Okay, so it's not quite Tuesday yet. I'm sitting at a computer with a pinched nerve in my neck and nothing else to do but type. Sue me.
And as always...you probably don't care to read any of this, so just ignore me...
Sigh. I was totally and completely unimpressed with the offseason signings, but I figured the Buccos would get off to a hot start before totally and completely fizzling out in July and August. Now I'm just wondering what "fizzling out" will look like if 4-11 qualifies as "hot start".
Let's see...what's happened in the last week...
- Sean Casey's out 6-8 weeks (bare minimum) with a broken back after a freak collision at 1st. I knew he was injury-prone, and I was ready for it, but...broken back?? I was prepared for a strained hammy or something. Yikes. What's even worse is, he won't get to break the single-season GIDP record now.
- Ryan Doumit, catcher of the future, is on the 15-day DL with a, you guessed it, strained hammy.
- Oliver Perez got lit up again against the offensive juggernaut that is the L.A. Dodgers. After a brief appearance of Ollie 2004 in the season opener, Ollie 2005 has made himself at home in the last two starts...giving him a solid 8.10 ERA on the young season. Sadly, that's not the worst. Ian Snell is posting an even more solid 9.60.
- Jeromy Burnitz, brought in to steal playing time from Craig Wilson and steal $6.7 million from the Pirates' pockets, is batting a solid .241 on the year with 3 HR's in 54 AB's, and his 18 K's rank him 3rd in the NL right now. He K'd in the 9th with the tying run on 2nd tonight. Craig Wilson, on the other hand, is batting .297 with 6 HR's in 37 AB's...despite the efforts of management to bench him (hat tip to Casey for taking one for the team and giving them no choice but to play Craig at 1B).
- Chris Duffy, he of the .341 avg in 2005 and the offseason hammy injury (bad for a speed player) has pulled his average up...to .184. But hey, that's barely below Ichiro and WAAAAY above Mike Sweeney.
What's encouraging?
- Zach Duke looked great against the Cubs Saturday night in a 2-1 win.
- Mike Gonzalez has been phenomenal in his last 3-4 appearances. Too bad he has had two save opportunities in 15 games.
- Paul Maholm held the Cards to 2 ER in 7 IP tonight...in 7 innings, I'm pretty sure he pitched out of 7 jams, but hey...he pitched out of them.
- Craig Wilson has played like most fans thought he would. Too bad he'll be traded for a 37-year old starting pitcher in the next month. Or if we're lucky, Joel Pineiro. *
- Jason Bay is still Jason Bay, even though he hasn't caught fire yet and isn't all that great in clutch situations. I'll take him.
- Umm, yeah, that's about it.
Ahh...this is very cathartic. And it keeps me from ranting about this hopeless franchise every day of the week...now I can just save it for Tuesdays.
* I guess I shouldn't mock Joel Pineiro...he may be uninspiring, but he'd immediately be the second-best pitcher in the rotation.
UPDATE: Tuesday, 3:32pm
Two more points of interest, both about Craig Wilson.
- Apparently somebody thinks he's pretty good, as he just won his third N.L. Player of the Week award.
- But he still isn't in the good graces of the Pirates organization because, in part, he just drinks too damn much Pepsi. I wish I were lying.
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