Comments on: The Futures Game and More

By: MarkH

MarkH — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:22:59 +0000

@neal s - Sure thing Neal. I live near by, but don't get to enough games like I wish I could nowadays. Looking forward to taking in the game.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:46:16 +0000

Keith Law on Chris Tillman’s poor outing from the Futures Game: “I’ll forgive him…It was raining pretty hard…the conditions were not good…It was almost as if the the first pitch and then boom…it went from zero to pretty hard over the course of maybe 4 or 5 pitches. So I’ll cut him slack…He showed some depth on the curve ball. I have seen him better in the past, there’s no question, but the package is still there…I thought the delivery was the same, body’s great obviously, gets good downhill on the fastball; I have seen him throw a little bit harder in the past, but I’m willing to forgive him that because the conditions were not great.”

Nothing groundbreaking there, but it’s good to know that his delivery wasn’t affected by whatever else was going on. The diminished velocity that I’ve heard about could very well be from slippery mound conditions, and there’s no reason whatsoever to think that he failed miserably in his big test.

I predict Tillman debuts on August 10th (or thereabout) against Oakland at home.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:19:54 +0000

If the Pirates think they can get a solid outfield out of Milledge, Moss, Tabata and Hernandez in the next two years, it may have all been worth their while.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:12:52 +0000

I tell me Yankee-loving girlfriend all the time (she spends a lot of her time rolling her eyes…like 84% of her standard day is just rolling eyes) that the Yankees really fucked the dog by trading Tabata, Karstens, Ohlendorf, and McCutchen for Nady (didn’t help them last year, career threatening injury this year) and Marte (didn’t help them last year, hurt and ineffective so far this year).

The Pirates front office has been getting a ton of flack for their moves, but it’s basically the equivalent of trading Tejada and Bedard (without the massive win return or fan support). Burn that forest so it can regrow stronger.

Anyway. I should’ve also pointed out, for anyone who didn’t watch the Futures Game (shame shame shame), it was raining while Tillman was pitching and then there was a four hour delay before the game continued, so conditions were less than ideal. Still, a couple of guys pitched really well (Drabek and Feliz stand out) despite the conditions.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:01:37 +0000

@Andrew – I see what you did there.

MLB OF Nate McLouth 27yo
MLB OF Xavier Nady 30yo
MLB OF Jason Bay 30yo
MLB OF Nyjer Morgan 28yo
MLB 1B Eric Hinske 31yo
MLB RP Sean Burnett 26yo
MLB RP Damaso Marte 34yo

for:

A OF Eric Fryer 22yo
A RP Casey Erickson 22yo
A+ SP Jeff Locke 21yo (#9 top prospect for Pirates)
A+ SP Bryan Morris 22yo (#8 top prospect for Pirates)
AA OF Gorkys Hernandez 21yo (#5 top prospect for Pirates)
AA OF Jose Tabata 20yo (#3 top prospect for Pirates)
AAA SP Daniel McCutchen 26yo
MLB 3B Andy LaRoche 25yo
MLB OF Lastings Milledge 24yo
MLB OF Brandon Moss 25yo
MLB SP Charlie Morton 25yo
MLB SP Jeff Karstens 26yo
MLB SP Ross Ohlendorf 26yo
MLB RP Joel Hanrahan 27yo
MLB RP Craig Hansen 25yo

(rankings from ScoutingBook.com, seemed most up to date since trades)

They got 4 good prospects plus some young filler that could turn out okay for three good MLB players and change. Maybe it’s not so bad?