The Buccos get a good start from Snell, his first big league hit (and RBI!), homers from Castillo, Casey, and Bay, lots of hits from Freddy Sanchez, and a solid outing from the bullpen. I'm going to miss this team when it disappears.
The Bucs will try for their first winning streak of the year tonight by taking a third in a row from the Brewers. They seem to have some kind of problem with this, as evidenced by the fact that the last two times they've won two in a row, they melted down epically in the third game (blew a 6-0 lead after the first against the Reds and blew a 4-0 in the 9th against the 'Stros). Ian Snell will take the mound for us to try and revese that trend, while Chris Capuano will try and reverse the trend of sucking the rest of the Brewers staff has set this week. From what I've heard, Craig Wilson will get a third straight start in right against a lefty, and he'll do his best to use all that crazy global warming to his advantage (seriously, read the notebook on the other end of that link and tell me how someone can hate this guy).
The sidebar has now been updated with my post-Super Bowl XL post (not because it's a Steelers post, but instead because it's one about being a fan) and the rest of my 2006 prediction posts (the hitters were up there, but the pitchers weren't, nor were my already embarassing looking MLB predictions for the season). Also, Irate Fans has been added to the sidebar under the Pirate sites. If you hadn't already noticed, Fan Graphs, the Baseball Primer Newsblog, and Fire Joe Morgan have all been added to the respective categories that they fall under in the last month or so.
Most sports bloggers are forced by convention to adhere to at least the first part of the credo over at Deadspin, Sports news without access, favor, or discretion. Specifically, we can play favorites if we want, we can use discretion, but this is certainly sports news without access. That is, of course, the beauty of blogging, because sometimes a college student, a couple musicians, and two superheroes (OK, I don't have any idea what Rowdy and Bones do outside of HW) look at things differently than people close to the team see things. We also don't have editors telling us that if we slam McClatchy and Littlefield one more time, we'll never be allowed in the clubhouse again (or that Jeromy Burnitz will seriously eat our children or something vile if we make fun of him one more time). The problem is that we only get a sampling of what's said by the team to the media and when I think things like "Well, I'll be damned, besides that 18 inning game, Jim Tracy seems like he takes credit for every win and blames someone else for every loss," I don't really have much to back me up. Which is why (ahh, the point finally emerges) today's Q&A from Dejan is so great.
Q: Dejan, is Jim Tracy capable of being accountable for the team's performance?Duncan Mitchell of Pensacola, Fla.
KOVACEVIC: If you mean in the negative sense, Duncan, I have not heard it yet.
And let me again stress something here: This is not opinion on my part. I am basing my responses on this subject solely on concrete material.
There have been numerous instances where Tracy has spoken of a decision that he made or an instruction that was issued by him or the coaching staff when explaining why something positive happened for the team or for an individual player. There has been no comment offering culpability, no regret expressed for any aspect of the Pirates' start. Not in the interview sessions I have covered, anyway.
To repeat yet again: This is fact, not a viewpoint.
If the inverse was true, that is what I would tell you.
And I am not suggesting, by the way, this trait is the primary or even the secondary cause for the Pirates' record to date. The team certainly has much greater issues than the manager saying, "I can't catch it, I can't throw it, and I can't hit it," and that, "as a manager, there are only so many things I can do."
But those comments represent an unusual stance for a manager or coach in any sport, which might explain why they made national news that night when the Associated Press considered it newsworthy enough to release a special story on it over the wire, so I can see where it is a topic of discussion.
So there we have it, from someone with access. Look up egomaniac in a dictionary, and you'll see Jim Tracy's picture. Today's Q&A focuses mostly on the Tracy's remarks this week and the "Freddy Fenomenon" as I like to call it (the phenomenon being that every single casual fan in Pittsburgh had to realize that he was a good player before Dave Littlefield could admit it).
The highlight (besides Dejan's first hand account of Tracy's egomania) was a question from Dan Wyszomierski of Houston who notices that when Jason Bay hits a particularly solid homer, his mouth twists into an "O" (truth be told, now that I read it in the Q&A, I know exactly what Dan is talking about) and wonders if we should say that Bay "showed the pitcher his O-face" when he hits a home run. Dejan dismisses this, though he does admit that Office Space is one of his favorite movies. Lucky for Dan from Houston, blogs exist, and unlike Dejan, there is no one that can tell me not to describe Bay as having showed his O-face to a pitcher. In fact, I think it's quite brilliant. Dan, if you're out there, thank you.
Seriously, who are these guys in Pirates uniforms? They killed the ball again tonight, with Castillo and Freddy leading the charge with four hits and every starter minus the evil Craig Wilson chipping in at least one hit (Jack had three more as well). Castillo's four hits included two homers; the second of which was one of the longest I've ever seen in person at PNC as it hit off the bottom of the third level of the rotunda, if I'm remembering correctly. That clocked in at a whopping 441 feet, just an absolute mammoth of a homer. Oddly enough, in the 7 games I've been to this year (for a 5-2 record), Castillo, Bay, and Craig Wilson have all had multiple homer games. Victor Santos even did a good impression of a major league pitcher tonight, leaving me and my friend sitting in the bleachers in the fifth inning wondering if the scorer chaning an obvious Freddy Sanchez error in the first to a single for Rickie Weeks would cause Santos to lose his no hitter and we were only half kidding (though the box scores I'm seeing still have Sanchez down for the error so maybe it was a scoreboard error). Still, Tracy did well to hook Santos after six, as he was clearly starting to struggle in that inning.
There is one other thing that should be noted in the wake of the 26-4 shellacking we've put on the Brewers the last two days... the Brew Crew is playing some awful baseball. The last two nights I think they've handed us at least 15 of those 26 runs with terrible defense that just isn't showing up on the scoresheet. They seem to boot every sharply hit grounder, make bad throws to every base, take bad routes to the balls in the outfield, everything you'd expect out of the Pirates. They've also trotted out an incredibly pathetic crew of pitchers after Doug Davis left the mound yesterday. Joe Winkelsas? Chris Mabeus? I don't even know who those two are. I vaguely know who Brian Shouse is (apparently he pitched for us in '93), but he seriously looks like he's just standing on the mound playing underhanded catch with the catcher, no kick, no push, nothing. I love to see us crush the other team as much as anyone, but these Brewers are painful to watch.
UPDATE: For anyone that hasn't caught it, there's my best guess at where Castillo's homer bounced off the facade of the rotunda. I'm almost positive that it hit off the bottom of the third level, as insane as that sounds, and it kind of sliced around behind the foul pole, though it may be a little closer to the vertical support near center. I'm sure you get the idea. FSP decided to run "This Week In Pirates Baseball" instead of PST at 1 so I couldn't catch the highlights then, but if I do see a highlight that suggests the ball landed otherwise, I'll update this. 
I'm headed to game tonight and I'm fairly sure that with Santos and de la Rosa on the mound, at the very least both teams will put up 15 runs between the two of them tonight. I don't have much time now, but until I'm back I've got two links for everyone to chew on. The first one is a column from everyone's least favorite writer (and I don't mean Bob Smizik!) Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times (via reader Nate, who is a different reader Nate than the one who gave us the Bucs "Loser" song last week). It hints that Mark Cuban may not sit around and wait for a "For Sale" sign at PNC Park, and he may snap up the Cubs if they become available before then. While I'd say it's much more likely MLB would allow Cuban to buy the Pirates than the storied Cubs, it's something to think about. I saw Cuban on the Chris Myers Interview on FSP a couple nights back and he said as much, that he'd love to buy the Pirates but if they aren't available, he'd love to buy the Cubs, too, as a personal challenge. Also today, John Perrotto comes up with a novel idea for Jim Tracy, that while it's true that the players have sucked this year, it's a team effort between the players, GM and manager to go 17-34 (this one is via both the Bucs Dugout and HW, who already have posts up about the column).
Iratefans.com is officially up and running, and it's quite impressive. If you've got time, click around and check things out. I suppose this will make up for the lack of Stats Geek column today.
The 2006 Pittsburgh Pirates have not figured out much, so kudos to them for figuring out how to bounce back from a soul crushing defeat on Sunday afternoon. The correct method is, of course, decimating whoever comes into your path next. Things got off to a shaky start after Duke allowed 2 runs in the top of the first, but the Brewers were in a giving mood in the bottom of the first and we took the five runs they handed us by essentially giving us three infield hits when they misplayed everything hit to them in the first. We ran from there, with Duke settling down and only allowing one run for the rest of his 7 and 2/3rds while the offense pounded out nine more runs. Bautista and Castillo both hit homers while CWilson and Casey both just missed homers. Casey will of course be the big story with his 3-for-4, 3 RBI night and how "this is what we've been missing." Craig Wilson's 2-for-4 1 RBI, 1 run scored line will go largely ignored and Burnitz will start again the next time we face a righty. Still, I'd rather not think about things like that after a win like tonight. It was good to see Casey come back killing the ball tonight, it was good to see Duke bear down and give us a good start, even after his troublesome first. In fact, it was good to see everyone in the starting lineup hit as everyone had at least two hits except for one Jason Bay. Jason's been hot enough lately, if his homer streak was going to end (and as much as we'd like it to continue, logic says it would end eventually) it's a good thing it was on a night like tonight.
It sounds strange to say about a team that's 16-34, but tonight's game may be the most important game of the year for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just when it seemed that our Buccos were ready to pull themselves out of their season long funk, they suffered what was their worst loss of the year, blowing a 4-0 lead in the 9th inning to the Astros yesterday afternoon. Accordingly, we send Zach Duke to the mound to try and rally what I would imagine is a very, very tired team behind him before yesterday's win can sink in too deep. Duke himself carries in a four game losing streak, though he hasn't really pitched as badly as his 2-6 record would indicate (he hasn't exactly pitched very well, either). He faces off agains Doug Davis, who has also failed to live up to early season expectations to this point. Davis is a lefty, which would make it a curious night to bring Sean Casey back on, except that Jim Tracy has finally gotten the hint and is playing Craig Wilson in right field tonight!!! It's probably only against Davis the lefty, but for now we'll thank God for small favors. Bautista makes the start in center for the struggling Nate McLouth, which makes sense, and a very tired Ronnie Paulino will start behind the plate.
Just a couple interesting links to toss out here at lunch-time on this Memorial Day:
The Bucs Dugout tackles the latest column by the columnist-who-shall-not-be-named and his latest attempt to degrade Craig Wilson's worth to the team, this time by labeling him a lefty-only mashing utility player. Of course, fun things like "numbers" say otherwise, and Charlie provides them.
And in the 8th inning yesterday afternoon with the White Sox up 6-5, Rob Mackowiak delivered a solo insurance homer. It's noteworthy because it came on his son's second birthday, and we all know what happened on the day his son was born. That kid is gonna have some cool stories about his early birthdays when he gets older.
Today's Pirates notebook in the PG has a long feature on the perseverence of Ryan Vogelsong. Tracy and Littlefield both praise his recent performance and Dejan takes note of just how good Vogie has been in May. Also in the notebook: Casey's return is officially slated for today, Duke and Santos will be switched in the rotation because of Santos' work in Saturday's 18 inning affair (with the off-day on Thursday Duke is still working on normal rest), and in a very Mackowiak-ian manner, Freddy Sanchez used Saturday/Sunday's marathon game to get him enough plate appearences to qualify for the batting title, but has immediately dropped his average to .315, down to 14th in the NL.
Before we get to how badly that one sucked, let's run through the positives. Jason Bay is doing things that I never thought I would see a Pirate do in my lifetime, plain and simple. He's out of his mind at the plate right now. Jose Bautista also came up with a big three run homer that should've sealed this one by all means in the 7th. Oliver Perez finally had a good start. Not an adequate one, not an OK one, a good one, very good in fact. He threw a ton of strikes, struck a lot of guys out, kept the velocity around 92-94 on his fastball, and threw some nasty breaking pitches. He's not throwing quite as hard as he did in 2004, but if this is the Oliver Perez that shows up every five days, we'll be in good shape.
That being said, the ninth inning was an embarassment. I know Jim Tracy is "old school" and "old school" managers like Jim and Dusty Baker don't put much stock into pitch counts, but Ollie hasn't thrown more than 112 pitches in any start before today, and he only topped 100 in 4 of his 9 starts before today. 121 pitches is too many to let him start another inning unless he's throwing a no-hitter or something. That's it, end of story. On the same hand, Mike Gonzalez threw 32 pitches over two innings last night. I know it was a "save" situation, but something in your head has to think that maybe bringing him out for the 9th isn't the best idea after last night's game. I know something in my head thought that. Torres only threw 14 pitches last night. I know he's been bad lately and I know I've bitched about him quite a bit, but in all honesty you don't have to be that good to get three outs before four runs score, even with two guys already on base. On top of that, I know Jeromy Burnitz is hitting the ball lately, but is it too much to ask for him to be able to catch a pop-up? I thought Greg Brown and Steve Blass were going to be sick on the radio when he misplayed Preson Wilson's pop-up to load the bases in the ninth. Then, after failing to make the catch he needed to, he outhustled himself and made a tough catch in foul territory with the tying run on third, leaving him no chance to throw the runner out at the plate. I realize that you can't give up outs, but somehow Burnitz screwing up the catch he needed to make and making the one he didn't seems very appropriate. Sheesh. I'm not even going to start on the stupid idea of bringing Mike Edwards up to pinch hit so he can lay a sac bunt down, maybe I'll tackle that one tomorrow. This loss was sickening, and likely reverses any carry-over we might've gotten from winning that dramatic game last night.
The Bucs will try and break out the brooms today, but only if they can even lift their arms after last night's marathon. Still, it was more of a nightmare for the Astros to lose a game like that, so I'd much rather be in our position today. Fernando Nieve takes the mound for the 'Stros and will face off against Oliver Perez. Perez has had two pretty decent starts his last two times out, so hopefully he can keep the ball moving in the right direction. Nieve's been pretty crappy this year, but two of his last three starts have been pretty solid. Suffice to say, these are not the starters that Phil Garner and Jim Tracy would pick to have on the mound after a game like last night's if they had the option. The Bucs' lineup is curious, of all the people Tracy thought would need a day off after last night, he's chosen Castillo to ride the pine, shifting Bautista to third and Sanchez to second (to make room for Burnitz in right, of course). It's insane to sit down Castillo, but most of what we do is insane anyways. Paulino will start behind the plate, even after catching 7 innings late last night and not getting off the field until after 12:30, Ante Meridian. If Cota isn't starting today, I'd assume it means there is no situation that Humberto Cota will ever start in and we're wasting a roster spot on him. If there was ever a situation in which teams would wish they had three catchers, this would be it. Also, Tracy has decided to move Craig Wilson back down to sixth after three straight days of batting him fifth behind Bay. Because, you know, that move hadn't worked well for all parties involved or anything. I suppose that's Craig's reward for finally calling "bullshit" on all the people who blame the team's slow start on the fact that he has to start at first instead of Sean Casey.
Right now in Chicago there is a little kid that's turning two years old and he probably has no idea that in Pittsburgh, of all places, there is a legion of people who will never forget the day he was born. I'm talking, of course, about Garrett Mackowiak. Exactly two years ago came the most memorable night of my life at a ball park, the night that Rob Mackowiak hit a walkoff grand slam in the first half of a double header, then hit a two run homer in the bottom of the 9th to tie the second half, only to have Craig Wilson win it with a walkoff homer in the 10th. I linked to this last night, but here's the post I did last year about the first anniversary of the game, just change all the ones to twos and it's still appropriate. Happy birthday, Garrett.
Umm, holy freaking crap what a game. The game started a good 6 hours ago with me at home dog-sitting and two full baseball games later, we have an end. I mean the thing was long enough that Nate McLouth and Jose Bautista fell into slumps at the beginning of the game and had enough at bats to hit their way out of them (though they didn't). Tracy said it was the players fault tonight, so let's look at who excelled in this one.
Paul Maholm faces off against Wandy Rodriguez tonight. Maholm's been very good in his last handful of starts and Wandy has been good all year, which is surprising given how badly he sucked last year. Tonight's lineup is almost definitely the best lineup Tracy has put on the field all year, and I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. Hopefully this lineup can win so we can see it more often.
From today's PG Pirates Notebook by Chuck Finder:
Saying he doesn't hit, field, throw or catch, Tracy laid the club's National League worst record squarely at the players' feet.
"Every ... little ... aspect of the game has to be important to you if you're going to change the culture," Tracy said slowly for emphasis.
I won't deny that the players have been bad, you don't have to watch much baseball to see that. Still recently the players have been getting better. Almost everyone in the lineup is starting to hit the ball, the starters are becoming more reliable, the bullpen has generally been decent. They didn't win many games in Arizona or Cleveland, but this seems like a strange time to play this card. It also seems like a strange time to play this card because Tracy's managing has gotten even more indefensibly insane than ever in this past week. There was the fiasco last Sunday in which he took the bat out of both Wilsons hands, calling on Jack to bunt with a runner on second in the 8th and pinch hitting for Craig with Hernandez with runners on first and second and no outs in the 9th. We ended up losing that game by one run in the 10th. There was also the middle game of the Arizona series, in which Tracy's insistence upon playing Jeromy Burnitz in right lead to Ryan Doumit playing first base, where an error by Doumit (in his second game ever as a first sacker) that would've ended an inning lead to a three run homer by Conor Jackson, turning a 2-2 game into a 5-2 game, which ended as a 7-3 loss.
So the question is, why now, Jim? I've got a couple guesses. One possible reason is that he sees the players starting to come around and is looking to get credit for a Jim Leyland style rant if we run off some wins here (after Houston it's Milwaukee, San Diego, San Francisco, and Colorado so it's certainly possible, in a bizarre coincidence all of those teams are currently 25-23, but none of them are anything particularly special this year). The other possiblity is that Jim Tracy isn't quite as stupid as we all think. There likely will be a fall guy for the fiasco that 2006 has turned into, and that fall guy will likely be Dave Littlefield. Most new GMs want all of their guys in the right places. Since it was painfully obvious that Tracy is Littlefield's guy, a new GM may mean that his job isn't as secure as he'd like it to be. He may see his best option at this point to be passing the buck down to someone else.
I could keep saying that Jason Bay is on fire, but I think that would be redundant. Last night he came up with a three run blast in one of those "this inning has been nice, but we need a homer right now to put a cap on this thing" situation to help the Pirates to a 7 run fourth inning (an inning in which Castillo and the rejuvenated Thor also went yard) that garnered them an insurmountable 9-4 lead. Snell was, I suppose the word is adequate because we won and you can't really be less than adequate if you get a win as a starter, but he really wasn't very good last night. All I can really think about at this point is how locked in Jason Bay is, with his easy swing that keeps sending balls rocketing over fences. His swing is so slow and easy looking that I think at this point he's becoming the Ernie Els of Major League Baseball. The timing of it when he's locked in like this is impeccable, his swing really an amazing thing to watch when he's in a zone like this.
On a final note, yeah, I've read what Jim Tracy said after the game and I'm going to go eat lunch before I think about it any more.
The Bucs finally come back home after another bad road trip and try to play some decent baseball against the Astros. Tonight brings Ian Snell and Taylor Buchholz on the mound. We've seen Buchholz once already and he dominated us in what was probably the best start of his young career. On the other hand, Snell has had a pretty good track record against the Astros, making a very good start against them this year (in the same game Buchholz threw his gem against us) and beating the Rocket last fall. The lineup tonight manages to keep both Bautista and Doumit on the bench, which is so inexpressably stupid that I... well, can't express how stupid it is.
John Van Benschoten (remember him?) has been asked by famous arm orthopedist Dr. James "Seriously, why don't the Pirates just put me on the payroll?" Andrews to stop throwing for a couple weeks. So, who didn't see this one coming? Of all of the draft mistakes Littlefield has made, I think this one might be the worst. I mean, they took one of the top NCAA hitters and made him a pitcher for no particular reason. Did they think he wouldn't hit because he was from the MAC? Nolan Reimold, MAC player of the year last year (and former high school teammate of mine, which is the only reason I'm familiar with the situation) was drafted by the Orioles in the 2nd round last year (two picks after we took Brad Corely) and is tearing up the Carolina League this year. He's from the MAC and he can hit (OK, I'll be honest, that exercise was mostly for anyone from back home that was wondering how Nolan was doing this year, but it does prove a point about DL as well). Anyways, back to the subject at hand, I'll be surprised if Van Benschoten ever pitches in the majors again.
In what may be his best column of the year, Dejan tackles the Freddy Sanchez question today. He tracks the line of decision making from the winter to now, starting here:
One member of management spoke up in favor of the player who batted .291, second best on the team, and flashed a fine glove in his first full season of Major League Baseball.
"My vote was for Freddy Sanchez," that official, now employed elsewhere, recalled recently. "He hits for contact, catches everything. Great attitude, too. I told them: You could win with Freddy Sanchez as your everyday third baseman."
So one guy thought Sanchez should start, and that's the guy that we canned. Brilliant. Freddy, of course, is taking everything in stride, as evidenced by his answer to a series of questions from Dejan about why he's not complaining. Basically he says that getting upset won't help him or the team and he wants to start and will try to prove it on the field, which means he's been to the Craig Wilson school of talking to the media. Some frustration shows through though:
"Look, here's how it is: When Joe gets back, he's the starting third baseman, and I'm a utility guy. Hopefully, next year, that will change, and they'll believe I can play."Not all of his teammates agree with Freddy's assessment of himself though. Jason Bay speaks up for him, and so does Jack Wilson, which isn't entirely surprising since Wilson and Sanchez have known each other for a long time. But one more player gives his support to Sanchez starting... Joe Randa himself.
When it was mentioned to Randa this week that the Pirates say he will reclaim third base once healthy, he quickly retorted: "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that. I don't know how this is going to play out, but Pittsburgh has to be just ecstatic with what Freddy's doing."Clearly, Joe, you haven't been here in a while. We don't play people because of what they do on the field, we play them because of firm statistical reasons like "Cagey Veteran-osity" and "Intangible Defensive Qualities" and "Mystical Clutchness Factor" and "Because Jose Hernandez hit this guy well in a dream once." Then again, Jack Wilson, Jason Bay, and Joe Randa have all "played the game" so maybe Jim Tracy will listen to them. I sure hope so.
I think this weekend I'm going to do something that I've always meant to do, put an FAQ up in the sidebar. If you have any questions you always wanted to ask me, leave 'em in the comments and if I can work them into the FAQ I will.
I can't think of much original to say about the Pirates right now, which means it's time for a link dump.
Among other impressive stats, Jason Bay has driven in 42% of the Pirates' runs in the last 7 games. That's... I don't know, insane? stupid? practically impossible? painful to think about?
Charlie does a minor league roundup, highlighted by the fact that Adam Boeve is still mashing in Indy. The guy's almost 26, if he keeps hitting we probably have to get him up here fast. Except that the mighty Mike Edwards is blocking the way, of course.
Dave Williams, meet the Mets. They scraped him off the scrap heap after Cincy tossed him on it. Casey hasn't done much for us, but it would appear that Littlefield certainly did manage to sell high in this case, for once.
There's so much spin here that my head hurts. I don't know who Jason Grey is, but he's giving Ed Eagle a run for his money. Actually, of all the of headlining articles at Pirates dot com, only one is by Eagle, the rest are by this Grey character. Perhaps he has more of a background in fiction writing.
71 years ago today Babe Ruth ripped the final three homers of his career at Forbes Field. Thank God the Giants are off, sparing us the garbage that would be spewed if he managed to hit 715 toady. This PG article from two weeks ago is a much better recollection of what would turn out to be a historic day. Hell, it's even got an interview with Andy Warhol's brother, Paul, who happened to be at the game.
Sorry for the lack of posts today, it's kind of a lazy summery type day (I should shut my mouth before winter comes back again) and an off-day to boot. I've also got some other things I'm working on at the moment, work and such. Dejan's Q&A went up kind of late yesterday due to computer troubles, but it's up now and worth a look as always.
I didn't see/hear any of this game until about 8ish, when I was able to flip it on the car radio. It was 4-3 at that point and it sounded like Duke had a rough start, got some bad defense, and settled down a bit. He promptly served up another run, but Wehner and Lanny were talking like he hadn't pitched badly for some reason. I got back to my apartment, saw that the starting lineup was the best and most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, then turned around to see Sal Torres serve up a three run double. Lots is being made about the bad signings of Burnitz and Randa, but the Torres signing may hurt this team even more in the long run, since it will be stretched out over two years and he's been downright awful this year. Anyways, at 8-3 I decided I could find better things on my TV and did, though I kept the game on Gamecast out of morbid curiosity. I of course saw "Jason Bay, home run (13) to right field" and flipped back to check it out. Seriously, the dude is out of his mind. 7 homers in 7 games, I don't know if I've ever seen him this hot. He's trying to carry the team for all of the naysayers out there, but there's a lot of deadweight. Anyways, that had my interest piqued. Valverde didn't impress me in the first game of the series so I figured there was an outside shot at a comeback. After a promising start, the comeback stalled by about a quarter of an inch on Jason Bay's swing, a swing on which he nearly hit a pop-up to the warning track (as Bob Walk noted, if you move that ball a quarter of an inch on the bat and it's still in the air), and the rally died by about the same margin on Craig Wilson's deep flyout to left center (both guys represented the go ahead run at the plate). I know, horseshoes and handgrenades. Still, tonight was promising in that Tracy actually got a clue with his lineup and Craig Wilson showed signs of coming out of his slump with a 4-for-5 night and his first homer since Odin had two eyes. Of course, I'm sure that all Tracy will be able to think about was how he couldn't come through in the clutch and somehow cost us the game tonight. He's probably right, I haven't actually played baseball in a couple years and I'm a little rusty.
Duke and Miguel Batista go at it tonight in the oddly timed 6:40 game. Batista pitched pretty well against us last time out, but ran into Ian Snell. Duke has been hot and cold all year, and has struggled with walks in almost every outing. His last outing was the same, strong except one inning and the six walks that he issued. Hopefully he can straighten things out against the D'Backs lefty-heavy lineup. No lineup yet, but I'm guessing that Tracy's lineup card is going to get more and more infuriating as the season goes on. I won't be able to see the beginning of this one, but I should be able to catch the end.
I didn't see a whole ton of the game last night. What I did see was mostly in snapshots. They were along these lines:
Near as I can tell, Victor Santos has not turned into Tom Gorzellany for tonight's late 9:40 start. The D'Backs kill Santos according to the ESPN bottom line, which we all know is never ever wrong. The Snakes are trotting out some guy named Claudio Vargas. Charlie calls him Arizona's version of Ryan Vogelsong. Incidentally, Ryan Vogelsong has the lowest WHIP in our bullpen, which is nice for Ryan, but terrifying for everyone else. The lineups for this one are out early, McLouth is still in center which would indicate that Bautista isn't back yet. Doumit is at first because Craig Wilson is Charles Manson reincarnated, or something like that, in the eyes of Dave Littlefield and co. Or he would be if Manson were dead. I probably won't watch much of this one. I'll be watching the season finale of House. Or maybe at a bar. Or both, perhaps.
If you've got 20 minutes or so, you must read the transcript from Dejan's online chat today. He's very candid about a lot of things, including the fact that Freddy Sanchez and Craig Wilson are likely headed back for the bench when Casey and Randa get healthy, that the Duffy situation is not good, and that the team is not for sale (I didn't say it was positive news). There's lots more than that and it's definitely worth your time to check it out.
Maybe if all of us take some time wherever we are this afternoon (office, desk, cubicle, lab bench, couch, apartment, whatever) and concentrate hard enough, Victor Santos will turn into Tom Gorzellany before 9:40 PM tonight.
Today the Stats Geek attempts to do what might seem impossible, put together a team full of ex-Pirates currently in the league that are worse than the Pirates that take the field on a daily basis. Incredibly, I think he succeeds with his much more expensive ex-Bucco squad. He also notes that Ty Wigginton isn't actually better than he was last year, people just think he is because he isn't a Pirate. I still don't like Wigginton, but even towards the end of last year (after we brought him back up and he mashed lefties for a couple of months) if given a choice between him and Jose Hernandez, I think I would've taken Wigginton. Then again, it'd be a challenge to think of who I'd actually take Jose Hernandez over, at this point.
Meanwhile, Dejan has found Chris Duffy and he appears to be suffering from Zach Greinke disease. To put it quite simply, it appears that he hates his job. Also in the same notebook, Jody Gerut will have knee surgery after all. There's no quotes from Gerut, but only because I assume that the PG won't print "Cram this right up your ass, Littlefield!"
Just for fun, if you check out the Win Probability graphs from FanGraphs for the last two games, Jose Hernandez has racked up a WPA of -26.4% in only two at-bats. Now that is impressive. I agree with the Stats Geek, time to add him to the list of awful ex-Pirates out there.
Umm... I don't know where to start on this one. We'll start with the positives, Oliver Perez actually looked fairly sharp tonight, only allowing 4 hits and 3 walks through 6 innings with 4 Ks. He kept his fastball pretty consistently in the 93-94 range, which isn't quite where he was in '04 but still seems to be high enough for him to be effective. He threw 61 of 97 pitches for strikes, which won't get him confused for Greg Maddux but certainly is not bad, especially for him. He was definitely better today than he was in his last start, so I'd say progress is being made. Also on the side of the positives, Jason Bay crushed a hanging curve from El Duque so far that he actually took a second to admire it, which is rare. Also, with runners on first and second with no outs in a close game in the ninth inning Craig Wilson was allowed to bat and drew a walk. Sure, it wasn't a game tying three run homer, but his walk lead to Castillo's two run single. This is what happens when you let your starters play. And that's it. That means it's time to move on to the negatives. The length of that list more than makes up for the short "positive" list tonight.
In fact, let's make a list. We'll start with the least egregious errors and move on.
El Duque faces off against Perez tonight. The lineup looks about the same as it has recently, though I'm surprised that Tracy actually thinks Craig Wilson is good enough to start. He's good enough to start, but not good enough to finish, I suppose. Anyways, with Ollie on the mound something interesting is bound to happen. I don't know if it'll be good, but it'll be interesting.
Starting today I actually have to start working in my lab so posting during the day will be... difficult. I'll be back to my apartment for lunch on most days and I'll probably get a post up then (we got free lunch today), but things will probably shift towards more late afternoon/nighttime posting. Just a heads up for everyone that looks for daytime posts.
For some infuriating anger, check out Paul Meyer's recap of yesterday's game and see if you think Meyer misses any important points from the game. Bill at Romo has a post up dealing with it and he pretty much says exactly what I was thinking, so head over there and check it out. Also, make sure you check out the top comment on his post, from a reader named Bucdaddy. Unless you like getting really pissed off at things, then I probably wouldn't read it.
I didn't watch today's game, which is probably a good thing. I know what happened in the 8th when he bunted Jack Wilson with McLouth on second and I know that he pinch hit Jose K for Craig in the ninth with two on and no outs. I'm done with Tracy, there's no respect or hope left, nothing but hatred and rage really. If I'm Craig Wilson I pretty much refuse to play for the Pirates ever again (come on Craig, it's all the rage, everybody's doing it!). I mean seriously, I know I didn't play major league baseball or anything, but I really hope Tracy tries to explain his logic to someone because I need a good laugh. The Indians managed to win the game in the 10th because with their players left to their own devices, they strung three hits together and scored. Imagine that.
Someone kidnapped the Bob Smizik we all know and replaced him with a blogger. Since I tend to leave Smizik's columns alone you can go over to Romo Phone Home to read more about baseball blogs and big media. And there's more of a discussion about the article at Baseball Primer.
Now that I think I've set a personal record for most links in a paragraph, let's move on to today's 1:35 game. Maholm and Bird take the mound with the Bucs trying to win an unfathomable second series in a row. Maholm looked good in his last outing, Bird has not looked good at all this year, and the Indians lineup has been semi-struggling recently (four wins in five games against the Pirates and Royals doesn't mean your struggles are over, Cleveland fans... sorry). Our lineup, on the other hand, has been killing the ball when not facing men named CC Sabathia especially now that a certain Jason Raymond Bay (how cool is it that his middle name is Raymond? Jay Ray Bay... I'm easily amused sometimes, I know) is starting to see the ball. Anyways, I'm just happy that we're finally getting around to putting a lineup on the field that I can actually stomach (at least as much as I can take a lineup with Burnitz in it), though Casey's starting his rehab soon and Randa will be back shortly, so I doubt it will last much longer.
Maybe it was a trip to an AL stadium, but the Bucs played some American League ball at the Jake tonight, blasting four homers in all kinds of important situations (leading off the game, two on in a tie game, one on in a close game, insurance shot in the ninth), lead by two off the bat of Jason Bay who looks just a little more like the Jason Bay we all remember from last year. As I mentioned earlier, I was at the Jake tonight with what seemed like a pretty good number of Bucco fans. Growing up almost smack in the middle of Pittsburgh and Cleveland this was not my first trip to Jacobs Field, but it was the first time the Pirates and I have been their simultaneously. One thing that is often said of Steeler fans was obviously true about the Pirates' fans in Cleveland tonight, they are not afraid to show their colors. There was black and gold everywhere tonight, including a lot of Pirates jerseys (though my favorite jersey of the night had to be the 80s style Indians jersey with the name "DORN" on the back, leading me to think of Burnitz... after all, he's just high priced). The Indians fans were pretty courteous to the Bucco fans in the section I was in, though it appeared a scuffle broke out in the lower stands and every time someone started waving a Terrible Towel, the boos started (I wonder why...). Still, there was lots to like as a Bucco fan in this one. McLouth lead the game off with a homer, managed to actually draw a walk at a later point in the game (!), then stole second AND third, and scored on a Jack Wilson sac fly. Jose Castillo continued his insanely hot streak with a monster homer, and the bullpen (especially Gonzo) was lights out tonight. Ian Snell was... something. I don't know quite how to describe his outing. He didn't get hit particularly hard (save Sizemore's homer) and three of the runs he gave up were unearned, but something was off. He walked a ton of people, but his control didn't seem to be that bad. I don't know, it was just an odd outing. It was good enough to get through five innings and get his first career road win, and I suppose we should be happy with anything besides his last start, but something just didn't feel when he was on the mound. Still, beggars can't be choosers.
As a final note, the Homestead Grays and Cleveland Buckeyes unis were great, as throwbacks usually are. It does bug me that they don't go the whole nine yards and do jackets and batting helmets and such, but maybe I'm being too picky. 95-year old Buck O'Neil threw out the first pitch by winding up four times, then running the ball closer and closer to the plate before handing it to Sabathia behind the plate, to the delight of the crowd. Best of all, the Buccos managed to do the Grays proud tonight, leading to an endless slew of "Maybe they should wear these things againt tomorrow" jokes coming from all angles of the crowd, Pirates and Indians fans alike. And there you have it, the one thing that can bring Pittsburgh and Cleveland together, making fun of the Pirates.
Tonight I will be viewing the Pirates in their road grays for what I think is the first time of my life, which is kind of hard for me to believe when I really think about it. Actually, they won't be in their road grays but instead they'll be in the unis of the Homestead Grays. I don't understand how it happens, but it seems like every year I end up at at least one game where the clock is turned back to the Negro Leagues. Tonight, the Bucs will make Josh Gibson and the other members of the old Grays turn in their graves as they sully their good name by donning their unis while the Indians will become the Cleveland Buckeyes for a night. Luckily for us, CC Sabathia can only pitch once in the series, so we get Jason Johnson to face off against Ian Snell tonight. Hopefully the mad as hell Ian Snell shows up, because we saw what happened on Mother's Day when the other version of Snell shows up, and I don't want to be in Cleveland in my Pirates garb if the bad Ian Snell shows up tonight. Anyways, I'll be back later with my report from enemy territory.
I saw this a couple days ago and meant to post a link to it but kind of forgot, so here's Gene Wojciechowski's piece on what it's like to be a Pirates fan. He's not a Pirates fan (I don't think), so he doesn't completely capture the feeling, but most of the piece rings pretty true, causing you to chuckle a little bit and shudder on the inside.
Chris Duffy is at home right now and he's planning on reporting to Indy, but apparently only on his own terms. He says he isn't protesting being sent down and the article by Meyer vaguely makes it sound like he's got some kind of unspecified personal problems.
Tom Gorzellany is probably ready to come to Pittsburgh, I can't imagine there's anything else for him to prove at Indy. However, the same article reports that Nerio Rodriguez is being suspended 50 games for steroid use, throwing a wrench in Dave Littlefield's master plan to win an International League championship.
Speaking of Littlefield, Charlie is soliciting ideas to clean up Littlefield's mess and try to win at a level that's slightly above the International League. Like, you know, the National League.
CC dominated us tonight. I don't know what our problem with lefties is this year given that our offense is lead by Bay, Sanchez, and the Wilsons, but it's certainly there. We mustered a whopping four base runners tonight, with Sanchez scoring our only run because he scored himself. Duke wasn't bad on the other side, especially given that he faced a more potent lineup that Sabathia did (then again, I shouldn't complain about our lineup tonight, it was pretty tolerable, if Burnitz is going to play he shouldn't bat higher than 7th). He gave up three runs in 7 innings but two of them could've been avoided if Burnitz played right field in a way that didn't resemble Sloth. He only gave up 4 hits in his 7 innings of work, but walked 6 guys. I don't really know what to make of that, it's very un-Duke-like and not exactly encouraging, that's for sure. I guess we shouldn't be all that surprised with the result tonight, given our interleague record the last two years and all.
We open up against the Indians tonight in a great matchup of young lefties, Zach Duke and CC Sabathia (it seems like CC has been around forever but he's not even 26 yet). Sabathia has been great since his return from the DL while Duke has been only about adequate this year, pitching just badly enough to lose his last two starts to the Nats and Marlins (which, when you think about it, is pretty damn bad). I don't see lineups up yet, but I'm terrified what Tracy is going to do with an extra spot to play his favorite guys in (I'll be shocked to see Doumit DH, he's still "hurt"). And despite the rivalries between cities and the great pitching matchup, I can't help but think most of Cleveland will be focused elsewhere tonight.
UPDATE (7:27)- Duke serves up a leadoff homer to Grady Sizemore, than Jeromy Burnitz misplays a flyball at the fence off the bat of Victor Martinez that should've been the third out, but instead lead to two extra runs scoring. The GameCast says it was Bautista, but trust me, it was Burnitz. The runs show up as earned, but they shouldn't.
A couple posts down, Rory asked me to clarify some of the things I've said about Paulino as a catcher, and admittedly, I do come off a little more harsh on the subject than I mean to. When I make snide remarks about Paulino's effect on the pitching staff, I don't mean it as a slight to Paulino, but rather I'm going after the flawed and predictable decision making process that handed him the starting catching job in the first place. Paulino may well become a good starting catcher, in fact I hope he does. The problem I have at the moment is that I don't think he's earned the excessive praise lavished on him by Tracy and staff. Which of course means I've spent hours at Retrosheet the last couple days trying to put together some evidence of that. Here goes...
As I'm sure we all know by now, the argument from the team goes something like this, "Ryan Doumit is a dumbass who can't tell his elbow from his asshole, thus he cannot call a major league game. He has 10 thumbs, making him a poor defensive catcher, despite his rocket launcher of an arm. He kills the ball, especially for a catcher, but is so defensively deficient that we must play savior Ronny Paulino behind the plate who is the best catcher since Jesus himself (bet you didn't know Jesus was a catcher) because of his miraculous effect on the pitching staff, iron wall defense, and decent bat." They back this claim up by feeding people stats about Paulino's cERA (catcher's ERA) this year in comparison to the numbers for Doumit (who's sepnt all of five games behind the plate) and Cota (who's spent the majority of his starts catching Perez). This ignores a lot of other factors, primarily that new pitching coach Jim Colborn changed a lot of the mechanics of our very young pitching staff that they were clearly struggling with the first two or so times through the rotation, a time when Paulino was in AAA. It also completely ignores anything Doumit did as a catcher last year, when he spent much of the last two months of the season as our primary catcher. It also assumes that Cota sucks, and I'll stick with that assumption because I don't have space for that and Cota is clearly no more than a backup.
Doumit caught in 50 games last year, making 48 starts and finishing 40 of those starts. For the sake of this exercise, I ignored the two games he didn't start behind the plate last year, because the innings caught are negligible and I don't think a catcher should be judged on how he performs as a mid-game replacement as it's something that happens very rarely. In Doumit's 48 starts, he caught a total of 415 and 1/3 innings and had a catcher's ERA of 4.53. On the season, the team ERA was 4.42 in 1436 innings. The difference comes to about 18 runs over the course of the season. I won't dispute the meaning of 18 runs (adding 18 runs to the Pirates run totals last year costs them about 2 wins using Baseball Reference's pythagorean win/loss formula) but I will point out that the second half of the year last year saw both Mark Redman and Kip Wells turn in some of the worst performances in recent memory. Given the later knowledge that Kip was pitching with a giant clot in his pitching arm and that Mark Redman really really sucks, I think anyone would be hesistant to blame their struggles on Doumit. Doumit also spent his first month or so in the bigs mostly on the bench. When he did play, he alternated between catcher, right field, and DH. If you take his cERA from when he started catching exclusively, it's actually 4.21 over those 356 and 2/3 innings, an improvement of about 34 runs over the course of the season (3 wins by the same formula).
This year, Paulino in his 16 starts (which is an absurdly small number to even be talking about something like this) has put up a cERA of 3.57 (numbers from ESPN gamelogs since Retrosheet only updates at the end of the season). It is true that it's much better than the team ERA of 4.91, but save one start, he hasn't been asked to catch Oliver Perez all year. Like Kip Wells and Mark Redman last year, it's unfair to blame Perez's struggles solely on Cota. The team ERA this year without Perez is 4.66. It is difficult to compare Paulino and Doumit's numbers as the pitching staffs and coaching staffs are different. I do think that comparing Doumit's cERA to the team's ERA for the entire year last year may be decieving as Doumit did most of his catching in the second half when Redman and Wells had gone off the deep end, through no fault of his own, and the rotation was being juggled, especially in September after guys like Snell and Gorzellany had been called up for cameos in the bigs. Also, Paulino's sample size is too painfully small to actually do anything with yet. As for defense, Doumit's fielding percentage last year was .975. It's very poor for a catcher, but it's virtually identical to Paulino's .973 at the moment. Paulino's thrown out 8 of 18 base stealers this year (44.4%) while Doumit nailed 14 of 35 last year (40%). This renders the claims about defense irrelevant to this point in their careers.
There's very little evidence to support an argument that Doumit is worse than average at calling games to this point in his career. While Paulino, to this point, does have a better cERA than Doumit did last year, the Pirates have gotten in big trouble trusting small sample sizes that were much larger than 16 games (see: Redman, Tike and most likely Duffy, Chris). In fact, the sample size on Doumit is incredibly small as well, given that he caught less than 1/3 of the team's total innings last year. I'm not trying to say that Doumit is a Gold Glover behind the plate or even that he's better than Paulino back there. I'm just trying to point out that at a position where offense is traditionally hard to find, the Pirates have a very good hitter in Doumit that they aren't using behind the plate (or anywhere, I'm not convinced at all that he's still hurt) because of very circumstantial defensive evidence. Doumit's bat is simply less valuable at first or in right because it's easier to find good bats in those positions (at least traditionally, maybe not for the Pirates).
I know I've ignored what Paulino can do with a bat, but besides his numbers in AAA last year, his minor league numbers kind of look like Humberto Cota's. His OPS in the bigs looks decent at the moment, but there's still the small sample size problem and it's mostly because he's batting .300 (something he did once over a full season in his minor league career) which is keeping his OBP up. While it's possible his numbers from AAA last year are the real thing and he may blossom at the plate as a big-leauger, it seems unlikely.
The bottom line is that while keeping Paulino behind the plate and moving Doumit may work out, my gut feeling (which is partly from looking at all of these numbers) is that it's much less likely to work than keeping Doumit behind the plate and trading Paulino now or sometime soon to a team desperate for catching (the Phillies are using Sal Fasano on a regular basis, for chrissake) while his value is highest. Of course, because of the flawed decision making process, we'll never see that happen. Paulino has already become the every day catcher and Doumit is in the process of becoming the organizational whipping boy, a position that will need to be filled once we don't have Craig Wilson to kick around anymore.
Some interesting stuff going on right now with our trusty AAA affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians (let's face it, anything is more interesting than what's going on with the Pirates).
First off, Chris Duffy has elected not to show up in Indianapolis, essentially giving the finger to the Pirates. He's accordingly been placed on the restricted list. I don't think this happens to most teams hardly ever and now that's twice this year we've had players refuse to report to AAA (I don't even know where Jody Gerut is right now, extended spring training I suppose). Clearly, Duffy is the jackass in this situation, but it speaks volumes about the state of the team that guys think they can do this and get away with it. Since no one knows where he is, he hasn't spoken to anyone about this yet, so I guess we can at least hear him out before vilifying him
Also, from Charlie's minor league roundup, Josh Sharpless and Adam Boeve have both been promoted to Indy, which is very clearly where they belong (Sharpless because he's been that good, Boeve because he's killing the ball and he's ancient for AA). Also, Scott Strickland still hasn't given up a run this year in AAA. Could've used a guy like that in the pen, oh I don't know, this afternoon maybe?
I don't know if things can possibly get worse than this. Not only do Santos, Capps, and Marte suck enough to turn a 6-0 lead to a 9-7 deficit, but Jose Hernandez goes 0-for-4 and because he was in the lineup instead of Wilson, Paulino came to the plate with the tying run on third with two outs in the ninth instead of Thor. I'm thoroughly disgusted right now, that game was the worst thing I've seen (OK, heard on the radio) in a loooong time and I don't even know how to put into words how sick that game just made me. If Santos makes another start, if Hernandez sees the field again... Ugh, I don't even want to think about what he's going to do in an AL park this weekend. Common sense dictates Doumit will DH, he looked fine last night taking Burnitz sized cuts at the plate, but Tracyball dictates that Hernandez will start at first three days in a row and Craig Wilson will DH. I just threw up in my mouth after I typed that sentence.
Today the only bright spots were Jason Bay, who I think is finally back to his old self (though I'd like to see a replay of Griffey's game winning hit in the 7th, it sounded like maybe Bay should've made the play on that ball), and Freddy Sanchez who's batting a ludicrous .346 after a 3-for-5 today. Try and bench him when Randa comes back, Jim, I dare you.
Early start today and the Bucs are already out to a 5-0 lead thanks to a Bay grand slam and some breaks. Jack's back in the lineup today and he's 1-for-1 with a single. I like the way Tracy shuffled things to keep Freddy in the lineup (Freddy to third, Bautista to center), but it's pretty much inexcusable that Hernandez is starting at first base. Of course that may not matter, as Castillo just singled up the middle to be the eighth consectuve Pirate to reach base (he's the 8 hitter again today) and we're up 6-0. Of course, with Victor Santos on the mound, no lead is safe.
I think I know how to keep Oliver Perez pitching well, and it has nothing to do with Ronny Paulino (though I'm waiting with baited breath to hear how much of an influence he had on Ollie tonight, if enough people believe something does that make it true?), Tracy or Colborn just has to keep insulting Perez before every start. In the spring, Tracy said he didn't feel Perez was an ace and he responded with a gem against the Red Sox in his last Grapefruit start. Then, prior to the Opener, Tracy said that he felt Ian Snell was the only strikeout pitcher on the squad. Ollie responded with 9 Ks in less than 6 innings against the Brewers. Now, Tracy and co. more or less told Ollie that today was it, screw up again and he's gone. Perez responds with six solid innings tonight, keeping his fastball generally over 90 and mixing in those same nasty breaking pitches we saw in the opener against Milwaukee. Perez's only good season came under Spin Williams and Lloyd McClendon, guys that have been derided by the current pitching staff as being excessivly negative and deconstructive with their criticism. Perhaps that's the only thing that Oliver Perez responds to. It's certainly something to think about.
As for the rest of the game tonight, forget about the "timely hits" crap I'm sure Tracy is spewing right now, if you put 17 guys on base, chances are good you will score enough runs to win. Tonight we churned out 13 hits and took four walks with the McLouth/Sanchez/Bay threesome garner 7 of those hits (2/3/2 for the trio) and Paulino and Castillo adding a pair each. Even Ollie got in on the act with a 2-RBI single and stolen base(!). I wasn't too impressed with Arroyo at all, in fact watching his wisp of a frame throw flat breaking balls all night I thought to myself "No wonder the NL hasn't won a World Series games in 2 years, this guy is suddenly a Cy Young candidate in this league" though I'll admit it's likely that he didn't have his best stuff in the early innings.
All in all, we're looking at a second good win in a row here, Perez's start was rather encouraging, Sanchez is killing the ball, Jason Bay is coming around, and Castillo and McLouth are finding their way out of the dense fog they were in. In fact, minus Burnitz, there's very little to be pissed off about the lineup we've been trotting out recently. Tomorrow afternoon we get Jack Wilson back, which should be a boost, and send Victor Santos (gulp) out to try and finish the sweep of the Reds against our old buddy, Dave Williams. Of course with the return of Wilson, more complex decisions must be made with who plays and who sits, and I'm not sure I trust Tracy in that situation yet.
My brother and his girlfriend are headed down tonight in our regular seats. This might normally bother me (EDIT: no, it wouldn't, I just needed a way to start this post), but not tonight. Why not tonight? Nothing to do with the weather, but rather the fact that if I was at the ballpark tonight I would be able to do nothing but imagine a universe in which we never released Bronson Arroyo and in which Dave Littlefield was able to dupe Dan O'Brien into an Oliver Perez-for-Adam Dunn deal.
In the real world on this one, Perez says he feels good after being skipped in the rotation and getting some extra side sessions on the pen. I'd like to believe him, but I won't be able to until he proves he's healthy. Jack Wilson was rumored to be making a return tonight, but according to the lineup, that won't happen. I'm curious as to Ryan Doumit's status, as he and Wilson were injured on the same night and it certainly appeared that Doumit had the lesser of the two injuries (Wilson could barely even leg out a single on what should've been a double in his first pinch hitting appearence the next day, whereas Doumit easily legged his way into second after ripping a double in his first pinch hitting appearence), but there's no word on when he's returning. Or maybe he's returned already and there's just no way of telling because he's still buried on the bench.
UPDATE (6:34 PM)- I suppose that it is worth noting that Ronny Paulino is catching Perez tonight.
Sometimes it seems to me that Dave Littlefield has caused more problems with his inability to make decisions than the decisions that he has actually made. Craig Wilson is, of course, example #1A in this exhibit. Wilson's been mashing the ball in Pittsburgh since Littlefield arrived and he's failed to find him a firm position and an assured spot in the starting lineup. His inability to commit to Humberto Cota and unnamed minor league catcher last spring lead us to the brief and much maligned Benito Santiago era. His inability to commit to Bobby Hill and Freddy Sanchez lead to Chris Stynes and Joe Randa. His inability to decide on trade offers invariably leads to him accepting a lesser offer that is the only one left on the table. His inability to make roster decisions lead to the Rule 5 fiasco of two years ago. This is a problem because Littlefield is facing some big decisions to make in the coming months. It's true that we don't have prospects like the Marlins have prospects, as Dejan points out at the end of today's Q&A (which is, as usual, worth checking out if you've got the time) but we do have some players up that may at least end up being good major leaguers, which is more than we could say in the past. It's like DL needs one of those dichotomous keys that they put in sixth grade science books. Let's look at some choices that need to be made:
They kicked off a little late last night, but the Bucs did manage to keep the slumping Reds slumping thanks mostly to Paul Maholm's very strong start and Jeromy Burnitz via the "Blind Squirrell/Nut" corollary. There is, of course, a reason that most of the sane world wanted Craig Wilson batting behind Jason Bay, and the reason is that if you don't have many good hitters, it's helpful to bat your best hitters all consecutively. Having Burnitz filling that gap with actual hits theoretically produces the same result. My dad tells me I should be happy if Burnitz starts hitting (once again, we need more evidence to prove this goes beyond the blind squirrell/nut thing) because we'll actually be able to trade him, but I'm skeptical about DL's ability to do that. I'm still hoping that Jeromy Burntiz will be DL's Derek Bell.
UPDATE (10:54 PM)- As pointed out by Red Hot Mama in the comments, we actually scored 9 runs in this one. I really shouldn't take runs away from us like that, we don't score many as it is.
The Bucs and Reds are supposed to face off tonight, of Noah can get in his ark and help enough team members to find their way to the park. It's Maholm and Harang in the beginning of this incredibly depressing series. It's depressing because our perennial cellar-mates, the Reds, have managed to get off to an impressive 23-15 start and are hanging with the 'Stros and Cards at the top of the division. I've got some thoughts on that, but I think they're going to have to wait until tomorrow because they need a little more researching and a little more percolation time in my brain.
The Stats Geek brings Fan Graphs and WPA to the masses this week, and he uses the numbers to confirm what we suspected, Craig Wilson=good, Jeromy Burnitz=bad, Jim Tracy's theory that all we need is clutch hits=shit. The fact is simple, we don't need more clutch hits, we need more hits, period. Like me when I did a similar post, the Geek is mystified by Sanchez's poor WPA number. I do agree with the conclusion that if he keeps hitting, the number will go up, because a guy batting .319/.356/.511 will eventually have a positive contribution to the team winning games, and that's all there is to it.
On this dreary off day with no impending Bucco loss coming tonight, I thought I'd share with you a brilliant proposal for team song that found it's way to my inbox today, courtesy of reader Nate from South Park. Nate has re-worked the lyrics of Beck's "Loser" to fit the plight of a Pirates fan. Nate's lyrics follow and just for fun, I dug up Beck's original video on YouTube and posted it in below the new lyrics.
In the time of McClatchy and the McNuttings
Littlefield, Tracy, and the rest of their buddies
Rakin' in pennies but not winnin' any games
Makes the City of Champions just go insane
With a cellar dweller payroll, they're rakin' in the profits
Laughin' at the fans, while they're pickin' their pockets
The team's in trouble with a capital "T"
But with the All-Star Game it don't matter you see
Cause in rolls the dough, so the fat cats will smile
Enjoyin' the season while they count their money pile
And don't believe the owners with their media blitz
There weren't other teams wantin' Randa or Burnitz
So until there's an owner who cares about a ring
Join the Pittsburgh Pirate and together with him sing
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(double-barrel buckshot)
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
Please, forces of evil, leave in the night
Sell to Mark Cuban and make things right
Cause Mark's got the money and he's got the brains
Things will be much better with him at the reins
He'll spend enough money to field a winning team
Something we've not seen since the scoring of Sid Bream
The Mighty Pittsburgh Pirates once again will set sail
And in the NL Central, the Buccos will prevail
So sorry Houston, Chicago and St. Louie
You too, Cincinnati and Brewers in Milwaukee
Your party is over, and we're gonna win the ring
The Pittsburgh Pirate will no longer have to sing
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(Get crazy with the Cheez-Whiz)
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(Drive by body-pierce)
Yo bring on down
(I'm a driver, I'm a winner, things are gonna change, I can feel it...)
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(I can't believe you!)
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(Sprechen Sie Deutsch, baby)
Soy un perderdor
I'm a loser baby
So why don't you kill me?
(Know what I'm saying?)
Last night's Win Probability Plot, via Fan Graphs
If that doesn't summarize the whole season right there, I'm not sure what else does.
It's a depressingly rainy day here north of the 'Burgh, and the Pirates are a depressingly bad baseball team. It was semi-discussed in the comments last night, but the Bucs have chosen to keep McLouth up and send the Duffster back to Indy. Duffy is not pleased about it and seems to blame Tracy for his struggles. We are a long cry from "This kicks Lloyd and Spin's asses" in Spring Training, though Dejan speculated in last week's Q&A that Tracy's changes to Duffy may have been partly responsible for his struggles. We're bringing my buddy Mike Edwards back up, which doesn't bother me if he plays as much as Duffy did lately. Of course, we all know this won't be the case.
Meanwhile, Ollie thinks that the Pirates diabolical plan to screw Bob Melvin and the D'Backs and get him an extra start is helping and he says he feels "really good." I hope so, as down as I've been on Perez, nothing would make me happier than to see the old Ollie back. Also, Kip Wells' first bullpen session will come today and I realize that I'm the only person looking forward to his return to the rotation, but screw it, that doesn't mean I'm changing my mind.
In a must-read post for all masochists out there, Charlie went to Andrew from Dodger Math and asked for some good news, hoping to hear that Tracy is taking some new vitamins and he isn't as crazy as we all think. Alas, Andrew pissed on that fire. Read the whole conversation between the two here.
The only Pirates that showed up today were Ryan Vogelsong, John Grabow, Freddy Sanchez, and arguably Jose Bautista. We got dominated by a guy that hadn't won a game since July of last year. The highlight of the game was probably Miguel Cabrera crushing a home run to make it 6-0 Marlins with no outs in the second, followed by complete disgusted silence from Lanny and Walk and finally Walk cracking, "Where do you think THAT one's coming down?" Halfway up the second level of bleachers was the correct answer. I'm embarassed. Only 15 years to go.
Last night, for the second time in a week, Duke managed to not pitch well enough for us to beat one of our compatriots in the NL cellar. The fact that we scored only three runs certainly didn't help him, of course. I didn't catch much of the game, I heard bits here and there on the radio, as FSN televised the Dapper Dan dinner instead. Of course, looking back at the game, it's probably good that I didn't get a chance to see Burnitz, Paulino, and Castillo all strike out with the tying run on third in the sixth inning because I would've probably but a shoe through my TV or something.
Today brings about quite a turn of events. A month ago we'd be terrified to have Ian Snell on the mound, today we're all looking for him to give us a solid start and bring home our second series win of the season. The Fish send out Brian Moehler, who got off to a start similar to Snell's. He has, to this date, failed to turn things around. Then again, nothing turns pitchers around faster than a start against the Pirates.
Tonight we get Zach Duke and Scott Olsen. The key for Duke this year has been the walks, he's currently 9th in the NL in walks allowed, which is obviously not what you want to see from a guy like Duke. In his two starts that he's limited himself to one walk, he's picked up both his wins. Still, he's definitely been improving as the year has gone on and he's only been scored upon in 1 of his last 15 innings. Unfortunately, he gave up 5 runs in the one inning he was scored on and he took an L against the Nats. He hasn't pitched at PNC in almost a month, but I'm thinking we can expect a good start from Duke tonight. I don't know much about Olsen, but his ERA has been steadily climbing this year and he's only pitched 6 and 2/3rds in his last two starts. I can't imagine the Fish can stand for another short start tonight after needing 9 innings from their pen last night. So as usual, the key is to get an early lead. But as we all know, that's easier said than done with this team.
While the quotes from Tracy and Girardi about how ugly yesterday's game was in today's PG story are amusing, there is what would appear to be a requisite, smug "I told you so" from Tracy buried in the story. When asked about Bay he said (emphasis mine):
He took very good swings all night long. It's not the first time I've moved a guy down like that, and the game still seems to find its way to the player. He came through.Maybe Jim Tracy has gone all stat-head on us and will be telling us next it doesn't matter what order you bat people in, or maybe he's doing his best Cartman impression screaming "DO NOT QUESTION MY AUTHORITY!"
Umm, holy crap. Forgetting the fact that Tracy will probably take credit for this one with all of his insane lineup tinkering and the fact that it's quite possible that two of the three worst teams in baseball were on the field, that was an amazingly entertaining game. Lots of thoughts on this:
Is it bad that if we take 1 of 3 from a pathetic team like the Marlins our winning percentage goes up? Actually, I have this sinking feeling that the bats are going to come alive this weekend and we're going to be stuck with Tracy and his stupid shit-eating grin on Monday. I hate shit-eating grins. Not that I hope we lose, but I hope there's a way we can win some games and avoid his "I told you so" that would inevitably be coming. Tonight, a pitching matchup for the ages, Victor Sants and Sergio Mitre, on Zach Duke bobblehead night.
Tonight's lineup is very similar to the version we tossed out the window yesterday afternoon, Bautista, McLouth, Sanchez, CWilson, Burnitz, Bay, Paulino, Castillo, Santos. As Billy said in the comments a few posts down, Bay batting sixth is a problem, but not as big of a problem as Burnitz playing in general. I don't even have the energy to be angry about this.
UPDATE (7:34)- On the bright side, Victor Santos has managed to outlast his mound counterpart, Sergio Mitre. On the downside, Santos gave up five runs in the top of the first and Mitre exited after 3 pitches with an unspecified injury. Since those three pitches weren't all hit for miraculous bases empty grandslams, we're still down 5-0. If I'm not mistaken, the Marlins payroll is something like $5 million less than Burnitz, Randa, Hernandez, and Casey combined. Money well spent, Dave.
... Yep, I was right, the final tally is Marlins $14.34 million, our four horsemen, $20.25 million.
After I had my fun yesterday, Charlie is now firing some well-deserved volleys in Tracy's direction today. Meanwhile Leeeny is offering up a musical comparison of our last two managers and Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts is looking for "objective reviews of (the Tracy) situation." I would offer some help, but I'm not sure I can offer anything objective at this point, so I'll just leave it at "You told us so, and you were right."
UPDATE (5/13): As has been pointed out to me, I linked to Dodger Thoughts twice and Leeeny zero times, so that's been fixed now.
With Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield out, the Yankees are looking for a corner outfielder. This is where the difference between an ideal world and the real world rear their ugly heads. In my ideal world, I'd imagine Brian Cashman getting a voice mail like this:
Hi Brian, Dave Littlefield here. I see that Matsui and Sheffield are going to miss some substiantial time this summer and I'm assuming that Boss of yours is going to want to see that hole filled with some kind of veteran. I understand you're going to go after Griffey first, but Krivsky isn't going to take anything from your shit filled farm system for a player like Griffey, so I just want you to know that we've got a left-handed corner outfielder here with over 300 career homers. He's kind of slumping now, but he's due to break out in a big way and maybe the thrill of a pennant race can bring that out in him. I'm not asking for much, maybe a low level prospect and some cash. Just something to think about, gimme a call back.In reality, it will probably go something like this:
Hey, Brian, Dave here. Just got your e-mail about Craig Wilson, but let me warn you, that guy is one hell of a cancer. He drinks Pepsi and thinks he's funny. All he does is hit the ball, get on base, and help us win games. Plus, the fans actually seem to like this guy. That really defeats what me and the big bosses are going for here. You can have him if you want him, hell, we don't even want anything in return. Maybe a picture of me in front of a World Series trophy with a Red Sox hat on. Gimme a call back ASAP, I gotta get this jackass off my team. The number is 555-CHEAP.
D'Backs manager Bob Melvin seems kind of upset by the decision to cancel yesterday's game at 2 PM:
It's a little confusing that we've got some time here but, for whatever reason, it's canceled -- I guess because they forecast rain for a while. We had time to sit around but, obviously, we're not in charge of that.He's upset because the makeup is scheduled for June 19th, which now gives his team a game every day between May 26th and June 25th. The reasoning that we wanted to bury Oliver Perez in the rotation and give him some extra time to work on the side (which is what should've been happening a long time ago) probably won't fly with Bob Melvin.
Despite today's rainout, Victor Santos is still scheduled to pitch tomorrow and on top of that, Mike Gonzalez has replaced Oliver Perez on the banner atop Pirates.com. There's no official word yet, but Perez may not get the last shot that we were all lead to believe he'd get. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sent down before his spot comes back up in the rotation.
If you played the game, then you know that you go through ...- Jim Tracy defending keeping Jeromy Burnitz in the lineup.
I talked about Tracy's rant once already today, but earlier I was so taken with his indefensible defense of Burnitz I let my biggest pet peeve of them all slip through the cracks. I've now allowed myself sufficent time to get good and pissed off about it (and I can see from the comments that I'm not alone) and I can't let it go. The worst thing any baseball manager, announcer, player, etc. can do in my eyes is accuse someone of not understanding what's happening because they didn't play major league ball. Today when asked about Burnitz, that was how Tracy closed his rant, if you played the game, clearly implying that those he was talking to had not "played the game" and that he had no time for their opinions. How can you make a more close-minded argument than that? It's the same as Joe Morgan saying he won't read Moneyball because the guy that wrote it didn't play baseball. Just because Dejan or Rob Rossi or Perrotto or whoever (though I'll bet it wasn't Paul Meyer...) asked Jim Tracy the question about Burnitz never suited up in a major league locker room for whatever reason doesn't make their question invalid. You don't have to have played baseball to see Burnitz's tank is empty and to imply so is to more or less to say "I've PLAYED Major League Baseball and I know everything there is to know, so for you to ask me that question is just pointless" is an insult to every person in the stands at that game. I played baseball through high school, I had some bad coaches along the way and I simply wasn't born with an excess of baseball talent, thus by the end of 12th grade my baseball career was over. I would've loved to keep playing when high school ended and maybe some DIII school would've given me a shot, but I wasn't going to choose a college based on my ability to play baseball there. That doesn't mean that I've stopped following baseball, stopped learning about it, or stopped understanding it, and for Jim Tracy to imply that is a slap in the face. I don't know everything about baseball, but I don't pretend to know it all like Jim Tracy does. No one can know everything about baseball, not me, not Jim Tracy, not Billy Beane, not John Schuerholz, not Tony La Russa, not even Branch Rickey or Connie Mack knew everything about baseball. The sport is over 150 years old and no one has managed to invent a stat to exactly quantify how good a player is in the field. True, there's only so much you can learn from OPS and WPA and VORP and WARP, but there's also only so much you can learn from playing the game. To close your mind to either door as a baseball person is stop learning and stop improving. In fact, sometimes the BEST way to learn about something is to get a fresh perspective on it from someone who's not familiar with it. To imply that that isn't the case is close-minded and in many other situations it would be described as bigotry. And thus, Jim Tracy and anyone else who implies or says that you wouldn't know, you didn't play the game is a baseball bigot (my dad's term, not mine). Tracy's grace period is over. Anyone that's been a reader here since last summer knows how I felt about Lloyd McClendon, but the truth is that after less than six weeks of baseball I'm more sick of Tracy than I ever was during 5 years of McClendon.
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