Another Batch of Pirates FAQs

10-1-22 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

I love answering questions, even if the only reason I can answer them is because someone asked it. Meaning, some of these things aren’t a topic I’m super well versed in, and rather than guess, I’ll dig in and learn how to answer it.

Sometimes the question is simply about my opinion, hey, that’s easy, I have no shortage of those.

Time is not my friend though, so here’s another edition of FAQ’s.

Why is Jose Godoy on this team right now?

Oddly specific for an FAQ right? I’ve easily gotten asked this question 25 times this week. The short answer I’ve given to 9 out of 10 has been “I don’t know”.

I truly don’t folks, so let’s look at the evidence.

Tyler Heineman is out with a concussion. Jason Delay isn’t someone you’re trying to ask to play 5 times a week. Zach Collins isn’t someone who they really like back there.

Now all that still doesn’t add up to call up Godoy to me.

Here’s why it makes even less sense to me. Endy Rodriguez must be added to the 40-man in December. If they were to leave him exposed to the Rule 5 draft (they won’t don’t worry) he’d get snagged in a heartbeat.

Let me use Quinn Priester to illustrate this point. He’ll likely be here next year at some point just like Endy, but Quinn doesn’t need to be protected until December of 2023, so to suggest him as a call up right this second, well, there’s really no need to consider it. Endy on the other hand, is one way or another going to be on that roster before the year ends.

So, after going through all that I say first, I simply don’t have a logical answer for you as to why they chose Godoy. Second, if I take it further, there is a logical reason to call up one of your top prospects to fill the void.

Lastly, I’ll also point out the Pirates did the exact same thing in 2021 with Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras, so it even has precedence.

Its nothing short of a baffling move.

Will banning the shift help the hitters?

Well, first of all, I have to play grammar police here a bit. The shift isn’t being banned, it’s being limited. You can still shade guys over they just can’t cross 2nd base.

Regardless, the spirit of the question is real.

Truth is, it didn’t really do much in the minors where it was tested, but it’s intellectually dishonest to pretend the exit velocities we see at MLB are being replicated by the vast majority of minor league baseball players.

Exit velocity is more responsible for teams feeling they need an extra defender on either side of the diamond in the first place. I guess the best way to answer this is we’ll see.

I’d like to think it might marginally help some players, and marginally harm some pitchers. Specifically pitchers who specialize in keeping the ball on the ground.

It’s hard to fathom pitchers becoming even more focused on strikeouts, and it’s hard to fathom hitters suddenly deciding homeruns aren’t really as cool as slopping a singe to the opposite field. Maybe they should, but I remain skeptical that this changes much about how the game really looks.

If you’re really an honest person, you probably don’t just focus on the team you watch anyhow. That said, the Pirates only shift about 32% of the time as it stands now. Literally right in the middle of the pack. Nobody shifts more than the Dodgers who do it a whopping 52.6% of the time.

There’s no good teams do it and bad teams don’t answer to be had here either. The Yankees are near the bottom of the list with the Orioles and Guardians for instance.

I’d say the league sure as hell intends to have it benefit the hitters, but the league usually doesn’t achieve what their stated intent was either.

Couple the shifting stuff with all the pitching clocks and throw to first restrictions and yeah we could see the offense really get a jumpstart, but the best answer really goes all the way to the front, we’ll just have to see, and observe what all this does to the game.

One thing we know for sure, with MLB owning 6 of the 10 votes for every rule change, there will be one very clear target for our ire if it goes poorly. Well, unless you want to backtrack all the way to the CBA and blame the Players for allowing that part to happen.

How can this team not cultivate left handed pitching with the layout of PNC Park?

I mean, this makes me think of Bob Nutting standing over a microscope trying to splice genes.

As we sit here, the Pirates have very few options coming in the minors either. Omar Cruz is relatively close, but we really don’t know if that’s something to get excited about or not. Anthony Solometo sure looks great, but man he’s in Bradenton.

They have for just about as long as I can remember had to bring in every lefty of note, hell even when they actually cultivated their own it was someone like a John Smiley and they needed one so bad in his day he came all the way up from Single A.

True story, I just don’t think that plays in when evaluating talent. At the end of the day, I suppose if all things were equal they’d pick the lefty, but reality dictates most of the time, the right hander had better measurables.

I’d also say, man, this isn’t just a Pirates issue. There simply aren’t enough lefties in the league who pitch and if for some reason the whole thing should flip on it’s head and the league became lefty heavy on the mound, man, I think you’d see the number of right handed kids who learn how to hit left handed fall off a cliff.

So in a way, no more Kolten Wong’s. Hmm, let me see how this gene splicing stuff works…

Keep firing away people, I’ll keep trying to answer these whenever possible.