It’s almost football season, so there’s no sense in spending just a ton of time on an organization that doesn’t care about winning, so let’s cut to the chase.
Good
* Well, the Pirates did win a game this week (7-3 over the Reds Friday night). That’s always a good thing. And until Saturday, they were able to say they had a winning record since the All-Star break. They’ve since remedied that. All in all, they’ve lost 5 of 6 since winning a breath-taking (for this team) 4 in a row last week. But they did win a game, and Ian Snell did pitch well again, so I’ve at least got one good thing to mention.
* Another good thing: 2005 1st-round draft pick Andrew McCutchen, after doing quite well at Class-A Hickory, was promoted to Class-AA Altoona last week and has proceeded to rip the cover off the ball, batting .360 with HR power despite being a skinny 19-year old centerfielder. I could make a comment that this will just cause the Pirates to promote him to Pittsburgh too quickly and ruin him, but I won’t. These are supposed to be happy bullets.
* One more good thing: as bad as Jim Tracy has been as manager, at least he hasn’t gotten into a fist fight with one of his own starting pitchers.
* And one last good thing (I’m trying!): ESPN has a good piece on Freddy Sanchez, who is leading the league in hitting and doubles despite being benched in favor of Jose Hernandez and Joe Randa for the first couple months of the season.
"He's so competitive, he'll destroy himself to be better than you," says Freddy's agent.Ouch. This season must be killing him then, eh?
Bad
* For starters, Shawn “I think I have a torn ligament in my shoulder, but the Pirates traded for me anyway” Chacon starts tonight. That’s never a good thing.
(Speaking of which, this is from The Onion: “Pittsburgh acquires Shawn Chacon from New York, prompting Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy to run around the office screaming, ‘We got a Yankee!’” Any time The Onion is making fun of you, you suck. Just thought I’d point that out.)
* Young players are falling left and right—rookie reliever Josh Sharpless and rookie-ish outfielder Nate McLouth both went on the DL last week, and promising starting pitcher Tom Gorzelanny is being held out while experiencing “stiffness” in his elbow.
* Here’s a bombshell that I didn’t even see coming—and I’m pretty damn cynical by this point. Headline: “Hernandez could be in the future plans.” That’s right. Soon-to-be-38-year-old Jose Hernandez has so amazingly well in stealing at-bats from Freddy Sanchez and other young players that Jim Tracy wants to bring him back. As bad a manager as I think Tracy is right now, I think it’s safe to say that he’s leaps and bounds better as a manager than as a talent evaluator. I’d say he has no future in the front office, but then again...I’m sure the Pirates will be hiring sooner or later…
* In today’s paper came news that GM Dave Littlefield is “in search of a left-handed power bat.” Well good. I guess it’s good to acknowledge that you’ve developed 0 left-handed power hitters in your five years as GM. You’re probably thinking that I’m about to mention that Littlefield could have traded Kip Wells for Ryan Howard last year for what would probably be the 5th straight Rant™, but the joke’s on you. I’ll mention no such thing.
Blog
Here’s Sam at BucsDugout, responding to the propaganda machine that is the Pirates’ MLB.com official website:
Read this really entertaining atricle. You'll laugh, you'll cry...probably just cry.I know that this is an article for the Pirates' website, so they are grasping at straws for good things to say, but this new article has crossed the line that separates stupid and insulting. In short, this article makes me want to vomit, then consume said vomit, then vomit the aforementioned vomit up again.Here’s Where is Van Slyke’s preview of last night’s Braves-Pirates game. See, it’s not just me who’s turned unredeemably cynical!
It starts with the title:Pirates hope to Motor in Tigers' pathW-W-WHAT? "Blossoming talent" is a vague enough phrase that I could tolerate this writer using it, but why the hell does he have to include Littlefield in all of this? Is this man related to Littlefield, or something? It is strange how this verbal massage comes on the heels of news that the Nuttings may actually be (Gasp!) dissatisfied with their horrendously inadequate GM...is J. Edgar Hoover involved in all of this somehow, even though he is dead? That must be it.
Blossoming talent, guidance of Littlefield have Bucs headed up
Basically, the thrust of this article is that the Tigers went from worst to first, so the Pirates will definitely do that too. The author employs a variety of "evidence" that includes (willfully?) negligent use of statistics, obligatory stupid quotes from baseball managers, and optimism that borders on fanaticism. I am not sure why all of this burns me so much. I guess it is because I can see the Pirates justifying another five years of horrible baseball by constantly pointing to the 2006 Detroit Tigers and scolding fans for their impatience.
Zach Duke and John Smoltz will face off tonight with Duke taking the place of the "glitch-elbowed" Tom Gorzellany. As we speak the scribes (or more accurately, the people who replace "Kris Benson" and "Jason Schmidt" in the form columns with "Ian Snell" and "Tom Gorzellany" and "10 losing years" with "14") at Pirates.com are probably churning out tons of tripe comparing the young Pirate staff to that of the Braves circa 1990 (I wouldn't know, I can't even bring myself to look).Until next week, when I will care even less because we’ll be only four days from the college football opener...
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