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A couple of days ago, ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick wrote an article about Freddy Sanchez and the odds he's overcome this year. That article caught the eye of the guys at Fire Joe Morgan, who were convinced Crasnick accidentally wrote a "David Eckstein article" about Freddy Sanchez. Dejan also wrote a piece about Freddy and the final leg in his chase for the batting title.
Today being Friday, it's time for Pirates Q&A with DK. After talking about Tracy's inconsistent handling of the young pitching staff this year, someone asks Dejan what we all are wondering, why oh why is this team so good at home and so bad on the road. Dejan tells the writer that he had just asked Tracy the question, and Tracy stunningly responded that the Pirates have not gotten the "situational hits" they need on the road. That answer is so amazingly moronic I'm not sure what to say. The correct answer is, as Kovacevic points out, that the Pirates OBP is .347 at PNC Park and .317 on the road, and that their ERA at PNC is 4.20 while it is 5.25 on the road. Why does this happen? It's hard to say, but it's not some flukey "We don't get clutch hits on the road" type thing. The Pirates haven't been unlucky on the road this year, they've been BAD. The Q&A ends with a reader survey: If you were given a $70 million baseball operations budget, how would you spend it?
And finally, Steeltown Mike has a pool going at his blog wondering on which day the Pirates will lose their 100th game or win their 63rd. My guess? Well, the Bucs do close with 6 games at home, but they're six games that Cincy or Houston will need much worse than us. If we flip to the 6 man rotation as expected, I don't think our current stretch of decen play will last enough to avoid 100 losses. We drop #100 on the last day of the season to Cincy, who clinches the Wild Card with the win, which would seem to be some kind of poetic justic. Feel free to head on over to his blog and post your answer.
Today being Friday, it's time for Pirates Q&A with DK. After talking about Tracy's inconsistent handling of the young pitching staff this year, someone asks Dejan what we all are wondering, why oh why is this team so good at home and so bad on the road. Dejan tells the writer that he had just asked Tracy the question, and Tracy stunningly responded that the Pirates have not gotten the "situational hits" they need on the road. That answer is so amazingly moronic I'm not sure what to say. The correct answer is, as Kovacevic points out, that the Pirates OBP is .347 at PNC Park and .317 on the road, and that their ERA at PNC is 4.20 while it is 5.25 on the road. Why does this happen? It's hard to say, but it's not some flukey "We don't get clutch hits on the road" type thing. The Pirates haven't been unlucky on the road this year, they've been BAD. The Q&A ends with a reader survey: If you were given a $70 million baseball operations budget, how would you spend it?
And finally, Steeltown Mike has a pool going at his blog wondering on which day the Pirates will lose their 100th game or win their 63rd. My guess? Well, the Bucs do close with 6 games at home, but they're six games that Cincy or Houston will need much worse than us. If we flip to the 6 man rotation as expected, I don't think our current stretch of decen play will last enough to avoid 100 losses. We drop #100 on the last day of the season to Cincy, who clinches the Wild Card with the win, which would seem to be some kind of poetic justic. Feel free to head on over to his blog and post your answer.