New Buried Treasure Articles - Draft, Bullpen, Charlie Morton, Gift Ngoepe

[McCutchenistheTruth]

Four new articles. One on my personal draft favorites. An article by me on South African Glove Wizard Gift Ngoepe. An article by Jimmy about two lefties in the bullpen and the Charlie Morton tender. Enjoy!

Personal Draft Favorites
South African Glove Wizard
Two Lefties in the Bullpen
Revisiting Charlie Morton Decision

[Kipper]

hadn't heard anyone mention Morton's deal having anything to do with Hanrahan's. If it was, it shouldn't IMO. Hanrahan was going to be overpaid whether we re-upped Morton or not and far too expensive fo a player for the Pirates.

Morton to me and the part I really agree with was the part about non tendering him and giving up a minor league contract. Would've made more sense. The reason they re-signed Morton is that they really like him and to be honest, when you combine his age and that outside prospect that he could get over his TJ surgery, you have an inexpensive option for the rotation.

The key word in that last sentence of that paragraph is "option". I get this vibe from Huntington that they want to have a lot of good options depth wise. I'm looking at the abundance of outfielders/1B we have, the pitching depth as well, it seems like to me that Huntington wants to cover bases in case of injury (Morton and Karstens last year), in case of guys faltering (McDonald, Bedard) without having to go hit the Free Agent market or Trade Market and give up coveted prospects.

I don't think that the $2 million they gave Morton is going to matter much. It's not much and whole I do agree what every cent this franchise spends as to have value, I also see this as a "cheaper" decision to keep value or someone they view as having longer term value. I also don't think it's a gimme they will pick up Wandy's option in 2014. Not with his age. The Pirates don't pick up options that much anyways. Burnett's tenure will be done as well. What if Cole struggles at AA. What if he gets injured? I can see why they want to keep Morton and I like the choice but like you said, it would've made more sense to not have him taking up space on the 40 man and be given a minor league contract

[Kipper]

The 2 lefties piece was interesting except that the result seemed to be and this is something that Huntington has echoed as well - it's not about whether he is a lefty or righty, but whether they can get lefties out.

One guy you mentioned and I was staring at some stats on as well was Chris Leroux. You look at his splits and the guys is excellent against lefties. His control is better than it is against righties by a large margin and his GB rate is really high. Odd that he had a higher HR rate against lefties but... He's a guy that gives you an option out of the Pen vs. lefties along with Tony Watson.

If what you're saying is that the Pirates need 2 guys in the BP that are effective against lefties... I whole heartedly agree. Hurdle's usage of pitchers in strategic situations is very "murky" at times, so giving him more options where he doesn't have to "think" is good strategy for Neal Huntington. Giving him 2 options for lefties is one of them. why the **** does Minor League Central not have stats on Bryan Morris?

[McCutchenistheTruth]

No idea on Morris lol. Two lefties does seem like a good idea. It would help counter-act the friendliness of PNC park to left handed hitters.

[Kipper]

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No idea on Morris lol. Two lefties does seem like a good idea. It would help counter-act the friendliness of PNC park to left handed hitters.

What are you more advocating? 2 left handed pitchers or 2 pitchers that can get left handed batters out?

[McCutchenistheTruth]

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What are you more advocating? 2 left handed pitchers or 2 pitchers that can get left handed batters out?

2 pitchers that can get left handed batters out. In general, that would make the pitchers left handed.

[Kipper]

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2 pitchers that can get left handed batters out. In general, that would make the pitchers left handed.

sometimes yes, but there are a lot of righties with excellent splits against lefties which is what I was seeing with Chris Leroux... on 2nd thought I take that back, I was lookling at his career splits not recent years.

Who besides Watson has good splits against lefties?

[McCutchenistheTruth]

Justin Wilson.

Link here

[Kipper]

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Justin Wilson.

Link here

Solid write up on Wilson and that's the head of the nail for him - control. He could possibly figure out his control issues over time ,especially as he matures as a pitcher. if the Pirates put him in the Pen with some sort of thinking that he could potentially graduate to the rotation in time like Neal Hutnignton mentioned to me (and really seemed like he was talking about Wilson), we could get some positive years from him out of the BP and then some prime years in the starting rotation if the stars align