By Jake, on July 8, 2010, at 11:18 pm |
The Pirates have refused to pack it in won just 8 of 47 games (.170) when their opponent scored first this year and that trend continued Thursday after Berkman hit a solo shot in the first inning and Oswalt went on to pitch a one-hit shutout.
The Pirates error-filled ways continued behind Ohlendorf who pitched fairly well considering he needed a little encouragement in the 4th. Berkman opened the inning hitting his second home run of the game, Lee crushed a line drive single into left, and Ohlendorf then walked Pence on four pitches. You could just feel the emotion kick up in Ohlendorf as if he was saying to himself – oh my gosh, here we go again as he was getting hammered facing the lineup the second time through. But Joe Kerrigan made a timely visit to settle him in and Ohlendorf never looked back from that point forward even when he got into jams.
So the trend continues with Ohlendorf.. as a starter, he can handle weaker lineups for the most part as long as he has a little support at the right times, but against average hitting or better MLB clubs he gets mauled for the most part from the second time on he’s seen. And even Thursday against the weaker Astros lineup, his outs from the fourth on were well-struck for the most part.
With that in mind, it seems apparent that the Pirates have a product whose value will never be higher with Ohlendorf than it is right now. Huntington and Kerrigan succeeded in transforming a 7th inning guy into a back of the order starter in a weaker division — but nobody can dispute his ability to get outs the first time through (career .670 OPS allowed and a scant .512 in 2010). More telling is that he has done exceedingly well in high leverage situations which shows he has learned to pitch within his abilities, instead of just throwing.
The Pirates should make Ohlendorf available right now and, if they are able to package him with someone like Doumit, Jones, or Milledge, they might be able to walk away with a younger power bat in a package.
Along those same lines, I would also make Evan Meek available. There’s no possible way this young man will ever bring more than he can bring right now and quite a few teams could use his services. We have Hanrahan and Dotel for 2011, and we have Moskos (and a slew of arms who may never be starters again) developing.
The short-term plan Huntington has in motion, absent obscene free-agent spending by the Nutting clan, doesn’t require us to have three potential closers, doesn’t require us to have 10+ starters around for 2011, yet has gaping holes in power and at short, to name a couple.
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Why is Bryan Morris still pitching every five days? I thought I heard the org was going to put him on slow mo the rest of the year. He’s already +17 innings over 2009 and heading to the Futures Game which will be extremely stressful for him.
While I understand the need to continue stretching him out, there also has to be a balance which recognizes his injury history and accounts for the possibility of future problems. If he was taken to 140 innings this year (say 8 more starts), he needs to then be shut down. We can’t have him racking up 175+ innings this year and then expect him to be healthy in Pittsburgh in 2012. That’s nuts.
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On to Milwaukee where we owe the Brewers some major payback. That’s the goal, anyway. The Brewers have been ice-cold lately managing something like 2-45 with runners in scoring position over their last four games — all of them at home. Word in the circuit is that all the talk about possibly blowing up that team has them disjointed.
But don’t let that fool you.
They have been winning at home at least until the Giants – who are on a mission right now – showed up. Now they see themselves 1.5 games behind the Cubs in 4th place in the division and I think they are about to come out of their funk on us this series.
When we play at Miller we have a poor habit of swinging long (for home runs) and that results in a lot of poor AB’s and a lot of losses. If we stay within ourself, I think Maholm has a good shot of turning the Bucs into winners Friday night as long as John Russell continues to feature McCutchen at the top of the order. I think Karstens is going to open the flood gates to the Brewers bats and then Lincoln will probably get mauled and exit early, the result of two pitchers with similar stuff throwing back-to-back.
Look for a lot of home runs allowed other than, hopefully, Friday night. And look for the Brewers to make a statement to ownership in this series. If, however, their ownership has already decided to be sellers and the players have witnessed game after game of scouts in the stands, then we might actually be able to walk in and snatch three away from them. Ok, maybe two and then Lincoln’s start.
This series has the potential to be a very ugly series with both clubs showing their heads in the clouds.
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All I can say is all the print and talk shows want is stuper MARIO and do not let the facts get in the way of getting stuper MARIO the team! — New Bucs reader Ron J in yesterday’s comments
I get a lot of e-mail and one thing I’ve noticed lately is that quite a few people seem to misunderstand my agenda here. I’m not anti-Nutting because they remind me of the Beverly Hillbillies.. I’m not anti-Nutting because they are penny-pinchers by nature.. I’m anti-Nutting because they have failed to step to the plate every chance they have had to improve the product on the field.
Everyone needs to understand my stance on this one subject — it wouldn’t matter if Mark Cuban or Mario owned this franchise.. they would also fail if they acted like the Nuttings have since 2002. And there is one very simple reason why –
You don’t rebuild a multi-million dollar corporation from the cellar up using management trainees. Instead, you hire seasoned professionals.
I’m anti-Nutting because of all the Duquette’ish type moves they have made.. they put together a baseball operations department which is significantly short on seasoned pros at the upper levels, allowed them to work understaffed, then allowed those understaffed upper management to hire more trainees in the core of its operation – including one who was assigned the role of overseeing all their asset development.
That’s not smart rebuilding, that’s utter stupidity.
But that didn’t bother the Nuttings because they knew no matter how mismanaged their product might become, their investment would continue to increase in value because that’s the way Major League Baseball’s rules insulated them. They knew from the poor seasons over the years they would still draw 1.2M through the gates no matter what, they knew they would continue to receive welfare checks that could help them to reduce their internal debt load, and they knew the franchise value would continue to climb little by little regardless.
And that’s why I am anti-Nutting.. and why I would be anti-Cuban or anti-Mario if they did the same things.
This franchise owes the City of Pittsburgh, it’s business district, and the taxpayers of the region – on top of the fans who pay their bills – a competitive product on the field. Not eight years from now when all these high school kids in the system finally get seasoned, but now.
As far as my agenda goes, I want to see a competitive product fielded.. simple as that. It’s time the Nuttings stepped to the plate and started allocating an additional $40MM per year on top of the current player salary budget and the higher draft budget they should be spending every year anyway. If the Nuttings honestly believe they have the best management team in baseball, then walk-the-walk.. let’s see what $65MM/per will do for three years along with $10MM in the draft.
But before I’d ever spend, I’d get rid of the trainees.. but what do I know?
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This could only happen in Pittsburgh.
Quoted from a press release at NBC Sports: “Baseballing legends Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, who became world famous after beating out thousands of other Indian cricket players in the ‘Million Dollar Arm’ competition to land contracts with the Pittsburgh Pirates, are going to have their miraculous tale transformed into a Bollywood Hollywood production. All thanks to Sony Pictures executives.
Singh, 20, and Patel, 21, entering their second season with the Class A Pirates of the Gulf Coast League, are making slow and methodical progress on the field and having All-Star seasons off of it. They were invited to the White House in May as personal guests of President Obama as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. They had their pictures taken with the president, met the D.C. United and AC Milan soccer teams and had breakfast with Indian-American actor Kal Penn. In the meantime, Sony Pictures signed a deal to make a movie based on the pitchers’ lives. Their assimilation into America culture has captured Hollywood’s imagination, with a movie scheduled to be released next summer.”
How much do you want to bet the Nutting family gets royalties in this deal? LOL
At least our players are succeeding at something.
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Some outstanding research on some of the Huntington ‘poor evaluation’ garbage that has been hauled into this organization: “What has become of all those pickups“
Then the same MLB beat writer comes back and wonders where Ryan Doumit’s power has gone.
True to the beat writers in Pittsburgh, one article hammers management, one article devalues another asset.
What a mess.
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Here’s a piece at Bradenton.com on all the injuries for the Marauders this year. I will say that one pro scout told me earlier this year he was surprised Sanchez wasn’t on the DL immediately out of spring training because when the team held infield practices, bats would be laying all around where Sanchez was trying to field. He’s lucky he survived that mess.
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The New York Times managed to get the Pirates in an article about the Tampa Bay Bucs. Don’t look – it will just upset your culture.
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Ubaldo Jimenez.. 15 wins already. Wow.
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The ( ** YAWN ** ) all-star game is coming up.
By Jake, on July 8, 2010, at 12:40 am |
6-3 Astros, top of the ninth, two outs, Walker at third, Jones at first, and up comes the Pirates hope of the future – Pedro Alvarez. He looks at a hanging slider for strike one, swings through a slider away for strike two, and then embarrassed himself with an off-balanced, open-shoulder swing at a slider well off the plate for strike three and the Pirates lost yet another game.
The Pirates media department quickly fired up the spin machine and spit out a press release indicating the Bucs middle of the order went a robust 6 for 11 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored, Daniel McCutchen pitched a four-hitter over 5 innings, and gonna’ be All-Star Evan Meek was hitting 98 on the stadium gun. In the morning the casual fans will read that crap and start thinking – hey, maybe we are getting better while completely ignorant to the facts that over the last 28 games the Bucs:
– have averaged just 3.07 runs per game – by far the fewest of any club;
– offense has the fewest total bases and second fewest hits in the game;
– defense has committed the most errors during that period (24 in 28 games but in reality is probably more like 54 in 28);
– pitching staff have the fewest strikeouts in the game and batters have the third highest.
Now you can argue that events like Alvarez whiffing with two on and two outs in the 9th is related to his youth and that down the road that may not happen so much.. ok, fair enough. But tell me why we are getting completely dominated from one end of the spectrum to the other. I hear you – you are saying it’s because we are so young and we’re developing at the major league level. I see.. so then, answer this question..
Then why is our total 2010 production just 25% better than what we expect from a 25-man roster made up of replacement level players? And to be more blunt, how is it that, in the last 30 days, the team’s production is barely sniffing that 25-man replacement level status?
If you thought we had problems after the trades last year while scoring just 3.6 runs per game over our last 73, well, you are now witnessing a 15% decrease in run production since that time and each thirty days that ticks off the clock we’re losing more and more production. Over the last 156 games we’ve scored just 531 runs for a 3.40 per game average, over the last 61 games 3.11 runs, and over the last 28 games 3.07.
If we assume the league average is 4.32 runs per game (700 runs scored per year), and we’re at 3.07, how much better can each of these player produce over the next three years as they develop? 2% per year? 4%? 6%?? And while these players continue to get better, should we also assume the league pitching will remain neutral during that period? By that I mean, should we assume none of the clubs will be improving their pitching over the next three years? If they will be, how much will that potentially retard our youth’s growth?
All things being even, the probability the current Pittsburgh Pirates general 13-man position player roster improves their yearly run production 20% over the next three years is probably close to one-billion to one. That’s especially true the way the roster, and short-term replacements, are constructed – we’re a doubles oriented system from Pittsburgh to the GCL. Everywhere you look we have speed and below average power, to save a few. In fact, we’re a doubles oriented system with mostly poor defensive skill sets and no impact pitching anywhere in the system to speak of. Morris might be an exception but he’ll have to prove to me he can pitch at this level before I believe it. Maybe one day Taillon will too, if he’s ever signed. And perhaps one or two come forward to meet expectations as middle of the order guys one day. Perhaps.
But there is no way Bob Nutting will ever go out on the free agent market and buy top shelf pitching. Forget it. Nor is he ever likely to spend for the big bop free agent bats. So the Pirates are taking as many pitchers as they can grab hoping to one day be able to trade arms for bats (think Rays plan that never worked). Problem is, they passed up a lot of impact pitching to this point. And impact bats. And impact development staff. And impact scouts. And, and, and…
I don’t care how much of an optimist you might be, you still have to look at reality. Reality says our run production is falling off the shelf, our error rate in the system is increasing at an alarming rate, our system wide injury rate is skyrocketing, and we don’t have any impact players left in our system save, perhaps, Morris.
And here’s another simple point to ponder outside of the poor evaluations and assignments (like Walker) this front office has made in the last 18 months. Let’s talk about basic organizational philosophy a second. John Russell recently said:
“I know a lot of fans criticize me for not yelling and screaming, but I can’t do that,” Russell said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids who are just getting their feet wet in the major leagues. The last thing they need is me yelling and screaming at them.” — my emphasis
WTF?
The entire minor league system is run like a Marine basic training camp preparing boys to go to war. They are yelled at, screamed at, every second they are under intense supervision, they have to put t-shirts in certain places in their locker, they have bulletin boards humiliating players who don’t meet standards, and they are forced to hear and do things they never thought possible. Then there is Russell’s philosophy in Pittsburgh where he babies his troops and look what happens – they do what they want to do. It’s gotten so bad in Pittsburgh that Varsho has become so frustrated he’s gone out of his way to let it be known he won’t tolerate the fluff any more.
Yet it continues on a nightly basis.
There is so much wrong with this organization right now it makes Dave Littlefield days look like Jimmy Leyland world series days. I agree we’re in a rebuilding stage, but not the kind you thing we’re in. No, the only thing we’re rebuilding is the Nutting’s bank account after they bought out partners.
Who. Is. Kidding. Who?
How the Player’s Association could ever give their stamp of approval to this rebuild is a disturbing revelation and bad for the game. Perhaps they did it knowing Nutting was finally spending every penny he could get a hold of to buy out all the partners leaving him in total control and debt free and ready to take on the world? Fat chance he ever spends it on this organization outside of Dana Eveland and Sean Gallagher types (Billy Beane rejects). And there is even a fatter chance guys like Alvarez and McCutchen will ever allow them to spend it on any more than one free agent year, if they get lucky enough to get even one.
Ok.. enough of the rant. The big picture? Our stats are tanking like a lead ball in water and even if everyone picks it up some, we’re only likely to just get back to July 2009 levels. We need talent, we don’t need any more talk out of the side of front office mouths. The only way to get talent it to go pay for it.. take a chance, go spend $20MM to a club needing cash and wrestle one of their big corner OF contracts away. There are opportunities.
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On the Sean Gallagher acquisition, it’s just another move by the Pirates who are desperately trying to find back of the order starters to fill in so they can deal the few chips they have left. It’s not a deal that will make any difference at all and you can expect to be just as frustrated when he pitches as with Ohlendorf, Morton, McCutchen, etc, etc, etc, etc,..
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We’ve now allowed 10 home runs in the last 6 games. Ouch.
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What’s wrong with this picture?
What you don’t see is Ronny Cedeno who just flew out of the picture to the right trying to grab an errand Doumit throw while Bourn was stealing second. What you do see is that Doumit threw the ball to the wrong player who shouldn’t even be anywhere around the bag.
That’s about as confusing as this play:
What the…
That’s Doumit trying to save his life on a Meek slider that he expected to be a fastball. These two were so out of whack during the entire time Meek was on the mound, Meek stepped off like three or four times and Doumit make at least one trip out to talk to him — right before Meek threw this pitch with the bases loaded.
We just rock on defense baby.
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So what’s up with Moskos getting stretched out again? I assume this means the Pirates front office feels he can be the next Lopez for us? What a disaster. Why remove him from closing out games if he was excelling at it? I’m not sure I see Moskos having value as a 7th inning pitcher, and I’m not a big believer in having a left specialist on an NL staff. Hanrahan has been filthy lately but he’s injury prone and I still say Meek looks rough around the edges.
But what do I know?
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Here’s yet another national media publication telling their readership the Pirates are a joke. What’s funny about this one is that it is written by a guy who covers tennis, so even national publications seem to be assigning the “PIrates suck’ stories to lower level reporters now.
And how about this FanGraphs post on the Gorzelanny giveaway? Ok, it’s written by a kid who doesn’t really seemed very dialed-in to everything Pittsburgh, but still he made a couple of good points.. Huntington did give up on him.
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Maybe Oswalt will blow a gasket and we’ll find a win behind Ohlendorf?
Had to make you laugh somewhere in this post.
By Jake, on July 2, 2010, at 11:04 pm |
When your team ERA is under 1 over a four game stretch, you are going to win some games and that’s what the Pirates have done – win games.
Despite poor fielding and ridiculous risky chances taken, many of which happened to have worked the last few days.
Despite poor fundamentals on the base paths.
Despite hitting 0.018 points above the Mendoza line during the run.
Despite averaging 2.05 runs per game.
And most importantly, despite the pitching staff throwing cases of watermelons over the plate during the period.
Thank the statistical mean for our last few wins. As they say, everything cycles.
Oh, I suppose you can also throw in some cold batters in Chicago, a stiff wind blowing in at Wrigley, a Phillies team that seems jinxed at PNC, and two days of Phillies batters chasing an obscene number of offspeed pitches out of the zone they have rarely done this year.
Honestly, we are a pathetic looking group of baseball players on the diamond. Our third baseman has very little lateral range and now can’t even throw the ball consistently, our shortstops have a bit more range and have a bit more glove, but aren’t even league average defenders over the last month of play, our second basemen are targets on pivot plays waiting to be punched out cold and their footwork reminds me of Craig Wilson’s two left-feet approach, and who knows what has happened to Jones lately.. can’t keep his eye on the ball, he refuses to extend to grab poor throws, and he hasn’t picked many out of the dirt in quite a while. Throw in Milledge leaving his feet every other play while throwing every ball over relay men, McCutchen flat-out dropping balls, and throwing to wrong bases, Doumit with pop times exceeding 2.2…
Even if all these problems get 50% better, over a 162 game schedule we’re going to lose 10 – 20 games just from poor defense.
We can’t afford that margin of error with the roster we have. And least us not forget that we had one of the league’s top defenses behind average to better than league average pitching while also cranking out 725 runs scored before we starting blowing up the roster, and we still lost 90+ games.
So why does our short-term plan include fringe to average defenders, a doubles oriented offense, and below average starting pitching? And, how many people out there believe that is the combination that will eventually lead to more wins than losses down the road?
I certainly don’t.
Even if we assume we regain some of the arms that are being surgically repaired, or guys like Morris perform as advertised, and the entire group performs at least at league average rates, they are still all pitch-to-contact guys who will rely on their defense to make plays behind them. I hope you aren’t in the camp that believes Andy LaRoche can be turning 125 double plays per year in 2012. Are you?
Houston, we have a significantly larger problem than anybody is even considering. And don’t look to the minor leagues for any short-term help because there isn’t any there worth talking about.
What we truly have is a mixed bag of nuts and some of those are already cracked and exposed. Without adding some professionals to this roster who can hit, catch, and throw the ball, this rebuild will end up just like all the others – one big screwed up mess.
Now, who out there believes Bob Nutting will cough up $30MM in additional player salary in an attempt to at least field a somewhat more competitive team? Hmm.. I don’t see one single hand — and I shouldn’t because not one fan believes in the man. Yet some of you believe in his management team as if they are separate from Nutting.
I don’t get it.
Our short-term plan is totally screwed up and has been ever since we started dealing. Neal Huntington took his office and clearly stated his intention – his risk taking would come in the accumulation of lower level talent he amassed during his rebuilding trades. That is exactly what he should have done..
But he didn’t.
Instead, he brought in major league ready talent to fill a roster so Bob Nutting didn’t have to spend money on the free agent market during the rebuild. Instead of taking back a Lastings Milledge, we should have taken back two or three “A” prospects in A-ball.. instead of Andy LaRoche we should have demanded two more “A” prospects in the lower levels, instead of taking on Ohlendorf et al from the Yankees, we should have demanded Grade A lower level talent.
And taken our risks in developing that talent.. not LaRoche, not Ohlendorf, not Milledge, and not Tabata.. no matter what their contributions are or ever will be. Simply put, the sum of the performance the 0-3 MLB talent we received back can never exceed the sum of the equivalent lower level youth we should have received because, all things being equal in scouting and development, our haul would have been significantly more talented.
At least it should have been given the nature of value.
This is where Neal Huntington and the new regime failed in this rebuild. It can’t possibly succeed because they turned over the talent they had for the wrong return. I don’t care how much any of you like or dislike the trades because that’s not the point.. the point is, if Nutting had spent free agent money to fill his roster during the rebuild, and had Huntington proceeded with his long-term plan as he initially stated of seeking higher quality lower level talent instead of the 0-3′s he took back, our system should be stocked with impact talent right now instead of a lot of average guys who may or may not make it (Morris being the exception to the rule). Throw in the last three drafts on top of that talent and our system would be one of the most stocked in the game.
But it’s not.
If you can’t rebuild with additional compensatory draft picks, you have to rebuild risking with lower level impact probable prospects. By taking back as many 0-3′s as we did, we saved Nutting a crap load of cash in the short-term but also dramatically lowered our chances of a successful rebuild. Sure, Nutting has spent $8MM per year in his draft allocation budget to help the rebuild, but that’s peanuts compared to the $30MM+ he should have been spending on player salaries to field a roster after dealing all his veterans for youth. Had he spent both the $30MM plus the $8MM, we would be well into a decent rebuild. On top of that, Alvarez and Lincoln wouldn’t have had to be rushed up and we could have saved at least one year of McCutchen’s clock.
Instead, we have no impact talent in our minor league system now that Alvarez is in Pittsburgh, albeit Morris is the next best thing.
Now here’s the thing – any owner in their right mind would probably have fired Frank Coonelly, John Russell and Neal Huntington by now. By all accounts they have failed significantly worse than many of those losing their jobs around the game have. But it’s more than that – the fans lost their faith in them too. Instead of saying ‘I believe in this group’ as they did in the beginning, the fans now say ‘I’m willing to give them more time’ but many of those fans are now even abandoning that position.
But the owner hasn’t pulled the plug because he has a stable of ‘yes men’ willing to work paycheck-to-paycheck to save Nutting every dollar they can. Nutting doesn’t want to let these guys go – my gosh, that would require him having to hire new people who will want Nutting to spend money because that is what it will take to turn this whole thing around.
And Nutting has NEVER shown a propensity to spend any money outside of major league acquisitions where he was taken to the cleaners, like with Matt Morris or Iwamura.
Nothing has changed folks – we need ownership who will spend to field a competitive product. All this rebuilding crap over the last three years has gotten us nowhere because it should have been going on year-after-year anyway since we are a smaller market club.
We’re going nowhere.. spinning our wheels.. all for the sake of Nutting’s bank account. It’s 2003/2006 all over again folks. Get back out your yellow t-shirts.
After you finally wake up, that is.
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 May 7, 2010, at 11:02 pm |
What one act ultimately cost this ball game for the Pirates? Despite more than 10 miscues, errors, blunders, and weird events, the ultimate failure belongs to the Pirates game plan who – for some bizarre off the wall reason – decided to deploy an obscene infield shift against one-half the Cardinals batters leaving one – quarter to one-third of the infield unprotected. Take a look:
First inning.. Schumaker struck out, Ludwick singled through the shift, Pujols lined out sharply into the shift to Cedeno, Holliday then ground a soft one to Cedeno and he wasn’t able to come up with it. Freese then walked and Molina came up with the bases loaded and ground one thru second with the shift on scoring two. After Rasmus ground out to Aki without the shift to end the inning, Duke had watched 7 batters come to the plate producing four ground ball outs hit right at ordinary positions, one line drive which would have been a single if hit, a walk, and one strike out. If you’re keeping track, that’s six outs in the inning.
Second inning went 1-2-3.
Third inning.. Duke allowed a well-hit double to Holliday into the right center field gap and shut down everyone else.
Fourth inning.. Molina opened with a sharp grounder near the line LaRoche was able to dive and knock down but then he threw wildly from the ground pulling Jones off the bag and the very slow running Molina was safe. Rasmus then singled thru the right side without the shift, Carpenter then struckout trying to sacrifice, Ryan popped up to short, and Schumaker struckout to strand two.
Fifth inning.. 1-2-3-4 inning with Holliday the lone hit from a flair into shallow center.
Sixth.. Molina ground a soft one to LaRoche who started to charge it hard then backed off a bit and then he threw wildly to first yet again. Rasmus then flied out, Carpenter laid down a sac bunt moving Molina to second, and Schumaker — with no shift on — ground one up the middle scoring Molina.
Seventh.. Pujols popped up to short, Holliday lined one into right for a single, and Freese crushed a rocket down the third base line that LaRoche somehow managed to stop taking away extra bases. So with men at first and second and one out, John Russell went to his bullpen and grabbed Carrasco. Up to the plate steps Molina and what do you think he did? That’s right, ground one to ordinary second with Aki shifted so the ball went into right, Church came up with it and fired a bullet to Doumit, the throw came in high so Doumit was in the air as Holliday started his slide, Doumit came down and tagged Holliday out as he never touched home despite being there well before the ball was. In essence, Holliday’s decision to not take Doumit out cost the Cards a run — not the Pirates shift which had allowed the opportunity.
Eighth with Meek in.. 1-2-3-4 inning with Jay lining a single to right as the only damage.
Ninth with Meek.. Pujols flied out to right, Holliday lined a single into right, Freese struck out, and Molina came to the plate with Mather running at first for Holliday. With Molina up, the bench called for a pitch out and Mather was running on the play, Doumit got the ball and threw a rather slow shot to Aki who was waiting, and Aki laid the mitt down to the dirt and that was that. Unfortunately, Aki — who had the ball well before Mather slid — didn’t bother to tag the runner and he was safe. I’m sure you’re guessing what happened in Molina’s at bat.. yep, he lined one into right scoring Mather and that would end up being the winning run.
So since the shift was directly responsible for two hits which became runs, that’s why I’m calling out the Pirates front office for blowing this game. They need to take the responsibility for the bonehead shift. There were a lot of other problems too, but everything else was handled. Plus, it just doesn’t make sense to overshift the second baseman to about the bag against veteran bat handlers with a guy on the mound who can only touch 88 and needs to pitch away to survive. That’s beyond stupidity to me.
Without the shift, the Bucs win this game all things being equal. I assume here that Huntington had to approve the shift so that’s why I’m calling him out. If he didn’t and Garcia and Russell did it on their own, I’d be shocked.
On offense we were a mess against a very hittable version of Chris Carpenter. In the fourth Jones opened with a double and later in the inning Milledge picked him up with a solid knock to center cutting the Cards lead to one. But then it seemed like the bottom fell out.
In the fifth, Duke ground out leading off, Aki struck out on a dropped third and didn’t even bother to run it out, LaRoche singled deep in the hole at short, and with Cutch up at the plate on a 1-2 count, LaRoche took off for second like he was going to steal the bag on Carpenter and Molina. He was obviously out by a country mile and all I could think of was that he and Garcia must have thought there was a hit and run on. Cutch didn’t offer at all.
In the sixth with the Cards up 3-1 now, Cutch opened with a single, Jones struck out, and then Doumit muscled a line drive over Rasmus’ head in center for a double easily scoring McCutchen and, once again, cutting the lead to one. I have to hand it to Doumit there – that was a pretty swing and it’s starting to look like he’s coming back around. Unfortunately, both Church and Milledge struck out so the threat was ended.
In the seventh we went down 1-2-3 and that lead to the unbelievable eighth inning from hell.
Motte was in and LaRoche singled on a soft flair to left, Cutch lined a single into right and LaRoche anticipated the ball well and went first to third (great hustle there by the slower LaRoche, btw). LaRussa went and got Motte and brought in Trever Miller. Jones came to the plate and hit a swinging bunt back to Miller who faked a throw to second as LaRoche then broke for home, and then Miller threw to Freese to get LaRoche in a run down. Freeze threw to Molina and LaRoche headed back to third only to meet McCutchen who is also standing on the bag.
So Molina tagged out McCutchen, the umpire yelled “out” pointing at Cutch, but he never left the bag which seemed to confuse LaRoche who stepped off thinking he was the one out (it was his bag as the runner) and Molina tagged him out for the double play. Had LaRoche just stood on the bag, Cutch would have sat down and we would have had one out and men at second and third. Two youthful miscues.. Cutch should have immediately vacated the bag when called out by the ump, and LaRoche should never have left the bag.
Nutshell version – with men at first and third and no outs, a grounder was hit to the pitcher and they turned a double play wiping both lead runners and the batter was left standing at second. Miller then hit both Doumit and Church and Milledge came up against Franklin and the second pitch went between Molina’s legs allowing Jones to score tying the game. Milledge then ground out.
Tough loss.. very tough.
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Oh ZACH baby!! Dude threw high heat past several Cards batters who chased out of the zone. Good stuff there. Dangerous as all get out, but it worked Friday night. He pitched a great game.. smart game.. significantly better game than the box score suggests.
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Doumit is now 1-22 in throwing out runners and everybody is running on him. His pop times have ranged 1.97 – 2.21 when I checked them so he’s averaging well below average times in his throws.
Interestingly, in the 9th when Meek had two outs and two strikes on the pitcher Franklin, he started showboating a bit on the mound with Doumit by not accepting his signs. Finally Doumit went out and talked to him and the conversation got heated. I assume Meek was upset because both baserunners stole bases in Franklin’s at bat in consecutive pitches. Molina stole third on Meek’s second pitch and Doumit didn’t even bother to throw because Meek never stopped Molina’s secondary lead. And then in the next pitch, Rasmus took off late and then slowed down trying to draw a throw but Doumit held the ball. That’s when Meek got animated, although he struck out Franklin to end the inning.
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Ryan Church with three strike outs all on cutters in under his hands. They were ugly swings too.
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I noticed the Cardinals were speeding the game up on our batters early in the game. As soon as we’d get set in the box, boom – in came the pitch. It worked.. we were sitting flat most of the time. Let’s watch this and see if it continues.
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Clement is said to be reinventing his swing. A major league batter that needs to reinvent his swing sounds to me like a disaster ready to happen. He absolutely needed some help on recognizing pitches, but ‘reinventing’ a swing???
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Molina called a pretty poor game for him. Several times he had batters on the ropes with specific types of pitches and then came at them with fastballs and we wailed them for hits. Very odd for him.
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Iwamura with an infield hit to short in the third broke his 0 for 20 something slide. Someone please give me one reason why we have a .195 hitter leading off???? How ridiculous. Why this guy isn’t riding pine I’ll never know. Oh wait, there’s 4.5 million reasons why I suppose.
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Is Meek getting fatigued? His arm strength looks to be tanking along with his command.
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Should the Pirates select Manny Machado at 1/2?
Anup Sinha scouted Machado in playoff action Friday night and has his report up over at Bucs Prospects. Go check it out. Pro scout Bob Smith will be picking the Curve up next week for a few games and then an Ex-Phillies pro scout might be picking up some Bradenton games.
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I’m officially off Chris Sale. I’ll let you know who I’m on next week.
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 30, 2010, at 10:48 pm |
I’m traveling and will only be able to catch the first few innings of the game before my flight so let’s talk about a few hanging chads instead.
You’ve heard the talk circling around the media that the Nuttings might be selling, and if you ask anyone around the game right now why Neal Huntington hasn’t been extended, you are likely to hear that they believe Huntington’s future is tied to a future sale. I’ve already stated I haven’t heard anything concrete about the Nuttings selling and to instead stay focused on the reality of the business side of the game. Let me put it another way..
The Bucs are in their third year of a full rebuild and opened the season with a tough early schedule with quite a few question marks and a lot of young players on the roster. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this team wasn’t going to contend so I’d guess their plan was to have an early year scapegoat and that was probably John Russell. You know, the manager is always the first to fall. So instead of extending Huntington which, in turn, would have allowed him to extend Russell absent ownership interference (which includes Coonelly in my book), the Pirates brain trust probably decided it was a better PR move to keep hope in the fans tanks in the form of a potential head or two to be bounced instead of extending them earlier in the year.
So, I’m not in the camp that believes Huntington didn’t get extended because of a potential sale. Fact is, Huntington and Russell make so little that, if Ogden did sell and the new owner wanted to go a different way, they could have just sent them all home for the 2011 season.
That being said I will tell you I continue to hear whispers of concern within the organization much like I did in 2006 before it was announced the Nuttings were taking out McClatchy. My gut feeling is that Ogden Nutting simply wanted a cash cow during the recession and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to make a few extra dollars with his Pirates holdings. It’s hard to blame the guy. With the new CBA quickly approaching which could alter the way money is distributed within the game and/or some finger-pointing at owners not spending like Nutting, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them run.
Joe Starkey recently called for the Pirates to extend Russell and Huntington. Starkey’s argument was less than persuasive. As a fan, I’m totally against Russell being extended and feel he should have been fired long ago. However, I doubt Frank Coonelly has the balls to make any controversial decisions that will affect this club while his name is being thrown around as a candidate to replace Selig, even as faint as they are.
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The game just started and Aki doubled and Cutch picked him up with a very nice double into the left centerfield gap. Morton took the mound and his misery started on the second pitch which was hammered into left for a single and, seven pitches later, Ethier took him deep putting the Dodgers up 2-1 after one.
A couple of quick notes — Morton is looking into the dugout before every pitch with men on so it’s very possible Kerrigan is calling part of the game for Morton. I can’t think of any other reason why Morton would be looking in every pitch. Second note is that he remains up in the zone with his stuff and that only spells impending disaster.. it’s just a matter of time (but this is the 2010 Dodgers, huh?). He’s shown a plus curve early but he can’t get anyone to swing on it – batters are keying on his fastball.
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Kevin Hart with a torn labrum. I expressed my shock and disgust for that trade a long time ago and this only solidifies my position. I wonder if the Bucs even took the time to give Hart an MRI before making the trade? I doubt it.
Don’t forget we traded for him knowing he was +121 innings from 2007 to 2008 and then we ran him +50 innings from 2008 to 2009. That’s incompetence at its finest. Side note — don’t be too surprised if you eventually see Morton heading for surgery too; Ohlendorf is a candidate as well. All these guys have huge inning swings over the last few years.
One final thought from spring training and Hart – March 6th against the Phillies he pitched and a friend of mine at the game who coached some in div 1 baseball told me Hart wasn’t able to finish his pitches and concerned that he was putting a lot of pressure on his shoulder. In that post that day I said:
“I received from someone at the game (not a pro) who said Hart didn’t look like he was finishing his pitches and Kerrigan went out one time to try to get him under control again. Media reports suggest Hart was just pumped up but when a guy throw that many balls.. You also have to wonder why Kerrigan didn’t send Jaramillo out more often to Hart with his messages.. why take a chance in the guy hurting himself if he’s opening up too early or landing hard?”
I’m guessing Hart was already hurt before that outing.
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Opps.. Morton just gave up a blast to Loney on a hung slider in his breadbasket with two outs and two on. Clement and Crosby both had errors in the inning booting ground balls so Morton won’t take a bad hit.
McCutchen with a run saving dive in the 4th. Wow – nice play.
There’s my flight call.. gotta go.
By Jake, on March 26, 2010, at 11:36 pm |
What happened to Matt McSwain? The Pirates haven’t put out an official release but they are stating in Bradenton that he has retired so I suppose it’s ok to talk about this now. But before I go on let me stress something – I haven’t spoken directly to Matt, or any other player, because I’m well aware of the Pirates policy on such communication which I respect. All accounts here are either from the families or friends of players, or the Pirates which includes Kyle Stark.
First, the view as I see it from the McSwain camp.
One technical word for a player who is not in camp and under control is “retired” and that’s what the Pirates are saying happened to Matt. It’s a correct position because Matt accepted ”Voluntary Retirement” since the Pirates own the rights to him for the 6 – 7 years it takes for a player to reach minor league free agency if he hasn’t been added to the Pirates 40-man roster. Under retirement he’s added to the Pirates minor league reserve list because he’s not in camp which, in essence, forces him out of the game of baseball since he is unable to contract anywhere else.
But make no mistake about what I am about to say — the last thing Matt McSwain wanted to do was to retire. He reported to camp eager to build off a solid 2009 season and then was hit with a hammer blow to the head. In his meeting with Kyle Stark he was told he wouldn’t be guaranteed any placement nor would they guarantee him a raise. It was the dreaded “zero” speech no minor leaguer ever wants to hear (perceived zero future interest).
At this point Matt felt he had very little security left with the Pirates so he asked to be released. Understand that he was married over the winter giving him new responsibilities so he had even more desire to protect his future interests when asking to be released. He wants to pitch.. he wants to pitch badly. But, as one person close to him suggested, he couldn’t allow the Pirates to push him into a subservient role (organization filler) because he feels he can pitch at the major league level regardless what the Pirates might think.
The Pirates came back and told him they would not hand him release papers. My research found the Pirates have handed release papers to minor league players in the past but they weren’t going to hand Matt his. After some consideration, and very little choice in his own mind it appears, Matt felt it was better to walk away under the “voluntary retirement” flag since it was less rogue then looking like he lost interest, which he hadn’t.
The Pirates camp story.
The Pirates, like most clubs, take extraordinary steps to not talk about their prospects outside of general chit-chat, so I was surprised to have been able to get a little more than that from Kyle Stark on McSwain over the last 18 months or so.
The Pirates saw the same things I told you about last year – McSwain’s velocity was down a bit early but then when he went to the pen his stuff became crisper and his velocity rose. One thing that caught their eye over the last 18 months was his pitchability – he had learned to throw strikes yet kept the ball out of the center of the plate getting outs while keeping the ball in the park. That they were impressed with, as were other scouts I talked to.
It’s my own belief the Pirates viewed him as a potential #4/#5 starter much like they do with Moskos but I’d guess the tag on his index card in their office had a bright red label that said reliever or bust. In fact, Stark mentioned to me late last year he wanted to see if McSwain’s stuff continued to play up out of the pen in 2010 so they were already making plans for him.
Stark wouldn’t talk about this latest development but a source within the Pirates did tell me that if Matt wanted to come back, all he had to do was to come in and talk to Stark about the decisions he made. I don’t get the feeling they have totally given up on him, but neither do I get the feeling that they mind if that’s what the player chooses to do.
My take.
I’ve rooted for this non-draftee since he initially signed then fell out under TJ surgery. He’s had his ups and downs on and off the field but he’s always continued to be the little engine that could. How could you not root for him?
But I think it’s fair to say that, at least for the players who entered our system before the new regime took over, the last three years have been chock full of stress and unstable changes that very few players in the game have ever had to go through in development. Management change is one thing, multiple management changes is another thing, bringing in inexperienced management during those changes is even another, but then trying to flush out decades old cultural problems within the player, coordinator, field staff, management, and front office ranks all at the same time while trying to maintain a system-wide balance of player development had created a nightmare. Throw in the new regime’s Marine basic training processes on top of it all and those who have been around for three plus years have rightfully had their fill.
And I think we’re just starting to see the fall out from it.
For the record, I have been told there is a possibility of additional walk outs.. not everyone is a happy camper in our system, but neither should we expect that. There are some in the organization who whine and complain about everything via family and friends, but McSwain wasn’t one of them. I won’t say he hasn’t been disappointed during his ride because he has, but no different from any other player growing in the maturing process.
Don’t forget that the rebuilding process has also caused a perceived division line between Littlefield and Huntington draftees. It’s not a figment of your imagination that Littlefield draftees have watched Huntington draftees moved up a level well before their time while they remain held back. It’s happened quite a few times to quite a few Littlefield draftees. Some made sense in my mind, but quite a few others didn’t.
Bottom line, I think Matt came into camp a bit disappointed the organization didn’t acknowledge his hard work by putting him on the 40-man over some of the obvious fluff that is on there, I think he expected to be at least considered for a starting role in 2A since he was held back in H1A for a year and one-quarter, and I think he expected the Pirates to recognize his life was changing in a positive way with his marriage and wanted them to understand his true financial needs.
Instead, he was handed an empty platter, unlike others.
Questions likely to be asked.
Do I think he’ll be back? I don’t know, but I’d guess he’s running out of time.
Why should the Pirates even take him back if he already walked away once? I don’t know that they will take him back into the Pirates family, but do think they are aware that their processes have had non-intended victims too. Some of the players had to fight everything to make it this far, including themselves. Those are the guys I would want in my camp and on my team.
Why even care if McSwain is only projected as a reliever? To me, this isn’t a story about a young man who made his own decision, it’s more about the historical significance of ongoing change within this organization. McSwain isn’t the first to fall out and he’s not going to be the last. However, it’s hard to lose any player (commodity) just because they feel unwanted.
Change does that to people.
But there also has to be give and take.. the Pirates need to be a bit more realistic about mental health issues (basic needs, ramifications from the change processes, etc..) and the players need to keep their jock straps on and keep working hard. It’s got to be win-win.. it can’t be all one-sided like many believe it is.
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What a great game pitched by Duke. No, he didn’t face the Astros “A” lineup, but he did face major leaguers who have been red hot making it that much more impressive. That’s what we need to start seeing from our starters in the final weeks of camp. Hat tip to Duke.
But the storyline once again has to be our pathetic offense which managed just four hits and one run over the first five innings, albeit we had quite a few of our utility guys in the game. Problem is, those were most of the guys that have been hitting the ball. Raynor – four at bats, three strikeouts at the top of the order. That sure didn’t help matters.
On the field, I was told by someone at the game that he felt Raynor has route recognition problems and that he didn’t think he could play even an average centerfield at PNC. Curiously, he thought Church could probably turn as many outs in center as Raynor over 50 games. That was surprising because, to me, Church is about a -20 run guy in center. So I’m not sure I understand why we are even keeping Raynor around as long as we are unless it’s to give Cutch just a few extra days off during the spring.
My bud did say he likes Robbie Grossman’s compact swing, he wasn’t too excited about his defensive play Friday but said he could see some tools in play, and thought I might be underrating him. On my card I have him as a question mark where he ends up playing because if he’s a corner, he doesn’t have enough power projection so he has to remain a centerfielder and I’m just not too sure that’s going to happen. I’ll change my card if warranted after we get a few good looks at him this year.
Clement – two for three. Is he heating up? LOL
And what’s with all the balks this spring? Man, I can’t remember a year I’ve seen so many balks across the spring games.
Yet another tough loss.
Yawn.
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I was a bit disappointed to hear that the Pirates 1A teams didn’t show up for their games with the Yankees in Tampa. It rained pretty hard Thursday night but our scouting correspondent was at the field, said it was perfect, but that the Pirates called and said they weren’t coming. I asked one of the workers at the Yankees spring training complex if there was any anxiety over the Pirates no-show and he said it was a bit unusual and left it at that.
How odd.
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Chris Sale didn’t exactly excite my senses with his performance Friday night. He threw 8 innings and only allowed 1 run but his stuff just wasn’t that sharp. But maybe that’s the key to this draft with him - pitchability? He struck out another 7 batters and nobody hit a yard ball off him (he has yet to allow one this season which is rather remarkable), but you could see he was fighting himself.
Maybe he’s going to be a rich man’s Zach Duke? I mean, plenty of contact off his stuff since he’s around the plate so much but the ability to K more than Duke too. Maybe a mix of Mike Gonzalez and Duke? Hmm.. that’s a Gorzelanny when he’s on, isn’t it?
Bryce Harper finished a combined 3-for-5 with an RBI and four walks in a double header Friday.
By Jake, on March 12, 2010, at 8:04 pm |
I have two MLB.com Fantasy League Baseball slots left to fill.. both are for a live draft next Thursday 03/18 at 09:00 pm ET. The league is free to play, MLB’s software will draft best available for you if you can’t make the live draft (I won my division that way last year), and very little time is needed during the year – you set your roster one time for the next week’s play and that’s it unless you want to make trades or something. The exciting part about this one league is that it is only an 8 team league so your chances of winning the division and heading into the playoffs for a chance to win $10,000 is a lot better than the 12-team leagues. Leave a comment below if you would like an invitation.
The other two leagues are now full. Here are the draft orders:
B&G1 League:
| Draft Pos. |
East |
| 6 |
PIT |
| 12 |
screamin demons |
| 4 |
2011NLCDchamps |
| 11 |
Cherub Nine |
| 2 |
Team II Beat |
| 8 |
Hotel-Dotel |
| Draft Pos. |
West |
| 5 |
Squirrel Hill Nuts |
| 9 |
Bonds3232 |
| 1 |
Lions632 |
| 3 |
Brookville Bucs |
| 7 |
KoolaidSippin2010 |
| 10 |
OV Splits |
B&G2 League:
| Draft Pos. |
East |
| 6 |
PIT2 |
| 5 |
Grafton Bucco s |
| 7 |
Rock N Roll Bandits |
| 8 |
George H |
| 11 |
Baseball Kings |
| 3 |
ReynoldsBucs |
| Draft Pos. |
West |
| 4 |
jsn4219 |
| 10 |
You Have No Mahbles |
| 9 |
Zack C |
| 1 |
Playground Legends |
| 12 |
The Burgh Bombers |
| 2 |
Blue Ridge Gnomes |
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Chris Sale’s start was short-lived as they were rained out.
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Bucs will see Clay Buchholz Saturday with Hideki Okajima and Daniel Bard throwing in the later “B” game.
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Traveling so quick post..
I had an interesting e-mail from a reader who asked why the Pirates haven’t updated their “Blueprint.” It was an interesting question because the five priorities outlined in the initial Blueprint, four of which are things expected of any organization anyway, are now obsolete.
So, where is Part II?
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