The Pirates Trade Rumors Are Getting OUT OF HAND

What's going on, everyone? Welcome to NS9 Live presented by FanDuel. I'm Jim. With me tonight in the land,

your favorite place, Tyler. Tyler Sweeney, how are you doing? I hope you guys had a beautiful trip in the beautiful state of Ohio. I know you had a nice little drive. I know Nathan had a nice little drive. Alex had

a nice little drive. It just really sucks that we ended up in this shithole of a city. Well, and it was like, if you're not familiar, the wildfires are going on across the border right now, and the wind is carrying

smoke. And we're in like ground zero of like the smokiest smoky place ever. I had to actually drive through downtown Cleveland to get to this Airbnb. And like normally you could see the skyline. It's

right there. It's not that far away. And you could just barely see silhouettes of the buildings. It was, yeah, it's, this is, I've been to like the smoky places. Like I've been out west when there were like wildfires. I've never experienced smoke like this before. Yeah, this it's pretty smoky out here.

And naturally it's happening in Cleveland, Ohio, the worst city. It just got progressively worse the closer I got to Cleveland. Yeah. Yeah. It's a dump. What do you expect? You're in Cleveland, but nothing good is

here. But you know who actually, I was going to make fun of him. Yeah. but DiNardo's not here because he missed his flight like a, like a child would, like if a child was going to

the airport for the first time ever and didn't understand how things worked, they might miss their flight. That's what DiNardo did today in Jacksonville. So he's not here, but maybe he was smart because like, yeah, he's that's less time that he's got to spend in this place.

we can't let him off the hook that easily, Jim. He told us his flight was delayed 30 minutes.

So he arrives at the airport 30 minutes later. Would you do that? No, Nathan, just shake your head.

If you, nope, he wouldn't do it. Alex, would you do that? Absolutely not. Alex said, absolutely not.

Like a child, he couldn't catch his flight.

Yeah. His excuse was that he got a notification on his app saying that his flight was delayed 30 minutes. So he decided he'd show up 30 minutes late. And then by the time he got to his gate, the plane had already left. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I missed my flight. He sends us at one 35 for his

one 40 flight. Yeah. That's what happens when you arrive at the airport while your flight is taking off. Yeah. what are we, what honestly, I don't, I'm not surprised. I'm not

surprised. Look at who we're dealing with here. so anyways, it's me and Tyler tonight. We've got Nathan behind this camera right now. We'll bring him on for some stuff. We got Alex Stumpf. He's lurking in the distance over in the corner. He's lurking in the corner. He's like, who's always

lurking around winter meetings? That's, who's the, yeah, there's a lurker. Yeah. I forget, I forget who he is, but, he's reminded me of, which TV show is it that

guy's just hanging over the fence? Is that home improvement? Yeah. Home improvement. That's what he looks like right now. Yeah. That's what he looks like right now. Okay. I don't think you look like that, Alex, but anyways, we're here in Cleveland. We're here all weekend. It's the

NS nine road trip. the four of us are here. Di Nardo's joining us. so we'll have five people here, including Alex, but yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be a fun time. If you're, if you're heading up for the weekend, we've got a meetup spot Saturday before the

game at the whistle tap room. So make sure you come out for that. But yeah, we've got a lot to talk about. It's been a while since we've watched some baseball. There was the all-star game over this week, but 29 teams were represented in that all-star game. One

of them was not, and that was the Pittsburgh pirates. So we've not seen a Pittsburgh pirate play baseball since Sunday. And Tyler, I think people are starting to, I don't know if lose

their mind is necessarily the right phrase, but that's as close as I can get to it. I think they've gone too long without bucko baseball and everyone's losing their mind right now.

I woke up today, seemed like a normal day you put on, you turn on Twitter, you look at Twitter and what's going on there. And all of a sudden, Tyler, I'm just flooded with some of the worst takes I've ever heard in my life. And like, typically, like,

there's some really good people who work at 93.7 fan, but like today, I don't know if it was something in like their breakfast. They got like temporarily. I don't

know.

Too much smoke inhalation.

Maybe it's the smoke inhalation. I don't know what it is, but there was some weird stuff coming out of Pittsburgh today from not only the radio, but the fans. So yeah, we're going to talk about some of the crazy, stupid stuff that happened today. it is trade season. The

pirates do need to make some trades. We all know that. we've got the upcoming series here in Cleveland. but they also, they made a trade today, which we're going to talk about. but once we get through all the silly, crazy, stupid, idiotic, just absurd

trades, trade talk that was happening today. let's talk about like our actual wish list, some realistic trade targets for you guys. and who the pirates should be targeting over these next few weeks, because they're three games over 500 or two

and a half games out of a wild card spot. Like they are squarely buyers right now. and they're, they got to do something. They have a clear need. and I think they've got a couple needs that they could address before this deadline.

Yeah, for sure. And people were probably going a little bit stir crazy. As you said, there maybe a dispensary was what caught on fire and that's what the smoke is running around here. Not sure. Some crazy thoughts, but yeah, the nice thing I think here is that at

least the needs or at least the very important needs should not be the most expensive things in the world. They should be achievable types of targets. Yeah. And I think that's what I was so

caught off guard with today is like the pirates have some needs and those needs are fairly cheap.

Really? Like, unless you want to absolutely shoot for the moon, like if you want to go for Mason Miller, yeah. Right. Mason Miller is going to cost you something, but like everyone else, who's a realistic target isn't going to cost you all that much. And it's definitely not going to

cost you impact major league talent. so like just to start off with some things I heard today, Tyler, one, I heard that because the offense is doing better with Jake Mangum, the pirates should

trade Oneil Cruz for bullpen help. And what's the problem? Like what are we, what are we doing here?

You're trading a guy who's pacing to be like a 30 guy for bullpen help. like, and like you're trying to win games at the major league level right now. Don't rob Peter to pay Paul. This is why you

have prospects in your system is to, is for situations like this. You're not trading impact talent off of your major league team to go out and find help for a stretch run. Like, and this is just what,

like, and then there was so much talk of this today. I was, I was confusing. Like I was literally, I was so confused. I was like, why is anyone discussing trading from the major league roster

for bullpen help? Why are we doing this? People need to look back at the David Bednar trade a little bit. The Yankees didn't give up any major league talent and the pirates probably

didn't ask for any, but we all agree that return was probably a good bit light. But in all reality, those are the type of deals you're looking for here. Those types of, not your top prospects. Maybe your guys in that four to 10 range. it'd be great if you could get a David

Bednar for what the pirates received for him. Again, trade was terrible light, whatever, but you're not giving up Oneil Cruz to get any type of bullpen help. Honestly, you're not giving up

Oneil Cruz, give up to get any type of help. I don't give a shit. You're not. No, that's stupid.

Let's not like, he's one of the impact players on your team where if you're looking to win post-season games, you want Oneil Cruz on your team, right? Now I'm not the biggest Oneil Cruz

fan in the world. I've said before that I'd be interested in trading him, but right now, absolutely not. Absolutely not. You want to maybe revisit this in the off season just to maybe improve your major league team. I can listen to those conversations. I'm not listening to it while you're three games

over 500. He's your starting center fielder and your replacements, Jake Mangum. He's fine. He's not Oneil Cruz. No, absolutely not. Like I think people are forgetting how good Oneil Cruz was

and like how just meaningful he was to this offense when he was here. And yeah, I don't understand. I don't understand it at all. Like there seemed to be way too many people who are willing

to just throw Oneil Cruz in a deal, to bolster the bullpen. And it's just like, absolutely not. I, another one I heard today was like, if you could, and this was

from, I think, Doran Dickerson earlier today, they were talking to like, if you had to trade one person from the major league team, who would it be? And he said, Spencer Horwitz, another one where I'm like, no, like they're Billy Cook's on the major league team. If you had to trade one player, like

trade one of the bad ones, why would you trade one of your better ones? It's just, these are just absurd takes. I think from a fan base who, and that someone mentioned in the comments here, like this is a fan base that doesn't know what winning baseball looks like. Right. And I think we're just,

we're going crazy because it's been four days without baseball. And so we're just saying things that make no sense at this point. because so I said, some of the things that I heard

today, that one was absurd, just absolutely ridiculous. another person, called into the fan suggesting that to fix the bullpen, when Oneil Cruz comes back, they should just make him a

pitcher. I don't hate that. So take your 30 guy, your freak athlete and just turn him into a pitcher. He's a freak athlete. Tyler Callihan has

a zero ERA. Why can't Oneil Cruz? Yeah. Yeah. I think the annoying part though here is that you hear some crazy things around the trade deadline. The internet's a wonderful place,

but it also spews a lot of stupidity. And that includes myself. I spew a lot of stupidity as well. I'm doing it right now. If anybody knows how to spew stupidity, it's you.

Thank you. Thank you. Other than my thoughts about Cleveland, those are absolutely correct.

Cleveland sucks, but it's coming from the pirates flagship. Like it's coming from the station that hosts the Pittsburgh pirates. Come on guys, be better. Yeah.

I know ratings are fun, but like, come on. So like, those are some absurd things I heard today. So like, I think everybody just needs to get it out of their minds that the pirates are not trading Oneil Cruz. No, they're not trading Spencer Horwitz. They're not converting Oneil Cruz to a pitcher

for bullpen help. they're going to, they are going to be buyers and they're going to go out there and they're going to find some talent, but this is why you stockpile your system with the prospects that they have. I think fan graphs a few weeks ago, like ranked farm systems, by

surplus value, like top to bottom. And now this was including Konnor Griffin, but the pirates were the number one organization in baseball. So like the pirates have assets in their minor leagues that they can trade for major league talent to help the major league team. Now it's just up to Ben

to identify what targets those are, what needs need filled and to put together some trade proposals that work right for other general managers. And, so let's,

let's discuss that. I want to talk about just like some realistic trade targets here. our great Neil, everyone's favorite Neil Lucas, did a debt, a trade deadline wishlist today.

So if you go to North shore nine.com, you'll see that article up there. he lists, Tarek Skubal as like the, his pie in the sky type guy, Ernie Clement, another,

pie in the sky type guy. We're not even going to really discuss those. I do want to talk about and some, someone that he didn't even, that he didn't mention, but someone who may be available

and is somebody who would be obviously an attractive candidate for the pirates. And that is, Mason Miller from San Diego. So here's the thing with Mason Miller, obviously

one of the premier arms in baseball, he's a local kid too. So there's that aspect. So he's always going to get a little bit more attention than everybody else. he's going to cost a lot. He's going to cost a lot, Tyler. I don't think you need to include Seth Hernandez in a trade for Mason Miller, but if you're going to make a trade for Mason

Miller, it's going to have to include Edward Florentino, I think, plus, other people as well. So I guess my question to you is one, when it comes to the prospects that are in the system, is there anybody who's untouchable? And two, like, who are you willing

to give up for the right person like a Mason Miller? To me, I still think, I don't want to say anybody is untouchable. Hernandez is as close as it gets to untouchable for me.

I don't want to give up Seth Hernandez. I think Florentino is on the table for the right price, but he's also, I think close enough to like, you got to be blown away. Yeah. You have to

absolutely be blown away. It's got to be someone with control. Someone that's going to help this team longterm. Seth is in that is probably a notch above that in that category where it would take you got to blow the wheels off here. Like it's got to be something that's going to absolutely

push this into the playoffs. Yeah. That's probably my line. Florentino, I could they want Florentino plus and the plus is not Seth Hernandez. Yeah, I'll do that. That's not

happening though. So I've got Mason Miller's stat cast page pulled up. You can see all the red, obviously 38 games this year, 25 saves 39 and two thirds innings. He's averaging almost two

strikeouts an inning. His ERA is under one. So I guess, I guess this is my question.

Would you include Seth Hernandez in a trade package for Mason? I would not. Okay. Would you include Edward Florentino? Yes. Okay. So just looking at, and this is rough, right? there's really,

it's hard to show this, but if you're doing like the baseball trade values website, Mason Miller roughly equates to Edward Florentino, Wyatt Sanford,

Yohan De Los Santos and Raynald Navarro. That's a, that's a pretty even trade based on the website, right? Are you doing that?

I think I am. Okay. I think I make that deal. Florent, Florentino is tough to give up. I think De Los Santos is another one that I think is a, that one could come back to bite you. Like that one

could hurt. Yeah. He's super young. Yeah. And I get this website is obviously not like, it's the best we have, but it's obviously not like the most accurate thing. Like GMs aren't looking at this website stewing over future values, but yeah. But I think that's, I'd love for it to

be a touch lighter maybe, but yeah, if that's what it takes, I at the very least have to take a very hard look at it. And I think I would say yes to that. Now granted, I might want a little more than just Mason Miller. I might want something else tossed in there. Yeah. I don't have that off

top of my head of who it would be, but I'd probably want a little bit of a sweetener there out of the Padres. Okay. I'm telling you right now, if the Padres take that package, I'm doing it fair. Like that's a lot that you're giving up, but you are getting someone who's basically a

minimum two and a half war reliever for the next two and a half years. and immediately makes the game eight innings long instead of nine innings long. Like, and he would do a lot for this

team. Like Mason Miller is obviously like that premier elite guy where I'd be even willing to overpay for him a little bit. because of the value, I think he could bring to this team

specifically. let me ask you this because we also know, again, the website's not exactly accurate.

So let's assume we have to maybe pay a little bit more than what the website's saying. Let's say it's Florentino Sanford, Delos Santos, Murf Gray, instead of Randall Navarro. So you're taking

Navarro out and you're putting gray in Murph makes that a little tough just based on the year he's having, but I still think I'd lean yes on that. I think I have to lean yes there. I won mainly cause I want to see Murf Gray do it at the AA level. Yeah. and really

that's about it. That's one. Yeah. I'm curious you guys in the comments. So let's say it's Mason Miller for Florentino, Delos Santos, Yohan Sanford and Murf Gray. I want, I want to hear your

comments in the chat. Nate, yes or no to that deal? Probably yes. Nate says probably yes. Yes.

But Mason says probably yes. Alex Stumpf, Mason Miller for Edward Florentino, Wyatt Sanford, Yohan Delos Santos and Murf Gray. Okay. So Nate's out because of Murph. Nate's out because of Murph.

Alex Florentino for Sanford. No, Sanford, Mason Miller for Florentino, Sanford, Yohan Delos Santos and Murf Gray. Any word on Ben Cherington's firstborn? Do they need to be

included in this package? Ben Cherington's firstborn does not need to be included. Okay. That's probably, that probably would have been a deal breaker. you guys know Mason Miller is not getting traded, right? I'm just saying, I'm just, I'm just saying. Welcome to show

this. Yeah. Alex, we're trying, we're trying to engage, we're, this is engagement baiting that we're doing here, Alex. Okay. No, I don't make that trade. That's just way too much to give up for a single inning. This bullpen needs more than one arm. They need multiple and I can't give up the

entire farm system to save Seth Hernandez for just a really good ninth inning. Okay. Just for the bullpen to blow it in the eighth. So Alex is a no. Alex is a no on the Mason Miller trade.

Well, this is why we're on the show and not them. And so I'm a yes, I'm a yes on it because also I'm going to throw in a little bit of a twist here. Okay. I'm trading for Mason Miller. If I'm

trading for Mason Miller and I'm giving up this much of a package, I'm using him as my closer down the stretch run over the off season, Tyler. I'm seeing if I can turn him into a starting pitcher.

Let's do it. He was a starting pitcher in the minors. He was a stud. He was a starter when he got called up. The stuff was good. He's got a three pitch mix. They're all nasty. Give me two years of

starter. Mason Miller and see what can happen. Yeah. Watch that elbow blow up.

Well, he won't throw one Oh three as a starter. He'll throw like 98.

He could be the next miss. He could be, could be. All right. No, I'm with Alex. I don't think Mason Miller is getting traded because it would take a crazy package. And I think like, I think that package

that we're talking about is like what it would take, but it would take something like that. it's probably, it's not quite what they gave up to get them. It's not that far off.

Yeah. Okay. There we go. Alex agrees with my package.

Thank you. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much, Alex. All right. Let's shift to someone who is maybe a little bit more realistic and is my number one trade target, Tyler. And this is my white whale.

If I can, if I could say, you know what, you get one, you get to pick one guy, you get to pick one guy to add this deadline. And Mason Miller is not an option. It's Luke Weaver from the Mets. And there was a

report today too, that the Mets have essentially made everybody available outside of Juan Soto, Carson Benge, and, a couple of younger guys. But Luke Weaver is my guy. He's someone with post-season

experience. He's just been a really reliable reliever for a while now. He's pitched in big moments. He's pitched on good teams. He's having a really good season. 2.03 ERA, 0.83 whip right now.

Just an all around really good pitcher. And this is who I, this is my number one target.

I would agree with you. I think this is the one that is the most realistic and makes the most impact for this team. And he throws with his right arm.

need that.

Yeah, you definitely need that.

Your best reliever is a lefty.

Right. Their strength in the bullpen, if you want to call it a strength at all, is from the left side.

Mason Montgomery is starting to come back around a little bit. He had a rough stretch.

Soto is still Soto. He's going to be frustrating. He's going to be lights out. But they have nobody that can throw with their right arm. And you get a legit reliever out of that. One more year of

control with it. God only knows if there's baseball next year. So who knows? But yeah, I think that is the number one target that they could go after.

Yeah. Just to go into like his contract situation too a little bit here. Luke Weaver does have a two-year deal. So $11 million AAV. So it'd be $11 million this year. You're looking at like

$4 million for the rest of the season, but then another $11 million next year as well.

I think when it comes to this, the Mets also don't need to trade them either. Because if you're the Mets, you're thinking, okay, well, I suck this year, but I'm going to try to win again next year.

So you do have that a little bit of leverage here where you're not desperate to deal Luke Weaver.

But I think for the right package, you can get the Mets to move Luke Weaver. And I think he's going to be the number one target that a lot of, there's a lot of teams out there that are going to need bullpen help. And he's probably the top guy available.

Like realistically, if you don't think Mason Miller is getting traded, then like Luke Weaver's the next best reliever available because like Chapman's also probably not going anywhere with the Red Sox doing what they're doing.

And again, right arm, but what I guess it comes down to what you're giving up for him.

I'm still curious what the impending lockout might do for these guys with one year left on their deal. Probably not much, but we'll see. Again, he's not really a regression candidate that I think

you're really worried that he comes over and blows up. Like the control's good. He keeps the ball in the zone. The whip's good. It's not like a Gregory Soto that I was so concerned about because he's just erratic. You shore up the eighth and ninth inning with a guy like Weaver, because then you can

slide Soto more into that eighth inning spot. It does a lot for the team. That problem is going to be, it's the price is going to get driven up because he's going to be in demand. Yeah.

I'm curious on what, like I said, I'm curious on what the package would be for Weaver.

Cause again, using that like baseball trade website, he doesn't have a whole lot of value.

And I think that's just incorrect. Like if you look at like a, I think with the emergence of Esmerlyn Valdez or Esmerlyn Valdez, like it definitely makes someone like the password a little bit more expendable than a trade. I don't think the password gets you Luke Weaver straight up. I think you still

need to add to it a little bit. and I will say this, like something that the pirate system is littered with are like these younger lottery picket lottery ticket type guys who,

they've got tools, but you really have no idea who they're going to be. Yeah. And I think those types of guys can be really valuable in this time of year. Right. Because like they have some value

because of the ability to do what they can do. And like, we talked about them earlier, but like Raynal Navarro, Murphy and I did a Bucs On Deck video of him a couple of weeks ago. So if you don't know about Raynal Navarro, be sure to check that out. But basically he's a, he's a lefty

pitcher at Bradenton. He's 19 years old and he's just got insane, nasty stuff, command issues right now.

But like, if you see the stuff you can dream about this kid and like, I feel like someone like him and then like his almost equivalent, like a Carlos Mateo type guy, guys like that are people

who you don't really, like you're not banking on those guys. Like you're more just dreaming of like what they might be able to be, to become, but those guys can be pieces that you add in trades

like this. So I'm wondering if something like a Joe Sinson Garcia and a Raynal Navarro is enticing enough for the Mets to be like, yeah, you know what? We'll do that for Luke Weaver.

and then while you're talking to the Mets to go look at Brooks Raley as well, right from the left side. Yeah. if you can have that's why the Mets are enticing here is because you can get a few pieces out of it with maybe a Brooks Raley, I guess it, I wish I had a

good answer here, Jim, but it comes down to what teams think about the Pirates. Yeah. Farm system.

Like you might go all the way back about 10 years ago to Tony Watson for Oneil Cruz.

That's that lottery ticket that you might be giving up. But I think that's where the Pirates need another team to really be enticed by some of these lower level lottery ticket type guys to go get, not just a

Luke Weaver, but some of the other guys we're going to talk about as well. That's probably more where that comes into play in regards to the password. I think he is my first guy I'm looking to move. If anybody is interested in him and I can get help for him, I'm moving him. He's the first one

out. Yeah. I feel like with Cruz, with Reynolds, with O'Hearn locked up another year with Valdez doing what he's doing. Yeah. The password just becomes, he becomes that guy to the teams like in

this, these situations where it's like, he's like major league ready top, not a top prospect, but he's a top 200 prospect in baseball. He's got some value.

And you've seen the Pirates all the time be like, we'd like some major league ready bats, right? Well, like Joe Simpson Garcia is that guy. That's the Pirates version of this right now. So yeah, I'm curious to see if he gets dealt. He's not really, he's not a product of this

system either. So you always look at that as in, the Pirates didn't really spend a ton of time developing this guy. They got them last off season. They've had them for a few months. So maybe they're not necessarily as tied to him as they are some other

folks. But yeah, I think the password could certainly be a chip in these. And I think Reynold Navarro is another like chip that you can use here to essentially say, Hey, you know what, here's this dude with nasty stuff. He's really far away, but he'd be fun, right? Like he's a fun

guy to have in your system. So here you go. I've got Brooks Raley stat cast page up right now.

And yeah, like him and Weaver from the Mets, if you're able to get those two guys, that's, you just got two relievers with hovering around two ish ERA, one right-handed, one left-handed.

Now, all of a sudden you feel pretty comfortable with like a Weaver, Raley Soto, but like set up closer roles. and then you add maybe one more middle relief on it. Then all of a sudden your

bullpen's not looking all that bad. And this hypothetical, if they were to be able to get Raley and Weaver, they're a playoff team playing simple. I don't think there's a question.

What if the Mets asked for Carmen Mlodzinski? Ooh, he's a guy that I would Nate's behind the camera waving goodbye to Carmen Mlodzinski. They would drop him off at,

at that city. You know what? I brought shotgun with you, Nate. I will gladly get rid of Carmen Mlodzinski on the flip side of that. They still need relievers here. You still need a

like, but if you're going to use Carmen like this, you could just go out there and get a reliever that you're going to use like a reliever. You could, right? You could. And yeah, if you, if in this hypothetical world, if you're able to flip Carmen Mlodzinski

for some actual relief help, or you're going to treat them like actual relief pitchers, I'm riding shotgun with you, Nate. I feel right now. Me too. Get me the hell out of Cleveland.

So let's say Carmen Mlodzinski. honestly, like a Carmen Mlodzinski for Luke Weaver trade is probably pretty even. You may even be overpaying a little bit. You might be, you might be with the,

with the team control that Mlodzinski has. And then, and if the Mets want to make him a starter, like you get a number five there. That's not terrible. Yeah. He's not, he's a fine. Number five, fine ish. Yeah. You're talking me into this. Carmen Mlodzinski to the Mets for Brooks Raley and Luke

Weaver. If you need to add something to it. Done. Call me Uber. Yeah. I actually don't hate that at all. I don't think they're doing that gym. You don't think so? I do not think they're doing that. Alex, Carmen Mlodzinski. Would the pirates trade Carmen Mlodzinski for in a, in a Luke Weaver,

Brooks Raley package to the Mets? I would personally make that trade. I would too. No, I would too. Do you think the, do you think the pirates have any interest in trading him? I maybe they

should speak to Carmen's agency and his people speak to his family and his agent. No. Okay.

We'll have to do that. or the Mets making that trade. Luke Weaver for Carmen. Let's throw out Raley. Let's throw out Raley. Carmen Mlodzinski for Weaver. I think that's a fairly fair trade.

Mlodzinski is someone that you, if you are the Mets, you can slot in as the number four or five pretty easily. And yeah, I see the appeal on both sides in that trade.

So you were on the fan earlier today, one of the same people talking on the, on the, on that station today. you listed Luke Weaver, I believe is like your best possible trade target,

right? Yeah. let me ask you this because something that it's been mentioned a few times, do the pirates need a starter? I think they do like, this is, you don't know what quality

you're going to get out of Mitch Keller down the stretch. Bubba Chandler. I think he's really turned a corner with his mechanics. I think he's heading the right way, but he's also a rookie.

You don't know what type of quality you're going to get there with Jared Jones and Braxton Ashcraft. I don't know how much quantity you can get there. So like, you're in a spot that you do have to explore the starter markets. I feel like maybe you don't have to swing for the fences, but

like, I'm Jeffrey Springs pilled right now. Like I am look, I'm just saying on the road, he is the same ex-wova and like the exact same peripherals as a Foster Griffin of the nationals.

Everyone would be really cool if they got Foster Griffin. I've got, I'm offering Timu Foster Griffin.

I don't know. Do you see these numbers? Oh, they are horrendous. Let me, Timu.

Definitely. definitely the Timu version. You mentioned the splits, right? Yeah. On the road.

it's a 304 ex-wova on the road. They're exact same as Foster Griffin. I like the way the four seam lane, where it goes, just have them lean into the cutter. Bam. You've got 2026 J.A. Happ.

That's an, that's a wild thing to say. Well, Jeffrey Springs, this guy. Yes.

J.A. Happ. 2026 J.A. Happ. All right. And if this backfires, I will say that if you got J.A. Happ to throw a pitch in 2026, that would be how he would perform. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense.

Yeah. I, so I'm with you on like the left-handed starter thing. I think, I think a left-handed starter makes sense. They tend to overperform a little bit of PNC Park. and I also don't necessarily want to go after guys with years of control. I just don't, I don't know. I feel

like, especially with the looming lockout, I'm just, I'm curious how that like next year is valued because like, I don't want to give up somebody for a year and a half of someone and

then you really only get them for two months. Like, so I'm curious on just how that works out. So that's why the rentals are a little bit more interesting to me. I think for me, I'd be more, I'd be more in line to go with like a Trevor Rogers, someone who has had

like a lot of success, especially over like a short period of time. like that's I think the route I would go. Jeffrey Springs just doesn't really do it for me. That

doesn't move the needle. My thing is my thoughts is twofold. I guess threefold. One, I really don't want to trade off the major league roster, at this deadline. two, this is no O'Neal

Cruz trade. No Oneil Cruz for a reliever trade or Spencer Horwitz or Spencer Horwitz for Oneil Cruz wouldn't make that trade. Okay. two, the farm systems in like this weird spot right now where it's not exactly that great right now. Like they've graduated a lot of their top prospects.

So I don't know how much you actually want to deal. And that's why I'm on board with Springs. It's like, here's someone who's not going to cost a lot, in terms of dollars, he's not going to cost a lot in terms of prospect acquisition. And if you can make this a six man

rotation down the stretch, or at least have some depth, I'm on board with it.

It doesn't have to be him, but like, that's just the ilk of starting pitcher. I'm wanting to go here. I don't want to give up any prospect that's going to get in the way of acquiring a relief pitcher.

Okay. All right. definitely an interesting conversation to have.

Tyler, how about you? Lefty pitcher, starting pitcher. Are you looking for a starter this deadline? I'd be okay. Thank you, Alex. You're welcome. Thank you. I'll be on call.

All right. I'm not opposed to looking at a lefty starter here.

I think what Alex said about the quantity of Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, Jared Jones, that does raise some concerns. It would be great to get a lefty arm in this rotation.

we see what the Phillies do to the Pirates. They just kill this rotation.

I know I told Alex before the show when he mentioned Jeffrey Springs and that he was Jeffrey Springs pilled. I said, I don't hate that. Alex, I hate that. I'm sorry.

I dug a little deeper here, reminded myself who Jeffrey Springs was, and yeah, he sucks.

Granted, it's basically just been a bad June and July. He has like an 11 ERA over the last two months.

He's basic. He had like a 485 ERA before he came to Pittsburgh. Jeffrey Springs has like a 630 ERA.

That's adjusting for inflation. Fair. Yeah. Fair. He's adjusting for inflation here. Good point.

And yeah, he has like an 11 ERA since June. He's Mitch Keller in green.

I want to go back to the Padres. I want to, I want to go back to the Padres. So let's go back to, I'm in agreement here. I want a starting pitcher. I want a left-handed starting pitcher, and I want a rental.

That's what I want. as I said, go out there and get Trevor Rogers, but like something like that's, I think that's who my main target would be there. but back to the Padres, and this was something interesting that Neil wrote in his article was,

we talked about Luke Weaver being my white whale. Neil's white whale is lefty Adrian Morejon.

So Adrian Morejon, again, a rental. He, this is his last year before free agency having a strong year, lefty reliever. what are your thoughts on Morejon? Cause like, this is the

trade that Neil puts in here is Morejon. and then Matt Waldron throwing him in there and Moon Waldron's just your typical, righty guy. I think he actually throws a knuckle

ball. If I remember correctly. the last time I looked at Matt Waldron, yeah, there was a knuckle ball. so Waldron and Morejon for Rafael Flores and Tony Blanco jr. That was his hypothetical

trade package. And yeah, just like looking at Morejon, would probably instantly become, if not your best pitcher, your second best pitcher, probably your best pitcher though.

because I'll just go ahead and bring him up here. You look at all that red on his, stack cast page. He's having a really good season can pitch multiple innings. If you need him to, he's already at 50 innings, 3.42 ERA, 58 strikeouts and 50 innings, 1.1 whip. yeah,

he's, you look at the splits too, and he gets right-handed hitters out. He gets left-handed hitters out. Just like a really good lefty bullpen arm.

He improves the bullpen for sure. Not, I would not complain whatsoever.

I, he'd be a great addition to this team. It's, I prefer Luke Weaver, obviously, but I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. I think you should be able to get both of them.

Is he the top of the list of guys to go acquire? Probably not for me, but if they got him, I would not complain whatsoever about it. It's one of those, like, I care about what arm you throw

with just because I need you to be able to get righties out, but yeah. Oh, if you're a really good lefty, I'm not going to say no to you, right? They need help in any way possible.

Yeah. if you're able to land both, like, let's say you can go out there and you get Weaver and Murray home and like, I just go ahead and get another righty pitcher out there somewhere.

That's pretty attractive. Yeah. Zach wonders if San Diego will be selling, and I guess that's just going to take some time is to figure out what they're going to do there.

toss them in that Mason military. Let's call it a day. Yeah. right now the Padres are 48 and 48.

They're right at 500 fan graphs has their playoff odds at like 12%. so like they're probably not selling yet, but a rough stretch and they're probably squarely in that seller's

field. So yeah, just another name to keep an eye on there. yeah. Murray home. Yeah. And he's a free agent after this year, isn't he?

He is a free agent. It's going to be a rental. Yeah. Yeah. So you got a rental out of it. Yeah.

That might make him a little more attractive. Cause like you mentioned, I think I'm with you where I maybe rather go after these rentals just because of the looming lockout or God only knows what could happen here. Yeah. Again, I'm not going to complain.

If you get a reliever who is good and can get guys out, I will take all of them. Give me all of them.

Yeah. I think right now, again, like Luke Weaver is my number one guy.

Murray home would be my number one lefty if he's available. If not pivot to Brooks Raley. Yeah.

And then go out there and get another righty reliever. and it doesn't even have to like that other righty reliever doesn't have to be some shutdown bullpen arm. It just has to be somebody who you can trust like to throw out there in the seventh inning of a close game. That's

what I'm thinking. Right. and then, yeah, I'm all aboard like going out there and getting a left-handed starting pitcher and just like quickly looking at some names available.

Like I said, Trevor Rogers is somebody we mentioned. Kris Bubic would fit this mold, but he's injured right now. So like he goes out of the equation. yeah, I don't know who else you

would, who else you would throw in here. I love every time I look over at Jim here, I peek to the right and it's just Alex peeking at the snack table. You got some good snacks. I did go grocery

shopping. And every time I look over here to my right, I see Alex just wandering over and just peeking at those nerd clusters. So I'm looking over here. You got the nerds clusters.

You got some sour patch kids. We got some chips Ahoy Oreos. you just got some like wavy, like original potato chips. And then it looks like there's another bag of chips over there. I can't

tell what it is in there. Okay. Goldfish chips. I don't remember which ones I got.

Okay. I think I got salt and vinegar. Yeah. I think honestly you got here way before me and I was like, go to the store, pick up the essentials and you got beer, energy drinks,

chips, cookies, and candy and water and water. That's true. You got some water. Nobody asked me to get water. I got water. You got water. That was probably a good call. Adult move.

So yeah, overall, I think we're in, I think we're gonna have a pretty good weekend.

We need this smoke to move out of the way. Yeah. We need a good series this weekend against Cleveland.

just to line up what it looks like here, Jared Jones pitching tomorrow, Braxton Ashcraft on

so yeah, dying. It's again in Cleveland. We're here. I haven't been to a game at what do they call this place now? Progressive field, progressive park, progressive field, I think. Yeah. I haven't been to a game here in probably a decade. It's been a while.

It's been a while for me as well. So looking forward, looking forward to that. and yeah, if you're in town, 11 AM whistle tap room, it's a block outside the ballpark. Come see us.

we're going to be hanging out there all before the game, on Saturday. We'll be at the game Friday. We'll be at the game Saturday. We'll be at the game Sunday. So if you're coming to any of the games, say hi, if you, if you see us anywhere. but yeah, I'm looking forward to

this weekend. It's a big weekend, for the pirates. If they can start off this road trip by taking this series. Now you're looking at four games over 500 heading into New York.

And at that point you just go one and two in New York, you go 500. This road trip and you're going home three games over 500 and you're feeling pretty good about yourself. Yeah. This is, this is a big one coming out of the break.

They ended on such a high note that I think the fan bases, we've pepped up a little bit. It's been a little bit of a drag over the last couple of months, just stuck in that middle ground around 500, getting three games above 500 at the all-star breaks.

we're talking about trading Oneil Cruz now for bullpen help. People are going wild.

Just insane stuff. If you can get to here. Yeah. Like you said, just getting through these six games where you started would, that would help a good bit.

the Pirates did make a trade today, by the way they acquired minor leaguer, Robert Hassell III from the Washington Nationals for cash considerations or a player to be named later.

Tyler, Robert Hassel was a stud back in the 2020 draft. He was the number one high school pick taken in that draft. I believe, top high school talent was a super interesting

toolsy guy for a couple of years in the minors. He was a, he was a part of the one Soto trade.

The Padres traded him to the Nationals for Soto back in, I think 2022. and essentially just never really progressed at all. He peaked it in like high a ball. Once he reached

double a and triple a, it just never really, just never really came together for him. last year in triple a, he, 76 games. He did have a decent season last seat,

last year in triple a. but then he played 70 games in the majors this year. And it was just God awful struck out 30% of the time, walked 4% of the time at 58 way to runs created plus negative 0.5 war. and then his time in triple a this year, this year has been really bad.

Also, the Nationals, DFA'd him. He didn't even get claimed, which is crazy because he's got two options. So he clears waivers. The Nationals outright him to triple

a and then the pirates trade him. so he's not on the 40 man, if they add him to the 40 man later on, he does have, he does have options remaining. this is a, this is a guy where there was once something, there's probably not anything anymore, but I think

also what you're seeing is you mentioned it, like, and Alex mentioned it, that like this team has graduated a lot of its talent. Like a lot of that, a lot of those guys who were in Indianapolis are here now. Indianapolis just needs some players. And I really think like, I'm not looking at this trade

as something like, Oh, well maybe they can, maybe they can get something out of Robert Hassel, the third. I don't think that's possible anymore. if it is cool, but I'm not expecting it at this point, I'm looking at him as a guy to play for the Indianapolis Indians.

That's a good way to put it. But the other way to put it is that Ben Cherington is collecting all of the 2020 draft infinity stones. Let's go down the list here. We got Nick Gonzales, obviously Robert Hassel at him to the list. Keep it going. Nick Yorke.

Kyle Nicholas is in this mix. Carmen Mlodzinski was a second round pick. Alika Williams was in this draft.

I think there's a good bit more in here as you go down the list, but yeah, he is, he's collecting his fellows that were in his first draft.

So three 2020 first round picks. Yeah. Yeah. And Nick Gonzales is probably the best of the bunch.

Nick Gonzales might be the best. Well, definitely the second best player in that top 10 of the better players in that draft. Yeah. Now we just need to go out there and he needs to get Reid Detmers and Bobby Miller. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. At the very least, Reid Detmers.

Yeah. Detmers Miller. Yeah. Angel, stop being stupid. Trade them.

Yeah. Just collect for cheap. Yeah. Collect Louisville pitchers.

Please.

All right. Nathan, you want to take over?

All right. what's tomorrow's game look like on FanDuel?

The Pirates are plus 106.

Oh, Jacob Gonzalez was in that. No, Jacob Gonzalez was 2023. Yes. All right. but the Pirates are plus 106 with Jared Jones on the mound tomorrow. Guardians minus 124. Give me that plus 106 all

day, baby. Plus money with Jared Jones. We're in Ohio where I can gamble freely, use all my regular apps. I feel I'm at home. Except I'm in Cleveland. This place sucks. No, I, all I heard there was

you're in Cleveland and you're at home. Nope. Never said I'm in Cleveland. I'm at home. I said I'm in Ohio. I'm at home. All right, guys. You got anything else to add? Go Bucs.

Post game show tomorrow. Offbeat tomorrow. we'll have in-person post game shows all weekend long for you while we're here. Alex is here. Nathan's here. You have a thought here, Alex.

You have a thought here, Alex. DiNardo's on a plane somewhere, probably. I'm getting breaking news. Over West Virginia, Ohio. Yes, Alex. Alex. I've got a quick take here. Okay.

About Robert Hasselt III. Oh, yeah. Oh, let's do it.

Remember how all last year we had to hear that you trade Paul Skenes? That's what smart teams do? the Nationals got Robert Hasselt III for Juan Soto.

There you go. If we trade Paul Skenes, we could get a Robert Hasselt III type guy.

Yeah. It's what smart teams do. It is what smart teams do. If you look at the Nationals right now, they actually are having a decent year. And two of the guys we traded Soto for are contributing. They are like tied with the Pirates for the most runs in baseball. I get

your point. Yeah. Trading schemes would be quite dumb. Quite dumb. That's what smart teams do.

Do smart teams trade Oneil Cruz? For bullpen help.

Yeah. For bullpen help. There we go. You heard it here first. All right. Well, I think I'm ready to go. Yeah. Appreciate all you guys watching. Like the video if you haven't yet. We got like 20 minutes

left before DiNardo gets here. So let's enjoy him. Yeah. Hopefully he's delayed. Yeah, I hope so.

Yeah. Hopefully DiNardo doesn't get here until tomorrow morning. Actually, I hope it gets delayed coming out of here because I would love for him to get stuck in Cleveland and realize how much of a shithole this is. Yeah. Hopefully when we wake up tomorrow, the smoke has cleared. I don't think

that's going to happen, but that would be great because it was, it's really smoky. It's very smoky. Yeah. Then we got to deal with the whole explosive diarrhea thing while we're here.

Yeah. Thank God I don't eat vegetables. Smokiness and explosive diarrhea. That's what we're fighting for. No produce. That's why you got all packaged candy. Exactly. You're welcome.

Toilets will be thankful. All right, everybody. This was NS9 Live. I'm Jim. That was Tyler. Thank you to Nate and to Alex. We're going to have a really fun weekend. So just stay attached to our

socials. We'll have stories for you. We'll have tweets for you. We'll have posts for you.

And again, if you're here, say hi. It's going to be a fun time. If you're, if you're not here, it's two hours, just come up here and come to a game this weekend. It's an easy trip.

It's Cleveland. All right, guys, we'll see you later. Let's Go Bucs. Peace out, our scouts.

All right. That wraps up this episode of North Shore Nine. Thanks so much for tuning in. Whether you're listening on the podcast or catching us on YouTube, if you enjoyed the show, please give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. It really

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Thank you.