How could you possibly be upset with the outcome of Saturday night’s game? I mean, Jeff Karstens was on the mound and he held the Brewers to just five hits and four runs despite walking six and giving up two solo shots. Plus we scored our obligatory three runs.
What more could you ask for?
Ah, forget those limited range Pedro Alvarez plays where he failed to glove the ball once, twice, or was it three times – heck I lost count and since the official scorer was so kind to call them all hits, I couldn’t remember, and forget that the bottom of the 9th featured Doumit (who went yard pulling us within one), Church, Crosby, and Young, and please look past the fact we retired the middle of the Brewers order just three times out of 13 attempts or that we have set Brad Lincoln up to have to throw 70% curve balls tomorrow or he’ll be wiped off the face of the earth in one of the rocket shots likely to head his way (bullet proof vest day with Doumit resting).
It’s all meaningless.
All that matters to our front office is that this man:
still has a job so this man:
(Ryan Church — .566 OPS last 365 days) can continue to snitch in the clubhouse for management play. You see, developing players like Lastings Milledge (.723 OPS last 365 days and .911 OPS last 28) requires that the old-school ways Neal Huntington learned over the years from Dan Duquette slash Jim Beattie slash Dan Hart have to be played out even if he is a bean counter.. players have to earn their way to play every day. Don’t forget, baseball is an information business, right? You need to know as much as you can everywhere you can.
Mr. Church must really excel at his job while Cedeno and Milledge must really suck, huh? Or maybe Huntington just feels sorry for trading Church away in 2004 for this guy? Huntington was credited for the Church trade back then, just as he was credited for bringing Milton Bradley into the Indians organization.
And alas, we just added a new guy to the pen to assist with information gathering for Huntington – Sean Gallagher. Look for him to deliver some amazing snitch reports results down the stretch too.. just like Mr. Church or Mr. Crosby might be helping with. What a great group of guys we have. You know, it’s all about the culture baby.
But never fear, John Russell is here. He may bore the living crap out of you in a conversation (he has that yes-man monotone voice down to a science) but he’s Huntington’s man and that’s all that counts. Like Church. Or Crosby. Or Donnelly. Or Gallagher. Or…
Hey, if we lose 100 games, so what? What right do we have as fans to question the Almighty Pirates front office? Besides, they are the best management team in baseball, don’t you remember?
How dare us think otherwise.
How dare us be negative.
How dare us compare this management group to a bunch of 5th grade nerds wanting to make everybody stand up and notice them.
Shoot, they are doing exactly what they being paid to do – make money for nerdy ownership. Rebuilding? That’s a secondary thought. Ask Bud Selig who will quickly tell you one of his fifty year old memories that Branch Rickey may have been run out of Pittsburgh, but his work eventually culminated in a winning ball club. Oh nevermind that was back before anyone knew video would be in the clubhouse, sabermetrics would be mainstream, and player salaries would skyrocket. Nor can you count the fact Rickey happened to be a reasonable scout and business man himself — possibly unlike anyone we have running this organization right now. Yet all that matters is that Selig says we’re on track and the player’s union supported him in that belief.
Essentially, we have no right to question all the losses, we have no right to question the lack of talent in the system, and we have no right to question who gets developed and who doesn’t. Don’t forget, we can’t shine their shoes with what we know about this game. They are all gods.
That said, look for another loss Sunday. One that will be painful heading into the break and be sure to thank Bud et al for all the wonderful 2010 memories.
–
Lots of e-mail from readers questioning a report somewhere or another that Bryan Morris was projected as a potential relief pitcher. That follows on the heels of another publication a few weeks ago that said he might end up being a closer.
Look, I’ve told you my thoughts about our farm system – we don’t have any talent to talk about. We have a lot of average guys, we have some guys with more upside than others, but we don’t have any impact talent.
End of story.
As for Morris and his problems, Anup Sinha over at Bucs Prospects clearly outlined what he felt were Morris’ problems – he drifts in his delivery which he expects to cause command problems down the road, and as a result of the cross fade he’s liable to be an injury risk down the road. That article I linked to is just one of several looks at Morris this year. In another, Sinha mentioned that the Pirates were working hard on getting Morris more under control which was later evident in one start Sinha scouted.
Is Morris a sure thing? Heck no. When we obtained him he was a high-risk, high-reward young prospect.. nobody questioned his stuff, they questioned his makeup and his ability to stay healthy. Scouts were divided on whether or not he’d ever be a front line starter, and if he did, how long he’d remain one. We knew that and I’ve pushed those points in this blog ever since he was obtained.
Right now, he’s the best we have in the system so you better get behind him. He may end up being trade bait down the road, he may end up under the knife, or he may end up being our ace in 2012. Who knows.
But does he project as a reliever or closer? Absolutely not with the tools he has and anybody that says that doesn’t know how to evaluate talent. The kid’s in development where flaws are recognized and dealt with. Now, do we have good development men who can help Morris? That’s the question you need to be worrying about.
Not about Morris.
–
Another thing I’m getting hammered with e-mails on is this supposed Cliff Lee for Jason Bay deal we missed out on. If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times, I don’t believe there ever was a deal on the table. I believe there was talk between Huntington and his ex-boss Mark Shapiro that ‘leaked’ to the media, I believe there might have been some offer from the Indians for Bay, but I have never believed Cliff Lee was destined to be a Pirate in a Bay deal, much less that Frank Coonelly killed “it” — it being Lee to the Pirates as we heard it.
What I do believe is that Shapiro was attempting to assist Huntington and Coonelly in building Bay’s value up in the marketplace and they leaked this story out. That’s what happens around this game between buds. Maybe Huntington did approach Shapiro about Lee for Bay but that’s probably about as far as that conversation ever went.
Don’t forget that Shapiro brought in Tony LaCava as a crosschecker in early 2000′s to help him to evaluate talent for their rebuild. LaCava was the one that helped put the deal together that brought Lee to the Indians and Huntington was around for that. Shapiro isn’t stupid.. he wasn’t going to let Lee go for Bay who was still playing less than 100%. Instead, he held on to him for another half-season and then got four prospects from the Phillies for a couple of month rental. Looking back today I think it’s pretty obvious the Indians didn’t want to add Bay’s salary to their books and probably felt they couldn’t turn him quick enough with him appearing still hurt.
But that’s all a guess.. I have no knowledge that there was or wasn’t a deal in place. Like you, I read all the reports suggesting there was but considering Shapiro was Huntington’s daddy at the time…
And a funny note to that 2000 draft Lee was in.. we took Sean Burnett in the first round of that draft and, believe it or not, we still have some of those evaluators hanging around that helped in that draft. And guess what.. one of the players Neal Huntington’s Indians drafted in that same draft now plays for the Pirates.
Yup.. Ryan Church.
Jason Bay, Cliff Lee, Grady Seizmore, Russell Martin, and Jeff Karstens? They were taken by LaCava’s Expos in 2000.
Funny how this game goes.
–
Here’s a nice article I missed when it came out at the NY Times on Jason Bay claiming he wasn’t ready in 2004 when the Pirates brought him up.
Related posts:
You like Ryan Church Jake. Church playing all the time was one move you wanted to happen you thought he might get his average back up around his career avg. of .260 instead he’s drifting (like bryan morris) around the Aki Line .180′s. Church was playing a little notch above average defense in the first part of the year but the more he plays the worse he has gotten to worse then Milledge in RF.
I liked his “D” the first week or so I saw him playing more often then not, but then he started showing me laziness which I don’t accept as a fan. I’ll take Milledge’s stupidity in leaving his feet too often or misjudging routes over laziness any day.
With Milledge and a lot of these young guys i think its poor coaching staff in place that makes a difference. Until someone else buys the club(probably never) unless there’s a tighten up on the welfare the Buccos get to force a sale. We will probably see these goofs ruining whatever prospects we have. Lebron James by the way Jake here in the ohio area might be just as hated as Art Modell it might be a tie.
Thru 1 ip lincoln – 16 pitches- 8 curveballs, 7 heaters, 1 change up, 1 hit allowed, 1 wild pitch, 2 k’s. He needs to use his change a little more got a called strike with it.
THRILLEDGE MILLEDGE A MOON SHOT TO CENTERFIELD. Time to keep milledge in the lineup russell.
2nd inning- 7 fastballs, 3 changeups for lincoln, 1k. 1-2-3 inning
3rd inning – 6 fastballs, 4 curves, brewers score a run.
Justin Thomas and Jason Jaramillo to AAA (according to dejan)
One rumor floating around from a source of mine- Paul Maholm and Garrett Jones to Texas- for Martin Perez, Tanner Scheppers, Engel Beltre, and Chris Davis. I couldnt see Texas giving up that haul for those.
Nothin personal but if Perez and Scheppers didnt go in the Lee deal, they certainly arent going any deal for those 2.
I think your source is tripping off acid.