Weekly wrapup

It's time once again for my post-week Pirates musings. This was an all around ugly week for the Buccos. We got outscored 18-2 on Monday and Tuesday by the Redbirds and lost again to the Reds on Wednesday before scrounging together two wins (in a row!) against the Reds and Cubs, mostly on the bat of Jason Bay (combined 5 for 8 in those two games with 2 homers). So what did we learn this week? Well...

Bobby Hill should absolutely play every day.

Freddy Sanchez should absolutely play every day (three extra base hits in two days on Saturday and Sunday against the Cubs).

Anyone with the surname Wilson is in a deep funk. Craig can't figure out how to get past first base on any hits. Jack can't get to first base at all. Jack has an excuse (his appendectomy) and his play in the field is starting to turn around, possibly preceding a string of hits (we can hope). Craig looks mostly lost at the plate. I'd attribute this to him being forced to out of position all the time. People underestimate how much energy it takes to play a different position at the field. I say we let Craig play first all the time and see what happens.

Mackowiak is a lot better than he was last year and cannot be benched when Castillo is healthy. I say put him in center, but what do I know.

The whole rotation is solid except the parts of it we thought would be solid, Wells and Perez. Fogg, Redman, and Williams have put a bunch of good starts together. If Wells and Perez come around we'll have quite a staff.

McClendon is a moron. Maybe this is beating a dead horse, but it's still true.

Despite consecutive wins, any shot at .500 is quickly slipping away. Lloyd still plays a different lineup every night, never really sticking with what works (in the few instances that anything works at all). Most nights the team is lifeless, except when superhuman individual performances (see: Jason Bay, probably our only player capable of such performances) lift us beyond the opponent. Bottom line, I've seen nothing in Week 3 to indicate we aren't looking at 100 losses this year.