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
Nick, I think the Indians would want a lot more than those two players for Martinez, if they were willing to trade him at all. But the rest of your e-mail brought up some interesting points, specifically about the lack of clutch hitting in the Pirates everyday lineup.
I looked at that very issue a few weeks ago and walked away wondering if the Giants would allow us to take on some of Randy Winn’s salary if we gave them a lower level B prospect in return. To put Winn on the roster I would DFA Pearce or Hinske.
Now the reason I like Winn is because his spray charts suggest he would hit very well in the NLCD plus he’s well known as one of the better clutch hitters in the game. He could hit fifth behind LaRoche and he would play right field with ease at PNC, although his arm isn’t anything to write home to mom about. He’s older, lost a step or two, and now needs a little time off here and there, but he can still rake the ball too.
But the more I thought about Bob Nutting taking on about $4M for Winn in a ‘dead’ season, the more I realized it would never happen. But you know what, we were +2 pythagorean winning percentage wins over our first 21 games through April 30th, but have fallen to -4 wins through the last 49 games which included Tuesday’s game. Throw in the fact we are playing .494 baseball based on a runs squared model which would have us just five out behind the Cubs, and I think it’s safe to say we’re losing too many games we should be winning.
I also wondered if Winn could play center in some of the parks away from PNC which would allow Cutch to take over in right. That might help put a halt to some of the defensive runs we are losing up the middle which is starting to take a toll. If Winn could actually handle center at PNC (which I question), then he’d be worth his weight in gold to us right now because then we could move Cutch to right and let him continue to develop defensively during the year.
Now Winn is just one guy I happened to think about since he is also a free agent at the end of the year. There are others, but I don’t think we can find high contact, clutchiness, and the ability to take some heat off Cutch all in one player that a team wants to get rid of like the Giants seem to want to do with Winn. Plus I think he has a limited no-trade and I would guess the lowly Pirates would be one of the teams on his list.
But I like your idea Nick – we do need more clutch and we’re playing good enough in the division to at least shoot for .500 considering most of the other clubs are running into a lot of problems. But that would require spending a few dollars plus keeping the roster intact, and I doubt seriously that is something Huntington or Coonelly (much less Nutting) want to do.
Great question.
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Kevin Goldstein over at Baseball Prospectus ripped into Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly with the Sanchez signing today:
4. Pittsburgh Pirates: Tony Sanchez, C, Boston College
Agent: Mike Zimmerman, ACES
Status: Signed / $2.5 million bonusThis deal was probably agreed to before the selection even took place. The question is of course, why? He wasn’t going to go anywhere near this high if the Pirates didn’t take him, so couldn’t he have been had for a million dollars less, giving the club money to spend elsewhere? It’s not as if anyone else was going to pay him this much, so why did Pittsburgh? It’s almost like they spent an extra million dollars just to prove that they really liked the guy.
Ouch.
But Goldstein is correct – sure we overpaid. Why? Who knows. Maybe because agents around the game are questioning our motivations like I said the other day.
Someone asked me last week if I realized that the real difference in the new Pedro Alvarez contract (the one he finally signed) and the one he didn’t sign was generally the timing on the bonus money the Pirates would have had to pay. If we inked him on the first deal, he suggested we would have had to pay all $6M by the end of 2009. Instead, we paid something like $1.9M for him to sign, then about $2M each year for the next three and he wondered, is it possible Boras and Alvarez didn’t hold that deal up at all? That maybe it was actually Nutting? He wondered further if Coonelly shoved Boras a modified contract after the midnight agreement that changed the timing of the bonus money and that was why Boras ultimately filed a grievance - he wanted his money asap instead of the trinket of a little more money overall that Coonelly was willing to pay for the modification.
Great question I don’t know the answer to, but I do remember Boras saying Pirates’ fans didn’t know the whole (and correct?) story.
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I keep hearing rumors about the Phillies talking with Huntington and the national media suggest it’s for pitching, specifically Duke or Maholm. I’m not hearing that – I’m hearing Gorzelanny’s name.
Ouch.
In fact, I’ve heard Gorzy’s name being tossed around since he was sent to 3A, but now it’s getting louder. And not just with the Phillies.
Ouch again.
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Wesley Freeman watch – he didn’t play, if you can believe that.
Brad Lincoln = qs Jake goes to 1-0 in AAA- 6 2/3ip, 2h, 1er,1r,3bb,4k’s 99 pitches- 63 strikes
if philly wants either lefty im not talkin til i hear Drabek,Donald or mike taylor
Today is a night game , not a day game.
What exactly is it about Gorzy that you think can make him a major league pitcher?
Few quesitons Jake. You were adamant about not bringing Cutch up to Pittsburgh to get thrown into the fire. Why are your feelings different with Lincoln?
Also, why suggest moving Cutch the right field temporarily? If he’s going to be the future CFer, why not let him learn now? Its pretty obvious this team is not contending this year.
I posted this last night on the other thread – not sure if anyone saw it.
I was at the game again last night in Erie (sorry but I won’t be there today – I have an actual job!!) and here is what I saw:
Pedro Alvarez – AA game 2 – He went 1-4. Two strikeouts, one fielder’s choice and one monster HR. He made an error in the first which gave up two runs, made up for it with the two run homer and some great defensive plays throughout the game. They pitch him with a lot of respect, usually nothing early in the zone. When Alvarez goes fishing outside the zone that is when they start to go after him. If he was patient, working the strike zone and looking for his pitch to hit the kid could do well.
He is wearing # 13, his first name is Pedro and he can’t hit a curve ball…. all he needs is a hat for his bat, some rum and a live chicken and we have Cerrano from Major League!!
In all seriousness he is painfully raw but very talented. I don’t know why he is in AA – looks to me like he could use quite a bit of time in the minors.
what exactly is painfully Raw. Could be a name for a Porno. I would have started him in AA.
In what game were these defensive mistakes? U wrote an article the other day titled “McCutchen, Pearce give up 3 runs on D, Bucs lose“. How was Andrew responsible for those runs. Did Pearce tell him in advance he was gonna run and get a hotdog in the inf? MLB Network stated pearce’s route was brought to u by mapqwest. Hilarious im sure we have seen the last of Steve in the OF.
Jake,
I can not disagree with you more when you say you think Randy Winn playing center would save us some runs over McCutchen. If you have issues with the way Morgan and McCutchen field their positions you would write a post every day on how bad Randy Winn is at fielding his position.
2-3 HR and a Double 3 RBI still in the 8th
Ian Snell sent to AAA- 4:02 pm
About time. P-G is saying Snell asked to be sent down. Something about getting away from all the negativity.
Listen to Ians audio about his demotion to AAA, man some good stuff. hahaah wow
not much talent around in 3A right now.. he’ll do fine with that big heater and hook and should be in Pittsburgh instead. He doesn’t have anything else to prove.
hey thanks realist – my bad on the day/night game. All you have to do is read the Tom Gorzelanny thread in the tag cloud archives to see why. But that’s my opinion..
You scared the heck out of me when you said day game. I have tickets and I thought I had it wrong. LOL!
I’m old school Dan, I believe pitchers benefit by easing into a major league rotation through work in the pen. As for Cutch being thrown into the fire, my thought has always been that we keep him in 3A as long as possible because our window of opportunity doesn’t really open until 2014 and I didn’t want the kid leaving the next year.
He needs to be in right because he’s not reading the spin on the ball off the bat well. It’s a learning curve which takes time. While he’s saved a few hits from falling in, he’s also allowed too many catchable balls to fall in. Right is where he needs to be for now, imo, and I’d rather lose a run here and there advancing on his arm which, btw, I think is underrated.
Totally fooled at the plate, just reacting to the game on defense (one error and one ball that was misplayed but not scored an error) – not seeing the game as it unfolds – That is “painfully raw”.
When it does come together: great defensive plays (two in two games), hitting with authority (his one HR was the only pitch he put good wood on. The FC and the Flyout were weak.) that is the very talented part.
Got a call at work – Pedro hit a 2 run HR in the first inning.
Got another call at work – 2 for 3 as of now, 2 run HR, Double and an error in the field.