Pirates

Commentary from a far-flung Pirates fan

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I fell asleep last night shortly after Neil Walker's home run, when the Pirates were only down 5-4. I woke up this morning and checked the box score.

Damn.

It's been that kind of year.

This post is getting double-posted to both servers, just to ensure everyone can see it. If you leave comments on one, they may disappear, but I have access to all of them and if they're for Clemente/Cangelosi, I'll see them.

If there's a team in baseball that could match the Pirates for recent futility, it might be the A's. Sure, the Pirates have dropped 15 of 17 (yikes, that looks much worse typed out), but the A's have dropped 11 of 14 and that's not very good, either. I guess that means it's a good thing it's turn back the clock weekend in Oakland; these two teams can wear funny uniforms and pretend like it's the 70s.

Brad Lincoln keeps going for his first big league win tonight against Ben Sheets. In all of his starts so far, he's sprinkled rough innings together with innings where he looks really good, so let's hope he starts putting things together tonight and makes some progress. He'll have his work cut out for him, though, because as Tom at Rum Bunter points out, the A's pitching is generally awesome at home. Against the Pirates, they've all got shutout potential.

The first pitch is at 10:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump. The great Bloguin Server Nightmare of 2010 is almost over.

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As you've likely noticed by now, we're having some issues with the site today. The fully story is that since Bloguin's inception, we've all been on a bunch of different shared servers that have occasionally been stressed for various reasons. The network is finally growing to the point that it's justifiable to put us all on a dedicated server to improve loading time etc. for everyone. Unfortunately, things haven't gone smoothly for a number of reasons, all of which go back to the new hosting company and not the Bloguin guys. I know Derek's busting his ass to get this all straightened out and it will be, soon.

Until then, you'll probably notice that the site may be inaccessible on and off for a bit. This is because of a bunch of name server switching that's gone on in the background. Keep hitting refresh and maybe clear your cache and cookies and you should eventually get through. Unfortunately, I've also lost (for now) all of the posts done between Wednesday night and this morning, as they went to the new server and I'm currently back on the old one. That means a couple of recaps and gamethreads, mostly. Once the server switched is finalized, I'll get them back.

Anyways, once everything is really up and running, things should be better than ever. The load time that sometimes feels like you're viewing the site over a 28.8k modem should be greatly reduced. And we're also planning on taking a stab at yet another comment system -- one that won't reject 70% of the comments that you leave -- until the comments that are specifically being designed with Bloguin in mind are ready. Which is all to say that site building can be a real pain sometimes, but I have a lot of faith in Derek and the Bloguin guys. I wouldn't still be here if I didn't.

On Monday, Joe Posnanski took a fascinating look at the Braves, their record in games in which they'd scored five runs or more, and how teams that do exceptionally well in those sorts of situations fare over the course of the season. As of that writing, the Braves were 31-0 in games where they scored 5+ runs.

Tonight, the Pirates reached that plateau for just the 18th time this season and racked up their fifth loss. The Pirates now actually have a losing record (3-4) in games in which they score exactly five runs. The Pirates offense is terrible and their pitching isn't good enough to take advantage when it isn't. Jeff Karstens has had a nice enough season to this point, but he's not capable of pitching more than five innings. That leaves a long stretch to be covered by the bullpen. Tonight, Evan Meek gave up his first earned runs in June thanks in large part to Lastings Milledge's 97th¹ missed diving catch of the season² and JR committed the "it's a tie game and we're the road team, so I have to use a crappy reliever who's going to be back in Triple-A in two days in the ninth inning against the hottest team in baseball because we might get a lead in the tenth and then I can use Octavio Dotel to close down the save" fallacy that baseball managers have perfected against all logic and sensibility in the ninth. That resulted in Steven Jackson pitching against the heart of the Rangers order. If you missed it, it ended how you'd expect it to end.

On the brigher side, if there is one at this point, the Pirates did manage to rack up 14 hits tonight, but they also got caught stealing twice and hit into twp double plays. They had four of those hits in the four-run first inning, so after that they had ten hits that only produced one run. And they only drew one walk all night (also in the first inning) to go with nine strikeouts. Hardly an offensive performance for the ages, though as mentioned above, scoring five runs isn't a bad night for this Pirate team ever.

This was certainly one of the more frustrating losses of the year, which I think really says something. Not something good, either.

2- Why do some National League managers fail to understand how to use the DH? There's no reason for Ryan Church to be DHing when Lastings Milledge is in the field, just like there was no reason for Garrett Jones to be DHing when Ryan Doumit was at first base. This isn't a hard concept; pick 10 guys, give the nine best fielders gloves. And yet, I feel like at least half of the NL teams just stick a bench guy into their regular lineup regardless of fielding ability and just move on with the games. This flawed strategy is in no way specific to John Russell. No wonder this league gets slaughtered in interleague play every year.

Sorry if the site is a touch slow today; we're having some server issues on the back end of things. The Bloguin guys have promised me it'll be taken care of ASAP and hopefully things will be running better than ever by the end of the weekend at the latest.

Meanwhile in Arlington, the Pirates have quickly negated their mini two-game winning streak and if last night is any indication, this losing streak may head towards 12 again before it ends. Jeff Karstens starts tonight to try and salvage one win from the Texas trip against Scott Feldman. Ryan Church stubbornly remains as the designated "hitter," making a mockery of the term. Pedro Alvarez is batting sixth again, as the club's desire to shelter him a bit by keeping him at the bottom of the order remains clear. Obviously they don't feel Jose Tabata and his .269 OBP over the last ten games needs any sheltering, as he's batting leadoff again (if you can't tell, I feel like maybe this isn't the best idea right now).

There are a bunch of roster moves to discuss for tonight. Steven Jackson and Justin Thomas are up in the bullpen for Dana n' Duke. Thomas, who takes Eveland's spot on the 40-man, has quietly been awesome out of Indianapolis's bullpen this year, putting up an insane 34:3 K:BB ratio in 34 2/3 innings. As a lefty, I've got a feeling he's got a chance to stick with the club. Jackson, who we're all familiar with, is likely short-term filler until someone (presumably Dan McCutchen) gets the call to pitch in Duke's on Saturday.

First pitch is 8:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump. - [Read more]

Well, that went well. After three disastrous appearances, Dana Eveland is no longer a Pirate. Obviously the Ronald Uviedo trade doesn't look very good for the Pirates right now, but Dejan Kovacevic tweets this morning an aspect that I hadn't considered: that Uviedo was going to be removed from the roster this fall to protect Rule 5 guys. The Pirates presumably figured they'd lose him at that point, so they shipped him off now at a juncture where they could return the control. Obviously things went poorly, but it makes a little more sense to me now.

According to Tim Williams' Bucco Fans wiki, Nathan Adcock, Jeff Locke, Rudy Owens, and Starling Marte are all Rule 5 eligible this fall and they all seem like obvious no-brainers to protect over a relief prospect like Uviedo. There's also Diego Moreno, who's a better relief prospect than Uviedo, and maybe even Danny Moskos depending on how he finishes the season after he's promoted to Indianapolis. There will obviously be some roster-fringe guys to be cleared off when the time comes (Karstens, Burres, etc.), but the Pirates must've had Uviedo pretty high on the list to go after those guys, which makes some sense to me.

I'm not defending the trade, because it was obviously a  pretty big failure and if you're going to do something like this it, well, presumably you could do better than Dana Eveland. But it doesn't seem as senseless to me now as it did prior to DK's explanation. At least that's something.

When Paul Maholm walked Elvis Andrus on three pitches to start this one, I kind of mentally tuned it out. "Gonna be a long night," I figured at that point. Maholm barely got out of the first, but not the second and with Dana Eveland in relief, things actually went downhill from there. Rough game. Ugly game. Not much else to say.

Sorry about that, guys. Bloguin has shifted servers today and I had hoped that the gamethread that I posted went up after the switch, but apparently I pulled the trigger a couple minutes early and the original post got eaten by the internet.

The jist of the post was this: Paul Maholm vs. Dustin Nippert is a game we should win. Really, that was about it. This road trip will get ugly if the Pirates don't win games like this one. The first pitch is 8:05, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump. If you got your comment in before 7:12, it's gone. I will repost all of the submissions I received in the first comment.

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Sorry for the late update today; Bloguin has been switching servers and I couldn't update until the switch was officially made (also, if the site was briefly unavailable for you this afternoon, that's why). Paul Maholm pitches tonight against Dustin Nippert, so if the Bucs are going to steal a win in Texas, I think it's going to be this one.

First pitch is at 8:05 again, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.

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Look, sometimes I just don't have the right words for things. From this morning's Pirates Notebook in the Post-Gazette:

Tony Sanchez, the Pirates' top catching prospect, was beaned Tuesday for the second time in a month, with this pitch fracturing his jaw.

Sanchez is apparently on his way to see a specialist to determine if he needs surgery. Excuse me for a moment while I share with you my reaction the first time I read this news, which is still my reaction several hours later.

ARE YOU F---ING SERIOUS?!?

Here, we've got a catcher who some people say already plays big league quality defense and who's got a .412 OBP in the low minors and was just named to the Future's Game and probably about ready for a promotion to Double-A just about a year after his professional career started. And he gets hit in the face with a pitch twice in a month, with the second pitch fracturing his jaw?

WHAT OTHER TEAM DOES THIS SORT OF THING EVER HAPPEN TO?!?

I got nothing.

Through 3 1/2 innings, the Pirates were beating the Rangers 2-0, hitting the ball squarely a lot, and Ross Ohlendorf hadn't allowed a base runner.

"Hmm," I said to myself. "This is too good to be true."

Then Ohlendorf fell apart in the fifth, Tony Beasley and Ryan Doumit combined to run the Pirates out of a run in the sixth, and the bullpen couldn't hold the line (which is no easy task when they come in in the fifth, of course). The Pirates ended up out-hitting the Rangers 10-7 tonight, but the Bucs drew no walks and handed Texas six free passes. Meanwhile, they struck out nine times but Pirate pitchers whiffed just two Ranger hitters.

It seems to me that if you knew that one team had a 9:0 K:BB ratio and the other had a 2:6 ratio, you could pick the winner out pretty easily without knowing much else about the game. It certainly would be true for this one.

Can a team that's 25-44 have an important road trip? I say they can. The young Pirates played fairly well against the White Sox and Indians at the end of their last homestand, even if the only came out with two wins to show for it. Now they have to go on the road to play a very tough Texas team. So how will they look? Will they keep playing well, or is it time for the annual interleague play whupping (yeah, I know the Pirates are 2-7 in interleague play so far, but you know what I mean) that the Pirates seem to eventually submit to?

Ross Ohlendorf continues his quest for his first win tonight against 23-year old Tommy Hunter. Since they're in Texas, the first pitch is at 8:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.

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On Wednesday last week, the Pirates best power prospect in decades took the field in a Pirate uniform for the first time, joining a talented young center fielder who seems likely to become a perennial All-Star, a local kid made good playing second base, and a very young outfield prospect who loves Roberto Clemente. Throw in a pitching prospect and a red-hot out-of-nowhere success story, and things are looking up no matter what the win/loss column says at the moment. Later in the week, the team announced that contract extensions that were more or less foregone conclusions had actually been given out in the off-season, despite the team previously saying that they hadn't been talked about, and the team fired what would appear to be a bad part-time employee for violating the team's social-networking policy. Guess what everyone in the media is talking about on Monday?

Look, keeping the contract extensions quiet was weird. It was a bizarre evasion what's considered normal baseball operating procedure. You know what else is weird? The practice of giving employees yearly one-year extensions in public to prevent them from becoming "lame ducks," even if you think there's a good chance they'll be fired before that extension ever kicks in. The Pirates were apparently operating on the policy that Huntington and Russell will be retained as long as they do good jobs and as soon as they stop doing so, they won't have jobs any more. How do I know that? Because that's more or less what was reported this spring during the discussion of the contract terms.

Let's look at this from a different angle. Just three weeks ago, Neal Huntington and his staff conducted a draft using more or less the same strategy they used in their first two drafts. Is there any way they would have been allowed to do this if the team was considering not keeping them on board for 2011? Coonelly surely knew what Huntington was planning on doing in the draft and thus far, any evaluation of Huntington's job security would have to weighthe draft heavier than anything else. So if you were worried about the work the guy was doing, would you let him screw up another draft before firing him? No, you wouldn't. And once it became clear that Huntington would be allowed to helm the draft, it was equally clear that he'd be back for 2011. The contract extension was a formality.

And what about Russell? Russell might still be fired, but if the Pirates have had serious discussions about firing him, why would they wait until after their most highly valued prospects have been promoted? If Russell is doing something deleterious to the team, wouldn't you get rid of him before you let Tabata, Walker, Lincoln, and Alvarez get exposed to him? Or don't you at least want to expose your prized assets to as little turmoil as possible?

Again, I'm not arguing that these extensions weren't mis-handled, but by the time they became public they absolutely should not have been surprises. Would Huntington have abandoned ship for the rookies if he thought he might get fired because of the team's performance? Would Russell have stuck with Charlie Morton or Andy LaRoche or Aki Iwamura as long as he did if he were worried about his job? I don't think so. The Pirates refused to talk about extensions (I'm not entirely certain I'd say they were being dishonest or that Coonelly outright lied about it, as my Pointy-Haired Blogging colleague has alleged recently, but they were certainly evasive), but the actions of the people in question more or less answered my own personal questions about the situation and if you were truly unsure about it before the team was cornered into an announcement last week, I'm not sure you were paying that much attention.

It's another question entirely whether or not these guys deserved their extensions, of course, but the simple truth of the matter is that most GMs get at least three years on the job and while some of Huntington's trades haven't worked out perfectly, the ones that have been panned the most are the ones that were made with both an eye on the present and future which are, invariably, the hardest moves to make because they always involve bargain-shopping. The Pieta was not carved out of marble because Michelangelo found it in the half-off aisle at Lowe's and so maybe it shouldn't be a huge surprise that the Andy LaRoches and Lastings Milledges and Jeff Clements found in the same aisle haven't panned out perfectly. Neal Huntington didn't just inherit a mess in 2007, he inherited a mess with an expiration date and I'm just not sure there was much anyone could do to turn this team around by the 2010 season.

What Huntinton has done is replenish the system with talent. Neil Walker and Brad Lincoln represent, for the most part, the end of Dave Littlefield acquired talent (Rudy Owens and Starling Marte were both acquired by Littlefield, but I think a compelling argument can be made to attribute Owens' success to the Pirates current developmental team and Marte's signing was more Rene Gayo than Littlefield and Gayo is not only still with the club, but has more to work with thanks to the new front office), but in the low minors the Pirates have Tony Sanchez and Bryan Morris and Jeff Locke and Chase D'Arnaud and Brock Holt and Nathan Adcock and a whole passel of young arms waiting to be developed and they were all put into the system by Huntington and his staff. They're all a long ways off, but that's still much more talent than the Pirates ever had in the low minors under Littlefield. Not giving Huntington a chance to put the rest of the puzzle together would be unfair and illogical.

And again, what about JR? I'll certainly agree that sometimes his in-game manangement  can be maddening, but that can be said about most other big league managers. It doesn't seem fair to hire a manager, ask him to make do with the leftovers the front office is trying to trade, toss a bunch of young guys at him who are only Pirates because someone considered them damaged goods, and then can him right as the cream of the minor league system starts rising to the top. It's true that the Pirates make a ton of mental mistakes, but I'm not sure how much of that is Russell's fault. When the Pirates traded for Andy LaRoche, a Dodger fan told him he was one mental error after another waiting to happen. I'm sure Nats and Mets fans would be happy to regale us with stories about Lastings Milledge and his mental lapses if we asked. There's only so much one guy can do.

Sure, Russell seems to favor his vets, but think back to Little League or high school or whatever the last level you played ball at was, assuming it was somewhere below the professional level. What do most coaches do with a player who's head isn't in the game all the time? What do they do when they try to make a point time and time again and the player doesn't get it? They bench players. And which veteran has received the biggest portion of JR's generosity? Ryan Church. And who does he take the field for on most nights? Lastings Milledge. You shouldn't need a flashlight to see where this is going.

I don't really want to go out of my way to defend Russell, because I'm honestly pretty indifferent about him. But I actively disliked Jim Tracy when he was the Bucs' skipper (I still do, for that matter) and I wasn't much a fan of Lloyd McClendon either. I've played for coaches and managers who would explode at the drop of a hat just to make a point and "fire their players up" and it got tiresome after a while. If JR wants to be a stoic in the dugout, I'm fine with that. The only thing that matters is that the players in the dugout know that he has their backs. I think they do know that. Russell strikes me as a good guy who may not demand respect, but who's presence is capable of commanding it. And he's shown a willingness to think outside the box once in a while, which I like from a manager. I'm not the guy's biggest fan, but if the Pirates want him back in the dugout in 2011 I can think of far worse choices.

For the first time since I've started blogging, the Pirates have some real talent at the Major League level that's actually worth talking about and analyzing and dissecting. And they have more depth in the lower minors that, if developed properly, could eventually combine with this current group and actually become something. I'm not sure if that's a light at the end of the tunnel, but for the first time in a long time I am sure that this is a tunnel that we're in and not a coffin. 25-44 record or not, this is the most excited I've been about the Pirates since I was too young to know any better. And despite that, all that the people that drive the mainstream sports conversation in Pittsburgh want to talk about is stuff that ultimately doesn't matter.

Once again, I'm taking shirt orders for WHYGAVS Night. If you want one, please get to me by tonight, because I'm putting the order in tomorrow. Go here for more details.

The Pirates are 2-0 since the PierogiBook scandal. Just sayin'.

Congrats to Charlie of Bucs Dugout for being named editor of the new SB Nation Pittsburgh site. I can't think of a more deserving choice, especially because of posts like this one from last week. Update your bookmarks accordingly.

Rob Biertempfel tweets that Brock Holt does not have a torn MCL, will not need surgery, and that Neal Huntington seems to be implying he'll be back on the diamond in 2010. Potentially great news.

Spurred on by this morning's report that he may be on his was to Triple-A, have people been paying attention to Danny Moskos's line with Altoona? He's been dominant with the Cuve, striking nearly a batter an inning with a 3.11 K/BB ratio and no homers allowed in 30 innings. I'll grant you that relief prospects aren't exactly tops on the Pirates' priority list right now, but since Moskos was essentially a relief prospect when he was drafted, it's nice to see him finally hitting his stride.

Question: would people be more interested in seeing me re-rank the prospects right now (since Tabata, Lincoln, and Alvarez won't be prospects at the end of the season), or after the signing deadline for the draft picks? Or both?

New poll in the sidebar, check it out and vote.

The Pirates spent 12 days prior to Saturday not getting breaks, so I think it's only fair that they got a couple this afternoon. Trailing by a run with runners on first and second and no out in the eighth inning, the Pirates elected to use Andy LaRoche to pinch hit with the purpose of bunting the two runners over for the struggling 1-2 rookie punch of Jose Tabata and Neil Walker. LaRoche's bunt worked, but the Pirates wouldn't have scored if not for a wild pitch. Then, after Andrew McCutchen walked and Garrett Jones singled, the Pirates elected to bunt again, this time with the scorching hot Lastings Milledge. Milledge again got the runners over, but that brought Pedro Alvarez up to face lefty reliever Tony Sipp. Sipp got ahead of Alvarez 0-2, but made an awful two-strike pitch that Pedro ripped into right for a sac fly.

Brendan Donnelly also managed to get out of his own jam in the eighth and Brad Lincoln only gave up three runs (and just one after Carlos Santana's two-run homer in the first) despite giving up a bunch of hits and more flyballs (8) than groundballs (5).

But a win's a win and now the Pirates have two in a row, which is good because they're about to head on the road for more interleague play, and we all know how that's going to go.

REMINDER: If you're interested in WHYGAVS Night or a WHYGAVS Shirt, I need to hear from you ASAP.

You know what I'm going to say here. One win isn't nearly enough after 12 straight losses. The only way to follow up last night's good performance is with another good once. The team has won a game, Pedro Alvarez has a hit, Milledge is starting to hit the ball. Today, Brad Lincoln has a chance to keep things going the right direction by making his first good big league start. He's shown flashes in his first two starts, but nothing terribly consistent. Maybe a home assignment against the Indians with the weight of the losing streak off everyone's shoulders will help.

Two bits of injury news this morning that are leftover from yesterday. One is really disappointing; shortstop prospect Brock Holt, who was hitting .351/.410/438 with Bradenton in his first full season of pro ball (he was last year's ninth round pick) has a torn MCL and may be out for the rest of the season. With the way he was hitting, it looked like Holt would be moving along to Double-A with Tony Sanchez before long, but instead he won't get there until next year. Holt and Starling Marte were two of the bigger breakout guys in the lower minors this year, and they're both out for a huge chunk of the year. Sometimes this team just can't catch a break. Zach Duke will also miss his next start with "elbow soreness" which presumably means that Zach Duke lite (Dana Eveland) will get the start. If you squint hard enough, you might not even notice a difference.

First pitch today is at 1:35 with Justin Masterson on the mound for the Tribe against Lincoln. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.

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The Pirates squeaking out a narrow win and ending their seemingly interminable 12-game losing streak would be good enough news for once night, but there were plenty of good things in tonight's win over the Indians. Lastings Milledge had three hits and drove in four of the Pirates' five runs. That was possible because Andrew McCutchen reached base five times tonight, walking three times to go with his two hits, and scoring from second base on a two-out infield single by Milledge in the bottom of the first inning.

The other run was driven in by Pedro Alvarez who made a great inside-out swing to lace a ground-rule double into the left field corner for his first big league hit and RBI. Just as ending the losing streak had to feel good for the team, finally getting that first hit must've lifted a huge burden from Pedro's back. He looked like he was pressing early in the game with some huge swings and misses, so hopefully he can stop worrying so much and just hit from here on out.

It should also be mentioned that the bullpen trio that put in so much good work back in May was excellent again tonight. When Jeff Karstens served up a three-run homer to Travis Hafner in the fifth and DJ Carrasco and Javier Lopez couldn't get out of the inning, Evan Meek came in to get four huge outs, then Joel Hanrahan came in and struck out two hitters in an inning (something he does with incredible frequency; he's second to only Carlos Marmol in strikeouts per nine innings for relievers who have pitched at least 20 innings), and Octavio Dotel closed down the ninth for the Pirates third win in June.

And now, they have to go out there and try to do it again tomorrow.

REMINDER: If you're interested in WHYGAVS Night or a WHYGAVS Shirt, I need to hear from you ASAP.

Can things get any more insane? Pedro Alvarez is 0-for-the-week, the team has dropped 12 in a row, and a pierogi has been fired for public dissension. If it weren't so sad, it'd be hilarious.

But it's what's happening to the Pirates right now, and if the team could just get out there and win a game things might not seem so bad. Jeff Karstens makes his third start since the last Pirates' win, which is all kinds of sad and scary. He faces David Huff, and the two can commiserate over being fellow Strasburg victims. Meanwhile, Huff is the third lefty the Pirates have faced in four games since Pedro Alvarez was called up. Just saying.

The first pitch is at 7:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump. I've got the captcha eliminated from the comments, so it should be easier to comment now. Let me know if there are still problems.

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Hey! Let's make a big deal out of this everyone! The Pirates fired a racing Pierogi for writing disparaging things about the team on his Facebook page! Is this Pittsburgh or Nazi Germany amirite?

"My son always was a big Pirates fan," said his mother, Mary Kurtz. "He took pride in being a pierogi runner. Since when, in this country, are you not allowed to state an opinion? Well, here is my opinion: The Pirates came through again and let go one of their biggest fans and dedicated workers."

Yeah, I'm sorry, this is not a big deal nor should it be surprising to anyone. Freedom of speech means the government can't go around impinging on what people have the right to say, but that doesn't apply to private companies. There are plenty of companies in this country that would fire someone for the comments this kid made on his Facebook page (which basically said that the Pirates were screwed for the forseeable future by extending Huntington and Russell). Hell, the Eagles fired an employee within the last two years for ripping the team on his Facebook page when they released Brian Dawkins. This is not a story or an embarrassment or a sign that the club hates its fans; this is what happens when people don't think before using the internent.

UPDATE: And let me add that I'm pissed at the Post-Gazette for playing this for shock value and pandering to angry Pirate fans. That quote they ran from the ex-Pierogi's mom was fourth paragraph and the third full paragraph. The team's response wasn printed in the 18th paragraph:

Pirates spokesman Brian Warecki on Friday night said, "While we cannot discuss the specifics of the dismissal, we can say that a part-time employee serving a suspension for a previous violation of company policy was terminated for committing yet another violation of company policy."

The Pirates would have to win a game where Ryan Church had a three-run double, right? Right? RIGHT?@!?