By Jake, on June 30, 2009, at 3:40 pm |
(8:30 PM — Since ten million Nats fans are dropping by wanting more info, let me post a link to another article I wrote a week ago or so on Morgan for you where I called for our GM to send him to 3A. Morgan is an extremely poor defender in center regardless what UZR thinks of him — he is excellent on side-to-side routes but freezes on anything hit at him which leads to too many balls going over his head or dropping in.
That being said, I’m in the minority camp that believes he has more potential offensively (OBP mainly) and ‘09 isn’t going to be his career year. You stole a plus makeup guy with a tick offensive upside Rizz was smart enough to see, but he was a liability in CF for us. We get two projects and McCutchen is probably the only guy Lastings will run smoothly with giving us a chance to get something out of him, be my best guess. You won unless Lastings does a 180.)
I liked the Hinske deal for two propects who will always be minor league fillers, and I love the fact Morgan and Burnett are gone and Milledge is in.
But Hanrahan? There we got ripped, and don’t come here telling me about upside with this guy – there is none. Huntington should have demanded a lower level prospect with some true upside instead of the Hanrahan project. Rizz must be laughing pretty good right now.
What is also hilarious about this trade is that Tony Milledge, Lastings’ pop, and I were hanging around Bradenton watching McCutchen after he was drafted in 2005 and I told Tony I had heard Lastings was on Pittsburgh’s radar screen (Mets inquired for a player and Littlefield uttered Milledge’s name, I heard at the time). He laughed at me and then said, imagine an outfield with Andrew and Lastings. You know the rest of the story.
The chemistry Morgan and McCutchen had will be much the same between the two Florida boys of McCutchen and Milledge. They are hot zone players who hate the cold (second-half type guys), they are both laughable and fun guys to be around, and they will become two peas in a pod together. This trade helps both of these youngsters and the results will be immediately felt.
But one question begs to be asked..
Continue reading » Morgan, Burnett, Hinske out; Milledge & garbage in
By Jake, on June 29, 2009, at 9:46 pm |
We threw everything we had at the Cubs and still walked away losers. It’s just uncanny how dominating they have been against us regardless of who starts on the mound. Perhaps that can be best attributed to a feeling of superiority over us, much like we see when we play the Brewers?
The final score was 3-1 and one of those runs came when McCutchen’s throw to the plate was high in the second. Give him credit though because if McLouth had thrown that ball it wouldn’t have been anywhere near the plate. In the fourth when Bradley hit a gapper into left center, McCutchen’s rainbow’ish relay went over Wilson’s head to Sanchez or Soto might have been dead meat at the plate too. Two years from now those will probably be automatic outs with Cutch in the middle but today it was two runs scored.. the two they won by.
So much for defensive runs saved? Well, sort of.. short-term anyway.
Continue reading » Outfield D & no clutch = loss
By Jake, on June 29, 2009, at 9:19 am |
Listen to the Neal Huntington Show Sunday.
It’s hard to fault Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly for signing Snell to a three-year $8.6M deal in 2008 because on paper, Snell was worth at least +1.5 to +2 WAR at the time and therefore well worth the guaranteed money. Where you can blame them is on the timing – Snell was already locked up for 2008 at $0.435M so why reach out in spring training and hand an obvious immature player too much money knowing his tools were of the limited variety?
One reason the Pirates probably took the risk is because, again on paper, Snell was thought to be headed for a breakout season and they knew if he did, they wouldn’t be able to afford him after the season. Not only that, but the Bucs were risking Snell would indeed throw good early in the year and by signing him to a contract significantly below market value for starting pitching, they would hold more trade value at the July break.
It was two risks that Huntington and Coonelly took they got burned on.
Continue reading » Huntington: Coonelly and I were incompetent
By Jake, on June 29, 2009, at 12:16 am |
Listen to the Neal Huntington Show Sunday.
I’ll comment on it in a post Monday afternoon.
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It took the rain for us to finally get to Zack Greinke but as his luck goes this year, even the rain helped him by cooling off our rally with a rain delay. When you’re hot, you’re hot and Greinke is absolutely smoking. I was impressed from pitch one which he threw under McCutchen’s chin and three pitches later saw Cutch strike out with his knees still buckling. Very impressive stuff.
And the sad part about seeing Greinke is the reminder of that 2002 draft where he was passed over on signability issues until the Royals picked him sixth.. just like we saw the Rockies do with Maztek and the Rangers did with Purke. We made a huge mistake taking Sanchez and Greinke is a perfect example of why. You just can’t let talent like that get away.
Continue reading » Bucs rally late, still fall
By Jake, on June 27, 2009, at 11:23 pm |
I was able to watch part of the game on the way home and saw where Maholm took a shot off his left arm but kept pitching. He’ll probably be fine but I was surprised he remained out there as long as he did. He seemed to be hitting his spots a bit better and his sinker looked to have a tick more sink on it, so he deserved the W. As I suspected might happen, the Royals got to him early but then Maholm shut their game down. Let’s face it, we’ve faced two pathetic offenses these last two series so it’s really hard to gauge anything at all off these pitching performances and, you know, don’t be shocked if you see Morton throw a near no-no tomorrow the way the Royals look so beat.
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WHAT??!?? The Pirates are relaying signs to batters??!!??
Preposterous.
Right??
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I saw where the Nats pursuit of Morgan has shifted since the Bucs said they weren’t interested in Milledge, which comes as no surprise to me. But you have to believe it’s a dead issue now because a Milledge for Morgan swap wasn’t bad on paper and since it didn’t go down, it’s unlikely anything else will unless Karstens loses his mind.
Another thought is that the Nats deal was leaked to get a third club to act. I have heard Morgan’s name in the rumor circuit for a month now but never tied to any team – just that he was available before and after the McLouth trade. It could be there is a third club close on him – we’ll see. One obvious thing to me came out of the leak, Pirates fans don’t appear to care too much if they lose Morgan like they did McLouth.
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Continue reading » Bucs, Maholm manhandle putrid Royals
By Jake, on June 26, 2009, at 7:18 pm |
Travel day for me so I’ll be back Saturday night. Let’s hope the Bucs hold on against Meche.
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Quick notes waiting for the plane to depart:
Milledge. There’s some talk about the Nats going after Morgan but I’m not so sure. Anyway, it’s universally known Milledge and McCutchen played ball together a bit growing up in Florida, but they rarely crossed paths. Lastings is a mixture of Ian Snell, Ryan Doumit, and Aramis Ramirez - a blue collar, hard-nose player with a little bit of an eccentric headcase attitude who may appears to the fans to not be giving his all all the time. Oh, throw in a little Kris Benson ‘malingerer’ disorder some fans believe he has and you might have a better understanding of Lastings Milledge.
He’s still raw and there are some who believe he may never mature until it’s too late for his tools. I’ve always thought of him as a classical example of an early career burnout speed guy. The Mets farm system wasn’t very appealing to him over the years and then he was shuffled around like unwanted bruised fruit, so I can see Neal Huntington wanting to ‘care’ for Milledge hoping the return is three years of production. I think he is partially correct in his assumption – Lastings has probably been dogging it some waiting for 2010 to ‘magically’ turn it around hoping for the big ‘two years of arb and two years of free agency’ payday. But if someone is stupid enough to give it to him, I’d be shocked if he puts up Morgan numbers from that point forward.
Continue reading » On the road, back Saturday night
By Jake, on June 26, 2009, at 1:26 am |
“For instance, the Pirates have a few pitchers who are known to give the field staff fits. Well, they just met their match – or they will when they meet Kerrigan. I kidded to one Pirates official that I’ll be sure to send Ian Snell a spring training care package with adult Depends in it because – I believe – he’s going to need them.“ — Bucco Blog, Decontamination Time post, October 20, 2008
Snell lasted all of four and one-half months.
“4. Ian Snell. Like Gorzelanny, this will be his second consecutive year on the Fooler list. Look for him to bust out early, tame off in May, crash and burn in June or July, and end up in the pen in September with the Pirates trying to keep his arm, and head, attached. If somehow he decides he wants to pitch instead of throwing again, he has the ability to put up startling strikeout numbers although his BABIP and HR/9 might go through the roof.” — Bucco Blog, 2009 Sleepers and Foolers post February 5, 2009
And he crashed in late June, so it’s not like any of this was really unexpected.
Continue reading » Ian Snell is run out of town
By Jake, on June 24, 2009, at 11:04 pm |
WHAM! POW! ZAP! Man can we rip pitchers who are having problems throwing a baseball. Carl Pavano, pitching on nine days rest because of right shoulder soreness, was a great example Wednesday night. It started with a few simple seeing eye shots that got us three runs and then blossomed into harder shots and a lot more runs. After throwing 55 pitches in the second, Pavano exited in the fourth having allowed seven runs with a man on base who eventually scored.
Duke pitched like you would expect him to pitch at PNC – like he owned the place. The key was his defense behind him – they turned numerous good plays. More importantly for Duke, the nine runs of support he got probably surprised him since he hasn’t been handed such a good lead in quite some time.
It was a must win for the Bucs and they took care of business. Thursday’s game will be a bit tougher with Lee on the mound. In a day game. Hmm..
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I was asked a very serious question by a sixteen-year-old young man from Pittsburgh today that deserves an answer. He wants to know:
“Would you trade Ohlendorf and Grabow for Victor Martinez?” — NB, Pittsburgh
Continue reading » Duke, Adam LaRoche wedge Wedge in tighter
By Jake, on June 23, 2009, at 5:58 pm |
My live start of the game notes are below. Essentially, our outfielders cost us three runs despite Snell’s problems and that was the difference in this game. I was sure Pearce would get exposed with Snell throwing so I’m not so sure I understand Russell’s desire to start him in right, especially the way Moss has been swinging the bat lately. Perhaps Russell got sucked into fan pressure – or perhaps he felt Huff would be too much for Moss?
Snell started the game off much like we’ve seen him lately pitching at PNC – everything offspeed up in the zone and his fastballs generally around the knees away. Problem was, and as I alluded to in the game notes below, you can’t paint Guccione’s plate so Snell had to come in and he refused by throwing more offspeed junk than normal. Unfortunately, his offspeed stuff wasn’t working and got hammered.
I thought it was pretty easy to see Snell lose his composure and I was surprised Kerrigan didn’t even bother to go out and calm him down until it was much too late in the 3rd. Even Diaz refused to go out until it was too late. Remember now, Snell ran his mouth about umpire calls not too long ago and so I had suspected he might hit a brick wall against this crew because neither Guccione or Rapuano typically give painted calls. Now did Guccione squeeze Snell just a tick more than normal as a payback? Doubtful. But it sure seemed that way.
Snell pitched better than his line. Two of the three walks he allowed included several questionable calls which is substantiated with PITCHf/x. Throw in the two outfield blunders and we’re only talking three hits, one walk, and one run allowed. But once he went over 40 pitches in the third, he had to come out and the 50 he threw is just nuts.
Continue reading » McCutchen, Pearce give up 3 runs on D, Bucs lose
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