Wow – what a collapse by the Mets. ‘Nuff said.

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Bryan Bullington looked ok on the mound Sunday. However, he didn’t flash anything that made me say I can’t wait to see him next year.

In fact, I haven’t seen anything all year in our entire system that suggests 2008 will be any different than 2007 other than one bright moment – when Andrew McCutchen received a visit from his mom and dad before July 4th and he finally figured it all out. Now there is some hope indeed.

The Pirates end up with the second pick in the draft and I’ve mentioned since 2006 there is only one guy I hoped to see in a Pirates uniform – Pedro Alverez. He’s a monster but signability is popping up as a question mark about as fast as his strikeouts increased this year.

Others to consider are Arizona 1B Brett Wallace, San Diego LHP Brian Matusz, and Virginia RHP Jacob Thompson.

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Word has it Neal Huntington’s deal is a three-year contract.

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Information flowing from the Pirates will probably be slow over the playoffs, albeit Huntington will be in high gear.

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Does anyone have the scoop on Perry Hill? Is his wife better? Is he looking to return in 2008? Leave me a message if you know.

If you have been watching Tom Gorzelanny the last few weeks you have probably seen his arm action tipping many of his pitches. He’s been so fatigued it shows and the results are what you would expect – a high walk rate, loss of command, flat pitches, and a high ERA as a result.

And being denied his 15th win for the fourth consecutive outing.

Kudos to the young man for wanting to take the ball but you really have to question the Pirates decision to allow him to clock +40 innings over 2006 as history tells us he’s very likely to have a downturn in 2008 because of it. His +26 innings from 2005 to 2006 fatigued him in August this year so just imagine what +40 might do in 2008.

We’ll assume the Pirates new GM will realize this in July next year and protect Gorzelanny from hurting himself since he obviously signed off on him making this last start.

The Pirates managed just six hits all night and four of those came in the first inning when three doubles, a walk, and a single brought in three runs. Ronny Paulino would add two more singles later in the game but three of the last four Pirate batters struck out to end the game.

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Jack Wilson and Matt Kata collided in the 6th inning on a So Taguchi slow grounder up the middle. Wilson was carted off the field with what seemed to be a head injury. Media reports suggest he suffered a concussion.

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Al Hrabosky said during Saturday nights game something to the effect of:

‘I asked Chuck Tanner if the Pirates catcher Ronny Paulino is as bad as he looks and Tanner said yes.’

Ouch.

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John Van Benschoten was named Pitcher of the Year in the Pirates farm system and Steve Pearce was named Player of the Year. Congratulations to them both.

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A loss Sunday would guarantee the Pirates the second round pick in the first year player draft in 2008. Ah.. the things we fans look forward to.

Pitching seven innings for the first time since May 16th, Zach Duke held the National League’s third hottest hitting team last seven days to a single run on eight hits while striking out four.

John Grabow, however, didn’t fare as well.

Grabow came out in relief of Duke in the 8th with the game tied at one and faced five batters, didn’t allow a hit, but gave up four runs.

Now that’s brutal.

David Eckstein led off with a five pitch walk and then stole second, Rick Ankiel laid down a sac bunt to move Eckstein to third, Albert Pujols was intentionally walked to set up a double play, Ryan Ludwick was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and So Taguchi was walked.

Jim Tracy went to the pen and brought out Damaso Marte who struck out Aaron Miles for the second out, and got Jim Edmonds to hit a lazy fly ball to right field.

Unfortunately, Steven Pearce initially broke back on the ball and then left his feet diving for the ball but came up three feet short allowing all three base runners to score putting the Cardinals up 5-1.

Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer, who had been designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals earlier in the year and the Cardinals made a waiver claim on, made just his second start since the All-Star break and pitched a three-hitter thru six and allowed just one run.

Wellemeyer has always been tough on the Pirates as his .78 hits-to-strikeouts rate indicates. You have to love that stat.

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Xavier Nady made a very nice catch in the seventh inning on Brendan Ryan’s fly ball and landed hard on his left knee.

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The Pirates are now 6-13 since David Littlefield was fired and 9-20 in their last 29 games.

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Interestingly, the Pirates are now 36-62 (.367) in games played on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday while having a 32-30 record in Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday games. It’s a coincidence at best but one that begs looking into.

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Guess which MLB team has the best record in one run away games? Believe it or not, it’s the Pirates with a 9-8 (.529) record. The MLB median is .364.

Guess which MLB team has the worst record in one run home games? Yep, the Pirates at 7-13 (.350). The MLB median is .637.

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After adding the left hand bat of Adam LaRoche this year, the Pirates are now +10 wins over 2006 when a southpaw started. Against right hand starters, the Pirates are -10 under 2006. Go figure that one out.

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Hal Steinbrenner.. Chairman of the Yankees.. again. Wow.

I remember seeing Hal in diapers at his pop’s ship building business in Tampa. Hank’s always been the blue-collar guy and said to be close to Steve Swindal, so Hal being appointed is really no surprise. But will pop leave Hal alone this time around? Not on your life. Better get Zimm back on board!

Hey Jo, look at your baby now.

Just wow.

Oh where oh where has our Johnny gone? Oh where or where could he be?

John Van Benschoten took yet another flushing Thursday causing many to speculate he might have thrown his last pitch as a Pittsburgh Pirate.

I’m not so sure.

JVB continues to flash MLB quality pitches at times but lacks the velocity and command needed to consistently get MLB batters out. Considering he has thrown 148 innings in what amounts to his first full rehab year, the Pirates are not going to have an easy decision to make as he is out of options, but I assume they will do all they can to hold on to him for at least another season.

After watching Micah Owings pitch and hit, all I could do was tip my hat to the Diamondbacks scouting and development teams, as well as Owings. He single-handedly beat the Pirates. His stuff from the mound wasn’t all that impressive but we just couldn’t get him figured out.

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Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo filled in the middle infield for the first time together since, since, since I don’t know when earlier this year. And after the lack of hustle and commitment on the field by Jose Castillo Thursday, I doubt we’ll see him play another game the rest of the year.. perhaps ever as a Pirate.

He’s been a disappointment and fans have the right to question the man’s makeup after Thursday’s debacle. If he wants out of the organization, you would think the way to achieve that is by playing hard so he builds value, not laying down like a dog.

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Xavier Nady with a rough hammy playing left field?

At PNC Park?

On wet grass?

With JVB on the mound?

Was that supposed to be a joke or something? If so, I missed it. Talk about one bizarre move. For the record, he played the position about as well as you would expect Frank Thomas to play it.

Poor X. What will be asked of him next?

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A very curious calm has transended on the Pirates dugout. No arguments on obvious blown calls, no funny looks out of the side of players faces at the umpires on missed strikes, no retalitory hits on the opposition, and nothing but friendly glares at the other team.

Maybe Huntington has finally laid down the law? If so, I’m impressed.

Our makeup on the field and in the dugout has been extremely poor all year, especially to professional umpires. It’s a refreshing change.

Let Tracy and his staff do the arguing – the players need to stay out of it until they get some reasonable service time under their belts.

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You have to wonder if Jim Leyland read the Pirates seeming intent to rebuild in the Post-Gazette yesterday when he announced his desire to sign a one-year extension with the Tigers through 2009.

2010 – two more years. Hmm. That’s when the sun and moon align. Maybe…

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Hey, what do you know, Bucco Blog was the most popular fan blog at MLBlogs in July and August. Mark Newman, an Editor with MLB.com said:

"Congrats to our friend Jake over at Bucco Blog, as he finished the July-August period as the most popular fan blog here with 80,869 page views over that two-month stretch.

Those are big numbers considering (a) he is not linked from the club’s homepage as with most of the other especially high-traffic MLBlogs, and (b) the Pirates’ record…

Frequency = following."

What Mark probably didn’t know is that we moved all our media content off MLB.com’s servers in June anticipating a software changeover at MLB and Google analytics suggests our total page view count was actually 191,539 between the two content servers (109,332 at MLBlogs alone). Plus, we were shut down for about five days or so in July to boot.

When we consider our little site isn’t a chat haven with multiple page loads per visitor, you might say we’ve been luckier than the Pirates.

Thanks to MLB.com for the shout.

Now, where are my credentials?

hehe

So I’m sitting at Dolphin Stadium watching the ‘loveable losers’ fall a part at the seams and on my portable I’m tuned into the Pirates MLB.tv broadcast. It’s just amazing what you can do at the ballpark anymore.

After the Cubs lost, I headed back to the hotel knowing the Pirates had a comfortable 5-1 lead and, by the time I finally get my portable back on line, I’m just in time to see Stephen Drew tie the game in the 8th with a single off John Grabow.

I couldn’t believe the bullpen had robbed Ian Snell yet again.

The Diamondbacks brought out "Mr. Hold" Brandon Lyon who gave up a one out double to Adam LaRoche, got Ronny Paulino to fly out, and then promptly fell apart by balking LaRoche to third. Phelps completed Lyons misery by punching a seeing eye grounder through the left side to score LaRoche and the Bucs regained the lead.

Ten pitches and two strikeouts later, Matt Capps took home his 18th save in front of a full house of Pirate ownership, a new CEO and general manager, and Kevin McClatchy who was back in his favorite front row seat.

Great stuff.

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Did you happen to see the ridiculous call first base umpire Tony Randazzo made in the fourth inning? Paulino hit a flair into right field that landed an inch or two away from the chalk line in fair territory and Randazzo called it foul.

What was so strange about the whole ordeal was that Paulino, first base coach John Shelby who watched the ball fall in, or anyone on the Pirates bench, raised even the slightest protest.

Wild stuff.

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Jason Bay has been officially retired from the starting lineup in 2007. That’s a good sign somebody is tuned in.

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Jack Wilson didn’t make it back to Pittsburgh in time to play Tuesday’s game. Officially the reason given was that his wife had complications with birth but the press reports about the birth we’ve read said she was back home in a couple of days doing fine. So who knows what’s going on there.

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Not that anyone really wants to hear this, but the Cubs looked rough Tuesday night. After scoring 30 runs in three games we started southpaws in, they couldn’t manage but one hit through seven against the D-Train who was dealing in front of the hordes of scouts at the game.

A couple of events occurred in the game that are noteworthy. The Marlins scoreboard operator ran a replay of the Marlins 2003 playoff run over the Cubs after the first inning and Cubs fans and players at the park lost it. It was hilarious watching the players avoid contact with the scoreboard.

And in the 9th inning with Lee on first and one out, Lee Gardner tossed a perfect heater on the outside black of the plate Aramis Ramirez lost his cool over. He eventually flied out and as he was walking back to the dugout, he started talking loudly to Matt Murton who was standing near the plate.

After a few words, Ramirez turned and walked about five more feet and then turned his head toward home plate umpire Andy Fletcher who was looking right at him and seemed to uttered the "F" word and was immediately ejected.

Denied his 15th win for the third outing in a row, Tom Gorzelanny did all he could to keep the white hot Cubs in check. It just wasn’t good enough.

The Pirates were dazed and confused most of the series and provided about as much competition as a AAA team could be expected to muster against a solid MLB club.

Jim Tracy had run his starting rotation out of gas before the month of September took root, he has a short roster of MLB qualified players, and nobody knows for sure how many on the roster are even healthy anymore.

Plus the schedule makers didn’t help the young club a bit.

But excuses aside, the biggest excitement generated during the three game series was when it was announced Salomon Torres wouldn’t be available for two games despite Tracy’s wish, and Jack Wilson would not be returning on Sunday despite Tracy’s initial demand he return.

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Gorzelanny was toast in the 5th inning but continued throwing despite the fact. He ended with 117 pitches and +35 innings over 2006 which now puts him well into the dreaded expected down-turn category next year.

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Frank Coonelly is standing firm in front of the media with his projected hire so we have to assume Neal Huntington will be the next GM.

You go Neal.

* as I pull down my Littlefield dart board and put up a picture of Huntington dressed like a weasel knowing full good and well it’s just a matter of time before he’s gone *

Not much is going right for the hapless Pirates these days – eight straight losses and more all but certain to be on the way.

It was painful to watch Saturday’s game starting with Zach Duke. Throwing from the center of the mound again, Cubs batters were able to lock-and-load on Duke’s pitches in mid-flight like he was heaving watermelons.

Twelve of the Cubs twenty-four batters Duke faced in four innings reached base, three of his pitches left the yard – a career high allowance by Duke, and, although he had a little bad luck along the way, Duke was basically crushed.

Salomon Torres had a little better luck seeing just one of his pitches leave the yard, unfortunately there was a man on at the time.

And John Van Benschoten’s performance was probably the best of the lot even though he, too, was hammered.

Once again the youthful Pirates proved they are light years away from being able to handle the pressure of contending. From base running errors, poor routes to balls in play, rushed throws, hammered pitches going off gloves, balls dropping at defender’s feet, misplayed grounders and the like.

But since we again fielded the equivalent of a near replacement level team against a club in the hunt, what outcome did we really expect?

Yawn.

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Tom Gorzelanny is set to throw out his arm pitch the afternoon game in his home town and all we can do is pray he leaves the game healthy.