Since the All-Star Break

The comparison point for the Pirates of late has been their performance since the All-Star Break. It's a logical breaking point in the season and the Pirates haven't sucked since then, so I used the Baseball Musings Day-by-Day Database to separate out the Pirates stats since the break, for both hitters and pitchers. I didn't spend a lot of time studying the numbers, but here are some knee jerk reactions:

• The starters have all pitched better since the break (when compared to their fullseason numbers).
• Tom Gorzellany was quite good in the starts that he made.
• I shouldn't complain about Torres or Grabow as much as I do.
• Bay is hitting better than his lack of homers since the break would suggest.
• I like Xavier Nady. That SLG seems kind of low for a middle of the line-up first baseman, but he's been bringing it up of late.
• As much as we said Jose K was coming around of late, only one of his 13 hits since the break wasn't a single. That's not very good.
• Duffy has been pretty awful. I'm not sure he's ever going to be a leadoff guy.
• Jack Wilson has been hitting surprisingly well since the break. Jose Castillo has not.