Better Future: Pirates or Nationals?

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh and have lived in Northern Virginia for about two decades. So while the Pittsburgh Pirates have always been my favorite baseball team, I follow the Nationals closely too. Yes, following these two teams in 2022 has been challenging. At the all-star break, the teams are a combined 70-117 with the two worst run differentials in all of baseball. For weeks, I’ve considered writing a blog post about which team has the brighter future or even if either team has a bright future. Today is the day I finally did it.

Here’s a quick, quick summary of both teams:

Pittsburgh Pirates

* Signed Ke’Bryan Hayes, arguably the top defensive 3B in baseball, to an 8-year contract

* OF Bryan Reynolds was an all-star and MVP candidate in 2021.

* 5 minor leaguers (Henry Davis, Oneil Cruz, Nick Gonzales, Quinn Priester, and Liover Peguero) in the preseason Top 50 of the Top 100 prospects. “Unusually tall” for a SS Oneil Cruz and his incredible arm is now starting for the Pirates.

* Possibility that Roansy Contreras and/or Mitch Keller could become quality, top-end starting pitchers.

* Rookie OF Jack Suwinski had 13 home runs in May and June. Of course, he just got sent down to the minors after going 4 for 37 (.108) in July.

* One of the lowest payrolls in baseball and have traded away any decent player over the last few years.

 

Washington Nationals

*Juan Soto is only 23 and put up numbers in his first four seasons comparable to Mike Trout, Frank Robinson, and Ted Williams. In 2022, he’s having a “down” season batting only .250 though he still has 20 home runs and a .405 on-base percentage. More on him soon.

* Keibert Ruiz is already one of the best defensive catchers in baseball.

* 22 year-old SS Luis Garcia is starting nearly every day.

* 24 year-old Josiah Gray could become a top-tier starting pitcher.

* Only two top players (Cade Cavalli and Brady House) in the preseason minor league top 100 prospects. Cavalli started the season terribly but has pitched significantly better in AAA over the last few months.

* Traded away or failed to re-sign many top players over the last few years. Josh Bell will probably be gone soon too. The two big signings haven’t worked out well either. The team owes Patrick Corbin about $60 million for 2024 and 2025. Corbin is 4-12 with a 5.87 ERA and 1.70 WHIP in 100 innings this season. Meanwhile, Stephen Strasburg has pitched 30.1 innings since winning the World Series MVP in 2019. His base salary is $140 million for 2023-2026 with a full no trade clause though there’s $80 million of deferred money for 2027-2029 in there somewhere.

* Team is for sale.

 

Even with the ownership uncertainty, the Nationals larger payroll and having a generational talent in Juan Soto gives the DC team a slight edge in my opinion. However, this changed after this past weekend. Earlier this season, Soto declined a 13-year, $350 million contract offer. While this is an incredible amount of money, everyone who follows baseball understood that Soto deserved more. The Nationals responded by offering Soto a 15-year, $440 million deal. Although the $29.3 million annual salary would rank 15^th among players based on their 2022 salaries, this would have been the largest contract in MLB history. Soto declined this offer too. Apparently, he feels like he could get more and/or he doesn’t want to play in DC. I don’t think the team will go higher, so with Soto set to be a free agent in 2024, it is being reported that the Nationals are open to trade offers. If Soto leaves, this would continue a trend of the Nationals letting free agents sign elsewhere (Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon) or trading away All-Stars (Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber). The Nationals would essentially turn into the Pirates but with a worse farm system though you’d think they would get a ransom for Soto. Without Soto, I'd take the Pirates.

 

What do you think?

Photo from the Colorado Rockies scoreboard by Brian of RTJR.

Pirates-Nats 18-Inning Game Recap (With Comments From The Moose)

On Sunday, I took The Moose to his second professional baseball game to see the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Washington Nationals. The Moose witnessed a no-hitter and near perfect game in his first game last year, so there was no way that this game could match its significance, right? Please note that this post mixes a recap of the game with my own thoughts and quotes from my five year old. For example, upon seeing Pirates first basemen John Jaso, The Moose said, "He has girl hair." Back to the game.

All-Star and former Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, the pitcher who threw the no-hitter last season, matched up against Pirates rookie Chad Kuhl. Not an ideal match-up for the Bucs. As I know now though, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE CHAD KUHL. All Kuhl did was throw 6 scoreless innings of one-hit baseball. More on Kuhl later. With the Pirates leading 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, the Nationals played AC/DC's Thunderstruck as Pirates pitcher Mark Melancon warmed up. The Nats probably thought they were pumping up the crowd, but this is also Melancon's entrance music. Arguably the best closer in baseball over the past 3-4 seasons, Melancon retired the first two Nationals before All-Star and this season's best hitter, Daniel Murphy pinch hit. With a 2-2 count, Murphy did this.



And this was The Moose's reaction.

(Actually this picture came later, but seemed appropriate to go with the huge home run.)

And what was a not too exciting of a game turned very interesting. The game went on to the 10th inning and then the 11th. And the 12th. Throughout this, my friend and I discussed how long we would stay. Although we were in the shade, it was still over 90 degrees and we had three boys ages 5, 6, and 9, who we knew only had so much patience. In the middle of the 13th, there was a second Presidents race. The Moose was a bit freaked out by the giant Presidents. (Yet, when we left, he wanted to stay to see another Presidents race even though that wouldn't have happened until the 22nd inning! By the way, major props to the people in the Presidents costumes who were still there well after all beer sales ended and most food concessions closed.) And then there was the traditional 14th inning stretch! We moved our seats a few times, once in the 10th or 11th inning to get out of the sun which started hitting our backs and then to seats on the third base line about 20-25 rows from the field. Again, being in the shade was huge!

We interrupt baseball for The Moose's thoughts on Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth.

"He has a scary beard."
"That's the bad guy."
(When in the on-deck circle) "The bad guy is going to be next."

I can't disagree with any of these assessments!

We made it through the 15th inning, approximately 5 hours in the stadium, and that was it. Of the announced attendance of 32,775, we outlasted at least 20,000 people. That's a lot of baseball for three little guys. While walking to the parking lot in the 16th, we heard a loud roar. Did the Nationals have a walk-off win? Fortunately, no. As I heard on the radio, Pirates Josh Harrison hit a double, but Eric Fryer was thrown out at the plate by a perfect relay from Nats' center fielder Michael Taylor to SS Danny Espinosa to catcher Wilson Ramos.

My reaction:

With no traffic around the stadium and (amazingly!) on the drive back home, the 17th inning just ended when I turned off the radio. A few minutes later, I turned on the TV to see that the Pirates were ahead 2-1. WHAT HAPPENED? Starling Marte happened:



Jon Niese gave up two hits in the bottom of the 18th, but struck out Espinosa to give the Pirates the win. A few more thoughts about the game:

- Including Sunday, Chad Kuhl has started four baseball games. He pitched against probably the best pitcher in baseball Clayton Kershaw, the May 2016 AL pitcher of the month and should have been all star Rich Hill, three-time all star Jon Lester and now Scherzer. The Pirates are now 4-0 in his starts. Can he start against some below average pitchers some time?

- When I was in college, I had an internship with a Pittsburgh-area Congressman. We also had an office softball team and played against a local fire department twice (and against a Senator's staff too...we destroyed them). Anyway, I annoyed many of the firefighters for constantly getting on base in our games. I was not a power hitter, yet I managed to get hits through seeing-eye singles or balls that landed between the infielders and outfielders. Why do I mention this? Pirates rookie Adam Frazier is me 20 years later. (Well, at least in this analogy.) When you look at the Pirates line-up, teams are going to be concerned with Marte, McCutchen, Freese, Harrison, Mercer, and others. Yet, Frazier went 3 for 6 Sunday with two walks. For the season, he's now hitting .355 with a .412 on-base percentage. He must be such a pest for opponents.

- The Moose's thoughts on National's 23 year-old Trea Turner: "He is a kid."

So The Moose has now been to two games, one a no-hitter and the other went 18 innings. He's going to be disappointed someday when we attend a regular 4-2 game!

Want to know more about the game? Here's the recap from The Washington Post, ESPN, Bucs Dugout, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.