McCutchen's Month

Andrew McCutchen has been playing with the Pirates for a little under a month and his impact has been felt since day 1. In 23 games in a Pirate uniform, McCutchen has already racked up 30 hits, 10 of which are extra base hits, including 5 triples, tallied 18 RBIs, and stole 4 bases..Before going 0-10 through 3 games against the Royals, McCutchen was on a 13 game hit streak.

McCutchen has been the leadoff hitter who gets on base in consistent fashion that every teams loves having. When he gets on, his speed is always a threat in any way imagineable. It's nice to have McCutchen jump right into the waters that are Major League Baseball when he arrives to the team instead of being a guy who dips his toes in and takes awhile to adjust to the different pace of the game. He has done nothing but exceed the expectations that everyone had for him since the day he was drafted by the Pirates. Hopefully he'll be around for awhile and will turn into the type of player that can contribute to turning around a franchise.

The Comeback that wasn't

Snell Sucks
Adam LaRoche killed his home run... would have been nice to have 2 in the same inning though
Rough Times right now.
Snell is still terrible.

Sweeps Week

Getting Swept is a terrible feeling.. Especially in games where you should have won 2 of 3.

The one good thing is the Alvarez express is making his way to Altoona.


No more use for this then

Morton Gets 2nd Start

Charlie Morton will start his 2nd game in a Pirates uniform tonight, Jason Hammel (4-3)

The Game yesterday was one of the most frusturating of the year.. and I think you can really tell that the inconsistency of the offense, and the Pirates in general has really started to get to Nevrett and Walk. They just sound disgusted in the booth.

Yes the Rockies are probably the hottest team in the majors right now, but when your offense consistently tries to pull an outside fastball on the paint, you are not going to win many games.
Marquis was hitting his spots, and the Pirates could not do anything about it.

Hopefully the spark of the new guy tonight will get something going in our squad because right now it is starting to look bleek.

Craig Monroe got designated for assignment. Pearce is coming up. People think he will be platooning in right field with Moss and D.Y.
He should be the everyday 1st baseman.
Trade LaRoche for a bucket of balls.

Gotta get 2 of 3.

Twins Series Recap

Our offense showed up for 1 Game.
The middle game of the 3 game series.
Nowhere to be found in the opener or closer of the series.

Pitching was decent despite other than Maholm who got absolutely pounded in the opener. Ian Snell pitched well even after blaming every person in North America for his troubles other than looking himself in the mirror. Zach Duke got a lost in the rubber match that he didnt deserve.

Russell gave Sanchez a day off in the closer, which is fine, except for the fact that Delwyn Young, who has been completely killing the ball did not enter the game. Ramon Vasquez was 0-2 again.
Brandon Moss went 2-3 which means D.Y. will be benched for the next 14 games because of Moss' 2 singles. Bank on it.

Joe Mauer is better than your mom.. and so is the Twins ridiculous Interleague record. Imagine if they could feast on the N.L. for more than a few series a year.

Anyone that looks at this series and tries to compare the Pirates to the Twins is an idiot.
The Twins have all-star potential in and out of their lineup and rotation on a yearly basis. Just because they are a small market team that bunts, they are nothing like the Pirates. We have never traded anyone, maybe ever of the cailber of Johan Santana. We have never in our history had a pitcher of his caliber, and since Bonds we have not had a hitter as dominant as him.
We do not have a power hitter-- see Morneau, Kubel. We have noone in our entire system as good as Joe Mauer. Michael Cuddyer has better numbers than anyone on our roster, and barely anyone even knows him.
Of course we could try and ''model ourselves after the Twins'',... who wouldnt want to model themselves after the Twins? Imagine if their owners could spend money to get a free agent, or retain a Johan Santana. Their stars are all homegrown talent. Morneau, Mauer, Cuddyer, Kubel, Liriano if he could get back to pre surgery Liriano. Joe Nathan is the only star that is not homegrown, and when he was with the Giants he was awful. But the best management in the league scooped him up and now he is arguably the best closer in the majors. Of course you would want to be the Twins... who wouldnt?

The Jack Wilson Dilemma

The thought or idea of Jack Wilson being traded has been going on and off for the better part of 2 or 3 years every trade deadline and summer. With the notion that upper management has been giving everyone this year is that, building for the future and acquiring more and more depth in the system is much more important than winning this year and even next.

Most likely place for Jack Wilson:

Boston:
The Red Sox to me seems like the most obvious place for Jack Flash to end up by the end of the year. When you look at their roster there have been two things that they have needed this year that is holding them back from being the elite team in the AL, and that is a Shortstop and David Ortiz struggling. We can help solve these problems with a trade that would benefit both squads by packaging Adam LaRoche with Jack. Everyone knows LaRoche is a notriously slow starter, but for this trade to become possible, he has to be able to show people that he is going to get back to his usual July, August, and September.

What we would get:
With the fact that there is not a suitable major league shortstop waiting in the wings in any part of the minors, it would be nice to pick up a shortstop ready to step in and fill the void Jack would leave but I do not see that happening. The Sox are not going to want to part with their short stop of the future, Nick Green, and the Pirates in no way are going to want to take Julio Lugo by any means. With that being the case, the Bucs will build the farm system, espicially AA with the additions of 22 year old SS Argenis Diaz. Diaz is an above average defensive infielder, much like
Jack but with some speed but with little to no pop in his bat. In almost 1500 at-bats he has a whopping 6 home runs. Hopefully we would also be able to pick up another pitching prospect, hopefully a Daniel Bard or Michael Bowden, but that is unlikely and look for the Pirates to acquire Charlie Zink, a knuckleballer; or the 6'4 lefty Kris Johnson.

D-Train De-Railed

I feel bad for Dontrelle Willis.
Legitimately bad.
He was a dominant pitcher early in his career and it looks like the Steve Blass disease may have come to his left arm.

That being said, we shoulda knocked his ass outta the game in the 1st inning.
Bob Walk almost murdered someone in the booth during Willis' outing with the Pirates lack of plate discipline.
His main targets being Delwyn Young, who went 3-4 once again proving he should be our everyday right fielder, and Robinson Diaz- who went a respectable 1-4 but drove in 3 runs and Jack Wilson. Walk at one point after a 1st pitch Jack Wilson pop up; grunted, and responded with an 'I mean this guy has played the game for 8 years... is he serious?'
Hinske drew 4 walks to lead the Pirates with a team season high 11 walks. wow
Cutch went 2-3 with 2 runs and 2 walks
Delwyn Young is hitting .358, with a .416 OBP 1 Home Run. 11 RBI's 81 At Bats
Brandon Moss is hitting .243 with a .293 OBP 1 Home Run. 14 RBI's 169 At Bats
Please please please tell me who you would rather have in Right Field everyday this year.
Nate McLouth of course.
With the team only being 4 games out of 1st place in the middle of June, that trade is getting more and more sketchy in my mind for the short term. I believe that it still is a good trade for the future and to build on the team, but if Nat McLouth was starting in right field, would we have a legitimate chance of winning the division???
Only time will tell.

Ohlendorf was great. 2 hits in 6 innings.
Steven Jackson was bad for the 1st time this year.
Burnett was of course great,--- Best pitcher in the history of baseball.
Grabow still sucks
Capps closed the deal.

Power Outage

The Pirates continued their torid home run pace with their 2nd and 3rd home runs in the past 4 games.

Its funny when that is legitimately the most power production you can look for out of this team.

• Big Boy Laroche and Sanchez homered.. Sanchez's a grand slam
• Seeing McCutchen in person for the first time, just to see his range in the outfield.. insane
• Duke started a little rough, but settled down for 8 innings only giving up 3 runs to pick up his 7th win. All Star Zach Duke I should say; although Freddy probably wants a say in that.
• Delwyn Young should be playing every single damn day in Right Field. No questions asked. Every Game. Brandon Moss--go sit in the corner. You can spell Delwyn Young once a week.
• Every Pirate that got an at bat recorded a hit.
  
• Every Position player had a run
• 5 Pirates had R.B.I.'s
• 16 Hits
  
• Went to the game, had tickets left at will call-- They turned out to be in a luxury suite. For free. Really nice up there.
• Don Kelly sucks.. He hit 3rd a few nights ago, I guess because no one was pitching to him they had to protect him with Miguel Cabrera?
• Cabrera almost hit 3 Home Runs last night... He was 1-4 with a single.
• Zach Duke: 7-4, 3.10 ERA
• ---5th in the league in Wins; 12th in ERA; 2nd in Innings Pitched; Tied for 1st in complete games and Shutouts (2 and 1 respectively)
  

......

Just got home from NYC

My thought on the draft:



peace

McClutchen's Debut

11 runs.

McCutchen Dominated--Boy is fast

Wasn't on FSN... Highlights showed everything needed.

Ohlendorf wasnt good.. offense saved him

Huntington would have cried if we would have gotten shutout

Who's next?

With the most recent trade of Nate McLouth, Neil Huntington and the Pirates brass has made it extremely apparent that we have no chance of competing for the next 3 years.

This year may turn out to be a fire sale.
Forget .500-- we probably will be looking at 100 losses again this year just for the fact that our lineup has no legitimate power threat right now.
Even when Doumit returns, that is about a half of a power threat. No Adam LaRoche, not you either
There will be a lot of small ball, which can win games; See Twins, Minnesota. But even they have Morneau, Cuddyer, and even Joe Mauer this year hitting the ball out of the ball park.
The one thing that is a definite possibility is the fact that we will almost without a doubt have the least amount of home runs in the league.

Jack and Freddy are both probably gone, even though there is no replacement that can step in for either one of them.
Delwyn Young and Vasquez?
That may be what it comes to if both of them are gone, and that is not good.

Will Doumit be traded now?.
With the emergence of solid play by both Jaramillo and Diaz, that is looking like a viable option now.
I always thought if we were to trade McLouth we would need to get an incredible package and i feel the same way for Doumit, but with his injuries and inconsistency is that possible right now?

Who knows but Huntington honestly... The opening day roster may be a whole lot different than this years opening day roster... let alone right now

McLouth Traded because he roots for Red Wings

The Pirates best/m88ost marketable player over the past 2 seasons is now gone..
**3rd paragraph in**

For 3 minor league players.

1. Charlie Morton- a 6'4 right handed power pitcher on AAA. 7-2 with just about a 2 1/2 ERA
2. Gorkskys Hernandez- a 21 year old outfielder with phenomenal speed. Assigned to AA Altoona
3. Jeff Locke- a 21 year old crafty lefty with great control.. non factor. Wouldnt even call him a prospect.
   

Well i mean this is an obvious deal for the future.
We aren't winning in the next 3 years. Thats a fact. With our without McLouth, we were not going to win.
Gorkskys is Nate in a nut shell... Just with more speed and 6 years younger. He is expected to hit home runs so we will see.
Instead of the McLouth, McCutchen, Tabata outfield it looks like it will be Gorkskys in left, McCutchen is Center, and Tabata in right in a few years.

Charlie Morton.. the only player that will be in the majors any time soon. Possibly as soon as 2 weeks when Snell drops another 2 decisions. He has power with decent control. There is a decent ceiling for him, probably will be our #3 starter opening day next year behind Maholm and Duke. There was noone who could step into the majors and pitch anytime soon. No not even you Virgil Vasquez. You still suck.

Jeff Locke.. a 21 year old high A player. He was drafted 3 years ago.. only in A??
This seems like there is a case where Huntington just said we need 3 players, and took whatever they threw him. If you have already been in the league 3 years and only made it to A ball, where your stats this year are still terrible? Forget about him. He is a non-factor in this trade. 1-4 with a 5.52 ERA. in A? Who are you Daniel Moskos?

Overall-- This is a tough trade to swallow at the point, just because Nate was such a great person/player as Coonley and Huntington both reinterated since the trade has been processed.

Our Projected 2012 Lineup:

C- Ryan Doumit*
1B- ?????*
2B- Andy LaRoche/Shelby Ford*
3B- Alvarez
SS- Jim Megrych/Jack Wilson-- No Bixler.. Jus Leave
LF- Gorkskys Hernandez
CF- Andrew McCutchen
RF-Jose Tabata

*Andy LaRoche platoons, Doumit goes to first, We catch Jaramillo or Diaz

Bench:
Neil Walker
Jaramillo/Diaz
Brandon Moss
Nyjer Morgan--probably will be traded/let go
Delwyn Young

Rotation:
1. Paul Maholm
2. Zach Duke
3. Bryan Morris
4. Brad Lincoln
5. Ross Ohlendorf

Bullpen:
-Jeff Karstens
-Craig Hansen
-Donnie Veal
- Sean Burnett
-Matt Capps
- Donnie Veal
-Daniel McCutchen


We Just Don't Know right now...
Hopefully Huntington is a Boss, or this will go down as bad as the Aramis Deal. Maybe not that bad, but very very close to it.

Good night for Pittsburgh..

Zach Duke out battled Johan Santana, going 7 innings giving up 1 run on 8 hits for his 6th win of the season as the Buccos defeated the Mets 3-1.

Nyjer got tossed in the 5th.

Nate hosed Jeremy Reed at the plate.

Freddy hit another double, bringing his total to 19, as the Pirates won their 2nd in a row and the 3rd out of the last 4.

Pens beat Detroit 4-2 to begin the comeback..

Buccos rally off best bullpen in Majors

Scored 5 in the 8th inning off of J.J. Putz, the man the Mets brought in during the offseason, along with K-Rod to solve their bullpen woes from previous years. Putz's famed splitfinger last night was awful, and his fastball wasnt much better either as he failed to record an out and surrendured 4 consecutive singles in the 8th inning.

Snell was his usual self--- extremely incosistent during the first few innings of the game, digging the Pirates into a 5 run hole before he settled down nicely and did not give up a hit for the final 3 1/3 innings. The bullpen also pitched 3 shutout innings from the uses of Sean Burnett, Steven Jackson-- who was making his 2009 debut with the team after recently acquiring him from the St. Louis Rams.

Grrr

Tom Gorzelanny for 4 pitches, and Matt Capps for the save. Gorzo got the win..by throwing 4 pitches.
Deep Breath... Tom Gorzelanny has as many wins as Paul Maholm... He pitched 1/3 of an inning last night. Seem fair to you?
Adam LaRoche was 3/5 and raised his average to .242. Woooohoo
Brother Andy went 2/4 to raise his average to.... .304 0-19 to start the year seems like a long time ago.

Notes

• 6-7-8- hitters= 7 Hits, 4 Runs, 5 R.B.I.'s
  
• The Mets are really injured... 3 of their 4 best hitters are out
• Duke-Santana Tonight... would be a great game if anyone would watch it
  

....

What sucked more yesterday?

a.) The Pirates offense
b.) The Detroit Red Wings
c.) Mike Hamptons Face