Ok, so Chris Young came back home and blanked the Pirates again and Dave Littlefield is getting hammered on every discussion forum, media outlet, and blog for giving away Young for a can of corn.
And maybe Maddux will one-hit us tomorrow and everyone will wonder why we didn’t sign him as a free agent too?
We had our chances against Young but we just couldn’t get the ‘clutch’ hit we needed. And while Jack Wilson turned a couple of flashy plays, he also let a ground ball go right under his glove for a hit, Bautista made his 6th error of the season showing us he’s probably starting to fatigue some, and Bay showed why he doesn’t take good routes on two hits his way that both fell in.
Same old Bucs.. looks like the rollercoaster is back on the tracks again.
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Maddux takes the mound Thursday and his team has lost 4 of his last 5 starts against the Pirates, so I’m not so sure he’ll throw a one-hitter. But in the 10 games he has faced us since 2004, his team has yet to lose at PNC Park when he starts and he has never allowed more than 3 earned runs.
Hmm..
But we do have Chacon on the mound who generally throws well against the Padres and he has pitched well at PNC this year. Should be a good game that we can go after the series with until you consider..
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After giving up the grand slam Wednesday, Jonah Bayliss has a 15.18 ERA over his last 9 games (14 ER, 8.3 IP), has walked 9, struckout only 5, and allowed 1 in 4 inherited runners to score. For the month of May he sits with a 10.59 ERA (18 ER, 15.3 IP).
I said on May 19th he looked like he was pitching with a shoulder problem which I believe can be attributed to the workload handed to him over the week of April 28th – May 4th where he threw 106 pitches in 7 days.
But Bayliss was the runner up for Bucco Blog’s "Most Balls" award last year and couldn’t find the plate then either, so it just might be that he’s just getting creamed from a lack of confidence and needs to go take a few bus rides in Indy for awhile. However..
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As you saw in the link above, last year’s Most Balls winner was Josh Sharpless who came out in relief Wednesday and showed us all why he earned the award. He faced six batters, one walked, one singled, and one solidly doubled home the other two who reached.
Sharpless threw 30 pitches and 18 were called strikes, but don’t let that fool you because two Padres batters swung at pitches in the dirt fouling them off just trying to put the ball in play with the score 9-0 to get the game over with.
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However, we could bring up Sean Burnett but Buffalo ripped him a new.. umm.. well, they hit him hard and he left after three innings Wednesday having given up 5 earned runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. That’s 8 earned runs in his last 10 innings including 6 walks, so I guess that’s out of the question.
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Maybe it’s time to put LaRoche in the pen?
Related posts:
The key point in the game is when Chris A.O- Automatic out Duffy came up when we had 2nd and 3rd and 1 out in I do believe in the 6th. As usual he found a way to get out pop up to SS I do believe which basically killed the rally and Maholm confidence. Why is A.O Duffy with this team and not Rajai Davis who’s hitting close to .320 in AAA and making things happen on the bases. Bayliss, Grablow and Sharpless or Armas need to be sent down for a while. Armas to get work for when Chacon arm falls off and he comes back up to take his spot. Bayliss and Grablow have both been awful maybe it’s time for Osoria, Chavez or Kolb. Throw the lefty specialist crap out the window we need guys who can throw strikes in the pen – padres bullpen model of building a good bully.
Last night’s game was the first game that I ever walked out on at PNC Park. And that says a lot, considering I did not walk out on the “worst loss of the season” against Arizona on the 19th. Funny thing was, the few people who left when I did (aka as soon as the ball hit the top of the wall) were actual Pirate fans and not the people who think the ballpark is the new local h. Most of the sparse crowd was oblivious to what just happened. Last night’s game was for the dogs. I seriously hope the real dogs aren’t the best thing going at the Park tonight….
AAA Armas jr contract and this one are hurting the Pirates big time for salary flexability.
Jack Wilson ss
3 years/$20.2M (2007-09), plus $8.4M 2010 club option
signed extension 2/06
$0.6M signing bonus
07:$5.25M, 08:$6.5M, 09:$7.25M, 10:$8.4M club option ($0.6M buyout)
limited no-trade clause 2007-09, allowing Wilson to block deals to 6 clubs each season (no such no-trade protection in 2006)
may earn $0.3M in incentives
2 years/$8M (2005-06)
05:$3.4M, 06:$4.6M
avoided arbitration 1/05
1 year/$1.85M (2004), won arbitraiton 2/04 ($1.85M-$1.4M)
1 year/$0.33M (2003)
agent: Page Odle
ML service: 5.147
We have some other contracts but they are small compared to that pile of crap.
“AAA Armas jr contract and this one are hurting the Pirates big time for salary flexability.”
hmm..
well, if we assume the Forbes numbers are just 50% correct and this org profited about $12MM last year, if they banked $2MM for the ownership group and saved $6MM for a rainy day, that still leaves them $5MM available for payroll PLUS the $3MM they say they had left over this year.
$8MM won’t buy a whole lot but in the Pirates case it might buy 5 more wins down the road if they got the right players.
Do you honestly think Nuttings will spend any profits? Let me answer HELL NO! So along with Kendall 5.5 million and Jack Wilson rising contracts that becomes a problem. When Kendall contract ends this year and add 3.85 million with AAA Armas jr. with his buyout at seasons end. Put that 4 million with 5.5 million from Kendall and if Jack Wilson was dealt that could save us another 3 to 4 million per season cause we would have to pay at least half of his contract cause no one will pick up his overpaying deal that’s brings us to 12 million plus to spend. Does Freddy Sanchez get resigned or traded along with Marte cause if they are dealt that salary freed up is about 4.75 mil add that to the 12 million we would have about 17 million plus hopefully some (good , just a hope) prospects in return for Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, and Marte. The Pirates minors are very limited cause Ed Creech has ran the helm to long in the scouting side of things. – Rajai Davis, Luis Munoz, Matt Peterson, McCutchen, Bixler, JVB?(control)- are the guys that are somewhat close to ready from the upper minors the rest in the lower levels are a crap shoot. Burnett and Bullington might be better options out of the pen it seems after a few innings they start to tire out and get hit. Step 1 needs to be flush the scouting department in the toilet all are worthless even Mayo is doing a worthless job in the Dominican from what I hear.
The REAL issue is that with MLB’s welfare support of the Bucs, the owners can really afford to spend about 75 to 80 mill in payroll but choose to keep the payroll low in order to maximize profits even though we bulit them the stadium that makes them capable of turning some of the highest profits in the MLB while all the while screaming poverty. That’s it in a nutshell. Unless something very drastic occurs that spurs these owners to attempt to actually try to field a winning team, nothing will ever change as long as the team is so lucratively profitable while minimizing the expenses and the fans keep turning out to see a purposely non-competitive team.