Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

We're a week or so from the annual GM meetings, where Dave Littlefield will undoubtedly be trying to do SOMETHING. So what will he do? It's tough to say right now, but I do have some thoughts at the moment that I wish he'd keep in mind this offseason. Right now he should be convincing Mark Redman of the attractiveness of being a free-agent. While it's possible he comes out and has a great April/May next year and we can trade him for something useful, it's also likely that he comes out and sucks something awful and we're stuck with his salary. Hell, even if we can trade him we probably have to hope for Jody Gerut at best. If he opts out it can make things a lot easier and we can give his rotation spot to someone that actually deserves it. If you're seriously going to put thought into signing someone like Jacque Jones or Preston Wilson, ask yourself if paying them $5 million+ a year is going to get you more production than you could get in right field ...

I thought that Oakland's farewell/welcome back of Ken Macha would be the strangest going-on of the offseason. It very well may be, but now at least there is a challenger. Back at the beginning of the month we hired Jim Tracy. Tracy was available because of his disagreements with Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta, who was hired by the team's new owner, Frank McCourt. That's perfectly normal, new owners often bring in new GMs, and more often than not a new GM will want his own manager, someone who views baseball in the same light that they do. Except that now DePodesta's been fired. So what does this have to do with Tracy? Probably nothing, to be honest. Bill Plaschke (who from what I can understand is LAs version of Smizik) will crow about how this is what DePodesta deserved for cutting Tracy free blah blah stat geek blah blah nerd blah blah blah. The truth is, any owner that fires a GM after two seasons, one of which was a division championship and another of which was marred ...

So baseball is officially over for the year. With no postseason left to talk about, my blogging will probably get a little lighter for the time being. Of course I'll weigh in with opinions about Hot Stove stuff as it happens as well as anything else that pops up into my head to write about during the offseason. I probably won't post every day, but I'd say you can count on at least a few new postings every week. I may also try some cosmetic changes to blog, maybe see if I can make it a little more "Pirate-friendly." The Pirates announced yesterday that they would be keeping their announcing team the same for next year, meaning that Blass and Wehner got new contracts (their contracts were up, everyone else was signed through 2006). That's generally not a bad thing, as I do like the Pirates announcers, though Blass and Wehner are my least favorites. Blass just has a tendency to not really pay attention to the game at all as it happens while Wehner has some decen...

Here's a list of everyone that can file for free agency this offseason. You'll find no more stellar a list than Brian Meadows, Jose Mesa, Rick White, Mark Redman, and Daryle Ward.

Congrats to the 2005 World Series Champions, the Chicago White Sox. They were the best team all year, and they were far and away the best team in the post-season. They somehow dominated a series that they only outscored the Astros by 6 total runs in (maybe because when you hit as poorly as the Astros you never seem like you're in a game when you're behind). South Side Sox has more, if you're looking for a Chicago perspective. One other quick note, I was very disappointed in Phil Garner in this series. I've never really been impressed by his game-managing skills, but he was downright awful handling his pitching staff in this series, then ignored that fact and tossed his team under the bus after Game 3 ("I'm very disappointed and frustrated right now" and "We wouldn't have scored if this thing went 40 innings," stuff like that). You can manage poorly and that's fine, but nothing gets to me more than a manager disparraging his team in publi...

For a 3-0 World Series, every game has been really close. This reminds me of the 2000 Subway Series, the Yankees beat the Mets 4-1 but no one won a game by more than 2 runs. Anyways, throughout the duration of the game I learned a lot of things (instead of Biochemistry, which I was supposed to be learning). Not only is FOX shamelessly self-promotional, they keep track of how many times they promote their own shows (it was something like 24 times during the first 12 innings, and by the way, don't forget to check out the new season of 24!). The Astros offense might be worse than the Pirates. From the bottom of the 9th through the bottom of the 14th, White Sox pitchers walked 8 batters. Keep that in mind when you hear about what a lights out job their bullpen did in this World Series. The truth is, they were awful last night, some of them couldn't throw a strike to save their lives. The Astros offense was just that bad. The Florida Panthers have more black players than...

If I had to pick one pitcher from either team to start me a game down 0-2 it'd be Roy Oswalt. The way he carried that team in St. Louis in game six of the NLCS after the Pujols game was damn impressive. I do think Bud Selig should keep his hands off when it comes to the roof at Minute Maid (is he going to tell Roger Clemens the roof has to be open if there's a Game 5 and he doesn't want to pitch on his bad hammy in 60 degree weather? No, he's not, so he shouldn't do it now). Bottom line, it's the Astros field and it's called home field advantage for a reason and the 'Stros should be able to do what they want with it. It's amazing how often the MLB manages to stick it's foot in its mouth. Questionable umpiring has had an undeniable affect on this post-season (you know how I feel about the Doug Eddings/Josh Paul play, but you can't deny that the umpiring had an effect on that play even if you think Josh Paul screwed up just as badly like I do...

Looks like I'm a bit behind on Pirate related news here, sometimes being a student by day, Pirate-blogger by night doesn't always mesh well. In terms of importance, we'll go with the Dave Williams first, as he signed a contract yesterdayish for next year to avoid arbitration in the spring. It's worth about a million and a half, which is fine with me, especially if he's our 4th or 5th starter next year instead of our 2nd or 3rd starter, as he was much of this year. With the signing of Williams though, one has to begin wondering what Littlefield and Tracy have planned for next year's rotation. Zach Duke is a lock and one would think Oliver Perez is as well, barring any setbacks this winter. Paul Maholm will get a long look, but some of his numbers (especially his K/BB ratio) weren't as good as his stellar ERA indicated. I wouldn't be surprised to see him start next year in AAA. Tracy has brought up Kip Wells repeatedly since his hiring, so unless he and ...

Scott Podsednik. Wow. Brad Lidge must be hurt. On the bright side, we won't have to hear Garner get universally lauded for the mentally challenged move of bringing up Vizcaino to pinch hit with the game on the line in the top of the 9th, then tying the game on a single and a great slide by Chris Burke. On the other hand, I didn't get what the huge (no pun intended) deal was about Jenks. Yeah, he throws hard, but his numbers this year weren't mind-blowing or anything. Did I mention Brad Lidge must be hurt? I mean being owned by Jack Wilson is one thing, giving upthat bomb to Pujols is entirely different, but a walk-off to Scott Podsednik? The guy hit ZERO homers this year. I wonder if Lidge is headed into Robb Nen territory . Also, the Jermaine Dye phantom hit by pitch call in the 7th was a more damaging call than the Doug Eddings/Josh Paul call. Despite Eddings wrong call, Paul could have easily rectified the situation. Awarding Dye first base when the ball CLEARLY hit his ...

Blogger has been going crazy today and I'm not sure why, so there's double posts, posts not showing up, etc. etc.

Well, if Game 1 is any indication, we're in for a pretty good series I think. The cold Chicago weather really got to Clemens stiff hammy last night, leading to the first ever World Series appearance by someone with the first name of Wandy. Wandy actually pitched pretty well, giving up only one run. Too bad for him that one run was the deciding homer off the bat of post-season superman Joe Crede (who also turned in no less than three stellar, possibly run saving plays in the field as if to say, "Come on, really, how did you guys give the ALCS MVP to Konerko?"). The game actually came down to the two points I had made before the first pitch (which rarely happens), the Sox bullpen and Bagwell. Chicago's pen was actually quite the opposite of rusty with Cotts and Jenks turning in 5 strike outs in seven batters faced. Jenks helped prove why I was rooting for Ozzie Guillen this whole post-season, so I could watch him do things like signal for Jenks by putting his arms out, ...

Tonight's game 1 will center on a couple questions, whether Ozzie made a mistake by letting his pitchers throw four complete games and whether Garner is making a mistake letting Bagwell DH. I don't think the White Sox should worry about too much rest for their starters, unless it's an extreme amount of time rest is generally a good thing for the starters. The question is whether the extreme amount of rest their bullpen has had is too much, and I think it might be. Only one reliever threw at all in the ALCS and that was in Game 1. Before the ALCS they also had a layoff since the swept the DS. That means it's been almost 2 weeks since any White Sox reliever has seen any kind of significant work. I understand that winning games is paramount in the postseason, but it's not like Ozzie has Rick White and John Grabow to choose from in his pen. Jenks, Politte, Hermanson, and Cotts have all been very good this year. I could be completely off base here, but I think it's s...

I won't lie, I'm excited about this series. I've watched a lot of both teams, and they were the teams I was rooting for in each league. Instead of big bats like last year, we get the big arms this year (which I actually prefer to watch). If we're talking who I'm rooting for here, it's close, but it's the Astros. They have Bagwell and Biggio, they're from the Central (and they aren't the Cards), and of course, they're managed by Ol' Scrap Iron himself, the 2005 incarnation of Chuck Tanner (at least as a manager). Still, the White Sox have Ozzie, and how can you root against Ozzie? And if the Sox win, it would really make Cubs fans angry, that's always fun too. Plus, does anyone really "like" Roger Clemens? Still, the tiebreaker has to go to Houston since their mayor proclaimed this weekend "No Socks Weekend" in which all residents are asked to not wear socks. Which is waaay better than making a stupid bet with the may...

I wanted to put a post up yesterday afternoon about how if the Astros had any chance at all they needed an amazing outing from Oswalt if they were going to have any chance at all. Things that are way beyond my control kept me from getting to my computer yesterday, so you can either take my word for it or you can just think I'm full of crap (which I'm sure some of you do anyways). Either way, it was pretty clear last night why no pitcher in the NL has won more games than Roy Oswalt over the last two years. He placed his hard fastball with laser precision and used it to set up his braking ball when needed, which was rarely. Simply put, no one was beating Roy Oswalt last night. By the time the game got the the 7th inning the Cards were the dead team walking, lead by Jim Edmonds and his Tike Redman impersonation in center field. The Astros needed a start by Oswalt that kept the Cardinals down and let them get a lead, and he did just that. Mulder reverted to last year's second h...

People are throwing around words like "Greatest non-World Series playoff homer ever" to describe Pujols homer. I think we need to wait on the hyperbole until the series is over. If the Astros win tomorrow is it greater than the Henderson homer in '86? Nope. Is it greater than David Ortiz's Game 4 homer against the Yankees last year? Nope. If the Cards win the series, then we're talking. We're talking because it would be such a momentum swing against one of the game's best closers, a pitcher that's been almost unhittable in the playoffs the last two years, especially against the Cards. Because everyone expected him to do it and he still did it. But it only goes there if the Cardinals win the next two games.

Wow. I still can't describe last nights Cards/Astros Game 5. Being not a huge LaRussa or Cardinals fan and someone that's always begrudgingly admired Biggio and Bagwell, I've been cheering for the Astros this post-season, and especially this series. I like Phil Garner, how can any Pirate fan not? So, I was on the edge of my seat in the 9th inning last night. I seriously think the crowd at Minute Maid was the most excited I've ever seen a group of baseball fans get, at least recently (I remember seeing Joe Carter's homer, but not the fan reaction). When Eckstein punched that single through the infield and took second on catcher's indifference, I started to worry a little bit. Why? Because I was afraid they'd pitch around Edmonds to get to Pujols. Which was just what they did. When Pujols did what he did, it was about as unsurprising as Tommy Maddox doing what he did on Sunday, there was just no avoiding it. So now the question comes, does momentum exist? I do...

Here's a shocker, Brian Bullington will be out for longer than expected . Raise your hand if you saw that one coming. Raises hand, looks around room, sees many other raised hands. Also, Seth Stohs of sethspeaks.com has kindly pointed me to an interview he recently did with Minnesota Twins second round draft pick Kevin Slowey, a Pittsburgh native. I think my favorite part was reading about how my school (Duquesne) had no interest in this kid who ended up being a top prospect for Winthrop in South Carolina. It's not like our baseball team couldn't have used the help. Our most famous baseball alumni is Joe Beimel at the moment. Yeah, that Joe Beimel . Anyways, since this guy is only about a year older than me, he's got a lot of the same Pirate memories. His though on the early 90s: Well, I was still a little dude during the early 1990's, but I do remember the playoff titles and a normal sized Barry Bonds , Bobby Bonilla , and Andy Van Slyke leading the ...

Well, of all the things I thought I'd see this season, the Chicago White Sox going to the World Series wasn't one of them. I was one of the people that laughed at Ozzie-ball all year, at first saying the Twins would catch them, then chiming in with everyone in the world who thought the Indians were certainly going to catch them down the stretch. Towards the end of the season though, as they played the Indians (I happened to be home that weekend and was able to catch the final two games of their sweep of the Tribe) something dawned on me. All year I didn't want to see the White Sox win because I thought their brand of small ball was useless and futile. I hated hearing people like Joe Morgan tell me that the White Sox were a great team because of all their bunting and hitting and running and stealing. After watching Scott Podsednik in Milwaukee I refused to believe he was that important to anyone. Now, if you read this blog regularly you know I'm not exactly a Beane-nik e...

Things have kind of slowed down since we hired Tracy, so I don't have a lot to say. Today in the PG they publish the list of every manager we've hired with prior Major League experience . Danny Murtaugh doesn't count, apparently. Not only is the list not impressive at all, it's also filled with inaccuracies. Like this one: Donie Bush, 1927-29 Perhaps no manager in history -- other than Clarke -- had as successful a rookie season with the Pirates. He was hired in 1927 and promptly led them to a 94-60 record and a World Series victory over his old team -- the Washington Senators. Pirates record: 246-178. Who can find the error? The Bucs didn't play the Senators in the '27 Series, they played the Murderers' Row Yankees . And they definitely didn't win. So good luck Jim Tracy, you have Chuck Tanner, Donie Bush, and a bunch of clowns to live up to (OK, Frankie Frisch was alright). There's also a boring piece about the life of Jim Tracy . I rea...

Two games into each LCS and I haven't changed my feelings about either one. The White Sox are going to take a ton of momentum into Anaheim after that call and I still feel like they're the better team without Colon pitching for the Angels. As for "the call" all I'm going to say is this, even if there was replay I'm not sure there was indisputable evidence to change that call, it was way too tough to tell. By football's standard, the call on the field would stand. As for the whole hand motion thingy, Josh Paul had flipped the ball back to the pitcher before any of it went on behind him (which he couldn't have seen anyways). Did the whole thing look funny? Yes. Should the Angels have known better anyways? Yes. Did Pierzynski do a great job selling it? Sure he did. Do I think there's some vast conspiracy to screw the Angels or that this play proves that baseball's system is seriously screwed up? No. Paul screwed up as bad as Eddings did, that'...

Tanner and Russell are out . Russell, I'm not so surprised about. I thought maybe Tracy would keep Tanner around since the bullpen wasn't AWFUL (well, Mesa was, but no one could help that, it wasn't Tanner's fault Lloyd kept calling for the Table) and to keep some Western PA connections in his coaching staff, you know, a familiar face for the fans that don't trust the new guy. Then again, I guess we don't trust the old guys either. We don't know much else about the new coaching staff, except that Jim Lett will be on it, either as bench coach or third base coach (he was Tracy's bench coach in LA but Glenn Hoffman, Tracy's thirdbase coach in LA, may not come with him). Also joining the Jim convention will be Jim Colborn, filling the capacity of pitching coach, as he did in LA. The Big Jim says he wants to get the staff filled in as quickly as possible, presumably when more people named Jim become available.

Now this is strange. The A's bloggers , meanwhile, are less than pleased. Really, this is strange. I was hearing the Macha was going to be blackballed by everyone for a year for asking for too much money, that the A's were looking into Hershiser, lots of things. In fact, if I had to make a list of a million things that were going to happen to Macha, this wouldn't have been close to making the list. Did Macha and Beane have a deal that would let him talk to the Pirates, then bring him back if he didn't get the job?

It was 45 years ago today... Yep, the greatest home run in baseball history. I guess that claim is debatable, but it shouldn't be. The 1960 Pirates are the team that keeps giving us modern Pirates fans hope. Are you paying attention Jack Wilson? The best part about this is that it's a lot better than what Pirates fans are usually reminded of at this time of year. You know, that thing that happened exactly 13 years ago tomorrow. Ugh.

Said sugar, make it slow And we'll come together fine All we need is just a little patience... patience... Ooh, oh, yeah Great point by Rowdy today at HW. Watching the Pirates last year, they were one of the least patient baseball teams I'd ever seen. Most of the hitters couldn't wait to swing at the first thing they got close to, most of the pitchers couldn't wait for the the ball to be put in play so they went for the strike out. Some of our fielders couldn't wait to get off the field and made routine plays look adventurous, or worse (looking at you here, Tike Redman and Jose Castillo). If Tracy can do one thing it's to preach patience. We were the youngest team in the league for a lot of last year, and we certainly played like it. Of course patience may be something Tracy will need himself, because we aren't like the Dodgers teams he's managed. A lot of patience, at the plate, on the mound, and in the field, will go a lot longer towards the extr...

Tracy keeps making it harder and harder for me to trust him. Today's PG article talks about his goal to "waste no outs." If that means play good, fundamental defense and don't give the team other outs in the field, I'm all for it. I'm afraid that's not what it means. He's talking, of course, about "productive outs," more or less the stupidest statistic ever invented. An out, in itself, is counter productive. A groundout that moves a runner from second to first is still a ground out. The top three teams in the Majors in productive outs in 2004 (the list appears to be from 2005 due to the presence of the Nats, but it's dated 2004 and Sean Burnett is on the players list so I guess ESPN changed it's team links sitewide) were the Expos, the Rockies, and the Pirates. On the "Jim Tracy or Paul Meyer or possibly both are clinically insane" front, Tracy's Dodgers, the 2004 version which the PG cites as such a good model for th...

OK, day 2 of the Tracy analyzing is complete. After day one I felt cautiously optimistic. After day two I'd say that I just feel cautious. It certainly seems like the communication from the manager's office to the players will improve. This can only be a good thing. I remember Matt Lawton saying last June he hadn't spoken to McClendon yet. Of course I also remember Matt Lawton saying Lloyd McClendon was the best manager he ever played for about a month later. I also remember thinking when we traded Lawton for Gerut that we lost a guy with a mental handicap for a guy with a physical one, and that given the way Lawton played for us, it was probably a good thing. And I'm not the least bit worried about the Tracy/DePodesta fall out. I've said it already, Tracy and Littlefield think similarly and get along, that's why Tracy was hired. We don't need to worry about Littlefield wanting Eldred in the games and Tracy playing ** insert random offseason acquisition her...

OK, now that I'm off the pitching soapbox, this column about how Tracy wants to be like the Cardinals because of their intangibles is downright awful, which means it's time for me to play devil's advocate with myself. The last column (pitching is the universal proven winner, if Tracy can develop the pitching we can win) will be my pro-Tracy column. This one will be anti-Tracy. They won last year because of their Murderer's Row and they won this year because they added Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter had an amazing year, and they could still pencil that Pujols guy into the middle of the lineup. Albert Pujols is not the scariest hitter in the NL and maybe all of the league because he "hits the ball through the hole on a hit-and-run and it's first and third and nobody out." He's the scariest hitter in the NL because he had an OPS of 1.039 and more specifically a SLG of .609. There's nothing more maddening than an ill-timed hit and run or steal attempt, ...

The Jim Tracy situation, both here and in LA, has sparked a lot of debate about "Moneyball" vs. "Old School." This of course got me thinking about the whole thing, which resulted in the following monster of a post. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to bash either side of the argument, or even trying to pick sides. I'm just seeing a reason to stay positive about Tracy when it seems like a lot of people very quickly are going negative. I read Moneyball about two years ago along with the rest of the free world and was very intrigued by the concept of looking beyond traditional stats to find value players that no one else would see (Scott Hatteberg, etc), but I also wondered if maybe too big a deal was being made because the team on which this so called revolution was taking place had the Big Three in their rotation. Not in a Joe Morgan type way, mind you, but in a typical analytical thought process. Still, Beane's model seemed made sense on a small market sc...

There's your lead image on Pirates.com right now, Jim Tracy, the 37th manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. And everyone is thinking that we probably should've given him a uniform with some black sleeves because he looks goofy with white shirtsleeves under our white uni vest. I'll be the first to admit, I wanted Macha. Maybe it was for selfish reasons (my uncle knows Macha so I could've angled for a WHYGAVS exclusive interview), or maybe it was his record with cheap budgeted teams and young players in Oakland. Still, it's hard to be disappointed as it seems like Lloyd McClendon was fired because Dave Littlefield found out about a month ago Tracy was going to be available (remember how the Tracy rumor immediately surfaced?) And it's hard to be disappointed with a guy that's only a year removed from a division title and with such a good record in Los Angeles, no matter what the budget on those teams were (as the Yankees proved, money isn't everything in base...

I do have thoughts on Jim Tracy, but I need some time before I can organize them and get them posted. That means it's time for the next best thing... FILLER! At least it's on relevant material, the LCS's start today and the Yankees and Red Sox are nowhere to be seen. And what the hell, I was 4-for-4 on my Division Series Predictions (I actually even picked all the final series counts right except for the White Sox sweep so I'm either really good or really lucky, I vote lucky), so lets keep this thing going. NLCS In the last 20 years (since the LCS went to 7 games) there's only been three LCS rematches (in consecutive years). One rematch was Yankees and Mariners in 2000-2001. The Yankees were better, everyone knew it, they won both times, yadda yadda yadda. The other two were the Pirates and Braves in the early 90s and the Yankees and Red Sox in the last two years. Both first series had epic first matchups, going 7 games and featuring memorable performances. Both se...

Charlie has a long post about Ian Snell and why he won't be pitching in the AFL. I don't know what Ian Snell has done, but it seems clear that the organization doesn't have any plans for him. He was called up this year with Littlefield declaring he would get a chance to start on the major league level, then was used spottily out of the pen, made two spot starts, and was sent back down. He was then called back up and pitched well in two starts before having the rotation shuffled so he couldn't make his last start. That's gotta be considered the pitchers version of "Craig Wilson treatment." The fact is, he's got a great minor league record and to this point he's been treated like crap by this organization, which may explain his purported "bad attitude." All I know is that we've got a ton of lefties, but Snell is one of the few righties and I think we need to be careful.

Looks like the Pirates are going to have a formal press conference to announce the hiring of Jim Tracy today. This is about as surprising as a freight train, which would also be a good way to describe how subtle Dave Littlefield was in the process. He interviewed a minority candidate, he interviewed a hometown guy, then he hired his guy. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, I'm just not surprised, that's all.

In today's redundant "news" Dave Littlefield is travelling to Houston to meet with Jim Tracy. Gee whiz, isn't that where Tracy's agent is based? Yep, yep it is. Apparently, DL is not coming back to Pittsburgh until after the organizational meetings in Brandenton end, meaning that a formal announcement may not come until the end of the week. But I think we all know where this is headed. If you're looking for something a little different, John Perrotto has an article today about how this is a win-win situation for us, as long as we hire Macha or Tracy. He also goes on to make some Moneyball connections that I'm not sure I completely agree with, but I do think that a manager can be more important than people give them credit for. I guess we'll get to find out this year.

The Cards finished off the Padres last night, making them the second entry into the LCS sweepstakes. As much as I would've like to see the underdog win, it just wasn't going to happen. The Cards impressively steamrolled San Diego, just like they should have, to send a message to the winner of the Astros/Braves series that they're still the top dogs in the NL. The Astros and Braves appeared headed for five games after Houston's 7-1 win last night and Atlanta's 5-1 lead this afternoon (in the 6th). I'm still pulling for the Astros, if only because an all NL Central NLCS will soften the blow of being the only sixth place team in all of baseball. I don't know who's lined up for a Game 5, but I'd assume it would have to be Smoltz for the Braves (on three days rest). And that doesn't bode well for the Astros (though I suppose they'll throw Pettite, which doesn't bode well for the Braves). The Angels will also try to finish off the Yankees tonig...

Lots of stuff at the Post-Gazette today that's Pirates related. Dejan gives out his final grades and proves my point as to why I don't give out letter grades. Look at the relievers numbers and try to figure out how Mesa has a C-, Grabow has a B+, White has a B-, Meadows has a C-, and Vogelsong has a C-. All of their numbers are practically identical, with White being a little better than the group. Mesa failed miserably at his job to "close", thus deserving an F by definition. The hitters grades are similarly random (Jack Wilson C+, Ryan Doumit C, Jose Castillo B-? What's going on here?) If you missed my grades, hitters are here and pitchers are here . Also in the season round up is a long article by Dejan about the direction the Bucs need to go in, an article that has the same suspisicions as I do , that a manager could be hired by tomorrow (complete with the classic quote "I'm available. I'd be happy to come back," from Pete Mackanin, who w...

And in dramatic fashion, too. As I'm sure most of you know by now, the Astros and Braves played an absolute classic 18 inning marathon today which saw the Astros coming back from a 6-1 deficit in the bottom of the 8th with a Berkman grand slam and then a bottom of the 9th, two out homer by Brad Ausmus. Then maybe the greatest bullpen showing in playoff baseball history took place (actually, it was already in progress as starting in the 5th when the Houston pen came in to relieve Backe and pitching an amazing 13 and 2/3rds giving up only one run) with matching zeros being tossed up left and right from the 10th inning through the top of the 18th. The highlight was Roger Clemens, who's been hurt and getting hit by everyone including the Pirates, pitching three scoreless, one hit innings on only two days rest (and looking he had as many more in him as it was going to take). The hero? Well, besides Minute Made Park (which turned a Berkman fly-out into a grandslam and may have done t...

Macha- tomorrow, Tracy- Monday . The Pirates organizational meetings begin Tuesday in Bradenton and I'd look for a manager to be hired by then, though that's just a hunch. If I had to guess, I'd still be guessing Tracy, though Macha's good history with young players on a low budget team in Oakland seems, at least to me, to make him the better candidate. We'll know soon.

Baseball has it's first semi-finalist and it's not the Sox that most people thought it would be. When I made my predictions I picked the White Sox to win, but they were way more impressive in that sweep than I thought. In fact, those of you with good memories probably remember me picking them to lose in the division series back in early September, then lumping them into the category of teams I didn't think had a chance just a little over a week ago. And yeah, outside of this blog I was certain the Indians were going to overtake them for the AL Central title. Still, they held things together and suddenly have me rethinking my statement that the winner of the Yankees/Angels series is going to the World Series. Yeah, this Red Sox team is nothing like the team that won the World Series last year, but they ain't the Pirates either. Of course, best of all is the fact that for the first time in a couple years the ALCS won't be Red Sox and Yankees. That's something w...

Dave Littlefield will interview Ken Macha sometime soon, says today's PG. As I said in one of the comment threads below, I think Macha will have to have a really outstanding interview to overtake Tracy in DL's eyes. It just seems to me that the history between Tracy and Littlefield makes him the clear favorite. Of course, Macha does have a good history working with young players on a low budget team. This most recent team he helmed in Oakland got exponentially better as the year went on, kind of the opposite of what we've come to expect here in Pittsburgh. Interestingly enough, as the article goes on to point out, Littlefield and Tracy were just "talking baseball" in what was thought to be a two hour phone interview the other day. Tracy should be flying into Pittsburgh early next week for a formal interview, though, again, I'd think that the guy that can pal around with the GM and just chat about baseball for two hours is probably the front runner.

Time for some reader response! If Andy Van Slyke does in fact take a job on Jim Leyland's staff in Detroit, do I need to change the name of this blog? You the reader can help determine the future of this blog! Please weigh in with either a "yay" or "nay," if yay you may feel free to suggest a new name, though I'm already kicking a couple around. UPDATE (10/7, 12:27 PM)- By an overwhelming vote, the name will stay. As most people pointed out, it certainly was a rhetorical question (Van Slyke isn't hard to find, it's not like he's a hermit or anything) trying to capture the spirit of those winning teams of the early 90s, as best embodied (in my mind) by Andy Van Slyke. Like I mention in the comments, I really don't want to change the name, I just wanted to get some outside opinions. Thanks for all the help, guys.

Tim McCarver is an awful announcer . From Charlie , by way of Baseball Primer , via Bat-girl . Seems like lots of people are tired of annoucers that get names wrong and lavish praise on guys like Jeter and A-Rod that borders on, well, how 'bout we just stick with "unspeakable sexual acts."

Yeah, I've been watching the playoffs. The only reason I haven't written anything about them is the whole manager situation, which every time I turn around there's more to think about. So two days of playoff baseball are behind us. Here's some thoughts Not only are they barely better than the Brewers, record-wise at least, the Padres got their ace injured in their clubhouse champagne celebration. Any chance they had of winning cracked with Peavy's ribs. This series has "sweep" written all over it. And incidentally, as much as I dislike the Cardinals, it's hard not to root for Reggie Sanders. He's played just about everywhere and made the playoffs just about everywhere (except here) but never won a series. Him getting a ring this year would be the silver lining, kind of like Wakefield last year in Boston. How bout those White Sox? There's going to be a lot made about how the Red Sox are never finished, how they're the best series comeb...

Well, now this article in the PG makes it sound like the only thing Jim Tracy needs to do at this point is show up in Pittsburgh and shake Dave Littlefield's hand, Ken Macha be damned. That's the speculation because other than Fredi Gonzalez (his required minority interview) Littlefield has interview no one else and has no one else scheduled. Macha, however, has hinted at his interest while Tracy's GM has hinted that other teams are interested so Littlefield better be ready to pony up. Meanwhile in Detroit, Jim Leyland is looking to fill his coaching staff up with an amusing collection of Pirates of the early 90s including Don Slaught (hitting coach), Rafael Belliard (infield coach), and in the biggest threat to the name of this blog yet, Andy Van Slyke (first base coach) to go with Lamont and McClendon. What a group, eh?

Jim Tracy did interview today , by phone, with Dave Littlefield for two hours. When asked about Macha Littlefield said he couldn't comment on the situation until he gets permission from Oakland to talk to Macha. I don't quite understand that, maybe Macha is under contract with Oakland until a certain date or something. It does appear that Littlefield's talked with Macha's agent, however, probably in a "So are you gonna give us a hometown break or do I have no shot at you because of my tightass owners?" type conversation. It does look like DL is going to give Macha an interview, so things are suddenly not quite as open and shut as they appeared this afternoon. I'd say that's a good thing. The more quality candidates we can get in here to interview, the better. I'd be nervous about what Detroit did if I was a Tigers fan, firing Trammell and then almost immediately hiring Leyland with no consideration for everyone else. At least we know DL is weighing...

Ken Macha and Oakland have failed to reach a contract based on what Billy Beane called "Compensation issues." Beane says there's no hard feelings, but Macha is a free man. I'm not shocked, but it did seem like they were headed towards a contract earlier this week. Macha's made it pretty clear that he'd like to manage here, though he lacks the Littlefield connection that Tracy has. At the very least I'd say this makes it at least a two-horse race for now, which can only be a good thing.

I posted Plaschke and Simers and their negative opinions earlier, so it's only fair that I link to this blog, FireJimTracy.com . In their first post (almost a year to the day ago), the reason for starting the blog was this: Are you tired of drinking the Kool-Aid for mangerial mediocrity? Does it scare you to pick up the Los Angeles Times, right after Jim Tracy blew yet another game, and read that Ross Newhan is advocating signing Jim Tracy to yet another multi-year contract, subjecting us to another several years of random, seemingly arbitrary mangerial decisions? Since Tracy is going to get his extension (something I’ll discuss in a later post—why Jim Tracy put himself ahead of his team for his own job), I was going to save the debut of this website until April, when we could all sit and watch the 2005 Season unfold, rather than referring to the sins of the past. But when all I see is misinformation, even about a situation as obvious as last night’s, it becomes apparent that thou...

Time for the grades for the pitchers. Actually, I'll be inventing awards and giving them to different pitchers on the team in lieu of the typical ABC scale. If you missed it, the position players are here . The You'd Be Better Off on the Cover of Sports Illustrated Award This one's a tie between Zach Duke and Paul Maholm . I can't imagine a worse fate then being designated the Pirates "ace of the future." It's pretty much a sure thing that either you'll suffer a serious injury (Benson, Burnett) or just completely lose your talent (Kip Wells, Jason Schmidt) or maybe both (Oliver Perez). Actually, Duke and Maholm both exceeded all the expectations we had for them by about a mile this year. I could spend space extolling all their virtues, but I couldn't tell you anything you've already heard. If these two are half as good for a full season as they were for a half season this year, we're certainly going to have something to build on. As long a...

You've all probably noticed that my opinions on Jim Tracy have been noticeably absent thus far, mostly because I didn't really have any. I've done some digging and some thinking and I think I've finally formed an opinion on him. Which probably means the Carlos Tosca era will begin Monday. But here goes anyways: The fact that Tracy managed in LA for 5 years and I know precious little about him besides his falling out with DePodesta is a good thing. Anytime a guy manages in a market that big for that long and remains relatively unknown mostly means he didn't do anything to screw up too badly. Both Bill Plaschke and TJ Simers are not pleased with DePo and McCourt on this one (thanks to lcfplayer in the comments for the Plaschke link, both are LA Times articles so a free registration is required, but it only takes about 5 minutes and it's worth it to read these). True, someone from outside Pittsburgh would read Cook and Smizik and think McClendon was done a ...

Now that Jim Leyland is in Detroit, the parade of failed Pirates managers is soon to follow, the PG reports . Not surprisingly, Gene Lamont is believed to have an out-clause in his contract with the Philles (he's currently managing AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre) to join Leyland if he got a job anywhere, most likely as his trusted sidekick/third base coach. Lloyd McClendon is rumored for the bullpen coach position. The part about this article that intrigues me the most is the Leyland/Pirates dialogue that never took place. Since we made no contact with him from the time McClendon was fired it was mostly assumed we weren't interested. I know I assumed that as did many of the sportswriters and even Leyland himself. But then on Monday, Littlefield called Leyland as he was on his way to Detroit. Then he called him again yesterday, after Leyland accepted the Tigers job . Now, I don't think it's a bad thing that Leyland isn't our manager, don't get me wrong, but something ...