Courtesy of G4...
Figuring it’d be slow around these parts with this four day Pirate vacation, I put up a quick poll to test the pulse of the PBC Asylum at the All Star Break.
Some interesting items in the results – Harrison is the biggest surprise, and I guess it would make sense that as such he also has the highest expectations that he’ll regress. Had a very close race in the biggest disappointment, as well as what to do with Pedro.
The random list of potential trade targets was interesting, points were across the board for most players – and although Street came in first, he wasn’t even close to having the most first-place votes, that went to Rizzo. Rizzo picked up votes at the bottom of the scale too, which kept his overall score down.
But the somewhat surprising number for me in the whole poll is 75% of polltakers do not believe the Pirates will make the playoffs!
Here are the actual results from the 36 folks that filled it out:
1. Who has been your biggest positive surprise? (The way these type of questions are scored, you get 5 points for a 1st place vote, 4 points for a 2nd place vote, and so on – so the higher the score, the better you’ve done)
I. Josh Harrison (4.33, 16 first place votes)
II. Edison Volquez (3.72, 13 first place votes)
III. Jeff Locke (2.83, 5 first place votes)
IV. Vance Worley (2.14, 1 first place vote)
V. Neil Walker (1.97, 1 first place vote)
2. Who has been your biggest disappointment?
I. Francisco Liriano (3.51, 12 first place votes)
II. Ike Davis (3.46, 9 first place votes)
III. Jason Grilli (3.40, 6 first place votes)
IV. Wandy Rodriguez (2.40, 5 first place vote)
V. RF Tabata/Snider (2.23, 3 first place vote)
3. What should be Pedro’s future?
I. Move him to 1B in the offseason (36.1%)
II. Trade him (33.3%)
III. Keep him at 3B for as long as he is controlled (30.6%)
4. What is your trade deadline priority?
I. Relief Pitching (30.6%)
II. Starting Pitching (27.8%)
III. First Base (19.4%)
IV. Stand pat, don’t make a move (16.7%)
V. Shortstop (5.5%)
VI. Other Position (0.0%)
5. Final NL Central Standings top three? (I screwed this question leaving the Reds out of the picture, thus the answers….although hopefully I’m right, hate the Reds!)
I. Other (36.1 %)
II. Cards, Pirates, Brewers (22.2%)
III. Cards, Brewers, Pirates (22.2%)
IV. Pirates, Cards, Brewers (19.5%)
V. (Nobody picked other options)
6. The Pirates will…
I. Finish above .500, but no playoffs (69.44%)
II. Finish above .500, and make playoffs (25.0%)
III. Finish at .500 or below, no playoffs (5.6%)
7. Gerritt Cole
I. Will be fighting nagging injury the rest of the year (55.6%)
II. Will be good once he’s back from this stint (30.6%)
III. Is seriously hurt (13.8%)
8. Let’s assume these are some trade targets. Who do you want in order of priority? (Once again, since there were 10 options you get 10 “points” for every 1st place vote with a sliding scale behind that, so highest “score” is best.
I. Huston Street (8.59, 8 first place votes)
II. Anthony Rizzo (8.22, 16 first place votes)
III. Ian Kennedy (6.28, 2 first place votes)
IV. AJ Burnett (5.44, 2 first place votes)
V. Bartolo Colon (5.44, 1 first place vote)
VI. Justin Morneau (5.16, 2 first place votes)
VII. Jonathan Papelbon (5.03, 0 first place votes)
VIII. Starling Castro (4.59, 0 first place votes)
IX. Chad Qualls (3.22, 1 first place vote)
X. Edwin Jackson (3.03, 0 first place votes)
9. Who do you expect will regress in the 2nd half?
I. Harrison (47.1%)
II. Worley (41.2%)
III. Polanco (8.8%)
IV. Watson (2.9%)
V. Locke (0.0%)
10. With the current state of the NL, the Pirates should:
I. Take the usual course, make low risk additions (57.1%)
II. Stand pat, team is going nowhere (17.1%)
III. Go for it all, give up good prospects and get big time pieces (14.3%)
IV. Stand pat, team is good enough as is (11.5%)
A big thanks to G4 for his time and providing us with another great survey!