Fat watermelon picking day at PNC. Few takers.

Quick post – I’m at a dinner party and was only able to watch a few innings.

Soto, Fukudome, and Lee evidently like watermelon because they were the only ones who feasted on Virgil “razor straight fastball” Vasquez’s 88-89 mph fat ones.  Honestly, if he had been pitching against a club with any offense at all, he wouldn’t have made it out of the first inning.. his stuff was that flat.  The way he held them off balance?  Throwing a little cutter and two-seamer in on their hands, and they swung at it all too often.  Unbelievable.

Pathetic baseball at its finest, that’s what the Cubs series was all about.  Two clubs with little emotion, light offense, and not so good pitching.  I’m just so sick of watching most of our arms go 0-1 or 0-2 and then start their best Kip Wells impressions refusing to finish off batters.  They were all doing what Huntington sent Snell to 3A for.  Vasquez clearly is not going to be around long.

How about Punch and Judy act with Sanchez and Wilson?  Last night Wilson threw a double play relay to Sanchez and he didn’t even attempt to get it while it sailed over his head, and then tonight Wilson tossed one missing Sanchez by 5′.   And nothing can beat Garrett Jones leaving his feet on a two out fly ball Soto hit in the 6th.  Classical, allowing the huffing and puffing Soto a triple instead of simply playing the hop.  Yeah baby, can’t wait to see more of Mr. Jones in left.  Good stuff there.. almost as good as Milledge will be.  Oh my.. I better stop.

Bonehead move of the game:  Beasley sending Wilson home on Sanchez’s light line drive to shallow left with two outs and Fuld cut him down by at least 10′ instead of the bases loaded.  Good job Tony baby.. I guess you have as much faith in Mr. Jones as I do.

Very sad baseball.

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Bucs – 7th worst fielding percentage in the game last 7.  And tanking as I write.

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Quinton Miller was shot to West Virginia for some bizarre reason.  Naw, we don’t push our players, do we?  That’s ridiculous.

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Frank Coonelly dropped a bomb on the fans in his chat today – he said they actually got Milledge to be their left fielder.  Well, he didn’t say it like that, he said something to the effect that Milledge will be our left fielder. 

OMG.

He also said they did their due diligence on Milledge before making the trade and they expect him to be a good ole’ boy to ever play for the Bucs and won’t be recalled until he shows he will do so:

“[W]e had done extensive background work on his make-up and character and are convinced that, with appropriate structure and direction, he will be a positive addition to our club. We are confident that our development staff and JR and his staff will make clear to Lastings what it means to play Pirates baseball and to be a good teammate… He will come to Pittsburgh when he demonstrates that he is ready to help us win games in Pittsburgh.”  — emphasis mine

OMG. 

Let me make sure I understand that statement.. we traded an everyday left fielder (whether good or bad) for a young man our President suggests has maturity issues which immediately need appropriate structure and direction and will therefore be run through our Marine basic training farm system with three months of baseball to go in the season and if, and when, he demonstrates he is ready to obey, then he will be promoted to Pittsburgh.  Man, if I’m Lastings I go to 3A and totally bomb so that everyone expects me to do the same in Pittsburgh when Frank and Neal decide I’ve become a good ole’ boy and can be trusted.

How lame is it for the Pres to throw down on a brand spankin’ new prospect like that?   

And the BS line of the day:

“To win in this market, we must have the type of quality and depth that teams have built in Minnesota and Tampa, other markets that cannot rely on free agent acquisitions to build the core of their organizations.”

Anybody else sick and tired of the “this market” BS?  Come on Frank, you need a new line. 

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After what appears will be yet another real exciting game Thursday, we head to South Beach to party our asses off play the Marlins.  All these young kids, I wonder if there will be appropriate structure and direction in the form of nightly bed checks?

LOL