By Jake, on July 18, 2010, at 10:43 pm |
I wasn’t able to watch Sunday’s game but from the box score and recaps it seemed like a fun day at the park. Our ponies are all going right now and we all hope it carries forward down the path. We know better but, for now anyway, let’s enjoy the little run of good fortune which we’ve come accustomed to seeing a week or so after the break the last few years.
Nice to see Maholm shut down the Astros to just three hits. Anytime that happens there has to be some good defense behind him so I wish I had seen the game to witness it firsthand. What a monster Milledge has become this year with men on base – he’s simply filthy. Little good it’s done in the win column but still.. I wonder if he’d make a good 4th outfielder who could come off the bench swinging ala Young? You can’t leave him out there in right field with no power and no arm.. something has to give.
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So McCutchen went down, huh? I guess I’m glad I didn’t watch the game or I might have had a coronary. Taking his place in CF was Tabata? Oh my.. that’s a disaster just waiting to explode. I talked about this very scenario at the beginning of the year - that we didn’t have a credible defensive replacement for McCutchen and now we’re going to witness it firsthand.
On the one hand I think it’s a good thing – Tabata doesn’t project enough power to remain a left fielder and the only way we can muster enough trade value on him is to peddle him as a true-blue center fielder at the major league level. So give him a couple of times through the rotation out there and let’s see if he can learn to read the spin of the ball, the depth of the hit, and run some good routes. But I think I already know the answer to this question and I think you’re going to see the answer over the next week.
I don’t expect McCutchen to come back soon only because I feel like he had been playing with a lingering injury the last 3+ weeks. I suspect we’ll see him shut down for a week or more. That’s just a wild guess.. and I suspect that would change if Tabata makes a fool of himself out in center, but I don’t think he’ll be that bad.
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“Multiple sources said Friday that neither general manager Neal Huntington nor Russell is in immediate trouble, but those same sources expressed a strong sentiment that the current 10-game homestand could be influential as it relates to Russell and his staff.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 17, 2010
… the current 10-game homestand.. ????
WTF?
The organization has become fractured at the top over the last year (actually, it’s always been fractured since Huntington was hired but that’s a different story) and the distance between sides has steadily grown. Today that group includes so many people it isn’t funny from influential season ticket holders, to folks within/around the organization, and even, as Ken Rosenthal pointed out recently, at least one owner. This isn’t a small group of fans or bloggers talking - it’s now a major tug of war.
Dejan’s ten-day wrap is silly – nobody I’ve talked to could care less if Russell and his troops win all ten, or ten of the next twenty. Wins aren’t relevant — fundamental responsibility and organizational accountability are fueling the desire for change. Simply put, too many have witnessed and heard too much to ever change their minds that John Russell needs to be shown the door.
But it’s not that simple.
You see, Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly want Russell right where he is because he’s a devoted manservant to them. And Bob Nutting probably hasn’t gotten involved because — as we have witnessed since 2003 — Nutting seems clueless about baseball operations. I’m not saying he’s stupid – I’m saying he leaves those problems to Coonelly. But, as some have suggested, Coonelly has his own agenda – being the next Commissioner. My gosh, what would happen to that goal – or even to Frank’s executive career - if he came out and admitted he made a mistake in 2007 putting this “dream management team” together? He’d become the laughing-stock of baseball considering all the ridiculous statements he’s already made about them, don’t you think? He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place and not likely to make any waves/moves unless the entire fan base starts to become one collective pain in the ass.
That leaves Huntington to fire him but Russell has defended Huntington internally so much it has cost him credibility within his own field staff. Huntington is going to show his loyalty to Russell as long as he can and I assume that means until at least the end of the season – perhaps even to the end of his contract.
Unless someone above him pulls the plug.
Dejan is probably right in one regard – we have a front office full of executives and PR people who are probably praying this team runs off a string of wins playing fundamentally sound baseball so all this talk goes away. But it’s not going to.. the division is just going to keep getting larger imo.
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Update 11:49 PM — after posting this I started going through my e-mails and saw that quite of few of you sent me a link to the PG’s pay site where Dejan broke down part of Huntington’s Sunday media gathering. He reported, in part:
“Earlier, on his weekly radio show, Huntington strongly rejected the Post-Gazette report Saturday — citing multiple sources who declined to be identified — that the current 10-game homestand is critical for John Russell. “When you hide behind imaginary sources that aren’t going to go on the record, you can say anything you want,” Huntington said.”
I agree with Huntington on this one. As I said above, the 10-day window is indeed meaningless to those I have spoken to that want change.
But check out ole’ Neal losing his shit over such a meaningless post by Dejan. Not only did Huntington make a fool of himself, he made the org look bad too. I told you about the rift between these two last year and I figured sooner or later it would blow. Looks like the boiling point has been reached.
Huntington would have made an outstanding AGM.
’nuff said.
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Will there be token trades involving Andy LaRoche and Ronny Cedeno soon??? Oh man, I could go on and on but I’ll stop right here.
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Brewers are coming in town for a four-game set and they have been hitting the ball well lately too. Unfortunately for them, Capuano takes the mound in game one and if we don’t light him up like a Western Auto Store at Christmas time, our guys need a new profession. Karstens hasn’t looked that sharp recently and I think all the back and forth between starting and relief is starting to take its toll on him, but since he had a little extra time off during the break, I’m looking for a good game from him.
Gallardo is evidently coming off the DL Thursday to pitch against Ohlendorf and the nod has to go to Gallardo in that game – rust or not, Lincoln against Bush is an easy Bush win on paper especially since Lincoln will be throwing right behind Karstens, and I’ll tip my hat toward Wolf Wednesday. On paper, three of four to the Brewers. The only thing that can change that is if our guys get too big a big head after hammering Capuano.
If they do.
Oh.. and I’d hit Braun at least once in the series. LOL
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I was 3-0 in fantasy action during the limited week.. one team is now 12-3. Unbelievable.
By Jake, on June 29, 2010, at 12:19 am |
I’ve added a minor league media site at http://media.newbucs.com which allows you to follow the daily press releases from the Pirates minor league affiliates. That site updates every thirty minutes so if something comes in, it automatically posts there. Understand that the Pirates don’t have a media guy at Bradenton so neither the Marauders or their GCL team will have any reports other than roster related moves. I’ve had a little reader feedback asking for line and box scores there, but I’d like to know if you like the concept or not. Leave your comments below please.
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Anup Sinha posted his current Pirates top-ten prospect list up over at Bucs Prospects. It’s a must read.
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Poor fundamental baseball continued Monday night in Chicago. Here is Ramirez scoring from third on a one out contact play in the second.. Castro hit a grounder to Alvarez who was playing a bit back and instead of going to first for the out, he came home. Alvarez rushed his throw and tossed a one-hopper to Doumit who attempted a stab catch instead of scooping the ball up. Rammy scored and Castro ended up at second. Maholm was able to limit additional damage.
In the third, Lee hit a sharp ground ball to Alvarez’s left side and as you can see, Alvarez executed some very poor footwork while trying to take the ball off his side and it shot past him into left.
Also in the second, Soto hit a high pop up to shallow right that the wind carried toward the line. On the play neither Crosby or Milledge called for the ball and both ended up colliding as the ball fell to the ground in between them. Crosby took a massive jolt to the head from Milledge’s shoulder and ended up leaving at the top of the fourth with ‘concussion like symptoms’ — he was replaced by Young.
There were a few others that didn’t necessarily count for extra bases like when Castro ground one down the right field line in the 7th and Milledge picked the ball up and then bobbled it before getting a handle and throwing it in. To me it looked like Castro was going to be standing at second anyway. Another was Ramirez’s ground ball past Alvarez’s left side in the second which I thought he should have gloved, if not knocked down. Since my video recap wasn’t that good on the play, I’m giving Alvarez the benefit of the doubt instead by saying he didn’t have a chance. But I believe LaRoche gloves that ball.
And then there was the play of the game – Rammy was at first in the second and Colvin hit a ground ball to Crosby who threw to Cedeno covering second, and Cedeno threw to first to complete the double play. Problem was, Cedeno received the ball from Crosby standing flat foot no less than a foot off the bag then threw to first and second base ump Jerry Meals stunningly gave Cedeno the ‘in the vicinity’ call. I’m sorry — Pirates fan or not — Meals no call there was bad for the game. It was that wrong.
In the end, it was all Paul Maholm. He wasn’t throwing with his best stuff but it didn’t seem to matter as Cubbie batters just couldn’t figure him out. There were a few well-struck balls but not enough to warrant discussion about. Maholm simply went to work throwing strikes knowing he had a brisk wind blowing in toward the plate which was going to knock down anything hit hard in the air. And that it did.
Dotel came out and finished the 9th by striking out the side after throwing high heat near Ramirez’s head hitting him on the shoulder as he ducked away.
Rudy Jaramillo might be considered one of the best hitting coaches in the game but in the ten we have played the Cubs, his players are making him look like little league coach.
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Is Maholm’s name out there as available? I haven’t heard anything specific but it sure looked to me like he was being showcased. Shattering Lee’s bat in the 6th by busting him in was very impressive.
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There’s talk Neil Walker is probably heading to the DL. With Crosby taking a shot Friday night plus being a Huntington soldier, you have to believe Crosby is probably headed to the DL too and we’re going to see the return of Huntington’s first love.. Iwamura.
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Andrew McCutchen – another three strikeout game. Will someone please call his mom and pop and get them plane tickets to Chicago? Man this young man goes into a deep slump every June. What’s up with that?
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Batting Doumit 7th hasn’t started him hitting and Huntington has to be getting a bit concerned. He’s been squaring up on a few here and there which aren’t dropping, but not many.
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Anthony Rendon?? I’m sorry but the org needs another catcher, not a third baseman! LOL
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My pre-season schedule analysis suggested a 30-48 (.386) record at the end of June. We’re currently at 26-50 (.342). Remember now, the WIN% column shows what our last five years home/road win rate has been against the clubs we play that month.
So are we really playing historically bad baseball? I’m not so sure.
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If the Cubs become sellers, I want Marlon Byrd. Can you imagine him patrolling left with Cutch in center? Just saying..
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Gorzy vs Lincoln in a Wednesday day game. Now that will be a fun game to watch. Karstens with a near no-hitter Tuesday? Don’t be too surprised.
By Jake, on June 24, 2010, at 12:57 am |
Two developments. First..
While our 13th straight loss on the road is generating all the media attention, lost in the shuffle is that, in the last 65 games we have played on the road (since July 25, 2009), we’ve scored four or more runs just sixteen times (25%) and won a total of just fourteen road games (.215). Even more worrisome is that, over the last 24 games we’ve played on the road, we’ve scored four or more runs just four times (17%), and only once in our last fifteen road games (7%).
14 wins out of 65 played is beyond pathetic and significantly worse than replacement level player expectation. There’s no excuse in the book for that kind of a meltdown from youthful players. It’s one thing to get blown out every so often by a team like the Rangers who are hitting on all cylinders when we come to town, but it’s quite another thing to suck so bad across 22 series.
Second..
I spoke about the clubhouse problems weeks ago and I’m hearing they have turned for the worse. I can’t go into what I am hearing because – if the source is accurate – management will be able to identify them. But I can say is that I was told there have been some harsh changes and not everyone is buying in. In fact, some are downright pissed off.
Now I said this once earlier this year, I said it again a couple of weeks ago, and I’m going to say it again – John Russell needs to be shown the door. It’s time he’s relieved of his duties – past time. Management can find another patsy ‘yes-man’ to babysit this club for the next few years but Russell has worn out his welcome and needs to go. I realize this move would make the Pirates FO look like crap since they just had to come out and explain they gave extensions, but those extensions should have nothing to do with the current state of affairs in the clubhouse.
Bob and Frank’s long-term business plan they implemented with Huntington is working fine for ownership but it’s getting to the point now that it is interfering with baseball operations. I’m all for ownership making a buck while drawing out a full rebuild six to eight years as long as ownership consistently shows a financial commitment toward improving the club, but too many red flags have and are popping up and neither Frank or Bob are taking them serious. Ownership needs to commit to being more than firemen.. they have to also be proactive while executing their model.
That said, the young men we have on our roster are doomed to be engulfed into a losing culture by the very nature of a rebuilding club. But that doesn’t mean we have to lose the players – we should be fighting harder to save them and that takes a different mentality of field staff than we currently have in our dugout. JR served his purpose, now let him walk before it all falls apart and we lose an entire wave. We already have too many pieces to pick up.. let’s not get to the point of not being able to find the pieces to put it all back together.
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Paul Maholm took a beating Wednesday night. No command, no velocity, and no desire, or so it seemed. I don’t know if he was sick, whether he has an injury or a dead arm all of a sudden, or it was just one of those days like he told media after the game. But it was an ugly outing. He was also hurt by some shoddy defense.
Up 2-1, the Rangers came to bat in the second and Maholm walked Borbon. Andrus then hit a ground ball over the mound that Walker got to on his knees of all things but he attempted a glove flip to Crosby that didn’t work and a possible double play instead turned into two men on and no outs. It was all downhill from there as five straight well-struck singles put the Rangers up 5-1 and Maholm left the game. The Rangers are too dialed-in for me to say that if Walker gets that double play the game might have changed, but it shows how little margin of error we have right now.
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Has anybody else noticed how the Pirates pitching paradigm changed since Pedro Alvarez hit town?
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Duke to the DL with what is being called a strained flexor pronator muscle in this throwing elbow. That’s just a fancy name for elbow tendonitis pushing on the muscle (I think). They say he’ll be back in July but that’s management talking wanting the player back on the mound a month before the trade deadline so he can prove he’s healthy and can be dealt, be my guess.
I don’t expect to see Duke back until mid-August myself.. maybe later than that.
I begged management to deal Duke, Maholm, and Doumit last winter while they all had reasonably high values and when that didn’t happen, I begged them to be the first ones to start dealing back in late April/early May. Ownership may have prevented any pitching trades this winter hoping to keep some fans hope machines locked in, but it’s quickly turning into yet another blundering strategic error during our rebuild. We can’t keep throwing asset value down the tubes, just like we can’t keep missing out on impact talent.
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Tony Sanchez to the DL as well. They say he will have surgery on his jaw and he’s going to be out for a considerable amount of time. It’s no secret that the FSL has one of the weakest pitching groups in quite some time this year and Sanchez was feasting off some of them pretty good. He was also having a lot of problems with some of the better pitchers. His development path would have allowed him to continue up divisions with these same so-so arms and he might have eventually ended up in Pittsburgh with some good MiLB numbers.
But one scout told me today that Sanchez faces a significant uphill battle if he doesn’t return to the FSL until 2011 because the pitching will be much improved by then and he wonders if it will stall his development more than the Pirates wanted to see happen. In other words, this could be a bigger blow than we all realize.
Numerous scouts have also talked about Sanchez’s recent throwing struggles. His arm strength seemed down, his pop times high, and his throws well off the mark. There was a lot of speculation that he has a shoulder problem and we all know the Pirates way of handling those kinds of problems in the past – no surgery unless absolutely needed.
Now we’re left with a huge question mark.. if Sanchez was indeed fighting a shoulder/labrum type problem, and if he doesn’t go under the knife while he’s out with the jaw problem, what happens if he comes back in 2011 and then throws out his labrum?
Stay tuned.
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Quite a few e-mails asking when Bucs Prospects will start covering the kids at State College. I really don’t know.. my understanding was that they wanted to give the kids time to settle in before sending out some scouts so I assume sometime in July we’ll see the first reports. But realize those kids are on strict limitations – they have to throw probably 80 or 90% fastballs and they have pitch counts generally around in the 60′s, so don’t read box scores and think they stink because they get lit up.
By Jake, on June 18, 2010, at 11:39 pm |
“I’ve been keeping track, and the Pirates have yet to come back to either tie or win a game in which they’ve trailed by three or more runs. In other words, if they fall behind by three runs at any juncture of the game, they have yet to even come back and tie that game, however temporary, let alone win it.” – New Bucs reader from Pittsburgh
The Bucs certainly had a chance to bust that bad luck charm Friday night but, once again, failed to produce. Down 4-0 as they came to bat in the bottom of the 7th, Walker singled, McCutchen walked, and Jones singled thru the right side loading the bases with no outs. Church then crushed a line drive double into the notch clearing the bases and drawing us within one.
The Indians brought in southpaw Perez to relieve Carmona and I pulled out his pitching card and saw left hand batters are wailing this guy to a .390 tune this year. My heart started to beat just a little faster as Alvarez stepped into the box thinking it was his time and he hit a fly ball to medium depth center for the first out. Doumit came up dragging his .188 BA from the right-side and the situation screamed for Russell to go to Young, but it never happened. Doumit unproductively popped out meekly to short for the second out. The Indians then got a bit more serious and brought in Herrmann and he got Cedeno to fly out to left to end the inning.
Almost, but not quite.. but hasn’t that been the storyline of the year?
Tabata doubled hustling with one out in the 8th which provided another opportunity but Walker and McCutchen both made outs to end that opportunity as well.
Maholm pitched a good game keeping the ball down and had put together a two-hit shutout through six. It all fell apart in the 7th on a hot, muggy night with his pitch count nearing 90.
Peralta doubled opening the inning, Duncan flied out, and then Hernandez ground one through the right side that Church was quick to the ball on and that held Peralta at third. First and third and one out and Donald came to the plate. 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, the bench sensed a squeeze so they had Maholm throw to first and sure enough, Peralta was breaking for the plate, Maholm went out of the zone for 3-1, and then came in away and Donald hit it toward first. Jones saw it coming his way and did the best humpback whale dive impression you will ever see in your life which allowed the ball to go right under his glove into right scoring Peralta. Here’s the play:
So at this point it should have been two outs, one run in, and a runner at second then Maholm struck out Carmona for what should have ended the inning.
But, noooo..
With two outs after Carmona struckout, and two runners on, Crowe hammered a line drive through the left side for an rbi single, Choo smashed an rbi single through the right side making it 3-0, and then Hanrahan came in and Santana lined a 2-0 offering off the right field wall scoring Crowe while Choo got thrown out at home on the play.
Four runs scored – three runs after the Jones no-play. I mean, look at the play in the picture – you can see Hernandez has already taken at least two steps, Maholm has already landed and started to break towards first, and then there is Jones with his half-step lean job falling toward the ball in a quaint dive. Jones’ slow reaction on the play opened the door and the Indians took advantage.
Kerry Wood dragged his 8.03 ERA to the mound in the 9th to close the game out and Jones flied out, Church ground out, and Alvarez…
.. whiffed baby.
And so ends another tale of the hapless Pirates.
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McCutchen made a nice play in the 5th coming in hard and diving to catch Crowe’s falling liner. But earlier in the inning Donald golfed a line drive over McCutchen’s head and he nearly tracked it down but the ball went off his glove and Donald had a double. He was eventually stranded.
Neil Walker flashed some leather with a great far-ranging play to his right and throwing off-balanced in the air, he gunned down Crowe. Later in the 9th Walker had a chance to turn two but ate Cedeno’s relay when he saw Hafner sliding hard toward him. Crowe had hit that ball to short rather slowly so there might not even have been a double play chance, I don’t know. But you could see Walker was a bit preoccupied with Hafner coming at him and Walker not really having good technique yet receiving relay throws and getting out of the way while turning two.
Church and Walker also teamed up to nail Choo at home in the 7th to end the inning. It’s nice seeing Walker’s fairly decent arm out there as a relay. I’ve also said this a few times – it’s nice seeing Church patrolling right because he’s saving us some runs with his defensive play. Friday night he even had a clutch hit scoring three which makes it even better but if he gets consistent at bats, I think we’ll see his average climb back to the .260 range. While he’s not a fan favorite, he’s well worth the defensive runs saved in my book. DFA Milledge and send him down to Indy - nobody is going to claim him.
There were a couple of other great managing decisions in this game that stood out to me. In the fourth, Walker singled leading off the inning and then the bench ordered him to steal second with Carmona on the mound and McCutchen at the plate. He was out by a country mile plus another country mile. It was the second time the bench called for Walker to steal this year with Cutch up and less than two outs and both times he was nailed. I understand taking a little risk but when you have a team unable to score runs, you can’t run yourself into outs. Poor, poor managing.
In the 7th after Maholm gave up the leadoff double, I thought it was appropriate to pull him. He was pitching a good game but there had been some well-struck balls in the previous two innings indicating they were starting to see him better. As I noted above, Maholm should have been out of the 7th with just one run given up so it was one of those damn-if-you-do, damn-if-you-don’t type of decisions. But it was a hot muggy night, Maholm’s pitch count was climbing, and with the harder hit balls the previous innings, it just seemed to me it was a good exit time for him.
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I loved hearing this tidbit tonight after the game – the Pirates have lost eight of twelve by two or fewer runs. Yeah, but many of the teams fielded their “B” lineups during the stretch behind some good pitching which turned out to not be too good at the time. Plus, our starters have a 5.90 ERA last ten games and we’re hitting a season high .230 over that period but generating a season low 2.8 runs per game. We might have been close in the box scores but we didn’t deserve to be close in most of those games.
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Dejan Kovacevic spent a little time talking with Bob Nutting Friday and these two points stuck out to me:
DK: On 11-game losing streak, 20 games under: BN: “I’m frustrated but also shocked. Angry. Surprised at where we are…”
DK: If he’s frustrated, why no changes above the player level: BN: “I think it’s better not to discuss staffing changes as a public forum. I honestly believe that’s counter-productive. But I also believe that we have the right people in place, and I believe in the people in place so long as they are moving us forward in the direction we need to go. As soon as we don’t believe in those people, that’s when you make a change.” ( my emphasis )
I was impressed that Bob Nutting spent a few minutes with Dejan.. it was needed to clear the air. I was also impressed that he said he was angry because that’s not a typical Nutting word. But the fact he was surprised at where his club is at just reconfirmed that he remains too removed from baseball operations to ever be able to see outside the blinders he has always worn. The knock on the Nuttings in my book has always been that none of them have one iota of a clue how to manage a competitive sports team and they have been taken to the cleaners believing in the advice handed to them from poor baseball people.. people who have agendas the Nuttings didn’t see coming.
The problem with all that is, the man they picked to lead their organization is micromanaging their club to the ground and they refuse to open their eyes and acknowledge they made a mistake. When they hired Coonelly and agreed to allow him to hire Huntington knowing full good and well major decisions would be pressed through Coonelly, the Nuttings expected their organizational asset base to grow significantly larger than just through draft allocations.
No owner could possibly be happy with the short-term plan executed during the trades.. they were mostly unmitigated disasters and its left this club short on short-term talent which they didn’t expect to see happen. Not only that but the failed short-term plan now requires them to hold on to assets that obviously should have been dealt away because they can’t afford the losses trading some of these devalued players or the scrutiny of more salary dumping which should be done.
And that’s why we saw one simple article on a GM’s extension blow into a huge event requiring the chairman of the board to step up and issue what amounts to an apology for the organizational blunder.
Nothing has changed with all this, and nothing will change. The Nuttings seem content to run 1.2MM fans through the gates while praying their player development system starts to churn out talent in a few years. It’s not likely to happen because they don’t have the right people in place. It’s most likely going to come down to the players in the organization to – once again – take it on their own to force the change and that leads us right back to where we were when Leyland walked away.
This organization remains in a vicious cycle.
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 25, 2010, at 10:50 pm |
It was a game the Bucs were expected to win in Pirate fan-land, it was the game Paul Maholm was expected to come into form in, and it was a game the young Bucs desperately needed to take looking forward. It was, all thing considered, a very big win for the good guys.
The Reds game plan was simple and seemed to be based on Maholm’s last two starts – they attacked him early in the count and, even when that didn’t work, they never readjusted. Maholm’s game plan was simple – throw his pitch early in the count and Reds batters just kept pounding it into the ground. It was a tale of two relentless plans with neither side giving ground. In the end, Maholm threw just 89 pitches, went 7 innings, scattered just six hits, and shut the mighty Reds offense out.
Both starters had shutouts through seven. Neil Walker, making his 2010 debut, plated the first Pirates run off Reds starter Mike Leake in the 8th with a line drive double into the right field corner off a fastball thrown into his breadbasket. That scored Iwamura who had hit a routine fly ball to left center that Stubbs lost in the twilight allowing Aki a gift triple.
The Reds answered in the bottom of the 8th when Phillips hammered a Hanrahan knee-high fastball over the center field wall tying the game.
Masset came on to pitch the Reds ninth and quickly got two outs. Doumit came to the plate and mauled the third straight fastball he was thrown (two two-seamers around 91 then a four-seamer belt-high middle of the plate at 96) over the right center field fence to put the Pirates up 2-1. For those keeping track, Doumit’s swing was a textbook two-handed jack.. not the one-handed variety he had been using earlier in the year.
Dotel came out in the ninth and shut the door while allowing a Hernandez line drive single, one strike out, and two balls hit lightly in the infield.
Bucs win.
The Pirates shouldn’t have had to come back in this game had John Russell put a stop sign on Milledge in the 7th. He had singled leading off the inning and then on the first pitch to Doumit, he took off to second on what appeared to be a straight steal called from the bench and was thrown out by a country mile. Doumit then hit a little tapper to the pitcher which, all things being equal, would have moved Milledge to second, and then Cedeno lined a single into left center that would have easily scored Milledge. So the Bucs lost one run early.
Funny thing about all that.. if Milledge had scored, that would have gotten Aki up to the plate in the 7th and we probably wouldn’t have scored the run we did score in the 8th. So damn if you do, damn if you don’t. But I think it’s important to try to score each and every run possible. We simply can’t afford to run ourselves into outs.
Behind evey shutout there are typically good defensive plays and this game was no different. Iwamura made a couple of very nice picks in the game, as did Neil Walker. The goat of the game was Milledge - he misread a line drive at him that dropped in for a hit in the 3rd, he was thrown out at second on the attempted steal, and he threw to the wrong base on one relay. Neil Walker was also picked off second taking too large of a secondary lead by Hernandez.
But the game belonged to Maholm.. he was dealing.
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Donnie Veal to the DL with elbow and forearm tightness. I think we can look back to the May 29th game last year when Veal threw an alarming 50 pitches over two innings. In the fourth batter Veal faced, he slipped on the mound and hurt his groin but remained in the game and pitched to six more batters. He immediately went on the DL with a groin problem but I had heard some rumblings his arm was hurting but could never confirm it. The Pirates used him gingerly the rest of the year.
Let’s hope it’s nothing but I’m betting he’s headed for TJ surgery as suspected last year. I’m guessing they told him let’s see how you are after resting your arm over the winter and he came to camp this year and felt ok for a while.
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Now who would have ever thought this possible? Trust me, all you Doumit lovers need to read this and then come back and tell me how his bat makes up for his defensive lapses. Sorry – not even close. Well, maybe I better qualify that.. he’s not even close right now. If he starts to find that grooved power swing again instead of getting by as a singles hitter, then I’ll eat part of my words. What Doumit needs (protection all around him) we can’t provide him.
Hilarious – Ronny Paulino in the top ten. Imagine that.. and everybody hated the guy behind the plate except me.
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Lots of mock drafts coming out with all kinds of predictions. Machado here, Pomeranz there, and so on. Even some ridiculous selections. Perhaps Neal Huntington has made his choice for the first round pick, but I don’t think so. Not yet anyway.
One of those at the top of Huntington’s board with Machado has to be Chris Sale (named A-Sun pitcher of the year) and he’s throwing Wednesday against Stetson. I was derailed on Sale a couple of weeks ago by scouting reports from two different people who both seem to have ulterior motives in telling me what they did. It’s not that they told me bad information, it’s that they didn’t tell me everything. It’s a hard lesson I learned when dealing within someone else’s network.
Bucs Prospects will have a full scouting report on Sale’s performance Wednesday night for you. It’s one you won’t want to miss as you head down the stretch making your final decision who we should take in the first round.
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It’s time to start a push to get McCutchen to the All-Star game. Take the time to use every e-mail account you can get your hands on and give Cutch 25 votes on each one. Click the image below to get started. If you need a throw away e-mail account, just let me know.. I can make hundreds of thousands of them if needed.
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 9, 2010, at 10:47 pm |
Big picture?
With 19% of the season completed, the Bucs have gone 7-5 last 12 and are currently in 4th place in the NLCD. Our starting pitching appears to be getting on track, our pen has been very good, our bats stale but somewhat clutchy, and our defense suspect. Over the next 13 games, the Bucs play 8 at home which should also help a little.
I don’t think anyone will deny Lady Luck has carried us on fumes to the 14-17 record we enjoy, but there’s also been some very solid play along the way.
Take sophomore Andrew McCutchen for instance. If I took a poll at the start of their season asking you who would be leading the club in home runs by May 10th, would you have picked Jones or McCutchen? Jones, I’d bet. Yet Cutch is hitting the equivalent of 1.2 home runs per nine innings pitched against him. Jones and McCutchen are tied for the number hit but I would have never guessed that possible.
And check this out – the opposing pitcher’s ERA against McCutchen is 5.81. That’s not only the highest on the club, but more than .60 points higher than the next player in Jones, .80 points higher than third highest players in Jaramillo and Doumit, 1.20 higher than Church and LaRoche, and more than 2.00 points higher than Young and the rest of the team.
Let me put his run production into context for you — at his current pace, Andrew McCutchen will surpass Roberto Clemente’s fabulous 1971 season. Think about that a second. No, we don’t have a Willie Stargell in the lineup right now and that’s hurting us. Unquestionably. But what’s hurting us more is our pitching.
Our entire starting pitching expected ERA’s (XERA) are so poor — outside of Jeff Karstens and his couple of starts, they would all qualify well below the worst of the worst (Veale at 4.83) on the ’71 Pirates. Not only at the bottom, but some .30 points higher than Veale’s!
Sure, the season is young and these guys are sinkerball pitchers and have to toast their arms before they get a bit better. Ok.. I’ll hand you that. But they aren’t going to get too much better and that begs the next question –
Should we be the first team to unload starting pitching?
There’s usually quite an advantage for any team willing to give up premium pitching early in the year, and that advantage is paid in impact talent. Zach Duke won’t exactly bring us a Pedro Alvarez, but he will fetch us some exciting young talent and Maholm should fetch us some exciting impact talent.
Two months from now we’ll be lucky to get cans of corn for these guys. Maybe less over the winter.
This is where the Pirates front office is probably in a quandary.. should they keep Maholm and Duke and build around them over the next few years hoping the little impact depth they have in Tabata and Alvarez will make the difference in a run? Or, do they keep on the rebuilding track even though the fan base will go off?
In my opinion, the Pirates have done everything they can possibly do since mid-2009 to devalue Zach Duke as much as possible probably hoping they can sign him to a longer deal at reasonable money. You know how it works – numbers talk and if you don’t have the numbers, you can’t plead for the money. Duke doesn’t have the numbers but some of that is because he’s been handed an empty platter along the way. He’s pitched significantly better than his numbers show. And the Pirates know that.. but when you talk contract extensions, you talk numbers.
So if the Pirates FO is doing everything it can to try to get Duke to sign a long-term extension, that tells me they are sitting on the side of the coin that says they believe they have enough talent to make a run with the pitching they have. If, instead, I’m reading the FO’s motives wrong and they aren’t interested in resigning Duke, or if they know Duke won’t have any part of an extension (unlikely but possible), then trying to sell high on a guy the FO beat down to try to resign on the cheap is going to hurt us in the return column.
Duke isn’t the only one – look at Maholm out there Sunday with Clement and Iwamura back in the lineup, Milledge dropping fly balls at his feet, and Doumit for the first time this year waving his glove behind the dish like it was the American flag. In Maholm’s six starts so far he’s watched so many errors on the field behind him with very few of them recorded as errors, it isn’t funny. Yet he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs despite the run of bad luck. I’ll be the first one to tell you he hasn’t pitched good, but neither had he pitched bad.
It would seem Hart going down would throw a wrench into whatever plans the Pirates might have had to sell early, but I suggest that Hart being down shouldn’t matter. Burres and Karstens have shown the ability to get ML batters out, Ohlendorf - if his arm and body hold up – has also done the same, and we’ve got Veal in the hole pitching well in Indy. Lincoln has a 5.24 XERA right now which isn’t very good, but he’s been hurt by the long ball which isn’t going to be as easy at PNC.
Throw in other potential variables like a possible healthy Iwamura signing an extension, or the refusal of Duke and/or Maholm to sign one, Doumit’s contract coming to an end with his replacement still a long way off in A-ball, Clement never being able to put his bat on an offspeed pitch, Bryan Morris surprising everyone and showing the world he should be in Pittsburgh in 2011, and so on, and it becomes pretty cloudy. Cloudy because there just isn’t enough depth yet and so that answers the question..
I suggest we continue our rebuilding plan by making Maholm and Duke available right now. The reason I say now are outlined above but even more important is that the club picking these guys up will be thinking that the best these two pitchers have to offer is during the rest of the season and what’s happened to this point really doesn’t matter. In other words, we still have full value (from winter) in these two guys right now.
Last I heard the Pirates wouldn’t even listen to offers on these two players but I think that needs to change.. we need to open our minds and at least listen for a can’t refuse deal that probably will come our way this early.
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Anup Sinha’s latest article at Bucs Prospects explores what we should expect from the 52cd draft pick, which is the Pirates second pick in this year’s draft. And speaking of XERA, Dwight Gill has posted his weekly update to his XERA database which includes XERA scouting grades for the Pirates and Indy teams over at Bucs Prospects. Here’s a sneak preview showing the Indy team (if you aren’t familiar with XERA, think of it as expected ERA):
Looks like we need to give Kratz more innings on the mound!
It’s still early for any grading system to be locked-in yet, but it is nice to see how the players are doing as a whole. I was a little surprised to see how little Alvarez is actually producing so far. Walker is on a mission but he’s probably living off a feast of fastballs like Pearce was doing.
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I’m hesitant to throw this next part up because part of the problem with social networks is that there is no possible way to understand context within the 100 word messages put online. However since it happened, let’s talk about it.
First, click on the image below and read the series of Tweets Perrotto left on his page:
 Perrotto claims that the Nuttings have become paranoid and have placed “spies” in the press box at PNC, that the spies are talking “smack” in front of the other beat reporters, that these “spies” are going to management as tattle tales when they hear negative comments in the press box, and that conditions are “ripe” for a “throwdown” in the box.
I e-mailed Perrotto to allow him to respond since so many of you seem to be concerned with the quality of reporting around the Pirates, and he hasn’t replied.
First of all, I’m stunned by how many of you attacked Perrotto’s credibility in your e-mails to me just because he worked for the Nuttings and was fired. I mean, I agree he’s been vocal about his termination much like he has an ax to grind, but that doesn’t mean he’s automatically lying. I just don’t believe he’s going to throw his entire life work down the toilet over a few Twitter remarks unless they had some merit.
As I said, context in instant messaging is about useless so we are left to assume that Perrotto believes ‘the Nutting’s’ (I assume he means Ogden and Robert Nutting) have created a hostile work environment for the beat reporters covering Major League Baseball games at PNC. There’s no question – at least in my mind - Perrotto is crying out for some help.
I don’t know what to make of it, to be quite honest. On the surface it looks like a pissing contest between Perrotto and — I assume — Paul Ladewski who replaced Perrotto at the Nutting’s Pirate Report. I’ve already told you that I heard Ladewski wasn’t very well liked by the fans in Chicago circles so this doesn’t surprise me one bit.
But maybe it’s deeper than that?
As a fan when I hear things like this, the hair on the back of my neck stands up because it smacks of a form of censorship and control. But I can’t figure out why anyone in the press box would give a dang about some nitwit telling others what was said publicly. That is hard to understand. If I were up there, I’d feed the snitch so much BS he would piss in his pants while running to ownership and, when later questioned about the comments – if I ever was, have all my buddies up there say we were simply playing rookie jokes on the guy since Ladewski is in his first year up there.
If I were to guess, I’d guess this isn’t Perrotto’s problem – that he is only the messenger. I’d venture to guess it is Dejan who is being hammered by this guy and Perrotto is being his daddy standing up for him. Don’t forget I told you last year that I’m well aware Dejan isn’t exactly loved by some in the Bucs FO and I started wondering if his ability to cover the team would be hampered by it. I’d say this is probably an extension of that, but that’s just my guess.
Kudos to Perrotto for standing up and shouting. Again.
I personally think he needs to let Dejan (or whoever it is being hammered by the problem child) fight his own battles because a battle like this he can only lose. Why should both of them go down the drain?
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Reds in for three. They are playing very good baseball lately having won 9 of their last 13. Since it’s going to be a cold weather series, we’ll probably not see the amount of runs on the board we could see with these two teams later in the year. Ohlendorf against Arroyo Monday figures to sway the Reds way since Ohlendorf will be trying to put things together more than trying to mow anyone down. Tuesday it’s Cueto against Morton and you have to like the Bucs chances in this game if Morton keeps the ball out of the middle of the plate. Wednesday features Duke vs unknown so we’ll have to wait on that game but I expect to see another very fine performance by Duke.
Think sweep baby. Expect two of three.
If we show up.
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Neal Huntington finally admitted Iwamura’s knee might be limiting his defensive ability. Thanks for updating him, Mr. Fox! Hey, BTW, I wonder if we’ll see a three-man right-side infield shift against the Reds with Duke???
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What a week in fanstasy baseball! Whoa .. all three of my teams won. Not just won but smoked my opponents. Feels good to be able to talk smack knowing dang well I’m about to get hammered this week across the board!
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.
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