Here are some key updates from the team produced Ben Cherington radio show with Joe Block:
• Cherington repeated similar comments he made to the press before the trade deadline about the goals of the organization to add young talent, create roster flexibility for more opportunity, and free up payroll.
• Block mentioned comments Isiah Kiner-Falefa made about the role players like him, Andrew Heaney and Tommy Pham can have over the final two months. Cherington touched on the value of those veterans. "We didn’t feel like we had to trade anybody. Certainly, that’s part of the calculus, if you don’t trade someone that you feel like there’s still a role for that player to play on the team, an important role."
• On Ke'Bryan Hayes trade saving money, “I think it is important to emphasize first that if we make a trade involving a player on a contract, as we did in the case of Ke’Bryan (Hayes), we’d never make a trade in order to save money. That’s never part of the calculus but using that payroll space that is opened up through that trade, in addition to that talent we get back, using that payroll space on other things can really help the team, especially if we feel like we have alternatives in-house.”
• On David Bednar contract extension talks, “That’s something we had talked about with David over time, over the course of the year that he was in Pittsburgh. We didn’t have any conversation about that in the last few weeks.”
• On the Bailey Falter trade opening up rotation spots, "Yeah, we have pitchers on the team currently. We have some more in Triple-A who we really like to see get innings here the rest of the way, get more opportunities. One of them is actually on a rehab assignment right now, Johan Oviedo, who obviously everyone has seen in Pittsburgh before but he's getting really close. He's another one that we'd like to see get some starts down the stretch."
• About public rankings like Baseball America versus actual results, "Our job is to be more and more accurate and more precise in evaluating players, particularly outside the organization. We have a bunch of really really talented, smart folks that help us in that process. We have a lot of inputs that go into that assessment and that evaluation. And one of the inputs is the external public rankings because we can test those rankings over time and test how predictive they are and there is predictive value in those external public rankings." And later in that segment, "it is part of what makes it fun."
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THE ASYLUM
Final: Ben Cherington Show
Here are some key updates from the team produced Ben Cherington radio show with Joe Block:
• Cherington repeated similar comments he made to the press before the trade deadline about the goals of the organization to add young talent, create roster flexibility for more opportunity, and free up payroll.
• Block mentioned comments Isiah Kiner-Falefa made about the role players like him, Andrew Heaney and Tommy Pham can have over the final two months. Cherington touched on the value of those veterans. "We didn’t feel like we had to trade anybody. Certainly, that’s part of the calculus, if you don’t trade someone that you feel like there’s still a role for that player to play on the team, an important role."
• On Ke'Bryan Hayes trade saving money, “I think it is important to emphasize first that if we make a trade involving a player on a contract, as we did in the case of Ke’Bryan (Hayes), we’d never make a trade in order to save money. That’s never part of the calculus but using that payroll space that is opened up through that trade, in addition to that talent we get back, using that payroll space on other things can really help the team, especially if we feel like we have alternatives in-house.”
• On David Bednar contract extension talks, “That’s something we had talked about with David over time, over the course of the year that he was in Pittsburgh. We didn’t have any conversation about that in the last few weeks.”
• On the Bailey Falter trade opening up rotation spots, "Yeah, we have pitchers on the team currently. We have some more in Triple-A who we really like to see get innings here the rest of the way, get more opportunities. One of them is actually on a rehab assignment right now, Johan Oviedo, who obviously everyone has seen in Pittsburgh before but he's getting really close. He's another one that we'd like to see get some starts down the stretch."
• About public rankings like Baseball America versus actual results, "Our job is to be more and more accurate and more precise in evaluating players, particularly outside the organization. We have a bunch of really really talented, smart folks that help us in that process. We have a lot of inputs that go into that assessment and that evaluation. And one of the inputs is the external public rankings because we can test those rankings over time and test how predictive they are and there is predictive value in those external public rankings." And later in that segment, "it is part of what makes it fun."
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Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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