Andrew McCutchen's debut helps Bucs sweep Mets

Lots and lots of e-mail.  I’m still communicating with a few folks about the McLouth trade and will post my final update Friday.  I realize many of you were shocked I said this was a win-win deal but that’s how I see it, all things considered.  Would I have done this deal?  Not a prayer in hell. 

Confused?  You won’t be Friday.

That being said, let me make one thing perfectly clear — there isn’t a bigger supporter of Andrew McCutchen than ole’ Jake.  I have followed every baby step this young man has taken from his early days when Lastings Milledge’s pop and I watched him in Bradenton the first weeks he reported to Bradenton to the present day so if you are one of the bazillion who wondered why I was wishing ill-will on Cutch yesterday, you obviously misread my intentions. 

Now for the game, it was nice to see Cutch take the field and get a hit his first AB.  The young man has worked hard since knee surgery as a teen to get where he is and is richly deserving of good things.  If you missed it, here is Cutch’s first AB.

Pelfry obviously didn’t have good location most of the day nor good command of his sinker and we took advantage of the opportunity as we should have.  True, a flair, a bloop, and a grounder off Pelfry’s mitt all helped us to put up four early runs on six hits, but isn’t that also classical Pelfry.. giving it up early?  Sure it is.

Ohlendorf had yet another lackadaisical outing making everybody wonder why this young man is still in the rotation.  Last five starts he has a 6.65 ERA which is extremely poor (think Karstens and Snell).  Yet Tom Gorzelanny came out of the pen to get two outs.  Oh never mind.. I won’t go there.  Ughh.. I assume since he didn’t stay in the Pirates are either putting him in Ohlendorf’s slot or sending him back to Indy asap.

Anyway, the sweep was totally unexpected but since the Mets came in limping with the flu bug taking down their clubhouse, all their injuries, and starting pitching running on just six of eight cylinders, they should have been swept.

Now on to Houston where we generally play good.

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Rev. McCutchen has to be pleased.. momma too.  Shoot, the whole family!  You know, this is a young man who was very frustrated last winter that he possibly wasn’t getting all the communication he needed from player development to take the next step with the Pirates and didn’t go play winter ball as a result.  After some brewing, he instead spent extra time in Bradenton working on his swing mechanics and it seemed to pay off some.

I expect we’ll see some of the obligatory “welcome to the majors” pitches run across Cutch’s zone for the next week or two and I hope he continues to wail everything he can.  After that we’ll have to see if it continues.  Plus, expect miscues in center if he continues to play there.. he isn’t as polished as he will eventually be and really has no business being in center at PNC (or Houston, or Busch, or.. you get the idea, bigger parks) right now, at least in my book.  But you know, Morgan is probably a -10 run defensive center fielder anyway so maybe the plan will be to give Cutch a crash course and see how it goes knowing moving Morgan over isn’t going to help much.

Also, don’t forget that Cutch has generally been a second half guy who tends to lose focus in May and early June then come back strong around the end of June/early July through the end of the year.  I’m not so sure that will remain with him in Pittsburgh but that’s been his game so far.

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“Brad Lincoln – The stuff has been very encouraging (up to 95-96, sitting 91-93 every start, emerging CH, flashing the CB he had before getting drafted) and has given indications that he is relatively close.  [T]he strides he has made with the delivery (and resulting command and plane to his FB) along with the progress with the secondary [will keep] him on the starting track and allow these developments to solidify.”  — source close to the Pirates.

I apologize to the source if that wasn’t supposed to be published but I’m guessing it was ok based on the communication.  Lincoln is yet another feel good story in the Pirates system and I had been questioning if he might benefit from replacing Gorzelanny in the pen so he could spend some time finishing his pitches with Joe Kerrigan.  However, since the Curve just added a “Lincoln” day later in June, I assume he won’t be going anywhere in the next few weeks.  If he continues his dominating ways, look for a promotion to 3A before the break, be my guess.

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Man do we have some speed burners at the top of the order.  Singles and walks need to be like doubles, doubles need to be triples, and how many times do you think we can steal home by the end of the year? 

Wow.