Monday Morning Notes: The Pirate Ship Is A Circus

Written By Henry O’Brien

I love my baseball team.

Good morning! I know I haven’t been posting as much as I have wanted to here on this wonderful blog of mine. I wanted to start writing a little bit more about MLB’s remaining games with some Monday Morning Notes. I like the idea of having some form of a Sunday morning/Monday morning column. It gives me discipline to write and it makes me feel like I’m some romantic for baseball.

I’ll start off with my main topic for the column: the Pittsburgh Pirates and the last few days of total buffoonery.

We’ll start with Thursday, July 31st. We’ll call this day one.

Any baseball fan will know that this day was obviously the trade deadline, where buyers and sellers can make deals for either the short term or the long term. With the Pirates, as it has been for the majority of my lifetime, they were sellers. Plenty of players were being considered in trades, including Paul Skenes of all people. Silly insiders and national media members, Skenes will be traded next year. Bloody fools. But the two biggest trade talk figures were undoubtedly starting pitcher Mitch Keller and relief pitcher David Bednar. Only one of those guys eventually went, and I was kinda surprised which one went.

Let me highlight each of the trades that happened this past week. So I’m not including the Adam Frazier trade from a few weeks ago.

July 30: Ke’Bryan Hayes traded to Reds for RP Taylor Rogers and SS Sammy Stafura

July 30: Caleb Ferguson traded to Mariners for SP Jeter Martinez

July 31: David Bednar traded to Yankees for C/1B Rafael Flores, C Edgleen Perez, and OF Brian Sanchez

July 31: Bailey Falter traded to Royals for RP Evan Sisk and 1B Callan Moss

July 31: Taylor Rogers traded to Cubs for OF Ivan Brethowr

Letting Hayes go was undoubtedly a disappointment, not because we traded him. But we had so much promise for him, especially when he started out in his brief stint in 2020, when he had an OPS of 1.124. He became one of the best defensive third basemen in the game but never got his bat together. And the sadder part is that he has acknowledged that his lower back issues will likely linger for the rest of his career and life. So I don’t know if a change of scenery will actually help him. A real bummer. In terms of the return, I’m interested in Sammy Stafura, who has raked at the lower levels of the minor leagues, but who knows if he’ll ever pan out.

But the other trades are where I start to get a little confused. For all the trade talks throughout the month, Mitch Keller was the name. He was the starter who could get a contender desperate enough to give the Buccos a decent return. But as deadline day approached, the Pirates seemed to get cold feet in terms of trading Keller. But they still wanted to trade some pitchers, I guess, so they did, as Mike Ehrmantraut once said, a half-measure. They got rid of nice starter Bailey Falter and reliever Caleb Ferguson for very little. I have sincere doubts about how well the return will be and it makes me confused about the general philosophy that the Pirates were going for this deadline. If you know you’re gonna get rid of pitchers, then why not go for ones that’ll give you a bigger return?

Then, of course, there’s the Bednar trade. I’m not as upset as some in the fanbase feel about this trade, because all three prospects could turn out to be good. But it’s still miserable because Bednar was a Pittsburgh guy who was absolutely nails for multiple seasons. He totally stunk in 2024 and at the beginning of 2025, but fortunately improved mightily as the season went along. Additionally, as many fans have pointed out, general manager Ben Cherington now has a long track record of giving away our talented players to the New York Yankees. I mean, look at all the prospects we’ve been taking from the Yankees.

#8 Roansy Contreras

#8 Rafael Flores

#11 Miguel Yajure

#16 Canaan Smith-Njigba

#16 Edgleen Perez

#22 Keiner Delgado

#24 Brian Sanchez

#25 Hoy Park

#27 Maikol Escotto

#27 Diego Castillo

None of these players has panned out. We’re just a rental home for Yankees prospects. Pathetic.

I guess my last point on the trade deadline is that Cherington said this shit on his radio show: “We would never make a trade in order to save money.” From all the moves that Cherington and countless other Pirates GMs have made, I genuinely beg to differ. The Pittsburgh Pirates under Bob Nutting’s ownership are frugality manifest. Saving money and being a contender in baseball are almost entirely antithetical. You have to walk a fine line and have investment in your development process, and I genuinely don’t think Nutting’s Pirates have that inclination.

Unfortunately, this was just day one.

Friday, August 1. Day Two.

Through all the hullabaloo of the trade deadline, there was still baseball to be played. The Pirates travelled to the Rocky Mountains to play the Colorado Rockies, the worst team in the majors by a wide margin. And in the first inning, it went so unbelievably well! We scored nine runs and Oneil Cruz and Andrew McCutchen both had home runs. It reminded me of the joy I felt when the Buccos scored 10 runs in the first inning against the eventual World Series champion Cubs. But we literally couldn’t have anything good, and eventually Dennis Santana, a guy who was rumored in trades (!), gave up the walk-off home run in a 17-16 loss. A scarring defeat.

Saturday, August 2. Day Three.

Paul Skenes did well for five innings, but then gave up a three-run homer in the sixth and we couldn’t get our shit together. The Pirates wasted Skenes’ talents yet again, capping off a three day stretch where I just felt even more miserable about my favorite baseball team.

Standings Update

American League

National League

Updates From The Farm

I might as well start with some 2025 statistics from the 10 best prospects in the game, at least according to MLB Pipeline. I’m just going to do the stats from the minor league team they are at right now, even if it hasn’t been for very long.

I’ll do BA/OBP/SLG/OPS for the hitters and ERA/WHIP for the pitchers.

  1. Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates, Single-A Greensboro (38 games): .317/.420/.493/.913

  2. Chase Burns, RHP, Cincinnati Reds, Majors (6 starts): 6.26/1.537

  3. Leo De Vries, SS, Athletics, A+ Lansing/A+ Fort Wayne (85 games, just traded to the Athletics): .248/.356/.412/.768

  4. Sebastian Walcott, SS/3B, Texas Rangers, Double-A Frisco (90 games): .241/.339/.391/.730

  5. Bubba Chandler, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates, Triple-A Indianapolis (21 games): 3.58/1.364

  6. Kevin McGonigle, SS, Detroit Tigers, Double-A Erie (15 games): .293/.373/.517/.890

  7. Jesús Made, SS/3B, Milwaukee Brewers, Single-A Carolina (83 games): .267/.373/.388/.761

  8. Andrew Painter, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies, Triple-A Lehigh Valley (14 games): 4.50/1.368

  9. Samuel Basallo, C/1B, Baltimore Orioles, Triple-A Norfolk (68 games): .268/.382/.583/.965

  10. Max Clark, OF, Detroit Tigers, Double-A Erie (16 games): .323/.400/.569/.969

Quiz Time

The Pirates were the first team since 2006 to lose a game after scoring 9+ runs in the first inning. Who was the team that last achieved that dishonorable feat?

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Henry O’Brien
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