Game 157 – Snell: 75 Pitches and Whacked

Same old Ian Snell – through 4 innings and 75 pitches he was gold giving up just 4 hits and 1 earned run. From the 76th pitch on, his world collapsed.. one walk and three singles later, he allowed another two runs and was done for the night.

I swear, the more I see Ian Snell, the more I realize he is an 80 pitch pitcher. I know, you have heard that from me before.. few buy into it. It has to be a coincidence they say. But consider this – he has lost at least 4 games now starting an inning +/- 5 pitches from the 80 pitch mark and given up a ton of runs that inning. It’s not a fluke and it doesn’t happen every outing.. but almost.

In the first inning the Pirates played poor defense and allowed three runs to cross the plate that shouldn’t have scored. With one out, Snell walked Lamb and Berkman hit a perfect double play ball to Nady who hit Lamb running to 2B with his relay throw to Jack. The ball bounced off Lamb, scattered into short left field, and Lamb took 3B. The inning should have been over.. but it wasn’t. Two more singles and a little ground ball later, the Astros had three runs.

One error.. one miscue.. that was all it took for the Pirates to be out of this game.

Ironically, the Pirates tied the game in the second with a Bay solo home run and a Bautista 2 run shot after Paulino doubled. Those three runs we scored should have been enough to keep the game close..

.. if we just had some defense behind our pitching.

Snell gave up another run in the 3rd when Lamb led off with a single, took 2B on Berkman’s grounder to Nady, took 3B on a passed ball by Paulino (it was called a wild pitch but it went right between his legs which is a passed ball in my book any day of the week whether it bounced or not), and then scored on a 0-1 heater down and away to Biggio for a single with Snell’s defense playing him to pull.

Biggio, of course, poked it through a huge gapping hole between Castillo, who was playing 10 steps off 2B, and Nady, who was holding on Huff that Tracy wanted intentionally walked for some stupid reason. (Memo to Tracy: STOP THE INTENTIONAL WALKS FOR GOD SAKES)

The Pirates had a chance to tie the game twice but Nady choked both times.. once with Sanchez at 3B and once with Sanchez at 2B.

In the 7th, even Tracy got sick and tired of Nady and pulled him out of the game in favor of Ryan Doumit when the bases were loaded and there were two outs. That move told me more about how Jim Tracy feels about Xavier Nady than any other move I have seen to date.

I mean, why in the world would any manager take out the second best power bat in the dugout with the bases loaded in favor of a free swinging strike out machine (28% K’s) especially when the power hitter is supposedly scratched into the team’s plans for 2007 as a regular and the strike out machine isn’t? On top of that, Nady has a .347 BA/BiP to Doumit’s .258, and Nady has the team’s 3rd highest batting average with men in scoring position on the team.

Because Tracy is finally getting fed up with no-defense Nady perhaps? Just like he is about fed up with no-defense Doumit, mild-defense Castillo, no game Madonado, and some of the rest of the cast and crew we have wearing Pirates jerseys that are straight one-dimensional baseball players and will never take this team to the next level?

If he isn’t, he should be.

Arrrggghhhhh!

Ok.. so back to last night’s game. Well, with the Pirates now down 6-3 after the 5th and nobody contributing clutch offensively since the 3rd except Freddy Sanchez, Tracy decides it is time to start running out his "B" relievers and they give up another run and five hits over the last 4 frames.

Then, to add insult to injury, after Freddy doubled in the 9th to score Jack, Tracy pulled out Mr Clutch – Jeromy Burnitz – who grounded out meekly to end the game.

I should mention that Marte left the game with what appeared to be a lower back problem. Perhaps he is hurt – I’ll give him the benefit of doubt. But the more I looked at the video, the more I wonder if he really is. I won’t go any further with this right now and will wait to see how things develop.

– Tidbits –

Freddy had a great night going 4 for 5 but didn’t score one run. How sad is that? And, no, I *still* won’t talk about THAT.. it’s bad luck.

–

Anybody see Dejan’s chat transcript yesterday? Check out this little nugget:

"Question: Who are the definite arms for the bullpen next year, Gonzo, Torres, Grabow and Capps?

Dejan Kovacevic: I think you will be able to throw Josh Sharpless into that group, too, which leaves you still needing two. Of the rest of the current guys, Jonah Bayliss has the best chance to stick, though he will need to show improved command in the spring."

Oh my God. If we have a bullpen with Sharpless and Bayliss, we are in deep trouble folks. Please Littlefield.. let these kids continue their development in the *farm* and get some quality arms. Note for the record, Sharpless is probably the better of the two and he could have a future as a pen guy but he isn’t ready yet in my opinion and we need a lot more depth than two rookies.

–

A few folks have asked me my thoughts about Baseball America not having any Pirates in the best of the GCL and NYP Leagues. I don’t put much stock in BA’s list in the lower farm systems – they are about as useless as spring training or September stats. AA and up means something to me and I think we’ll see a few Pirates listed.

–

Has Chacon’s team won a game that he started against the Astros? Ever? Oh my..

–

I have mentioned a million times in my blog that Littlefield should have traded for Carl Crawford. The NY Post reported yesterday that the Rays might shop him for a top of the order starter this winter. For the Pirates, that means we would have to give up Duke and then some.. probably Grabow or Gonzo to boot.

If the Rays would take a Duke for Crawford deal straight up, I’d pull the string. I’d even pull the string if Grabow was attached. But I doubt seriously the Rays would do that deal as the Angels had reportedly offered Santana at one point and the Rays shot that down.

But the more I thought about Crawford and the Rays position as a small market team, they need a southpaw more than they need a right handed pitcher because the division they are in doesn’t hit southpaws as well. Plus, Duke keeps the ball in the park and Santana doesn’t and Duke’s mechanics will keep him off the DL where Santana is a walking DL case with his.

It could be a good trade. Crawford will bring to the table true leadoff speed and abilities and he plays a very good left field, which means we could move Bay to RF and pray Duffy finds a bat at his home this winter.

Not only would Crawford add a little bit to the runs scored, he would also reduce runs allowed with his defense over Bay.. significantly reduce runs allowed. He has a weaker arm like Bay (but better than Bay’s) but he can flat run down some balls in play. He makes Duffy look like a Bay in the outfield, he is that good running routes.

I think I would pull the string if I am Littlefield and risk Duke for Crawford even if I had to give up Gonzo in the package. I would instead try to push Snell and Gonzo but settle for Duke if the Rays wouldn’t bite. The impact Crawford brings to the table costing $7m per year on average over 4 years would be well worth the price of 45+ wins over 4 from Duke.

Then I would try and sign Giles to play RF and move Bay to 1B. hehehe

Oh well – forget all that. A credible source told me it would probably take two or three Dukes for the Pirates to get in the Crawford game *if* a Duke-type of arm was even attractive to the Rays. It seems Duke is viewed in the industry as a backend of the rotation guy at best and Crawford one of the games elite young players. There is no matchup with the Rays to get this deal done I’m told.

Ah.. dreams..

–

Kudos to Jason Kendall and the A’s for making it to the playoffs. As much as Kendall is a sore spot in the clubhouse, he is a great guy and it’s nice to see he finally made it to October.

No related posts.