One of the aspects of being a Pirates fan that I have missed over the last 5+ years is involvement. Years ago I used to send gifts to the clubhouse wishing the players well, support fan groups, drop in on games around the country to see them play, be a season ticket holder at a couple of the affiliates, buy quite a few Pirates Charities items in support of their mission, or try to organize a rally to greet the charter coming in off the road. While my involvement around the team has changed over the years, my enthusiasm for the organization hasn’t.

Even in 2010 as we head down a historical negative path.

And you know, if I had been in Pittsburgh Wednesday night, I would have called for everyone to meet the players and show them some love.. just by turning out as fans. Ok, they suck this year, big deal. That’s not the point. The point is, they represent the organization which all of us bleed for or we wouldn’t be writing or reading Pirates blogs after all these years of losing. Let’s be honest.

So here’s a challenge to everybody out there.. if you went to 2 games this year, try to go to 4 next year. If you bought season tickets this year, then do the same next year while also getting one additional person to buy a season ticket that hasn’t in a while. Every one of us needs to get more involved in the organization.

I know I’m guilty of dropping that ball so I intend to get more active and I hope you do too. That doesn’t mean you have to stop cussing John Russell, or not pick apart our front offices plans, it just means we need to support the org more.. buy something at a charity auction, talk some friends into being season ticket holders, rent a suite or buy some advertising, start a player fan club (PA’s Punks or Cutch’s Clutches (yuck.. wish I was an ad man)), give out of the ordinary standing ovations at the game, whatever.

We’ve been robbed of our pride in the organization because of so many disappointments and lies that have come our way, but that doesn’t mean we should stand on the side of the road. As the last fans standing, we need to be setting the example.

Now don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with being a critical fan in my book. Just never forget that the guys who wear the uniform represent the organization we all cherish and, no matter how bad the team may suck, we still have to cover their backs.

They are Pittsburgh Pirates.  Support them.

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No, I haven’t been drinking too many brews. I’ve just been getting way too many e-mails from fans who want to protest or rally or walk out or other bizarre things. None of that solves anything.

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We have a lot of very fatigued and beat up young men who need some time off. We’re beat physically and mentally and it shows. John Russell needs to start giving an extra day off each week to each player whether they want it or not and all we can hope for is that nobody gets injured from being so fatigued. After the rain passes Friday in Pittsburgh, the temps are supposed to go down so that will help to refresh us a bit.

I’ll break down the Nats/Pirates series Thursday night.

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Who would you like to see get a callup while considering the roster, and why?

The FIRE JOHN RUSSELL call:

firejohnrussell.com - site dedicated to removing the Bucs skipper
Bucs Dugout – August 30th, 2010
John Steigerwald – August 25, 2010
Facebook – fan page
Elvis Has Left blog – August 31, 2010
Ken Rosenthal discusses the possibility June 16th
Bob Smizik – August 30th
ESPN Radio 1250 – Stan and Guy discuss it August 25th
Mondesi’s House - August 31, 2010

And of course a time or two here since early season.

There are numerous others like discussion forums, private blogs, a beat writer harping on the lack of accountability, talk shows, heck even Rocco had some negative things to say lately. And if I’m getting e-mails from season ticket holders who are extreme optimists wishing for him to be fired, I’m guessing Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington are getting them too. And that’s before we talk about the players.

So how does Russell continue to stand?

The general consensus around the game that I’m hearing is it’s because John Russell is Neal Huntington’s ‘yes-man’ and Frank Coonelly isn’t going to step in to disrupt that union. From my perspective, it’s no secret that Russell and Huntington have stockpiled ‘yes-men’ on the coaching staff now — guys who aren’t going to buck the brass, if you will. I’m not suggesting these men don’t have a voice, it’s just their voice is a whisper in the wind and none of them dare raise it to a higher level.

In other words, Varsho, Kerrigan, Hill, Donnelly, and others, were willing to raise their voice and demanded to be heard and look at where they are now. On top of that, look at the way the Pirates front office attempted to disgrace Kerrigan and Varsho when they kicked them out the door.. they said they weren’t loyal for gosh sakes. Loyal? Loyal to whom? Russell, Huntington, or Coonelly? It’s the old ‘see what happens when you mess with us’ mentality.

Perhaps Perry Hill had a sixth sense that he might be shown the door and treated like Varsho and Kerrigan had he come back, so that’s why he refused?  I don’t know.

One thing is clear – we have a hard-headed group in charge who are bullying their way through the weeds regardless of the outcome. They aren’t listening to people in their own organization, they aren’t listening to the fan base, and they aren’t listening to season ticket holders or corporate sponsors. Simply put, they are out of control. But they do listen to the men they have hired who continue to whisper ‘good job Neal’ or ‘good job Frank’ or ‘good job John’.

You know how it goes — they know everything and nobody else knows anything, including whether John Russell should be fired or not.

That said, they might be potentially setting the organization up for another timing failure like we saw in 2007 when Huntington was brought in so late he couldn’t make a move until the next year. It could be the Pirates intend to blow off 2011 by firing Russell in November or December this year (you know, after they had their end of season review and thought about it all for a month or two), and then whoever they bring in will be forced to take on the staff that Russell and Huntington had in place during 2011 because it will be too late to get anybody else signed of consequence. I mean, that’s how you keep ‘yes-men’ in place while still bending over for the fans or sponsors.

Right?

Well, it’s getting to the point now that many of us are wondering if Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington have any bigger gonads than Charlie Morton does on the mound. If they aren’t ‘yes-men’ to the Nuttings, if they aren’t ‘paycheck’ guys, then why the hell would they allow the club to be dragged down by all the negative PR John Russell has thrust upon the club by remaining a Pirate? At what point does somebody in the front office finally make an intelligent decision that appeases the club’s goals, the owner’s goals, baseball operations, and the fans?

Or, are the powers to be simply rewarding Russell for earlier days. Don’t forget that Russell came aboard in 2003 when Nutting took over as Chairman and they were in a power play with McClatchy for control. Could it be Russell was their clubhouse spy.. the scabby type of ownership snitch that told on everybody all those years? Perhaps this is his payback.. being named manager and collecting big bucks for a few years? Hmm..

Whatever the reason Russell remains employed, it’s not acceptable. Throw Beasley in as interim manager (dear Lord, I probably shouldn’t mention Beasley’s name or he might get fired for disloyalty too) and bring Wehner out of the broadcast booth and make him the third base coach till the end of the year. Oh wait.. he probably won’t be a ‘yes-man’ so I guess that’s not going to work for the paycheck boys. Geezz..

What a mess we have in Pittsburgh.

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Talking about heavy wind, what in the world happened to Ryan Dempster? Man, that dude came out with Chan Ho Park stuff and was ripped. I wish I could watch about 90 games like that each year. Wouldn’t that be something? I’ll cut the guys some slack and not talk about the defensive woes that continue to plague us. Gorzy goes tomorrow if they don’t get rained out.

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The AFL rosters have hit the net and it appears Tony Sanchez will be the Pirates ‘below 2A’ representative. That’s an odd place for Sanchez to end up considering the pitching in that league isn’t what I would call premium. Are we not taking a chance that he gets hurt again? I mean, the average temperature in Phoenix around that time is about 100 degrees at game time, the guy has already gone through a fatigue issue with losing weight and then having to put it back on, he had a higher leverage start to his career by being in Bradenton to begin with, and now we’re sending him to bake like a roast.

This is another one of those mental game errors I think our FO makes too many mistakes with. Why not just let him go home, relax a couple of months, and get back into a conditioning program and, if the FO still thinks he needs some at bats from hell, send him to Puerto Rico for a few weeks before spring training? Considering some or the arms that are likely to be sent, why risk more fatigue and possibly getting hammered with a ton of foul tips?

Crazy stuff.

AND YOU THOUGHT LAST WEEK
WAS EMBARRASSING?

Talk about an epic meltdown, wow. It started simple enough.. a leadoff walk to Soriano in the 4th, then a groundball past Jones, then another grounder past Alvarez that scored Soriano. While I wasn’t at the stadium, it seemed both ground balls were glovable by average range defenders. Zambrano then put down a sac bunt to move the two runners up and Baker struck the first well-hit ball.. the fifth straight hook he saw into the left field corner and that scored two more runs.

Up came Castro and he ground another one at Alvarez who was overmatched by the time he took his second step and the ball shot past into left. Then Byrd hit a pop up into shallow right that Milledge started back on at first, then came running in too late and he backed off allowing the ball to fall in instead of diving for it. Unfortunately, the ball hit the grass and bounced wildly past him but thankfully Walker was backing him up and only one run scored.

But that chased Maholm.

In came Gallagher and Ramirez hit a grounder under Walker’s glove, McCutchen scooped it up and threw a lite throw to the plate way too late, Ramirez anticipated the poor relay so he headed to second on McCutchen’s throw, Doumit fielded the throw and tried to nail Ramirez but his throw tailed away from Cedeno and went into center field. Nady then crushed a line drive into right for another rbi double and just like that it was 9-0 Cubs.

Only two well-struck balls in play plus one walk, four grounders that our defenders didn’t handle, a pop up that should have been caught, and two solid doubles.. and seven runs allowed in the inning.

Burres came out to start the 5th and he was immediately mauled..  Colvin lined a single to center, Zambrano crushed a line drive homer to left, Baker was then walked, Castro lined a bullet into left, Byrd ground out to Alvarez, Ramirez then doubled home two more with a shot to left, Nady singled, and then it was if the Cubs decided to back off as Soriano popped out and Colvin struck out to end the inning.

13-0 Cubs and we had managed just two hits up to that point.

What made this performance so bad was the obvious lack of anticipation and range by our infielders not named Cedeno. This game showcased Carlos Garcia’s shortcomings to a “T” .. he’s not able to take young players to the next level. I don’t know if that is because of the lack of extra work, lack of proper training methods, lack of respect by the players, or inability to move forward by the infielders. Perhaps some of the above, maybe something else entirely. But there’s no question Pedro Alvarez should be able to consistently get to ground balls more than one and one-half steps to his left, or more than one step to his right, but he can’t. Walker simply runs poor infield routes causing balls to shoot past his dives too often, not to mention his extremely slow turn times on double plays.

If these two young men are indeed a part of the Pirates core, then they need more help than Garcia has been providing them because just in one week’s time, I’ve counted more than 18 ‘assumed out’ ground balls float past them for hits and three failed double plays. And those are just the ones I quickly remember. 

Obviously we have a lot more defensive problems than just Jones, Walker, and Alvarez, but until we clean up the defensive runs allowed by these three, it won’t matter how much we spend on free agent starting pitching because, unless the pitchers reduce balls in play more than 50% per game each game they start, which is improbable, our defensive runs allowed from the infield bleeding will cause us to lose too many games anyway.

We need better instructors. I can’t emphasize that enough.. we need better instructors at the major league level.

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Lots of people asking over the last week or so if I think John Russell will be fired after the season.

Nope.  Huntington and Coonelly have the men they want in place right now. Don’t expect any changes although I believe they need wholesale changes (see above).

Here’s a rookie coaching staff outside of Hill.. Matt Walbeck manager, Tom Kotchman bench and catching coach, Perry Hill infield and first base coach, John Wehner outfield and third base coach, and Marty Reed (Braves org) as pitching coach (lots of possibilities there) with Bob Walk as his assistant. You probably have a group you like too.

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We’re on track to finish the year 26 games off the pace for a .500 season. Theoretically, that’s a 260 run swing which is one heck of a lot of improvement to expect for 2011. As one of my friends said today, the 2011 club might be even worse than the 2010 club is without a lot of changes. He’s probably right.

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If the game goes 3 hours or more, are the Bucs more likely to be winners or losers?

Losers.. we’ve won just 26% of the longer contests vs 36% of the shorter ones.

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Will More Money Result in Better Drafts for the Pirates?  Pro Scout Anup Sinha tries to answer that question at Bucs Prospects.

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You probably haven’t noticed but under the Jake’s Take section in the navigation bar above, I’ve picked 60% of our contests (win/loss) so far this year, albeit Monday’s game was a washout for me. Last year I ended at 62%. Vegas considers the lower to mid 50′s as good, and upper 50′s as excellent. Obviously with the Pirates the trick is in accurately picking their wins, not their losses. Anyway, I only mentioned this because the site has become a hit with a couple of private handicappers and I’m trying to get them to do an online challenge. We’ll see.

Sometimes I think the Pirates front office just loves to screw with players minds. Take poor Charlie Morton, for example.

The last game he pitched before being demoted was May 27th against the Reds where he lasted just two innings, gave up 8 hits with two of those going for home runs in the small confines of Great American Park, allowed 7 runs – 5 earned, he walked three, and behind the plate calling balls and strikes was Marvin Hudson (Morton with Hudson: .545 batting average allowed. Wow!). 

So what do the Pirates do? They call up Morton to start against a good hitting club that we have lit a match under the previous two games, to make his first start in yet another smaller park, then throw out a suspect defense behind him with Tabata in center, Young in right, and Doumit behind the plate, knowing full well and good Marvin Hudson was going to be calling the game. Oh, not to mention Morton’s only other start against the Brewers in 2010 was a catastrophe where he lasted one inning, gave up six runs, and walked three and that was at pitching friendly PNC.

Talk about being a sacrificial lamb.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. Morton is now slotted to face the Nats (6.00 career ERA against), Braves (2.57 ERA), D’backs (7.20 ERA), Cardinals twice in the hunt no less (11.70 ERA), Mets (never started), and end the season against the Marlins (4.29 ERA). Certainly his slots may change if the Pirates go to a six-man rotation, but for now, that’s where he sits.

I can just imagine Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson talking to the Brewers hitters before Sunday’s game, and I’d guess the conversation might have gone something like this: “Morton is mentally beat before he takes the mound today and it’s your job to immediately add to his misery.” Why Peterson? Because he’s one of the new-wave ‘mental side of the game’ gurus and the stats outlined above which stacked against Morton are ‘pure indicators’ of a guy who is likely to beat himself.

And Morton did just that.

The question in my mind is this — did the Pirates intentionally put Morton behind the mental game to see if he had somehow grown new gonads the last couple of months in Indy? Or, did they just thrust an available starter into a slot they needed to fill? I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious – they hoped Morton was going to continue to build off his last few starts where he had a little success. Unfortunately, that’s the mentality which has plagued the last three GM’s in Pittsburgh – they don’t think, they don’t listen to others around them, and then they act irrationally.

Clearly Morton was going to be uncomfortable at Miller and nobody should have expected him to succeed. I tip my hat to him because he was setup for failure and he still was able to record ten outs. That’s an amazing story on its own.

But don’t for a second forget the other night when John Russell could have pulled McDonald out after throwing six strong knowing his stuff was flattening out from the fifth on, but he failed to do that and watched McDonald walk off the field with his head between his legs for the third time in his last four starts. It’s the exact same mentality issue that Morton faced Sunday.. Neal Huntington and John Russell are causing failure with poor major league decisions, and those decisions are ultimately costing asset value to the organization. Another recent example is the too-early promotion of Brad Lincoln.

This isn’t all Neal Huntington’s fault, and my post isn’t intended to single him out, but the blame has to rest on his shoulders as the GM. He has a fractured system.. internally he has too much of a divide that developed and while he thinks he’s sorted out and removed a few of the problems, all he really seemed to do was add more problems to his plate. It’s almost like part of his ‘team’ is working against him, either that or he’s not listening close enough to the right voices. I’m not sure I know the right answer unless it’s to keep cleaning house.

But when will that ever end?

As for Morton? I’d guess Huntington will keep him up the rest of the year.. that’s how things go in Pittsburgh.

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Puh-LEASE shut down Bryan Morris instead of running him out in a relief role and taking the chance of further recking havoc on his shoulder.

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“Mistakes are going to happen. That’s part of the process,” Pirates starter Zach Duke said. — Post-Gazette

That’s a poor excuse, and one I’m not willing to listen to anymore as a fan. I mean, it’s one thing to see a mistake or error here and there, it’s quite another to see the same mistakes night after night. If we can’t employ the right development staff at the major league level to reduce/eliminate mistakes, then we have a bigger problem than Duke’s excuse.

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“It dawned on me during the aftermath of a 10-2 loss to the Cardinals on Monday night, however, just how pointless it would be to change managers. No one could win with the Pirates’ current collection of talent.” — John Perrotto, August 25, 2010

Talk about a flip-flop. Not only that but, it’s not that another manager might not win with the same collection of talent Russell has to work with, it’s that we’d hope Huntington employs a manager who will be able to get more than 75 games of dedication from his roster.

Perrotto doesn’t get it.

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“I have personal experience of knowing that Nutting doesn’t necessarily run his businesses in an ethical or forthright manner after spending nine months working for his Odgen Publications last year. I was told by my immediate supervisor that I should never identify myself as working for Ogden while performing my duties as a Pirates’ beat writer and always identify myself as being from Pirates Report.” — John Perrotto, August 29, 2010

Damn.

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Are you kidding me? Vegas has the Bucs getting creamed at Wrigley Monday and I’m here to tell you, that’s a bet I would take in a heartbeat. ( * hint – hint * ).  Big Z has been impressive lately, no doubt about it. But it’s going to be in the mid to upper 80′s with a wind at game time and we just left Miller Park using uppercut swings. Throw in a 11-3 record last 14 against them, the fact we’ve only lost 2 of Maholm’s last ten starts against them, toss in our hitters match up pretty good to Zambrano’s stuff, and shake on top the fact the Cubs are 2-12 last 14 at home, and that has to be worth $100 at 5Dimes.

Just don’t get too carried away.. this is still a John Russell team and he might throw you off by putting Walker at short, Alvarez at first, Young at second, Tabata in center, bench McCutchen, Doumit, and Jones, and play LaRoche at third. Get my drift?

Bottom line, we just don’t hit right-handers very well, much less on the road. There will be a wind all series, the Cubs are starting to hit the ball again, their pitching is coming back into a groove, and let’s be honest, we’ve won quite a few games against them this year to expect to walk into their house and take a couple more.

I see a chance in game one and then you might want to do chores Tuesday and Wednesday.

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In fanstasy action, my two best teams got clobbered and my computer-drafted team won. How about that?

uggghh.. Game Tied

Since everyone liked the Milledge shot Friday night, there’s another one for you.

I expect to hear quite a bit of fuss in the media about John Russell’s decision in the 9th Saturday night. Game was tied, Leading off the inning, Tabata just doubled down the right field line and threw his arms up while looking into the dugout begging for someone to pick him up. Up to the plate came Walker and Russell didn’t ask him to sacrifice Tabata. Instead, he ground out to short in front of Tabata who started to head to third but backtracked quick enough to avoid being tagged and Walker was thrown out.

That decision caused my e-mail inbox to light up and I can understand the frustration. But it was the correct move to make by Russell in my book. According to my handy-dandy 2010 chart, the Pirates had a 56% chance of scoring that runner from second with no outs and a 63% chance of scoring that runner from third with one out. As it turns out, Jones hit a perfect sac fly which would have scored Tabata had Walker sacrificed him, but obviously we shouldn’t count on those same events happening. Not only that but we’re playing in an away park, we had the middle of the order coming up, and the Brewers relievers haven’t exactly been masterful lately by any means. My money would have been on the no out situation and a fast runner at second eventually scoring just like Russell ordered.

Unfortunately, he was stranded at second.

I would have thought Tabata might have considered stealing second but then I forgot Russell’s lineup featured four consecutive left-hand batters so that was never an option.

Duke pitched ok, our defense sparkled at times and shut down other times, our offense ran on two cylinders then hit on eight for a bit (like Snyder’s three-run blast), but for the most part we’re playing unemotional and uninspiring baseball outside of a few rookies.

It’s now the 11th inning, Braun is at first, Fielder at the plate, and ** crack ** …

ugghhh..  GAME ALMOST OVER

Now two men on, no outs, and evidently John Russell and Jeff Banister aren’t in the same stratosphere with the guys on the field who want to win because up to the plate is light hitting Cain and our outfield is playing no doubles defense with two poor arms on the left side. See:

Well, it didn’t matter.. Snyder called for an inside fastball which he got and Cain ripped it into left to score Braun.

Game over.. Bucs lose their 50th on the road.

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Lots of talk about Spikes manager Gary Robinson’s outburst Friday night. I wasn’t impressed. If anything, it only made me question why he continues to be in charge of the vast majority of our upside prospects.

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A few readers wondered via e-mail why Milledge would be benched just because he misplayed a ball Friday night. I don’t think he was benched at all.. I think Huntington and Russell want to give as many at bats to Doumit as possible. It wasn’t a matter of Milledge not hustling Friday night as we have seen in the past, he simply misread the spin on a tough line drive at him.

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The Florida State League playoff schedule for the Marauders, should they make it and you plan to attend:

Division Championship – Best of 3 (September 7-9)

Championship – Best of 5 (September 9-13)

There are no off days scheduled so the championship series could start on the 9th or 10th. If we make the playoffs we would be home on the 7th and at Charlotte on the 8th and 9th if necessary. Then if we made the championship series, we would be home the first two games.

I heard Bucs Prospects will be scouting the playoffs if they make it.

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Instructionals begin September 20th.. players report the 19th. Bucs Prospects is also expected to spend some time scouting instructionals as well.

 
ughhh.. GAME OVER

Or as one of my friends said after seeing the above photo –

..  Cheesecake dental work — $1500

..  Jokester Number “85″ — Free

..  Yellow Nike shoes and laces — $400

..  “Lost in the Lights” look after realizing you misplayed the ball while running a backward route on a line drive with top spin  — Priceless

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I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Andrew McCutchen appeared to be playing despite a lingering shoulder injury and I questioned the Pirates for allowing that. During the Cardinals series it became even more apparent that McCutchen was hurt and then Friday night against the Brewers, McCutchen was visibly wincing while throwing weak relay throws to the infield. There’s no excuse for the Pirates not shutting McCutchen down for the year and letting him heal. None.

To top it off, McCutchen’s hitting is tanking too which is likely the result of an inability (or uncomfortableness) with his top hand and follow through in his swing. If you remember, I mentioned years ago several scouts had told me McCutchen had a lazy top hand when he was in Altoona and Indy which makes me wonder today if this shoulder injury is a re-injury from something that happened back at Altoona. In either case, there’s no sense driving this young man’s game to the ground.

Oh wait.. isn’t that the Pirate way? You know, make them play through injuries and then approach them to sign long-term showing them the stats generated as the reason for the lowball “home town” discount?

Been there, seen that.

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James McDonald pitched a solid four innings and then his stuff started to flatten out little by little. By the 6th nearly one in three offspeed pitches weren’t turning over for him and the Brewers had finally made their adjustment by sitting on his fastball. When Lecroy punched a solid knock into left to start the inning, I expected to see some action in the pen.

Sure enough, Resop got up and started throwing. After a sac bunt moved Lecroy to second, McDonald walked Weeks on some questionable pitch selections and that, to me, should have been the end of his night allowing him to walk off the field a potential winner. I mean, asking McDonald to face the middle of the Brewers order again was just too much to ask considering two of his last three starts he’d been rocked.

But that’s not what happened.

Hart then lined one back through the box on a flat hook to score Lecroy and McCutchen, who was playing the equivalent of no-doubles defense, ran in hard to the ball as Weeks turned the corner at second and headed to third, but McCutchen’s throw barely made it to short and Weeks was safe.

And still no movement out of John Russell as Braun came to the plate.

Luckily, Braun hit a sharp grounder on the shortstop side of the mound that Cedeno gloved, he flipped to Walker covering second for the force, and after Walker did his windup and throw to first (ok, that’s a bit exaggerate but he’s very slow on the turn), Braun had beat it out. Fortunately, he was called out and McDonald was able to go sit down.

The score was 2-1 Bucs.

The Bucs went down quietly in the top of the 7th and for some bizarre reason Russell allowed McDonald to go back out for another inning despite the high leverage inning he just threw and got away with, despite the fact his fastball had lost its little wrinkle and his hook had very little bite left, and despite the fact we are carrying 13 pitchers. I think McDonald was just as surprised but he faced off against Fielder and promptly walked him.

McGehee then struckout chasing wildly for the first out, and Dickerson ground one past Walker for a single, albeit it had seeing eyes. McDonald sort of stood on the mound shaking his head after the ball got past Walker and still no movement by John Russell. Escobar then struck a well-hit line drive to right that was a catchable ball but Milledge horribly misplayed it like he was back in double-A learning routes or something (see the photo above), it went to the wall and Escobar had a triple with 2 rbis.

Considering McDonald had the strikeout, a ground ball that Walker might have had a play on with a bit better anticipation, and the catchable line drive, I thought he had done pretty good to mitigate his growing fatigue and by all accounts, he should have had two outs and a man still at first.

Now it was 3-2 Brewers, a man at third, the infield in, and John Russell still not making a move to go get the fly ball pitcher. Lucroy then hit a 2-0 flair just out of reach of Walker who was playing in and that scored Escobar. Inglett then hit a sharp ground ball past Jones and Lecroy went to second.

And Russell finally, mercifully, walked out of the dugout after his starter and defense had blown the lead.

Respop came in a struck out Weeks for the second out, and then Hart crushed the first pitch he saw into left that Tabata made a nice play to cut off before it ran to the wall, but one run had scored. Braun then came up and he mauled the 6th straight 96 MPH fastball on the outside paint into the right field corner to score two more.

Russell then waddled out to get Respop with the score 7-2.

I have to hand it to McDonald, he held the Brewers down early but once his stuff flattened out forcing the Brewers to sit on his fastball, he was hammered and he should have been yanked. He’s a classical two-pitch Ian Snell.. good velocity with average to a tick better command, a nice 12-6 hook with good depth and arm action he can throw in any count, but his fastball runs too true like Snell’s did and, like Snell, he doesn’t have good feel for a changeup. The only real difference is that McDonald will work both sides of the plate where Snell lived on the outer third. Once film gets around a bit more on McDonald, and batters get to see him more, I don’t think he’ll survive much better than Morton will. He needs a third pitch.. maybe a splitter or work on his change to at least show occasionally.

Overall, I think McDonald is a true #5/#6 type guy who can give us 120+ innings per year but after June or so, he’d have to be put in the pen. I’d bet his stuff would play up much better out there, especially his velocity.

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Bucs are now a putrid 13-49 on the road this year. That’s beyond belief and likely the reason Russell gets booted out the door, if for no other reason.

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It’s pretty obvious Searage isn’t commanding the same respect Kerrigan received which, I suppose, is to be expected. But Searage better start earning his keep because I’ve noticed there have been quite a few looks into the dugout by his pitchers. I think it’s also pretty obvious that our receivers have become one-dimensional under Searage. By that I mean, they start the game with one game plan to attack each hitter and never adjust during the game. I saw a couple of at bats where it was pretty obvious to me Snyder was getting set up by the batter and then the next pitch was crushed. That happens less with Doumit but still happens. That’s one thing I believe Kerrigan must have been pretty good at and we’re missing now.. in-game adjustments.

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Strasburg to the DL and headed for the knife. Gee, who would have thought that high leverage situations would do that to a pitcher?

Today we heard the Reds have shut down Mike Leake with a “fatigued shoulder” who had gone from starting to a relief role. He’s likely going to be Starsburg’s roommate at Doc Andrews hospital in Birmingham.. who is kidding who?

Think about this a second – the Pirates had Lincoln start the year in the rotation, then shut him down, then start him back up again, then bring him to Pittsburgh, then sent him back down to start in 3A, then shut him down, then moved him to the pen. And now we hear they might bring him back to Pittsburgh?

That would be negligent in my book. And he’s not the only one – Morris has been handled the same way. Will they do that with ZVR too?

ahh, what do I know?