The Boogeyman and J.J. Davis

Steve Novotney looks investigates the many fears of J.J. Davis.

Going into the season, I thought "getting nothing" from J.J. was an unlikely and absolute worst-case scenario.

All hail Zach Duke

Altoona numbers to date: five starts, 30 IP, 21 hits, 23 Ks, 5 BBs, 0 HRs. Oh, and a 0.90 ERA.

Jose Castillo

Ed Eagle and Joe Rutter catch us up on Jose Castillo's near-drowning rookie year experience. Castillo appears to be on the Jack Wilson career path.

Game 112: Jason Schmidt at Ryan Vogelsong

There is no little enemy.

Adios Little League

Well, not quite.

I blame fantasy sports.

Managing

From Ed Eagle's notebook:

McClendon denies that he has become a more aggressive manager this season. According to him, he is just finally getting a chance to make significant decisions late in games.

"I'm managing the same way I have always managed. The only difference now is I'm getting an opportunity to manage." said McClendon.

"The first couple of years, I just sat there [twiddling] my thumbs, watching us get beat. We were out of every game by the fourth inning. There was no managing involved. Now, we've got an opportunity to do some things. We're matching up. We've got some talent."

McClendon's a fine manager but he could learn a thing or two about presenting himself as such to the press. He was eaten alive by the snickering set when he made a comment, earlier in the year, that appeared to take credit for Craig Wilson's emergence as a hitter.

Also, it's not true that the Pirates were "out of every game by the fourth inning" when he started managing. They've won some games every year he's been the man. There's real danger in exaggerating the weakness of earlier clubs - it only sounds like Mac blaming his career win-loss record on his players. That's not what he meant, but the whole texture of these comments seem careless and maybe thoughtless to me. It will turn off the fans and maybe, down the road, embitter some players. The way he talks to the press may be the weakest part of his game as a manager.

He could learn or thing or two by studying Danny Murtaugh. Mac will be Mac, and I'm not suggesting Mac has to be Murtaugh, but any Pittsburgh manager could learn a thing or two from Murtaugh, especially when it comes to handling the post-game press conferences. Murtaugh, for example, made fun of managers who took credit or talked like they had a significant role in the outcome of the game. From my Pirates Encyclopedia by David Finoli and Bill Ranier:

He credited his players for the success of the team rather than taking the spotlight, often caricaturing himself. Lampooning a quote attributed to Dodger manager Charlie Dressen, who told his charges that if they kept the game close, he'd figure out a way for them to win, Murtaugh said, "Blow everyone away. Don't expect me to outmanage anybody. If you keep me close in the eighth inning, I'll blow it every time."

If you've never heard of Danny Murtaugh, click here.

...P.S. Twenty minutes after posting this, I found Joe Starkey's essay on the same subject. He quotes Jim Leyland:

"Nobody really knows strategy," Leyland said. "Managing is multiple choice. I managed a long time, and I can tell you this: When I had good players, I did OK. When I didn't, I wasn't worth a crap."

I don't agree with that. A manager can make a difference. The best managers let the team be the team; the worst ones meddle and provoke competition among the players that does not help the players compete as a team. It's not possible for a manager to add much to a team, but it sure is possible for a manager to screw everything up and ruin a team.

Anyway, even though it's not exactly true, Leyland is damn smart to say this when someone asks for his opinion on the subject.

Another sign that Mac still has some learning curve ahead of him:

"When it works, nobody says a (expletive) thing," McClendon said. "When it doesn't, it's all over the (expletive) talk shows: 'What a dumb (double-expletive) he is.' "

Mac says that like it's news. Hey Mac, guess what: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If you want to get out of bearing the responsibility for failed gambles, claim no responsibility for the successful ones.

Only the wins and losses will have much say in the city's final opinion of you as a manager. Talking about the difficulty of your job will not change that.

Game 111: Kirk Rueter at Sean Burnett

Keep the ball down, Sean.

...wow, that was fun. Think Mesa needs a night or two off?

Pirate defense

We need better measures of defense. The Pirates lead the league in double plays - by a wide margin. They have the fourth-best "range factor" which is (putouts + assist / 9 innings). That would mean they get a lot of putouts and assists.

On the other hand, they have the league's worst "zone rating," which is something STATS came up with to measure the percentage of balls a player got and/or coulda got.

How do we reconcile these measures? The Bucs are middle-of-the-pack for strikeouts and walks. The only explanation I can see is this. Maybe because they are fourth in the league in groundball generation the infielders get a lot of opportunities to turn the deuce and throw guys out.

So the numbers add up to an overall picture of a team that doesn't get to many balls but makes the most of the balls they get.

Frame it

Reckless Jack.

Rob Biertempfel tells the story of that drinking-room trophy:

Second baseman Ray Durham got the relay throw about the same time Wilson was rounding third. The throw to plate got there well ahead of Wilson -- and he knew it.

"I was pretty much toast," Wilson said, grinning.

"I was there," Pierzynski said. "My arm was pretty much right across the plate. The guy made a great slide."

Wilson twisted his body slightly to the right and swiped his hand across the rear left side of the plate, avoiding Pierzynski's tag. Umpire Bruce Dreckman was right on top of the call.

"It was good that the throw beat me, because I was able to see where (Pierzynski's) glove was going to be," Wilson said. "He dove back and I avoided his glove with kind of a 'Matrix' type of move."

Words fail me. 83 wins, here we come.

Jack Wilson, Michael Young

Jack Wilson and Michael Young have had pretty comparable careers so far. Mike Young is ten months older than Jack Wilson. Jack broke in at 23, Young broke in at 24. Both guys are middle infielders. Jack is currently listed as 6'0" and 192 pounds, Mike is currently listed as 6'1" and 190 pounds. They even come from the same part of California.

NM AGE AB BB H.. 2B 3B HR SB CS .BA. .OBP .SLG
JW 23 390 16 087 17 01 03 01 03 .223 .255 .295
MY 24 386 26 096 18 04 11 03 01 .249 .298 .402
JW 24 527 37 133 22 04 04 05 02 .252 .306 .332
MY 25 573 41 150 26 08 09 06 07 .262 .308 .382
JW 25 558 36 143 21 03 09 05 05 .256 .303 .353
MY 26 666 36 204 33 09 14 13 02 .306 .339 .446
JW 26 452 13 145 29 10 09 07 03 .321 .341 .489
MY 27 477 34 154 22 06 14 10 03 .323 .367 .482

The final two rows are the 2004 numbers as of tonight. If Jack Wilson finishes the year at .306, odds are he'll have a lower OBP but a higher SLG than Mike Young posted in 2003.

Mike Young provides a recent precedent in which a middle infielder without a lot of power, basestealing ability, or plate discipline suddenly blossoms into a .300 hitter. If Jack Wilson's career follows a similar path, next year will be better, not worse, than this year. What could be more fun than brazenly projecting a .323 / .367 / .482 year for Jack in 2005? That should rile up the Jack Wilson haters.

Also, if you like to translate statistics to account for the different ways that different ballparks play, consider that Mike Young has been playing half his games in Arlington, a park that extremely favors hitters, while Jack Wilson has been playing in PNC, a neutral park that doesn't much favor hitters or pitchers. Factor in this fact that Young has had an easier time posting his numbers and Jack's breakout is a bit more impressive.

That said, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Mike Young comparison will be compelling only if Jack finishes strong. He still has 50 more games to play before he can close the book on a .306 season. We'll be rooting for him to do it.

Ode to Runs

How do I love thee, Runs oh Runs.
Let me count the ways.
I love thee as Josh Fogg chaseth you home with a groundout.
I love thee as you sauntereth home on a triple by Bay.
I love thee as Jack, the quick one, tripleth time tenth.
I love thee as Craig, amid doubteths he's an everyday player, homerth to center.
I love thee and love thee as Tike, risen from the dead, doubleth home Rob and Craig.
I love thee as Humberto, pinch-hitting, singleth home Tike.
I love thee as Jack, the quick one, scoreth, quickly, from first on a double.
Oh runs oh runs.
I love thee freely, as men pour the wine.
I love thee purely, as men love to win.
Oh runs oh runs.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
Last week in Los Angeles.

Game 110: Brett Tomko at Josh Fogg

The season is two-thirds over. What's left is half of what came before. Teams and players who want to finish strong have to kick it in right now.

Brett Tomko is your basic right-handed innings eater. He was a second-round draft pick who picked up a lot of hype as he broke into the bigs with the Reds, who desperately wanted him to succeed. After throwing 200 innings in each of the previous two seasons for NL West clubs, he signed a one-year, $1.5M deal this past January with a $2.5M club option that won't be picked up, I'll guess. His similar pitchers at Baseball-Reference.com are Pete Schourek, Rick Helling, and Cal Eldred. Sounds right to me. Nothing terribly interesting in his record against the current Bucs.

All hail Jason Kendall

That's the theme of this week's Stats Geek.

Questec bugs

If the whole Questec thing interests you, check out Jason Karegeannes's report at Baseball Prospectus.

Power outage

When you play a bunch of rookies, you can't expect a lot of power. Most players develop power only later in their career. That's one of the reasons power guys are so expensive in free agency.

Bob Smizik gets editorial on the singles power of the 2004 Pirates.

Booing Barry

Steve Novotney sums up why some Pittsburghers will boo Bonds this week.

I also remember his struggles in the 1990 and 1991 playoffs.

But I would never boo him.

the real Jack Wilson

Charlie's VORB thinks about Jack Wilson. Go read it - it's well worth your time.

There's two things I'd say about it. First, I think we have to be more careful with the word "real." The only real thing about Jack's performance is his performance. All these numbers are real. The real is what happens; his .320 batting average is "for real." When performance analysts translate real stats by weighting them, say, to adjust for park effects, they aren't arriving at numbers that are "more real." They are getting at numbers that are more ideal. That ideal may be closer to the truth. Translated or idealized numbers may be more "true." But they aren't more "real."

The smart thing for any fan is to look at all the numbers, real and translated, and to develop your own way of seeing the players that combines those numbers with what you see with your own eyes.

He's using the term as part of the idiom, "for real," and what he's wondering is whether or not we can regard these numbers as evidence that Jack will do them again. Fair question.

I don't contest the theory that plate discipline (something like walks per plate appearance) correlates with batting average. Correlation doesn't prove causation, however. Teenagers who smoke cigarettes are more likely to be sexually promiscuous. The correlation is there. When your son starts sleeping around, however, the correlation doesn't suggest you could simply say,"Oh, don't worry. he will stop soon: he doesn't smoke cigarettes."

Every year, there are a handful of players who consistently post high batting averages with low on-base percentages and little evidence of "plate discipline." They tend to be little, speedy, top-of-the-order ball-in-play guys with little power. A totally unscientific gander at the current stats shows these guys with high BAs and no plate discipline: Aaron Miles (.315 BA / .348 OBP), Cesar Izturis (.300 / .342), Carl Crawford (.306 / .336), Edgar Renteria (.294 / .338), Tony Womack (.293 / .340), Alex Sanchez (.322 / .335).

I agree that no one should expect Jack to finish the year at .320. Obviously, he's not Albert Pujols and he's not Todd Helton. Only nine big-leaguers hit .320 for the full 2003 season. The odds are against a guy like Jack Wilson finishing there. Say he finishes at .310 with a .333 OBP. What would I expect in 2005? More of the same. Charlie's prediction - .270/.310/.430 - looks fine though I think .290 / .310 / .430 or .300 / .320 / .435 or .310 / .330 / . 440 would also make good predictions. Because of the kind of player that he is, I expect Jack will continue to post a pretty high batting average on a mediocre on-base percentage.

Kimo

Ed Bouchette has a report on Kimo.

Defensive ends don't get enough press.

One of his unusual workout routines consists of tossing 10 used tires around, back and forth, back and forth until he gets tired.

Funny, Bones and I used to do that same thing. It's better than Madden.

Plax and Madden 2005

Interesting report from Chico Harlan on Madden worship in the Steelers' camp. Grandfather was a high school, college, and semi-pro football player in western PA and eastern OH back in the day. He liked to hit people. I have a hard time seeing him taking any interest in video games.

Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe gamers are gamers.

Tough decisions

Ed Eagle sums up the decisions the Pirates will have to make in the offseason. We'll return to this in October.

I'm in favor of bringing back Jose Mesa for his shot at 300 saves. Not too many other clubs would use him as closer and he has a good relationship with Mac, who is smart enough not to get all Larry Bowa with him. I believe Mesa is Dominican but lives now in Ohio. If he wants to come back and will do so for a reasonable price, I say do it.

Padres unravel

Check out this report on the weekend's series from the Padres' point of view. More here.

The Friars are pretty "frustrated." Frustration - what's that? Never heard of such a thing myself.

Wants to be here

Ed Bouchette has a report on Adrian Ross saying he turned down more money from Cincinnati to play for Pittsburgh.

Randle El getting attention

Jim Wexell of the Beaver County Times pays some attention to Randle El.

Guys were making fun of me

From Joe Rutter's notebook:

Until this weekend, Tike Redman had fewer walks than Randall Simon. Then, he walked three times in two games, matching his total from June and July combined. "Guys were making fun of me," Redman said. Redman said he wasn't being any more selective at the plate than usual. "Pitchers aren't throwing me anything down the middle," he said. "Sometimes guys pitch to me. Sometimes they don't."

The .299 OBP is still laughable. I wonder now if July will prove to be some kind of fluke for him.

Bucs win series in San Diego

Put away the Ray Charles records. The Bucs won again. And more, here's another Ollie photo for the drinking room.

Off day tomorrow and then they are coming home to host the Giants to start a stretch of 17 games in 16 days. They'll fly West one more time this season (at Arizona, a week from tomorrow) and the rest of the road games are in the division except for the final series at Philadelphia.

Game 109: Oliver Perez at Brian Lawrence

Brian Lawrence is a control righty who is durable and doesn't walk many. He gives up his home runs. Left-handers are eating him up and Rob Mackowiak has shown some ability to hit him for power.

Expect four or more of Mackowiak, Hill, Nunez, Simon, and Redman.

It will be interesting to see if Oliver brings his A game with so many friends and family in the stands.

Vogelsong crawls into hole, buries self

Vogelsong is acting a little like Steve Kline. More of the same here. Am I the only one who makes that comparison?

Mac talkin'

Tells Ed Eagle that he likes Bautista. Also says Vogelsong still in rotation.

Tells Bob Dvorchak that Dave Williams was touching 92. That's code for big-league ready in this case.

All Hail Kip Wells

Puts team on back, carries team to victory.

And three cheers for Jose Mesa.

Game 108: Kip Wells at David Wells

Let's win a one-run game tonight.

Bucco at-bat music: Bo Diddley night

Many thanks to Eddie Harkins for his hilarious reminiscience of former Bucco at-bat songs. I confess I never pay attention to the music when players are coming to bat - well, I'm sure I hear it, but it's a part of the game I don't think about much.

While we're on the subject, the craziest thing I've learned is that some of the players select their own music. What are they, strippers? (Link is safe for work.) If I ran the show, there's no way I'd let them pick their own sorry music.

I've been giving the matter some thought as I swill wine and prime the bedroom with some of this crazy stuff with its crazy fumes.

If I could do the music for the team, I'd go Bo Diddley. None of this everybody gets a different band shit, it's Bo Diddley or go home. Help me out here. Jason Kendall could lead off to "Who Do You Love?" Jack Wilson follows with "Don't Let It Go." With a man on, Jason Bay or Craig Wilson can bat to "Bring It to Jerome (chorus is "Bring it on Home"). New papas such as Rob Mackowiak: "Say Boss Man" ("got nineteen kids at home gotta eat / eighteen of 'em need shoes on their feet") Little Bobby Hill could appear to "You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover," Tike Redman to "Roadrunner." Young Jose Castillo: "I'm a Man" since he's almost grown up, and Randall Simon could pinch-hit to "Before You Accuse Me (Take a Look at Yourself)."

If we don't win on Bo Diddley night, maybe we could try B.B. King night. When Mac comes out with the lineup, we can play "Help the Poor." You get the idea. Every night would have its own consistency.

That said, I'm not sure I'd really notice the difference seeing as I was barely paying attention in the first place.

40% rookies and other numbers

Among other things, Steve Novotney notes the current roster includes ten rookies.

Joe Rutter notices that eight of the last thirteen losses have been by one run. I'd add that three of the last thirteen wins have been by one run, too, making the Bucs 3-8 in their last eleven one-run games. That's nothing to worry about all by itself.

Bob Dvorchak caught Mac bitching about the payroll. There's no doubt that it is easier to assemble a winning team right now when you spend $100 million, but a team that has several years to piece together a winner with $34 million can't use money as an excuse. Cash is great but it's no guarantee of victories. I don't want to hear the front office or the manager blaming the losing record on the small payroll. A .500 season is not that lofty an expectation and the payroll - given the time the team has taken to collect players like Jason Bay and Oliver Perez - is no longer an excuse.

If this team is a loser, blow it up in the offseason. DL saw a red-hot team in the weeks before the Benson trade and went out and got some pieces that fit with that team. Now they haven't won a game since. If this group plays .450 baseball throughout the second half, I'd blow it up. We could get a lot for some of the arbitration-eligible position players on the trade market. One thing that doesn't work - in my opinion - is waiting for a group of losers to get better. Once a group establishes an identity as a group of losers, the ceiling starts to come down for them. That's how I see it at least.

Game 107: Ryan Vogelsong at Jake Peavy

Vogelsong has an opportunity to be the stopper tonight.

Jake Peavy is a hotshot young righty. The Bucs haven't seen much of him, and they haven't seen much of San Diego's new stadium. They'll also get some time before the game to catch up with Brian Giles.

Bucco at-bat songs

Thanks to Tom Veil for this link. A lot of these songs I've never heard of. We could get into proposing alternatives for some of these guys. But now is probably not the best time ...

Bucs not hitting, rookies not executing

These things happen. As Joe Rutter reports, Mac went after Weaver's pretty obvious weakness against lefties. He's doing what he needs to do and things aren't going our way.

They aren't hitting for power. And last night, Sean Burnett left a bunch of pitches up, as Elliott Teaford summarizes it.

It's not yet time to give up on the season. Remember, it's always darkest before the dawn. The Bucs have been like this most of the year. Just when you think they'll never win another game, they turn it around. Like Craig Wilson, this team is streaky.

In the meantime, I'm eyeing that pile of Ray Charles records and stocking up on booze.

Looking in at the Curve

Altoona's Mike Connolly has been put on the DL with elbow soreness. Hopefully it's inflammation and nothing more.

While we're on the subject of Altoona, huzza Zach Duke. No walks, no homers, what more can a prospect do?

And Wednesday, Matt Peterson looked pretty good, too.

Rotation shuffle?

Mac is considering shuffling the rotation for this weekend. Any suggestions?

da Raiders' power running game

The NFL season opens with the new-look Raiders now led by Norv Turner. Here's a must-read paragraph:

Turner's offense is more traditional, more like the Raiders of the 1960s and '70s, with power running and more passes downfield, so there's more emphasis on fast receivers. He also plans to use more two-tight-end sets, with Teyo Johnson and Doug Jolley, because both are capable of catching passes downfield; Johnson, of course, played wide receiver in college.

Turner reasons that opposing teams won't be able to use defenses with extra defensive backs against a two-receiver, two-tight-end lineup, because defenses won't know before the snap whether Johnson or Jolley will be blocking for a run or be used as a receiver.

Two thoughts: one, it's OK with me if they don't force the Steelers to play a bunch of DBs. And two, I think Carolina has everyone around the league back on the power running game. Huzza for that.

Game 106: Sean Burnett at Jeff Weaver

It's a day game (3:10 EST) after a night game so expect a player or two to rest. Just a guess, but I'd expect something like Simon at first, Bay in left, and Mack in right with Craig Wilson sitting. Wilson has been flat-out not hitting since the All-Star break and he's looking pretty tired and clueless at the plate. We could say the same thing for Randall Simon, but ...

I'm also looking to see if Bobby Hill will start again at second. The knock on him in the Hill vs. Castillo competition has been his defense, but Castillo has not looked too sharp to me lately and Hill was fantastic last night. As Bob Dvorchak summarizes in his recap of last night's game:

The Dodgers could have tacked on a couple of more runs if not for Hill.

With Steve Finley aboard on a double in the first, Milton Bradley hit grounder to the right side that went for a single, but Hill kept it from going into right field and that held the runner at third.

In the third, Hill ranged to his left to knock down a grounder by Shawn Green and get an out at first. The Dodgers had a runner on third at the time.

Hill also made a stop on a ball hit by Brent Mayne to start an inning-ending double play in the fourth. He had to backhand the ball to Jack Wilson from his knee to get the out at second.

Hill's offense has been superior to Castillo's all season. With the offense struggling and Hill playing great defense lately, I don't know how McClendon would justify not starting him. Castillo needs a breather, I think, and Moses better take a look at the standings if he thinks there's no urgency to field the best possible team this afternoon. I don't admire but can understand the team's decision to go with Castillo most of the year since he's the younger and higher-upside player. At this point in the season, however, I think he needs to ride the pine while the hotter bat and hotter glove plays second. We needs some wins and we need them right now.

Jeff Weaver is a tall righty with a low 90s fastball, a hard slider, and a two-seamer. Throughout his career, he has shown some weakness against left-handers, so that's all the more reason to expect Mac to find matchups and start most of Noonie, Hill, Mackowiak, Redman, and Simon. Maybe Wigginton will get a game a first with Noonie at third, Hill at second, and Mackowiak in right. Why not?

...3:30pm Mac starts all five of the lefties and switch-hitters. Craiggers and Wigginton get a rest.

The Bucs delivered a run in the run in the first. But so much for Sean Burnett's ability to keep the ball in the park.

Las Vegas Explorers

I'm still pulling for Vegas to get the Expos so the Bucs can return to the East. Don't get the impression that I care all that much - I don't - but given the choice of Vegas or D.C., I'll take Vegas. I like the 7pm starts; games in the Central time zone start and run later. I also miss playing the Phillies often.

Baseball in Vegas still faces many questions, as that article suggests.

I can live with the Washington Grays.

Oliver Perez in California

So Oliver struggled and overthrew in Los Angeles and it's possible, as Robert Dvorchak and Joe Rutter report, that he was trying too hard to impress family and friends who ventured up from Mexico.

Oliver starts Sunday in San Diego where his inconsistency was enough to cause some to dismiss him as "mediocre" at best. Will he learn from Monday and pitch in San Diego the way he pitches in PNC?

The Grabow Contingent

Thirty strong in L.A. for the San Gabriel reliever. Joe Rutter brings the mini-biography.

Instant credibility

Kevin Greene's in camp to work with the current pass-rush crew.

Oh no!

Billick has computers!

Game 105: Josh Fogg at Jose Lima

Uh oh, Lima time. Game starts in five minutes.

Paparazzi at the car crash

I'm predictably and perhaps inanely critical of national-media guys for appealing mainly to the largest fan bases. If I'm bitter, it's not because I'm jealous but because all the attention to the daily soap opera of just a few teams means fewer remarks and worse, fewer well-educated or thoughtful remarks, about our team. So as Pirate fans, we live with a sports media in which the popular and influential pundits know little about our team. When they do pay attention, it's often for some embarassing reason: this player got released or the team has lost that many games in a row. Preseason predictions are often insulting and stupid ("Mac won't start Craig Wilson," "Rick Reed will be the #2 starter," "McClendon will be fired by the All-Star break," etc.). And, reaching for some team or player to make the butt of a joke, writers often choose some losing team they know little about. It makes them feel better, I think, about their ignorance of that subject.

I tune into a lot of the national coverage and consistently, my response is thanks but no thanks, and why the hell do I pay attention to this stuff? After all, no one can know much about every team, so it's wrong to expect more from the big guys who got big by catering to audiences in New York, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

What I really don't understand, however, is why the national sports media spends so much energy on negative stories. I'm hardly a don't-worry, be-happy kind of guy, but writers should recognize that fans escape to sports. Just because the typical amateur sportswriter writes juvenalia for a period (or a decade) of needlessly cynical venting, that doesn't mean that the average fan wants to read that kind of material. What they will read, however, is what's available. When better stuff becomes available, fans will flock to it. It's only a matter of time, I hope, before the work of Batgirl is as popular and well-respected as work like this. (We'll always enjoy a bit of gloating, and it can be good fun too, but as Pirate fan I don't need so many opportunities to gloat about the poor fortune of some AL team we never play.)

Anyway, totally worthless and bullshit story of the month definitely goes to the inordinate attention to Boston's side of the Nomar trade. I often check Google Sports to get a sense of the biggest stories out there, and for several days they've been rubbing shit in the wounds of the Red Sox nation. And I thought the coverage of the Aramis Ramirez deal was nasty and bitter.

All this to say, sometimes it's good to be ignored. Ignorance makes the moving on easier. Perhaps that's why the Red Sox nation feel like they're living under a curse.

Prospect news

Some highlights from Scott Rex's most worthy prospect blog:

[At AA,] RF Nate McLouth went 2-for-4 with a steal and a run scored for the Currrve. The underrated McLouth has 4 straight 2-hit games. He now ranks 4th in the EL in batting (.319).

[At short-season A]SS Brian Bixler was 2-for-4 with a steal and 2 runs scored in Williamsport's (PIT) 6-2 home loss to Hudson Valley (TB) on Sunday. Bixler, the Pirates' 2nd round pick this year, is hitting .294 with 21 runs scored in 26 games.

That's yesterday's news. Scott is a fan so if you are interested in minor-league players, check him out and you won't be disappointed in the coverage of our guys.

We got them young pitchers

Stories today about Dave Williams by Joe Rutter, Oliver Perez by Bob Dvorchak, and Glenn Rabney has a special for MLB.com too.

And don't miss this fine picture of Ollie worthy of printing, framing, and hanging in your drinking room.

Baseball America on Peterson

BA's not too impressed with Peterson and they overlook Bautista.

Game 104: Oliver Perez at Brad Penny

Here's a thread if you want to discuss the game tonight. It starts at 10pm.

The Dodgers just acquired Brad Penny. We send our top starter and hope to reverse this slide back toward six games under.

...and Joey G reminds us that Kendall will break the team record for most games at catcher tonight. Good reason to tune in.

Jimmy Anderson returns

New life for my preseason prediction that Jimmy Anderson would start a bunch of games for the 2004 Cubs.

Eleven straight losing seasons

Sounds familiar:

Sabean called [Brewers GM] Melvin to ask about reliever Luis Vizcaino, but Melvin said no. Melvin was not a seller because of "our history. We've had 11 losing seasons in a row and we have a chance to finish .500 or above. I don't want to hurt our chances by trading someone and getting back somebody who's only going to help our (Double-A) club this year."

I'm pissed we dropped that series to them, but I'll pull for a .500 season for them going forward.

That's from this, which is now being discussed at Primal.

Bloggy goodness

I'm perpetually amazed by the sites that refer people to Honest Wagner. This morning I discovered BlogPulse, which searches about a million blogs and has a bunch of clever software programs that map the spread of ideas and the relationship between sites.

Curious, I put "Jason Kendall" into their "key people" search and discovered that, last month, Kendall was rumored to be a trade target with more than half of the clubs. Trade rumors have no shelf life so I can't be bothered to read them now. Far more interesting are the many descriptions from (what appear to be) young bloggers describing their experience at the ballpark and/or their feelings about the players. I could be wrong, but from my limited sampling of the search results, it appears that the boy bloggers write about trade rumors and stats while the girl bloggers focus more on the players.

Here's some of the good stuff. Holly writes:

Nothing really exciting lately. Saturday Kristi, Leslie and I went to the Pirate game. It was really fun. The Pirates won 4-2! Wooo! My new boyfriend on the Pirates is Jose Castillo!! He came over gave me a signed baseball. Cool stuff!!! After the game was fun waiting for the players to come out. I nearly made Jason Kendall go deaf. Good thing his windows were almost the whole way up.

Erin-go-blog writes this, in a list of 100 things about herself:

85. When I was in high school, I had a huge crush on Barry Bonds. This was before he got all puffy and freakish. My new(er) Pirates crush is Jason Kendall.

Very cool, Erin. LadyPredator writes this:

I think I'm developing my first crush on a baseball player ever. Gah - I don't even like baseball that much - it's good to watch on a Sunday afternoon in the summer but it's just not that exciting. BUT - Pirates Catcher Jason Kendall is delicious. *mauls him* Too bad they're probably going to trade Kris Benson - those two would make a great fic couple. Then again, trades have never stopped any fic writer before. Hmmm.

I'm going to don't ask, don't tell about the definition of "fic couple."

Finally, BabyDuckie offers this gem of autobiographical writing:

Hey! Well tonight was absolutely GREAT! Dad picked me up around 4:30, and we got there around 5:30. We walked the riverwalk to see the big fountain, haha. Then we went to the Pirate Store, and he bought me the Jason Kendall On Deck Magazine :). And i showed him the charm i want for my birthday and the Kevin Young broken game used bat, lol. Then we went to our seats. Great seats. We were in the Grandstand, front row, 1st base line. When they were announcing the line-ups they said Jack and i screamed real loud. Jack turned around and looked!!! hehe. Oh yeah and when we were going to our seats Dad told me to ignore the usher so we didn't have to pay him. So i went to our seats and the guy went hey how are you guys doing and my Dad goes no and keeps walking! LMAO, it was hilarious, he's so mean. Then in the 3rd inning, they had the hot dog toss where they shot hot dogs from these guns. And they shot one to us!!! It was sooo awesome, i never thought i'd catch a hot dog!! Haha, me and Dad tried to open it but it was all taped up. So we decided to take it home and give it to Craig cause we knew he'd be mad that he missed it! Haha. Then Ashley came to sit with us cause she had her free tickets, too! And we started to cheer loud for everyone! It was soo fun. Then in the 7th inning, Rob Mackowiak got a grand slam off of errors. It was absolutely amazing! But then Randall Simon got out on a hit to the gap, he is so slow! I was screaming @ him. Kendall hit a homer, too! We won, 8-4 :), we're gonna be in 5th place now! YES! Anyways, me and Dad hadda walk back to the garage that we parked in downtown, and he brought me home. Now i'm gonna go watch the highlights and make sure Milwaukee loses!! Haha, so ttyl<3

The good people in marketing better get on this thing. Here is your huge and candid and free focus group. I've just grazed and I have two recommendations: (a) Don't trade Jason Kendall, and (b) Jason Kendall swimsuit calendar promotion.

P.S. All hail these ladies! Should they ever read this page, I hope they'll forgive me.

Operation Welcome Kris

Batgirl looks at what might have been.

Huzza Jack Wilson

Jack Wilson talks to Steve Novotney about getting better and getting asked, every day, when he's going to start sucking again. That ain't right.

Give 'em hell, California boy.

Huzza Dave Williams

Welcome back to the big leagues, Dave Williams.

He'll slide into long relief. He has come back from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left (throwing) shoulder. Some time ago the Bucs said they'd recall him when his fastball got up into the 88-91 mph range, which was curious because I'm not sure he ever hit 91 before the shoulder injury. Anyway, velocity or no, he's been a rock at Nashville and looks ready to help.

Stats Geek likes trade

Brian O'Neill reviews the deal and likes it.

Bay NL Rookie of the Month

Two months in a row.

Hair care by Wigginton

Pretty funny. Read for yourself. Third item. Obviously, Bobby Hill is looking for an excuse to fly his own freak flag. Why not?

Bryan Bullington

John Perrotto reports that he isn't impressing the scouts at Altoona. Any Altoona readers care to comment?

A little franchise history

There's no end to this stuff once you start digging through it. I'm sure Kendall is being honest when he says he's impressed.

Smizik: No playoffs for Steelers

He's wrong. I hope.

Ms. Anna Benson

The Beaver County Times's John Mehno speculates on her future in New York.

Littlefield admits mistake

It's refreshing to have a GM who is willing to admit he made one. Too many "leaders" today are unwilling to admit they ever made a mistake.

Still, it was a boneheaded mistake. At the end of the season we'll play a game, "Protect Me on the 40-Man," a month or so before the Rule V draft. We'll hope it doesn't happen again.

Pirate pitching since the All-Star break

Here's a few things to introduce the numbers. The pitchers are ranked by raw pitching performance which I measured as IP divided by (OBA*SLG). The more innings a pitcher throws and the more he dominates, the higher the number. If this seems like funny way to rank pitchers, consider that for this period, the top three pitchers with four starts, by this measure, are Johan Santana (3-0, 1.24 ERA), Rich Harden (2-0, 1.95 ERA), and Jaret Wright (3-0, 1.04 ERA). The top closers for this period (defined as four or more saves) have been John Smoltz (9 saves, 0.00 ERA), Eric Gagne (7 saves, 2 wins, 0.00 ERA), and Automatic Joe Nathan (7 saves, 0.00 ERA). The measure is quick and dirty and it works so we like it.

So as not to compare apples and oranges, I ranked the starters and relievers separately.

Benson's not on the starter list because he's gone and we're looking back to guess what to expect looking forward.

OK, here are the numbers:

BUCCO W L ERA. G GS .IP. BA... OBA.. SLG..
Perez 1 1 2.11 3 3 21.33 0.164 0.247 0.384
Wells 0 0 3.46 4 4 26.00 0.276 0.327 0.367
Vogel 1 0 2.00 3 1 09.00 0.133 0.257 0.267
Brnet 2 1 6.14 3 3 14.67 0.333 0.415 0.456
JFogg 0 0 3.55 3 3 12.67 0.314 0.417 0.471

Gonzz 1 0 1.42 7 0 06.33 0.174 0.174 0.304
JMesa 0 1 1.86 10 0 9.67 0.216 0.293 0.297
Medws 0 1 1.23 8 0 07.33 0.300 0.344 0.400
Trres 2 1 2.00 9 0 09.00 0.314 0.375 0.457
Grbow 1 1 6.48 9 0 08.33 0.344 0.400 0.438
Robts 0 0 0.00 4 0 04.67 0.294 0.429 0.294

Oliver Perez, to no one's surprise, has been the best of the group. The only thing not to like in those numbers is the slugging percentage which is high for a guy who limited batters to a .164 average and a .247 on-base percentage. When they hit Perez, they hit him pretty hard: of the twelve hits he allowed in those 21 innings, seven were for extra bases (one double, three triples, three home runs). The home run was something we worried about with him in March. Hopefully he's not regressing to his jacktastic ways.

Kip Wells has been solid too. He's been the opposite of Oliver: many hits (a .276 BA) but few for extra bases (six of 27; four doubles, one triple, one home run).

With a little bit of relief work tacked onto his one start, Vogelsong's work looks pretty good. If he can maintain that level, we're in business.

Burnett has been pretty mediocre but his ability to limit the opposition to singles has paid off with two wins. Opponents are hitting .333 off him, but only three of the nineteen hits he has allowed have been for extra bases.

Josh Fogg also continues to defy the laws of gravity with a pretty crazy set of numbers. All batters hit .314 / .417 / .471 off him. This is like Fogg facing a lineup of nine Jason Kendalls. (Playing APBA on the computer in the 1980s, Bones had a team, the Joel Youngbloods, that had thirteen copies of Joel Youngblood to play the eight positions and pinch-hit.) Despite this propensity to put lots of runners on with walks, singles, and doubles, Fogg escaped with a 3.55 ERA and didn't lose a game. Don't ask me how he does it but I've come to recognize this as typical Fogg pitching. Opponents will continue to underestimate him looking at such figures. He and Sean Burnett must get along pretty well in the clubhouse.

During this period, 136 different pitchers made three or more starts. Ranking them by (IP/(OBP*SLG), we find Perez in the 77th percentile, Wells in the 76th, Burnett in the 14th and Fogg in the 10th. NL Central pitchers in the same neighborhood as Perez and Wells include Zambrano (74th), Clement (71st), and Paul Wilson (76th). Mark Prior's been awful, FWIW, and ranks in the 7th percentile for that period. Something's not right with that guy.

In the bullpen, fans will not be surprised to see that Mike Gonzalez, Jose Mesa, and Brian Meadows were lights-out. Torres pitched like Josh Fogg in that he put them on but wiggled out (or was bailed out). Grabow disappointed these last three weeks and Roberts has seen little action.

On the whole, the pitching was pretty great. The Bucs lose the guy who was their best starter, but Oliver and Kip have been really good without looking like they've been at the top of their game. Burnett and Fogg can also get better. The bullpen has done about we expect them to do. If Vogelsong can maintain a league-average starting ability, there's no reason to think the Pirates, as a whole, can't continue to pitch about as well as they pitched these last three weeks.

...Reader Dan asks for Benson's numbers. Here they are. This is *with* the first-start disaster:

MET.. W L ERA. G GS .IP. BA... OBA.. SLG..
Bensn 2 2 4.94 4 4 27.33 0.262 0.307 0.350

84th percentile, with the seven-earnie start. He's been good.

Pirate hitting since the All-Star Break

Here are the numbers for the hitters since the break. Wigginton's and Bautista's numbers were mainly collected with their previous teams.

BATTR GM PA BA... OBA.. SLG.. RP R RBI
Kendl 17 72 0.333 0.425 0.492 24 16 08
Redmn 17 65 0.375 0.388 0.516 16 07 09
Mackw 17 63 0.322 0.358 0.542 22 08 14
JaBay 17 66 0.306 0.368 0.435 14 08 06
Wiggy 16 64 0.293 0.369 0.362 11 08 03
JackW 17 69 0.269 0.290 0.403 13 06 07
Craig 16 62 0.267 0.308 0.400 14 04 10
BHill 15 31 0.286 0.355 0.393 09 05 04
Nooni 11 21 0.316 0.381 0.316 03 02 01
Cstlo 15 42 0.200 0.238 0.250 05 05 00
Simon 10 36 0.200 0.222 0.286 08 04 04
Bauta 09 13 0.308 0.308 0.385 01 01 00
Alvrz 05 08 0.286 0.400 0.286 04 02 02
Styns 10 14 0.214 0.214 0.286 01 01 00
House 03 05 0.200 0.200 0.400 01 01 00

The players are ranked by how much raw hitting they did. (If you are statistically minded, they are ranked by OBA*SLG*PA.)

During this period, Kendall led off, played every day, and got on base like crazy. Of his 21 hits, eight were for extra bases (seven doubles, one HR). Redman delivered a very high average with not so much power. Of his 24 hits, five were for extra bases (three doubles, two HRs). Mackowiak produced 19 hits with eight for extra bases. Kendall led the team in runs (16) and Mackowiak led the team in RBIs (14).

Jason Bay was solid but lacking some of the power we might expect from him.

With the Mets, Wigginton suffered through a more dramatic power outage, managing only four doubles in seventeen hits. On the other hand, he did walk six times in 58 at-bats. That suggests he wasn't seeing much to hit.

Both the Wilsons were in a funk. They produced remarkably similar numbers. Both hit in the upper .260s with laughable on-base percentages and little power. Craig's run production was heavier on RBIs, as you'd expect from a clean-up hitter.

Bobby Hill outhit Castillo by a wide margin yet collected only three-quarters of the plate appearances. Since Hill is the team's best pinch-hitter, Mac may be saving him, but still this is a case of production not determining who gets the starting nod. Hill didn't set the world on fire at the plate, but the .353 OBP is excellent and Castillo's run of 0.200 / 0.238 / 0.250 has been pretty wretched.

Noonie has been Noonie, Simon has been Simon, and the other guys have seen very limited action.

Overall, the team didn't hit as well as they're capable. Only Redman hit at a rate that we can't regard as sustainable for a full season. Mackowiak may have been hitting a little over his head too, but I don't think those numbers are that far above what he's capable of doing. We've seen long stretches like this before.

The rest of the team takes some hidden vigorish to Los Angeles.

Pirates since the All-Star game

The Bucs are 10-7 playing every day since the All-Star break.

Congratulations, Lauren Bay

Looks like Jason's sister is a killer closer.

The gall

From Ken Rosenthal:

The Pirates passed on Twins Class AAA outfielder Michael Restovich, a slugger who attracts mixed reviews from scouts, several of whom question whether he can hit quality pitching. They also passed on Braves Class AA righthander Jose Capellan, who has one of the most electric arms in the sport. Get this: The Time Warner Braves wanted the cash-poor Pirates to include money in the deal.

Glad they passed on Resto, who a lot of people compare to J.J. Davis. If those were the other offers, the Bucs took the best offer. No doubt about it.

Not to gape at car wrecks, but Rosenthal also reports the Twins only got one Single A pitcher for Dougie.

The Twins were supposed to receive another player in the four-team Garciaparra blockbuster, according to a rival major-league executive, but in the rush to complete the trade, that player was left out of the deal.

Losing a player because no one double-checked the paperwork to make sure he was included? Ouch.

Now searchable

We've added a Google search bar down by the Archives (right hand column, bottom) so you can search the silliness profundities of Honest Wagner.

Game 103: Kip Wells at Ben Sheets

It's Kip Wells at Ben Sheets at 2pm.

The Bucs have Monday off and play all next week in California.

More trade analysis

Ed Eagle has a thoughtful piece interpreting how the Benson trade reflects on the Pirates' short-term future. This is a good group of players and it looks like Littlefield plans to keep them together. As Ed writes:

As the Pirates look towards the 2005 season, the core of their current roster should remain pretty much intact. Craig Wilson, Mackowiak, shortstop Jack Wilson, left fielder Jason Bay, second baseman Jose Castillo, pitchers Perez, Burnett, Torres, Meadows, Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, and others should all be under contract with the Pirates through at least the 2006 season. This bodes well for a club whose young players have shown the ability to compete at the Major League level.

It will be interesting to see how the team goes about re-signing all these guys.

Jason Bay biography

Joe Starkey called Jason Bay's grumpy old Canadian baseball coach for today's interview. Bay was a 22nd round pick by les Expos.

Tim Foli

He went 4 for 5 with some RBIS this time 25 years ago. The Bucs were 58-45.

Kendall to L.A.

We'll probably hear more about the possibility of a Kendall-to-LA deal now that the Dodgers miss Paul Lo Duca. I'd rather keep him here and build around him.

Cooking and barbecuing

Bob Barrickman of the Beaver County Times catches up with Jim Rooker. Sounds like he's doing well.

Adios Chris Stynes

Sent down for Mark Corey. Story here (by Ed Eagle), here (Bob Dvorchak), and here (Joe Rutter).

Israeli pitchers

The Bucs are scouting the Israel's national baseball team.

All hail Ryan Vogelsong

He of the 77 pitches and 44 strikes. Sounds like he was scaring people.

I guess Kris Benson gave him back his mojo before he left for Atlanta.

Matt Peterson

Matt Peterson hails from Alexandria, Louisiana, on I-49 smack dab in the middle of the state, the birthplace of other notable ballplayers such as Warren Morris and Terry Mathews. It seems that no one spilled much ink on him as a high school player. At 6'5" and 210 pounds, he's a 22-year-old righty who's been pitching well for the Binghampton Mets of the Eastern League. The book on him says 90-92 mph fastball with a big-league curve and a changeup that needs to get better. He's said to have "savvy" and "poise" for a kid his age. Rotowire (if you subscribe to one baseball news service, I recommend Rotowire) puts it this way:

He has a solid 90-92 mph fastball that he throws to both sides of the plate on a downward plane, but his out pitch is a 12-to-6 curveball that will be a plus pitch with a little more consistency. His changeup also has shown flashes of becoming a solid offering and he did a better job with his focus and concentration on the mound in 2003.

In 2000, the Mets took him in the second round of the draft. He was 18 at the time so I assume he came straight out of high school.

In 2003, he spent most of the season with Class A St. Lucie. In his first start, he strained his rotator cuff and then missed about a month of the season. He finished well, with a 9-2 record and a 1.71 ERA. He had 73 strikeouts and 24 walks in 84 innings which suggests he's something of a power guy. Even better: he only allowed 65 hits in those 84 innings (that's a WHIP of 1.06, roto players). He made six starts in AA last year and wasn't so impressive but OK. The Mets returned him to St. Lucie for their playoffs and he obliterated the competition in two starts, going 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA. He got the Seiko watch they give out for winning the honor of Mets Organizational Pitcher of the Year.

The Mets brought him to camp this March. Praising him, Art Howe said he has a nice frame and that "the ball comes out of his hand real nice." Howe lined him up against the Dodgers early in the month. He pitched two innings, gave up six hits, allowed four earned runs, walked nobody and struck out two. That was it for his time in Spring Training. Then he went to AA Binghamton. Down there he started 19 games, threw 104 innings, allowed 97 hits, 45 walks, 90 strikeouts, and 11 home runs. He had a 6-4 record with a 3.27 ERA (but, I noticed, a lot of unearned runs too). Binghamton has been one of the best teams in the Northern division and has an overall record that is not quite as good as Altoona's.

Peterson is just now coming off the disabled list for a strained left oblique muscle. Other than the strained cuff in early 2003 and this strained oblique, I find no other record of injury. That doesn't mean he hasn't been hurt; it only means I can't find any other news about him missing time for being hurt.

This year, the Mets have been considering him closer to major-league ready than Scott Kazmir, the more highly-regarded prospect they sent to Tampa Bay, but they regarded him as still some time away. Some people doubted if he was dominating AA as much as his Single A performance led them to expect. But the season's not over, so we'll see what he can do for the Curve.

Peterson appears to rank right around there with Ian Snell, at least from a performance standpoint. In 20 starts, Snell has thrown 117 innings, allowed 120 hits, 34 walks, 103 strikeouts, and 13 home runs. I don't know how these AA starters come out with good ERAs allowing so many HRS. Snell's record for the curve has been 7-6 with a 3.38 ERA.

Looking in at the Curve, I see Zach Duke continuing to come on strong. In two starts, he's 1-0 with 12 strikeouts, 7 hits, and 2 walks in 11 innings.

Young pitchers are so unpredictably injury-prone, it's hard to get too excited about them before set foot on a big-league mound. The rarity of the exceptions – e.g., Mark Prior – prove that rule. So the best thing an organization can do is stockpile them. The more young starters you have, the better chance you'll have of developing your own Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and so forth. Peterson looks like a solid pickup for a team that plans to specialize in homegrown starting pitching.

Thoughts on the trade

More details about the big trade are out this morning. For one, the Pirates optioned Alvarez back to Nashville and moved Boehringer to the 60-day DL to make room for Wigginton and Bautista, Ed Eagle reports.

There are many "good-bye" details for Kris Benson, including this story by Steve Novotney and notes here, for example, and here on him leaving friends. My favorite line comes from Novotney's article. It's about the Anna Benson Factor. I still think teams pursued him not as a two-month rental but as someone to figure in their rotation for several years. With a outspoken supermodel wife, Benson would obviously move to New York, where she can work and get all kinds of national exposure. He wasn't going to sign with Minnesota when New York was available, I believe. Responding to her reputation for calling talk shows, Benson said: "What can I say? She's a strong lady,'' Benson said. "She believes in me, and if there's anyone who knows what I've gone through to get back to 100 percent, it's her.''

There's no doubt in my mind that Benson will be one of the better pitchers in the national league over the next year.

Wigginton arrives with the following:

"I'm definitely without a doubt very excited," Wigginton, a right-handed batter, said of joining the Pirates.

That's here, in Paul Meyer's article on the trade. We may be a little tired of hearing about hustle and blue-collar work ethics, but Wigginton does have some of that reckless abandon on the basepaths that Pirate fans have cheered since the days of the Flying Dutchman. The man consistently scores more runs than you'd expect for a .330 OBP guy. And he plays third base. There's a good chance the Great Ty Wigginton (as we always call him in one of my roto leagues) will grow on us. I'm ready to give him some time. Whatever he does, I doubt he'll make us miss Chris Stynes.

The trade came down to needing a third baseman. This is speculation on my part. Mackowiak is not a long-term answer there for various reasons. Neither is Bobby Hill. And the free agent market is going to be very tight and highly priced this fall. Rather than take the very best players available, Littlefield appears to have gone for the best players available at that position. Wigginton has obvious holes in his game (e.g., his defense) that will give the Pirates some leverage in arbitration. He shouldn't get too expensive. Also, the fact that Bautista projects as a third baseman appears to have been pretty significant since the Pirates took him instead of a more highly-touted catching prospect.

One thing this tells me is that Littlefield intends to work with the guys we have now. By focussing on such specific needs, Littlefield suggests that he does not think churning the roster is the best way to build up the team. If he only accepts the best overall players, then he puts himself in a position where he has to trade some more. He'd have to trade and trade and trade until the roster is balanced across the positions. This particular trade does not require the Pirates to make more trades. Fans of the current players might see that as a sign that DL intends to build around the players we have now. Maybe I'm seeing too much in the tea leaves, but it's something to consider.

I agree with Bob Smizik and sense that the Pirates got the best deal. He's more down on the quality of Benson than I am. My guess is that when men like Bobby Cox want to add Benson to the rotation, that doesn't indicate that Benson is not that great a pitcher. We'll see how well he pitches over the next year.

If the regular eight are Kendall, Wilson, Castillo, Wilson, Bay, Redman, Mackowiak, and now Wigginton, and if we're carrying 13 position players, the bench is what ... Bobby Hill, Noonie, Bautista, and some two of Simon, Stynes, and House/Cota. I'll guess we're going to keep Simon and Stynes. Bones may get his hot-dog eating contest as soon as tomorrow.

Here's hoping the deal ends any distraction the players might have been experiencing from the on-the-field challenges. Thursday night they pissed away a win in the ninth against one of the best teams in the league. Last night, Burnett got lit up by the Brewers. Tonight Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound and hopes to recover his March form. Losing Benson is a huge blow to the rotation, but it makes an opportunity where we have plenty of guys to audition. Adding Wigginton should help the offense.

I'll cut the Pirates some slack for treading water over the last ten. Now it's time to stop talking trade and focus on how the Pirates are winning and could win more.

Benson trade

Full details:

For Benson, eligible for free agency after this season, and minor league infielder Jeff Keppinger, the Mets traded infielder Ty Wigginton, highly touted minor league pitcher Matt Peterson and infielder Jose Bautista to the Pirates. The Mets got Bautista earlier in the day from Kansas City for minor league catcher Justin Huber.

Story here. Keppinger is the high batting-average singles hitter from Altoona. He was 24 in AA.

First reaction: let's see what Wigginton does in the black and gold before we get too depressed or excited.

Also: the big surprise is getting the Mets to burn Huber to get Bautista back. Littlefield admits a mistake and pays a price to undo it. He exposes himself to even more criticism about last year's Rule V draft. I kinda respect that. In the meantime, a lot of people are going to call Bautista getting "nothing" for Huber, who is a highly-regarded catching prospect.

And: Bucs trade pitcher, add two position players. Someone has to come off the 40-man roster somehow, and the Pirates have to make room among the position players for Wigginton and Bautista, who is going to stick around.

And: Mac said Wigginton will play first and third, and not cut into Mackowiak's playing time.

Ouch

Breaking news is DL got Wigginton, Matt Peterson, and Jose Bautista for Benson. Wow this seems bad for Bucs to me on the surface. All I can picture is the Simon vs. Wigginton hot-dog-eating contests in the clubhouse dining room.

Bye-bye Anna we'll miss you.

Game 101: Sean Burnett at Doug Davis

Nice to see Mr. Davis again. If Tony Alvarez starts in the outfield, this may be why.

An 8-1 victory sure would go down smooth about now. Hmmm. So thirsty . . .

Mortgaging the future?

The Mets are three games under .500 and seven and a half out of the wild card race. We're four games under .500 and a half game back of the Mets. How silly will a Benson trade tomorrow look if the Pirates win, the Mets lose, and we're ahead of them in the wild card standings?

All the we-won't-mortgage-the-future-for-the-present talk disguises the fact that Duquette is not looking to make a trade that helps the team this year. He's thinking long-term and using the phony "contender" status to justify keeping his best chips. The New York media provide cover by spinning his interest in our twice-injured and unproven ace as "keeping up with the Yankees." Is that the reason the Mets are pretending to be contenders? A likely story, I say.

Why are the Mets hot for Benson? The Mets seem keen because Benson has indicated he'll sign an extension with them. And, because they know he could be awesome long and soon. The Braves are also interested, the rumors run, because Benson, whose family now lives in Georgia, would do a deal with them on Sunday.

That's it: the Mets and the Braves don't want Benson for now. They want him for later. They want him for next year and the year after. They must figure that Benson will get more as a free agent in December than he'll take in a contract extension next week.

All the more the reason they should give up the nappy prospects.

"I don't think I'm a loafer"

Been there, done that.

This is a problem with the radical rebuilding schemes so many armchair GMs advise: players slack off when the expectations are lowered. (A corollary of this proposition is that we can expect underachievers to perform better when transferred to winning teams. Trust me, "Bones" Benson will go off in another uniform.)

The losing and the slacking off go hand-in-hand.

Kansas City has lost seven straight, and has scored just 11 runs over the stretch.

Royals first baseman Ken Harvey was taken out of the game by manager Tony Pena for not running out a pop fly in the fourth.

``Either we're going to play the game right or people are going to be on the bench,'' Pena said. ``I ask my players to run the ball out. Whoever doesn't run the ball out, I'm going to take him out of the game. It's inexcusable.''

Harvey said he ran all the way to the bag on the ball that was caught by first baseman Martinez.

``I thought it was good enough, but I didn't run hard enough,'' Harvey said. ``What I can do? That's his decision. End of story.

``I feel like I play hard everyday. I'm not trying to make this into a battle of what I do, but I think my effort speaks for itself everyday. Ask my teammates ... I play hard. I don't think I'm a loafer. If I'm the scapegoat, I guess I'll be that guy.''

Sucks for Tony Pena. A few more years of this and Royals marketing will have to sell "hustle" as the team's strong point.

For Harvey, a better answer would be less mopey, something like, "I started running hard but then I saw this beautiful woman in the stands. I slowed down to see if I could make eye contact and give her a smile. I let everyone down with this lack of self-discipline. I promise it will never happen again."

Boston likes Rob Mackowiak

John Perrotto reports that Boston has its eye on Rob Mackowiak should their deal for Jay Payton fall through. (Thank you, Rotowire, for the alert. Beaver County doesn't post their articles as early as the other sources.)

This is verry interesting since the knock against Wigginton (for me at least) is that he does more or less the same things that Rob Mackowiak does. And I like Rob Mackowiak and I think we need a potential starter and not a potential starting stop-gap/super utility guy.

Mackowiak should be eligible for arbitration with his service time. I have no idea what he would command. Wigginton came up in May of 2002 so he should be eligible for arbitration too, based on the little I know about on the subject. Wigginton is playing his 26 season; Mackowiak is playing his 28 season.

Remember folks, we only see the tip of the iceberg. We don't what, if anything, in these reports is true. And we know there are things we don't know. And we don't know how much we don't know. (Do I sound like Donald Rumsfield?)

For all we know, Baltimore has been making discreet inquiries about Randall Simon.

Ticket sales predictable, encouraging

Joe Starkey reports today on recent ticket sales for the Tribune-Review.

The bad news is that the season-ticket base remains low (under 9,000) and the overall pace remains behind the sadness that was the 2003 pace.

The good news is that the walk-up sales have been great this past week.

On Wednesday, they drew the largest mid-week walk-up sale (7,331) in PNC Park's four-year history. Yesterday's game attracted 25,988, including a walk-up sale of 6,533.

The Pirates finished the month with a 12-4 home record, by far, their best month at PNC Park.

They are 22-11 in the past 33 games.

No wonder the team easily exceeded its projected July attendance.

Win and when we come, we'll bring more friends. Win while we're with you, and we'll all come back soon. It's pretty simple.

Starkey adds another opinion I share:

[Mike Berry, the team's vice president of marketing and sales] still seems a bit caught up in the "work ethic" thing. He used the phrase several times and said, "We think we have a hard-working group of players that fans can really identify with."

Nobody wants to hear that stuff anymore. They want results.

Nail, head, etc. Sure, we appreciate the fact that battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won. We know that spirit matters.

But that's not enough. That's an expectation and not a hope. It's exasperating to watch Joggin' George Hendrick fail to reach safely when the throw gets past the first baseman. But it's not satisfying to watch the players hustle and lose. Having a good work ethic is the bare minimum.

We're not buying tickets for a team because they are sold with excuses. When the marketing people lead with this "they work hard like you" stuff, we're hearing excuses. "This team works hard" is code for "we probably won't win, but we'll hustle." As Starkey says, we're not buying that. "We got rid of George Hendrick" will not send me running to the ticket window -- especially when I know Randall Simon is still on the roster.

If the Pirates want to sell tickets for their August homestands, they should run ads that emphasize July's winning home record. Ads won't be as effective as the eleven o'clock news reporting a victory, but if Mike Berry needs talking points, winning more and building a home-field advantage should go up above the stuff about young guys with a good work ethic.

Oliver

For some reason I really enjoy reading about Oliver Perez. Ed Eagle and Rob Biertempfel oblige.

Benson

Sorry Batgirl, your Twins have backed off. Joe Rutter and Paul Meyer have that news.

Sounds like the addition of Lastings Milledge has Littlefield listening to the Mets again. Meyer reports that the Braves are in it.

Rotoworld reports that Peter Gammons reports the Pirates will trade Benson for Wigginton, Peterson, and Milledge tomorrow. Sounds like he did this on TV and threw in some speculation that the White Sox would give us a player to sweeten the deal and keep Benson out of Minnesota. That would be sweet. Maybe the Indians will throw in Grady Sizemore? How much protection money is too much?

I've learned a few things about media coverage since starting this blog. It was obvious enough that the New York teams get the most coverage. They have the most papers and the most people getting paid to write something every day. What's less obvious is two things. One, the New York writers present a lot more speculation and also indulge in more "L.A. Confidential"-type gossip stories. A lot of the news is soft. It's not factual and it's not always related to the play on the field.

Second, all of the national sources are on top of the New York coverage. Guys like Peter Gammons don't miss any of it. This stems from an imperative the national sources feel: they must report the New York news. They don't care what the quality is. If A-Rod swore like a teenage sailor with anger-management problems, that footage starts Baseball Tonight. If two guys at the New York Post have trade rumors, Peter Gammons has better trade rumors. The big national guys will not go on TV and hard news on the Colorado Rockies when there's any excuse to talk about the Yankees or the Mets.

This isn't the first time there have been rumors that the Pirates will trade Benson to the Mets "tomorrow."

The Atlanta and Anaheim sides are largely unknown. If Terry Ryan doesn't go on Minnesota talk radio to say he's out because we won't take Resto, then we wouldn't know that, either.

We're too in the dark to be able to second-guess how the Pirates are handling the negotiations. But we're not so in the dark. Maybe we believe Peter Gammons, or maybe we wait and see.

Maybe we wait an hour and read in the Post that the rumor is false. Think Gammons made it up just so he could bask in the glow of rapt attention? Today the Post says the Mets will part with Scott Kazmir (!) for Victor Zambrano (!!). Not the hot-headed Cub starter but the Devil Ray.

P.S. No more drafting players with girly first names. Would it be such a bitch to trade Benson if his first name was manly and menacing, like, say, Bones?

Music to my ears

From Ron Cook's piece on Plax:

But the Steelers have talked about getting back to power football. They want to run the ball more with Duce Staley and Jerome Bettis. They think that will take a little pressure off Tommy Maddox, who played like a 6-10 quarterback last season.

When I think of Maddox last year, all I remember is the 41 sacks.

Duce is going to make a great Steeler.

Bucs lose to Braves in late-inning rally

Paul Meyer has the recap.

One thing I don't get is the persistent criticism of the Pirates fans and Pirates media for their "infatuation" with Jack Wilson. We like Jack Wilson, for sure. Wilson is one of the most-quoted players in the clubhouse, yes. We get his version of events often. But I doubt Wilson would agree that we have a blind eye for his gaffes. Read the recap and see if you agree.

Ricky Williams's early retirement

So he quit to relax and smoke weed. That's what I'm reading right here. If we all didn't know that Ricky was retiring to smoke dope and be an idler, we'd see a much different response to his decision to get out early. More people would admire it.

A few years ago I had a meeting with a retirement counselor about how much I needed to put away every month. She asked, at what age would you like to retire? I said I don't know, 65 or 70, and she spit out her coffee. Most people say 50, she said. I'm young enough to not know what I'm talking about. Most of you people hope to retire early.

Football is such a brutal, body-destroying sport, I won't be surprised if early retirement doesn't become a lot more common among the highly-paid superstars. Barry Sanders was the first and Ricky Williams won't be the last. Seriously, once you had four million in the bank, would you play one more year and risk serious injury so you could retire with six million instead? How much is enough? I could retire right now on one million.

Free agency is still a pretty new thing in baseball and football. We haven't seen the last major change in the game that will be wrought by the rise of individualism among highly-paid American professionals. The middle of the twentieth century, with its memory of the Great Depression, its celebration of modest expectations, and its respect for stable careers and jobs that grew with the employee, was very kind to professional baseball and football. It was good for the team. Today, what could be more obsolete than the company man? In this era of looted pension plans, you're just a sucker - the most loathsome kind of fool - if you are so naive to think that your loyalty to one employer will be rewarded. The team player today is adept only at joining the ad hoc.

Considering that free agency was long overdue when it was first introduced, we can expect the rapid pace of related change to continue. There will be no more sports teams where the owners, front office people, and players all feel like one big family. That's gone forever. And the team concept will continue to erode. Especially as we pervert our appreciation of team sports with games like fantasy baseball or fantasy football.

The only thing that will preserve the tradition of single-team careers is a shortening of the average career. Some lucky and healthy baseball players will stick around into the 40s because the game can be so much easier on the body. And if the game and the travel become easy for you, why retire? If they don't have much health, however, why should the highly paid stick around into their 30s? Take Chipper Jones or Ken Griffey for example. Or J.D. Drew or, in a few years, Jose Reyes. How long will they stick around to risk further damage to their already crippled bodies?

Before long, guys like them will retire early to enjoy their money and their body in their wealthy retirement. Before long, football fans will expect players to retire after a few highly-paid years. And, when it's no longer shocking, the fans will idolize them for it. Because they, too, would do the same thing if given the chance.

Game 100, John Thomson at Josh Fogg

It's a battle of fifth starters as the Pirates close out this series with the dread team from Atlanta. It's a day game after a night game so perhaps Noonie and House will get a start somewhere.

If you're going to the game and plan to sit in the outfield, make sure you bring your glove. Thomson has been pretty easy to hit this season.

3:45pm ... grumble.

Benson, Twins "at loggerheads"

John Perrotto has his summary of the state of all things Benson.

I don't feel too qualified to make judgments since I'm sure we only learn about 2% of the overall picture through the media. I'll just sit back and wait for something to happen. And not be surprised if nothing happens after all. An 83-win season would have a lot of value for the team in terms of ticket sales, and Benson would be a big help in the drive toward that goal.

If Mike Restovich and Mike Ryan are the best the league will offer for him, then the rest of the league can go to hell. I know the Cool Kids on the web all think Benson's a "proven mediocrity," but the GMs around the league should know better.

Smizik on Cowher

This is the best case I've seen about the Cowher extension.

For me, it was a no-brainer. I didn't give it much thought. Of course you extend him.

Larry Bowa wants a pitcher

And he's ready to sing about it.

Professional

Mac should apologize for the unprofessional comment. That ain't right. Few teams are so well served by their beat writers, and Mac has no right to question a reporter's professionalism over one story that got out of hand and embarrassed him and some other people.

And why the touchiness about the possibility that a frustrated twentysomething ballplayer would get upset with his boss? Is there a single GM in the league who is only loved, day in and day out, by his players? Of course they'll get mad at him sometimes.

That said, the players have their point - read this for an example - but all this is garden-variety grumbling about a garden-variety careless comment. And none of this is the fault of a beat writer.

Get some sleep, you Pirates people.

Mackowiak on his future

Steve Novotney interviews Rob Mackowiak, who discusses his season to date as well as his thoughts about the future.

Benson benson benson

Yawn. Still here?

Bob Dvorchak and Joe Rutter sum it up as of right now.