The Rubber Match

I thought that when Kip Wells was traded, the most frustrating Pirate pitcher was of the team. I should've known better. There's a long line of frustrating Pirate pitchers, from Wells, to Benson, to Schmidt, and so on back for quite some time. Zach Duke has assumed that mantle from Wells this year. I don't know what's happened to him, but he really sucks. He gets his chance to pitch against the offense that made John Van Benschoten and Paul Maholm look like world beaters today. If things don't go well for Duke today... I dunno. I would say we should demote him but I don't know who would take his place.

The White Sox send Javier Vazquez to the mound against Duke today. I remember a few years back when Vazquez and Tony Armas were always my sleeper fantasy pitchers because no one payed attention to Expos. Unlike his former teammate, Vazquez seems to have regained some of that Expo form this year with his 4.15 ERA and 1.14 WHIP and 67 strikeouts in 78 innings. He's only got three wins to show for that rather impressive line, but that's not his fault. If he's going to rack up anymore wins, he'd better do it against teams like the one he's facing today.