Bautista, Bootcheck, Hansen off 40-man

Holy Mary and Joseph! Baseball news! Pirates Baseball news!

Good luck guys!

You know what? This Craig Hansen thing could be a point against the "Neal will keep his trades no matter what." Srsly.

I bet those were tough decisions.

The Chris Bootcheck era officially ends.

Craig Hansen had a downward plane with a power arm, how could he have failed?

Theo Epstein sure did a number on our boy blunder Neal.

"Theo Epstein sure did a number on our boy blunder Neal."

Demery,

How come you're only around when NuttingHostage is?

Neal needed room on the 40 man to clear space for all the big name free agents on the way.

       IT'S A CULTURE OF WINNING!

                       Srsly.

Since acquiring a really good player is beyond the capability of the PBC, all we have left is to cheer when we get rid of our worst ones.

YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

21, what are you trying to say?

Jersey Joe, could you ask Frank what color Ryan's eyes are?

I also need to know if Ryan likes chocolate chip cookies.

Ask him if Ryan is the greatest catcher ever.

          Thanks.

Nice try on spinning the Hansen news as a positive for Neal. The fact is that Neal's buzzer beater in trading Bay as time ran out wasted their best trade chip. LaRoche is the only thing keeping the deal from being worse than the Ramirez give away. Dropping Hansen was inevitable. He was a walk machine before his arm went out.

Gee, it was pretty nice and polite here for a couple of days. But apparently any sort of Pirate news at all has the effect of peeing in the corn flakes.

Sorry G-Man, you can go on with your love fest.

I forgot this was your personal chat room.

Are the Pirates going to win 100 games or 110 games next year? Is that better?

Well, isn't this fun?

Demery - there was all kinds of talk about baseball with little to no mocking of other posters the last few days. It wasn't a love fest, it was just conversation about the playoffs, and who the Pirates should try to get FA.

4httr - I wasn't spinning. Just making conversation.

Bootcheck and Bautista will be interesting to watch to see what happens with them. They both actually had decent peripheral numbers like tRA, which is a linear weights based projection on how what the ground balls, line drives and fly balls a pitcher throws is usually worth.

Bootcheck had a tRA+ of 103 this year and Bautista was 118. Bautista's tRA was 3.58. That is essentially what his ERA would be estimated to be using that system.

I doubt if anyone will pick up Hansen as a Rule 5, so he'll probably still be around, right?

PoH said "MARCH" so I thought I'd better march.  :-)

No surprises there.  I won't be surprised if Hansen stays in the organization, if he is able to pitch again.   Regardless, I wish them all good luck.  

About names on the jerseys...I'm not one who has all the rosters for every MLB team memorized, so I would prefer that there be names on the jersey.

Let's see, the Pirates just got rid of three pitchers, two of whom were longshots, and the other one who came down with a condition that will keep from ever pitching again, and this somehow proves that the front office is inept?

Some things just cannot happen without the "realists" "proving" their "point."

With Ascaino, Meek, and Yates still on the DL it seems so much like necessary busines and so little like anything to do with the Bay trade that I have to wonder why anybody would even want to bring up that old news.  What's it been 16 months?  Hey, next month will be 17 and we all know how significant 17 is.  

Look for Yates to be dropped, too.  And, then if they do any more tradinig or anything in the free agent market, I will boldly predict that they will adjust the 40 man roster YET AGAIN.  

I would also observe that while there has been more silliness than usual this last week or so, there has be a greater variety of baseball topics and serious discussion than we had in any of the week-long back and forths over the front office at the end of the season.

BTW, I'm not putting too much stock in tRA until the Hit f/x system is able to really tell us whether balls hit are actually ground balls, line drives or fly balls.

Up to this point, this has relied on humans giving that answer, and there is a lot of slop in the system. Humans tend to call things line drives when they drop for a hit, fly balls when they are caught in the outfield, etc.

Think of that "flare" that Lastings hit to win the game for us in the last week of the season. Depending on which announcer you were listening to it was either a "flare" or "blistered" or a "gapper", etc.

The Hit f/x system will employ cameras like Pitch f/x does to recreate the pitch path in gameday. We'll get an accurate batted ball speed and angle calculation finally. They instituted the system at the beginning of this year, but only April data is available.

Makes me think it's still not polished yet.

When we do get that, this will provide a whole new way to analyze batters and pitchers and try to figure out who is getting lucky and who is just plain good.

Mark, when Gameday, Game Center, and Gamecast all report the same speed, placement, and break on pitches they will have made significant advancements in computer science as well as baseball technology.

Mandating that the Yankees to put names on the back of their jerseys will happen when MLB also mandates that all Yankees players MUST have facial hair.

The Yankees were the first to put numbers on their jerseys, and that was probably the last time they changed their unis.

why does baseball news always bring gray here:)

JAL -- Assuming this is the 20th post, that's one grey and 17 in full color, one black & white, and one sepia.

JHadar -

You hit on something important - the variety of topics discussed here since the season ended. It was nice to see something other than 300-400 comments a day 98% of which said either (a) the FO is inept or (b) the FO walks on water. 303-403 if you count the gathering announcements.  :-)

JHadar - if I could time travel back, I'd want the Bucs to get Yates two or three years earlier than they did, before he got so very close to the point where he needed the surgery. Selfish of me, maybe, but I'd like to have seen what he could do over a few years for Pittsburgh. That aside, he's got a young family and I hope his life turns out well.

@JAL

...Warm grey or cool grey? on my screen it looks rather warm.:)

JH -

I would think this should all be coming from Pitch f/x, so that's interesting to hear that it doesn't jive.

I don't know if we lose Hansen unless he gets claimed.  He hasn't been in pro ball for six years, has he?  I think if he clears waivers, he might just be assigned.  Now Duffy, for example was a 6 yr guy, he could refuse..

If so the word on the street, last I heard was Hansen was iffy for spring training, let alone the regular season, he made 2+ million last year, may never get back into ball.  If he's designated for assignment and we can sign him to a minor league contract, and see what he does, its not over.

I might be wrong, and I make the same mistake, might have above, but what are the rules?

Expect the worst, hope for the best

PoH -- I think -- just speculating along with a vague memory of having read something somewhere -- that they will offer Yates a minor league contract with a chance to make it back onto the team in spring training if they don't lose him on waivers or to free agency.

Mark -- not sure if gamecast and game center use pitch f/x -- the shapes of their strike zones are even different.  

Well, Bootcheck and Bautista will not missed even they may get better.  Hansen may never be able to pitch again.  Pirates will probably keep him and se what happens but no sense keeping him on the 40.

Anyone know why Lerud is on the 40.  With the number of catchers they have someone with 6 years in the minors and a .228 BA with 42 HR just doesn't seem that promising.

belfry

Just referring to the blank gray that is the default :)

add-in trade bait, perhaps?

I know, I know. My sense of humor just trails off sometimes.

JHadar

IMO nice post, and there have been some good posts without all the shots and the like

Mark, did you know Bruce Kison had a tRA of 24.30 in 1979?

Not sure what that means but it sounds impressive. Unless I'm making that up.

Any chance of getting Cliff Lee for Brandon Moss?

demery refer to dmac instructions

Here is the story from the PBC site

Pirates pare three from 40-man roster

pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/.../article.jsp

Good evening inmates near and far.

Hopefully the 2 vacant  spots on the 40 roster will be pitchers. J Hadar, thanks for the Hawks/Cyclones/Panthers feedback.

I'm pulling for Angels,and Phils tomorrow.

Yankees have never had names on their uniforms. And I doubt most fans know all the players in the playoffs. Yankees are using a couple of late season guys I had never heard of. Games are too long because there are too many TV commercials. Listening on the radio, they tell you that the umps and players are waiting on the field for a signal that TV is ready to broadcast. That's not good for anybody, it's all about the money.

@ Mr. Demery...

Craig Hansen had a downward plane with a power arm, how could he have failed?

==========

ANSWER:  ....because he didn't have "plus-plus stuff"

;-)

I cannot believe that the Pirates would attempt to upstage the ALCS by making such dramatic moves and then announcing them.  Baseball etiquette mandates that such moves be postponed until at least 24 hours after the World Series is over.  

As far as i have read there was nothing to indicate Hansen would have the medical problem that he has.  

Just heard the umpire talking to the manager from the Angels about the catcher being too high for him to call some pitches, he asked him to get lower, the catcher can get lower with no one on, but with someone one he has to get higher so he can throw someone out.

leadoff

I saw that too.--interesting.

I hope Hansen can get healthy and comes back to the Bucs.

I went to Spring Training this year and surprised how hard Meek, Veal, and Hansen threw.  I thought Hansen could have been great if he improved his control.  I also thought Bootcheck looked good in ST.

Then I saw him pitch in the majors and most of the time the results were not good.

Thundercrack'

I went to Spring Training this year and surprised how hard Meek, Veal, and Hansen threw.  I thought Hansen could have been great if he improved his control.  I also thought Bootcheck looked good in ST.

_____________________

One of the things that showed that the Pirates farm is not nearly built yet is when the only options they have when they call for help from AAA is Bootcheck and Bautista. Until that AAA team is loaded with talent, the major league team is going to suffer.

Another stellar game by umpires that should be videotaped and saved for instructional use at Umpire Schools throughout the nation.  

Umpiring has to be set back a hundred years with this bunch doing the Yankee/Angel game! Wow

Bautista and Hansen are still with the Pirates--they just sent to the minors.  Bootcheck refused and declared FA.  The other two will probably be Rule 5 eligible but no team with a brain would take Hansen through rule 5.  

Back to the nastiness.This place can be fun...sometimes.Whatever it takes.

Kazmir was squeezed all night.

Anyway, if you really think about it, haven't Bootcheck or Bautisa as the last guy in the bullpen isn't really a bad thing.  I'd like both of them back, but I'm guessing Bootcheck, a year off of elbow surgery, may end up retiring, could be better.  

I would love for Tim Wakefield to be one of our minor league pitching coaches.

JAL- MLB has some very desperate teams!!  

HEAR YE HEAR YE..

Attempting to tweak software for FC.. please send me a message if you'd like to volunteer.