Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obscure. I slacked on this one yesterday because I was burnt out from the ridiculous All-Star Game liveblog that we ran at FanHouse until like 2 in the morning on Tuesday night. As is par for the course with the Pirates, the murky things are the most important. Are the poor performances of Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny driven by poor health? This is the big one. Watching the two of them pitch all year, I felt like Go...

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obscure. Adam LaRoche is not nearly as bad as he seems I know this is not a terribly popular opinion, but it's true. In May this year, LaRoche hit .257/.328/.476. It's not fantastic, but it's serviceable. Since June 14th, he's hit .349/.430/.651, which isn't fantastic, it's MVP-calibur. That leaves us with April and the first half of June in which he didn't hit at all. Last year at the Al...

It's the All-Star Break, which I guess means it's time for me to do some kind of mid-season review, even though we're already well into the second half of the season. This year, I'm going to do three review posts and we'll call the "The Obvious" (or things from the first half that we all know), "The Obscure" (or things from the first half that I think I know and at least half of you will vehemently disagree with me on), and "The Murky" (or things that none of us know, but I will make a blind stab at figuring out). Today: The Obvious. Our bullpen is really terrible. Osoria, Burnett, Beam, and ¡Romulo! would likely not make any roster other than ours. I'm not sure Tyler Yates would, either. Without Capps, the pen is a disaster area of epic proportions. I don't want to talk about this anymore. John Russell is never going to smile. He didn't even crack one after Saturday's dramatic win. Jason Bay's terrible 2007 was defi...