Back to Buccos

Now that the furor over Big Ben is dying down (who am I kidding, we're going to hear about this until he steps on the field in the fall, assuming that happens), let's move back to some Pirates talk. The Pirates return home tomorrow to face a Pujols-less Cardinals team (that may or may not feature Craig Wilson by the end of the series) after an encouraging 4-3 road trip. It was encouraging in that they only had four road wins in their previous 26 tries going in. It's also encouraging in that if the Pirates would be 16-17 on the road right now instead of 8-25 they'd only be five games out of first place. Think about that, think about all the things we bitch about, the close games, the stupid managing, the inabilty to do the fundamentals right. If they could just do something simple like play decent on the road, they'd be an above average baseball team.

Anyways, in today's Notebook in the PG (which is now accessible), Littlefield says that the Bucs will probably be sellers come late July, even with this latest hot streak. I love that Littlefield isn't able to say "We dug ourselves in a giant hole and we've got some pieces that just don't fit, so we're going to try and see if we can trade them off for something that does fit" and instead has to hedge his bets with things like "We're going to have to make some very serious strides for what I would characterize as doing something, meaning getting into the playoff hunt." Did I say love? I meant hate. Just say what you mean, Dave. This team isn't going to contend this year, it's not happening. You screwed up, you wasted money, you've been giving the other teams outs with the guys you wasted money on, and frankly, Jeromy Burnitz has probably cost us as many games this year as "poor clutch hitting" and "the inability to get that one hit."

Also, Brandon Duckworth has been dealt to the Royals for cash, which likely means that Victor Santos is at least going to stay in the bullpen when Kip Wells comes back, which I suppose is deserved. The other big Bucco news of the day is that Chris Duffy has finally decided to report on AAA Indy. I hope he's worked out whatever his issues were and is ready to play, if he has, then good for him. I can't blame him for not wanting to play for a coaching staff that he hates, everyone knows what it's like to work a job that they really hate, but he's got to realize that at least part of the blame for his struggles does lay with himself. If he's coming back, I can only assume that he's reconciled those issues and is ready to play so ball, so all we can do is hope he can turn things around.