A good start to the road trip for the Pirates. Though I’m not enjoying listening to John Wehner yap about how amazing Ronny Paulino is as a hitter. Yes, he is hitting well, but based on his minor league numbers, he may be s tad over his head.

Good to see the old Ian Snell, the old Ronny Paulino, and the usual Freddy show up tonight. We did well against Aaron Cook (who has been extremely steady if not fantastic this year).

1st star: Ian Snell, just barely. He did a good job tonight. mixing things up and managing to strike out 10 – while only allowing 5 baserunners in the first 6 innings (though this Rockies team hasnt been seeing things so great of late) – before getting a tad sloppy in the 7th. Final line: 6.1 IP 6H 2R 2ER 1BB 10K

2nd star: Freddy Sanchez. An excellent night, posting his 9th game with 3+ hits and a couple two out RBI, including one that salvaged a nearly wasted bases-loaded inning. Final line: 3-5, 2B 2RBI

3rd star: Ronny Paulino/Jason Bay. Paulino gets the start because of his amazing cERA *snicker* and has a great night, with two singles, a grounder that was almost a hit, and a double that was almost a home run in four at-bats. Bay played his usual good game, reaching base 4 times in his 5 plate appearances. Final line: Paulino – 3-4, 2B  Bay – 2-3, 2B 2BB 1RBI

I think I am giving a couple anti-stars tonight to the WIlsons. Jack for going 0-3 with 2 K’s with RISP, and Craig for a pinch-hit GIDP. But, I hope to see them rebound tomorrow.

Here’s hoping we keep the mojo flowing with Paulie Walnuts tomorrow.

Belated coverage of the third game vs. San Diego:

Typical Burnitz, couldnt hit a daggone fly ball to the outfield to score Bay when we needed it. Yes, Chris Young pitched well, but he did not pitch 8 shoutout innings well.

Still, not going to complain about a 7-3 homestand.

1st star: Chris Young. Yes, we made him look better than he actually pitched, but he’s going to be at least a #3 guy for several years to come if he continues his current work.

2nd star: Jason Bay. Yet another hustle play that created the Pirates only serious run-scoring threat. He even said that he knew the team was doing diddly, so he needed to bust tail to third. Too bad he stayed there.

3rd star: Bullpen. I certainly can’t complain about 4 innings of shutout relief, even if it wasn’t completel perfect.

Feel free to take a moment and give a vote to the poll…

Fact –

• It appears Dave Littlefield isn’t completely stupid after all. He just stated on his pregame show that Freddy Sanchez has been "great" on offense and "nice" on defense (which I think is accurate) and that there is "no way we can remove Freddy from the lineup right now….Freddy is our third baseman." I can’t really complain about that.
• DL: "One thing that is difficult to do is figure out how a guy is going to do." *sigh* And the interview was going so well.
• DL again: "You have to play 162 games, and you have injuries, and you can’t bring up AA players to fill those spots." Yes, I actually quoted that verbatim. Since when can you not bring up AA players to cover for injuries? Isn’t that what Ray Sadler did last year? And what about all those AAA players? Strange, strange man.

Rumor -

• It is being strongly rumored that Albert Pujols is hurt badly enough to go on the DL for at least two weeks and is expected to miss the three game series at PNC next week. That could make for an interesting series – I wonder how STL would shift their lineup to accomodate (just plugging in Luna at 1B just doesn’t ring of "solution" to me).
• Rumors are also floating that the Dodgers are expressing interest in Greg Maddux. That honestly sounds like a win-win situation for both teams. Madduz has shown enough lately that I’m fairly sure that the Maddux from here on out will be closer to his April performance than his May performance, and the odds of that can only increase in moving to a contender like the Dodgers. The Dodgers win by being able to trot out a Penny/Lowe/Maddux/Tomko rotation, which would certainly become the NL’s best rotation. The Cubs would win because this season is probably in the books for them (much like ours is) and obviously, if you aren’t contending, you’re prospecting. The Dodgers have numerous prospects available to trade, most of whom would be warmly welcomed into the Cubs rather thin minor-league organization.

Just Funny - Roaming the Blogosphere, I found out that the BlueJays will soon have "Gustavo Chacin Cologne Night." No joke. Apparently one of the local radio stations cracked a joke about how Chacin’s name resembled a fancy fragrance. The franchise heard about this and decided to actually have Gustavo visit the perfume people and have them come up with his own scent. Now why can’t the Pirates do fun things like this? Find out what your players like, or joke about, or what the local media talks about, and have fun promotions based on that. You know, instead of non-stop fireworks and bobbleheads. Here’s calling for the days of "Jay Buhner Night" (Seattle promotion where if you shaved your head and put a goatee on your chin to resemble Jay Buhner, you got in half-price).

See how I spelled it like that CBS show? The one with all those marginally successful actors that I’ve never watched.

Looking Back – I think we’re already starting to see a regression to the mean within our division.

• Pirates – have won 7 of 9, finished May with best team ERA and BA, and were generally right with St. Louis in pretty much every category
• Cubs – Chicago has won 4 of 5 (including two in a row vs. STL), though that is on the heels of a stretch where they lost 24 of 30 from April 26th through May 28th. The Cubs are still finding their middle ground after a pretty good April and an awful May.
• Reds – Cincinnati has won three in arow after a stretch of losing 12 of 17. They were similar to the Pirates in May, above average pitching, and just as much run scoring in spite of worse peripheral numbers.
• Brewers – Milwaukee is continuing the funk the Pirates put them in and have now lost seven straight. Their pitching was easily the worst in the division, more than their surprisingly good offense could overcome
• Astros – Houston has now lost 9 of their last 11. Their pitching has been pretty darned awful lately, with the starters who smoked in April (nieve, Rodriguez, and Buchholz) pretty much getting hammered in May. They also are still finding their groove.
• St. Louis was consistent, posting another 17 wins in May, though it certainly wasn’t due to their rotation, with only one starter posting an ERA under 4.50.

Looking Ahead – This should be an interesting month, and a lot has to do with health.

• One would expect St. Louis to continue rolling, at least compared to the rest of the division. However, they lost their second straight to Chicago today, with Mark Mulder giving up 8 runs for the second start in a row(!). Couple that with the injury to Pujols, and we may see the Cards slip just enough to possibly make things interesting as we approach the break.
• Milwaukee is going to continue to falter unless their pitchers can start finding the plate. Capuano’s start against Pittsburgh was probably an anomaly considering the year he has had otherwise, and Davis has shown fits and starts of his old self, but even then, the Brewers would need a completely healthy and true-to-form Ben Sheets to get things back in order.
• Houston has had June start off just as poorly as May ended, with Rodriguez and Pettite both giving up 5+ runs for the 4th time in their last 6 starts (Though perhaps I should look into why Pettite started on short rest today). Between that and the shaky bullpen (which has ad most of it’s good innings after the starters had already given up chunks of runs), it’s safe to say the Astros are more than just Roger Clemens away from moving up the current divisional ladder.
• Chicago’s rotation is starting to come around, namely Sean Marshall and Carlos Zambrano, but now it’s all up to Kerry Wood continuing to improve, and Mark Prior and Derek Lee returning healthy and productive – though all that still may not be enough to crawl out of the huge hole the Cubs dug for themselves.
• Cincinnati is rebuilding momentum with a good pummeling of Houston this weekend, and continuing to get quality innings from Arroyo, Harang, and Elizardo Ramirez. Couple that with the prodictive returns of both Junior Griffey (.281, 6HR, 23 RBI) and Eric Milton (15.2 IP, 3R, 10K last 2 starts) and the Reds stand a decent chance of pulling even with the Redbrids by months end.
• How about those Pirates? They put up excellent numbers in May, but only manages a 12-16 record for the month. That tells me they’re improving, not getting obliterated, but still losing a few that they should win. We’ll face some fairly mediocre teams the next few weeks (Colorado, San Francisco, Minnesota, Kansas City) outside of St. Louis, and my expectation is for the Pirates to parlay that into a 34-40 record by the morning of June 23rd. Unfortunately, after that, the Bucs will hit a very large wall that is built with bricks named Los Angeles, Chicago (AL), Detroit, and New York (NL). Once we get back to the notedly better pitching of those top notch teams, I expect the Pirates to slip a bit and find their win percentage right around where it is now heading into the break.

Another soggy night at PNC Park, and Zach Duke looked early on like it may be a long night. However, after giving up 3 runs in the top of the first, the offense picked him up with a 5 spot in the home half of the inning, and Duke settled down to allow one hit and two walks (all with two outs) over the next six innings. Good job by the team in managing to right the ship (wow, a double pun considering the weather). Let’s hope this can continue tomorrow, now that the Padres have skipped Peavy and given us the chance to face our old prospect Chris Young tomorrow afternoon.

1st star: Zach Duke, of course. As I mentioned above, Duke had a pretty awful first inning, but turned it around to turn in seven innings and a quality start for his second win in a row. Final line: 7IP 4H 3R 3ER 2BB 4K

2nd star: Ronny Paulino. Ronny had a pretty good night, it would seem. I didn’t see the game, so I don’t know how well he caught, but he did manage two hits, including a single that brought home the game tying and game winning runners. Final line: 2-3, 3RBI

3rd star: The Weather. Thanks to Mother nature for allowing this game to be fit in. I know you’re on your annual "I have to make it rain during the Three Rivers Arts Festival" rant, but take it easy tomorrow, huh?

As much as I wanted to use this arena to just vent and ramble, the competitive fire in me just won’t allow it. I’ve read a number of member blogs here in the sphere and decided it was time to step up my blogging from fan-like, thrown together rants about random topics to serious, time-invested, (semi?) journalistic writing.

That doesn’t mean I’ll stop doing a majority of my writing about each individual game, or from statistical analysis, but I will occasionally try to broaden the scope of my writing, and spend a little more time creating logically flowing, **** free blogs.

Hence the name and layout change, along with URL appropriate photo. Let’s see what I can make of this, since my blog has yet to be good enough to merit mention within the sphere.

I will say that I’m not sure how the extra focus will affect the frequency of my blogging, but hopefully I will be nothing if not regular.

I also admit that sometimes, what I write here is merely agreement with opinions that I have read elsewhere – I’m going to start crediting the original sources of these opinions, and try to thusly mix it up and also comment on those opinions I disagree with (within the sphere and elsewhere).

Here’s to a good future?

Quick, to the Bat Mound!

Got to sit in the sun and watch the Buccos finish off a sweep. How ’bout it?

The Pirates managed to:

• manufacture runs
• come from behind
• complete a series sweep
• score winning runs off a closer who has pretty much owned us

Four things we never do, all in one game.

I’m going to start giving out three Stargell Stars to players when I’ve watched enough of a game to fell comfy doing it, and today will be the first:

1st star: Paul Maholm. He went 7 innings, gave up only 2 runs on 8 hits (two of which were well placed, and two more that were *ahem* singles to the SS side of 2B (what the heck, Jake?), and generally looked settled in for most of the day. Final line: 7IP 8H 2R 2ER 1BB 4K

2nd star: Jose Castillo. Castillo "only" went 1-2, but almost every at-bat was productive, as he came across to score the game winning run, thus involving himself somehow in every runs scored today. Final line: 1-2, 2B, 3 RBI, huge grin at the end.

3rd star: Tie – Jeromy Burnitz/Freddy Sanchez. Yes, that’s right, Jeromy Bucking Furnitz. If he has one more game like this, I might have to seriously think about eventually not calling him by his well earned nickname. He managed two extra base hits and a walk in four at-bats and came around twice (three if he hadn’t been lifteed for a pinch-runner in the ninth). Sanchez had yet another two hit game, finishing the series 12-18. Plus he understands the health benefits of peanut butter.* Final line: Burnitz – 2-3, 2 2B, BB, 2R. Sanchez – 2-3.

And now, at 4:45, the rain comes to clean off the field for the San Diego series.

* If you really want the story behind it, leave a comment.

Another 6 runs on 12 hits for a total of 32 runs on 47 hits in three games. Good GRIEF.

And I have faith we can complete the four game sweep tomorrow, in spite of our ******* in day games this year.

1) We just beat of Milwaukee’s best pitcher. It’s downhill tomorrow, period.

2) More proof? Look at local boy Dave Bush’s splits:

Home: 5GS, 36 IP, 3-1, 2.50 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 8 BB, 32K

Road: 6GS, 33.1 IP, 0-4, 8.10 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, 8 BB, 27K

last 5 starts: 27.1 IP, 25R, 23ER, 11BB, 27K

his first 30 pitches, hitters are 30-78 (.385) and have scored 6 runs, and then hitters are only hitting .227 on pitches 31-45, but have scored 16 runs.

This game should not have too much difficulty resembling the first two games of the series.

Yes, this is me sticking my foot in my mouth, hopefully I can pull it back out if i didnt just jinx us

I understand that Milwaukee has played…well, tee-ball defense against us these last two days, but 26 runs on 35 hits is still nothing to scoff at. How about Mr. Jose Castillo? Jason Bay’s streak endeth, and now Castillo has 5 HR’s in the last 4 games. He has been crushing them, too – here’s a rather small photo, but just to give you some ideas of how hard these balls were hit (click it and pop open the full pic):

That one on the left is the monster he whacked off the rotunda, and then in the middle oyu have the first one that he crushed into the Pirates bullpen, and the double that was almost in the same spot. The kid is creaming the ball, though he was foolish enough to predict 20-25 HR after the game. Careful what you wish for Jose.

26-4 in two days, let’s see what we can do to Capuano tomorrow since they pretty much have no bullpen now outside of their setup man and closer

That’s the sound of all the air leaving that balloon we just filled up yesterday.

O.K. I understand, Perez was pitching extremely well, had a three hit shutout going through eight, and because of that – and because you want to try and avoid the bullpen – you send him out for the ninth. But Perez had already thrown 120 pitches. If I’m a logical manager (a.k.a. pretty much any MLB skipper not named Jim Tracy) I let Perez go out to start the ninth, but at the first sign of trouble I remove him. I’m pretty sure that running the count to 3-0 and then giving up a hard single to a batter you had struck out three times before is a pretty good hint that you’re exhausted.

So Tracy lifted Perez a batter too late. Then, Gonzalez comes in and is everywhere, and it’s 4-3 by the time he is pulled. Again too late.

Then Bucking Furnitz turns a tricky but rather routine play into a circus catch, and because his large behind had to run so hard to get there, and had so much momentum, he had no chance to prevent the tying run.

Ugh. Great game by Ollie though. I think he might be back. Kudos to Bay for cranking anouther one and to Bautista for joining the party.