I suppose that the biggest Pirate-related news on this Tuesday evening is that Clint Hurdle finished second in National League Manager of the Year voting to Matt Williams, and thusly will not be taking home his second consecutive Manger of the Year Award. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again tonight: I think this is a stupid award, because its definition is basically “the manager of a team that was good this year after being bad last year.” Clint Hurdle did a much better job in 2014 than he did when he won the award 2013, which isn’t to take anything away from his performance in 2013. The difference was that this 2014 Pirate team was probably not as talented as last year’s, they dealt with a ton of injuries to key players, their cleanup hitter evaporated in a puff of smoke at mid-season, and Hurdle still coaxed them along to their second straight Wild Card berth. I said this before, but I’ll say it again: I sincerely doubt that any manager in the National League helped his team more with one single decision than Hurdle did when he decided to put Josh Harrison in the outfield in May. I don’t mean this as any sort of disrespect to Matt Williams, either, since I don’t know much about what he did in DC this year. I do know, though, that last year’s Nats were a pretty talented club that had some health trouble, and that the team was in general bolstered by quite a few things that I doubt Williams had a ton to do with (the trade for Doug Fister, the emergence of Tanner Roark, etc.). It’s not a huge deal either way; I just think it’s worth pointing out that Hurdle did a really excellent job managing the 2014 Pirates and wish that coming off of a shitty season wasn’t a prerequisite to win Manager of the Year.
There isn’t much in the way of Hot Stove news today, though I do sort of feel like Princess Leia on the Death Star when she realizes that Grand Moff Tarkin isn’t bluffing about blowing up Alderaan whenever I read stories about the Cubs right now. They’re reportedly interested in Jordan Zimmermann (via MLBTR), who is due $16.5 million next year before hitting free agency next winter. You’d think that Zimmermann would more or less be untouchable; the Nats are obviously contenders and they’ve got pockets that are plenty deep. I don’t really know that this is the sort of deal that the Cubs will end up making, but the larger point is that this is who the Cubs are going after and with their plethora of shortstop prospects, there’s pretty much no pitcher that’s off-limits to them. I think a lot of Pirate fans were thinking that they wouldn’t have to worry about the Cubs until 2016, but I’m guessing that they’re going to be a pretty serious contender next year if their young hitting comes around at all.
The Cubs are also interested in Justin Masterson (from the same link), which only seems worth mentioning to me because I think that Masterson is one of those pitchers that’s an obvious target for the Pirates. My hunch was that if Masterson is looking for a short-term deal to rebuild his value that he might see the Pirates as a desirable destination, given the Bucs’ recent track record, but it’s also worth remembering that Theo Epstein drafted him in Boston and so the Cubs’ front office could probably sell him on their ability to get him straightened out, too.
