By Jake, on June 28, 2010, at 1:44 am |
I’m hearing that Frank Coonelly may have finally figured out he made a mistake in extending Neal Huntington and John Russell. That’s the possible good news. The bad news is, it doesn’t look like Coonelly is going to make any changes in the immediate future.
Now for my own opinion –
Bob Nutting and Frank Coonelly were the victims of a brilliant stratagem played out by Neal Huntington back in September 2007 which — in part – led to Huntington landing the GM position. It was such an oddball hire that many in the baseball community were surprised and, as word of the stratagem circled the game, quite a few people were shocked at how it all played out. A few even angry.
One thing that was odd about Coonelly’s GM selection was that Neal Huntington wasn’t exactly known as a “strong” baseball man… good perhaps, but not strong. One prior front office person told me during the GM search: “[Frank's] very likely to hire a strong baseball guy as GM to complement his own skill set, since that’s his greatest weakness.” So after Huntington was hired, Chuck Tanner was brought in as Huntington’s consultant and later Bill Lajoie was also added in the same role — both men being “strong” baseball men to help raise Huntington’s bar.
As the years have unfolded it has become clear that neither Tanner nor Lajoie enjoy a strong voice in Huntington’s circle and consequently many of Huntington’s decisions have resulted in staggering losses for the organization, as well as ownership.
When we look back to Coonelly and Nutting’s decision to hire Neal Huntington, you can’t help but to wonder how much the “John Hart influence” had on their decision to select him. For those that don’t remember or know, Hart had rebuilt the talent devoid Cleveland Indians in the 90′s and lead them to six division titles and two world series appearances. Among the men that had groomed under Hart during their run were Neal Huntington, Josh Byrnes, Mark Shapiro, and Paul DePodesta.. all very educated men and somewhat sabermetrically inclined.
And all of them catastrophic failures in a GM leadership role up to this point except for Shapiro, who was also the beneficiary of Dan O’Dowd (Hart’s top lieutenant) and John Hart’s network when he succeeded Hart as the club’s GM. As the story goes, when Shapiro was interviewed by Hart in 1992, Hart outlined his “Blueprint for Success” for rebuilding the Indians and Shapiro bought in and was hired. Seventeen years later, Huntington and Coonelly unveiled a similar plan – the Pittsburgh Pirates Blueprint in late 2009.
But there is a huge difference in the two blueprints — Hart surrounded himself with exceptionally strong baseball men and listened closely to what they had to say. In Pittsburgh, Neal Huntington surrounded himself with few good baseball men, many unproven rookies, others who are neither rookies nor ever been very good baseball men, some paycheck guys, and, it appears, all the while refusing to listen to the few strong baseball men he had at his disposal. But there is also one other huge difference… the stratagem Huntington played out in 2007 had come back to haunt him.
The Pirates Blueprint — to me — represents a public relations ploy instead of a meaningful set of goals undertaken to achieve a desired result. It’s pretty, it’s well thought out, but it’s unachievable with the personnel in place in development, in scouting, and in our front office.
Simply start by looking at the Pirates 25-man roster and their recent play.. it’s not that they are losing at historical rates, it’s the way they are losing.
“[John Russell] has evidently lost the respect of his players.” – as told to me by an ex front office person on June 27, 2010.
The problems began in the offseason when management, including John Russell, blamed the players for underperforming after the deadline trades. The players took exception to management’s account believing, as one person close to the players put it to me, they ‘never had a fighting chance’ with the roster they had to play with. The problems escalated when the players learned there would be no infusion of capital to bring in additional veteran talent – it was up to them.. a core group of guys who had never played together before. Even then the players took it all in stride and did the best they could but ran up against a mental and physical brick wall more often than not because every pitch of every game had become stressful.. their margin of error was too fine.
Then management started to come at them demanding a little bit more, next players who were obviously management ‘buds’ were starting to infuse their own opinions on the group, and it has grown to the point you see today. They are one very frustrated group of young men trying to perform day-in and day-out at levels well beyond their natural abilities while management wants even more. The team isn’t a ‘team’ anymore – it’s become a divided group.
Something has to change.. it’s broke, it’s busted, it’s out-of-order.
Frank Coonelly has a real problem. While it’s easy to fire John Russell and that might solve some of the immediate internal problems while also putting the fans at ease for a short period of time, it’s not going to solve the bigger issue he has of a rebuild that is out of control. He and Bob struckout in September 2007 and it’s taken too long to realize just how badly they missed putting the bat on the ball.
Coonelly’s first order of business has to be ownership’s interests and I think we see that playing out with Lincoln and Alvarez still in Pittsburgh. And perhaps that is exactly what woke Coonelly up - that his new development system was unable to take Lincoln and Alvarez to the next level forcing him to start their clocks to finish them off at the risk of failure? Ownership has given Coonelly a plan and all we can do is guess at what it says, but I suspect at the top of that list is the word ‘credibility’ because without it, there won’t be any fans.
Coonelly’s second order of business should be to take control and show the remaining fan base that he has enough vision to see not everything is going as drawn up three years ago. I would suggest that he start forcing Huntington to run all opportunities through Lajoie and Tanner with a majority rule type of governance, and the final decision then sent to his office for review. Once the August 15th signing deadline has passed, Coonelly needs to immediately terminate Huntington and start the process of finding a talented GM who passes the sniff test, not the Hart test.
In the meantime, the players have to be held accountable while at the same time be able to see light at the end of the tunnel too. John Russell should have been fired a month or more ago and having him held over like this only shows weakness by Coonelly and the Nuttings. Now isn’t the time to be showing weakness. Varsho is the obvious interim solution and then let him make his own decisions from there.
The worst thing Connelly and Nutting can do right now is continue their apathy. Striking out is one thing, refusing to get back in the box is quite another.
By Jake, on June 11, 2010, at 10:43 pm |
Pirates’ fans saw the true value of Ross Ohlendorf in the third inning of the Tigers game. With men at second and third and no outs, Ohlendorf struck out Santiago, Jackson, and Damon to end the threat.
Pirates’ fans also saw the true value of Ross Ohlendorf as a starter in the fourth inning of the Tigers game. With the Pirates leading 1-0, the Tigers made an in-game adjustment to Ohlendorf the second time through the lineup and became aggressive early in the count. While Ohlendorf was able to record two quick outs, he wasn’t as lucky with the third batter as Boesch cranked a 92 MPH first-pitch fastball, thrown knee-high, over the right field wall to tie the game.
Then Guillen came up and Ohlendorf was wild with his first two pitches showing his frustration. The third pitch was hammered into right field for a double. Joe Kerrigan came out to settle Ohlendorf down but it didn’t help much. Inge then ground a hung slider sharply just inside the third base bag for another double scoring Guillen, Avila hit a soft liner back through the middle scoring Inge, and Santiago hammered a grounder to Iwamura that was gloved for the third out.
I’ve said since Ohlendorf was acquired that I felt he was a 7th inning guy who could give you an inning or two of shut out baseball consistently and Pirates fans got a glimpse of that potential Friday night. Now with that said, I also told you Ohlendorf had been throwing meatballs up to the plate his last few outings but that he had been getting away with it. He threw meatballs Friday night and good hitters took him apart. He has no business in the middle of the plate with his pitches.. he just doesn’t have plus stuff. But that’s where he has been throwing.
Ohlendorf’s velocity has been down all year, his command of his offspeed pitches has been poor most of the time, and his tempo has become a distraction. My guess is that he’s battling a shoulder problem, although he could still be having back problems. He doesn’t look healthy, his arm isn’t throwing like it’s healthy, and he really has no business being in the rotation. But being on the Pirates, he’s getting away with it and actually done well in many of his starts but not because he’s throwing the ball well, that’s for sure.
Take a look at what happened to Ohlendorf Friday night by left hand batters (charts courtesy of Inside Edge Scouting Service):
They saw him pitching inside aggressively the first time through the order and then looked inner-third the next time through and crushed him. Look how much plate he was catching. My-oh-my – and that’s routine for Ohlendorf. When you hang change ups thigh high on the outer third for left hand batters to extend on (red dots on right side of chart), your likely to hit the showers early.
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Doumit had two ground balls his way that I saw and both went past him into the outfield. The one that hurt the most was Avila’s sharp ground ball his way in the 6th which Doumit was so late recognizing off the bat that, not only did he get just one step toward the ball, but he was never able to turn his glove toward the ball. Take a look at this disaster:
There was two outs at the time so if Doumit had even below-average recognition on the play, he would at least had his glove on the ball. This was an easy out (our at least knocked down) by 95% of the first basemen in the game, it was that simple despite being hit sharply. But Doumit seemed to never see it, his glove never turned, his eyes never followed the ball, and his footwork so awkward you almost have to question Huntington having him play there. That was a costly no-play because one run scored on the play and then the next batter went yard. Instead of the inning being over, a 3-1 game turned into a 6-1 game that fast.
I understand he hasn’t played much at first since 2007 but we talked about this all winter – Huntington made a poor decision to open the year with Doumit behind the plate and he cost us games as a result. Now that Doumit has become injury prone again, they moved him out to let teams see he can’t play first because the Pirates never took any time to develop him there and, thus, his value is going to tank even more come July.
Here’s the first one that shot under Doumit’s glove:
The Pirates front office has made so many poor short-term roster decisions over the three years it isn’t even funny and it’s cost us a ton of winnable games. Wins are money to Bob Nutting and how Nutting can continue to accept these poor decisions just amazes me as a fan. I respect that Nutting is a bit clueless in baseball operations but he isn’t stupid – he understands future value being flushed down the toilet. Why he is allowing it… ???
The solution was simple – Doumit should have been dealt last winter. Now it’s too late.
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Anup Sinha breaks down the Pirates draft and tries to answer if the Pirates strategy of selecting so many high school pitchers will work over at Bucs Prospects. Sinha will be at the FSL All-Star Game Saturday and have a report by Sunday.
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Did I tell you Iwamura (Huntington’s guy) would win over at second with Walker (Littlefield’s guy) being the loser? How can Huntington possibly justify moving Walker out? He needs to release Aki.. end of story. Walker has proven he’s not a fluke, he’s not utility, and he doesn’t deserve to be run around the diamond like some gopher boy. Settle him in and let’s see what he can do over 300 AB.
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I want to go back to Lincoln’s start and talk about my reasoning for feeling Lincoln was brought up too early since so many of you have asked. In the lower system Lincoln was able to use his fastball command to get outs and the more he faced better hitters, the more it was evident he wasn’t going to survive as a two-pitch pitcher. His velocity on his fastball had come back since surgery, but the harder he threw the more he missed his locations in the minors. That was even more evident in Indy this year.
For you semi-sabermetric types, in over 300 innings of minor league work Lincoln’s MLE FIP was well over 5 (expected ERA adjusting for park , luck, and removing the defense at the ML level) and his MLE FIP against left hand batters this year alone was near 6 with 35 hits in 31 innings and more than half of those hits for extra bases. Now when you adjust his numbers to the league talent this year he actually faced, and compare it to the rosters he will face, his MLE FIP jumps to near 7 and his MLE FIP against left hand batters jumps to almost 9!
That’s insane.
While he’s going to have trouble with left hand batters, there’s no question about Lincoln’s ability to get a few outs against right hand batters. But at this level it’s not going to come as easy for him as it did in Indy because the talent level is significantly deeper. To give you an idea, in his game Wednesday, he didn’t throw one slider out of the 35 pitches he did throw to right hand batters. The reason for that is simple – is a below-average offering that he needs to work on.
I mentioned in my post about what to expect from Lincoln that he was probably going to get hammered because he’s trying to compete with only two pitches. Sure enough, Nats batters simply sat back and waited for his fastball and then wailed the offering because he doesn’t have the velocity he once had. In the 18 batters that did put wood on his fastball, 8 of them were well-struck resulting in a .444 batting average which is nearly twice the league average. That’s worse than Charlie Morton was getting hammered. It’s too easy to sit back and wait for Lincoln’s fastball — he needs more work on his secondary pitches and that’s why I felt he was being rushed up. John Russell suggested Lincoln was just tight being it was his debut, and I’m sure that added to his problems, but that’s not his main problem.
Anyway, here are three post-game charts for you to look at from Lincoln’s first start courtesy of Inside Edge Scouting Service (click on the image to see the chart full size):
By Jake, on June 8, 2010, at 11:39 pm |
0.031
That’s the Pirates percentage of games won more than the Rays and Nats from 2006 – 2009 which essentially cost us Price, Strasburg, and Harper. Three percent – that’s 20 games over 648 played. So tell me, what possible good came from winning those additional 20 games?
And that, ladies and gentleman, defines one of the major problems with the Pittsburgh Pirates long-term philosophy under Nutting control. Sometimes it’s better to admit rebuilding is necessary and mail it in. Had the Pirates done that between 2006 and 2008, our system could have had at least Strasburg, Price, and Alvarez. More importantly, and all things being equal from 2009 on, they would have been on top of the talent that currently fills the system minus Sanchez and Moskos.
Now that would have been a stocked system.
As far as evaluating the 2010 draft, I’ll leave that to the writers at Bucs Prospects who will be posting their conclusions later in the week, but one thing jumped out at me during this draft – newly acquired Florida area scout Rolando Pino didn’t see one pick taken from his region out of the 52 that were selected in the top part of the draft.
I haven’t been able to sit down and analyze the impact over the last few years, but considering the Pirates made changes in more than 40% of their area scouts over the winter (new hires, shifting locations, or adding areas), it sure seems to me that our selections came from a very concentrated area involving just a few area scouts: four selections from Ohio, five from Texas, and four from Georgia out of the first sixteen taken. No offense meant to Brian Tracy but, when I think baseball prospects I don’t think of Ohio having the same level of talent that California, Florida, or North Carolina does. The 2010 draft is certainly no different.
This problem plagued the Pirates drafts for years and years – not being able to identify top talent in the larger prospect areas like California, or else their philosophy was to purposely avoid that talent because of the potential cost factor. Whatever the reason, it hurt us horribly for many years after Scott Littlefield left the organization in the early 2000′s. And the fact we keep having to hire newbie area scouts, we keep shifting guys coverage areas, or adding new territory for them to cover year-after-year can’t be helping. Much like the rest of player development, we have little to no continuity.
I’ll sound off on the Stetson Allie pick by simply saying there was significantly better talent on the board when we took Allie who projects as a closer down the road — IF – he ever develops enough command to find the plate. But more importantly to me, taking Mel Rojas over AJ Cole was equivalent to taking Craig Wilson over Pedro Alvarez. Cole wants somewhere around $4MM to not attend Miami and that’s why teams ran from him — he’s not worth that much which I agree with. But you tell me what you would rather do – spend $4MM on one year of Aki, or $4MM on the potential upside with Cole?
No-brainer.
Cole had lots of faults not the least of were questions on his makeup (competitiveness) and potential for breaking down, and as diverse as the scouts in Florida were on his potential upside, I just don’t see how the Pirates could leave a strike throwing flamethrower on the board because he was $3.5MM more than the org filler they took in Rojas.
If it wasn’t Cole it would be someone else – we just keep missing out on talent and it’s not hard to wonder why considering the Nutting family is isn’t writing the checks.
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A few of you e-mailed asking about my thoughts on us grabbing prep pitchers 1-2. I loved it, regardless of who they were. We can’t win without pitching and I’ve been hammering this org for five years to stockpile arms to no avail. I have been impressed with the intent of the last two drafts, albeit concerned that we have taken too many ‘average’ arms and not enough ‘impact’ arms that were available.
Now it’s up to our development staff and that’s where I start sweating profusely considering who we have down there. But I feel comfortable that we will see wholesale changes once again this winter to make it even more interesting.
Other than that, there just wasn’t very much talent in this draft to get excited over after the first couple of rounds.
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What an electric debut for Strasburg. To be sure, the kid has some filthy stuff. The more I watched him the more I thought of him as Charlie Morton with a GPS and a little bit more of Nolan Ryan’s arm.
Now we’re hearing the Pirates are bringing up Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata. I assume that means Tabata goes to right, Jones to first, and Lincoln will start Thursday slotted in between Duke and Maholm. But who knows what our knee-jerk front office plans to do – Lincoln might be on the plane tonight to start Wednesday.
I’m not so concerned about Tabata coming up because I don’t see him entrenched in our long-term plan like I see Lincoln and Alvarez. I know the fans do, and I know the Pirates FO hopes he is, but too many question marks revolve around this young man’s head (lack of power, personal problems, just to name a few) for me to believe he’s going to last very long. As for Lincoln, it’s a tough start against the Nationals but since we gave them Karstens for Strasburg’s debut, they might bend over for Lincoln’s. Let’s hope they do.
I wish them both well – obviously – but I’d be remiss if I didn’t express my personal desire as a fan that I wish we weren’t starting clocks with how unstable this organization is right now. I would rather they bite the bullet and remained in Indy while Morris and a few others caught up. I mean, are potential wins this important right now?
Just keep in mind Lincoln’s workload numbers and the fact he’s a Littlefield guy Huntington is bringing him up (watch for 100+ pitch count days or 30+ pitch count innings, high stress environments, Russell leaving him in too long, etc, etc, etc).
Looks like Wednesday’s game might have a chance of being rained out.
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Doumit out with concussion symptoms which makes sense – he’s taken major shots off his head and body the last week or two. I was more concerned with all the right-wrist shots he’s been taking (three at least I know of) than the couple of foul balls off his mask lately, but there’s no doubt he’s been under attack.
Word is that Tony Sanchez is still recovering from his blow to the head on the 3rd and is expected back shortly.
Jeff Clement to Indy. Poor guy – Huntington obviously missed the boat with that acquisition and then missed the boat again on his ability to cut mustard out of camp. That’s a double evaluation whammy. It’s just unbelievable Huntington is still around.
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Speaking of Bradenton, Anup Sinha spent Tuesday at the Marauders doubleheader and will have a report up Wednesday over at Bucs Prospects. This Saturday is the FSL mid-season All-Star Game and Sinha will also be covering that too.
The Curve’s Jose de los Santos was placed on the Disabled List retroactive to June 3 with a left oblique strain and the Marauders placed Brock Holt on DL with a left hamstring problem.
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Chris Duffy, Yasmani Grandal, Bryce Harper, Drew Pomeranz, and Chris Sale are finalists for the Golden Spikes Award presented to the nation’s premier amateur baseball player.
By Jake, on June 6, 2010, at 10:51 pm |
Opps there goes another another rubber game… Opps there goes …
I always like this quote by Casey Stengel:
“You have to have a catcher because if you don’t you’re likely to have a lot of passed balls.”
A leadoff double turns into a man at third in the 10th when a Dotel high fastball bounces off Doumit’s glove allowing Torres third (catching 101 – stay off your heels). Freddy Sanchez then plated the winning run with a sac fly. It’s at least the fifth loss of the year where Doumit’s poor defense allowed the opponent an advantage and eventual win. When you consider the team is 23-33, it’s hard not to wonder if this team would be 28-28 if we opened the year with an above average defensive catcher.
True, Doumit was put in that position because of a couple of weird events in the 9th. Sandoval hit a grounder to Clement and he threw a bit hard to Lopez covering and the ball went in and out of his glove near his belt. It was a mistake throw by Clement but Lopez still should have caught the ball. Then Lopez threw a wild pitch well off the plate with Uribe up and Sandoval took second. Uribe then crushed a frozen rope to Milledge – he went back on the play and then came in too late and had to dive to try to catch it. The ball clanked off his glove (easy catch just didn’t catch it) and Sandoval had scored with Uribe standing at second. Eventually the Giants would score another run in the inning on a sac fly.
So it’s not like Doumit was the only defensive misfit in this game, he wasn’t. But if you have been watching Pirates games lately then you have been witness to an obscene number of pitches to the backstop with Ryan Doumit behind the dish. Perhaps 20% were justifiably wild but the rest were either blockable or catchable.
That’s all I have to say on the subject since I’ve hammered this subject down my readers throats for three years now and everyone knows where I stand on Doumit being behind the plate.
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Is anyone else noticing Walker’s athleticism at second? My goodness. He’s fast as a cat once he figures out which way to go. So, why the hell isn’t Walker catching if he’s that slick? Every report I have of Walker’s catching skills, including those through spring training, are that he is at least an average receiver if not above-average. Where he is said to be lacking polish is his blocking and game management skills, plus his arm is said to be just average. So tell me, why would we have Ryan Doumit botching game-after-game with his poor skill set if we have a young player who is wanting to catch at the ML level and is said to be no worse than Doumit but holds significantly more upside defensively?
Oh wait – Walker’s a Littlefield guy, remember?
Well even Neal Huntington can’t hide Walker now - he’s got too much love going on so I suppose that means we’re going to see Iwamura back at second here shortly, Doumit moved to first as we’ve been hearing possible, and Walker put behind the plate some. After all, Huntington spent a ton on Iwamura so he’s ‘his guy’ and he has to redeem himself for the acquisition. Plus, Huntington doesn’t seem to have any clue what Walker is good for because he’s already thrust him all over the diamond for two years grooming him for a utility position, of all things. So with Walker being a Littlefield guy and Iwamura a Huntington guy, I’m guessing Iwamura is going to win the battle and we should expect Walker to finally get time behind the plate. As he should.
Now I wonder, does Walker have the arm and instincts to play short? I’d guess not but man I wish Perry Hill was around to make that final call instead of the bozos we have making decisions with Walker.
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It’s hard not to rub in the fact that the position players producing consistently for the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates are the Dave Littlefield guys.. McCutchen, Walker, Doumit, and Pearce.
Church, Milledge, Clement, Iwamura, LaRoche, Cedeno, Crosby.. they have all been busts. Jones has done a good job considering he’s naked in the lineup, and Cedeno has flashed gold glove type defense early in the year, but there’s not much else there. That’s a lot of wasted trade talent.. we spun our wheels for nothing in most of those deals.
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Speaking of Littlefield prospects, Neal Huntington mentioned in his Sunday radio show that he was considering bringing up Brad Lincoln to start against the Nationals Wednesday.
Let me make sure I understand this move – Huntington wants to bring up Lincoln and throw him into Duke’s slot Wednesday and then have him pitch his first game against one of the better NLED hitting teams. That slot then has to pitch two home games against the Indians and White Sox, both which have limited offensive firepower this year, then an away game against Oakland, a home game against Philly, then an away game at Houston (notorious for wailing fastball/curveball guys pretty hard). That’s four of six starts against teams he doesn’t exactly matchup well against right out of the shoot.
That’s one of the most idiotic moves I think I’ve seen from this regime for several reasons –
1. Every pitcher we have throwing right now is having to pitch fine, meaning they can’t trust their defense and they can’t expect a lot of runs. That adds a significant amount of stress on a pitcher’s outing.
2. Lincoln isn’t flashing plus stuff in Indy right now regardless of what you might see in his stats. He’s sitting 91 – 93 and not 94 – 96 he needs to be at to succeed as a two-pitch pitcher while working on two additional pitches. His offspeed command has been fringe-average early in the game across several starts and that means he’s going to have to survive on a fastball early. That isn’t going to work.. he’ll get hammered. Think Morton.
3. He’s on a team that is currently making a run for the wild card three games out. He’s in a championship environment right now – what more could you ask for in his development?
4. Lincoln was +21 innings in 2009 from 2008. If he comes up now he’ll make about 20 more starts and that will put him +50 innings or more over 2009 which will easily put him in a breakdown candidate position for 2012. If you have to limit his workload in 2010, why in the world would you do that in Pittsburgh? Why not limit him in Indy over the next few months and then give him a September call up to see how he performs? What’s the rush? Why add even more pressure?
5. Probably the most concerning reason I’m against this is because it signals one of two things since it couldn’t be done without Frank Coonelly’s approval – either Huntington is being extended and Coonelly has stamped an approval on Huntington’s plan, or Nutting is indeed selling and wants the immediate ticket sales revenue.
6. Lincoln is biting at the bit to get off the buses in Indy and has already been outspoken to media on the subject. That’s a red flag to me and makes me wonder what would happen to Lincoln’s performance if he was all of a sudden told he needed a few more months of pitch development in 3A which he really does need. Would he mail it in or work even harder?
7. Jumping Lincoln like this makes me believe the front office (Huntington’s plan) still has this belief that they think they have enough pitching to make a decent run of things, which is nuts. That was a poor position last winter and it’s even a poorer now regardless how weak the division is.
I respect the fact Huntington’s phone is probably ringing for Duke and Maholm who need to be dealt asap, but I don’t think it should hinge on Lincoln’s movement. The two issues should be separate and, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they are going to be. I also respect the fan heartbeat – they want to see Lincoln. But let’s be blunt here – the fans will get over it. Fans forgive.
I’m totally against this move as a fan. I’d prefer to see Lincoln kept down until Alvarez and Tabata are ready which is probably another year. By the time ST breaks next year Morris could be up in 3A with Lincoln, perhaps Owens, perhaps Wilson, Moskos will be ready, Morton will be healthier, perhaps Hart and Veal will be on the mend, and so on. We need to build a wave – I can’t stress that enough. Throwing players into action in piecemeal fashion doesn’t cut the mustard – let them play together and build a strong core.
In the minors.
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Man did I get clobbered in my fantasy leagues this week. Good job to the guys who took me to task.
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Lots of people e-mailing to see if I will tell them what I heard about the upcoming draft. I haven’t heard anything, so that ends that. I’ve told you for months to stay focused on Chris Sale and he’s likely in their final mix, I’ve also told you I like AJ Cole and that the Pirates have been sitting on Machado for the last month. Bucs Prospects took the time to scout Machado and Sale because that’s where I thought the Bucs were going. We’ll see where they end up.
BTW, if you haven’t read Al Phillips scouting report at Bucs Prospects on Lincoln, Alvarez, and Tabata then you need to go take a peek. Coverage for this week includes the Marauders and the FSL All-Star game.
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For those keeping track, I changed Monday’s expected win from Pittsburgh to Chicago since Silva is going.
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For those not keeping track, here’s a little Sandra Bullock for you at the MTV Movie Awards which everyone is talking about.
By Jake, on June 5, 2010, at 10:28 pm |
What a nice game for the good guys. Lots of hitting, pretty good defense, and slick pitching in front of a sold out crowd in the stands. That’s good stuff. McCutchen put on a show going 4-5 and a triple away from the cycle, Walker with a couple of nice knocks right behind him moving McCutchen around, and Doumit and his pasty mustache knocked him home time and again.
On this night the Pirates looked like they had some future run scoring potential but in reality it was because we were facing Todd Wellemeyer who makes Jeff Karstens look like an ace when he’s not on. Saturday night Wellemeyer wasn’t on. He left in the 4th after a leadoff McCutchen home run and Walker walked, but we managed just four hits the rest of the way.
Dotel made it a little exciting at the end when the Giants loaded the bases and Freddy Sanchez came up with the outfield playing in challenging him to hit it over their heads and he almost did – he hit a shot to the left field warning track that Milledge had to dive for and he caught it. That would have tied the game.
It was nice to see all the players smiling and having a good time on the field in this game but to be quite blunt, the more they looked relaxed, the worse they played. By the end of the game it was a farce – three or four pitches got past Doumit, relay throws bouncing around the infield like in a pin ball machine, a dropped catch, and so on.
But the fans enjoyed the game even though there some looks of concern at the end:
Good to see the place packed.
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I was sent an analysis of Neal Huntington’s record by a reader who, in essence, stated he felt it was too early to properly evaluate Huntington and used Andrew Friedman’s work with the Rays as an example why. Oddly, another fan sent an e-mail to me earlier this week also using Friedman in his example so I guess somebody, somewhere is trying to make the point that Huntington could be the next Friedman.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, of course, but since I happen to know a little bit about the Rays all I can tell you is, imo, there isn’t a prayer in the world Neal Huntington will ever become the next Andrew Friedman, but it has nothing to do with either man. Instead, it has to do with everyone below these men.
Friedman inherited a stocked system because Rays ownership mailed it in – whether on purpose or not – for so many years, Friedman inherited a minor league development system that some other clubs drool to have, and Friedman inherited a scouting system that has a lot of experience in the lower levels. For instance..
Huntington brought in Kyle Stark to manage his farm system and the only experience Stark had was in the front office at Cleveland but the Rays minor league director – Mitch Lukevics – was the Yankees farm director for seven years before taking the helm with the Rays in 1996. He was also a pro player, he was also a pitching coordinator with the White Sox for years, and he was also a pitching coach for the Rays. This man alone has more time in the pro game than Huntington and Stark – combined.. and probably times two. Stark was a virgin.
I can stop right there but I won’t – Lukevics brought in quality coordinator help over the years and has a staff of men that have a combined 160+ years in the game and all of them have been together as a team since at least 2003 that I remember – maybe even earlier. They even doubled up their main coordinators this year so they have two pitching, two hitting, and two fielding coordinators. In contrast, Kyle Stark hired a virgin in Troy Buckley who didn’t even last through his contract, Stark couldn’t, or didn’t, hire a replacement so one of Huntington’s special assistants now has a dual role as an SA and pitching coordinator (!!), we have an infield coordinator now who is a virgin, and so on, and so forth.
The difference between the Rays well-oiled minor league development system and the Pirates joke machine is equivalent to the difference between going to Harvard or going to your local junior college – it’s night and day, imo.
And THAT is why I want Huntington fired. It’s obvious he has too limited a network to draw pro help from and, as a result, we have a joke development system in place during a rebuild. It was fine while we grabbed the players if ownership was willing to forgo a talented evaluator and his peer network during the trades in favor of Frank Coonelly’s judgement, but it’s not fine moving forward. We have to put someone in charge that can draw from their network of friends in the game to put a butt-kicking development system together right now, or we’re never, ever going to climb out of the hole.
Forget comparing Huntington to another GM, especially with the Rays. You are comparing apples to oranges.
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If anybody happens to go to the game Sunday and ends up with an extra McCutchen jersey, I’ll buy it from you for my son. Just e-mail me what you want for it – jake at new bucs dot com. Thanks.
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Adam Revelette spent three days watching the West Virginia Power and his report is up at Bucs Prospects. Al Phillips spent a couple of days with the Indy Indians and I think you are going to be surprised by his report that will be up on Sunday. Anup Sinha will be catching the Marauders this coming week as well as taking in the Florida State League mid-season All-Star Game on the 12th, so enjoy!
Bryan Morris faced off against Kyle Drabek Saturday night and both pitchers did well as those are two good hitting clubs. From the Curve’s media department:
MANCHESTER, NH – The Altoona Curve bullpen came in to Saturday’s game with a collective ERA of 2.94 but were unable to hold a 3-1 lead as the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA – Toronto Blue Jays) came back to take the middle game of the series against the Curve with a 5-3 win on Saturday night at Merchantsauto.com Stadium.
Altoona (37-19) grabbed a 3-0 edge off Fisher Cats starter Kyle Drabek when they sent nine men to the plate against the son of the former Pirates’ ace in the second inning. Using three walks and a hit batsman in the inning, Altoona capitalized with a two-run single by Alex Presley and a bases loaded walk issued to Chase d’Arnaud.
That’s all Altoona would be able to muster offensively on Saturday, though it appeared to be enough. Curve starter Bryan Morris tossed a Double-A-high 6.0 innings in his fourth start since his promotion from Bradenton. Morris allowed just one run on two hits – fourth inning solo home run to Shawn Bowman. Morris struck out four batters and walked one.
New Hampshire (35-22) would rally against the relief duo of Jeff Sues and Michael Dubee.
Sues tossed only 0.1 inning in the seventh leaving the bases loaded before he departed and gave way to Dubee. New Hampshire knotted the score 3-3 when Manny Mayorson came through with a two-run single.
In the eighth, Dubee allowed four straight hits, the first three loaded the bases with no one out and the fourth by Adam Loewen scored a pair of runs that gave the ‘Cats a two-run lead, 5-3.
Altoona would bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but d’Arnaud struck out against closer Danny Farquhar to end the game.
The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for Altoona who will look to grab the rubber match of the three-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m. RHP Jared Hughes, the Eastern League wins leader (8-2, 3.75) will be opposed by former Curve reliever Ronald Uviedo (0-2, 2.96). Uviedo was a member of the Curve roster before being traded earlier in the week to the Toronto organization. Air time on flagship radio station ESPN Radio 1430, WVAM and Altoona Curve Radio Network affiliates is 1:05 p.m.
By Jake, on May 20, 2010, at 11:45 pm |
What a strange series. The Brewers came in flat as a pancake and leave just as flat, but along the way they picked up a win Thursday night to earn the series split. This series featured two clubs with a lot of defensive problems.
The Pirates broke open the game by putting a three-spot on the board in the first. With one out, Crosby singled thru the box and then McCutchen lined a fairly routine out to Braun but he failed to come in on the ball and it dropped in for a single. Jones then hit a grounder to Weeks at second, he flipped to Escobar covering short but Cutch was on him in a hurry breaking up his throw and Jones was safe at first. That left Crosby at first and Jones at third and Pearce then stroked a triple into the notch scoring them both. Rookie Adam Stern got a poor jump and read on the ball as it seemed to be catchable off the bat. LaRoche followed Pearce’s clutch two-out triple with a rbi line drive double into the right field corner putting the Bucs up 3-0. So in essence, the Brewers gave the Pirates a six-out inning.
The Brewers responded in the second when McGehee walked with one out and then Hart tripled on crushed a fly ball to the warning track in center that McCutchen almost measured, but missed, and Maholm’s walked batter scored. With the infield back, Zaun ground one to second and Hart scored easily making the game 3-2 Pirates.
The Brewers took the lead in the fourth when, with one out, McGehee ground one through the left side for a single, Hart walked, and then Kottaras lined one off Pearce’s outstretched glove into the right field corner for a double. McGehee scored and Hart went to third. Once again with the infield back, Sterns ground one to second and Hart scored putting them up 4-3.
The only real threat the Pirates mounted to come back happened in the fifth. Milledge opened the frame with a double down the left field line and then Crosby came to the plate. I thought for sure he was going to bunt him over (go for the win on the road and the tie at home mentality) but Crosby was allowed to hit away and he didn’t even attempt to put the ball in play the opposite way – he pulled everything until he finally ground one to Escobar at short. Unfortunately, Milledge took off on the play and was caught in a run down but not before Crosby made it to second.
To me the game was lost in Crosby’s at bat – he should have been sacrificing knowing Cutch was behind Crosby. Baseball 101.
Any hoot, Cutch then came up and hit a sharp ground ball to short and Crosby took off for third like he didn’t even see Milledge’s poor base running the play before. He was tagged out of course and that left McCutchen at first where he was eventually stranded.
Maholm looked a lot sharper tonight.. not that he was, but just that he looked better. His fastball was middle-third of the plate all night long to right hand batters and up in the zone to left handers but yielded only one hit from those locations. If he keeps the ball up like that to better hitting clubs, he’s going to get mauled. He just seemed to be battling command all night long — he’d get ahead and then struggle to finish them off, although Brewers batters were a bit undisciplined as they chased some pretty bizarre pitches off the plate at times helping him along.
Narveson was very hittable and oddly, Jones kept flailing at his fastball (outer third, middle of the zone, less than 90 mph heat) swinging through it. It was all uncanny considering we had him on the ropes in hitter’s counts in half the at bats. He was in with his fastball to right hand hitters and away with his off speed which consisted of primarily a change. Tip your hat to him – whatever he was doing worked but it didn’t look special from my seat.
Perhaps we just had a meltdown after the bigger win Wednesday night?
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Here come the Braves who haven’t been very lucky at PNC in recent history winning just 2 of their last 8. Ohlendorf wasn’t sharp at all in his first start back from the DL against the Reds and last time against the Cubs he caught them when they were flat on their back. The Braves, on the other hand, have been pounding the ball lately especially against right hand pitching, so I suspect we’re going to see some runs scored against us in game one. Hudson is the opposing pitcher and he hasn’t allowed more than 4 earned runs in any of his last ten starts, and he has never allowed more than 3 earned runs at PNC.
Game two it’s Lowe versus Morton which should be a high run scoring game. I think we can get to Lowe for some runs but Morton hasn’t exactly had stop ‘em stuff lately as he’s been throwing an absurd amount of pitches per inning. And so far the Braves haven’t announced who will start Sunday against Duke, but you have to like Duke’s chances in that game depending on who opposes him.
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A few of you e-mailed saying you have been betting the opposite of my choices in Jake’s Take (in the nav bar above) and doing pretty well. That’s good stuff. I’ve been off lately – no question about it and have fallen to less than 50% hit rate for the first time this year. But I expect to come back strong.
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Now I don’t usually take national online media to task but tonight I need to.
Lots and lots of people asking me for more information on what has turned into a “Pirates/Pens” flap between Pittsburgh beat reporters and other local media. I think it’s been blown way out of proportion.
To give you an idea how senseless this has become, here’s an article at Deadspin entitled: “The Pittsburgh Ownership War Heats Up” where they said in part:
“Pirates owner Bob Nutting is still bitter over the Penguins’ ownership group’s attempt to buy the Bucs. When the Pirates fired back with a petty, “objective” column (on a team-run site) trashing the Pens for this season’s failure, it ignited a firestorm.” (my emphasis)
I don’t know Bob Nutting and I don’t know if he is bitter about any potential offer made to buy his interest in the Pirates, but for Deadspin to say that the Pirates fired back trashing the Pens really pisses me off as a fan. To give you an idea why, let’s read more of what was in the Deadspin article:
“This week, enter Pirates Report. It’s made to look like an unofficial team site, with blogs, message boards and the like. But even though it doesn’t say it anywhere, it’s an open secret that it’s owned and operated by the Pirates themselves.” (again my emphasis)
That’s so wrong I can’t believe it made it past Gawker’s editorial staff, but then I’m not an editor. The Pirates don’t own that site, the Pirates don’t operate it, and the Pirates don’t have anything at all to do with the site. They never have in its current reincarnated form and surely never will.
The Pirates aren’t the Nuttings. The Nuttings are a part of the Pirates franchise – not the whole part.
PiratesReport.com is clearly under the control of Ogden Newspapers, not the Pittsburgh Pirates. I researched that all the way back in February 2009 when I called for a boycott of the site. Nothing has changed from that February article – the domain’s administrative control physical address remains listed at what appears to be John Perrotto’s address in Beaver Falls, PA, and the DNS servers for the domain still point to Ogden Newspaper’s network. To top it off, the site’s writer, Paul Ladewski, is clearly employed by Ogden Newspapers.
Where the hell do the Pirates enter into all this?
They don’t.
Just because the Nutting family might be majority owners of the Pirates doesn’t mean The Pirates have anything at all to do with that blog. That’s just nuts, but now others are jumping in with the same thought.
I realize this might be tough to swallow that ole’ Jake is actually defending the Nuttings, but Deadspin trashed my beloved organization with their assumptions – they didn’t trash the Nuttings, they trashed the organization. As I said, now others are following suit following off Deadspin’s leadership in the article which is just wrong to begin with.
Simply put, an employee for Ogden Newspapers wrote that article.. not the Pirates.
Remy Stern is the Editor-in-Chief for Gawker and perhaps we should all ask him to review Deadspin’s article. His e-mail addy is: remy@gawker.com.
If you are upset at Bob Nutting or the article from Ogden Newspapers, then e-mail Ladewski’s boss, Charles Jarvis at charlesjarvis@tribune-chronicle.com.
But leave my beloved org out of all this stupidity which, I believe, is better described as a Pittsburgh media war and not a sports ownership war.
Now you have my humble take.
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Anup Sinha has a new article up over at Bucs Prospects which goes into depth on the Pirates rebuilding blueprint as compared to the Big Red revival occurring in Cincinnati.
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Gene Collier: extend Russell one more year. He echoed what Joe Starkey said a few weeks ago. But extending Russell means we’re allowing yes men to continue to drive us.
It’s time for a change. We need a manager who can manage, a leader who can be respected, and someone who is experienced. We don’t need any more of John Russell.
We hit the bottom and we’re starting to climb up – now is the time to start proving to the fans that ownership means business. Let’s take this puppy to the next level.
By Jake, on May 12, 2010, at 8:57 pm |
I know you want to hear answers but I can’t provide you with any. Make any change at all, be it bringing up Alvarez and Tabata, or tossing Iwamura to the side, and nothing will be different over the next 100 games. We’re still going to lose more than we win, we’re still going to be developing players at the major league level, and we’re still going to have problems.
Don’t stop looking at the big picture that we’re a club three-plus years into another rebuilding process. When you start looking at the corners of that picture, you immediately want to make knee-jerk decisions and that’s not going to help anything.
By all standards, we have to continue giving Neal Huntington and Kyle Stark time to complete their mission. Yes, that’s true even if you happen to be in the camp that believes Huntington should have never been handed the job. When ever, if ever, you pull the rug on Huntington, you also have to pull it out from Frank Coonelly because they are the architects of this rebuild. If one failed, then they both failed.
Despite what John Perrotto might think, Bob and Ogden Nutting don’t appear to be rug pullers, so forget all that.
That being said, I think it’s become more than obvious John Russell needs to be shown the door. He’s done an excellent job with what he has had to work with but it’s time this rebuild takes things to the next level and Russell is clearly in the way of that. That might open the door for Garcia to step in as a temporary manager for the rest of the year and, with Russell gone, bring back Perry Hill right now to work with Alvarez, Clement, and Cedeno… maybe even Walker at second as a utility player.
Unfortunately, Frank Coonelly appears to be John Russell’s key holder and it doesn’t look like he’s going to force him to walk the plank. I’d venture to guess Frank is saying something like “we’ll whether this stormy period and the fans will come around in a few weeks when Pedro hits town.” He’s right – you’ll quickly forget something like the Pirates losing 15 of their last 20 when Alvarez hits town. But what happens if the club continues the nose dive even with Alvarez? It’s not going to be easy selling tickets or corporate sponsorships in 2011, that’s for sure.
Plus, there’s one more compelling reason why Frank’s head might be in the clouds thinking Alvarez will save him and gross revenue receipts in Pittsburgh — Alvarez has already shown extreme loyalty to the one man around the game who has called Coonelly out. Let’s not forget Alvarez has already sucker punched Frank in the face twice (late signing despite Frank’s plea and the late change in his contract), so this potential third blow (if no productivity by Alvarez at the ML level early career) just might become a Boras knock out punch to Coonelly.
And you thought all the drama around this club was over!
Other than moving out Russell and bringing in Hill, I don’t think any major changes are needed and we should continue giving consistent at bats to Clement and Milledge this year, let Hill handle Iwamura (if there’s anything that can be done), and keep LaRoche plugging away at third. Nor would I bring up Alvarez right now – I’d wait to see how he’s doing late June and then start thinking about him joining the team during the break so he opens with the long home stand (that assumes Hill isn’t brought in – if he is, then I bring up Alvarez as soon as he clears super-two status). Same with Tabata. Lincoln probably needs more time – maybe a September call up for him, I’d guess.
I realize everyone wants to see us be more competitive but I think our recent play shows us that the roster we currently have needs a lot more development time.
Now I realize some of you are going to ask why am I not hammering ownership – or why am I not jumping on the bandwagon to get Huntington fired. The answer to both of those questions is simple — everybody here knows my position about Huntington being hired so you equally know how I feel about him remaining with this club. But as long as he is here, I’m willing to give his processes a chance despite what seems to be the obvious.. the rebuild is failing.
As for ownership, I’ve hammered them for so long you already know the deal – I don’t have to hammer them anymore. The root of the problem with the Pittsburgh Pirates is the lack of funding by ownership and, until that aspect changes, it won’t matter if Bozo the clown runs this team, to be quite blunt.
Stay focused and get behind the players because it’s not their fault. Go buy some tickets.. get to a game.. the few bucks you hand to this club won’t make or break them so go have a good time rooting for our Buccos.
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Here’s a few odd stats for you –
– when one or fewer batters leading off an inning reach base during a game, our record in those games is 6-3. In games where more than one leadoff hitter reached during the game, we are 8-17. Go figure that one out.
– when you combine Duke and Maholm’s starts, the team has gone 7-8. The rest of the time we are 7-12.
– along the same lines as above, when you measure the starts of our pitchers using the game score stat, in starts where we achieve anything from a below average 40 game score up, we have gone 13-8. In games when the quality of the start has been below a 40 game score, we are 1-12. Who said it all starts with pitching — even a tick below average pitching?
– the only inning the Pirates have been ahead in more times than their opponent, is in the first inning (11 times for the Bucs, 9 times for opponents; 14 ties). Every other inning we have been behind in more games than ahead.
– in 55 opportunities, we’ve gone first to third just nine times (16% of the time). That’s 7% lower than in 2008, 11% lower than in 2007, and a startling 9% lower than the median for the four years previous to the new regime taking over.
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From Indy:
INDIANAPOLIS — Starting pitcher Brad Lincoln allowed just two runs over eight innings of work, while designated hitter Pedro Alvarez drove in three, including a mammoth two-run home run, to lead the Indianapolis Indians past the Rochester Red Wings 5-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Victory Field.
With the win, the Indians improve to 18-15 on the season, while the loss drops the Red Wings record to 14-19. With the victory, Indianapolis takes a 2-1 series lead over Rochester and has now posted a 13-5 record over its last 18 games.
Lincoln (8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO) held Rochester to just two runs on five hits and no walks, while striking out four to earn his team leading fourth win of the season. The Indians’ starter tossed four perfect innings to start the game, with reliever Wil Ledezma (1.0 IP, 1 SO) sealing the victory with a perfect ninth to earn his fourth save of the season.
While Lincoln led the Tribe pitching staff, Alvarez sparked the Indians’ offense, turning in the club’s only multi-hit effort on the afternoon, going 2-for-4 with two runs, a two-run home run and three RBI.
Alvarez at DH. Hmm… maybe he’ll be up in early June when we head into inter-league action? And, yes, Neil Walker has been playing second. Tabata going cold – just 2 for his last 17.
By Jake, on May 4, 2010, at 10:45 pm |
Game time 7:05, 69 degrees, and a very low 34% humidity. Thin air means long ball time and that’s exactly what both clubs shot for all night – home runs.
The difference in this game came down to two plays — one, a two-out booted light ground ball off the bat of Garrett Jones in the 6th by Ryan Theriot which allowed Ryan Church to get to the plate. Theriot was shifted close to the second base bag and Jones poked the ground ball to normal short but Theriot couldn’t handle the ball and Jones was safe. On the fourth pitch Church saw in a 1-2 count, he lined a Dempster fastball over the Clemente wall putting the Bucs up 3-2.
The second play was in the 9th when Dotel came out to close and Fontenot swung at ball four leading off the inning. Lee then walked which might have put two men on when Byrd hit a sharp grounder to LaRoche’s left side that he ranged a mile for, dove, and was able to throw Lee out at second. Had Fontenot walked, he would had been standing at third and, all things being equal, Soriano would have come to the plate.
The were other opportunities for scoring by both clubs but each one fell short. The Cubs loaded the bases in the second after two quick outs and then Baker popped up meekly to second to end the threat. The Cubs threatened again in the 6th after Soto hit a solo shot. With men at second and third and two outs, Baker again ended the inning by lining out to Cedeno. You can’t help wondering why the Cubs have Soriano batting sixth instead of second and to get more opportunities. Very strange stuff.
In the 7th, Cedeno and Young both singled after one out and then Aki struck out for an unproductive AB. LaRoche then lined one into center, Byrd was playing in and was quick to the ball and came up firing to home as Cedeno made a very wide turn at third heading home. Cedeno slid and Soto tried to block the plate and, by my eyes, it looked like Cedeno caught the back of home plate with his knee and Soto missed him with the tag. However, home plate umpire Dale Scott called him out and that ended the inning.
Dempster didn’t look sharp at all, but he was effective against our lineup. His velocity seemed down from the last time I saw him in 2009.. he was throwing 88 – 91 MPH tonight and I thought I remembered him in the 91 – 93 range in the past? Obviously he doesn’t read all the scouting reports because he came after Andy LaRoche with three straight fastballs and LaRoche deposited the third one in the left field bleachers in the first inning. Good stuff there.
Maholm was beaten to a pulp all night long by Dale Scott who refused to give him the paint on either side of the plate, although he did give both sides to Dempster more often. I’ve seen this same thing a little more this year with Doumit than I saw last year, but in 2008 Doumit couldn’t get calls for his pitchers an inch inside the paint it seemed. I’m assuming it had more to do with the movement on Maholm’s pitches than with Doumit since he was framing pitches well with a quiet glove, but it makes me wonder going into Wednesday’s game if we have an umpire crew destined to give the opposition a few more breaks? If so, Morton could be in trouble. We’ll see how this plays out.
Meek had his worst outing of the year unable to command his pitches. In the first 15 he threw, only 3 were strikes. He recovered by throwing high heat that batters chased unable to catch up to the pitch, but he looked like he had a dead arm to me. And Dotel was Dotel – throwing meatballs down the pike but nobody hurt him this night.
A few notes –
Ryan Church played a very solid center field. I tip my hat to him because I’ve chastised his ability to play center here. While it’s true the only routes he ran were forward and backwards most of the game and thus his weakness wasn’t exposed, he still did a good job. Rule 5 pick John Raynor was sent back to Florida after Mike Hill and Neal Huntington seemingly couldn’t come to an agreement on a trade (that was expected considering the two GM’s haven’t had the best of relationships so far) and that leaves Church as the best option for McCutchen’s days off.
Iwamura is totally lost in space. His game has diminished to the point of being almost worthless. His range at second is well below average, he can’t turn two much anymore because of slow footwork and average throws, his approach at the plate is horrid, and his body language lately has said ‘I really don’t want to be on the field playing baseball’ — all of which is concerning. John Russell needs to give him some extended time off to get his mind back into the game. Young can play second just as good as Aki is playing right now and probably hit the ball better.
What happened to the fire under Lastings Milledge’s butt? He opened the season as a ‘new man’ and was actually doing the right things – putting the ball in play the opposite way when he got a chance, going deeper in counts, and even hitting a bit clutch here and there. Now the fire is gone, he’s swinging at moths flying around the plate, and seems to have become a guess hitter. On defense he continues to hustle for the ball, and he’s still running out his outs like he means business, and both of those signs are encouraging, but he just doesn’t seem to have the intensity any more. Perhaps the all the losing has caught up to him? I suppose in young players that happens more frequently than veteran players.
Ronny Cedeno.. this guy has become a vacuum cleaner. Notice his footwork now, notice his throws, notice the outs he’s generating. All hail Perry Hill. Oh yeah, I’ve already said that. Many times. And how about LaRoche’s defense lately? He’s anticipating unlike I’ve ever seen from him, which is creating some unbelievable range. Yeah, yeah, look up Perry Hill again.
Cubs are now 1-10 when they score three runs or less.
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Now this is filthy: No, not Shelby Ford going 3-3! Look down at the pitchers — Rudy Owens threw no-hitter through six at Richmond last night. His perfect game bid was negated by a walk he issued. Obviously he hit his pitch count and had to come out, but what a performance! And yes, Bucs Prospects had a scout at the game and his report will be up sometime Wednesday along with his coverage of Alderson’s start.
Somewhere in my mind over the last week I had thought Richmond was Greenville from the South Atlantic League which is a pretty decent hitting team. Richmond isn’t. Anyway, here’s a short blurb on Owens work from the Curve’s media department:
“Richmond, Va – Curve lefty Rudy Owens tossed six no-hit innings and struck out 11 batters and the Altoona Curve offense provided plenty of assistance early and often to aid in a 9-1 thumping of the Richmond Flying Squirrels (AA – San Francisco) on Tuesday night at The Diamond.
Owens bested his career-mark in strikeouts by two and only permitted one base runner. The southpaw tossed 97 pitches in the outing for his third win of the year with 64 of those pitches being strikes.”
Imagine that – one day after I called him out for being a #4 at best and he beats me to the ground with this performance. I tip my hat to him (but I won’t change my upside projection.. at least, not yet.)
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All the talk about Charlie Morton tipping pitches is really amazing. Yes, I let the Bucs know what I heard but to be honest, I’m sure they were very aware of any possible tipping. I didn’t realize that this went back a few weeks to some MLB program where a guy said Morton was tipping. Now it all makes sense. Anyway, I don’t think for one minute Morton’s demise was due to his tipping off his fastball, but neither do I believe it helped him. If you can’t command more than one pitch, you’re going to get mauled at this level and that’s what happened to Morton.. not because he may have been tipping. BTW, I heard his tipping went all the way back to Atlanta days and he was told back then he was giving away his fastball.
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 That’s a really sad picture.
I’m sure Gorzy is happy to be on a team that consistently wins more than 70 games, and I’m sure he loves playing so close to home.
But when I think back to all the conversations I had with the Pirates brass before and after this trade, all I remember is them saying he wasn’t the same guy I knew anymore. I kept arguing that his arm was toast.
The real reason why Gorzelanny was tossed aside will never be known but the fact is, he’s pitching better than anybody we have on our roster right now and you can’t help wondering what-if.
At the time the trade went down I said it amounted to another Aramis Ramirez giveaway, and it was. That was Neal Huntington’s worst deal by far.
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I think I’m going to start jumping on the Chris Sale bandwagon for our #2 pick in the draft. I say that because we won’t be able to sign the best player available in Tallion, and I’d guess AJ Cole (the third best arm in this draft after Tallion and McGuire in my book) will want more than he’s worth to avoid college, so that leaves Sale for me. I’m not 100% yet so don’t start your hammering but I do like him better than Pomeranz.
I’m simply not in the Machado camp.. I’m leaning toward some of the reports which question his bat and makeup. James Paxton is intriguing, as is Zach Cox, and, man, it’s not easy passing up Yasmani Grandal who is an outstanding player, but I love the way Sale’s stuff projects in our park, I like the guy’s makeup and fortitude, he fits perfectly into our second wave, and I think he’ll fill out to around 200 pounds and probably gain a few more MPH.
In other words, I think he projects a lot better than he’s being given credit for.
By Jake, on April 20, 2010, at 11:04 pm |
Charlie Morton: 1 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 5 ER, 6 R
Few umpires rattle pitcher’s cages like Jerry Layne does. He was called out in the early 90′s as having too liberal a strike zone and then tightened it up so much that over the last five-plus years it’s become the size of a pea, especially on offspeed pitches middle of the plate and out.
Unfortunately, Layne’s zone didn’t have any affect on Charlie Morton Tuesday because Charlie Morton didn’t have any stuff to be affected by the zone. His fastball ran straight, he lacked command — once again — of his offspeed pitches, and he failed to attack hitters early in the count (tossed two balls in first three pitches in 6 of 9 batters who didn’t put the ball in play in the first three pitches). Perhaps there was one or two pitches close to the zone Layne didn’t give him a call on, but not a lot and certainly not enough to rattle Morton.
I had hoped to see Joe Kerrigan and Morton come out with a new game plan adjusting to the way batters were sitting on his fastball. That did not happen and even I bought into something that I shouldn’t have. Perhaps Kerrigan didn’t want to waste his time because Morton hasn’t shown any inclination whatsoever to command his curve and slider this year?
It’s clearly obvious Morton needs a trip down memory lane to 3A on his last option. He’s beat mentally, he doesn’t have a pitch to get major league hitters out, his fastball is running too true, and he’s lost the ability to throw his offspeed pitches for strikes in fastball counts. Now he can’t even command his fastball.
You might make an argument that he’s a sinkerball guy and was likely to get hit hard early in the season anyway, so why not just keep him in Pittsburgh? The answer to that is simple – he’s shell-shocked and his next two starts are on the road against Houston and the Dodgers.. both with mature lineups who will feast off his stuff. The next four after that would be the Cubs then Reds at PNC, then the Cubs at Wrigley and then the Brewers again at PNC. With the powder puff stuff he’s throwing, he won’t get through the first couple of innings in any of those games.
So who should take his place? I’ve said since spring training that Carrasco should have been stretched out to use as a starter early in the season. He’s going to give up some runs himself but he at least has some stuff to get major league hitters out. The problem is, Carrasco wasn’t stretched out so he’s not an option right now. That leaves Burres who came in this evening and shut the door albeit it looked more like Brewers batters simply started taking it easy with an 8-0 lead.
The key to me is that Neal Huntington needs to take it on the chin and declare the Morton experiment a dud for now and move him out to give him a chance to his mindset straightened out. Maybe Morton makes it back in July or August — maybe he doesn’t. I just don’t want to hear Huntington say later in the year that players didn’t perform to expectations because the only expectation any of us had with Morton was failure with his near 6 ERA and .310 winning percentage career numbers in the senior circuit. This year nearly 40% of the batters who have faced him ended up scoring so there’s no excuse for him to make another start in Pittsburgh.
Let’s move on.
In order to do that we have to take a second and question the ability of the Pirates pro scouts to evaluate pitching talent. They have done a below average job, as has Huntington. I’ve said for years guys like Vuckovich and Robertson are great to have around but either they aren’t getting the job done or their voices are being drown out by guys like Corrigan and Huntington. No way should Hart or Morton have been brought in.. we were hammered in those trades. Adding 7th inning junk like Ohlendorf or McCutchen to add some depth by taking on risk was one thing, adding Hart and Morton are clearly another matter entirely. And I don’t care how long you want to take to evaluate the trades – take another three years.. it won’t matter.. you’re just wasting your time. There’s too many problems under the hood with all these guys.
But it won’t matter in the end.. Neal Huntington is Frank Coonelly’s puppy and Frank’s going to keep patting him like the good owner’s puppet he is. That means the scouts get a free ride too.
OMG.
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Believe it or not, that is only the third game this year that we were losing after the first inning.
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Ryan Doumit needs to be dealt. He”s so far out of it every game now he looks like he’s on drugs half the time. His swings are pathetic, his approach is worse, his receiving skills are a stab in the dark, and his inability to focus on what is happening in the game is sad to see. He’s lost in space, especially in-game management.
There’s another grounder somewhere.. there’s another lazy fly ball somewhere.. you know the routine. Once in a while he lucks up and stings the ball, but rarely anymore. I don’t know if he’s hurt, doesn’t care, just playing indifferent, or what it is, but his value right now is about as low as it can get. I’d bet the morale of this team would be greatly enhanced if Doumit exited stage right.
Once again, why he wasn’t dealt last winter is beyond me. Nobody seems to want him around and he doesn’t want to be here. Take the loss and move on. Jaramillo can catch 130 games so move Clement back in as a backup catcher since it’s pretty obvious his pitch recognition skills are well below average.
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And what the heck is going on with Garrett Jones this year in right field? He looks like a ten-year-old girl running down balls on the grass. Seriously.. he’s that slow and awkward looking. As a fan I expect to see him take questionable routes to get to the ball because he’s shown he’s not exactly a good cover guy, but what’s his excuse for the lack of hustle to the ball? Or all the bobbles once he does get to it?
And Tuesday night’s over the shoulder catch on McGehee’s fly ball in the second? Not only did he not have to catch the ball with such dramatics, it took him out of trying to halt advancing runners (not that he could have stopped them, but still). Absolutely bizarre fundamentals.
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If I’ve said this once I’ve said it a million times since spring training – Akinori Iwamura is, perhaps, the stupidest base runner in the game of baseball. He’s not just stupid, he’s lazy as hell. He’s failed to take extra bases so many times I’ve run out of ink keeping track and it’s only the 20th of April. The fact he is our leadoff batter is mind-boggling to me.
Here’s a great example from Tuesday’s game. Aki doubles to start the Pirates off in the first and McCutchen hits a slow roller down the third base line that forces McGehee to run in full-bore and bare hand to throw Cutch out on.
Where’s Aki?
Sitting comfortably on the bag at second watching the play like a spectator in the stands.
WTF?
Had he crawled to third on his hands and knees from his initial lead on the pitch he would have made it. I’m not kidding. As you might expect, if he had been at third Milledge would have scored him with his grounder to deep first and the Brewers lead would have been cut to 3-1.
Or how about this one Tuesday night.. it’s the 5th inning, Aki at second, Cutch at first, there’s one out, and we’re down a ton of runs. Milledge steps up and hits a line drive falling fast to center field being covered by gold glover Jim Edmonds who makes the catch.
Where’s Aki?
Hell, he scored man. Opps.. oh wait, no… he was doubled off second because he never bothered to look and see if the ball hit the ground or not – he just ran. Double play, inning over. That’s happened a few times this year and at first I seriously thought I was watching a replay of an earlier game he did it in.
And here’s a personal favorite of mine.. Aki singles, Cutch singles to right on a seeing eye grounder, and Aki stops at second. Jones or Milledge comes up and hammers a long fly ball to right and Aki stands on the bag and watches the catch then scratches his nuts. The next batter singles through the middle of the diamond and Aki freezes as if there is less than two outs and a line drive, then realizes he has to run and makes it to third. The next two batters make outs and we strand three.
Don’t laugh.. that’s also happened twice so far in one form or another.
Iwamura is a moron on the base paths and has no business leading off without some major bats behind him that put the ball over the fence forcing him to properly move. I can see why he was so good as a leadoff hitter with the Rays.. they slugged him around the bases. We don’t have the sluggers – we have slap-happy singles hitters and he’s a lead ball gathering dust.
Drop him to the three hole.. get him out of the way of McCutchen. Oh wait.. maybe that’s exactly what our front office is trying to do – clog up the base paths on McCutchen so he doesn’t ring up too many runs scored, or stolen bases, or anything else? You know, devalue the player before asking him to sign a multi-year deal. That’s the Pittsburgh way, right? You know, the PLAN.
We’re a freak show.
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Are we witnessing a new breed of cultural misfits in Pittsburgh? Let’s call them the brats..
“I don’t WANT to play right field. I WANT to play first!” (I’ll show them!)
“I don’t WANT to play first base, I WANT to catch!” (I’ll show them!)
“I don’t WANT to play with you, TRADE me!” (I’ll show them!)
“I WANT you to start me!” “Me TOO!” (Hell, it’s the fastest way out of this place – be a starter and fail big time.)
And so on, and so forth.
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Packed house Tuesday:
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Did someone say start watching those Astros?
hhmm..
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Ten days ago Dwight Gill told us the Pirates were playing better than their record. See what he said Tuesday afternoon at Bucs Prospects. By the way, don’t forget to check out his updated Pirates XERA database. Good stuff there.
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Edinson Volquez is given a 50-game suspension for testing positive for steroids and the suspension starts Wednesday while he’s on the DL recovering from TJ surgery.
What a joke.
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An angry e-mail from someone who read my post yesterday suggesting the Brewers were likely to take us apart this series but he then clicked the ‘Jake’s Take’ link above and found I posted PIT as my projected winner in Tuesday’s game and made a bet on it:
“I’m confused. I’m angry.”
Talk to Morton my friend. Better yet, go talk to Huntington and ask him why Morton was allowed to even start if they hadn’t made any adjustments. Personally, I gave too much credit to Huntington thinking he would have jettisoned Morton if his side work showed the same-old, same-old.
Sorry.. my bad.
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Ok, enough rants about the comedy show in Pittsburgh.. how about some good news?
I’m proud to announce that I have hired scouting correspondent Anup Sinha as the Executive Editor at Bucs Prospects and he’ll be in charge in taking the site to the next level. Sinha is going to standardize the reporting methodologies used by the scouts, increase the number of pro scouts used, insure AP style is followed in the posts, and begin a few other features with new material like adding draft content. It’s an exciting move as the concept continues to grow.
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