Lots to talk about and little time so let’s get going.

The Orioles game had an exciting first inning and then fizzled.  I especially liked the part when Duke took the mound, got two fast outs, then gave up a line drive to Adam Jones that should have been a routine out in my mind had McCutchen been playing straightaway center, but he was in as usual and the ball floated right over his head to the wall for a triple.  Duke just looked down at the ground for a minute then walked slowly back to the mound and you could tell by his body language he was one pissed off camper.

Nine pitches later he had walked two batters, his 1-0 to Luke Scott was telegraphed and Scott crushed it through the right side, Church bobbled the ball, and two runs scored as a result.  Wiggy then hit another 1-0 telegraphed Duke offering to the left side which was also a fairly routine but Crosby’s first step was a stumble and the ball shot through scoring another run. That brought Montanez to the box who drilled a belt-high fastball into right to load the bases, and Turner mercifully ground out weakly to Alvarez.

That is classical Zach Duke.. he lets his emotions get the best of him way too much and the end result is an Ollie Perez clone just throwing anything over the plate not really caring what happens from that point forward. Usually he gets himself back under control after a few batters but not on this day.. he didn’t get that far until he took the mound in the second.

And did anyone else catch Pearce handing Alvarez an error? Alvarez was coming in hard on a little tapper, fielded it cleanly, and on the run threw across his body to Pearce who had to stretch to try to pick up the one-hop throw. Unfortunately for Alvarez, Pearce lifted his glove a split second early and the ball scooted underneath for an E.

I thought to myself, where the heck is Brian Boehringer these days?  To me it sure looked like Pearce didn’t try as hard as he typically does to glove that ball, but, hey, what do I know?  Hilarious. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mr. Pearce in the first cut after that play and him being thrown out at third running from first on a ball hit to left.

I’ve tempered my expectations about Pedro Alvarez since he pulled his greedy power-play with Boras after being drafted but I think I’m warming up to him. The reports of him having pitch recognition problems seem to be accurate the way he was lunging for the ball in a couple of his at bats. He obviously needs some time in the upper levels of the system and probably should have played Mexican League baseball, but I guess his weight issue was more of a concern. I’m not so sure.  But when he finally puts the bat on the ball, it’s crushed.  He even flashed some good leather but it’s pretty easy to see why scouts suggest his instincts and size might warrant a move to first in the future.  Perhaps that was a blunder on Huntington’s part.. worrying too much about value and not enough about his short-term needs to spend last year working him at first instead of thinking Clement was the answer? Hmm..

Daniel McCutchen put on a show throwing two solid pitches. You have to like him for a 7th inning role.. I think that’s where he ends up with his light stuff. Just a guess, mind you. I was also glad to see scab Donnelly pitch.. he didn’t appear to be throwing his best stuff but his fastball was sitting around 93 with little movement, which is a concern to me. Maybe he was overthrowing or the FSN gun was off because I don’t remember him ever throwing that hard. And Chulk with two more K’s.. un-be-lievable.

We managed seven hits with Vazquez picking up two solid knocks probably knowing he’s being watched by a couple of clubs right now.  Funny thing about that, he seemed to be running full-bore.. no lingering effects of a bad leg I could see but I didn’t have a stopwatch on him either.

It was a good game and it seems the pitchers are well ahead of the hitters right now. 

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I have a couple openings left in our MLB.com fantasy leagues.

1 opening for a live draft on 03/20 at 08:00 pm ET
3 openings left for a live draft on 03/18 at 09:00 pm ET

Leave a comment below if you would like to play.

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Dejan dropped a bombshell on us today:

“Cain, a 19-year-old left-hander who was the team’s ninth-round draft pick in 2009, had minor back surgery after a previous ailment inflamed over the winter.”  (my emphasis)

Previous ailment???  You mean to tell me that we drafted this kid and signed him agreeing to pay $1.15M knowing he had previous back problems? 

OMG.. and we wouldn’t take a risk signing Tanner Scheppers?  That’s crazy and doesn’t add up.

I shouldn’t say this because I wasn’t there but this is a perfect example of the type of crap that got Greg Smith in trouble managing a board in Detroit which partially led to the collapse of the Tigers farm system. Some people just have too much voice.

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Dejan also had this blurb in another article:

“The dominant overall impression is that it’s striking to me how disciplined everything is. The players move with almost military precision from station to station, the managers and coaches are wound tight as a drum, and there even is a sign on the bulletin board listing 11 players who that day did not maintain clean lockers. (No kidding. The player’s name is there, and right next to it is something like “Clothes hanging.”)”

I told you about the locker in the middle of the clubhouse action last year that was the laugh of the circuit.. Kyle Stark made it clear to the players that there is a place for everything and everything better damn sure be in its place.

You can’t treat young men like babies and expect them to respect you. You have to treat young men like men.  They aren’t going to Iraq to fight a war, they are playing baseball for God’s sake and it’s not their fault the anti-cheap ownership herd mentality exists. I realize they are valuable commodities but, come on, they are also human beings with feelings too. There is such a thing as too much and this is too much as I’ve been warning my readership here for two years now.  

.. “the managers and coaches are wound tight as a drum..” .. no doubt. Anybody want to venture a guess on how many of those field staff will jump ship after the season ends?  Remember now, these are all Stark hires who knew what they were getting into before they signed who would be running (think Troy Buckley, among others).

.. “there even is a sign on the bulletin board listing 11 players who” .. go sit in time out!

And, no, none of this stuff is what I was talking about the other day. There’s even more to come your way, although I hope it gets to the point you never hear anything because then it all worked out (unlikely).

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I’m still having a tough time finding someone to scout the Curve in the Eastern League but I’ll keep plugging along. 

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Here is the Pirates spring training minor league game schedule:

Mar-15 — CAMP DAY
Mar-16 — CAMP DAY
Mar-17 — 3A/2A @ PHI, 1A vs PHI
Mar-18 — CAMP DAY
Mar-19 — 3A/2A @ TOR, 1A vs TOR
Mar-20 — 3A/2A vs NYY, 1A @ NYY
Mar-21 — 3A/2A @ NYY, 1A vs NYY
Mar-22 — 3A/2A @ PHI, 1A vs PHI
Mar-23 — 3A/2A vs PHI, 1A @ PHI
Mar-24 — CAMP DAY
Mar-25 — 3A/2A vs TOR, 1A @ TOR
Mar-26 — 3A/2A vs NYY, 1A @ NYY
Mar-27 — 3A/2A @ NYY, 1A vs NYY
Mar-28 — CAMP DAY
Mar-29 — 3A/2A vs TOR, 1A @ TOR
Mar-30 — 3A/2A @ TOR, 1A vs TOR
Mar-31 — 3A/2A vs NYY, 1A @ NYY
Apr-1 — 3A/2A @ NYY, 1A vs NYY
Apr-2 — 3A/2A vs PHI, 1A @ PHI
Apr-3 — 3A/2A @ PHI, 1A vs PHI
Apr-4 — CAMP DAY

So let’s talk about what it will take to not be another pretender team since we’ve been able to see the Bucs play a little.

Obviously we have a gaping hole at shortstop as neither Crosby or Cedeno are major league answers. Since Neal Huntington left the club short-changed here, and because we don’t have any talent in the upper system, we’re going to bleed defensive runs at short all year.  The free agent market was thin but I suggested in November we needed to go after Orlando Cabrera or deal from our moderate pitching strength to get a younger player ready to take over the position.  Neither happened and now we’re stuck.  For us to be more than a pretending club, for me it has to start with our defense up the middle starting with Cedeno. We’ll go as Cedeno goes.

The second most obvious hole we have is at first base.  Clement is athletic enough to handle the position defensively with enough reps, but can. he. hit. major. league. pitching?  Huntington’s short-term plan is to either open with Clement’s unknown bat or toss him aside and put Jones at first and let Church play right. Either way we end up with a pretender at one of the corner positions and that spells trouble. But I’m not going to go out as far on a limb as other media writers suggesting that we’ll only be as good as Clement can hit, instead I’m going to say we’re only going to be as good as Tabata can hit and field the ball because that’s ultimately the way it shakes out.. Tabata in right, Jones at first, and Clement catching. How soon these position adjustments are made will determine whether we have a chance to break the pretender role or not, although I don’t expect Clement to be catching full-time until later in the year or next year.

Out of the second hole above comes our third obvious hole – lack of power on our corners. Milledge, Jones, LaRoche, and Clement or Tabata just aren’t enough thump. And if Huntington eventually comes out and says his intention was to build a doubles oriented offense, then that theory also fails.  Milledge is going to sting the ball when he makes contact, but the probability of his contact rate being high enough to warrant talk isn’t very high; Tabata will be a rookie in 2010 so we can’t expect too much from him; and — honestly — who knows what LaRoche, Jones, or Clement are going to do. That’s a lot of question marks from the four corners. In order for us to avoid the pretender label, three of the four corners are going to have to be league average or better offensively.  Good luck on that one.

Our fourth concern has to be in Doumit’s inability to stay healthy. His habits as a receiver suggest he’s going to get hurt along the way.. the question becomes, how bad? I don’t think anybody questions his ability to hit the ball when he’s healthy but, is. he. healthy?  Flip-a-coin. We need Doumit to step up in 2010 and be the offensive threat he can be or we might as well write off the 2010 season.

Defensively, we’re going to bleed runs. Aki will save as many as he gives up, Cedeno will give up more than he saves, LaRoche seems solid enough to save a few, Clement at first in development mode will bleed runs, Jones in right may seem like a neutral offering but to me he’s below average defender out there, Cutch should save us runs now that he’s in his second year but I’d be happy with +0 instead of him giving up runs, and Milledge and Doumit will both bleed runs, albeit Milledge looked great on some defensive metrics (not mine though). With all the pitch-to-contact arms we have, this is not a dream defense by any means.

That leaves pitching. I’m content that Maholm will produce at a mid-rotation level but still find himself trying to pitch out of too many jams, Duke may be a stat king but his stuff is so ordinary he’s likely to get hammered big time this year because everyone knows he only has one game plan – stay away, Ohlendorf living upstairs is a logistical nightmare but he got away with it last year – the question is, can he again, and who knows what to expect from soft-hearted Morton.  With three of the four starters being sinkerballers, how can we possibly expect anything from them during the start of the season with it being cold and their arms still tight?  It’s likely to be the end of April before they get loose enough for us to see high enough groundball rates for us to have a better chance, so look for some ugly games early.

And who exactly can even be our #5? The technical definition for a #5 is something like a guy who can give you 120 innings while keeping you in more games than not, but Hart and McCutchen are bigger question marks than our problem at short.  We need someone to step up during the last half of spring training.. Bryan Morris, Brad Lincoln, McCutchen or Hart, Veal.. someone has to. If not, then we can just mark the calendar three out of four every-fifth-start days with an “L”. We’re that bad off.  Throw in Kerrigan’s desire to limit innings to Duke and others because of fatigue, throw in the potential of arm abuse from heavy workloads two years ago from Morton and Ohlendorf, and throw in unhealthy relievers we are carrying, and, man, we really have some big question marks with this group. And don’t be too surprised if you see us having to use Carrasco to close games during the season.

On the utility side we have a backup catcher who can’t block the ball or hit, we are carrying a Rule 5 outfielder for some insane reason, and we have wannabes hanging around in Crosby, Pearce, Vazquez, Moss, Walker, and Young.

That’s one hell of a lot of question marks to overcome so here’s a couple of suggestions..

We are going to see a lot of players dropped off rosters and put on the wire here shortly. And I mean a lot. I think it is imperative that Huntington latch out and grab some of the better talent that becomes available. So far he’s refused to take risks but that needs to change.

Another way that can help is for Coonelly to green light Huntington to burn a few of the extra years of control we’ve gained the last couple of years. It will cost more in the long run to do that, but we can advance our development by at least one-half a year if we do. For instance, Tabata breaks with the club, Jones goes to first, Jaramillo who I believe has one option left, goes to 3A, Clement goes to backup catcher or to 3A if Jaramillo doesn’t have an option, and Lincoln is added to the rotation once we have a need for a 5th starter.  I wouldn’t push the envelope on Alvarez just yet and would wait to bring him up in June.

That’s an aggressive stance financially but I think it’s necessary to shut down some of the bleeding defensively, to add some offense down the road, and to get Lincoln on track ASAP so that we can deal one of our starters in July like Maholm if we get an offer we can’t refuse.

Those are a few ways that might sneak out a few more wins for us. What ideas do you have?

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I watched some of the Yankees game and wondered why all the pitchers in spring training seem to be missing high so far?  Have mound heights changed? Has side work changed? Or is it because I’m watching the same staffs over and over and over?  I suppose the third answer is the right one. 

Sabathia was crushed missing high and being too predictive as he looked to be working on certain pitch types each inning and was punished as a result. I thought one guy was impressive – Romulo Sanchez.. the guy Huntington gave away for Eric Hacker who we let walk away last winter. Go figure.. think there was a little extra motivation in Sanchez’s heart during Tuesday’s performance?

Anyway, once the Yankees brought in the garbage in Boone Logan and the youngsters in Hector Noesi and Jeremy Bliech, our backups went to work and put a “W” up for us.  And yes, I saw Jones’ towering blast.  LOL

It’s a typical spring training.. pitchers who threw competitively all winter or who have early stuff look like a million dollars, and pitchers who need more time or want to work on things regardless of the outcome are getting hammered.  It’s pretty hard to decipher any of it without more information.

So who do we play Wednesday? The Yankees again? Boooorrrrringggg.  No, it’s Baltimore.. the team with a lot more problems and question marks than the Pirates (is that possible?). Perhaps we need to trade Young to them? Anyway, Duke throws against Bergesen and they have Hendrickson scheduled as well. We’ll see Donnelly, McCutchen, Chulk, and Jakuwhatever.  Too bad we missed Millwood this trip.

I’d say we can start looking a bit closer at stats starting this weekend.

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My son had his first t-ball game.. great stuff.  He played first and actually caught a solid grounder and tagged first, missed a throw from the pitcher, and missed another grounder. At the plate he went 3-3 like most of the kids did.  Fun, fun, stuff.

And I swear I saw Boras hanging around passing out business cards to the parents. I dunno, maybe I was mistaken. Maybe..

Thank you to everyone who pledged during the drive.  We collected $1,410 which was $410 more than the goal so thank you for the opportunity.  Here’s a few things I have on tap for you.

I am close to finishing a new site that will be integrated into this one where everything will be housed.  The Grand Opening is scheduled for March 26th.  So far I have secured scouting correspondents who will watch some of the Bradenton and West Virginia games over the year, I am talking with a retired ACC head coach to see if he will scout some games for us, I’ve secured a statistical consultant who has worked with an MLB team to do a weekly column on the Pirates (offense, defense, and pitching), and I’ve finished the plans with Inside Edge scouting service to be able to publish their scouting reports and Fantasy matchup data for your enjoyment. I’m still looking for a scout to cover the Curve as the one I had was recently hired, but I’m hopeful that will come sooner than later.

This is the first year trying this so expect a few bumps along the way but we’ll manage. Just remember that the scouting correspondents and consultants I’m bringing in are not cheap by any means, not to mention the cost of being able to publish proprietary scouting reports from Inside Edge, so don’t expect daily updates within the system because it’s not going to happen unless this venture gets bankrolled by someone. But we will get no less than three deep looks at the players of each of the three minor league teams during the year while also getting the weekly consultant updates and the daily Inside Edge updates on the Pirates.

And more.

Those who have pledged will become “members” at the new site and have even more opportunities and receive tokens during the year.  I’ll extend the “members” opportunity to anyone who pledges before the 10th since I’ve had a couple people ask for a couple of days to be able to make their pledges. Look for the “Donation” button on the right sidebar to make a pledge.

Get stoked.

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First off, I didn’t listen to this game because after I did some research on the pitchers the Twins planned to bring it was pretty obvious it was going to be a long game.

Duensing and Swarzak are Minnesota Twins number five type starters, Waldrop a non-roster invitee, and Burnett and Delaney grade C’ish prospects.  Only Duensing could be considered as having some upside (Twins fans might argue that Swarzak has more raw potential but I’m not so sure myself) but not like he’s projected to ever be a middle of the order guy or anything despite a wonderful second-half last year. He’s a pitch-to-contact guy like Duke and sports an upper-80’s fastball with a plus changeup while working around the plate. The fact we were able to square up on him some isn’t surprising to me.  Swarzak is another pitch-to-contact guy with a fastball around 90 with an average curve and change. The stuff the other three guys has isn’t even worth talking about although Waldrop has been around some.

So we came out ready to make contact and we did just that pounding out 15 hits with 6 of them for extra bases. Swarzak gave up both the home runs of the day to Jones and Church which isn’t too surprising as he gave up the equivalent of 2 per nine innings in the 59 innings of his rookie season last year and left hand batters have always had their way with him. Throw in a moderate wind blowing out to right, and BAM.

Overall I think the key is that we finally handled inferior pitching because up to this point we’ve been dragging our butts against them.  Perhaps the bats are starting to come around?  The other oddity in the box score was a triple by Alvarez.. nice to see big boy be able to chug around the bases but, come on, was Tosoni asleep on the play or something? Hilarious.

Ohlendorf had yet another case of the mechanical blues I see as something like 6 of his first 7 pitches were off the plate as he opened the game.  I mentioned the last time he didn’t seem to be taking things very serious and I hoped he didn’t end up hurt.

Jakubauskas was mauled but I don’t know enough about his stuff to know whether he just needs more time to get his arm loose, if he is just that pitiful, or what is going on with him. Maybe one of you guy can fill me on with a scouting report on him.  I thought it was interesting they brought Bryan Morris out for an inning of work on his pitching day instead of having him throw a simulated game in the bullpen. Shades of motivation?  I hope it works.

Vinnie Chulk with 5 K’s.. wow. He had a 3.0 K/9 last year with Cleveland and a 4.5 K/9 the year after with the Giants, but dominated batters in the lower levels of minor league ball. Maybe his arm was pooped out for a couple of years and that’s why Huntington signed him so quick after walking away from the Indians this winter?  We’ll see.

Since I didn’t listen to the game I don’t know how we did on defense but I assume we were rather tight since we converted balls in play to outs for the most part with only two stand outs according to readership e-mails.. Moss on a fly ball early and Alvarez who dropped a win-pushed pop up.  There was also some talk about Raynor having a hard time on a play.

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Just listened to the last part of the Neal Huntington Show and here are the highlights:

Clement.. early returns are that he is progressing ok. He may look awkward, may be out of position here and there, but he’s getting it down. For him to break with the club out of camp he has to show his bat and glove will play everyday. (I think they have already made their mind up myself, but we’ll see.)

Dotel.. minor ribcage injury has him sidelined and it’s possible he’ll be ready by opening day.

Hanrahan.. inflammation has subsided and he should be back with the club a couple of weeks into the season. (Sounds like he might begin on the DL.)

Camp cuts.. first round possible next week but the deeper cuts will start mid-month.

It’s the last day of the New Bucs Pledge drive!  I’m proud to say you exceeded my goal allowing me to keep the paywall down this year.  All donations made today will be matched from a second business up to $400 so that we can send the scouts out to watch our prospects more often during the year.  Those who pledge get extra goodies during the year!

You can read more about the pledge drive here and here.  Click the button below to make your pledge on PayPal’s secure server using your credit card, or log in to PayPal and send your donation directly to jake at newbucs.com.

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The Bucs are averaging 8.8 strikeouts per game – 22 alone in the last two games — which is by far and away the highest of all the spring clubs.  You may say it’s still early in the spring, and you may say many of the strikeouts are from our minor league prospects, but it’s still a figure which should start raising a red flag in our front office considering the quality of pitching we have faced hasn’t exactly been top of the rotation stuff. 

Something is not right because even Lady Luck allows better than a 26% team-wide strikeout rate.

On the pitching side, Joe Kerrigan is getting his money’s worth using the one-pitcher-per-inning scheme as that has allowed him to keep batters off guard while throwing fresh arms every inning.  The result has been a respectable 3.57 ERA carried over 35 innings while only allowing 27 hits.  But again, they haven’t exactly faced solid A lineups either except against the Yankees and batters for the most part are absolutely crushing many of our offerings, so it’s only a matter of time before more of those laser shots start falling in and raising our third lowest batting average allowed of .213 (our 6.88 hits allowed per nine innings is the lowest of the spring).

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The Bucs had their spring training home opener Saturday and played in front of a full house.  Ironically, management tossed out a convoluted lineup showcasing just three of our projected opening day starters in front of the fans.  In essence, it was the tightest defensive card John Russell could possibly muster and it paid off.

When they had a chance to field the ball, that is.

Kevin Hart opened the game and obviously had mechanical issues from pitch one.  He ended up walking 4 of the 7 batters he faced, allowed a laser bullet off the base of the right field wall to Church for a triple, threw a wild pitch that should have been called a passed ball since it went right between Jaramillo’s legs allowing a run to score, and even his outs were hit hard as Ibanez crushed a bullet to Vazquez at second which he hung on to for a great diving play turning two. 

Audio clip.

One thing that bothered me was a report I received from someone at the game (not a pro) who said Hart didn’t look like he was finishing his pitches and Kerrigan went out one time to try to get him under control again. Media reports suggest Hart was just pumped up but when a guy throw that many balls..  You also have to wonder why Kerrigan didn’t send Jaramillo out more often to Hart with his messages.. why take a chance in the guy hurting himself if he’s opening up too early or landing hard? Anyway, back to the drawing board for Kerrigan and Hart.  

Blanton was hit hard as I expected he would be but we were only able to get three runs off him (big blow was a Church home run.. imagine that, the guy hits only four all last year.. ) before he seemed to pull the string in the first striking out Tabata and LaRoche to end the threat so he could go sit down.  Another threat in the second was terminated just about as fast. 

Crosby flashed some leather during the game as did Vasquez.. both guys you would expect to hear their names called out for good plays on the field, Kerrigan’s army of one-inning’ers hung on to keep the game locked up with Jackson giving up the third run (his sinker is obviously still MIA and will be for a couple of weeks I’d guess), and McCutchen had a 2-2 day with an atypical (for him) walk, stole a base, and was caught stealing another time. 

The additional concerns I heard were Hart being allowed to throw 35 pitches in the first under that stress, Jaramillo not blocking pitches, Alavarez not picking a ball that shot right past him yet later made a nice play, and Milledge with some very poor route recognition albeit his speed helped him to make a correction one time when he dove to make a play.  You may remember me stating a month or so ago that I expect to see Milledge leaving his feet a lot this year costing us a ton of runs.

At least it wasn’t a loss, huh?

Box score.

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Ohlendorf goes Sunday against the Twins as Kerrigan starts taking his troops to two innings of work.  It’s a split-squad game for the Twins so I suspect we’ll only see a few Twins regulars.

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Only four days left for you to get registered at MLB if you plan to be on one of our fantasy leagues this year.  If you haven’t received an e-mail from me or an invitation from MLB, leave a comment below or e-mail me using the contact form above.

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Yes Brian, I saw the upset at Clemson.  Wow.. looks like Lamb got the best of Dyson.

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Bryce Harper Update — College of Southern Nevada PR Release

Box scores
Game 1:  http://sites.csn.edu/dcabrera/baseball/2010/csn19.htm
Game 2:  http://sites.csn.edu/dcabrera/baseball/2010/csn20.htm

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – College of Southern Nevada baseball player Bryce Harper hit two home runs in a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader at College of Southern Idaho on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to sweep the twinbill as top-ranked CSN won the opener 10-8 before dropping the nightcap 8-7 in extra innings at Skip Walker Field.

The Coyotes (16-4, 3-1 SWAC) opened up a 10-2 lead in the first game before allowing the Golden Eagles (10-8, 1-3 SWAC) right back in the game with a 6-run sixth inning.  Tyler Hanks relieved Kiel Harmon, who struggled following a brilliant pitching performance by Bryan Harper.  Harper struck out 10 batters in five innings after allowing two runs on three hits early on.  Trent Cook and Trevor Kirk each had two hits to pace CSN.

In the second game, CSI first baseman Michael Wesner hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, setting up a game-winning RBI double in the eighth by Ryan Cooperstone to give the Golden Eagles the victory in a game featuring six lead changes.

Bryce Harper went a combined 7-for-8 with two solo home runs, two doubles and two RBIs.  Ryan Scott also hit a solo home run for the Coyotes in the second game.

Just two days left in our pledge drive. We were blessed to bypass our $1,000 goal and currently have $1,290 in pledges.

However, don’t stop now.. all amounts over the $1,000 mark will be used to bring you additional scouting reports from the minor leagues. Obviously I can’t afford to hire three scouts to follow these teams all year so I’ll use those funds to get the scouts out to even more games for us. Plus, those who pledge will partake in additional benefits during the year!

You can read more about the pledge drive here and here. Click the button below to make your pledge on PayPal’s secure server, or log in to PayPal and send your donation directly to jake at newbucs.com.

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The good news is the Bucs won and won it with a Sanchez home run who had a good game. Now all you optimists should leave the room.

What a fundamentally butt ugly game. 

Our ridiculous 12 strikeouts I’ll look past since it’s still a tick early (not really, but there you go), I’ll even give Raynor a break in CF since he’s in way over his head (poor routes on two base hits), I won’t even hammer all the times we left a man at third with less than two outs, and I can even look past Neil Walker’s poor defensive plays at third since he’s a bit overwhelmed knowing he’s not a Huntington draftee and on the bubble.

But when our projected starters make a mockery of fundamental baseball as bad as they did last night, John Russell needs to look himself in the mirror. Balls thrown to wrong bases, balls off, under, or through our defender’s gloves, and routine throws to first high, wide, or in the dirt.. and that’s my short list.

Ok, ok, I hear you.. that’s what spring training is all about - getting the rust out.  I just wish other teams had as much rust so I could latch on to that excuse.

In the second, Raynor misplayed a sharp line drive Tejada into a double and then was slow breaking in on an Atkins flair into center albeit it probably would have fallen for a hit anyway. In the third…

“Daniel McCutchen’s first outing of the spring tonight went well: two innings, three hits, one run”

took the mound (as per the Trib report) allowing laser shots all over the diamond, including a bullet over the fence by Adam Jones, Walker couldn’t handle one then he threw low to Pearce who dug it out of the dirt. In the fourth a new round of laser shots were screaming all over.. a deep fly ball by Tejada which, luckily, stayed in the park, another one by Weitters who didn’t come as close to the fence, then..

After getting two quick outs in the fourth, McCutchen shook off catcher Ryan Doumit until he got a first-pitch breaking ball. “That’s what I’m working on,” McCutchen said. Luke Scott singled up the middle. (again the Trib report)

yeah.. singled up the middle ok – it was a cannon-shot off Cedeno’s glove he barely saw, Garrett Atkins then lined another laser off the wall for a double, and, thankfully, it ended with yet another laser on the ground to Cedeno that he handled despite a high throw to Pearce.

Yeah, McCutchen’s outing went well ok.  I love Pittsburgh beat reporters.. they are the optimists dream. Here’s another account for you on how we scored our runs..

Aki Iwamura drove in his first run of spring — albeit in his second start and the Pirates’ third Grapefruit game — in the top of the third, tying the score at 1-1. After Ronny Cedeno got a bloop single, moved to second on Neil Walker’s walk and stole third. Iwamura rapped a single up the middle to score him.

That’s Finder over at the PG.  What he didn’t tell you is that Cedeno’s ”bloop single” was a misplayed routine out that was wind aided in the form of a foul ball that carried all the way back on to the field off Mike Gonzalez.  Walker did walk, but only after a routine foul ball wasn’t caught which should have been the second out, Cedeno did steal third but at least one observer said it looked like a busted hit and run Aki missed the sign on (Cedeno was safe but by milliseconds and you don’t make the first or third outs at third, right??), then Aki drove him in with a seeing eye ground ball through the left side.

It was not a pretty run by either team.

The Pirates answered in the fifth. Walker walked again, stole second and moved to third on a John Raynor single. A Garrett Jones groundout scored Walker and tied the game at 2-2.

Walker indeed walked again as Jake Arrieta couldn’t find the plate to save his life, after Walker stole second on Arrieta, Raynor pushed a single through the left side (forget it should have been in play on the right side and be happy he hit it) moving Walker to third, Arrieta then struckout Aki with Walker at third and no outs, Arrieta lost the plate again and walked Tabata, and Jones hit a routine double-play ball to Atkins at first.. but he misplayed it allowing Walker to score.

Yet another gift run.

Then, with two outs in the eighth inning, came Sanchez’s homer to tie it once more, at 3-3. After fouling off four pitches at least, he knocked a 2-2 pitch from minor-leaguer Troy Patton some 415 feet over the center-field wall.

Minor leaguer Mr. Finder?  Patton made his debut in 2007 against.. drum roll.. the Pirates and Jose Bautista (think Tony Sanchez) took him deep twice in that game. After the season Patton had labrum surgery (as if you didn’t figure that one out already) and is now on the way back. This guy doesn’t have a pitch higher than 88 in his arsenal and why Sanchez was able to hang in at the plate until he was gifted an 86 mph heater down the pike he belted over the fence. 

Credit Sanchez for doing something with the gift but don’t get too excited over that 415 feet distance with the swirling winds at Ed Smith and Patton’s pitch location.  Sanchez also nailed Jonathan Tucker, who does have good speed, stealing second in the 6th. I wish I had a stopwatch on that pop and I’m guessing Tucker’s steal was ordered by the dugout to get some numbers on Sanchez. Later he made another nice play scooping up a bunt in the 9th. 

There’s no doubt the kid’s got the glove.. now can he hit to be more than a backup guy down the road?  He’s quickly becoming a fan favorite and rightfully so the way he plays the game, but he still has a long way to go.  We’ll see.  Kudos to him for a great game.

And I see nobody mentioned the wonderful Pearce running play in the 6th. He was standing at second with one out when Cedeno hammered a routine line drive to left that was caught and Pearce was on his way home only to be doubled off the bag.  We rock.

A couple of other positive notes.. Tabata’s arm held at least one runner from advancing first to third, our pitchers were able to get out of mega-jams, and none of our defenders were hurt from any of the bullets flying around.  So much for the pitchers being ahead of the batters right now.

Box score.

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Jeremy Powell in camp. Wow.. what a blast from Kerrigan’s past. Come on.. are you telling me that we don’t have qualified AA/1A kids that deserve a chance more than thirty-three-year-old Powell who hasn’t played a game in the bigs since 2000?

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John Raynor on first base with a three-step lead dives back every time the ball is thrown over.  The kid doesn’t have a chance at sticking because he’s going to cause too many of the other players to bust a gut laughing all year.

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That was the first time we played the Orioles in spring training since 1993.

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After a couple of games with Tabata in right I’ve noticed we’re playing him in about five steps or more than anyone else played the position in years. He is not good at going back so I’m curious why Varsho would have him playing in so much.. he’ll take a few singles away but he’s also going to give up some extra bases. I think we need to play him more straight up and we’ll see if what happens over the next couple of weeks.

I’m also noticing a disturbing trend carried over from late last season.. we have a habit of playing back with a man at third and less than 2 outs nearly all the time regardless of the inning.  That potentially cost us quite a few runs last year and I’m hoping we get a bit more aggressive this year.

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Chris Sale:  6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 11 K putting an end to the 24th ranked Wichita State’s five-game unbeaten streak.

Do you hear me now?

Just three days left in our pledge drive.  We were blessed to bypass our $1,000 goal and currently have $1,290 in pledges.

However, don’t stop now.. all amounts over the $1,000 mark will be used to bring you additional scouting reports from the minor leagues. Obviously I can’t afford to hire three scouts to follow these teams all year so I’ll use those funds to get the scouts out to even more games for us. Plus, those who pledge will partake in additional benefits during the year!

You can read more about the pledge drive here and here.  Click the button below to make your pledge on PayPal’s secure server, or log in to PayPal and send your donation directly to jake at newbucs.com.

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“Losing for so long, there’s so much negative things being said about the Pirates. It’s tough to read them. You get defensive. The thing is, it’s true, and it’s tough to deal with that negativity every day. .. There’s certainly a lot more talent in the [Pirates] system.  It’s just … (pauses) … not every prospect hits.  So, I guess Pittsburgh fans don’t want to hear it, but time will tell.”"

Nate McLouth as told to MLB.com today.

Nate’s right – negativity is tough to deal with. But he’s also right in the fact that most of it is true.  I was hammered by a couple of folks in my comments section yesterday on this subject and, while it doesn’t bother me in the least, it does show that some of my readers don’t understand my writing style.  So let me explain it to you now.

If I don’t mention something, I’m generally pleased with it and have no desire to talk about it. I expect Maholm or Ohlendorf to throw around the plate, I expect Doumit to call a good game, I expect McCutchen to beat out infield hits, I expect better than average defense from our players as a whole, and I expect relievers to pitch out of jams.

What I don’t expect is laziness, youthful players showing up umpires or opposing pitchers, mistakes and miscues repeated over and over, or pitchers throwing three fastballs in a row. 

When the players put on the uniform, I expect them to play to the best of their ability every second they are on the field, I expect them to play the game the right way, and I expect our management to enforce the same.  If those events don’t happen, I’m going to single them out.

If you want to read fluff, then go read some of the other Pirates blogs because I have strong opinions. I don’t care if you like or agree with my opinions because that’s not the intent of this blog – I’m not here to make friends, I couldn’t care less how many people visit every day, and I’ll be the first one to tell you that I have agendas.

Chew hard on the fact this is a  B L O G  where opinions are expressed. If I don’t pat Duke on the back from throwing a three-hitter, oh well.  If I don’t give credit to Jones for hitting a home run, oh well. And if I don’t jump on the apologist bandwagon, oh well.

I write what I feel, I write what my gut says to write, and I’m going to keep writing what I want.  If you don’t like what I have to say, then either a) open your own blog;  b) write your opinion in a comment here subject to my censorship rules since this is my house;  or c) hit the road Jack.

I love this game.

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I didn’t have a chance to listen to the Braves game but from what others e-mailed, it sounded like another horror show starting with pitching and ending with fielding.

Early spring training is the best time to judge player motivation by watching things like who is hustling and who isn’t and who seems to feel pressured and who doesn’t. I also like to watch events like pitch counts and defensive positioning because over the years I’ve learned that what you see early on in the field is typically what you will see during the year.

I’m not too focused on who is hitting the ball until they get about 30 at bats under their belt, how anyone is pitching until they get to throw to live batters two or three times, what “position duels” there are because I believe those decisions were made in October, or who is out there playing and who isn’t.

Honestly, spring training is kind of boring for me other than being able to scout the younger players in the minor league system because those kids are playing hard battling for roster spots in the higher leagues right now.  That’s why I’m sending out some pro eyes in the next week or two to report their findings back to us. It’s a great time to evaluate young talent.

One thing that was evident from the box score today was Morton’s inability to find the strike zone.  I’d guess that’s typical for a soft sinkerball guy early on.. he probably has very little action on his stuff and being soft, he’s not trusting anything he throws.  That’s my own guess.  Give him a couple weeks into April before you start wondering whether or not he’s got anything in the tank. Hopefully he’s working on his secondary pitches.

The fans are probably freaking right now wondering what’s up with Pedro Alvarez having struck out four of his last five at bats.  Let him settle in to his first big league camp.. he’ll come around. But it’s pretty easy to see what opponents think his weakness is as they are force feeding him junk away he’s chasing like a mad man. I don’t see that as an issue either – not yet anyway. Let’s see if he can adjust over his next 20 AB.

Nice to see Lincoln get some action. I don’t expect we’ll see too much out of him until he settles into his starting routines.  Next year is his year even though he might see some action in the senior circuit later in the year.

Ten walks issued by Pirates pitching.  Wow.

I see the Braves were running on Milledge and he ended up nailing Conrad at third. I think we’re going to see a return of the Bay-type days where opposing teams run like crazy on our left fielder this year.  We’ll see if that holds true.. it did later in the 2009 season.

Bucs travel a short distance to Sarasota Friday playing the Orioles who have Tillman starting.

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Minor league spring training games are tentatively scheduled to begin on March 16th this year. I’ll post the schedule once the Pirates finalize it. 

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I appreciated the feedback you provided in the polls the last two days.  Here is a list of the highest rated responses:

– you desire my game recaps
– wish we had live game chats
– want more draft coverage
– and seem to be pleased with the blog theme overall.

Thank you – I’ll incorporate those ideas into the 2010 season.  I’ll be doing a bit of house cleaning so you can easily get to the scouting correspondents work.

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Oh my, draft positions were assigned today to the B&G2 New Bucs fantasy league which has a live draft 3/21 at 11 AM:

I draft 6th there.  You guys are going down!

If you left a comment here desiring to play fantasy baseball and didn’t get your invitation, let me know by e-mailing me using the Contact form in the navigation bar at the top of the blog.

Those who received their invitations, or who set a desired league to play in over at the private web page, have until the 10th to register at MLB or you’ll lose your spot.  Contact me if you have any questions.

The pledge drive is going well having exceeded our $1,000 goal.  Currently I have $1,290 in pledged amounts.  However, don’t stop now.. all amounts over the $1,000 mark will be used to bring you additional scouting reports from the minor leagues. Obviously I can’t afford to hire three scouts to follow these teams all year so I’ll use those funds to get the scouts out to even more games for us.

There are four days left in the pledge drive which you can read more about it here and here.  Click the button below to make your pledge on PayPal’s secure server, or log in to PayPal and send your donation directly to jake at newbucs.com.

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Please take a minute and give me your take in these multi-choice polls if you haven’t already:

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Fantasy league invitations went out – be sure to register at MLB before the 10th to keep your spot.  The next wave of invitations will probably go out Wednesday.

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I’m traveling today and only had a chance to watch the first four innings of the game waiting for a flight but here’s a few things that stood out to me:

–  why in the world did we send what surely will end up being our opening day lineup to Tampa to play the Yankees?  A friend of mine text me and jokingly said it was a “mentality” thing because management wanted our guys to stand there and watch the World Champions traipse around the field with the championship trophy.  What a blow. I’m at a loss of words why we would send everyone packing to Tampa.. total loss.

–  the home team Yankees trotted out a starting lineup that included their #5 starter wannabe, a Rule 5 pick, one non-roster invitee, a backup catcher, and a rookie.  Oh, and they eventually won via a non-roster invitee.  Man.

–  if no wind, no home runs. No home runs, no being close in the game.  That’s probably the storyline for 2010.. no power.

–  if you happened to be scouting the game with a stopwatch then you probably scratched your head on some of the times from home to first by our batters.  In fact, thirty-six-year-old Derek Jeter ran faster down the line (4.4 sec) in one early at bat than 65% of our guys and McCutchen was at 4.9 seconds in his second AB.  That’s embarrassing. I expect to see LaRoche putting up those kind of numbers but not McCutchen.. nor a 4.6 from Clement from the left side.  I know it was a bit chilly and the guys probably didn’t want to pull hammys, but come on – there has to be some hustle too. What’s up with that John Russell? 

–  Clement is pretty raw mechanically at first base.  He’s obviously athletic as you could see in the first when he fielded Granderson’s grounder and flipped to Maholm covering, but he looked intimidated (Yankees?). He also made a nice swipe on an atypical bad throw from Cedeno (some things never change), he stretched a couple of times when he didn’t need to but he seemed to be comfortable doing it, and then when he needed to, he didn’t.  It seems to me he’s pretty raw and I can’t help believing there’s no way he’s going to be ready for opening day, but since this is a developmental year he might as well stay with Garcia.

–  second AB from Cutch and Mitre threw him a hook that completely fooled him, landed in the zone for a strike away, and then he stood in the box making a few ‘that wasn’t a strike’ faces as home plate umpire Fairchild watched intently. Then Cutch looked back at Mitre with a sly grin on his face as if to say ‘what the heck are you doing throwing that kind of junk to me in the first game’?  He promptly ground out on the next pitch and nearly walked to first.

–  Ohlendorf’s mechanics were so out of whack when he started pitching that he couldn’t close up and he ended up throwing down plane and jerking back like he had a whip as he finished (finished? LOL, he wasn’t finishing his pitches early on but you get the idea).  He looked like he was having a lot of fun trying to rare back and heave the ball as hard as he could. I hope we don’t see him DOA in a week or two (oblique or shoulder) because of what seemed to be a lack of seriousness.  I did like the unexpected hook he threw Jeter to strike him out – nice stuff, even though it is a bit early to be showing offspeed stuff. 

–  Brian Bass who????  Another Corrigan guy I’d guess by the looks of things.

–  with Cutch on first in the first, Aki was swinging like crazy on the first pitch without a hit and run on.  What’s that ‘going for personal stats’ type thing all about John Russell?

–  Andy LaRoche with two good rangy plays to his left.. one was a plus play. Thank you very much Mr. Perry Hill, wish you were here.

–  Milledge in his first AB:  strike looking, ball, strike swinging foul, ball, strike looking middle-away.. go sit down. Unbelievable.  Doesn’t he look exactly like Jack Wilson did when he reported to camp having gained 10 pounds (too much)?  Yeah, he sure does. Chucky baby, chunky.

–  what’s up with the new Joe ‘I want to be Jack Tripper’ Kerrigan look?  Dude had hair sticking out of his hat going everywhere ala the 80’s, $250 shades covering the eyes, and a grin like, you know, everything is kewl man.. pass the bong.  Glad to see our field staff make an impression.  Oh my.

–  Doumit with a 1.90 sec pop time (receiving the ball to the ball being caught at second) to nail the young Cervelli on a straight steal while handling a low and away fastball. Sweet.. if he cuts down more runners than advance on his passed balls, I’ll be tickled to death.

I’ll watch the rest of the game later tonight and post additional observations later if I have any.