Am I the only one who actually thinks that .....

[GreenWeenie]

We need 21 the best on this board. He would liven things up!!

Of course! Booted that one. Forgot him.

[GreenWeenie]

Here is my twisted take on 2022. The Pirates won 62 games. There were at least 5 games that it seems like the Pirates could have won, but managed like winning didn't matter (meaning the guys in the line-up or pitchers used). There were another 5 games it looked like the Pirates lost because they were trying to lose and get that draft pick. Based on that, I felt we were a 72 win team last year. I predict we will try to actually win games this year, so 72 will be my guess.

We were a 60-win Hodgepodge team last year. We pulled a couple more out.

We're losing Reynolds. We didn't lose that kind of guy last year. Our improvements haven't been enough to make up for losing him.

I'm thinking that- with Reynolds- we're a 65-win club. Not sure how many more we can squeeze out. We better do it before he goes. We won't do it after.

I hate to have to defend myself for being more optimistic than you about the upcoming season, but I have to. Last year the Pirates kept better players in the minors longer to make sure we didn't lose a year of service time, Roansy and Oneil Cruz for sure. Instead the Pirates played Josh Van Meter for 67 games last year. No one is naive enough to think he was really our best option. Do you remember Yu Chang and his 18 games and .150 average. The Pirates gave Tsutsugo 50 games to hit .170. I could go on and on about playing guys that were clearly not our best option. When it got late in the season, it was obvious the Pirates were going for the draft pick. Do you remember Will Crowe in September 9 innings 14 hits 11 walks, a double digit ERA? But when the game was on the line, we kept throwing Crowe out there to lose it. All I'm saying is if we try to actually win games in 2023, we will win more.
As far as Reynolds: The Pirates may trade him, but it won't be a salary dump.

Like my fellow cycling club guys say, "we set our standards low....and, do our best to not exceed them."

We'll go only as far as our pitching takes us. I can't imagine it being far.

Then, near TDL time, you know that some contender is going to offer Ben something for Bednar. There goes our best two players.

[GreenWeenie]

You always have injuries, but last year the injuries to Roberto Perez and David Bednar were especially damaging. Otherwise I think they would have won a lot more.

Some guy is always hurting us. If it wasn't losing Perez, it's a guy like Yoshi or our other automatic outs.

This guy we got now can't hit any better than I can. You know a guy sucks when they start taking about his glove or what a great team player he is. He better be! ))