guy-hitting-190-in-Bradenton-is-guarunteed-the-starting-LF-job" camp which is saying a lot.

That said I'd like to turn to the guy we got back for him, Lastings Milledge. Milledge was hyped beyond belief as prospect, as is any top NY prospect (Jackson, Martinez, Gomez, Maine, Hughes) . He also did a lot of stupid things that were hyped, as is any stupid thing one does in NY. He went to DC and showed both reasons for the hype about his game, as well as reasons for hype about the stupid things he does. How you feel about him really depends on which way you look at his game, so I decided to do both.

The Good:

-Scouting reports said he had CF range with a RF arm, plus speed, and plus power to all fields. BA ranked him as the best hitter for average, and best overall position prospect in the Mets system.

-This report said he had "one of the highest pure physical ceilings in the game overall. "

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=1964563

-He played 1 1/2 seasons for the Mets then Nationals. his numbers for those years are below.

Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS

184

.272

.341

.446

.787

138

523

140

.268

.330

.402

.731

Nyjer's Yahoo Profile

Milledge's yahoo profile

Those numbers are pretty solid for a young player and show the potential that everyone raved about. Particularly in 2008 where he had 14 HR's while hitting .268 He also stole 24 bases while being caught 9 times, or slightly less than every 4th attempt.

In this his breakout year, as we approach the midway point Nyjer is hitting 278 with 2 HR's and 18 SB with 10 CS or slightly (correction: more) than every third attempt. Milledge hit for more power, higher OPS, and slugging, as well as being a more efficient base stealer.

Perhaps most importantly, Milledge is 24 as opposed to Morgan's 29

The Bad

While his power is better, his eye for the strike zone is not, which was one of the concerns on his early scouting reports. Nyjer actually leads Milledge in OBP and is on pace to have more walks than Milledge did in 2008. For all of that power Milledge's OPS was only 730 in '08 which is not a huge improvement over Nyjer. Milledge has also been an adventure in the OF.

-After drafting him the Mets temporarily shut down negotiations when accusations surfaced that Milledge had sexual contact with girls as young as 12 while in high school. However, no charges were ever filed, and the Mets thought little enough of it after looking into it to sign him. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/story?id=1590426

-While with the Mets he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and was sent to Washington:

from the NY Times:

Milledge was brought up last May. He was alternately electrifying and frustrating. He showed power, speed and arm strength, but he made base-running errors and defensive mistakes. He showed up late to the ballpark one day.

Milledge displayed exuberance and an inflated view of himself. After he hit his first major league home run, he high-fived fans on the way back out to right field. It was a nice extemporaneous touch, but he was blasted for hot-dogging. Later someone -- presumably a Mets veteran -- put an unsigned note in Milledge's locker, exhorting him to have some respect for the game, to act like a professional.

It was apparent from our conversation Thursday that Milledge had thought long and hard about the 2006 season, and that he had made an adjustment. ''I know I hit some of the guys the wrong way,'' he said. ''I understand that. But if I can tone it down to where it's acceptable in the clubhouse, it's accepted to the veterans who paved the way for me, then we got something.''

-After starting to show his potential at the plate in 2008, Milledge was to be the starting CF and lead off man for the Nationals this year. The team wanted him to take more pitches and change his approach as a leadoff. However, he did not deliver at the plate and misplayed a number of balls in center, then was demoted to AAA after 7 games and 24 AB to work on his approach and defense.

From the Nationals Journal, Milledge after his demotion regarding his role on to start the '09 season

"It was a good opportunity for me," Milledge said. "I was excited, but I knew I would struggle a little bit, just like I knew I would struggle in centerfield last year. But I never said anything. I just go work as hard as I can. I knew I would struggle. I knew I wouldn't get off to a hot start. I knew that myself because of the change of style in my hitting."

So after all of this it really still depends on which guy you think you're getting. The free swinger who plays bad D, refuses to listen to his coaches and disrespects his teammates and coaches, or the uber-talented young guy who's made some mistakes, but responded well to criticism and can still be a star.

Personally I think it is somewhere in between. I think the main problem in DC was that he was forced into a position where he would fail, and acknowledged knowing as much. While Nyjer is a #8 hitting CF who is leading off and playing LF, Milledge is more like a #6 htting RF right now who was leading off and playing CF on a bad team. He will probably never walk as much as you'd like, but can probably be an average RF with solid power numbers and 30 SB potential. If it all clicks he has the potential to be a stud. However, there is also a chance that he will progress as much in the future after age 24, as Nyjer will after age 29.

Ryan Doumit is a Catcher in the NL

GTrain — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:38:09 -0000

For the one millionth time. Ryan Doumit's numbers are good offensive numbers for a catcher, but very average for a 1B. By moving him to 1B we would have an average 1B under contract occupying a premium hitting positionand average catchers. This is not beneficial compared to having an above average offensive catcher and either Adam at 1B, taking a look at our younger guys at 1B or someone we acquire in a trade or eventually move far down the road (Pedro). It is common knowledge that in the AL he'd DH, but we're not in the AL, so his bat has the most value at catcher. It seems like in every third thread, someone proposes moving Doumit to catcher and then Vlad or someone else explains this. It's incredibly redundant and I'm sure will be the new defacto question to ask now that Andy is hitting consistently and McCutchen has been called up.

...and because I love this pictue and still miss The Trouth. RIP NATE

via www.allthetests.com

RIP NATE

GTrain — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:20:03 -0000

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

via cm1.theinsider.com

I previously had a big explanation of how future superstar prostpects aren't getting traded anymore, but I'm still too mad for that. I tried to rationalize it but its 2 days later now and I'm still really pissed. I keep coming back to thinking about if we had Nyjer Cutch and Nate in the OF. I can't really think about the future as much as I want to. Honestly, this sucks. RIP NATE.

Nyjer Morgan Quotes and Moments

GTrain — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:41:21 -0000

I have to admit that when he was struggling in Spring Training I was one of the people who wanted Nyjer Morgan nowhere near the Bucco's lineup. Please forgive me, Nyjer. I was ignorant. Nyjer has since become my second favorite Pirate (behind Nate McLouth). Morgan is easily the team's most entertaining player on and off the field and if he gets traded or loses time to McCutchen I will miss him dearly. Nyjer's uniform is almost always filthy by the end of the first inning and while he doesn't walk or hit for power, he's hitting .300 in a Pirates uniform which is quite an accomplishment in this orginization. While he runs the bases with efficiency (or lack thereof) that would make Germans weep, he is undoubtedly awesome. If he ever figures out how to time moves and not overslide, it will be amazing.

Charlie can be credited for naming his exciting quality...Sparkpluginess. He's like a human SkyBlast. When asked who was the funniest Pirate in Spring Training Nate answered "I would have to say Nyjer Morgan, if anyone. It's not exactly Comedy Central in here." Not exactly a ringing endorsement but I'll take it. Last night's phenomenal helmet spike and ejection reminded me just how much more entertaining Pirates games are with him in the lineup.

Some of my favorite Nyjer quotes and moments. If you have any others, or pictures, please post.

- He refers to left field and the stands around it as "Morgantown"

- In Wrigley when the fans chant, he waves his arms like he's conducting an orchestra.

-I cannot remember what game I saw it in, but he occasionally celebrates a great play by picking up one leg and resting his arm on it a la "Captain Morgan"

-Regarding the defensive alignment:

"I love it," Morgan said. "More room for me to run, and I love to run, man."

Informed of his ultimate zone rating, Morgan first needed an explanation, then replied, "That's cool. I just want to catch the ball."

-Regarding his injury:

"This is the first time I've really opened up and said something when there was really minor pain in there," said Morgan, ever the hockey player. "So I kind of feel like a sissy right now. It's just eating at me. It's killing me so bad, because I want to be out there and grinding with the boys, man. I just figure I got to be smart about this, too, and get over this little hump right here."

UPDATE: RIP Nate. NYJER! is all we've got now. Thank you to everyone for your Nyjer posts. They have been of great comfort in this dark time.

This picture is even better. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN MR TONY PLUSH!

via xavier-nady.com

This chick brought her 7 month old niece to her first Pirate game and they got Nyjer to do some dance called the "Stanky Leg" at 2:40 Any infants first Bucco experience should include the 4 words : Nyjer Morgan Stanky Leg.

Kendall's First Pirate Game! (via CarleyLenz)

Trade Ian Snell?

GTrain — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:29:15 -0000

First of all I'm not really sure what we can get for a guy with a crappy attitude who leads the NL in walks and losses AND our minor league system isn't exactly teeming over with SP. At this point, when we chalk up #17 and the selling starts, I'm not sure I would be devastated by Vazquez or Gorzo (or someone we get in another trade later) taking Ian's starts. Hopefully Lincoln's ready by 2010?

However on the plus side, he is young, healthy, and has good stuff. He is making $3.2 million this year, and 4.25 next year, with team options for 2011 and 2012 that I doubt would be picked up. Thus while not dirt cheap he is more than a half season rental and if he ever turned it around, is under contract another 2 years. The guy would probably benefit from a change of scenery at this point.

With a lot of teams looking for pitching at the deadline, and everyone wanting a kings ransom for top tier guys (Peavy, Oswalt, Bedard, Lee). Nobody really wants to pay anymore after the Bedard, Texiera and other trades showed the value of young, controlled talent. Something that was magnified by the economy. There could be a strong market for mid level guys, as long as GM's don't price them out of the trade market.

Snell would make the most sense for a team that needs SP and something else we can offer in a package. For instance, if there were a long term injury to Reyes, or Delgado isn't coming back. Snell and Jack/ Adam to the Mets. However, I hear they don't like Adam or his salary, but that could change quickly if he heats up. They committed a lot to Perez and another big contract also makes Snell less appealing. Same goes for any team that needs SP and then either CF/SS/2B. I don't particularly see the Mets happening for financial reasons, but they could afford it if they needed to and any further injuries might do it.

A trade that I think makes a lot of sense for both sides is Nyjer and Snell to San Diego for a package prospects that is good, but not a ridiculous asking price. Particularly if they move Peavy/ Young first and have a clearer idea of what their system looks like. Nyjer can cover ground in Petco at a price they'll love. He isn't hitting homers anywhere, so if it has any affect on his offense it would be positive, given all that real estate for base hits to drop in. They aren't typical buyers in a trade market but Snell is a would definitely benefit from a pitchers park, so he is more valuable to them. He gives them a live arm SP to plug in if they move Young or Peavy, at a much cheaper price than Peavy, and 2 mil less than Young. Nyjer sweetens the team for a team looking to keep payroll down and juuuuuuust might be in the wild card hunt, so they can continue to field a competitive MLB team.

Just wanted to float the idea out there of packaging a talented young SP with a team friendly contract and another trade chip. Anyone else have scenarios they think are realistic?

Pedro Alvarez highlight reel

GTrain — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:43:17 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERqN7WSr5rc

Just because it's been a while for anyone who doesn't live in Lynchburg. I know it's old but come on, who doesn't want to watch Pedro Alvarez be really good at baseball for 5 minutes?!

My favorite parts:

The first swing/ absolute bomb

1:20 the sound the bat makes is like a gunshot

1:30 Hits an absolute bomb then plays rock paper scissors with David Price

2:40 Bomb

3:25 Another bomb

Also nice to see him play some nifty D. I know everyone talks about him moving to 1B, but ideally in my mind, he sticks at 3B, Andy moves to second, Calvin Anderson develops at 1B and Friday, D'Arneaud or Mercer pans out at SS for our 2012 IF

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOsO3dB68_c&feature=channel

Interview with "Vandy Lance" at 1:05, 1:40 Awesome.

VIVA EL TORO!