Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

Heading down to PNC tonight for the last Pirate game I'll see in person for the foreseeable future. Paul Maholm and the same old Pirates will face off against Adam Wainwright and the suddenly contending Cardinals . Don't like the odds tonight, but then again, when do I?

This can be the starting point for the trade deadline open thread. I don't think we're going to do much today, but I don't think much like Dave Littlefield, either (thank God) so who knows? Unexpected rumor #1 on the day: the Tigers appear interested in Jack Wilson . I have a lot of packing to do today, but I'm going to be doing most of it in front of the TV, so I'll post updates as they happen. UPDATE (1:20): The PG kind of updates the Wilson talks , which is to say that they're still going on. My guess is that DL focuses on this all day and fails to get it done while Marte, Chacon, and Torres go untraded. ESPNs deadline shows, which is one of the few things they still get right, goes on the air at 1:30. UPDATE (3:24)- The best relievers on the board, Dotel and Gagne, are gone, but with about a half hour left to the deadline I haven't heard the names Marte, Torres, or Chacon come up anywhere. Either Detroit is asking for them along with Wilson or they'r...

RIP Bill Robinson . Bones has a nice remembrance of Robinson posted at Honest Wagner. Not a link, but the play-by-play guy on ESPN just called Aramis Ramirez a Gold Glove candidate. And I will now light myself on fire. Charlie talks about the rumors that Joe Garagiola Jr. will become the Pirates new CEO. I remember his dad from my old VHS tape, The Battlin' Bucs, the First 100 Years of the Pittsburgh Pirates . That's not enough to convince me that Junior would be the right move for the Pirates, though. Reader Mark sends along this article about the decline of Jason Bay that ran at BP last week. If the author (Marc Normandin) is right, we've got a lot to worry about. The biggest trade of the deadline has already gone down with Mark Teixeira going to the Braves . I wrote a little at FanHouse about the strong seller's market that seems to exist this year, but the king's ransom that guys like Tex and Linebrink are bringing could work in reverse for the Pirates with ...

So I guess the trade deadline is tomorrow. I've hardly written about it at all, and I'm sure you've noticed that. It's been a purely subconscious choice, I assure you. I think the problem is that I don't feel like getting terribly interested in the deadline this year. The one thing I've noticed in my now 2 and 1/2 years of blogging about the Pirates is that the harder I think about things and the more I understand the team, the more negative and depressed I get when it comes to all things Pirates. When I started writing in April of 2005, I was your typical Pirate fan. A sophomore in college at the time, I had spent each and every March since about 6th grade assuring my friends that THIS year would be the year the Pirates turn things around. I didn't necessarily believe the spin churned out by the team (I didn't read any Pirate blogs before I started my own and I mostly just read whatever the PG's coverage of the team was), I just wanted to think thin...

In the first inning Ronny Paulino did a great impression of a croquet wicket by letting a pitch go right under his legs and allowing a run to score before Ian Snell could work his way out of a jam. The pitch was somehow not scored a passed ball and I thought to myself, "Well, that's game over." It pretty much was, as Nate McLouth's solo homer in the sixth was the only run we scored today. Snell pitched well, only giving up two other runs and striking out seven in six innings of work, but that wasn't enough for this pathetic excuse for a baseball team. This Kyle Kendrick fellow who had only five more strikeouts than walks this year struck out four today and walked one. Mark me down as "not surprised."

The Phillies are pounding the crap out of the ball right now. We are losing a lot of baseball games. I'm terribly afraid of Ian Snell getting Kip Wells/Jason Schmidt disease at this point in his career, which is giving up on the team behind him, trying to strike everyone out, and blowing his arm to smithereens and/or destroying his career. Kyle Kendrick starts for the Phils today. He's got a decent ERA and a decent WHIP in eight starts, but he's only got 19 Ks to go with 14 strikeouts walks, which is pretty awful and kind of Zach Duke like. I fully expect the most dominating start of young Kyle's career today. UPDATE: And no insult for Snell today. Because this team just isn't worth the effort now. Or was that my insult? Ooo, tricky tricky.

This is actually a yesterday move, but John Van Benschoten was demoted back to Indianapolis , will skip Tom Gorzelanny in the rotation because of his stiff shoulder, and have put Tony Armas back in the rotation for now. I know you're excited to see Armas back in the rotation now that his ERA is under 7.00. Oh, that wasn't excitement was it? Just pure indifference.

I fully grasp the fact that Masumi Kuwata was a starting pitcher in Japan. I know he was good and that he used to pitch a lot of innings over there. I mean, I'm fully aware of all of this. And I still don't think that he's any more than a gimmick one out type reliever. Would I put Kuwata in the mound with the game on the line? Sure, if I needed one out and there was a big swinging righty up that hadn't seen his array of pitches (slow ball, super slow ball, super-duper slow ball, and a slow curve) before, I'd have no problem putting him up there to face that one hitter. Putting him on the mound and asking him to work through the scorching hot Phillies lineup with no outs, a one run lead, and bases loaded? Suicide. I know Chacon and Torres are supposed to be the set-up guys, but they've both started and they can both pitch a couple innings. If you can't use them in that slot in the fifth inning, who are you going to use? Middle relievers aren't set-up guys...

Shane Youman takes the mound tonight to face off against JD Durbin. Youman's lat start was the best of his short Pirate career, and yet it wasn't enough to garner a win because the Pirates got shut out 1-0. With the way the Phillies have been hitting of late, I don't expect Youman to duplicate that showing tonight. In fact, I don't expect much of anything from anyone wearing black and gold any more.

Remember Lloyd McClendon? You know, our previous manager that had a short temper, liked to steal bases, and batted Tike Redman leadoff a whole lot, while thinking that maybe batting him third wasn't a terrible idea? Well, now he's being credited with helping the Detroit Tigers offensive turnaround this year. Read this quote from him in the Detroit News : "Even early in the season, when Sheff was struggling, he had a lot of walks," McClendon said. "Here, he's struggling, and he's got this ungodly on-base percentage. "I'm not much on batting average," McClendon continued, turning to Ordonez. "I think that's the most overrated stat in baseball. I'm an OBP guy, a run-production guy -- and the best way I can describe Magglio is that he's a line-drive, .300 hitter who happens to hit home runs. And that's why he's having an MVP-kind of year. What is he brainwashed? Under the Imperius Curse? Does anyone remember Lloyd McClen...

So... I guess Jim Colborn didn't help John Van Benschoten out a whole lot. I think he's probably hurt again, because he's just getting worse and worse right now. On the other hand, Ronny Paulino went 3-for-3 and had an RBI last night. I guess that's nice?

Sorry for the lack of posting today. I'm in Pittsburgh finishing moving out of my apartment and don't have a ton of spare time. Not sure I can post before the game, so the gamethread is going up now. Jamie Moyer and JVB go at it tonight. Supposedly Van Benschoten and Jim Colborn have been having some good side sessions in the pen, so hopefully he won't suck terribly again today. Moyer, is well, old. But the Phillies have been killing the ball lately and are within striking distance of both the NL East title and the Wild Card. Which means these games are quite important for them, and not so much for us. I'd like to see the signs of life that we saw yesterday surface again in this series, but I'm not counting on it.

I think everyone here remembers Dr. Oliver and Mr. Perez, right? Ollie dominated us for five innings today, holding us to one hit (which was questionable) and striking out eight batters, looking just like the guy we all hoped he would be after that great 2004 season. Then he booted a groundball and lost it, in 2005-2006 Ollie fashion, giving up a home run to Josh Phelps and five "unearned" runs in the inning. The Mets pulled him after that disastrous sixth and the Pirates managed to score three more runs in the seventh without hitting a ball hard the entire inning. With the eight runs in those two innings, the Pirates topped their run total from the last three games (seven) and cruised to their second win in twelve. Paul Maholm pitched well in this one, cruising after a rough spot in the first until a Lastings Milledge homer in the sixth and some trouble in the seventh. Still, it was more than enough to win and the Pirates actually managed to get him enough runs to do that (s...

This gamethread is going to have to be short because I just got back from the eye doctor's and my pupils are the size of dinner plates and I can barely read what I'm typing in front of me. Oliver Perez makes his first start against the Pirates since we unceremoniously shipped him off to New York almost a year ago (at least I'm pretty sure this is his first start against us). He's had the expected career resurgence this year and is again one of the better lefties in the NL. We can't hit worth crap, so he's probably feeling pretty confident. He's facing off against Paul Maholm, but Maholm could be Sandy Koufax and I would assume the Mets would still score enough runs to win this one.

As I mentioned the other day, after answering Joe's questions to run on MetsToday as a Pirates season preview, I asked Joe a couple questions of my own to run here. I, of course, asked about Oliver Perez to see what the Mets' fans think of our former ace. Here's Joe's reply: Yes, he's for real. There are games where he looks like one of the most dominant lefthanders in the NL -- a bonafide ace. And though there have been a handful of poor appearances, they have been few and far between and nothing like the meltdowns we saw in 2006 (OK, there was one game where he went nuclear, but that was in April and it hasn't happened since). Last year, he was either absolutely awful or surprisingly brilliant, with most folks expecting the former. However, in 2007 we expect to see him pitch well -- I think a big difference this year is that even when he doesn't have his good stuff, he's still able to throw strikes, compete, and keep the Mets in the game. Is it Rick P...

Tom Glavine walks the bases loaded, we fail to score. Tom Gorzelanny gets pounded and leaves with a sore shoulder. The Pirates have lost 10 of 11, are 17 games below .500, and have the second worst record in baseball. I'm not sure things can get worse. Oliver Perez is pitching tomorrow. Crap. Things might get worse.

Two left-handed pitchers named Tom G. will take the mound tonight at Shea Stadium. Tom Gorzelanny will attempt to do what few Bucco pitchers have done since the break: win. Tom Glavine has done a bit of winning in his career. If he wins tonight it'll be #299 for him. Our Tom G. is a long way away from being their Tom G.

Ian Snell is a very intense guy, which is why he's one of my favorite Pirates. Still, there are limits to how far a player should go when talking about teammates in the press. I'm pretty sure Snell crossed that line after last night's loss to the Mets. He was clearly upset about the double that fell between Bay and Nady that should've been caught and the ground ball that treated Kata like a croquet wicket but wasn't ruled an error, but man, he gave up a home run to John Maine. Here are some of his words : "I'm starting to break. I'm getting stressed out. I don't know about these other guys, but I just want to win. I don't want to be called a loser. Man, even my family calls our team losers, and I don't want anyone to say that about our team." [...] "All I know is that I'm going to take the blame," Snell said. "Everything's my fault. I don't want to put any pressure on the team. Nothing." He paused again...

I'm having a hard time finding things to say about this one. The team has pretty much mailed things in, from what I can see, and it's really depressing to watch. Snell gives up a homer to a pitcher, Bay doesn't run down a fly ball, Kata plays matador at third, Pirates lose for the ninth time in ten games. I suppose if you're looking for positives, Bay did hit two homers to go with a single and a crushed flyout, so maybe he'll stop hitting like Pat Meares now (sorry, Pat Meares, you were way better than Jason Bay's been in the past month). Nady did have two doubles to go with Bay's homers, but we still lost in a game that wasn't terribly close. You know things are bad when Adam LaRoche singles in Nady in the first inning and my dad and I both reacted with, "And this is the only lead we'll have tonight." We were right, unfortunately. I still can't believe Snell gave up a home run to a pitcher. Ugh. This is ugly and it's not going to ...

We kick off a three-gamer with the Mets tonight at 7. The Mets have a slim 3 game lead over the Braves in the NL East right now and could probably use some wins to distance themselves from the pack. Enter the Pittsburgh Pirates. We just lost two of three from the lowly Astros. Not getting swept this week would be an accomplishment. If you're up for some extra curricular reading, I've previewed the Pirates pitching staff for Mets fans over at Mets Today . In return, Joe from Mets Today answered a couple questions for me that I will post on Thursday (oh whatever could the questions have been about?). Ian Snell starts today against John Maine. Maine has very good this year. That's bad, because we make bad pitchers look good. Snell has slipped a bit since the break, looking a bit more like he did last year. He's given up five homers in two starts and four of those five have been by left-handed hitters. He's got to stem the tide right now, because his big leap this year ...

Dejan's article in the PG today talks about how the current Pittsburgh Pirates don't have any .300 hitters among the regulars (Ryan Doumit doesn't count, I don't think, because he doesn't have the at-bats ... not that he's hitting .300 right now anyways). I'm not exactly a fan of using batting average as the most important stat to gauge offense, so let's look at some other fun numbers. The highest OPS among regulars is Xavier Nady's .813. Doumit is at .834 but may not qualify (he will need about 502 PAs, he's got 213 at the present). The highest on-base percentage among regulars? Jose Bautista's .338. That's pitiful. Forget the not having a .300 average thing, that's a much bigger indictment of our offense. The highest slugging percentage by a good margin is Xavier Nady's .479. Remember, Nady is the guy that the team wants you to believe is the breakout power hitting star of 2007, and he's not even slugging .500 (though he is...

We asked for Troy Glaus in return for Jack Wilson . Just let that sink in for a minute. Troy Glaus. For Jack Wilson. Was Dave Littlefield actually serious? Meanwhile, the Red Sox are apparently shopping Wily Mo Pena and interested in Salomon Torres. Wily Mo Pena. Lot of power potential. No signs of reaching it. Strikes out a ton. Awful at getting on base. Yep, dude was born to be a Pirate. Jeff Manto would work wonders on his career.

Just saw this over at Charlie's blog. It's a link to a story on the Pirates' site about John Van Benschoten 's side throwing session today with this quote buried inside of it, where JVB talks about his minor league career with the Pirates: "Coming up through the system and being the No. 1 pick and no one really stepping up because no one wants to mess you up," said Van Benschoten, who was the team's first-round selection in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft. "They have a big organization and they need to take care of other people, so I think being almost left alone has just come to a head this year with a crash course here." Umm. I don't have a lot to say here. This certainly speaks for itself. I posted a little more at FanHouse , but most of the stuff there you already know. Let me just reiterate that a first round draft pick, a guy that was mainly a hitter in college and drafted as a pitcher, said that he was mostly not coached in the mino...

I think you have to try to lose 1-0 most of the time. I especially think that when you lose 1-0 and the 2007 incarnation of Woody Williams started for the other team. I mostly feel bad for Shane Youman, who got his official induction into the Pirates rotation today. He only gave up four hits in eight innings and held the Astros one run over those eight innings and gets saddled with the L because of the Pirates offense. That offense mustered only six hits today and drew zero (!) walks off of Williams and Brad Lidge. Matt Kata had two of those hits (which means he's going to keep playing ... damn) and LaRoche, Nady, Bay, and Izturis had the other four. Unfortunately, only one of those hits was a double and only two of them came in the same inning (Izturis and Bay singled). That's the recipe for a shut-out and that's what happened today. I suppose we can add Woody Williams to the list of shitty pitchers that have dominated us this year. If you're keeping track at home, we...

So a day removed from a brutal seven game losing streak, the Pirates have to at least somewhat like their chances of taking this series from the Astros. Shane Youman is going to take John Van Benschoten's spot in the rotation today to face off against Woody Williams. Williams has been pretty crappy this year, but hey, the Pirates are the cure for what ails crappy pitchers. A win keeps the Pirates out of the cellar, a loss could plummet them right back in.

First a word on WHYGAVS Night. Sorry I kinda dropped the ball on the planning of this thing. If we're all still around next year and the Pirates haven't driven us completely away, then I'll try to make sure one of the weekends I get home next summer is a home weekend and we'll make sure we do this right next time around. As for this one, thanks to Brian and a host of other Lackeys for showing up, as well as Dana and Jeremy for stopping by to say hello. If you're wondering what watching a game is like, well, it's kind of like being in the comments for a game, only with real voices. Lots of proclamations of doom and being sure the Pirates are going to blow a big lead, only to be physically relieved when they don't. Finally, the losing streak is over. Paul Maholm didn't seem to be pitching incredibly well tonight, but he got through six innings without allowing a run and he and Salomon Torres danced through raindrops to only allow 2 runs to score in the sev...

Early gamethread tonight. Paul Maholm will do his best to keep the losing streak from reaching eight games against Wandy Rodriguez and the Astros tonight. Maholm and Wandy have both pitched pretty well of late save their last starts, so tonight might be a quick boring game, kind of like last night's. I'm again expecting to see the Cesar Izturis debut tonight, but then again Matt Kata had a hit last night so maybe he'll get to play for a week or so. I'll be honest, I still have no idea what Kata even looks like. A loss in this one gives us sole possession of last place in the Central, a place that most of us thought would belong to the Pirates this year. The Reds have kept it warm for us for most of the season, but I feel pretty confident this team is ready to assume their proper place. Again, as a final reminder for anyone coming to the game tonight, I'll be at the statue of Roberto around 6:30, so if you'd like to hang out with some WHYGAVS people, stop by and ...

With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning trailing 2-1, the Pittsburgh Pirates sent Matt Kata, who had been batting second and playing third base all night, to the plate. Matt Kata. Kata struck out, then Freddy Sanchez (our three hitter with an OPS of .729) followed suit and did the same. But you know, I'm really happy with the guys this team has in place. We're moving in the right direction and I hope we can have a big second half and turn things around. For the second time this year, Tom Gorzelanny pitched a great game save for a first inning homer and lost on that first inning homer because the Pirates have no concept of how to hit a ball or score runs. Guess who's in last place in the NL Central? Guess who's only a half game away from the worst record in the NL? Guess who's lost seven in a row? You guessed the Pirates, and you were right. What an inspiring week this has been for the Pirates.

If there's one thing that's been able to pick up the spirits of disgruntled Pirate fans this year, it's definitely the Astros. We're 6-0 against them and as near as I can tell, both of our series sweeps have been against them this year. They're slumping (1-5 since the break) and so are we (0-6 since the break). They're sending Roy Oswalt to the mound tonight to face off against Tom Gorzelanny. The lineups aren't out yet, but it seems possible that we will see the debut of Cesar Izturis in black and gold tonight. I know you're holding your breath. Personally, I just want to see any sign of life from this crappy team right now. People got mad when we walked out of a game last month, but people don't seem nearly as pissed that the Pirates are walking out on the season.

It's still Saturday. I know a lot of people can't come, but I'll be there anyways, so if you're coming, meet around the statue of Roberto at 6:30 on Saturday. Look for the guy in the "Pittsburgh Baseball, Rebuilding Since 1992" shirt.

Alright, we've had the better part of a day to digest the Pirates picking up Cesar Izturis, so let's take some time to break down what this could mean for the Pirates. If the Pirates were a more logical organization, I wouldn't mind this move. The Cubs seem to be paying for most of it and he can play second or third while Bautista is hurt, be a better utility guy than our current options, and maybe play short if we trade Jack Wilson and want Bixler to get a full year in AAA (which I don't necessarily agree with, but could at least understand). I'd say he's here for now and we'll buy him out at the end of the year and that's that. Here's the problem. We're the Pirates. Dave Littlefield is our GM. Jim Tracy is our manager. I have this sinking feeling that Izturis has been acquired because Tracy and Colborn are mad at Jack Wilson and want to teach him a lesson after the dugout incident the other night. Izturis is a crappy hitter and not a terribly v...

The Pirates picked up Cesar Izturis today for a player to be named. This is the same guy that was traded for Greg Maddux at the trade deadline last year. There is absolutely no reason for the Pirates to make this move unless Jack Wilson is about to be traded. They've already got Jose Castillo, Don Kelly, and Matt Kata eating roster space on this team and Izturis is no better than any of them. He's actually worse than Wilson, though he'd be a lot cheaper if the Pirates manage to move Wilson. Oh, and he's played for Jim Tracy before. No word yet who's getting moved off the roster to make room at the moment, though I'd bet on Kata or Kelly unless the Pirates are planning on announcing a second move in very short order. UPDATE: Let's talk about the monies here. Izturis is making $4.15 million this year . I doubt the Cubs are chipping any money into this deal because they're probably making it to get rid of the contract. We'll have to buy him out at $300...

OK, so we're really putting things off 'til the last minute here. Regardless, for anyone in the area WHYGAVS Night at PNC will be this Saturday, July 21st for the 7:05 game against the Astros. Without much time to sort things out, I'm thinking everyone should just buy cheap tickets and we can pick out a spot on the rotunda for the game. Who's interested? What time does everyone want to meet? Where? Are there any under-agers planning on coming (in which case a bar is not the optimal meeting place)? Let's talk about this in the comments and when the thread gets pushed down, I'll add it to the top of the sidebar. I'll post updates as they happen.

Sometimes I forget why the Ian Snell insult game ever got started. It's because Snell is a crazy m-f'er that will use anything he can find to get himself pissed off and fired up. After a poor start last year, he invented a slight from the Phillies and went out and dominated them , then did very little looking back from that point on. It was then that I suggested insulting Snell before every start, because it happened a couple other times last year. So, Snell's had two straight crappy starts after the break where he's giving up gopher balls like crazy. What does Snell do? Accuse the Rockies of stealing his signs and promise to put a fastball in one of their earholes , Salomon Torres style, if he sees them again this year. This is why Snell is my favorite Pirate. I've already got the next Rockies series (August 20th-23rd) circled on my calendar. I don't know if the Rockies stole his signs today and I don't care. Ian Snell is pissed and that probably means good...

Well, this is unfortunate. Someone appears to have stolen the 2007 version of Ian Snell and replaced him with the 2006 version. You remember that incarnation of Ian, the one with a ton of promise that also happened to serve up homers to left-handed batters like they were tootsie rolls and he was in a parade. He's now given up five homers in two starts since the break and four of those five were hit by guys standing on the left side of the plate. Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe were the culprits today, turning a 1-1 game into a 5-1 game with a pair of two-run jacks. Those outweighed the solo shots hit later in the game by Freddy and LaRoche and thus, we lost. It was too bad, too. Snell was locked in early on with four strikeouts in a row to end the first and second innings. From there, Rajai Davis misplayed a Troy Tulowitzki ball into a double and Snell gave up a hit to pitcher Jeff Francis to tie the game up and things went all downhill from there. Six losses in six games to start the s...

The worst fear of a jobless blogger ... a baseball game that starts within an hour of when I wake up. The Pirates are trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the dreaded Rockies today. I know, I laughed a little when I said it, too. Anyways, Snell takes the mound and will probably kill someone out on the field if the effort the Pirates put forth today resembles the effort put forth in the other games since the All-Star break. Hey, Ian. You care waay to much! Hasn't anyone told you you're a Pirate? Just mail it in man.

What can I say about this team? They're playing bland, uninspired, poor baseball right now. Josh Fogg shut us down tonight save Nate McLouth's homer (which was honestly one of the hardest hit balls I've seen in person). In fact, McLouth's monster homer was one of two impressive things that I saw tonight. The other was a Masumi Kuwata 86 mph fastball. I didn't think the dude had it in him. Josh Fogg had nothing on the ball tonight. For the first couple innings every out, every hit, and every foul ball was hit hard. See Fogg's thing is that he throws strikes. That should be great for a team like us that swings at everything. The guy has nothing on the ball and throws strikes. Time for a hitting bonanza, right? Wrong. Jason Bay reminds me of when I used to umpire for 9 and 10 year olds (worst job I ever had, by the way). Every team had a kid or two (or seven) that would bat in the back of the lineup and go up to the plate without a clue, praying to walk. That's...

I'm headed to the park tonight, weather permitting, to hopefully see Shane Youman stop this ugly skid the Pirates are on right now. Youman hasn't been terribly impressive in his two starts with us, but he has managed to win both of them and that's more than most of the rotation is doing right now. He's certainly been more encouraging than John Van Benschoten has to this point this year. The Rockies will counter with old friend Josh Fogg tonight. Fogg's been pretty terrible this year, but he seems like just the type of pitcher that's dominated us this year. I'm certainly almost expecting to see some old school Josh Fogg (not that old school Josh Fogg was that good) tonight at PNC Park tonight.

Very short on details thus far, but the Pirates have signed their first round pick Daniel Moskos . I feel pretty sorry for Moskos, actually. I have a strong feeling that he's going to become the scapegoat for a lot of people for everything that's wrong with the Pirates. The guy can barely even get into a bar and have a drink and now he's going to have several thousand angry people holding him up and holding him responsible for what a couple idiots have done that's way out of his control. No word yet on where Moskos will start. I would hope he'll start at least at Hickory, especially if we're going to use him as a reliever. If Brad Lincoln is any indication he'll probably get a couple appearances with Bradenton in the GCL before he gets moved up to anywhere, but in order for this pick to have a lot of value he's going to have to move through the system quickly. I guess we'll wait and see. There's a press conference sometime later today I think and...

I suppose this is the final fall-out of the Michael Barrett saga, the Cubs have traded Rob Bowen and a minor-league pitcher to the A's for the one and only Jason Kendall. This can't really be a great move for the Cubs. Kendall is washed up and has literally been the second least valuable offensive player in the league this year . Still, I guess Rob Bowen sucks pretty hard Wrigley Field is much more of a hitter's park than whatever they're calling the Oakland Coliseum now. Still, I just can't imagine this move helping the Cubs out a whole lot. I guess they're only giving up Bowen and a minor league reliever, but Kendall just seems so washed up that I fail to see this being the move that pushes them past the Brewers. I suppose he's coming cheap this late in the season and with us paying a hefty chunk of his big salary. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

On the bright side we didn't manage to make Taylor Buchholz look like Christy Mattewson. On the not so bright side, John Van Benschoten really sucks, Jack Wilson is lazy, Jason Bay is colder than liquid nitrogen, the players and coaches might hate each other, we've lost four in a row, we're 12 games under .500, we managed to fake a comeback yet again, it hasn't rained in like a month, Dave Littlefield is still employed, we're just a year away from matching the most futile record in the history of sports, and ... I dunno. I could go on but I won't. What I'm getting at is, "things are shitty."

Well, the disastrous Atlanta road trip is over. Unfortunately, the Pirates don't have much time to sit home and lick their wounds because they're coming straight home to play the Rockies tonight. The Rockies are one of those teams that's doing what we're supposed to be doing (that is: rebuilding) and doing it pretty well. They're just a game below .500 this year in what is probably the best division in the National League (that's the West, if you weren't certain). Taylor Buchholz and John Van Benschoten will go at it on the mound tonight. We saw him twice last year when he pitched for the Astros and he's a good candidate for the "crappy pitcher we make look like Christy Matthewson" award, which we've already given out several times this year. And yes, I think that's the first time I've mentioned Christy Matthewson on the blog. It's been far too long.

Not sure if Perrotto is working from an actual list somewhere or just pulling names out of the air, but he's got a long list of people that he thinks Bob Nutting might talk to about replacing Kevin McClatchy. I'm not familiar with everyone on this list, but here's what I do know: Lucchino's not coming here and if they're named Duquette, they're going to be a bad hire. Beyond that? I dunno, knowing how the Pirates like to operate, guys with phrases like like "local ties" and "Western Pennsylvania guy" in their blurbs would be the front-runners. I don't really think this list is worth much speculation, just because it seems like a bunch of names thrown at a wall to see what sticks. I suppose it's somewhere to start from, though. My nightmare scenario: hire Jim Duquette, who in turn hires Steve Phillips to replace Dave Littlefield. I will renounce the Pirates forever and I'm not kidding.

Well, that closes out a nicely lackluster series. I thought maybe when Freddy Sanchez hit a homer in the second AB of the game off of Buddy Carlyle that maybe our fortunes would be different than in the first two games of the series. I should've known better. You can add Carlyle to the list of crappy pitchers that have dominated us this year, a list that seems to grow and grow by the week. Today was a pretty typical Pirate loss. The Braves scored on a wild pitch/passed ball in which Doumit and Maholm either got mixed up or Doumit just failed poorly in his predesignated job of "catching" the ball, they scored on a Jose Castillo throwing error, they scored on Salomon Torres, who's return didn't look much than before he left, but none of it mattered because we didn't score after Freddy's homer. Carlyle cruised through eight innings on 91 pitches, only allowing four hits and striking out four to go with no walks. Bob Wickman closed out the game on six pitches ...

Paul Maholm takes the mound at 1:05 today to try and avoid a sweep that would pretty much erase all of the optimism that surrounded this team going into the All-Star break. His mound opponent will be Buddy Carlyle, who's been pretty average in eight starts this year. Maholm's been better than that of late, but the week off seems to have affected Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, so Maholm may be a little rusty, as well (of course Chuck James and Tim Hudson weren't rusty at all, so maybe it's more of a function of good offense vs. bad offense, we shall see). Bouncing back from two pretty bad losses would be a nice thing to see from this team. Will we see it? Well, I'm not holding my breath.

We have the worst luck with these damn rain delays. Earlier in the year, we blew a big lead to the Cubs just in time for the rain to come and delay the game to the next day when the Cubs finished off the win, then beat us again for good measure. Tonight we come storming back to tie the game just before a deluge, then have the rain come just in time to cool our bats off and have the Braves eek out a win against us. We should mostly thank Bobby Cox for even being in this one. After Chuck James dominated us (for the second time this year) through six innings, holding us to two hits, Cox yanked him about 95 pitches and watched Tyler Yates and Rafael Soriano blow the lead as quickly as they could, highlighted by Ryan Doumit's pinch-hit three run homer. That didn't matter because Shawn Chacon had no grip on the strikezone tonight (four walks, one intentional over one and two-thirds) throwing only 20 of 43 pitches for strikes. That makes it pretty hard to win, and accordingly, we lost...

Tom Gorzelanny and Chuck James, already in progress. If this one had gone up before the game started, I would've told you that bouncing back from last night's embarrassment was relatively important. We're already down 4-0, so all I can really say is "ugh."

This is only a blog. I don't really have much in the way of sources. I mostly only have opinion. But I honestly don't think Mark Cuban applying to buy the Cubs is a big deal to anyone that hopes he's going to buy the Pirates. Yes, Cuban is rich. Yes, Cuban is interested. But Cuban is also incredibly headstrong and arrogant (he's suing his old coach for beating him in the playoffs for chrissake) and he's not a friend of Bud Selig. What I mean to say is that if he wants to own a backwater franchise like the Pirates, Selig might allow that (if the Pirates ever go up for sale). But a marquee franchise like the Cubs? Come on. One of Selig's friends is interested in the team at the moment , and that makes him a very clear front-runner. Unless he's not interested at all, Cuban's got nothing but money and hopes right now.

Gee, thanks for coming tonight, guys. The Pirates decidedly remained on break tonight with Snell giving up homers to lefties like it was 2006, people spacing out in the field, and runs just not really getting scored at all. In the first inning LaRoche made a bad error, the second base umpire made a bad call, and Snell gave up a three run bomb to Brian McCann. It looked for a while like we could keep things close at 3-0, but Snell hit the wall in the sixth and it went from 3-0 to 9-0 before I even knew what happened. There were balls flying out of the park, a piss-poor Grabow sighting, and Tony Armas (?!?) slamming the door on things (his scoreless 2 and 2/3 innings dropped his ERA way down to 8.18). There wasn't much else to talk about from this one. I personally loved the part where Ronny Paulino singled in Jason Bay and Greg Brown called it a "small victory" for the Pirates, or something to that effect. Umm, nothing about tonight was victorious. We were roundly crushed ...

It seems like forever since we've actually had a baseball game to talk about. I guess it's only been five days, but that definitely seems like forever. The well-rested Pirates and the well-rested Braves will go at it tonight at 7:35 in Atlanta. Tim Hudson and Ian Snell will take the mound. The question for the Pirates is whether or not their sudden streak of competence that they flashed into the break can last. They're on a 9 of 13 stretch currently, though that seems like ancient history to me right now. I honestly think their best shot at .500 is to get really hot and mostly even things out, then play around .500 ball the rest of the way out rather than to constantly play above .500 for the entire half. Of course, I think they're only going to win about 73 games this year, so you probably don't want to ask me how they're going to get to .500. Ian, I'd call you stupid but this is the Ian Snell insult game and it's no time for me to be insulting stupid p...

Remember the WHYGAVS poll? Well, it's back (under the "About Me" if you're having trouble finding it). The question is a simple one, how many wins will the Pirates finish with this year? Click your answer, then defend it in the comments if you'd like. As usual, I'll leave the poll up for a week.

Actually, the second half has already started, but everyone likes to call all the games after the All-Star break the second half, so let's just go with that. Are the Pirates a second half team? Can they get to .500? Can they compete in the second half? Let's try and answer those questions. The Pirates finished the first half at 40-48. That puts them on pace for 73-74 wins. I can't find the exact post in which I said this, but my pre-season guess was 73 wins. So that means that in order for me to think they're going to play better than that, I have to have seen something from the Pirates in the first that I didn't expect to see that makes me believe that they're going to be better in the second half. I'm not going to lie. I haven't seen that. For every player that's had an encouraging first half (Snell, Gorzelanny, Nady), there's at least one that's had a disappointing first half (Duke, Bay, LaRoche, Paulino). Maybe the under performers will s...

Do people still want to do this? I'm thinking the July 21st game against the Astros. I know it's Paul Waner number retirement night and all, but it's really the only option left. It's a bit late to do a whole lot of organizing, but we can always buy tickets and stand together on the rotunda or something similar to that. What does everyone think?

Here it is, the end of the mid-season rundown. It's the pitchers. Ian Snell- Ian Snell is the straw that stirs the drink on the Pirates. I haven't seen a Pirate that hates losing like Snell does since, I dunno, ever. He gets fired up for every start like it's game seven of the World Series. He drove himself to become one of the best starters in the league this year just because no one thought he could do it. I know it's only a couple years into his Pirate career, but Snell has a chance to be my favorite Pirate since Van Slyke. Not kidding. Tom Gorzelanny- I had high expectations for Gorzo this year, but he's blown them all away. He's not quite been better than Snell and I think he might be out-pitching his peripherals a bit, but screw it. He's only 24 and he's getting better. I'm a bit worried about some high pitch-counts he's rung up and I think it's something to keep an eye on, but I'm not overly concerned. Yet. Paul Maholm- He got o...

Quick links and some new blogs for the blogroll for everyone to enjoy. The most boring day of the season seems like a good day to do this. How can you not love a blog named Be Like Tike ? More Pittsburgh sports focused than Pirates-focused, but the name is a good one, Doubt About It . Somewhere, Lanny is crying. The Pirates Fans For Change have their website up and running. I like the looks of it, but if you're at work turn the speakers down because there's some music. Meanwhile, HW points us towards a Tracy Ringolsby column expecting big changes with the way the Pirates are run. I sure hope so. Since it's a slow baseball news day, I already posted a take over at FanHouse .

I kinda slacked on these yesterday, but here's the rest of the hitters and the pitchers will follow sometime later today. Jack Wilson - Sadly, Wilson's .259/.317/.364 line this year gives him the second best OPS+ of his career to date, one of 80. The worst part about Wilson's performance this year is that he spaced out for like a week, playing awful defense and seeming to not care about anything on the field. That lead to his actual benching in favor of Jose Castillo, who gave the team a shot in the arm with his play. Think about that statement. There's no use left for Wilson on the team here in Pittsburgh and it would be nice to find a team that wants a defense first shortstop for a pennant run (Red Sox?), but Wilson's contract makes him pretty much worthless to anyone. So, he talks too much, slacks off, and on top of everything, sucks. He's pretty much my least favorite Pirate right now. Freddy Sanchez- It has become very clear that if Freddy's not hittin...

It's on. Freddy's there for us. People are telling me the NL has to win to salvage pride. I don't believe that. Does this thing still matter?

I give Paul Meyer at the PG a lot of flak for his fluffy writing style, but I've got to be honest, I'm really enjoying the series he's running on the freak show '97 team (part 1 here and part 2 here if you've missed them so far). I was 12 that summer and a lot less critical of things than I am now. I remember assuming that the 78 wins meant that we had a good core of young players that would kick-start the franchise. Clearly, I was wrong and now there's only a few players from that team even left in the league. Still, it was certainly fun while it lasted, and that's why reading Meyer's stories about it are fun, too.

Isn't this just the most boring time of year? Right when the Pirates were getting really fun to watch, we have to take three days off. I'm working on the mid-season stuff to keep churning out over the next couple days, but tonight I'll be liveblogging the Home Run Derby over at FanHouse . Sure the derby is kind of long, but it can still be a lot of fun. Besides, what else are you going to watch tonight? You can feel free to hop over there and talk in the comments (it's kind of a pain to comment over there, but oh well) or use this thread to talk about the derby.

Taking my good old time over the All-Star Break to review the first half of 2007. This will have a few parts. Like, at least three and maybe more. Jason Bay: If Jason Bay's clutchness wasn't such a touchy and hotly debated topic 'round these parts, I'd probably refer to Jason as "Jason May" all the time. For the second straight year he had a gigantic month of May, going .336/.403/.536 for the month, picking up a player of the week award along the way. Since then he's been frigid and getting colder all the time, bringing him to his current .766 OPS at the break. He's got to hit better than this, plain and simple. His slugging percentage is lower than Adam LaRoche's at the moment. Think about that. Right now he's the fourth best hitter on the team behind Nady, Doumit, and LaRoche. Unacceptable. Careerwise, his numbers have been better in the second half than the first, so I'm sure the numbers will even out over time, but this has been painful...

Welcome back to the party, Jason. After a month in which he looked roundly clueless at the plate, Bay had a homer to dead center today and four RBIs to help the Pirates to a series closing win over the Cubbies. Shane Youman did his Shane Youman thing, not pitching particularly well, but keeping the Pirates in the lead and picking up his second win in as many starts. While it's always nice for the players to get some down time for the break, this is coming at a pretty bad time for the Pirates since they've won 9 of 13 and are getting pretty solid offensive contributions from just about everyone on the team. I have to think some part of them has to want to just keep playing right now while they're on a roll

Shane Youman and Carlos Zambrano, already underway at PNC this afternoon with the Pirates down 1-0. A win sends them into the break at eight games below .500

I have a wedding and such to go to today (not my own), so the gamethread's gotta go up early. Ted Lily and John Van Benschoten in this one with the Pirates hoping to keep a four game winning streak alive and maybe even get JVB his first win in almost three years at the major league level. The offense is really rolling at this point and I think if Jason Bay and Adam LaRoche every started hitting at the same time as Xavier Nady and Freddy Sanchez, we'd have a Minnesota Twins type day . Probably too much to hope for. I'll stick with hoping for maybe three of the four to click at once.

From the PG today : "The one thing I do want to stress is that I really am supportive of and committed to the direction the team is headed," Nutting said. "I believe that the plan we have in place is a good one. And the last thing Dave or Jim Tracy or this team needs is speculation about what's going to happen. What they need is to be able to stay focused and turn in a great second half of baseball." Does he mean a.) I'm really happy with the things that have happened since I've taken over as owner, such as visiting the Dominican Republic, Kevin McClatchy being shown the door, and the like, or does he mean b.) I really think Dave and Jim have this team moving in the right direction and Dave has a lot of vision as to how this team is going to get to the next level and I am excited about that. I hope it's A, but I'm not holding my breath. Oh, and while we're at it, Zach Duke won't be going under the knife this year , which is surprising an...

Sheesh, this team is on a roll right now. After being carried by Adam LaRoche for a week, Freddy Sanchez and Xavier Nady stepped up last night to help the team to eight runs and a relatively easy win over the scorching hot Cubs. Paul Maholm had yet another solid outing, marred only by Shawn Chacon allowing two inherited runners to score in the eighth, and knocked in two runs on his own to help things along. The Pirates have now won eight of eleven since the interleague play nightmare ended. Of course the most impressive part of those eight wins have been the last four over the Brewers and Cubs. How long can the Pirates keep this play up? With JVB and Shane Youman making the last two starts in the series, I suppose we'll see.

The Brewers ran into an Adam LaRoche buzzsaw and the Pirates managed to take three of four from the division leaders ( could this have had anything to do with it? ) which was all-in-all fun to watch and pretty damn surprising. But the road isn't getting any easier for the Buccos because the Cubbies follow the Brewers into PNC and they're playing every bit as well as Milwaukee is right now, if not better. Jason Marquis and Paul Maholm face off tonight in the series opener as Maholm looks to keep his recent streak of competent pitching alive. The Cubs, meanwhile, are only 4.5 games back of Milwaukee and can make things very interesting with a series win or a sweep over the Pirates this weekend heading into the break. Greg Brown and company will probably try to tell you it's a big series for the Pirates, but they're wrong, it's a huuuuge series for the Cubs.

Is this news ? Hard to say. If Bob Nutting hires a real baseball man as the next CEO, it would be hard to say that it's a bad move for the team. One would assume that a real baseball man as CEO would not be pleased with Dave Littlefield as the GM. If Bob Nutting hires, say, himself or his brother or some kind of business or newspaper man as the next CEO, well, things won't get better. I already posted a take on it at the Fanhouse , so you can check that out as well. As I noted there, many will certainly claim that the protest was a success because of this. I think this is probably a move that's been in the works for a long time, like, since Nutting became the official owner back in January (which is what McClatchy says). I suppose we'll learn more about this as time goes on.

And the Adam LaRoche show continues. He added three more hits, a double and two homers, to his recent tear and Ryan Doumit added his second homer in as many days (LaRoche and Doumit have now hit five in the past two games) to help the Pirates to a relatively easy 6-3 win over Ben Sheets today. Gorzelanny made another solid start to get his ninth win, Tracy bailed him out early (didn't let him start the eighth with 100 pitches), and Capps and Chacon held down the eighth and ninth innings for the win. Who are these guys?

Fire up your radios for this 12:35 start and get ready for Greg Brown to tell you that this is the most important game the Pirates will play all year. Tom Gorzelanny will face off against Brewers ace Ben Sheets in what would be the NL's version of Verlander vs. Sabathia if the Pirates didn't suck so much. Sheets has always pitched well against us despite his lackluster 6-7 record, which is due more to the people around him sucking than anything. Gorzo is making his last start before the whole "final vote" thing ends and while I'd love to push him and tell you to vote for him, Chris Young is winning and deserves it more, and I'd be lying if I said Chris Young sticking it to DL and making the All-Star game over Gorzo wouldn't bring me just a little bit of happiness. Jason Bay is back in the lineup today, but batting sixth. If he keeps slumping, LaRoche is going to catch him in every important stat soon. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.

Ian Snell is a beast. That's all there is to it. He's becoming one of those guys that if you don't get to him the first time around, you don't get to him at all. The first three Brewer hitters got to him today, and he slammed the door shut after that. That wall he used to hit after the fifth or sixth inning is gone and he cruised through eight today, giving up nothing after the three-run homer to Ryan Braun in the first. I'm practically gushing. He gets better every time out. I can't believe he's not an All-Star. Of course he couldn't do it by himself. Once you give the other team a 3-0 head start, someone has to step up the bats and get the Buccos some runs. Ryan Doumit and Adam LaRoche provided the fireworks (see what I did there, it's the Fourth of July and I called home runs fireworks, I'm so clever) at the plate with a two-run homer apiece that made a 3-1 Brewers lead (we scored once on a Nate McLouth triple and Jose Bautista sac fly) into a...

Ian Snell and Claudio Vargas are going at it at four today in front of a crowd that is almost certainly there for the Big & Rich concert. You'll probably be grilling big slabs of meat and blowing stuff up because it's the Fourth of July. I don't need to insult Ian today, just remind him that not only was he snubbed for the All-Star game, but for the Final Vote as well. That should be more than enough motivation for him. Happy Fourth of July everyone.

You guys are never going to believe this. Se an Burnett has elbow discomfort and is going to see Dr. James Andrews to get a second opinion on his arm. Stuff like that never happens to Pirate pitchers, right? OK, this really isn't that funny, or at least I'm sure it isn't to Burnett. But it does go to show just how right Zach Duke was to give the finger to the Pirates' doctors and get the second opinion right off the bat. Burnett was having trouble last month and the doctors told him he was fine and to rest his arm a bit. He tried to come back and things haven't gone well and now he's getting another opinion. To quote some Scrubs ... are the Pirates' doctors real doctors, or are they doctors like Dr. Pepper is a doctor? That all being said, I think Dejan is right when he says Burnett's career is in jeopardy right now. If he's got another major elbow problem and has to have another major surgery, he'll be 26 or 27 before he can even get back to AA...

I don't like to say that the Pirates won this one as much as the Brewers completely lost it. If I didn't know better (hell, I don't know better), I would think today's game was fixed. They dropped every fly ball, misplayed everything hit at them, I don't even know how to describe how ugly it was. They looked like the '62 Mets rather than the best team in the NL. I was embarrassed for them. The best thing that happened during the whole game for them was Prince Fielder hit a pop-up and assaulted a Gatorade cooler. Meanwhile for the Pirates, Shane Youman did what he normally does, which is not strike people out, but not give up many hits or many runs either. He got his first big-league win today, so congrats to him on that one. I will never, ever call him "Sugar Shane" Youman ever in my life, though. I hate Greg Brown. If that nickname catches on, I dunno, I'll light myself on fire or something. The offensive stars in this one for us were Bill Hall, ...

Honestly, that's the only reason I can think of that LIVE was invited to PNC Park for this concert today. Are they they the Clarks? Are they the Poverty Neck Hillbillies? Are they Donnie Iris? Are they a currently popular and relevant band? No, no, no, and no. So how else could the Pirates have picked them for the concert today? Especially after the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes fiasco last year? The only reason can possibly be that the Pirate marketing department is trying to take us back to 1994 when Throwing Copper was released and the Pirates were only in year 2 of the rebuilding process. Also- Shane Youman takes the mound for us and Chris Capuano makes his return from the DL for the Brewers. This one kicks off at 4:05 and it is on TV if you are lucky and don't have a real job like me. I'll probably hang around in the comments to talk about it if it stays interesting.

Consistently in the past five years, there has never been a Pirate that loved being a Pirate more than Salomon Torres. Getting a second chance from a franchise when a league has left you for dead will do that to a person. Whenever the trade rumors inevitably swirl around him in July, he always says he loves being a Pirate and doesn't want to leave. Well, that's all changed now . Not surprisingly, Torres was very offended when we didn't use his baseball academy in the Dominican (that was a stupid thing for us to do, I can't even put into words how stupid it was) and he filed a grievance in the spring over it. Now he feels that his slow rehab is payback for that grievance. If it is, well, you've seen the bullpen. I can't explain how incredibly pathetic it would be to carry out a grudge in a way that has hurt the team so badly. Hidden somewhere in this story is a lesson to all ballplayers to not negotiate with idiot jackasses like Dave Littlefield without an agent....

So, yesterday Zach Duke went to Allegheny General and had that fun test done where they shoot his arm up with dye and if any of the dye leaks, there's a ligament tear and he needs TJ surgery. And the fine doctors at AGH told the Duke that he was fine and his ligament isn't torn and he doesn't need surgery. And Duke seemed OK with that for a bit. And then Duke decided that wasnt good enough for him, so he's going to see Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham for a second opinion. Duke says he's being cautious, but part of me thinks back to Mike Gonzalez, his clean arthogram last fall, and his TJ surgery this year. I don't know anything about the test or how accurate it is, or even if Gonzo's injury last fall is related to his injury this year. Tom Gorzelanny did have the same test at the same time as Gonzo and he seems to be fine. Maybe Duke is just being safe. Or maybe he thinks there's something seriously wrong with his arm. I suppose we'll find out.

Something about watching Masumi Kuwata stand on the mound and turn a 3-3 game into a 10-3 game was really, really disheartening. There was just nothing there and for some reason, Tracy and co. expected something to be there. Damien Miller's second half is already better than his first half, and it's because of the Pirates. He came into last night with one homer and 10 RBIs, he left with three and 17. How does that even happen? What an ugly, ugly game. This is what happens when we play teams that are much better than us. The beat the crap out of us. Also, I'd like to welcome John Van Benschoten to the, "I just threw a quality start and watched it get destroyed by someone that wouldn't be in the major leagues if the Pirates didn't have a team this year," club.

Don't let everyone fool you; the Pirates will not play another important series this year. You can read stuff like this in the PG , but I'll keep saying what I've been saying all year, the Pirates are a bad team. Even if we sweep the Brewers this week, we're eight games back with three to go before the All-Star break. That's not a thing to be excited about. The Pirates won 67 games last year. They are on pace to win 70 this year. You can tell yourself that's a key improvement if you like, but it's not getting us into October. Maybe the Pirates will go five games above .500 after the break, but there's absolutely no evidence that this is a second half team. The Pirates were outscored 323 to 280 after the break. The winning record was nice and it was what counts in the end, but the team's ability to reproduce it is suspect at best. I'm not trying to be negative, just trying to refocus everything here in the light of the propaganda from the team tha...

I don't know how many of you read the Fanhouse on a daily basis, or read it beyond what I post over there. I'm sure some of you do and lots of you don't and whichever it is is fine. I'm not trying to force the Fanhouse on anyone or anything, but I will say that every day MJD writes a column called The Debriefing which is probably my favorite morning (when I wake up in the morning) sports read. And today, he used the column to single out the Pirates' ownership and the problem they've created for baseball . It's a great read and while it won't be anything new to any of you, it's proof that to at least some extent, the walkout on Saturday had some kind of effect. When I said that it failed, I was talking more about my observation of the people that did or didn't walk out, what they were saying, and how into it they seemed to be. That was depressing to me. But I think a lot of the truth is that the people that would've walked out five years ago...

Might as well lump these two things together, right? Zach Duke is going on the DL retroactive to his last start in Florida and he's going to AGH today to get his arm checked out. He's hopeful, I'm not. Shane Youman will take his slot in the rotation. Sean Burnett will presumably mope about it. If the results of his test come online today, I'll make sure to post them. Meanwhile, Freddy Sanchez is our all-star . I like Freddy and everything, but what a load of crap. I know he's been hot this year, but all he really does is hit singles right now. He's only sluggling .375 and he's only getting on at a .331 clip. That's not an all-star. Tom Gorzelanny made the "final vote" where he will be trounced by four players whose fans' care much more than the Pirates' fans do. Ian Snell was left off of everything completely. That will probably piss him off. At least I hope it does. And if you needed proof that ballot-box stuffing happens, I give you ...

Talk about punchless, sheesh. Mike Bacsik shut us down today and besides Adam LaRoche, it seemed like no one could get anything going against the guy. LaRoche banged out half of our six hits to give him five in two days and get his average up to what I have to think is a season high .230. Beyond that, only Nady, Castillo, and Paulino had hits and we went down tamely in the series finale to drop their half-season record to 35-46, or just about right on pace with their 67 win seasons in the past two years. We wasted another nice outing from Paul Maholm in which he only gave up three runs and struck out five in seven innings. A sweep in this series would've been nice, but I suppose it was just too much to ask for.