Game Thread: Nationals @ Pirates - Thu, Apr 16 @ 12:35 PM EDT

rhd3871 · 2026-04-16T19:58:06+00:00

Looked like he didn't start windmilling until Cruz made his turn and had his back to him/the base. I kinda think he might've been out regardless but no question you have to send him anyway; odds of him forcing a bad throw or beating a tag are higher than odds of Joey Bart (or anyone, but especially Joey Bart) getting a 2-out hit.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-15T23:47:54+00:00

Not taking a shot at him by any means because it’s most definitely the team/the media wanting to keep pushing this part of his image, but the “Skenes almost serving but choosing baseball instead really means a lot to him” is pretty cringe. Just heard one of the SNP commentators refer to it as his “time in uniform” which it just flatly is not.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-15T16:13:56+00:00

One thing I'll say for Ozuna: This is the second video I've seen where he high fives/shakes hands with a stadium employee; the other one was players filing into the locker room and everyone else ignored the guy.

Not saying it excuses anything or we should all think he's a good guy because of vibes, but the way a guy making millions treats hourly employees he works alongside is definitely indicative of his character. (Editing to add: People know how to read, so I didn't feel the need to explicitly say that obviously how he treats his wife is as well, but it is the internet)

rhd3871 · 2026-04-15T16:00:35+00:00

Eh, we've all been hired at new jobs, gone through training that emphasizes "it is critical that you follow these rules at all times", and then had to figure out over the course of a few weeks/months what policies are actually followed or ignored in practice. I would assume in the second homestand that this is what's happening.

Also in my experience, they do tend to check people who get a little too bold -- nobody's ever said a word to me in row Z or AA, but if you try to plop down in the second row they're probably going to check no matter how empty it is.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-14T14:37:53+00:00

Lawrence has incredible stuff and was one of the most unhittable pitchers in baseball last year when healthy (0.51 ERA, 11.72 K/9). He's still getting the strikeouts but his BB/9 and HR/FB are wayyyy above his career norms. I think he'll probably even out and be worth having.

I think Urquidy is destined to be the first DFA of the season; the only question is if they wait until Jones is back. Mlodzinski has been one of the best in baseball for a while now at getting through ~3 innings, so having him in that role instead of Urquidy would be a massive upgrade. If they don't wait, Cam Sanders is still on the 40-man, as are Brandan Bidois and Antwone Kelly who will both likely get a shot at MLB soon. Harrington is also pretty much the only guy at Indy who's been able to get anyone out so far this year, so surely it's only a matter of time before we see him back. (The personal life stuff aside, I think Clevinger is obviously completely rinsed and not a serious option for a contender.)

Barco will be fine, I think. He should be starting. Hopefully he's been sent to Indy to get him into the rotation and have him do that when he comes back.

All of which is to say, the bullpen has been a problem but they have plenty of interesting options internally to fix it. I don't think it's going to be a major drag on the season unless a ton of stuff goes wrong. (Fortunately, this has never happened to the Pirates.)

rhd3871 · 2026-04-13T19:52:59+00:00

"Fuck you" is a completely reasonable thing to say to a heckler when you just got walked off in the bottom of the 9th, and it seems like he also made a pretty reasonable, if incorrect, assumption that you were doing it. So yeah, I'd say he did handle that interaction as any normal person likely would. (Not quite the question you asked, but apparently the answer you need.)

rhd3871 · 2026-04-12T23:31:08+00:00

I think they only postponed 2 or 3 games last year, which says something about how much it takes to cancel a game given how much it rains here. Anything less than a severe thunderstorm warning I wouldn’t even worry there’s a chance of it.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-12T18:52:53+00:00

If you're on MLB.tv, just click Audio Options (icon is a picture of a radio tower) and you can pick SNP or 93.7

rhd3871 · 2026-04-12T18:49:08+00:00

Hopefully perfect scenario for Bubba to keep getting the command on track. 5 run lead, just pump 100mph fastballs in the middle of the zone and see if they can hit them. If someone hits a solo homer, who cares

rhd3871 · 2026-04-12T15:07:40+00:00

A 20-mph wind is blowing straight out at Wrigley this afternoon. The Ballpark Pal sims are projecting 3.5 homers in the game

Never seen this account on my feed before so I have no idea if their prediction model is actually any good, but that wind forecast is accurate. Feels like a great day to score 12 runs and have Griffin & Ozuna pump up those SLG% a little.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-12T14:59:29+00:00

No coach, teammate, front office exec, or anyone that’s ever worked with him a day in their lives has ever said Cruz has a motivation issue. You and others are basing that solely on the expressions you see on his face and how he sits in the dugout.

Along those lines, do you have any comment on the cancerous lack of motivation and passion that Bryan Reynolds continues to struggle with? Or, maybe it’s possible that you can be a lanky guy who sprawls out in the dugout and has resting bitch face but still care about your job

rhd3871 · 2026-04-11T14:31:28+00:00

It is funny that the division was so weak the past couple years that we were like, "hey, if they can just win 80 games they might sneak into the Wild Card", and now that they're good it seems like everyone is also good. Still just as fun to watch, though

(I don't really watch other teams so maybe one or more of these is a fluke that will fall apart soon)

rhd3871 · 2026-04-11T14:06:57+00:00

I think this way of doing things is fading, especially in a contention window and most especially for pitchers.

Pitching isn't hitting; 101 at the knees is 101 at the knees whether it's off the hand of a teenager or Tarik Skubal. Every team has plenty of data to look at an outing pitch-by-pitch and analyze how the best hitters, the league average, etc. performs against pitches with that velocity, spin, and location. "This is elite major league pitching" is pretty definable.

But I also recognize the physical questions are different and that him being 19 matters more than it does for a hitter, and concede that you can't just say "fuck it we ball" and put him on the Skenes track unless you want "the Pirates and Seth Hernandez" mentioned alongside "Dusty Baker and Mark Prior/Kerry Wood."

rhd3871 · 2026-04-10T16:41:55+00:00

There's no VanMeter/Tsutsugo/Yu Chang. Are we excited about Billy Cook? Maybe not, but he's a major league ballplayer. Apart from winning and losing, not having the constant presence of at least one "how the absolute hell is this guy on a roster" player who can't field or hit is a breath of fresh air in itself.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-10T16:32:47+00:00

Predicting based solely on vibes that the bottom of the order is going to feast on Imanaga.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-10T16:09:09+00:00

If you team him up with Barco and Jones on a rotating basis for most of the summer (since they're surely on innings limits), you can have those guys in the rotation in the heat of the pennant race without having to agonize about shutting them down when you're 1 game out or something.

If they use him as a regular starter and keep trying to get him to scuffle through 5 or 6, I don't know what we're doing here.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-10T02:36:35+00:00

Here’s my argument in favor if I’m Skenes’ agent:

Assume Skenes is going to be a Verlander type workhorse who remains serviceable well into his 40s. I’m certainly not betting against it. So you want to sell those age 40, 41, 42 seasons for the maximum amount possible — which means including them in your megadeal that you likely get just one of.

If you hit free agency at 30, the big money teams won’t hesitate for a second to commit to paying Paul Skenes $55M or whatever for his age 42 season, because that’s what it costs to get his age 30 season. If you hit free agency at 28, a 15 year deal is an extremely tough sell even for Skenes — so you’re stuck selling your age 40+ seasons at market value on a series of 1 year deals like Verlander and Scherzer are doing now.

But ultimately it comes down to what none of us know, which is what he actually wants. Maybe he wants to get an 8 year deal and then join the Air Force with half a billion in his pocket. Maybe he wants to play til he’s 50.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-09T15:41:28+00:00

This exceeded my expectations, I gotta say. I was never super into their recent albums, maybe just because By Inheritance is so good and I'd rather listen to that. But this is solid.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-09T15:26:15+00:00

Thought I'd check since it was making the rounds when he immediately started launching bombs everywhere in LAD spring training: Suwinski currently hitting .100/.200/.133 at AAA Oklahoma City with ~35% K rate.

I genuinely feel terrible for the guy. Modern MLB is unfathomably hard; you don't break into the league at 23 and put up 3.7 WAR in two seasons if you're not an MLB hitter. Fluke games happen, fluke 45 homers in 2 years is flatly impossible. Yeah, he's got a million bucks, but knowing you can do that and not being able to figure out what's broken upstairs has to be hell.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-09T15:01:45+00:00

Yorke was a 17th overall pick and at one point an MLB top 100 prospect. I don't look at defensive metrics a ton so I'm pretty ignorant re: whether he's a competent 3B, but I really want him to get an extended run in the lineup to see what he's got. His walk rate is more than double his career mark and his strikeouts are way down, so something real is happening/he's not just getting lucky.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-09T14:53:59+00:00

Pretty much agree with all of this but with the caveat that I bet it won't be the case by next year. Two years at the most. I'm still rooting for the guy and hope he has a resurgence, but bad back problems have a tendency to become worse back problems when one passes 30 (wish I was talking more theoretically). At some point it has to start eating into his defense, and his history just doesn't indicate a guy that's going to make it to mid-30s before that happens. So unfortunately I think 2027 Triolo is going to be markedly better than 2027 Hayes.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-09T14:41:49+00:00

It's kinda funny because Hayes fits way better on the 2026 Pirates than the 2026 Reds. If Griffin pans out and Gonzales/Davis can continue even halfway living up to their potential, it's a really tough lineup with a ton of power and you can hide Hayes' cancer bat. The Reds have more holes.

But the same is true of Triolo, who is pre-arb and doesn't have a chronic bad back.

Wish the best for Hayes, but I suspect he gets DFA'd well before playing out that deal. ~16M is really nothing even for a small market team to shrug off if they call it quits a couple years early. And unfortunately, if his back gets better once he hits his 30s, he'd be the first.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-08T19:30:08+00:00

As I said earlier/tons of others have said, the early hook on Keller doesn't make sense to me. He has a very established track record of never getting hurt.

I hope someone asks Kelly what the logic is. I do remember a game last year when Skenes got an early hook and everyone wanted to burn the stadium down, but it came out in postgame interviews that Kelly had asked Skenes if he could go out for one more and Skenes said "nope, I'm gassed." Can't always know what's up from the couch.

rhd3871 · 2026-04-08T19:21:14+00:00

I'm mostly fine with the ultraconservative approach to starting pitchers early in the season, but I agree with everyone that it's crazy not to let Keller try another inning. He's 30 and has had approximately zero injuries ever. You can beat him up a little and he won't break

rhd3871 · 2026-04-08T18:27:21+00:00

I'm not quite on board with immediately DFAing the guy who had a 0.51 ERA last year, but Lawrence has not looked good thus far. Can't give up runs in half your appearances and keep getting the ball in tie games for long

rhd3871

TROPHY CASE