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Don't We Always Suck in OpenersJason Bay and Jose Castillo picked great days to suck. Both of them stranded 7 runners on base. The absurdity of this statistic is that they bat three spots away from each other, which means we had a lot of base-runners going nowhere today.This game was quite winnable (you'd like to say that everytime Duke starts, but not when he gives up 7 runs) despite the 8-3 score. With a little more timely hitting we could have really broken our 14 hits (FOURTEEN HITS!!!) into a big day. I'm starting to thing that maybe our offense is much improved, although I credit that mainly to Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo not tanking it early, as they've been apt to. But I can't imagine that lasting, much like it didn't today, so hopefully the pitching staff will be able to pull it together so that we don't have to suffer too much longer, but really, what's another few seasons of this. Because the game wasn't worth sacrificing my job over, I just pulled in the audio, and while I listend I read this Urban Legend piece on Doc Ellis and his 1970 LSD induced no-hitter. His 1974 BeanFest and his account of diving out of the way of what he thought was a line drive, had me cracking up pretty good. posted by Rory at 4:53 PM | |
Michael Keaton?!?Batman is throwing out our first pitch. What the hell has Michael Keaton done in the last eight years. Come on guys, get in touch with the people. You couldn't have gotten a Steeler to do it, coming off winning the freaking Super Bowl. Hell, you could have had Charlie Batch or Mike Logan or some other guy who sucks and no one's heard of and the crowd would have still went wild.Update (12:48): I've just heard clips of the Keaton press conference on WTAE Radio and I'm not totally as against this selection as I was earlier. Anyway, I'm was hoping to see McLouth get the start in centerfield. This had little to do with who I think is deserving, it has everything to do with confidence and I just figured the risk of Duffy getting booed by the home-crowd upon a striking out to start the game might shake his confidence a little too much. Let's hope he makes contact. We'll also get our first look at the new mascot, which I don't approve of, but at least it give me the opportunity to link here: http://www.rehabthecrab.com/. posted by Rory at 12:06 PM | |
One Thing About Tracy I Like, and One I Don't (Relief Version)So there's a lot of things I don't like about Jim Tracy. This is just one: If he's going to do this two jams and you're out thing with his starters as has been suggested, then we're going to be pushing our bullpen like crazy. He pulled Perez in his first start after 90 pitches but he was limited that day. I think he pulled Duke early and could have let Santos go a little longer yesterday (although that ones debatable). And if he wants to get those pitch counts higher and the pitchers going deeper, I think he's going to need more patience.What I do like is how he used Gonzalez in the eighth inning. I hate the school of thought the says you only use your closer in the ninth, and he is exclusively the only one you use then. Gonzalez has shown the ability to get out left-handers and right-handers with equal skill, but we can't say the same of the other Pirate relievers. With three of the next four batters batting left, he's the guy to go to. Who cares who gets the save, you go to the guy you need. I would even take this further. If its the 7th and the bases are jammed I think you use the best reliever you have in that situation. Who cares about the stats, your closer is the supposedly the best reliever on the team. It does you no good to let him watch us loose a lead. posted by Rory at 10:07 AM | |
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Loss #6 Pirates vs. RedsLet me share some thoughts on todays game:Top 1st I don't really mind if McLouth or Duffy is starting in center. Duffy is struggling, McLouth isn't doing much better, but they are the centerfielders, and maybe they both can't make it in the big leagues, but it'd be better we find that out now then after three years of sorta giving them the opportunity. So go ahead and struggle guys, I'll stick by you. But for the love of God, strike out a tad bit less, please! Bottom 1st I was glad Perez came out throwing strikes getting in front of batters. I thought those first two singles weren't exactly stung. But I was scared that giving up two hits might rattle him. I don't know if that what it was, but we know what Aurilia did. Top 2nd So Burnitz totally sucks, but evidently he has the Jim Tracy seal of approval to not do any of the little things Tracy "preaches;" you know like taking crappy pitches or moving runners over. With Bay on 2nd base and no outs Burnitz took hacks at the pitches and seemed to have little concern for moving the runner over. It's nice too to see Freddy getting to play, but I'm unsure why he's batting ahead of Castillo, good thing it didn't matter here. Bottom 3rd It must be nice having people on your team who can get on and steal a few bases. Bottom 4th I don't know what I was talking about. Perez sure had a shitty game. Why does Tracy like to use every player he has? Last night he had Jack Wilson pinch run for Jose Hernandez, who he had pinch run the night before. Now we've got a double switch with Doumit coming in. This one makes a little more sense, but who uses their backup catcher in the 4th inning? Top 7th Ladies and Gentlemans I introduce you to Jose Castillo, you're 2006 Pittsburgh Pirate. And now that Vogelsong finishes his line for the day, let's congratulate him on holding on to his major league career for one more day. Top 9th ... and the obligatory ninth inning rally that is futile because the bullpen has put us out of reach. A common theme this week. I couldn't think of a more fitting ending unless we grounded into a double play to end it. posted by Rory at 6:56 PM | |
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Rain DelaysDuring the rain delay you can get your grove on listening to the Indianapolis Indians face David Wells in a rehab start for the Pawtucket Red Sox on MiLB Audio. They got off to a good start putting up a 3 spot in the first and Gookie Dawkins??? led off the 2nd with solo shot. The radio is free for the month of April but what's cool now about milb.com is that they have gamedays for all the AAA games so I can keep my little Indians box up while I watch the Pirate games. I could get into that.posted by Rory at 7:33 PM | |
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Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter HereTime to panic. The Pirates are 0-3 and face a pivotal four game set vs. The Reds that will go a long way to determining our playoff chances. Whew, I almost kept a straight face while typing that. The Pirates are going to loose three games in a row plenty of times this season; they'll probably do it back to back a least a few times. There's no reason for us to loose all hope, although some morbid part of me actually wants us to loose more then any team ever just to see how The Spin Doctors handle that one.That being said, we did just drop a big turd in Milwaukee and there are plenty of things to learn from. Here's what I'd like to say to a few people: Chris Duffy Duffster, relax. You're flailing around at the plate and not taking your time. To quote old Lou, "with your speed you should be hitting the ball on the ground and legging them out," but right now all your giving us is pop ups to the left side, The Tike Redman Special. Maybe this is something you can work on if you get demoted in a couple weeks Sean Casey Dude, I thought you had a reputation for good defense. I know Jack Wilson bounced two balls to you, they were tough to pick. But its alright to leave the base and sacrifice the out if it puts you in a position to prevent the ball from skipping into the dugout. Anyone in the 2, 3, or 4 Spot Stop grounding into double plays every opportunity you have to do so. The Bullpen If you're good, challenge these hitters. If you're not, stop. Whoever you are, stop giving up so many runs. Jim Tracy In three days, you have removed pitchers before they needed to be, kept them in after they should have. You're pinch hitting has been questionable at best, your lineups show a propensity to double plays, and who the hell did you have left to play had we gone to extra innings yesterday. In an interview, Greg Brown said you are one of the most prepared managers he's ever seen; that on Tuesday he saw you preparing for the Reds. HOW IS THIS A GOOD THING? You didn't play the Reds on Wednesday Jim. I could stand by Lloyd McClendon all the way to the bitter end. I already don't like you, that doesn't bode well for our relationship. What has capped this poopfest of a week so far is that I've had to watch all of this with a Brewers feed, but hey, at least I got to watch the games. posted by Rory at 2:03 PM | |
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Bats for CraigBucs face another lefty today in Capuano. I can accept the misguided notion of starting what will be your regulars on opening day even if it doesn't provide the best matchup (although that didn't seem our philosophy last year) but am I too naive to believe that we'll see at least a straight platoon in right with Burnitz and C. Wilson from now on?It was my hope that between this platoon, the occasional replacement of Sean Casey to keep him from injury - or to rest his ego or to keep him from grounding into life sucking double plays, and the pinch hits we could still see 400+ AB this year for the big guy. I can live with that. And ignoring the fiasco in the sixth I'm OK with Craig not playing last night. I felt in the ninth at the time of the McLouth and Sanchez pinch hits that we needed baserunners, not big hits, and I trust their ability to do that more then Wilson's. I'm justifying him not playing though, and that's not the point. There is no justification for him not playing tonight, except that we're dumb, which I'm pretty sure the Pirates are. Here's to seeing a lot of Craig Wilson tonight, as well as a lot of Ryan Doumit and Nate McLouth. posted by Rory at 10:08 AM | |
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You'll Quickly Discover I Don't Like BurnitzMLB.tv is showing the Brewers feed. They were talking about how good Davis is and on the Burnitz strikeout they said, "He made that left-hander look foolish!" and all I could think was that's probably not difficult.posted by Rory at 2:41 PM | |
Bring It OnThank goodness the offseason is over. If you can't tell I don't care. Don't get me wrong. I'll get excited or disappointed at having certain players around, but I just can't analyze that sort of stuff like some other people. I talk about games, that's what I care about. I want to talk about glovework and clutch hits and players dogging it and prospects doing well and all that kind of good stuff: pitching trends and hot streaks and sitting in the stands. It's good to be back.posted by Rory at 12:49 PM | |
As Seen on ScrubsThe Tidbitter actually pointed this out last week. I finally got the episode downloaded so I took a screen shot: It's an older one too which I thought was cool. The newer ones just have the "The" written in small letters. Back in College I lived with this chode and his girlfriend was over a lot; she was from Pittsburgh. I had a towel hanging up in my room and we had to show the house for some historical register thing. That butthole takes the towel down, so I put it back up. This happened repeatedly until I appealed to her for support and she totally stoned me. I vividly remember pointed and telling her real fans leave there towel up, no matter who sees, and then took guard under the towel defiantly. I guess my point is now proven. And for good measure I thought I'd throw this in from last weeks, The Office:  posted by Rory at 4:18 AM | |
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This is a blog about the Pittsburgh Pirates. My vision: to write about the games at the games. Want to email me? Make it out to rory at bleache... you know the rest. |
