Game 102: Pirates at Phillies

Durbin vs. Youman, starting now.

Delaware Athlete of the Year

Kevin Noonan writes about Snell for all them adoring Delawareans. The bit at the end suggests that Snell would, uh, welcome a trade.

Who wouldn't?

Game 101: Pirates at Phillies

Moyer vs. JVB in ten minutes.

HW poll: DL in 2008?

Do you think Dave Littlefield will be GM next year?

(Friday update: Opinion is evenly split so far, so I'm moving this up in hopes of getting more predictions.)

Trading Torres

Sully's grievance complicates any trade, Dejan notes. Torres' charges of duplicity against DL could end up costing the Bucs 1.5 million or even prevent a trade.

Dangerous drinking

The Centre Daily Times Midday Report has DL's visit to the Spikes as less newsworthy than "dangerous drinking", which in part involves a man with a BAC (.426) higher than DL's winning percentage this year. I wonder if this .426 guy had been watching the Bucs earlier that night. Anyway, this falls far short of the BAC record. As far as I can tell, the BAC record for a conscious person is .914, for a driver is .545, and for a comatose person is 1.5 (also in last link). Don't try this at home.

Game 100: Pirates at Mets

Oliver Perez vs. Paul Maholm at 12:10 PM EDT.

Game 99: Pirates at Mets

Glavine vs. Gorzelanny in an hour. Castillo gets the start at third.

Game 98: Pirates at Mets

Maine vs. Snell, starting now.

"... this team is like an open sewer, it's full of filth and scum. Sometimes I can hardly take it. Whoever becomes the new CEO should just ... really clean it up, know what I mean? Sometimes I go out and I Snell it. I get headaches, it's so bad."

Ricciardi not interested

Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi denied the recent rumors about interest in Jack Wilson, the CP reports:

"We have absolutely no interest in Jack Wilson," said Ricciardi. "None."

Maybe J.P. is bluffing here, trying to lower Wilson's value, but it's hard to have any confidence in DL at this point. Will Carroll noted:

Dave Littlefield has set himself up poorly on this one. Teams are treating Wilson as if he's been DFA'd, and are offering little if anything.

The Outmaker

Brian O'Neill details the Neifiistic weakness of Cesar Izturis.

Polamalu signs

Troy signs five-year extension, the P-G's Ed Bouchette reports. For 33 million dollars, the highest-paid Samoan warrior ever wears black and gold through 2011. All hail Troy!

Off day

Try to remain calm.

Game 97: Astros at Pirates

Williams and Youman at one thirty.

Trade 'em all

Dejan Kovacevic reports the Pirates could trade them both one of these days.

In other news, Jim Tracy tries to blame the losing streak on Ian Snell:

"It's been Snell. You know that?" Tracy said in a stark tone seldom heard. "That's what it's been, this frustration, for all of us. With the progress we had made leading up to the All-Star break, and we come out and, with one exception, completely sputter offensively."

I did not know that, Jim.

Game 96: Astros at Pirates

Rodriguez and Maholm at seven-fifteen.

Game 95: Astros at Pirates

Oswalt and Gorzelanny at seven.

Yes it is about the Jack

After considering Littlefield's comment that the Izturis acquisition "has nothing to do with Jack Wilson," Dejan Kovacevic predicts Jack Wilson will be traded at the deadline.

John Perrotto wonders how this might happen.

The Pirates may have a hard time trading Wilson. The only contender that could use an upgrade at shortstop is Toronto, which starts veteran Royce Clayton at the position. But the Blue Jays are only on the periphery of the American League East and wild-card races.

Boston shortstop Julio Lugo is struggling, but it would be highly doubtful the American East-leading Red Sox would bench a player in the first year of a four-year, $36-million contract to take on Wilson. Wilson is due to make a combined $13.75 million in 2008 and 2009 in the final two years of a three-year, $20.2-million contract.

The Red Sox are much more interested in some Pirates relievers, particularly left-hander Damaso Marte, and, to a lesser extent, right-handers Salomon Torres and Shawn Chacon.

Jack Wilson will also be compared to this winter's shortstop-playing free agent class. It is possible that a non-contending team might want to acquire him for 2008.

Welcome Cesar Izturis

Jim Tracy's pipe dream of .618 the rest of the way is one step closer to reality.

Dejan Kovacevic writes that this might portend the trading of Jack Wilson. Certainly that was the first thing through my mind.

The second thing was: how much of Jack Wilson's salary will the Pirates pay in 2008 and 2009?

The third thing is: what kind of beer should I have to celebrate the acquisition of Cesar "82, Baby!" Izturis?

... 3:20pm ... no Jack Wilson trade forthcoming, Dejan Kovacevic reports in his update.

So this really is about doing whatever it takes to field a .618 team the rest of the season.

(Long pause)

Rob Biertempfel wrote this amusing interview for the Trib.

[Bob Nutting:] ... We have a very solid core of people. I have faith in the team we have in place.

Q: Does that include the team management staff -- general manager Dave Littlefield, manager Jim Tracy and his coaches?

A: Long pause.

A good follow-up question might have been: "Mr. Nutting, among your important papers, do you keep a 'shit list'?"