Depressing linkdump time

If you're familiar with Deadspin, you know that "The Closer" is their morning recap of the previous night's baseball related activity (if you aren't familiar with Deadspin, I'd recommend you check it out). The Pirates finally made The Closer, but not for a reason any team wants to. I give you today's second item:

2. But I Don’t Wanna Be A Pirate! Almost as fun as watching a great team is watching one that is deliciously bad. The Pirates, so far, have proven to be such a team — the Plan 9 From Outer Space of the National League. After Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Cardinals, the Pirates have lost six straight, where they’ve been outscored 30-9, and are an NL-worst 5-17. The’ve also lost 11 of 12 on the road. Sad, really.

Deliciously bad is catchy. Kind of like Bon Jovi or something.

Anyways, for anyone that missed it, Eldred is our for four months. That will bring us to August at the earliest (other reports are saying he's done for the season). If Craig Wilson gets hurt we should play Ryan Doumit at first, but instead I can pretty much guarantee Tracy will use Edwards or Hernandez there. Good thing thunder gods are immortal, right? Right? Of course the bigger issue is that the guy we've pinned our hopes on becoming a right-handed Jim Thome is taking another step towards Balboni-dom by missing out on what was supposed to be a key year in his development at AAA.

Today's Wednesday, which means it's depressing Q&A day. The amazing thing to me is that so many fans can be so down when they write their e-mails to Dejan, yet 30,000 people will show up on Friday for fireworks and 25,000 more will show up on Saturday for "WE WILL" fleece blankets. Then again, maybe I shouldn't talk, I'll probably end up at both games anyways.

Meanwhile at the Trib, Rob Rossi uses small sample sizes to blame Sean Casey's injury for the Pirates recent dearth of offense. In a related story, I remember why I rarely check the Trib for Pirates news.

And just for shits and giggles, or you know, to illustrate just how frustrating it can be to be a Pirates fan, here's a post I wrote one year ago to the day about how Freddy Sanchez should be playing every day and batting at the top of the lineup (thanks to Jonny O for pointing this one out to me).

All this Pirate talk is depressing. Maybe I'll go check out Fire Joe Morgan or something, that usually cheers me up.