Interleague hell

The Pirates simply don’t matchup to AL teams and we won’t until somebody starts spending some money to hire quality men to play the game, good evaluators to find the needles in the haystack, and good development teams to turn marginal players with upside into ML baseball players.  But that’s another post one day.

Another interleague game, another loss.  Today it was an Xavier Nady throwing error that led to two runs but it really didn’t matter – if it hadn’t been Nady, it probably would have been some guy named Burnett, or Wilson, or JvB, or any number of other players we have sitting around. 

That’s baseball as we know it in Pittsburgh. 

Still, it was nice watching Gorzelanny have a nice day even though Ed Rapuano most have been smoking what Joe West smoked last night.  What.  A.  Zone.  Wow.  Rapuano has never called a great game I’ve seen but he’s consistent with his bad calls making him somewhat more bearable.  But Sunday he must have had a tea party to get too. 

So Gorzy got some calls, Sonnastine got a few as well, and each team looked even flatter than they looked Saturday night, if you can believe that is possible.  Man, are we dragging or what?

And the Rays won yet another close one this year. What’s that now, 5 of their last 12 games have been won by two runs or less?  Talk about some luck going your way.  And speaking of luck, did we really let Troy Percival get away with murder in the 9th or what?  Nady walked, LaRoche flied out, then Bautista and Chavez struck out.  Did you see Percival throwing?  He couldn’t find the plate.  Everytime he put weight on his plant foot it looked like he was pushing his weight down on needles or something.  He had to be injured.

Well, don’t blame Nady.  He was in front of a large contingent of scouts and had a chance to ring up Pena at third base and got too excited knowing he had him by a country mile.  And funny thing about the last two games – balls in play were smoked but right at someone time and time again.  How so many got gloved on both sides is beyond me – it was a really weird series.

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McLouth looked to pull up running out a grounder.  He was replaced by Michaels. 

Speaking of Nate the Great, I say bring up McCutchen July 7th before he heads to New York.  The kid deserves it and McLouth needs his panic button pushed again since watching Duffy getting healthy and hitting at a .929 OPS clip isn’t doing it. 

If Cutch’s wrists can keep him hitting the ball up here, let him stay and see if Long can take him to the next level.  Besides, we all know Nady is one-step out the door at the deadline and Cutch should be his replacement – not Michaels or McLouth.  And if we send him down 31 consecutive days next year, it would be the same as starting his clock in 2009.

Since we’re not officially rebuilding, it’s Cutch time.  Let’s get this thing moving forward.

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I meant to mention something in Saturday nights game I was surprised to see – Taubenheim was routinely shaking off Doumit and often throwing away from his mitt.  That was VERY refreshing to see the young man take that kind of responsibility, and it proved to be correct almost all the time. 

Very nice… very nice. 

Doumit has one mentality behind the plate – pitch low and away or high and inside.  Period.  Well, that’s not always smart to do and Taubenheim obviously had taken the time to review film and make some mental notes because he stayed away from their bats.  Gorzy must have noticed it too because he followed Ty’s game plan some Sunday, I saw.

Tip of the hat to Ty.  Or I wonder if it was something entirely different?  I just wonder if Chavez took apart the Rays batters Friday night and put together a game plan for Ty?  I wouldn’t doubt it - he’s damn good a reading swing mechanics.

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I’m hearing an AL team might/may have expressed in interest in Jack Wilson.  Now don’t get too excited because as you already know there isn’t exactly a replacement around the corner for Jack.  But get this, there is a chance Huntington might get/has already gotten a call from another AL team that has an exciting young shortstop they might deal that, I hear, might be interested in one of our relievers. 

It’s still early, but talk is starting to circulate even if it’s mostly BS right now.  And, no, I don’t know if the AL team potentially interested in Wilson is on his no-trade.  If they are, I suspect he would not waive it for them.

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Bob Smizik continues to be on drugs:

“Three months ago, on the eve of the 2008 MLB season, there was only one franchise with a more wretched recent past and a more hopeless immediate future than the Pirates, and that team was…”

Right… the 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not the Rays.

The Rays might have lost a lot more games in a significantly harder division, but they certainly didn’t have a “hopeless immediate future.”

“But thanks to what Friedman and his staff in Tampa Bay, the Pirates have a road map to follow and the knowledge that it can be done.”

Huh?  What did he say?

“Tampa Bay has shown it can be done. It won’t be easy, it will be hard. It will take time, money and — most of all — shrewd baseball judgment.”

Time… money… shrewd baseball judgement.  Well, since Robert Nutting drives this ship, I guess we’re still screwed, at least according to Smizik’s own words.  Amazingly, Smizik unknowingly answered his own question with a question:

“All of which leads to this obvious question: If Tampa Bay can get up off the bottom of a division ruled by the Red Sox and Yankees, why can’t the Pirates, playing lesser competition, do the same?”

N
U
T
T
I
N
G

That’s why.

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1. So it's Eric Hinske, huh?