The Toronto Blue Jays have claimed Matt Hague off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hague has been in the Pirates system since being drafted in the ninth round in 2008. He has appeared with the Pirates twice in the Majors, most recent being last month when he went 0-for-2 in three games. Hague was put on waivers when the Pirates claimed John Axford from the Cleveland Indians on Thursday.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
An awful decision to keep Brett Morel and DFA Matt hague. Inexcusable really
Does Matt Hague become the next Brock Holt?
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At least its a good thing that maybe someone will give him a chance.
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Brock Holt was really good, so i expect not
Fly Matt Hague, fly off as Brandon Moss and Bautista did and make a career for yourself. You were blocked here by the mighty Hall of Famers Gaby Sanchez and Ike Davis so you were never going to get a fair shot here. Please take Andrew Lambo with you so that he may get the same opportunity. Good luck Matt Hague.
hahahahaha, love it
Don’t forget Steve Pearce.
Just stop, please. Hague has no where near the potential that Bautista and Moss had. You should write children’s books after coming up with that fairy tale
Moose- in fairness, neither one of them especially moss had any potential by the time we let them go. Bautista was a 1.0 War player and was showing no improvement.
Yeah. Hague really has never been anything but a decent, not even excellent AAA player. Pearce was awesome in the minors.
Now, maybe they were doing Hague a favor by DFAing him – and he clearly did not have a clear defined path to Pittsburgh – but to me, it was assinine that the Pirates DFAed him while guys like Decker, McGuinnes, and Morel were all kept on the 40 man. I seriously doubt Morel would have been claimed, although I guess it is possible.
No real loss here. A few others the Pirates can afford to lose as well.
Ehh, not gonna miss him much. Never understood the fan love for Hague. Homegrown bias I guess. 28 year old with a minor league OPS of .792, a career high of 15 home runs, weak defense at first, even weaker defense at third. Good luck to him, maybe he finds a short gig as bench bat, but he’s no better than replacement level, really.
Stinks. But I bet they’ll have to place him on waivers within a year. Bucs could definitely get him back.
Smart team. He can be a decent bench asset. Better than Morel.
Not going miss him, he was never as good as some thought. Nothing more than a quad A singles hitter
There he is ladies and gentlemen, the next Jose Bautista. The next one
the Pirates let get away. I don’t understand why “The Hit Collector”
never got a fair chance in Pittsburgh. Hague is better than Brent Morel,
Jayson Nix, and Michael Martinez COMBINED. Watch him hit 20+ HR’s next
year.
Hyperbolic much? The guy got about 1/5 of a season as a starter and looked about as bad as Martinez OR Nix. He never proved why he deserved another chance, and he did receive a fair chance in 2012. Again, he was nothing more than a quad A player
Considering he’s had a season over .200 at the major league level, he’s better than Michael Martinez has ever been. Ever.
Hague might only be a AAAA player, but Morel, Nix, and Martinez are AAA players on their best day.
Not even half way true. It’s taken Hague 3 years to figure out AAA pitching. It’s not even like he’s tearing the cover off the ball down there anyway
Martinez, and Morel NEVER figured out AAA hitting
Have you ever interviewed for the Comedy Channel’s tour ?
I did actually. But they said I was too funny, and it wasn’t fair to everyone else.
I actually agree with you when comparing Hague to Nix and Martinez. I also talked to Hague a couple of times whn he was in AA, and he is a really nice young guy,so I am happy he is getting some more MLB service time. But,you got more than ” too funny ” with that last sentence. Matt will probably be lucky to be in Toronto by Fall let alone next season.
You got to talk to Matt Hague in Altoona ? I’ll be damned ! Were in your role of faux scout or faux GM. Altoona, baseballs Mecca and Leo is the prince. BTW are you related to Lonley Libertarian?
Well, so much for Hague replacing Sanchez as the right-handed half of the 1B platoon. It is hindsight, but it sure would have been nice to have Abreu out there at first base. Hopefully they will do something at 1B for 2015 (Lambo?).
Don’t understand why Lambo isn’t in the conversation now! The one thing about Hague that the Pirtaes didn’t seem to appreciate is that he will drive in runs. We need that right now, and Lambo might be a better RBI producer than either Davis or Pedro.
After seeing Hurdle’s comments today regarding Lambo, I think he has a short shelf live with the Pirate’s organization.
BTW, I disagreed with the way Hurdle bundled his comments. Tacky, and unprofessional.
I was out of town, what did Hurdle say?
Clint Hurdle on Andrew Lambo: “For what we need … how much is (Lambo) going to play? Do you want Lambo playing in front of (Travis) Snider? I don’t. You want Lambo playing in front of (Gregory) Polanco? I don’t. You want Lambo playing in front of (Starling) Marte? I don’t. And he’s not going to play first base in front of anybody right now.”
I bet 29 other MLB clubs wish they had Abreu.
Yea it would have been nice to pair him with Pedro or Lambo at 1B in 2015. Oh well.