The situation

It's a slow news day today. Lawton, Mesa, Kip, and Redman are all still Buccos. The only point of interest so far today is that Jose Mesa isn't on the banner on the Pirates homepage. If I'm not mistaken (and I very well may be on this one) Mesa had been up there with Jack, Bay, and Ollie until recently. Jose Castillo is currently in his place. In the past (Giles, Kendall) this has been a sure sign that the missing player will be traded. Of course, I'm not positive Mesa was up there, only pretty sure.

In real news, Kip and Dontrelle Willis take the mound tonight. Willis has been in his customary second half slide lately. OK, slide is a nice term. He's 0-3 with a 15.92 ERA in his last 3 starts. Meanwhile we start Marlin-Killer Kip, 3-1 with a 1.92 career against the Fish. He didn't completely suck last time out either, which was a departure from his other more recent outings. If we can jump on Willis early on we'll be in good shape, especially the night after the bullpen depleting rain game we had last night. Maybe our young, right-handed, powerful first baseman will run into one against the struggling lefty.

In other news, I'm done with work in Pittsburgh tomorrow which means I'll be packing stuff up and going home for a few weeks. Most of you probably could care less, except that I'm sending some of the bigger stuff home tonight to make my escape easier tomorrow. The bigger stuff includes my computer, which means this will probably be my last update until around game-time tomorrow against the Braves (that's the part that concerns you, the reader). Just wanted to give everyone a heads up so no one's looking for a recap tonight, or an analysis of what we took to Atlanta with us instead of Mark Redman (in the hypothetical situation that he would stay in Florida, of course).