Pirates 5 Marlins 4- Roller Coaster

I really would have enjoyed watching tonight's game on TV, but apparently FSP decided to give their staff a long holiday. Somehow, two nights in a row we managed to beat a good baseball team in the manner that we usually manage to lose. Lots of errors and a couple timely hits and bam! We have a two game winning streak. We cashed in on a throwing error by their catcher (with Ollie at the plate no less!), and Luis Castillo's throwing error lead to Freddy Sanchez's second big hit in as many nights (can someone please tell me why this guy has been benched for so long? I mean he was so benched I lost hope of ever seeing him start regularly and then suddenly all of a sudden he's starting again... I'm so confused). We then withstood their barrage of homers off Perez, then rode a two run homer from the D-Train to victory. Perez was again tough to read tonight. He made it through six innings only throwing 85 pitches (60 for strikes, much better than AJ Burnett's 96-56 ratio), striking out six and walking none, but this time gave up 7 hits, three of the over the fence variety. This is still more encouraging than the early season starts, but I'm curious about his velocity (ie, did he tone it down a bit tonight to throw more strikes and in return gave up more hits) so if anyone was at the game I'd be curious to hear a velocity report. But all in all, there wasn't much to complain about tonight. The bullpen was great again, this time Meadows, Gonzalez, and Mesa getting a very rare 1-2-3 save (his first since the Chicago debacles, don't you hate how that's plural). And on top of that, Jack Wilson was 3-for-4 and upped his average to .217!!! That's almost solidly above .200! We've already taken two from Florida in a series I wondered if we'd be able to salvage one win out of. Of course we can't stop there, taking three out of four from the Marlins would really be sweet (well, bittersweet because of how much it's helping out the Braves, but hopefully we can take care of them next). Consider this homestand properly launched.

20 games in 20 days: 6-6

Ron Cook inspires rage in me

Ron Cook churned out a giant turd today. He more or less says that Jack Wilson lied about still being bothered by his appendectomy and that he shouldn't make excuses for his poor play. OK, fine. In January 2001 Adrian Beltre underwent an emergency appendectomy. He struggled all year with the injury, with his batting average dropping from .290 to .265, his homers dropping from 20 to 13, and his RBIs plummetting from 85 to 60. His year was salvaged by a strong second half, and he spent considerable time on the DL, only playing in 126 games. His numbers didn't make a full recovery until 2003. My point is simple. I've watched a lot of players go in and out of Pittsburgh over the last 12 years. Derek Bell would lie about pain caused by an appendectomy to excuse poor play. So would Brian Giles. Or Aramis Ramirez. Jack Wilson would never make excuses. The fact that Jack is even hinting that he's hurt probably means that he's in excruciating pain. Just now, as I'm typing this, he singled, moved around the bases to third, and scored on a shallow flyout. No one hustles like Jack Wilson, no one cares more than Jack Wilson. Anyone that's watched him swing the bat this year sees his front side fly open to favor his right side, the side where your appendix is. He's in pain. Cook says that it must not be there because Lloyd plays him every day so Lloyd must not see a problem. EARTH TO RON! EARTH TO RON! LLOYD MCCLENDON IS THICK AS A BRICK!!! Ron Cook despises players that make excuses. I despise sports writers that take the easy way out instead of digging a little under the surface to find the truth. I despise sportswriters that criticize athletes for playing hurt and talking about their very real injuries that have affected their performance this year, when their writing makes you wonder if they would know the difference between a football, a baseball, or a basketball if one smacked them in the face. One thing I don't despise is Jack Wilson. He plays with a passion for baseball that 98% of the league doesn't have. If Jack says his appendectomy is bothering him, I believe Jumpin' Jack, not some fat hack.

The Stats Geek reedems himself

Thank you, Mr. O'Neill. After a weak effort last week, that bumbling piece of tripe about parity, you've gone and done something like this, and COMPLETELY REDEEMED YOURSELF. This week's topic: the two slot in the Bucco order. As pointed out by the Stats Geek, Jason Bay has the 6th best OPS out of the three slot in the NL (out of 15 people) and tied for the most homers out of the three slot. So why the low RBI total (which prompts bumbling idiots like Savran to babble about our lack of star power and a true three hitter)? A simple reason, from Mr. O'Neill:

Going into Cincinnati, Bay had seen a runner on base in only 41 percent of his at-bats. In only 22 percent had there been a runner in scoring position. The other No. 3 hitters found runners looking back at them from 44 to 62 percent of the time, and runners in scoring position from 25 to 38 percent of the time.

Quite simply, the Pirates production in front of Bay is well below average. And despite the recent drop in production from Matt Lawton, it's not his fault because:

Pirates No. 2 hitters are hitting .167 with a .202 on-base average and .230 slugging average. That's last in the league. Pirates pitchers, meantime, face No. 2 men who hit .304 with a .367 OBA and .510 SLG. That's twice as good.

Yep, there's the problem. So the solution? Well, earlier in the year, the Stats Geek mentioned Mackowiak was a good solution because of his low DP rate, and he goes back to Mack-o-whack today. He suggests something I was thinking about suggesting, batting Castillo second. His point is something I've been saying for a long time (emphasis added by me):

Bunch your best hitters. Runs are gratifying.

Which is more intimidating? Lawton, JWilson, Jason Bay or Lawton, Mackowiak, Bay? Lawton, Tike, and Bay or Sanchez, Castillo, and Bay? It doesn't matter if you're a prototypical #2 hitter or not. Last year while watching the LCS's I noticed a funny thing, the two hitters of the final four teams left. The Yankees batted Alex Rodriguez there, the Cards Larry Walker, the Astros Carlos Beltran, and the Sox Mark Bellhorn. I realize that we don't have the firepower of those teams, but they weren't wasting their two slot on Miguel Cairo, or Adam Everett, or Bill Mueller, or Edgar Renteria, people you would more associate with a two spot in the order. The four best teams in baseball were bunching hitters together (look at Bellhorn's numbers, he's homer or nothing, not a 2 hitter by common definition, look at Renteria's from last year, only a .324 OBP, numbers don't lie). All four of those teams batted guys from 1-5 that could HIT. They didn't give a thought to who could bunt a batter over or who could steal a base, they thought about who could HIT, and that's where our focus needs to be. Thank you, Stats Geek for bringing this to light in a public forum.

Stan Savran

I'm watching Stan Savran flap his giant, worthless mouth on TV right now because the Pirates aren't on. Apparently, according to Savran, Wigginton should play just about everyday, unless someone like Sanchez, Mackowiak, or maybe even Bobby Hill steps up. Oh, like they aren't stepping up RIGHT NOW? Maybe Bobby Hill? Then he goes on to blabber about how this team has no one to step up and get clutch hits or home runs for this team and we need to bunt, steal, hit and run, and scrape out every run we can get. Sorry, Stan. I'm calling bullsh*t on this one. All year we've been trying to bunt, steal, and hit and run our way into runs, and instead we turn big innings into one or no run innings. All it ends up doing is WASTING OUTS. Instead of wasting outs, why don't we try to put our nine best players on the field every day and see what happens? And really, how is Jason Bay not a clutch home run threat? I can think off the top of my head, two games where he came up while I was thinking to myself "We really need a home run here" and he hit it. Please, don't patronize us. Don't tell us this team doesn't have talent. Don't tell us this team doesn't have a superstar. We're not blind. This team has plenty of talent. Jason Bay is more of a clutch player and more of a superstar than we've had in years. This team is poorly run from Kevin McClatchy to Dave Littlefield to Lloyd McClendon. Just say it. We can see it. You make yourself look foolish to try and tell us otherwise.

Mackowiak

Rotoworld agrees with me on Mackowiak saying:

His (Mackowiak's) average is .424 (25 for 59), and his on-base percentage is .521 (in May). He also had three home runs and 15 RBIs. He's been sitting because the Pirates have faced three lefties in a row, but you have to think he would have been worth using as hot as he is.

Why is it that everyone outside of Pittsburgh sees things that no one running the team is capable of seeing?

EDIT (5:52 PM)- Sorry, forgot to post the link to Rotoworld earlier, but now the note on Mackowiak has disappeared. It's all a conspiracy, I tell you.

But wait, there was still good to be found

OK, honestly, today wasn't all bad. We won against the Marlins, didn't we?

Jack went 2-for-4, including a key 10th inning double. He's now batting .206, which is as high over .200 as he's been since probably the first week (don't hold me to that).

Redman regained his form after getting bombed by the Cards. 6 strong innings, 2 runs, 5 Ks. Nice to have you back on the train, Mark.

Bullpen was lights out. Four innings total by Meadows, Gonzalez, White with only three hits and a walk. Nice to see Gonzalez bounce back after a couple tough outings.

Sanchez was 0-for-5 and still came up with the game winning hit in the 10th. The kid is the real deal.

Wigginton managed to not make an out with the winning run on base and two outs, a minor miracle in itself.

Tomorrow: Ollie finally pitches against a good team with a real offense. Ollie and AJ Burnett are both 3-4, but one has an ERA of 3.19 while the other has one of 7.04. We're on the wrong side of that stat, but hopefully Ollie will keep getting stronger.

The Laundry List of Complaints

OK, today's win was nice. Long-homestand-opening-extra-inning-last-at-bat-over-a-good-team thrillers are always nice to win. I'm still seeing a disturbing trend right now, which can be summed up thusly: Michael Restovich batted cleanup. Even if he wasn't batting cleanup it could be summed up as "Michael Restovich played". I wasn't happy when we acquired him two weeks ago, but I was hopeful that I was wrong. I'm going to say it now, I can't believe this guy is taking at-bats away from people on our team. When we got him I was worried for one reason, we're his fourth team this year. Two of them were the Rockies and D-Rays. I don't care who you are, if you're cut by those two bastions of baseball talent, there's only two possible explanations. 1.) You really really really suck, or 2.) You have such an irredeemable personality, you make Darth Vader seem like a pretty OK guy. When we traded for him I was pretty sure #2 would be the case, but now even #1 was looking like a possibility. I know Mackowiak has an awful average against lefties, but we never give him a chance to play. If you only face one lefty a week, your numbers won't be good. He's hitting well enough that he deserves to play every day. Let's see what he can do when he regularly starts. Some people feed off that. Same goes for Sanchez. I gave up on lobbying for playing time for him a month ago because I figured there was no hope. Now all of a sudden he makes four straight starts, and he produces. He should continue to start every day at third, and Mackowiak should play every day in center. I would actually argue that Sanchez should play second and Hill third every day, but Jose Castillo is still playing out of his mind, rendering that argument kind of null. There's really no excuse anymore for seeing Tike Redman, Ty Wigginton, and Michael Restovich in the starting lineup. Wigginton and Redman both cost us games in the field in the last week and neither of their bats are good enough to make up for their deficiencies in the field, while Restovich has done nothing in black and gold. To paraphrase my cousin Jeff (who said he heard this on the radio, not sure where though), McClendon is managing by the book, but the book he's managing from doesn't really seem to apply to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pirates 3 Marlins 2- A good start for a homestand

It's nice to finally win one like the ones we lose. We come from behind to tie the game up on an error, then get the winning run to third base on a wild pitch, only to score him on a single. All with two outs mind you. A win like this is a strong one to start off a homestand, especially against a good team like the Marlins. I have a lot more about this game, but now it's time for Memorial Day cookout dinner, then a drive back to the 'Burgh, so I'll have the full thoughts on this one a little later.

20 Games in 20 Days: 5-6

Reds 11 Pirates 2- Ouch

Looks like my pregame comments about Ty Wigginton were too prescient for our own good. Was Kip Wells great today? No, but you can't play someone like Ty Wigginton in your infield and not eventually get burned. And it's not like we haven't been burned already (I know, the error goes to Sanchez, but the play should've been made by Wigginton). If a dog bites you once, it's not your fault. You don't know anything about the dog. If it bites you again, hey, live and learn, this is quite obviously not a nice dog. If the dog bites you 10 times you have no one to blame but yourself for your bloody and maimed body lying in a ditch along the side of the road. I think you know where this is headed, but Wigginton provided us with a two runs yesterday in a game we were already up by four in, then today cost us four in what should have been a two run game early on today (Jack Wilson's error also cost us a run in the first). Not an even trade. Meanwhile Rob Mackowiak is batting .344 and we don't have the sense to even try and play him every day. Maybe he's hitting .220 against lefties right now, but maybe if he played against them more regularly that number would go up, and hell, Wigginton's only batting .200 TOTAL. This is a trainwreck of a team right now with a very painful looking upcoming schedule. We've now dropped to .500 in the month of May despite a relatively toothless schedule to this point in the month (OK, we played the Cards, but Milwaukee, Houston, San Francisco, the Cubbies, the Rockies, and the Reds are all very flawed teams, and I still don't believe Arizona is as good as their record indicates). Now we're staring at Florida for four, Atlanta for three, and Baltimore for three. All three of those teams are much better than anyone we played in May save St. Louis. Sure, the games are at home, BUT WE'RE TERRIBLE AT HOME. I have a bad feeling about this...

20 games in 20 days: 4-6

The esteemed Mr. Wells

After two straight masterful performances, Kip Wells will again take the mound today, probably with the thought in his mind that he has to pitch a perfect game to get a win. With lefty Brandon Claussen on the mound against him, chances are good Kip will look around the field behind him and see encouraging sights like Michael Restovich in left and Ty Wigginton manning a spot on one of his corners, further reinforcing the idea that he needs to be perfect to win. And despite that, Kip will probably pitch well enough to win, but for a reason we don't like to hear as Pirate fans. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Bob Walk knows it, he said on the radio yesterday that Kip this year reminds him of Jason Schmidt the summer before he got traded. He said it was because, like Jason, Kip is finally completely healthy, but Bob Walk knows that isn't the truth and so do I. Today when Kip takes the mound and sees Wigginton and Restovich (and who knows who else) behind him, he's thinking to himself, "OK, if I get through June, I'll be out of here by mid-July. I'll be pitching for a contender in August, and by next year at this time, I'll be a Cy Young candidate." Claussen hasn't been very good this month (though he did make a good start against the Nats last time out), so we may finally be able to get Kip that win he's been searching for. Which will only quicken his trip out of town. So is the plight of the Pirates fan.

Appendicitis

Leeeny posts about Jack's appendix, and how Jack says it's still bothering him. Leeeny says what I've been saying all along:

You don't have to be a surgeon or a patient to know that a big, open, emergency operation for a burst appendix is going to set you back for a while.

She also mentions (or more accurately rants about) the fact that Fearless Leader Lloyd had no idea that this was an issue:

"First I've heard of it," McClendon said.

Because emergency surgeries to remove near exploding organs from All-Star shortstops are things that should go unnoticed by managers. Sheesh

Pirates 9 Reds 2

Sorry this is a bit late, but I'm still at home for the holiday weekend and computer time is tougher to get at home (by default of course, when I'm at school I'm in a tiny room with my computer in front of me all the time).

All of the pregame posts about Eric Milton rang true (from Rowdy, Jeremy, and myself) as we crushed Milton around the park last night. We stomped Milton, lighting him up for three homers, one apiece from Bay, Cota, and our piggly third basemen, who moonlighted at first yesterday. Lloyd ignored baseball karma by bencing Mackowiak, but to no ill effect as his "I smoked rocks before today's game" lineup actually put some runs on the board. OK, that's a bit harsh. I actually like Sanchez leading off, he gets on base a ton and really needs to play more. Lawton's been in a pretty harsh slump lately, so putting someone else in the leadoff slot is a good idea. And Ward has been struggling with lefties this year, so playing Wigginton at first at least has some sense behind it, though I would argue that batting him cleanup doesn't (but of course he hit a homer yesterday, and I really don't know who else would've batted cleanup yesterday, so I won't argue that point at the moment). Dave Williams was great again, pitching seven strong while only giving up one hit and one run to record his team leading fifth win. We even pitched Mesa and still won yesterday, though he did enter with a seven run lead and still put two people on base before retiring the side. We should probably also be taking note as Humberto Cota's bat comes alive. Last night was his second consecutive big Saturday game (4 ribbies against the Rockies last Saturday) and his average is up to .253 from around the Mendoza line. Over half of his hits this year have been for extra bases (10 out of 19). As much as everyone loves David Ross, I think we have to make sure the Cota is getting the great majority of the starts behind the plate. One more game in Cincy before the real fun starts.

20 games in 20 days: 4-5

Eric Milton

We really should crush Eric Milton tonight. He's been getting beaten around the last couple years and has given up 8 homers in 6 starts at home this year. Hopefully Lloyd won't ignore karma and will start Mackowiak tonight even though Milton is a lefty.

Happy Birthday Garrett

Today is the day, so HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, GARRETT MACKOWIAK!!! I know, I know, Leeeny beat me to it, but I've been planning this post for a while.

May 28, 2004 represented one of the high water marks of the last 12+ years for the Pirates, which have been few are far between. Besides most of the mutant summer of '97 when we hung around first until late September (especially Cordova and Rincon's no-no and Shawon Dunston's first game as a Bucco) there hasn't been much to cheer about since October '92. May 28th last year was a day to cheer.

My dad and I slipped out the door, hiding from my mom who wanted us to go to my cousin's high school commencement. Since it was a double header we figured we'd get down to the ballpark by the 4th or 5th inning or so, take in most of the first game, and all of the second. We had the radio on in the car so we could catch the first part of the first game as we drove. During the pre-game show Greg Brown relayed the news that Rob's wife had given birth to their first child earlier in the morning, a boy named Garrett, he was healthy, and Mack-o-whack was planning on playing tonight. My dad looked at me and said (no joke, I am 100% serious about this), "Well, you know that means he's going to get a big hit tonight." I told him that he says crap like that all the time and that he was full of it. We got the park just in time for the Bucs to take a lead, only to watch Barrett's grand slam erase it, then the Bucs fight back to tie it up and set the stage. Earlier in the 9th of Game 1 my dad looked at me and said "Look at how the lineup falls, Mackowiak's going to get a chance to be the hero." I again rolled my eyes. Soon enough Mack stepped into the box in a tie game with the bases loaded. My dad told me to watch (like I was a six year old or something). Mackowiak launched the Joe Borowski pitch into orbit, the crowd went nuts, and my dad jumped up and down screaming "I told you so! I told you so!" After the homer, the crowd was frozen. We watched the Pirates celebrate on the field, and it seemed like it took five minutes for the fans (and there were a lot of us, in the neighborhood of 30,000 if I remember correctly) to get up out of our seats and wander around the ballpark in shock. The atmosphere was electric. Everyone walking around was talking Pirates, about what an incredible feat we'd just witnessed, about how with a win in Game 2 we'd be .500 and it was almost June. It was pretty clear we all thought we'd seen the most amazing thing any of us would ever see at a ballpark. And we were only halfway there. I think my euphoria from game one blocked out most of game two, but in the 9th inning when Mackowiak stepped up to the plate as the tying run, this time with LaTroy Hawkins on the mound. This was too good to be true. My dad and I looked at each other in disbelief, "You don't think..." we both said. Rob Mackowiak proved us wrong, and launched another pitch into almost the exact same spot. Pandemonium. When Craig Wilson stepped up and crushed a Francis Beltran pitch to center and win the game, the park erupted in disbelief. As we drove home, the guys on the radio were shocked. They didn't know what to say. At home, Mackowiak had displaced and epic (or as epic as the NBA gets these days I guess) Pistons-Pacers Eastern Conference Championship Series game as the lead highlight on Sportscenter. It was May 28th. The Pirates were 22-22. The Cardinals hadn't started their run yet. Hope abounded everywhere, and lasted until Monday, when our 21 losses in 25 games began, and we were the same old Pirates again. But for two days (because remember, the next day Mackowiak homered again and we beat the Cubs to get to 23-22), we were something different, something special.

Thanks Garrett, and happy birthday.

Video clips here, AP write up of the game the next day here, and a more current piece here (thanks to Leeeny for the first link and the last link).

Reds 6 Pirates 5

Didn't see much of this one due to my brother's high school graduation and related festivities. The five minutes I did see included the back of Adam Dunn's back as he rounded the bases, the Joker's double (oh how I miss the Joker, of all the boneheaded idiotic things this team has done, how did we leave Joe Randa UNPROTECTED in the Expansion Draft?), Cruz's's double, Grabow's insertion into the game, and Valentin's single, putting us down 5-3. I was then commanded to turn off the game because I was bad luck, and hey it was time for some graduation cake anyways. Looks like we rallied in the top of the 9th with a Castillo single, Sanchez double, and Ryan Freel error, but Mike Gonzalez couldn't hold the tie. So after finally allowing his first run since April 13th last night, he comes out and gives up another one tonight and loses the game for us. Maybe he's not the answer to close either, I don't know. What I do know is that when you outhit the Reds, you expect to win. 1-for-12 with RISP is not acceptable anywhere. Our offensive outburst yesterday should probably be ignored because it came against someone named Elizardo. This team is really struggling offensively, especially since the roadtrip began. That means when the pitching isn't perfect, we lose (unless we're playing the Cardinals, then we lose even with the pitching is just about perfect). This team is in a bad way right now, and facing a daunting schedule after Cincy. Two wins in the next two days would be a good place to start.

20 Games in 20 Days: 3-5

Snell notes

Rotoworld has a blurb on Ian Snell, saying that we're finally going to consider him as a starter instead of a reliever. It's about damn time, I say. Lloyd says:

Look at his numbers. They're second to none. We're going to give him the opportunity to start. We'd be crazy not to. I don't think you should put limitations on him.

Yep, for once that sounds about right. Hopefully we don't screw this up.

Some Ollie number crunching

OK, so let's look at some numbers from Ollie's last two starts and see how they measure up to 2004:

2-0, 10 1/3 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 16Ks, 9 BB

This projects out to the most important stats:

3.60 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 13.93 K/9, 7.84 BB/9

When compared to those stats last year:

2.99 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 10.97 K/9, 3.72 BB/9

they don't measure up too badly. The most disturbing trend is that he got one groundout to seven flyouts last night and 1:6 on Saturday against the Rockies (as pointed out by Jeremy and PAD), though Rory brings up a good point to counter this, unlike Dave Williams and Josh Fogg, when Ollie throws his low pitches well, they're strikeouts, not groundouts. The flyout:total out ratio isn't that high. His strikeouts are a bit higher because of the Reds and the Rockies. They strike out a lot, especially the Reds. He's still showing a tenendecy towards the longball though, which I don't like. He gave up 22 gopher balls in 30 starts last year, but he gave one up in each of his last two starts. All in all, he looks a lot better than he did in April. He seems to be on the road to recovery, and it appears the last thing to come back will be his control. We still need a start against a good team to fully evaluate his status, the Reds and Rockies are both poor hitting teams that strike out a lot, more or less teams that play into Ollie's hands whether he's 100% or not.

Rickey

This is amusing. Unless you're older than Rickey Henderson, in which case it might be depressing.

Pirates 8 Reds 4

Well, that felt good. More accurately, any win tonight would feel good. The offense needed this. Like I said earlier, jury's still out on Mr. Perez. Mackowiak had a good night, so did Bay and the D-Train. The only thing that bothered me was that we used less pitchers than the Reds did, and their starter lasted 2 and 2/3. A bit of overmanaging in the midst of a blowout, if you ask me. And we probably shouldn't panic about Mike Gonzalez's 2 runs in the 9th, he hadn't given any up at all since April 13th (that's not a typo). Glad to see him give some up in the meaningless 9th tonight. We need to take three out of four in this series to get back to .500 in our 20 games quest, so I say let's do it.

20 Games in 20 Days: 3-4

So I was wrong

I thought the Reds would punish Ollie for his wildness more than the Rockies did. They didn't. This outing is similar to his one last Saturday, though he seems to look a little stronger. He had 8 K's in 5 1/3 tonight, but hey, it's the Reds. All they do is strike out. Jury's still out...

Elizardo

I'd guess Greg Brown and John Wehner practiced for at least 15 minutes tonight on how to say the Red's starter's first name. He barely lasted longer than that tonight. Maybe the Cardinals are just that good, but I'd tend to think it's the Reds that suck. 51 pitches through three for Ollie is a good sign.

Mr. Perez

Well, Ollie's on the mound again tonight. It's awfully nice how that rotation fell for him, to pitch against the Rockies, then the Reds. This assignment will be a bit tougher since it's in the Great American Wind Tunnel, but most of the Reds boppers are lefties (Dunn, Casey) so it should be advantage Ollie there. If he struggles with his control like he did on Saturday, the Reds will make him pay more than the Rockies did. If he worked some of the rust off on Saturday, the Reds could be in trouble. Here's hoping for the Ollie that inspired the greatest commercial in FSN history to reappear tonight. Don't know anything about the guy we're facing today. ESPN doesn't even have a picture of him. And we're back in the Eastern Time Zone, which is nice. Those 8:10 games throw me off a bit.

Holy Crap

On ESPNs main page I saw a link in the Page 2 Box that read "Baseball's Biggest Series- Guess what, it ain't Sox-Yanks". Well, being bored and curious. I clicked it. Much to my surprise I read:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Baseball's biggest rivalry resumes this weekend in ... no, not the Bronx. (Yankees-Red Sox is soooooooo overblown.) We're talking B.I.G. Much bigger than Boston-New York. We're talking about the four Games to End All Games in Cincinnati between the Pirates and the Reds. These two storied franchises have been battling for National League supremacy for over 100 years ... and there's often blood involved.

Well, consider my interest piqued. I read on:

Top 10 reasons that PNC Park is better than Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park:

10. Statues are way cooler than grave

stones.
9. It don't reek of urine.
8. The limestone exterior is better than Yankee Stadium's gray concrete.
7. The seats don't face the left-field wall.
6. Primanti Brothers sandwiches kick butt over Fenway Franks.
5. You can fit into the seats.
4. We don't play "Cotton-Eye Joe" as our theme song.
3. The Roberto Clemente bridge.
2. You don't have to watch Jason Giambi or Kevin Millar try to field ground balls.
1. It isn't next to an expressway or a burned-out building

Things got better:

I know fans of other teams have suffered. But only Pirates fans have had to live through the Curse of Sid Bream.
You might not believe in curses. But ever since Bream slid home with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS, we've suffered more than James Caan in "Misery." We led 2-0. Drabek was cruising. After losing in the playoffs the two previous years, we were finally headed back to the World Series. And then … it happened. My hands shake as I write this. Say you're a Red Sox fan. Imagine David Ortiz going to the Yankees. And he runs even slower than he does now. The tying run is on third base and Ortiz is on second. Base hit to left field. And Ortiz beats the throw home. Imagine how'd you feel.
And then multiply that by 10 times. There's no way Sid Bream beats that throw from Barry Bonds.

Then, while reading the list of things that have bitten us thanks to the Curse of Sid Bream (among Operation Shutdown, the Braves utter dominance, Kendall's contract, Kevin Young, Pat Meares, and Raul Mondesi), I was taken aback:

The Pirates decided to sign Andy Van Slyke to a big contract, instead of Bonds.

Whaaaat? OK, by now you've probably guessed who my all-time favorite Pirate of my lifetime is. You can probably guess who represents my childhood. You can probably guess who's love for baseball sparked my own love for the game, ever since the age of about 5. If you've been guessing Andy Van Slyke, you've been guessing right. I don't know who Pittsburgh Joe is (the footnote suggests Dave Schoenfield), but in my eyes he is a blasphemer. I seriously can't even put into words how angry this makes me. Andy Van Slyke was the heart and soul of those early 90s teams. Look at the lineups. There was no A-rod on those teams. There was no Manny Ramirez, no huge slugger. There were no real aces (an argument can be made for Drabek, but not much more than that), there was no closer. That team loved baseball. They would've played for free. Van Slyke embodied that, not Bonds. The record books may say I'm wrong, but if you think that signing Bonds in '92 means he'd still be here today and we'd have a World Series since then, you're delusional.

Other than that, great to see a story about the Buccos headlining Page 2

ESPN Power Rankings

This week's ESPN rankings put us at #23. Our GM has also made us the laughingstock of the country, as evidenced by the blurb we got in the rankings:

General manager Dave Littlefield is "very satisfied" with Lloyd McClendon as manager. Really. He wasn't kidding.

The local media are the only people in the world that buy the "Well, it's not Lloyd's fault because the players are bad," crap. But you know, we're all "cowardly" for having our own opinions about Lloyd.

Cardinals 11 Pirates 5- blah

I won't lie, last night's game turned me off and I didn't feel like sitting in front of the TV for hours only to see us lose a heartbreaker, so I went and saw Star Wars instead. By the time I got back it was 6-0 and I never even turned the game on. Redman got shelled, Bay struck out thrice, and almost all of our offense was provided by Ty Wigginton. That is a definite recipe for a loss. Unlike the first two games of this series, this game provided us with no illusion that we belong on the same field as the Cards. We need to right this ship or things (and by things, I specifically mean our record) are going to get ugly. On to Cincy we go.

20 Games in 20 Days: 2-4

One final thought about last night

Cardnilly (a Cardinal blogger who's been kind enough to link to me the last couple days) says exactly what I was going to say about the game last night if we had pulled out a win:

Somewhere, at some local bar, some grizzled old guy turns to an equally grizzled guy next to him after the game finished, and opined, “Ya know, that’s what champions do. They win games like that.” I’d be hard-pressed to disagree.

Well, almost exactly. Instead of champions, I would've said "good team". I might be a dreamer, but I'm not entirely insane.

Remember this post?

Hey remember this? Just two days ago I thought if we held the Cardinals to five runs a night we wouldn't get swept. Tonight I'm fairly certain we need another shutout from Mark Redman to stave off the brooms. Maybe I need to change the title of this blog to "When are you coming back, Craig Wilson?" because the offense needs SOMETHING to get things moving again, and we don't face the Rockies again for a while.

A day later and...

Losing that one last night still hurts. So does intentionally walking Abraham Nunez, which in my rage I forgot to mention the absolute absurdity of that whole situation. Leeeny has it covered, though.

More on ex-Pirates the organization thought would never succeed that are blossoming elsewhere. Jose Guillen has taken a while to catch on, however (link is ESPNinsider only again, sorry). Not much about the Pirates, but more about how Jose has been "misunderstood" through his career.

And of course, Wednesday means it's Q&A Day with Dejan. The first reader brings up a great point about Mesa:

I decided to look at some hard numbers and was surprised to find the following: In the 12 games Mesa has entered with a two- or three-run lead, he is 12 for 12 in saves with 2.25 ERA. In the four games he has entered either tied or with a one-run lead, he is 0-3, 1 for 3 in saves with an 11.25 ERA.

Dejan tapdances:

This should not diminish what Mesa has done for the Pirates. A closer's job is to make sure his team ends up with one more than the opponent, and Mesa has done that nearly as well as anyone in the National League since coming to Pittsburgh. He deserves all the credit and plaudits that come with that.

The rest is standard Q&A fare, Jack Wilson, Mackowiak, the offense, etc. There's also a huge plea from the readers at the end of the column to see some Snell time. As usual, it's worth it to read the whole thing.

Cardinals 2 Pirates 1- AUGGGHHH!!!

ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!

First off, four losses for Mesa in about 10 days. We're 4-6 over our last 10, he's lost four of them. When he pitches we're supposed to win around 90% of the time, after all, he's the CLOSER. In his last five appearences we're 1-4. It's not time to look for a new closer, that time has already come and passed.

Second off, I keep saying it, but Rob Mackowiak is not an infielder. That's the second game I can think of recently that his defensive play cost us a game (May 10th, Giants 2 Pirates 1, Vizquel's double...). OK, so maybe he lets Jack get to the ball, bases loaded, we lose anyways. I still think Bobby Hill at third and Mack in center is a stronger lineup, defensively and offensively.

Third off, the rain has returned, the temperature has dropped, and the Pirates are hitting like it's April again. How do you hold the Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals, the team with the 2005 version of Murderer's Row (even without Rolen they're about as intimidating as it gets) to four hits and one run through 11 and lose? How do you hold them to 12 hits and 6 runs in two days and lose both games? Lack of clutch hitting, or any hitting at all for that matter. Tonight was pitiful. Last night was pitiful. We lost both games on bad defensive plays by our should be Gold Glove shortstop and the inability to hit. I want to pull my hair out right now. I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucie pulled the ball out from under him again. I can't even imagine what Kip Wells (and Dave Williams) must feel like. Kip, I'm never complaining about your nibbling and trying to win games on your own again.

GOOD GRIEF!!!

20 Games in 20 Days: 2-3 (three losses due to our sparkling defense)

EDIT: OK, 90% was a bad estimate for winning percentage with Mesa on the mound. Still, last year we were 55-15 (by my hand count of his game log last year, so give or take a couple) when he took the mound last year. That's a .787 winning percentage. This year it's 12 out of 16, or .750. Doesn't seem that much different, but considering his performance since May began (two blown saves, four losses, 7.88 ERA), I think we have more than enough cause for concern.

Table's legs

Jose Mesa is out for a second inning here in the 12th. I am very very very nervous about this. Reggie Sanders leads off with a single...

Enforcing the Commandments

Well, that was nice, the Cards gave us an out right back because Jim Edmonds needed a theological reminder from David Ross... THOU SHALT NOT STEAL!!!

GIVING AWAY OUTS IS BAD

Lloyd suddenly got impatient in the 11th tonight. First, he decided to bunt over Mackowiak with Tike Redman with Humberto in the on deck circle. You know, Humberto "I only have 13 hits but 9 of them are for extra bases" Cota. What I'm trying to say is, I don't like giving away outs. Chances of Tike hitting into a DP are slim because of his speed. Chances are also good that if Cota gets a hit, it will score Mackowiak from first. Instead, Tike screws up the bunt, Mackowiak thrown out at second. Then, he decides to run Tike on a full count pitch to Cota (who has struck out 16 times in 62 ABs this year, over a quarter of the time). Result? Strike 'em out, throw 'em out, and we waste two outs in one inning. Now Mesa is on the mound... things aren't looking good in this one.

Kip

Kip's coming out of the game after 7 and a third, four hits, and only one run (so far). The best he can do is a no decision. Two straight starts that he's more or less been dominating and right now the best he can come out of them is 0-0. If the bullpen lets this run score, I think he might be scarred forever.

Why we don't miss Jason Kendall

Humberto Cota just brilliantly illustrates why Jason Kendall isn't missed much here in Pittsburgh. Kip Wells throws a typical Kip Wells pitch, a borderline curveball on a 3-2 count to Pujols. It may have been a bit up, but didn't seem inordinately out of the strike zone. Cota does a beautiful job framing the pitch and gets the call. Pujols, who had already dropped his bat and was walking to first, turns to argue the call and gets tossed. The game turns on a quick flick of the wrist by our catcher.

Not clutch at all

We leave the bases loaded again, this time with a Mackowiak strike out. It was a brilliant at-bat, with him fouling off tons of pitches and working the count full, but still, no results. Lots of base runners and no runs makes me something something. Go crazy?

I need an explanation

OK, so I'm switching between the Bucs and the House season finale. While House is on I have Gamecast going. Can someone explain to me how this results in a run:

Sanders grounds into fielder's choice to second, Walker scored, Edmonds out at second.

Lanny just said Jack Wilson made an error, but can someone fill in the blanks for me?

UPDATE: OK, just saw the highlights, thrown away DP ball. So Jack has two hits tonight, but makes another costly mistake in the field. Sheesh, not his year so far, is it?

Larry Walker

Larry Walker just broke up Kip's no-no in the fourth. Man, I swear he's been killing us since he was an Expo back in the day. Let's hope Kip can control Pujols like Dave Williams did the first two times up last night.

Some trouble

Having some Blogger trouble, and I lost two pre-game posts, only one of much importance, so to summarize:

Rotoworld reports that Sean Burnett has a partially torn labrum and is officially out for the year. He needs 3 to 4 months of rehab before he can throw off the mound again.

The other post mentioned that Buster Olney's ESPN (insider only) blog listed Jason Bay as our most indespensible player. Bay promptly homered to right field about 5 minutes after I posted this. I can't think of anyone in recent memory with the opposite field power Bay has shown this year. He really can carry a team.

Abraham Nunez

Just in case any one was wondering, Abraham Nunez is alive and having a career year in St. Louis. He's also killing us this year. He made a great play to save a hit late in last night's game, went 4-for-4 against us earlier in the year. Honestly, I never knew he was capable of it. This quote from Lloyd brought back all my good Abe Nunez memories:

There's nobody happier for that young man than I am. He was a nice player for us. Always did his job.

Lloyd had an unhealthy Nunez obsession. Somehow, despite his .238 career average with us and his whopping 11 home runs he seemed to find his way into the starting lineup three nights a week starting over more deserving people like (throughout the course of his long Pirate career) Jack Wilson, Jose Castillo, Pokey Reese (for the 10 games he was healthy I think he was benched for Nunez twice), Bobby Hill, etc. etc. Of course on the flip side of that he's hitting .270 this year with 4 homers already this year. Somehow, when Abraham Nunez is in Pittsburgh, he's one of the players that is so awful we have to absolve Lloyd McClendon of all blame for the team, but now that he's in St. Louis he's an acceptable fill in for Scott Rolen. I don't get it.

Bad news for Sean Burnett

Sean Burnett's rehab will be sidelined 4-6 weeks to have his shoulder scoped, according to today's Pirate's Notebook. They also say it won't affect his return timetable. I hope not, I'd like to see him pitch some games in the fall to regain his form so he can be 100% for the beginning of '06. Well, actually I just want to see him actually come back from the injury with a healthy arm and a head that's screwed on right, unlike our last top notch prospect who had this surgery done.

The Stats Geek

The Stats Geek opens today's column with:

Why can't pro football or basketball have the parity baseball enjoys?

I realize I'm singing off key here, but a couple of recent baseball books back me up. So let's begin with a premise I've mentioned before.

Off key is right. He cites things like this as reason that baseball has the best parity of any sport:

Perfect parity in baseball would mean each of the 30 teams would win the World Series once every 30 years. What has baseball's record been in that time?

Twenty-two different teams went to the World Series between 1975 and 2004, and 18 teams have won it. Not bad, considering that the strike took the '94 Series away and three of the eight teams on the October-shy list haven't even been around three decades.

The Seattle Mariners were born in 1977, the Colorado Rockies in 1993 and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998. That means only the following five teams have gone 0 for 30: Houston, the Chicago teams, the Washington/Montreal franchise and Texas.

Even among these outcasts, every team but Tampa Bay has played in a post-season series in the past three decades.

He then compares those numbers to those in football, basketball, and hockey, and concludes that baseball has the best parity. He's forgetting a key stat. 1975 was only the first year of free agency. The players union had only a fraction of the power they have now. George Steinbrenner had only owned the Yankees for two years and had never even been to a World Series. Sure the seeds were planted, but to compare 1975 with 1995 or 2005 is ridiculous, it's apples, oranges, and bananas. The climate in every sport has changed infinitely in the last thirty years. I'm not saying the Pirates World Series in 1979 didn't count, all I'm saying is that we shouldn't say to ourselves "Oh, we aren't due a World Series until 2009 now, so who cares if we win or not." This year, both the Bengals and the Arizona Cardinals have realistic shots at making the playoffs in the NFL. The Clippers made a run at the playoffs this year in the NBA, and could make it next year. The Calgary Flames made it to the last NHL Final. Despite that, the Pirates, Devil Rays, Brewers, Reds, Tigers, Royals, and Rockies all entered Spring Training this year with almost no hope of even making the playoffs. That's not parity.

Cards 4 Bucs 2- The return of the "sieve" defense

Three errors on the night and two misplays that weren't technically errors but still were plays that should have been made by Jack Wilson in the key bottom of the 6th and the Pirates lose. You can't give a team like the Cardinals more outs, or games like tonight slip away. Maybe the first play, when Jack Wilson gave a Johnny Pesky like pause to let Larry Walker score from first on Pujols's two out, two strike double, was someone else's fault for not alerting him to the runners, but both that and Reggie Sanders infield single to the hole were makeable plays. Do you expect to score two runs and beat the Cardinals? No, but when Dave Williams pitched as well as he did tonight, you have to take advantage of it. Then of course there was the choice of pitching little-used Vogelsong in the bottom of the 8th with only a one run lead. I'm all for getting Vogelsong some more time on the mound, but having pitched once since May 6th, tonight was not the night for it. Everyone said we could use this series to measure our improvement since April against the Cardinals. The improvement is obvious, but so is the difference in the two teams. And again, this is only two days, but it's two days in a row our defense may have cost us the game.

20 Games in 20 Days: 2-2

The errors

Jose Castillo just missed a grounder on the difficulty level of the fly ball Tike dropped yesterday, then bobbled the pick up and couldn't throw out cement foot Yadier Molina. Of course we just turned an amazing 1-6-3 DP to make up for it, with a great turn and a rocket throw by the subject of the last post, Mr. Jack Wilson himself.

Jumpin' Jack

To answer a question from yesterday (I think) from Rory in the comments, yes, it does bother me to see Jack Wilson batting second every day. I love Jack Wilson. I'm not saying that Jack needs to be taken out of the lineup (after all, he's the leader of the much heralded defensive charge we've been making lately and the runs he saves with his gloves makes up for the ones he's not producing with his bat right now), but to keep batting someone that's hitting under .200 and doesn't consistently draw walks (OBP of .241 coming into today) shouldn't be batting anywhere near the top half of the order. Tonight's lineup should have Castillo or probably Mackowiak batting second in favor of Jack and have Jack dropped to 7 or 8 in my opinion.

This is it

Here it is, the stretch that will tell us what our Buccos are made of. I know I keep repeating that, but, well, I think it's true. Dave Williams goes and looks to stay hot for us while Chris Carpenter takes the mound for St. Louie. ESPN's game preview has a good stat, one to watch for:

Pittsburgh has won five of its six series in May after only winning one in April. The Pirates' recent success partially can be explained by an increase in run production. Pittsburgh has scored five runs or more eight times in May and is 10-1 this season when it scores at least five times.

I think the pitching needs to hold St. Louis to 5 runs a night for us to avoid getting swept. Time will tell.

The Lloyd watch

Both Dave Littlefield (via Paul Meyer's Pirate Notebook) and Ron Cook talk about what a great job they think Lloyd has done this year. Well, Littlefield is "satisfied":"

I'm very satisfied with Lloyd. I think he's doing a fine job. There's no deadline, per se [for picking up the option]. It's something we'll continue to look at." Littlefield said McClendon's strength is that he's 'tough.' "And he relates well to the present-day player. He's very solid in strategy. And I've seen improvement in the team."

Cook, on the other hand, is downright effusive:

McClendon insisted the next 300 wins will come much quicker. Still, he might need that tough skin in the immediate days ahead. In the next five weeks, the Pirates will play the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Cardinals again on the road and the Florida Marlins, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles at home. Twenty-nine of their next 36 games are against teams with winning records.

They shouldn't just give McClendon that extension if he keeps the Pirates near .500 through that stretch.

He also calls into question the "cowards" that criticize McClendon on talk shows and on the internet. Sounds to me like he feels threatened. You all know where I stand, and I will continue to stand there until given ample reason to move. Ron Cook hasn't given me one.

Rockies 4 Pirates 3- A couple notes

Sorry for the tardiness on this post here. Moved back down to Pittsburgh for work yesterday afternoon/evening, then started work today. This means (more than likely) no weekday posts before about 3-4 PM (unless I squeeze one out over lunch). I missed most of the end of yesterday's game, though I did hear Greg Brown on the radio calling Tike Redman dropping "the easiest fly ball you'll ever see". Of course after a full week of columns like this and this, what could we really expect. Oh, yeah, Tike on the bench and Mackowiak in the game. Losses like yesterday really sting, seeing as how we're the Rockies THIRD victim on the road this year, you'd really like to think we were capable of sweeping them. Of course that would have taken a better start from Fogg, some defense, and a clutch hit in the 9th (as we got the tying and winning runs on base in the 9th but failed to score them for the second time this week). Now the fun really begins.

20 Games in 20 Days record: 2-1

The Fogg machine

Today our lineup features 1 and 2 hitters that are barely hitting .400 combined (though Tike and Jack are heating up lately) and Bay hitting third, in a 1-for-25 slump. Not much punch there, but thanks to a double error by Barmes on a routine grounder by Jack and a single by the D-Train we're already up 1-0 in the second. Lawton finally gets the off-day Lloyd's been promising him since about April 15th. Fogg looks pretty sharp through two, so hopefully we can string together enough runs to bring out the brooms today.

And of course I should mention that last night was Lloyd's 300th career victory. He's the 10th Pirates manager to reach the mark, and with as many complaints as I have about him, I suppose congratulations are still in order, so here's to 300 more, but only if they come in a (much) shorter time span.

Pirates 8 Rockies 3- The View from 144

Tonight 37,000 Pirates fans got up and said, "We don't need no stinkin' interleague play, we just want to see baseball." And it was a good night for baseball in the Burgh. The Pirates tagged the ball all over the park tonight, every out seemed like it was a laser line drive, every hit was hit hard. Tike's bat is coming alive, Cota had a couple big hits and 4 ribbies, Daryle Ward may have put a foul ball into the river (not that it counted for anything), Mackowiak had a another hit. Good night for the offense. Of course the offense wasn't what was on everyone's mind tonight. Mr. Oliver Perez occupied that space. I was not impressed. He struggled with control issues all night, and I think just about anyone except the out of the thin-air Rockies makes him pay a lot more for that than he did tonight. 57 strikes in 96 pitches is not a good number at all. I was told that on the news that they were saying his velocity was back where it should be, which surprised me. He sat mostly at about 91-93 all night (on the PNC radar gun at least, which if anything I would think would be giving readings that were high to please the fans) hitting 94 maybe a handful one times and once (in about the second inning) hitting 96. He did have eight strikeouts in his 5 innings of work, which is impressive, but I think the 4 walks and all around control problems will cost him against a good team (or say maybe any team that isn't 2-17 on the road this year). So there was some promise, but I wouldn't be dancing in the streets, declaring the return of Oliver Perez just yet. Brian Meadows pitched well out of the pen, and aside from the Salomon Torres scare in the 8th inning (one out, then three straight walks with only one strike thrown among all of them), the bullpen put forth a solid effort. Sure, it's only the Rockies, but then again you're supposed to beat teams better than you, and it's a good sign that we're better than the Rockies.

20 Games in 20 Days record: 2-0

Oliver Perez night

Packing up, then moving my stuff back onto the bluff, then heading to the game tonight, so not much time for updates. All I'm going to say is this, for Ollie my heart says 6 innings 2 runs 1 walk 5 K's while my head says 3 innings 7 runs 5 walks 1 K. He's on a tight leash tonight (75-90 pitches I think) so hopefully Lloyd won't let things get too ugly if they start down that path. Let's hope tonight is the beginning of the return of the Oliver Perez we all know and love. And of course, let's keep the bats going.

Pirates 9 Rockies 4

OK, it's true. I may have overreacted a bit to the losses by the Cubs, but lets face it, losing leads in the 9th inning to a team you should beat in games you should win sucks. Of course a good drubbing of a team like the Rockies brings things back into perspective. I suppose I should always remember a quote my dad always credited to Joe Paterno: "You're never as good as you think you are on your best day and you're never as bad as you think you are on your worst." Tonight, despite the fact that we were playing the Rockies, had some big positives. Jack Wilson now has six hits in his last 6 games (even with the DP to end the game against the Cubs). He's now scraping the Mendoza line at an even .200. Even my buddy Tike Redman went 4-for-4 tonight, putting him at .208. That means we can actually field a lineup with an entire team over .200 and it's only May 21st!!! David Ross better be careful though, he's slipping. Lawton broke out of his own slump with a 2-for-2, one giant home run, three RBI 7th inning. I'm not sure how much of this to attribute to BK Kim, but hey, we're Pirates fans, we take what we can get. A win over anybody is just what the doctor ordered after those games against the Cubs, especially when launching a 20 games in 20 days voyage that includes series against the Cards, Braves, Marlins, and Orioles. Tomorrow's game is huge for one reason, Oliver Perez. They say they've pinpointed what was wrong with his mechanics and causing shoulder pain. They say he should be better. I'm skeptical, but I've been wrong before and I wouldn't mind being wrong again.

20 games in 20 days record: 1-0
I'm including the counter only because I think this stretch may make or break our chances at .500 this year. Let's see how it goes.

Once and for all

OK, I'm going to do this (hopefully) once and for all. Sometimes when I write my angry posts I'm so worked up that what I really mean doesn't come all the way through. So here goes, once and for all, clear, concise, and to the point, my thoughts about Lloyd McClendon

1. He isn't to blame for every loss. Sometimes it seems like he is, sometimes it seems like I think he is. He most definitely is not, and I do know this.
2. Lloyd is a much better manager than he was in April of 2001 (or whatever day was his first as manager).
3. Lloyd is definitely one of the good guys in baseball. Despite 4+ years of abject losing, there has never been any sign of quit in him. He will not go Tony Pena on us. He will die before he quits, and he expects the same from his players (and the umpires). This is Lloyd's best quality, by far.
4. I really think the players (for the most part) like him. This is also a good thing for a manager to have
   
5. I don't buy the crap that a good or bad manager only wins or loses 5-10 games a year. A manager sets the tone for the team. Maybe his in-game decisions only directly affect 5-10 games, but other choices slant the table either towards or away from his team.
   
6. Despite the fact that he is much better than he was in 2001, he is (as far as I'm concerned) not up to par with the learning curve. He's too quick to do somethings (well, we didn't walk Derek Lee last night and we lost, so if we walk Corey Patterson tonight, we'll win) and not quick enough with others (Tike Redman is still playing center field on a fairly regular basis last time I checked). The point here is that most of the choices he makes slant the table away from us. They don't lose the game for us, they make it tougher to win. Jack Wilson is still batting second. That doesn't lose us any games, but having a guy that is struggling and hitting .170 batting in the two slot makes it hard to win. Jose Mesa is struggling, putting him in the game doesn't lose the game for us, but it makes it harder to win. This is why the hot streak was so impressive to me, because we did it with at least one Tike Redman or Ty Wigginton in the lineup every day, with Jack Wilson batting second. The table was tilted away from the players, and they still found a way to win.
   
7. He still has no feel after 4+ years of how to handle a pitching staff. He can't tell who's hot and who's cold, who has it, and who doesn't when it comes to pitchers.

The last thing I'll say is that I really do think Lloyd is a good guy, and I root for him. I don't root for the Pirates to lose to see Lloyd fired. I'm going to say that this is a division champion with Casey Stengel managing, no one can really know that. I just feel that being into his 5th year, there's a lot of things that if he hasn't learned by now, he's never going to learn them. As I mentioned in someone's comments section (either mine or Rory's), for Lloyd being in his 5th year, there are still too many nights (not every night mind you) that I feel like we've won a game in spite of him or we've lost a game because of him. And I feel like the good things that he brings to the table (his fire for the job, his likeability, his honesty) are outweighed by his failings as a manager.

The Rockies

The Rockies are bad, historically bad, on the road this year. Which is fun for us, because while everyone else gets their "rivals" in interleague play, we get the Rockies. The Yankees and Mets, the Cubs and Sox, the Angels and Dodgers, the 'Stros and Rangers, Oakland and San Fran. All the "natural" rivalries are played out this weekend, and yet somehow we aren't "natural rivals" with the Indians. You know, Pittsburgh and Cleveland? Just a couple hours apart? We have that whole football rivalry thing going on? Nope, turns out the Reds and the Indians are "natural rivals" and every year we get stuck with the Brewers, the Tigers, and now, the Rockies. The people that run baseball are stupid (you know, the same people that are sending us to Yankee Stadium this year where 75% of the people there aren't sure we still exist when given the opportunity to have the Yankees come here and let us make a big deal out of things and sell some tickets). But anyways, the Rockies.

This is an important series. The troops must be rallied after two awful, gut-wrenching losses to the Cubs. I'm afraid one loss is already on the books for this weekend with Ollie starting on Saturday. I really don't think he's OK, but I guess we'll see. If he's ever going to pitch well, it'll be against the Rockies in Pittsburgh. Our de facto ace, Mark Redman, is taking the mound tonight and his clone, Dave Williams, is suiting up on Sunday. This weekend also launches the twenty games in twenty days push for our Buccos, one that will probably define the early part of this season. Once the Rockies are out of town, there are no more gimmes (except maybe the Reds). We take a midwest swing for three against the Cards and four in Cinci, then come home to welcome the Marlins (for four), Braves, and Orioles, in that order. If we spend too much time with our tails between our legs from the Cubs series, we are going to be buried below that .500 mark in a hurry. Tonight is especially key, Mark Redman can put an exclamation point on how much of a steal he was in the Kendall trade with a good outing tonight.

Why the Pirates won't finish .500 with Lloyd McClendon as manager

Short answer: See the last two days

Long answer: The Tuesday game is an easy one. With a runner on third and one out and Barry Bonds at the plate in the ninth inning of a one run game, do you pitch to him? No, you don't. That's how hot Derek Lee has been, Barry Bonds hot. Instead Lloyd hid behind the idea that his closer is "the best in the National League". Newsflash: just because he has the best numbers doesn't mean he has the best stuff. The fact is, Mesa had been struggling PRIOR (no pun intended) to Tuesdays game. He'd given up runs in several 2 run games and lost the game on Friday against the Brewers. His stuff had been slipping since the beginning of the month, his fastball had lost a couple mph. At my house we couldn't believe he was going to pitch to Lee. After the game was over, Lloyd claimed that he didn't listen to the conventional wisdom that holds that you never intentionally put the go ahead run on base. He decided to prove it yesterday, by intentionally putting Corey Patterson on base. Of course this again ignored the situation. Patterson is a .253 hitter. Mesa hadn't recorded an out yet (the only out to that point was Cota nailing Burnitz at second on a pitchout with Dusty Baker calling a steal in a Lloyd McClendon move, I mean they TRIED to give us the game and we wouldn't take it). The point is, Mesa should have been out of the game at that point. He blew the save on Tuesday, he lost a game on Friday, and he opened the 9th on Wednesday with two straight hits. The guy obviously didn't have it. He shouldn't have been in the game at all and the last thing he needed was an extra runner on base. So Mesa blows two saves thanks mostly to himself and his manager confusing Corey Patterson and Derek Lee on consecutive nights. So that brings us to the bottom of the 9th. Tike leads off with a double. Since he's fast, Lloyd correctly decides to bat Mackowiak for Cota instead of bunting Tike over. The curious part comes after Mackowiak draws a walk. He now decides to bunt them both over instead of bringing Bobby Hill up to hit for the pitcher and try to get a game tying single. Since Tike will score from second on just about any hit and you should be playing for the tie at home, it would make more sense (I would think) to give yourself three chances to score the runner from second than two to score him from third. Anyways, the decision to bunt was made. He sends Freddy Sanchez up to lay down the sac bunt, which is analagous to sending Mark Redman up to hit a pinch hit home run. Sanchez botches the bunt, and only because of an error did he not bunt into a double play. Now its Sanchez and Mackowiak on first and second, a serious downgrade over Redman and Mackowiak. Lawton walks, and Jack Wilson is sent up to the plate. It's obviously a situation to take until he gets a strike, Dempster is having trouble getting the ball over the plate, Jack (who's 3-for-3 to this point) is obviously (I'm assuming, it wasn't on TV) excited, he should take a pitch or two to calm his nerves and get ahead in the count. Lloyd then forgets the first rule of managing. Never, ever, ever, ever assume your players know what you're thinking (that assumes that Lloyd was thinking he should take until he got a strike). Jack, in his excitedness, swings at the first pitch and weakly grounds into a double play. Game over, Pirates lose. Do they lose because of Lloyd McClendon? Hard to say. Is their effort seriously crippled by him? I say yes. Don't get me wrong. Lloyd is a great guy. No one tries harder at their job than he does. He refuses to give up under any circumstances and he has more fire than 90% of the managers in the league. But there are some things that should be learned after 4 and a half years on the job, and if they haven't been learned by now, I seriously doubt they ever will be.

Cubs 3 Pirates 2- Time to shelve the Table

It was nice while it lasted, but Jose Mesa is done. He's been throwing balloons up to the plate this month and it's caught up to him. He looks like a fat old man on the mound struggling for breath. His fastball, which hit 95-96 in April is consistently in the 92-93 range right now. Most importantly, he's given up 7 runs in his last 7 appearences and we've lost three of the last four times he's taken the mound. Let's face it, a closer that can only hold a two run lead isn't a closer. If a 39 year old was playing first base and having a decent season we'd be screaming bloody murder to let someone younger do it. Same goes for any other position on the field. There are younger people in our bullpen that can do what Mesa has done in the last two weeks. You can say that I'm premature in calling for Mesa's head, but come on. The man is 39 years old. He's not the closer of the future. He shouldn't be the closer of next week either. Let Gonzalez close. See what Vogelsong can do out of the bullpen when you use him on a regular basis rather than pitch him every two weeks and then assume he can't pitch because he gets shelled every time out. We've been through Mike Williams before, lets nip this in the bud now before it happens again.

On another note from today's game, we wonder why Kip Wells goes out to the mound every game feeling like he has to win it himself. Today is another prime example why. Just like two years ago (when the bullpen blew more leads for Kip Wells than for any other pitcher in the league) Kip pitched his heart out only to watch the lead melt away. He gave the league a clinic on how to pitch to Derek Lee. He worked fast, he changed speeds, HE THREW STRIKES. He dominated with his new dropping change up. And what happens? We couldn't get any clutch hits all game to put it away, we couldn't hold the lead, and then in the 9th we choked. Next time out when Kip runs full counts on everybody and throws 120 pitches by the 5th inning, we won't have to wonder why.

The 9th inning. Ohhh the 9th inning. Let's see, I don't mind Mackowiak hitting for Cota with Tike on second and swinging away. He's swinging a hot bat and Tike is a fast runner who will score from second on just about anything. He drew a walk and is just about as fast as Tike. I really can't question that decision. Instead, first let's talk about Freddy Sanchez pinch hitting for Mesa to bunt. If we needed a hit, would we bring Mark Redman to the plate to pinch hit? No, you know why? Because he can't hit. So we needed a bunt and we bring Freddy Sanchez to the plate. This is a problem because, you guessed it, HE CAN'T BUNT. He hadn't layed down a successful sacrifice all year, why exactly did we think he would start now? Greg Brown had just mentioned that Lloyd had said recently David Ross was the best bunter on the team. Well, that's funny. David Ross was on the bench. Since Cota was just pinch hit for, Ross was coming into the game anyways. Wouldn't it make sense to have our best bunter bunting in a key bunting situation? Who cares if he's slow, IT'S A SACRIFICE. But no matter, Dempster walks Lawton. He's obviously having control problems. Now would be a perfect time for Jack to come up, take some pitches, get ahead in the count, and drive his fourth hit of the game into a gap and win the game, right? Wrong. Somehow, Jack Wilson left the dugout without someone telling him, "Jack, take pitches until you get a strike, this guy is really struggling." Maybe Jack should know that on his own, but then again, maybe a guy that is struggling and hitting .185 is going to jump at the first pitch he thinks he can hit to try and be a hero and break his slump, and instead weakly pull a double play ball to the shortstop. Which is precisely why a manager is there, to put the take sign on, to tell him to calm himself down and take a pitch or two. Instead, we get nothing. Jack's 3 hit game is completely negated by the double play, as is any momentum he might have taken from today. Kip's great start is wasted and will probably mess even more with his head. Instead of being .500 after this series, like we should be, we're four games under. We blew another one at home. Don't look now but if we don't catch ourselves against the pitiful Rockies this weekend, the slide will have begun.

Two quick links before the rant to end all rants

I actually agree with everything Bob Smizik says today, shocking.

ESPN's MLB Power Rankings read my mind with their Ian Snell comparison.

Cubbies 4 Buccos 3

Last night's game boils down to one thing. Jose Mesa should not have been allowed to pitch to Derek Lee. Coming into the 9th, I noted out loud that we were in trouble, Mesa has been giving up a run or two lately almost every time out and the Cubs had the top of the order up. Look at Mesa's game log in May. After picking up his 9th save and dropping his ERA to 1.00, he'd given up a run in three of his last five appearences, including the loss to Milwaukee on Friday. Derek Lee, on the other hand, has been the hottest hitter in the league all year. I know walking Lee puts the winning run on base, but Jeromy Burnitz was up next. He's slow (double play candidate) and he has the lowest batting average in the league after the 6th inning. Of course I can't find the link to back that claim up anymore (if I do find it, I'll post it, if anyone else read the same thing I did and does in face have the link please send it to me), but I know I read it somewhere in the last two weeks. After Lee's homer what did Burnitz do? Sharply hit a grounder to second. Why with a runner on first that could have been a game ending double play. Maybe it wouldn't have been the conventional thing to do, but sometimes managers have to think outside the box. Let's face it, Mesa is old. He came out of the gates with a great start (one run in his first 9 appearences) but since then has given up 5 runs in the next six showings. This is a bad sign. He ran out of gas around July last year and from then out was making Mike Williams saves (putting the go ahead run in scoring position with no outs before using smoke and mirrors to somehow get three outs without the run scoring). A huge deal was made about how great he was and how vital he was to the team, and the truth may be that we should have traded him at the end of April, because that may be his peak value for the whole year. It was clear last night he didn't have the stuff to get Derek Lee (threw him a cutter, his best pitch, and Lee pulverized it over the notch in left center) and when you're 39 years old you don't get better through the year

Bucs and Cubs

The Cubbies are in town for a two gamer and lets face it, right now the Cubs are Derek Lee and a group of mortals. Nomar's hurt, Wood is struggling, and their bullpen is in shambles. If things keep going like they've been going, a split should be the minimum of what is acceptable in this series. Fogg and I don't know who will be starting since we're skipping Perez again. I guess it would have to be Kip. Goal for tonight: get our first win ever against Prior (5-0 career against us).

Is it for real?

So I said after the Brewers series we'd have a better concept of exactly which Pirates were the real Pirates. This past weekend did tell us one thing for sure, the Pirates themselves are pretty sure that they way they're playing now is a lot more real than April was. They certainly don't go out on the field thinking that anyone is better than they are. They were out hit 12 to 6 on Sunday and still won, a sign of a good team, or at least one that's turning the corner. They've been playing well without their ace from last year (who I don't think is coming back any time soon) and without any noticable production from the All-Star shortstop (at least not at the plate, he's a big part of the D that the Stats Geek talked about today). They took two out of three against a team very similar to them, the Brewers, and they did it with pitching. So the question is, is it for real? Is it time to get our hopes up? Sid Bream said on the radio on Sunday that he was in the clubhouse and it feels like it did in the late 80s when the Van Slyke, Drabek, Bonilla, and Bonds lead Buccos turned the corner from doormat to division champs. Daryle Ward, who's gotten an undeserved bad rap on this site (more on him later), says that everyone in the clubhouse feels like every time they take the field they're the best team on the field and they're going to win. Unfortunately us Pirate fans have been jaded by years of false hope. In '97 we lead the division at the All-Star break and were still in the thick of things at the trading deadline when we traded for Shawon Dunston, only to fall to 79-82 and finish a handful of games out of .500. In 2001 PNC Park opened and it was supposed to be our Jacobs Field. We lost 100 games. Last year we were over .500 in May and as close as 3 games under in mid-August, but still finished 17 games under. So are these Pirates for real? They might be. I don't think any pitcher is pitching that far above a level they can sustain for the whole year (maybe Redman, but I'm still guessing his ERA will be under 4 by the time things wrap up). I don't think Jason Bay is playing any differently than he will the whole year and I think Daryle Ward might have finally turned the corner Houston was hoping he would turn 5 years ago. If we get to mid/late June and the team is still going strong (not 9 out of every 12 mind you, but not falling in a slump like this April or last June either) and still playing consistently well, we might have something on our hands. Until then I'm still too afraid to get my hopes up too high.

The Stats Geek

Today Mr. O'Neill focuses on one part of the team that's been lost in this hot streak, the good defense. After all, the best offense is a good defense, and the Pirates have been exceptional of late in that department.

Can we cut cut the crap already?

Rotoworld's Monday team notes say what I've been saying for a while now:

Oliver Perez isn’t fine. Not even close, apparently, though he could undergo surgery before the Pirates would be willing to admit it’s anything more than stiffness in his shoulder. Some teams just don’t get the benefit of the doubt. It’s already been decided that Perez will skip a second straight start and a DL assignment could come in the near future.

Just a couple questions. First off, why lie to us? It's obvious he wasn't OK. He came into spring "stiff" and everyone feared the worst (at least I did). He first start was bad. He's only had one good start since then, a short glimmer of hope in an ugly April for him. It's pretty obvious to anyone that watched him last year and saw him again this year that something is wrong. Very wrong. So why lie to us? Most of us don't trust Littlefield, McClatchy, or McClendon. Most of us kind of feel like we know more about baseball than the three of them combined sometimes. If Perez had to get surgery in the spring, sure it'd be a PR hit. No one would've seen great commercial they filmed with him and his limited hold on the English language. They would've had to fire Spin Williams or someone after having three of their pitching prospects all go under the knife in 6 months (Burnett, Van Benschoten, Perez). But at least they would've been honest. They've been making him pitch hurt for about two months now (counting March) and it's obvious everything isn't OK. That leaves us to where we are now. Either they lied to us, or they don't know anything about the health of their best players. I'm not sure which is worse, but I sure don't like being lied to. I mean, he's had a stiff shoulder since March. Did we even do an MRI? Isn't that one of the first things you do when one of your prized possessions as an organization says he doesn't feel well and he isn't performing? If it's true that he doesn't always tell the truth about his health (which is a load of crap I'm guessing, they could say whatever they want about him the in papers and he'd never know, I think Dr. Seuss would challenge his mastery of the English language) then DON'T YOU WANT TO BE SURE??? This whole situation is infuriating and right now is casting a dark shadow over an otherwise positive run by the time. I don't even really care what the outcome is right now, I just want to know what's actually going on with the left arm of the future.

The hitters

So we know what the pitchers are doing, Rowdy at Honest Wagner has a very detailed breakdown of the hitters over the last 18 games, including stats and thoughts on pretty much everyone from Mackowiak:

If he continues to improve his command of the strike zone - striking out a bit less, walking a bit more - he could finish the year with a league-average OBP of .340. Or even higher if he can houdini a .300 BA like Jack Wilson did last year. But where is the power? I'd rather see a .330 OBP with a .420 SLG than a .350 / .395. These aren't All-Star numbers but they are great for a player with Mackowiak's defensive ability and flexibility.

To Jack Wilson:

Jack Wilson is now hitting the ball as hard as he did in 2004 (38% of his last thirteen hits have gone for extra bases vs. 32% for all of 2004). He's striking out at the 2004 pace, too, so all he needs now is a little luck. I expect he'll hit .275 the rest of the way.

To even our buddy Wiggs:

We knew Ty Wigginton could hit if he was not a starter, or only an emergency starter. This is what he did with the Mets. We also knew he was streaky. Well, the Bucs have demoted him into a part-time player and he has gotten hot. I've been impressed to see McClendon resisting the urge to start him after every multi-hit game. In his current role, he has value.

Read the whole thing, it's very interesting.

Prospect Alert!

So far this spring the Pittsburgh media has fawned over Zack Duke, our ace of the future. They've demanded Brad Eldred, our masher of the future. Each week it seems Dejan makes sure to put at least one question concerning Graham Koonce and why he hasn't been called up yet, even though he's older than Daryle Ward and Craig Wilson. They've gone out of their way to introduce us to Tom Gorzelanny. One person we've heard little about was Ian Snell. But Ian Snell will be heard. As I'm sure most of you have heard by now, Snell, a 26th round pick in 2000, pitched a no hitter last night for Indianapolis. He struck out 9 and walked only one, raising his record to 6-0 on the year. The knock on Snell is that he's too small to be a full time big league pitcher, at 5'11" 170. That may be true, but you know who else is 5'11" 170? Pedro Martinez. I'm not saying he's the next Pedro, I'm saying it's time to stop dismissing him as a part of our rotation in the future just because he's a little on the small side.

Pirates 4 Brewers 2

Dave Williams danced through the rain drops today in what wasn't one of his best starts, but it was certainly good enough for the Buccos. After he was yanked through just 5 1/3 Solomon Torres, John Grabow, Rick White, and of course, Jose Mesa shut the door on the Brewers. OK, so we didn't sweep the Brewers, get to .500, and take over second place this weekend, which was the best case scenario, but two out of three at home against the hot Brewers is in no way a failed series, especially with the way we've been playing at home and against the Brewers. Daryle Ward continued his hot hitting with a monstrous homer and an RBI single to drive home half of the Bucs runs. Jason Bay went hitless for the second day in a row after his 11 game hitting streak was halted.

The Pirates did what they needed to do in this series, especially after dropping the opener. They (so far) avoided a let down at home after a great road trip. They took two of three from a team that most of us are pretty sure they're better than, despite what anyone else says. They're alone in third place right now, which doesn't say much since they're under .500 but I suppose it says something. They now have a chance to get back to .500 at home against the Cubs, just like they did last year towards the end of May. The key right now is simply avoiding the awful spiral downwards they hit last year after a strong May. Right now they're playing hard every day, and they're playing like they care. If they keep doing that, that's all we Pirate fans can really ask for.

The Pitchers

I missed this until now, but Rory at Bleacher Blogger has the stats of Redman, Williams, and Fogg over their last 7 starts up. They are impressive. I also agree with this wholeheartedly:

Kip Wells, who has more talent then all these guys, needs to take note.

Though I would tend to disagree with this a little more:

As far as our pitchers, this won't last forever. Josh Fogg WILL go back to throwing meatballs up in the strike zone. Williams is still young and has mistakes yet to make. Redman might be able to keep it up for a while if he can keep up one statistic: in 8 starts this season, he has surrendered 1 HR.

I really think Fogg is a lot better than people give him credit for. He's won at least 10 games and benn .500 or better in each of his three years with us, not something easy to do with a team like the Pirates. And I think it's much more likely the pitchers keep pitching well (though maybe not this well) than the hitters killing the ball like they have, though other than Fogg I'd say his analysis is dead on.

Some quick thoughts and links

Rob Mackowiak is 13 for his last 26. Any reason we don't let this guy play every day? He's gotta be better than Wigginton against lefties.

Ron Cook thinks the Pirates turnaround is due to Jose Castillo. While Castillo has been better than I expected, I don't really agree with this. I think (as I said last night) the pitching is due mostly to the great pitching we've been getting. Most of the stuff Cook says in the article fills me with so much rage I don't even want to repeat it.

Oliver Perez could return next weekend, but then again he might not. He seems healthy, but then again he might not be. My question... HAS ANYONE DONE AN MRI ON THIS GUY YET? How can we know until we do an MRI?

Mark Redman's hot start has mertited a mention in Jayson Stark's latest Useless Information on ESPN.com, and I'm not talking about his pitching.

A beautiful day today and another big game. A win here takes the series at home, something we haven't done all year. Dave Williams and Gary Glover face off. Glover is not very good and has been mostly used as a reliever during his career. We need to make him work early (read: TAKE PITCHES, something we're terrible at) and get to the Brewer's pen before the 7th inning, because they've been lights out in the 7th, 8th, and 9th this year. This is a game we should win. We're better than the Brewers and we need to prove it.

Pirates 2 Brewers 0- The Mystery Game

I honestly didn't know they played this game until I saw it on the news. With no TV here in Western PA, I heard it was delayed on the radio and saw what the weather looked like and never gave it a second thought. Turns out that they played at that it was a good thing.

Seeing as how I didn't know the game was played I don't have a ton to say about it. Mark Redman continued his brilliance in the black and gold and showed that this recent hot streak hasn't had much to do with Gerald Perry and a lot to do with something else, pitching. Look at this latest streak (starting after Fogg got bombed in Houston), the only really bad start belonged to Ollie in Arizona. I think the only other start that didn't qualify as a quality start during this stretch was Kip's last night (not sure on that one so don't hold me to it). I think this club has a much better chance of keeping up the good pitching than they do the hitting, especially if one particular Mr. Perez can turn things around for us.

Tomorrow is a chance to steal another series and we'll need a good outing from Dave "Mutton Chops" Williams to do it. Hopefully he's still under the tutelage of Mark "I knew I was the best Redman on this team" Redman, because we could use another outing like we got tonight.

Brewers 4 Pirates 2

I'm just curious, but if anyone has Jose Mesa's numbers in non-save situations last year I'd absolutely love to see them. I'm pretty sure they weren't great. Anyways, I know exactly what Mike Gonzalez's numbers are this year, last year, lefty, righty, all in non-save situations. You know what? They ARE great. He only threw 11 pitches in the 8th, it certainly would have made sense to let him go back out for the ninth, especially because I'm not exactly sure what Lloyd's plan was for extra innings tonight. Tie game in the 9th, if you don't score you've already used White, Torres, Gonzalez, and Mesa, all of our best relievers (yes, even Rick White). Who pitches in the 10th? Grabow? Vogelsong? Meadows? I bet the Brewers were shaking in their spikes thinking about that. Closers close, that's what they do. Maybe if they haven't had work for a week you put them into a blowout. Maybe in a life or death playoff situation they work the 9th of a tie game when your other options are exhausted. Tonight didn't apply to any of those standards, and anyone that has watched Mesa (or *shudder* Mike Williams before him) work, it's clear that closers work differently in a save situation than in a non-save situation, even when it's a tie game. Not only that, Mesa had given up a run in two of his last three outings (both save situations with a 2 or 3 run lead). Gonzalez hasn't given up a run since April 13th. I'm not suggesting Gonzalez should close, I'm just saying let the closers close and let the other relievers do their own jobs. It wasn't a hard decision and he still made the wrong one.

The wrong Kip showed up again tonight. He was good but not great, and in the one inning when he needed to have "it", he didn't (the fourth). He beaned a batter and gave up a two strike sac fly to the pitcher. He walked four in six innings. Pretty much the same old Kip. Tonight was pretty much the same old Pirates we got used to in April. No clutch hits, no real drive to play hard or win. They seem to hate something about Pittsburgh. I just don't get it. We need Redman and his mutton chopped protege to go out there and give us a couple good starts to finish this series off, because I really can't handle losing another series to the Brewers. I don't care what anyone says, they're not that much better than us.

Bucs and Brewers

I think it's safe to say this could be the most important series the Pirates and Brewers have played since the Brew Crew switched to the NL Central a few years back. Granted, I don't really think a playoff spot is on the line here, and I'd tend to agree with the comments on my last post, I'm not exactly sure the Bucs are red-hot right now, but this is a huge series for the Pirates. They're coming to the same fork in the road they came to last year towards the end of May. They can play with spirit and do what they're capable of doing and win some games in spite of their manager and make a run at .500 or they can be the same old Pirates. Last year at this fork they went 4-21, the choice they made was obvious. This year they seem to be approaching the same fork (same record as last year, but this hot streak is coming a little sooner), so the question is, What road will it be? Tonight will be a good indication. Kip Wells is kind of a microcosm of the whole Pirates team the last couple years, you know there's loads of potential there but you're not sure if it's ever going to be tapped into. Kip has made three good starts in a row and he needs to keep down the path he's headed on. That is, stop thinking so much. We've talked about "McClendonitis" (as I call it, Pirate Disease as Rory calls it) and Kip is showing signs of breaking out of it. What he needs to do is just pitch, not think. For some reason Kip doesn't always trust his stuff and thinks he needs to outthink the hitters when in reality he's got the stuff to be an ace, but the head of a 5th starter. If he can keep trusting his own pitches and his fielders (and keeping fastballs away from Russell Branyan, sheesh, no one wants to see that happen again) he's going to blossom the way Jason Schmidt did in San Francisco. If not, well, at least we can't blame his wife for it, like a certain ex-Pirate. It may be early, but this is a very important series for our Buccos.

ESPN's preview for tonight

Red-hot Pirates begin eight-game homestand against surging Brewers

What an unlikely title.

Gerald Perry

Dejan thinks Gerald Perry is doing a good job as hitting coach. It's tough to argue with results, but I'd still like to see more patience from our hitters. Against SF we let Fassero get through 5 innings on his 50 pitch leash on Tuesday and Lowry obviously got tired late in the game on Wednesday. A little patience goes a long way. Still, the turnaround has been remarkable this month and I'm sure some of the credit for that goes to Perry.

The off day

So the trip is over. We went to Houston, the one place we win less than anywhere (which is pretty impressive seeing as how we're the Pirates and we don't really win much anywhere) and took two out of three. We went to Arizona and took three out of four from a team that had been among the hottest is baseball. We went to San Francisco and took two out of three from a team that swept us just a little over a week earlier. Thanks to this road trip we're no longer the lowest scoring team in baseball. The question is, what does it mean?

Well, Dejan is excited, and the players seem to be too. Rowdy at Honest Wagner points out that:

If you wake this morning in San Francisco and read the paper, you don't read about how great those Bucs are playing. You read about how your team is in a terrible funk and lost to the Pirates.

And that's pretty obvious here. Unfortunately, there is at least some truth to that viewpoint I think. Houston is struggling mightily. They're one of the teams to have scored less runs than us and they play all their home games in one of the most hitter friendly parks in the league. It's true that Arizona is in second, one game behind the Dodgers right now, but despite their 20-15 record, they've been outscored 164-149. Using Baseball-Reference.com's formula for Pythagorean winning percentage (about what their record should be based on runs scored and runs allowed, over the course of the season this is usually accurate to within a few games) they're playing more like a 16-19 team, and chances are this will even out over the season (by comparison, the same formula puts the Pirates at 14-19, the Cardinals at 20-13, both accurate to within one game). The Giants are old and have lost to injury their ace, their closer, and the reigning MVP. Their bullpen is pathetic, and seeing as how on Tuesday we saw 9 innings of their bullpen, at least one win should've been automatic. So to recap, Houston is bad, Arizona has a good record but is not really playing that well and has been lucky to this point in the year, and San Fran is not only old, they are crippled by injuries as well. But of course, there are still positives.

Hey, we won 7 out of 10 on the road. We scored a ton of runs. We lead the majors in home runs in May, even without our team leader in homers for the last 4 1/2 games. Aside from Ollie, the starting pitching has been very, very good. Dave Littlefield ripped off Billy Beane in November, and then turned around and ripped off Mark Shapiro. Now instead of a malcontent singles hitting catcher that played average defense we have a solid starter that is working with our young guys (according to the radio Mark Redman and Dave Williams talk about pitching every day and it seems to have rubbed off) and a lead off hitter that actually shows some power. Ty Wigginton actually has an extra base hit in each of his last three starts (and Kris Benson still sucks). Jack Wilson, though he may not be hitting over .200 yet, got key hits in each of the two wins over San Fran. On Tuesday with two outs and a man on in the sixth he singled. Jason Bay followed with his game changing three run dinger. On Wednesday when we only had one hit, he doubled and became the tying run, leaving the door open for Wiggintons go ahead blast. Jason Bay is tearing the cover off the ball and seems to have no intention of suffering a sophomore slump. The Daryle Ward home run zone has expanded. I think I saw him hit a pitch out over the plate for a homer this week.

Bottom line: this road trip has been a ton of fun for everyone involved (except Houston, Arizona, and San Francisco), but the teams we played weren't very good and probably overlooked us (wouldn't you? I mean, you guys were all there in April). This upcoming series is huge. The Brewers are hot, and the Brewers will never overlook us, not with the way we've owned them the past couple years (especially at PNC). If the weather is nice, chances are there will be nice sized crowds at these games. For whatever reason, the Bucs are off to an awful start at home for the third straight year (last year they turned it around and finished close to .500 in the Burgh, the year before they didn't). Good teams win at home, that's all their is to it. Home field advantage is important for a reason. The Pirates have played well in the last ten days, but if this Pirates team wants believers, they have to start now, in Pittsburgh, by taking at least two from the scorching hot Brewers. No more excuses either. Win at home now or the last 10 days will be meaningless.