Pirates’ Postmortem

[Frobby]

Interesting article about why the Pirates were unable to continue their success of 2013-15.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-the-pirates-got-here/

[MDtransplant757]

Here's the same thing from a pirates fan. 

[Camden_yardbird]

As someone who watches a lot of pirates games, the answer to this was due to a number of factors.

1:  Underperformance.

Andrew McCutchens production fell greatly in 2016.  Marte was popped for 80 games due PED use last year.  Polanco has failed to make meaningful strides forward.  Garrett Cole did not make the jump that was expected of him.  Liriano had a resurgence and then regressed (the Pirates actually gave Toronto prospects to take the relatively small year and a half contract).  Ivan Nova had a resurgence and then regressed.  Cervelli ... had a resurgence and was derailed by injury.  Kang couldn't get back into the country last year due to DUIs and a sexual harassment claim in Chicago from the previous season.

No Spending (for power):  Despite a clear lack of power the team did not address the need in free agency, and for reasons.  The outfield was full up, signing a first baseman would have threatened to derail Josh Bells development (development which did not include prodigious power.)  Third base was a logical spot but was filled with free agent bargain David Freese.  It is very difficult to get power production from the middle infield.

No Spending  (On the Bullpen):  Increasing prices for relievers meant the Pirates were scrapping the bargain basement.  Internal options had failed to develop (Jared Hughes) and the Pirates started trading off pieces.  The trade of Melancon had little effect.  Phillipe Rivero was arguably better than Melancon when he was in the trade just without the closing experience.  Ace reliever Tony Watson couldn't hack it as a closer and unfortunately the bad experience there carried over when he went back to a set up role.  None of the bargain basement pick ups were particularly consistent.  Nicasio and Hudson showed some good numbers but failed a lot in games where it really mattered.

Injuries:  Polanco for large stretches,  Taillon delayed a half a year for cancer treatment.  Cervelli.

The end of the story is this, the 98 win Pirates franchise had the prospects to trade to turn into something a little less effective but almost as good as last year's world champion Astros.  But a reluctance to cash in prospects or spend money created two years of teams that were simultaneously developing and underperforming,  where the surges in performance just didn't quite line up with players at the same time.

[Camden_yardbird]

As for the current trades I understand what they are doing, and given my assessment in the previous post you can too.  

1.  They got mostly proven high performance relievers, 3 of them.  Musgrove and Crick could be shut down 7-8th inning guys, in front of an up and coming ace reliever they just locked up for 4 years.

2.  They added OF power prospects. (Well at least one).  The flaw in their last plan was having essentially three center fielders, which created great defense but inconsistent power.  By trading McCutchen they can move Marte to center and Polanco to left.  They can now tryout a parade of potentially higher power bats in right including Osuna, Luplow, or another player acquired in trade.

3.  They are one of the few teams with a plethora of young arms.  Taillon, Kuhl, Williams, Glasnow, Keller, Kinham could make up a fully inhouse built rotation shortly.  They didn't need to get SP in return. 

4.  Colin Moran could be something.  I tend to think his upside looks like current third baseman David Freese, and that might be fine.  But he is a former first round pick, and was showing signs of figuring things out before getting hit in the face by a ball.  If he develops into an every day third basemen the Pirates can focus elsewhere or trade some of their multiple up and coming third base prospects for needs elsewhere.