Thoughts on an off day

With no game today and the Pirates playing well, there seems to be one thought on all Pirates fans minds, what's wrong with Craig Wilson? If Craig Wilson was swinging the bat well, there's a chance columns like this never get written because the Pirates win 4 or 5 to nothing yesterday. While it's true the Pirates will win 2-0 more than 11-10, there's no way they can keep up their tepid offensive pace and stay out of the cellar this year. Two runs a night simply won't get it done against teams that are better offensively than the Astros (and that's just about everybody except the Pirates). Sometimes problems like this can be pinpointed to one source and right now the Pirates offensive woes seem to be resting squarely on Craig Wilson. Depsite his summer swoon last year, he still hit 29 homers and drove in 82 runs, good numbers for someone who had never played full time before. He crushed the ball this spring in Florida, but his power seemed to stay in Bradenton when he went north. I think Wilson's struggles started with the home opener. Before last year Craig Wilson put up two fairly solid years as a pinch hitter/outfielder/first baseman, but could never crack the starting line up. He was given a chance to start with the opener last year and was so hot in April even Lloyd couldn't ignore it, effectively giving Wilson the first base over Randall Simon. Wilson cooled off at the end of the year and set out to prove himself again this spring. He had a great spring, but despite that, Daryle Ward was given the Opening Day start over him at first base. Lloyd claimed it was a matchup thing, but Wilson made his disappointment publicly known. Despite all his hard work, it still appeared he hadn't proved himself to Lloyd. Right after this, McClendon moved Ward to first and put Craig Wilson in left field, where he's a fish out of water. Any time a player is as badly out of position as Craig Wilson is in left field at PNC Park (which is vast compared to right field where he played much of last year), they tend to focus so much on fielding that hitting gets lost in the shuffle. Now that he's back at first Wilson seems to be trying too hard to get his power stroke back. His trademark swing was a short flick of the bat that sent fastballs rocketing to left center field so fast most fans didn't know what happened. This year he's swinging mightily and missing fastballs badly, which seems to be messing with his head even more. It's pretty obvious Wilson is a superstitious guy, just look at the whole hair thing. It's also clear that he doesn't have much self confidence. Not getting a starting a spot while performing for two year messed with him pretty good, and losing his Opening Day start to Ward did the same thing. What Craig needs right now more than anything is to run headlong into a fastball and hit it a mile. Once he does that I think he'll ease up he'll be fine. Until then he's going to keep trying too hard for his own good. With Sanchez joining Lawton at the top of the lineup and Bay tearing the cover off the ball in the 3 spot, the Pirates are one big bat away from having a respectable (and by respectable I mean I think they'll score more than 3 runs regularly) offense, and I still think Craig Wilson is that bat. I just hope Lloyd keeps him in the lineup to let it happen.