Game 74: Pirates at Angels

Escobar vs. Snell at nine. Eldred sent down to make room for Phelps. Duffy's back.

Which way I fly is Snell; myself am Snell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threat'ning to devour me opens wide, To which the Snell I suffer seems a Heav'n.

Josh Phelps

Bucs claimed 1B/C Josh Phelps off waivers from the Yankees on Friday to bolster the anemic bench, Dejan Kovacevic reports. Phelps will be in uniform and available for Saturday's game.

Game 73: Pirates at Angels

Saunders vs. Duke at ten. Rajai Davis plays CF and leads off, Brad Eldred DHs and hits seventh. The Bucs haven't scored a run in 20 innings.

Kolb down, Eldred up

Kolb designated for assignment and Eldred recalled, Dejan Kovacevic reports. In other news, Snell's burned finger is OK, and he'll start tomorrow. Torres might not be back until after the ASB.

Game 72: Pirates at Mariners

JVB and Hernan at ten.

Game 71: Pirates at Mariners

Maholm and Weaver at ten.

Kuwata and Ichiro

Ken from the comments found this picture of Kuwata and Ichiro.

I thought it was pretty interesting until I saw the picture of the lady with the beaver sign in the second row. Then I got confused.

Game 70: Pirates at Mariners

It will be Gorzelanny and Batista at ten o'clock tonight.

Off day

The Pirates play in Seattle tomorrow night.

Game 69: White Sox at Pirates

Vazquez and Duke at one-thirty.

Game 68: White Sox at Pirates

Buehrle and JVB at seven.

Game 67: White Sox and Pirates

Hard to believe there's still almost 100 games left in this season.

Tonight it's Garland and Maholm at seven.

White Sox bring dirty feet to Pittsburgh

Rob Mackowiak recalls the learned helplessness in this Chicago Tribune report by Mark Gonzales. Gonzales describes the White Sox as at a crossroads. Desperately seeking "momentum," the team can expect to be disbanded at the trade deadline if they cannot compete with "perennial National League Central doormat Pittsburgh."

Breaking up the Sox's core for the distant future comes at a cost. Moving potential free agents could create a losing situation similar to the one Mackowiak coped with in Pittsburgh for five seasons.

"Sometimes there were no expectations, which is a little different than over here, where there are expectations to win," Mackowiak said. "Over there you played, had fun and expected to lose anyway. Over here, we're expected to win."

Is this fun? Or do the Pirates have their fun off the field?

Game 66: Rangers at Pirates

Loe and Gorzelanny in half an hour. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are not in the lineup tonight.

JVB to start

Chacon out, Van Benschoten in, the P-G reports. JVB will start on Saturday. (For those keeping track, Chacon's ERA+ is currently 99.)

What will come of Castillo and Wilson

Dejan Kovacevic's game recap focuses as much on Castillo as on Snell.

It's good to see that various Pirates have realized that Jack Wilson is not irreplaceable.

After Snell and Gorzelanny, actually, I'm not sure any of the Pirates are terribly essential. Even Jason Bay's left-field defense has been more and more Matt Lawton-like since that shoulder surgery. I could see the Pirates start giving him the Brian Giles treatment.

The team's still a mile below .500, the minor-league cupboard is bare, and the trading deadline will be upon us soon. The Pirates have hoarded money to re-sign a collection of guys who have been nothing but proven Losers, and we all know how they flinch when it's time to lay the hoarded money down.

On one hand the players might want out and wish for a trade. On the other hand, it's not like other teams want Losers much. And further, the guys the Pirates have traded at the deadline have not, for the most part, gone on to be so great for other teams. If players want regular playing time and plenty of patience from management, they can find no better job than the one they have in Pittsburgh.

Fire sale on the horizon? What do you think? I don't trust the Pirates to get good returns on their better players, so this is much more a prediction than a wish on my part.

All hail Ian Snell

He just pitched a pretty good game. And he laid down a nice bunt there too.

See if you can find some Dogfish Head to toast up Delaware Dante.

Game 65: Rangers at Pirates

Snell vs. Tejeda, currently delayed. Castillo starts again at SS in place of Wilson.

I swore that one day, I'd be El Presidente.
But down in Snell, it's really caliente.

Perrotto on draft

The BCT's John Perrotto thinks that Moskos might have to save DL's job too:

"Taking Moskos smacks as the short-sighted work of a GM who realizes his job security is tenuous, regardless of the votes of confidence he gets from Nutting and McClatchy...

While McClatchy has shown an incredible amount of blind faith in recent years in continually extending Littlefield's contract, you would hope Nutting is cognizant of the fact his GM hasn't appreciably improved the club in a half-dozen years."

Game 64: Rangers at Pirates

It's Hit the Cutoff Man Night at the ballpark. Should be spectacular.

Millwood and Duke at seven.