Mondesi's House special

Fellow blogger MH, purveyor of fine sarcasm, basks in the attention of WDVE for his recent history comparing the Pirates and Steelers.

Trade dope

John Perrotto keeps the party going. See also the usual cut-n-paste from Sports Illustrated.

Where the trades at?

In 2005, the Pirates announced the Matt Lawton for Jody Gerut deal right at the deadline -- around 4pm on Sunday, July 31. Bones was on it.

In 2004, the Pirates announced the long-rumored Ty Wigginton, Matt Peterson, and Jose Bautista for Kris Benson deal around 5pm on Friday, July 30. Bones was on it.

In 2003, the Pirates announced a bunch of trades through July, and they did a deal after the deadline, too.

July 8, 2003: Traded John Wasdin to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Rich Thompson.

July 21, 2003: Traded Mike Williams and cash to the Philadelphia Phillies. Received Frank Brooks.

July 22, 2003: Traded Mike Gonzalez and Scott Sauerbeck to the Boston Red Sox. Received Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez.

July 23, 2003: Traded Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, and cash to the Chicago Cubs. Received a player to be named later, Jose Hernandez, and Matt Bruback (minors). The Chicago Cubs sent Bobby Hill (August 15, 2003) to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the trade.

July 31, 2003: Traded Brandon Lyon, Jeff Suppan, and Anastacio Martinez to the Boston Red Sox. Received Mike Gonzalez, Freddy Sanchez, and cash.

August 17, 2003: Traded Randall Simon to the Chicago Cubs. Received Ray Sadler.

I think we all remember that month as the start of Littlefield's tenure. Thank you Baseball Reference.

I have a supply of candles to keep burning on the drinking table through Monday. The Pirates play the Giants at home on Sunday afternoon. There is no game on Monday and a night game at home on Tuesday. It's my guess that the Pirates make more or less the kind of trades we expect them to make on Monday afternoon.

DL just sits there

No trades or even new trade rumors today. All quiet on the How-Will-the-Pirates-Stop-Sucking? front. Legos aside, lots of other Pirates-related bloggy goodness today. Charlie links to a Beyond the Box Score new defensive metric that finds Jose Castillo to be the worst defensive 2B in all of baseball. Deadspin reports on Van Slyke's inflammatory comments on Ozzie Guillen and Hillary Clinton. Billy has some nice commentary on how the Royals and new GM Dayton Moore are trading circles around complacent loser DL.

In the news, and continuing with the Royals-Pirates comparison, USA TODAY has a long, painful piece about the Bucs and Royals, beginning with Sean Casey running into the bathroom stall after Bream was incorrectly called safe by the temporarily blinded Randy Marsh, despite the fact that Spanky blocked Bream's leading leg and clearly tagged Bream's lead-filled ass out long before Bream's lead-filled trailing leg came anywhere near the plate. Sigh. We are so over that. Anyway, in other Pirates news, Matt Wein of CentreDaily.com comments on how the ownership and front office are "re-defining futility and slowly but surely killing baseball in Pittsburgh".

The Neshek Shuffle

The funniest thing I read today and a more lighthearted time capsule addition for the grandkids: Batgirl's latest Lego reenactment, this time of Twins' rookie phenom Pat Neshek's Tekulve-esque sidearm delivery (link via Deadspin).

NL Central standings

Put this in the time capsule for our grandchildren.

St. Louis 58 42 .580 -
Cincinnati 53 48 .525 5.5
Houston 48 53 .475 10.5
Milwaukee 48 54 .471 11
Chicago Cubs 39 61 .390 19
Pittsburgh 37 66 .359 22.5

Game 103: Pirates at Brewers

Maholm vs. Capuano, underway. Brewers lead 4-3 after three and a half.

Scary

I don't pay for ESPN insider, so I can't read more than a few paragraphs of this Jerry Crasnick report. The thesis appears to be that Littlefield is scary:

Each July, you can count on baseball front-office people griping that some executives live in a parallel universe. This year Pittsburgh general manager Dave Littlefield, one of the game's few bona-fide sellers, is the focus of lots of carping for what colleagues perceive as unreasonable expectations.

"It's one thing to aim high," said an executive whose club recently inquired about Pirates reliever Roberto Hernandez. "It's another to scare people out of the conversation."

Yikes!

Definite change

Jack Wilson:

"I don't know what our deal is, to be honest with you. There are so many different things you can say. Younger guys are playing. We have a younger pitching staff. Blah, blah, blah. But those are the same old excuses. Obviously, there has to be a definite change this offseason because it's been the same thing every year."

Change?

"Whether it's players leaving or players coming in, trades being made, we've got to do something different to put a different product on the field because we haven't been getting it done.

This from Paul Meyer's game report.

Looking at the box score, I would say that Burnitz looked well-rested tonight. Hats off to Jim Tracy for waking him up at just the right time.

A big, powerful-looking big man

Paul Meyer notes how Jose Castillo has outgrown second base.

Sounds like maybe he'll be playing first base next year.

Game 102: Pirates at Brewers

Snell and Sheets at eight o'clock. I am feeling the effects and might curl up under the table about now. Will probably sit this one out.

Stats Geek chat

Refill your cup.

One Craig Wilson

I missed this, so maybe you did too. Late last week Pat Lackey of "Where's Van Slyke" wrote this piece comparing Littlefield's trading history with that of the One Red Paper Clip guy.

It's a good piece. The Pirates should do much more trading than they do. They can't win all their trades, of course. But they can make friends and easier trading partners when they get a little less than they could have in a deal.

My point in the Shealy discussion builds on the observation that Littlefield has a history of pissing off the other GMs with his brusque overvaluation of his own players. In addition to this, he appears to only shop the players he wants to trade.

This is too clean to work. It offends. If the team wants to make trades, they have to deal from their strength. You must offer good players to get good players. If we have a surplus in one area - say, two good young third basemen, four good young relievers - those are the players that will best command what we need in return.

There have been studies tying wealth to church attendance. While I would not doubt that God loves his people and rewards them with material goods for attending church, the more practical explanation is the greater amount of barter and trade that church-going households enjoy. Church friend comes over and wires up my new chandelier for free; I give him my old lawnmower, which he repairs into good-as-new condition. We are both more wealthy for the exchange.

The secret to trading is not to leverage some gap in the relative maturity of playters. The strategy of signing old guys for July use as trade bait is a failure. The fact that old veterans are ready to play now, and young prospects are not ready to play now, does not mean that much to contending teams, no matter how desperate they are for the help. This is why Randa, Burnitz, and Casey have so little value.

The secret to trading is getting involved in a circle of people who agree to slosh the resources around. You grab and hold onto what you really need. Everyone is wealthier for it. I would not advocate deliberately losing trades. There is no good that can come from sucking up to other teams in the hopes that they will throw you a reward later. But I would advocate taking more chances. It's the only way to make more trades. The more fluid the flow of players, the more likely it is that the Pirates will be able to assemble the balance of talent they need to compete in this league.

Participating in a more free exchange of talent only stands to increase the wealth of the team. Since they can't afford to buy the players they need, they will have to work on trading for them. And the way to win at trading is to make lots of trades. And the way to make lots of trades is to offer good players in exchange for good players.

This might cause scandal to say, but if I'm the owner of the team I tell Littlefield to dangle Freddy Sanchez. If you are a bona fide professional electrician, you don't offer to paint a picture of your neighbor's wife in exchange for his lawnmower. You must deal from a position of strength to unlock the overstocked garage of that neighbor.

You want to contend and win? Eliminate your areas of weakness. You want one of those top prospects that plays a position of weakness? You offer a top player from your surplus. Of course that could be a PR disaster, dealing Freddy and moving Bautista to his natural position, all to acquire a true centerfield prospect, with maybe a longshot throw in. If the players you select bust, then you are embarrassed. But are you more embarrassed than you would be if, say, your team began the year with 30 wins and 60 losses? I would hope not.

Trade punch

John Perrotto stirs up a big bowl of rum, rainwater, cane sugar, and floating lemon slices. Drink up!

Suspicious-looking people

Paul Meyer spotted some suspicious-looking people at the ballpark last night.

The Minnesota Twins, looking for an infielder with a solid bat, had a scout at last night's game. The Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers also had representatives in attendance who were doing something other than simply "coverage scouting" of the Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers.

What were they doing? Someone call Homeland Security.

Lighting a candle for Ryan Shealy

All hail the Stats Geek, who makes the best-yet case for getting Ryan Shealy.

I also have a little candle burning in my drinking room.

Yinzerpalooza

Funny account of that Bon Jovi concert by Scott Tady for the Beaver County Times.

With women in Polamalu and Roethlisberger jerseys standing on their chairs while their men waved Terrible Towels, you could have called the event Yinzerpalooza.

Before the music started, the celebration featured the official dedication of the long-desired fifth Super Bowl trophy, placed in steel column inside Heinz Field's Coca-Cola Great Hall.

Then multi-platinum selling hard-rockers Nickelback performed loudly, followed by the Steelers introductions and a video presentation of behind-the-scenes, post-Super Bowl celebrations by team members. Next up was Bon Jovi, fronted by full-haired singer Jon Bon Jovi, still setting the bar impossibly high for 40-something dads with three kids.

Game 101: Pirates at Brewers

Zach Duke and Doug Davis, eight o'clock. The Pirates are 35-65 with an 11-39 road record.

Monday Q & A

Here is a link to Dejan Kovacevic's Monday chat.

Conceding that Shealy's potential may be overhyped, I would regard the acquisition of him as a potential "big deal" (read the Q & A to get my context here). So I disagree there with DK. To me, such a deal would depart from the predictable, too-well-established losing strategies of the last few years. These losing strategies have gone unpunished, and they will continue to go unpunished. If this trading deadline comes and goes like the last few trading deadlines, I see no cause for hope. If Littlefield starts showing that he is willing to do things differently, I would be encouraged.

Trading a young player from a position of surplus, for a young player at a position of need, would be an innovation for Littlefield. Littlefield appears to "wheel and deal" with a chip on his shoulders, as though the rest of the league owes Pittsburgh some favors. If he thinks, once again, that he should get the kind of talent we need for the kind of players he wants to trade, he's going to be disappointed. And so will we.

The Pirates need more talent to compete in 2007. Period. Where does Littlefield expect to find that talent? It's not on our minor-league teams. It won't be in the second- and third-tier free agent pool. Where will he get that talent?

Spare parts for trade

Dejan Kovacevic reports:

The primary pieces getting shopped are those eligible for free agency after this season, meaning outfielders Jeromy Burnitz and Craig Wilson, third baseman Joe Randa, first baseman Sean Casey, starter Kip Wells and reliever Roberto Hernandez.

Littlefield strongly suggested that he will not be parting with players the Pirates can keep for the long term.

"We've had some discussion about those kinds of trades. Could they be a possibility? Sure. But most likely, you wait until the offseason for those types of trades."

D'oh! Sounds like we wait for the real trades then. This team is doing so good as it is; I don't see why DL would feel any urgency to mess much with the current chemistry.

Christina Kahrl on Ryan Shealy

Writing behind the Baseball Prospectus pay wall:

The news move in the group is bringing up Shealy, but it might only be as a taster for teams interested in acquiring the young slugger. He wasn't having a monster season for the Sky Sox, hitting .284/.351/.568. As promising as that power looks, 20 walks in 249 PA is adequate at best, and if he's hitting .284 in one of the PCL's best hitters' parks, what should you expect from him at some other altitude? Add in that most of the damage was done against lefties--six of his 15 home runs, in less than a quarter of his PA--and that he's coming up on 27 (I'm using "young" a bit loosely today), and you've got somebody who isn't good enough to force Todd Helton out of town on his own, and who probably won't be much more than a quality platoon player for somebody else.

First, if this opinion is commonly held, you have to wonder why Shealy has attracted such attention from so many teams.

Second, no one knows what Shealy would do at the major-league level. He might take off, he might regress, he might play about as expected. His career path is hardly normal; he's been blocked at AAA, with nothing to prove, for some time. And his 2006 numbers may also be affected by the position switch they tried on him. Regardless, the Pirates, with their lack of slugging first-base prospects, need to take the chance on his upside more than other clubs need to take such chances.

If he's nothing more than a lefty masher who's average against righties, he could be paired with a left-handed first baseman, maybe a veteran, who starts against about half the righties. Such a plan should produce the needed 725 PAs of good run production needed from that position.

It does not have to be Shealy the Pirates acquire, and soon, but he fits the profile of the kind of player they should be acquiring ASAP. He fits the profile as well as any available player would fit it: no one will ever trade away a David Wright. The Pirates have to draft and develop their own obvious hitting superstars.

Kicking Bronson Arroyo to the curb

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times:

“[Starting pitchers are] the hardest thing to evaluate talent-wise,” said Schmidt, who has been traded in midseason twice, by Atlanta to Pittsburgh as a rookie in 1996, then to San Francisco in 2001. “A lot of us are late bloomers. A lot of us don’t have success until we’re in the right environment. A lot of times it takes getting released or traded to wake up and think about what’s in front of us. I found that extra gear that I didn’t know I had.”

Arroyo added: “Each individual situation is different. I got waived as a young, healthy pitcher who they probably didn’t think was going to pitch as well as they wanted him to. I think most other guys have something to do with injuries — guys can’t stay healthy. And every now and then you get a guy like Turnbow, who throws 100 miles an hour and very wild, and maybe he needs a certain pitching coach or a certain comfort zone.”

No pitcher frustrated more teams than Schilling — a self-described head case as a youngster — who was traded three times (by Boston, Baltimore and Houston) before he turned 26 and rounded into shape with the Phillies in the mid-1990’s.

Littlefield is often condemned for releasing Bronson Arroyo, but that was something that did not strike me, at the time, as completely crazy or foolish. He was not a good pitcher for us. Arroyo had 29 starts in three years as a Pirate. He had a 113:85 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and he gave up 217 hits in 187 innings. With the 85 walks, that puts his WHIP at what, above 1.60 as a Pirate.

Sometimes a player will only go so far in an organization. I read a study once about revenge as a motivating factor, I forget what or where it was, but it opened with the author's somewhat scary realization that a good portion of the population spend most of their lives directing their energy into a pursuit, a career, whatever, mainly to revenge themselves upon some doubter or jackass or other kind of hated person.

Lately DL has shown what I've regarded as maybe too much patience with some guys. Job security may be a better influence on some young starters than others. You'd hate to be cruel to players just in hopes of spurring them to better play, but it might be wise to look for new ways to motivate underperforming people.

Here's to hoping that the recent demotion helps Oliver Perez return to some useful shape or form.

Game 100: Pirates at Marlins

Tom Gorzelanny and Dontrelle Willis at one. Might be a quick one.

... missed the second half of the game, but it looks (from the boxscore) like a good one from all but certain members of the bullpen. Milwaukee next.

Other things are happening

Nick Cafardo wrote this master's thesis on the current trade market for the Boston Globe. It suggests that lots of things are happening. If Wily Mo Pena becomes available for a starting pitcher, I would think that our "small-market GM" would be inquiring. Not to say that this is DL:

One GM of a small-market NL team said, ``When you're a big-market team, you can trade a pitcher like Arroyo because you can always replace him. I'm not saying you snap your fingers and it happens, but you can deal or you can sign a guy, take on a bigger contract, whereas a small-market team like ours, if you have a reasonably priced starting pitcher, you hold on to him for as long as you can."

But it could be.

The Red Sox and other high-profile perennial contenders probably control the pace of trading more than the Pirates right now, so if you are truly jonesing to calculate the odds that certain players become Pirates, you might do well to study the news on other teams, making your best effort to separate the credible reports from the less confident and more speculative.

Ken Rosenthal is another daily if not hourly source, at this point in the season, for mind-altering trade rumors.

O'Dowd will wait

In an earlier thread, Jason5280 comments on this Denver Post report by Troy E. Renck. Dan O'Dowd will wait until the deadline to make his best deal for Shealy. Regardless of their position in the playoff race, provided that Helton has not suffered a career-threatening injury, the Rockies will surely trade Shealy if he can become a minor-league free agent at the end of the season. (Correct me if that's wrong....)

... that must be wrong. I have to not believe everything I read. Looked up the various stuff about the reserve clause. It's clear. If Shealy's on the Rockies' 40-man roster, he can't get minor-league free agency. From what I can find, Rule 5 says minor-league free agency is an option for players who have been with an organization for six years (not counting the draft year) and are not on the 40-man roster. 2002 was Shealy's first pro year, but this wouldn't count since it was the year he was drafted. He hasn't been with the organization that long, and the Rox should not have any trouble keeping him on the 40-man roster if needed.

Matt Capps

What is the obsession with Matt Capps? There Rob Rossi reports that he is off-limits in trade talks. I don't understand how one young relief prospect could have some remarkably higher potential than another young relief prospect.

Matt Capps looks destined for greatness, yes, but c'mon, a great relief pitcher throws about 70 innings in 62 appearances.

Jim Edmonds in centerfield

Speaking of fatigue, how does Jose Bautista bounce back from last night's game?

On fatigue

Game logs could be used to measure the effect of rest on performance, if we knew for certain that players rested on days they did not play. The more I think on this, the more I think it's likely that rest will always remain an unknown factor to statistical analysis. One advantage young people have over old people is the ability to sleep. Guys in their early 20s can sleep twelve, fourteen hours a night, no problem. Guys closer to 40 find this harder to accomplish. A father, regardless of age, with a young one will be up many times in the night. Some people do not sleep well in hotel rooms. Others can, but they cannot resist the nightlife. Byung-Hyun Kim, when he came up as a 20-year-old, slept most every non-playing moment of the 2000 season. Other guys use their days off to kill large animals and carry them up stairs. Toward the end of the season, we know a large group of players are suffering from the sleep-affecting side effects of regular stimulant use. So it's likely that some players get more rest in the sixteen hours after a game than others get in the next forty-eight hours.

Someone could generate splits for various players, and that might suggest that they have done better or worse with more or less time off between at-bats, but we could not be sure that this was isolating fatigue as a variable.

Smizik: not poor, just stupid

Bob Smizik makes the case for incompetence.

Game 99: Pirates at Marlins

Six o'clock. Light rain at four, rain forecast all night, but this doesn't look any different than the last two days.

Kip Wells and Ricky Nolasco, a 23-year-old right-hander that lefties devour.

Randa and Burnitz off the bench

Joe Randa has been a great bench player, so the Pirates would do well to keep him. They need to practice winning if they are ever going to win, and there is no time like the present for winning.

The assumption seems to be that you don't pay bench players big money, and Randa makes big money, so of course the Pirates must trade him.

This puts the cart before the horse. Randa's contract is a done deal. Now that he's lost his starting job, it's time to find some use for him which maximizes his value. Not to get a return on the investment of his salary, but to get a contribution toward a winning team. And Randa has shown he can do this.

Perhaps you don't sign him to that salary with the intention of using him in a part-time role. I only half agree with that thinking. It's not my money so I wouldn't care; if I can get the walls for cheap, I'll spend extra on the decorative windows. The point is to make the best team you can make, and that is not the same thing as maximizing the value you get for your payroll dollars at every single position.

If I was the GM and I was put on a specific budget, I would spend that whole budget every year. I'd stock the team with as many young pre-arb guys as possible, and I'd make all these guys starters. Fatigue is not as much of an issue with them, and they stand to develop more rapidly with the playing time. Then I'd spend whatever I have left on veteran players to come off the bench and (this is important) look good doing so.

I would take two or three bench spots and make them cozy sinecures for 300 home run guys who clearly can't cut it on a daily basis any more. I would invest those positions with honor and dignity, which means a lot of money.

Look at Randa's splits. He has a 1057 OPS in 27 July at-bats. He's been a lousy pinch-hitter (2 for 11), but he's been very productive starting every third day.

As with the case of Jeromy Burnitz and Sean Casey, was this not predictable? I was impressed with the potential of rotating Burnitz, Casey, and Craig Wilson through two starting spots. Too bad I underestimated the team's capacity to screw up that potential. All three of those guys have been better in less than full time work. And does that not make sense? One is old, and one is "injury-prone" which I guess means not "a tissue problem," as Will Carroll suggests, but a fatigue problem (are injuries not more common when a player is tired?). The third is lumbering. The abilities of these players clearly diminishes once they cross a certain threshold or concentration of PT over time. Of course those guys, to a man, would disagree; if I weighed 400 pounds, I'd still insist I could run relays with a 22-year-old shortsop if I wanted to.

If I'm the GM or the manager, I don't let the players tell me when they need their PT cut back--I let their performance do that. I don't go out to the mound and say, "Pedro, you looked gassed. Can you get this guy out?" I say, "Pedro, you did good today. Now go take a shower, you smell bad." Everyone plays only with a full charge in their battery, and it is performance, not the players's piehole, which tells us how charged they are. If an older guy or a thicker guy or a distracted guy is slumping, I assume he needs some time off. And I don't mean one day game after a night game--I mean, he starts every other day for a week or two.

The Luis Gonzalez story and the better-known Shea Hillenbrand story suggest that players have this idea that it's some great insult to not start on any given day. That's just wrong. I would take that out of them. There's more than one template for a winning baseball team. If the Pirates work very hard to mainly start young, pre-arb players, they ought to be able to save enough payroll that they can pay more than anyone for bench players--and still have a lower overall payroll (if that's necessary).

The other thing that happens when you wear out the old guys, or force them into a situation where they must take all kinds of uppers on a daily basis to "get up" for another game, is that you embarrass them. Jim Tracy has humiliated Jeromy Burnitz this year. Burnitz's career might be over, he's been laid so low. And once they are embarrassed, they are in no position to provide the wise counsel or coaching or mentoring everyone expects they might impart to the younger players.

If the Pirates had hired Jeromy Burnitz for pinch-hitting in clutch situations, and for starting two or three times a week, then I have no doubt that Burnitz would be the proud owner of decent stats. And he could be playing the role of the crusty grizzled old sailor who gets off his ass only to deliver a big hit or have a big day. Instead, he's now in a position where he's clearly been a liability and a prime cause of the team's one-in-three winning percentage. He's embarrassed; he's humiliated; he's exactly what the young players do not want to be when they grow up.

Burnitz and Randa should be welcome the rest of the year--in roles that are reduced to the point that they are effective when summoned for duty. Sean Casey would be a better player, with better stats and, I would guess, more good influence on the younger players, if only Tracy more often started Craig Wilson at first.

No San Fran for Sean Casey

The AP reports that the Giants acquired Shea Hillenbrand to play first base.

No young relief pitchers for you

The Tribune-Review says the Pirates are giving the cold shoulder to Colorado's trade demands.

The Red Sox, late entries into the Shealy fox chase, will audition another young left-handed starter.

Maholm's .394 OBP

Wow. Read to the bottom.

Four walks in twelve innings

Who would have guessed it's ... Kip Wells.

Steroids saved baseball?

This is not right. The internet saved baseball, if it ever needed saving. All hail the internet.

Game 98: Pirates at Marlins

Paul Maholm and Scott Olsen at seven-thirty today. 95% humidity in Opa Locka, Florida. You might want to make some alternative plans for drinking-room entertainment this evening.

... Quickly, more reading material for this Friday afternoon. Wilbur has a list of potential Rule V losses here. Jason5280 comments on this piece, which suggests the Rockies would send Shealy to Boston so Boston can make a trade that helps San Diego, one of the Rockies' three rivals in the West. Kevin Blackistone of WFFA in Texas says the the Pirates are still interested in Pumpkinhead.

... still more linkage: Rosenthal embarrasses himself a little bit with this breathless oracle performance ("To beat the Mets — and really, that's what this discussion boils down to — the Cardinals need to either acquire a starting pitcher such as Lieber or a reliever such as the Pirates' Roberto Hernandez." ???) Jim Molony focusses on the Randa situation. Randa will help the team off the bench for the duration, so I'm hoping he stays. The young starters must practice their winning, and I think Randa would be a help. SI does their usual cut-n-paste. These things are good to look at. They remind us how interconnected all these trades might be. Even if the Rockies and Pirates are making moon eyes at one another, it's possible that a third (and/or a fifth and sixth) team is holding up a deal by promising a better offer once this or that other thing gets worked out. If all the Rox are doing is dealing Shealy, it could be that they wait until the deadline for some better offer from Boston that maybe never materializes. Fun story here about child-GM Jim Bowden. The Nats could hold up everyone with two players (Soriano, Livan H.) perhaps topping the wish list of contending teams. I'm not sure who this person is, but George Von Benko summarizes trade news here.

...so are they going to get this game done tonight? I sure hope so ... five of seven has me looking forward to it.

Burnitz as PH

Jeromy Burnitz is 4-for-12 with three home runs and a walk this year, when pinch-hitting.

Craig Wilson vs. Aaron Guiel

"Yankee Insider" Jim Baumbach reports for Newsday that Littlefield wants too much prospect for Craig Wilson. Baumbach continues:

The Yankees also have to wonder how much of an upgrade Wilson would be over Aaron Guiel, who has impressed Torre with his heads-up play thus far.

Hmmm ... let's see ... Craig Wilson ... 29 years old ... 1831 career at-bats ... .269 / .361 / .489. Aaron Guiel ... 33 years old ... 902 career at-bats ... .246 / .321 / .414. Pretty close! Practically the same, in fact.

There's no difference there that is not erased by some impressive heads-up play.

Craiggers is no Alfonso Soriano or Bobby Abreu, to be sure, but he's at least as useful as Reggie Sanders at this point.

What the Rockies want

Dejan Kovacevic reports in his notebook:

Colorado's desired return for first baseman Ryan Shealy -- a player the Pirates have discussed with the Rockies -- is a young middle reliever.

So, what are we waiting for? How many days could it take to iron the letters on the back of a jersey?

If the young man does not already own a black suit with gold pinstripes, shame on him; that's no reason to hold up an announcement.

P.S. Don't call it a rumor.

Bucs win

Five wins in seven games since the ASB. Not everything about the lineup makes a whole lot of sense these days, but who needs sense when you have victories.

Game 97: Pirates at Marlins

67% humidity right now on Dan Marino Blvd. Ian Snell and rookie winner Josh Johnson in an hour.

... This is half a day old, but something to talk about:

ROCKIES SCOUTING JAYS

Art Pontarelli, of the Colorado Rockies was scouting the Jays last night. The Jays and Rockies have been talking about first baseman Ryan Shealy, a DH-type slugger, since before the break. Colorado turned down an offer for lefty reliever Scott Schoeneweis this week.

The Rockies are looking for young players like pitcher Brandon League.

That's Mike Rutsey and Bob Elliott for the Toronto Sun. Scott Schoeneweis!

With so many trades to make, DL has to start somewhere. If all the Rockies want is one young left-handed pitcher, and a reliever will do, they should make their choice, the two teams close the deal, and the Pirates move on and build around that deal.

Seriously, if the spastic Mike Gonzalez could play first base and could outslug our other options, who wouldn't be all about converting him to that position?

PNC Park threatens to leave Pittsburgh

Another scoop from the Onion.

PITTSBURGH—After five years of serving Pittsburgh as their state-of-the-art sporting facility, PNC Park, the home of the rundown, poorly maintained Pirates, said Tuesday it is threatening to leave Pittsburgh unless a new team can be built within the next three years.

"I love the city of Pittsburgh, but the Pirates are an old, dilapidated club built from other teams' spare parts, and its very foundation is rotting away," the stadium said to reporters assembled in its press box. "I had every intention to stay here for the duration of my career as a ballpark, but given that I haven't seen any realistic long-term plans for improving my resident team's ramshackle condition, I would be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about taking my services elsewhere."

San Antonio must be a likely suitor for our stadium.

(All hail Dan of Primer for the link.)

Another test for DL, Nuttings

The rest of the month represents another big test for Littlefield and the ownership. To what extent are Littlefield's hands tied here? Will he, as Wilbur suggests, hamper his own efforts to acquire talent by working to save the owners some money? Is he under orders to trim salary?

If the Pirates fail to acquire the talent they so badly need - this team won only one in three games before the ASB - it will be yet another reflection of the misguided and perhaps villainous priorities which have determined so much of the team's recent losing.

If the Pirates do acquire the talent they need, and if they eat salaries in the process, then would this be a cause for hope? I've long argued that GMs learn from their mistakes. Can Littlefield? Has the ownership given him broad discretion when it comes to the financial impact of potential trades?

We can only know by his actions. If they acquire talent at any cost, there will be hope. If nothing happens and all we hear is continued grumbling about the stubborn delusions of Littlefield, then we're stuck where we've been, hoping for some kind of fan revolt and political solution.

New York Daily News: Littlefield is difficult

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News writes of the difficulty the Yankees experience with Littlefield:

The Yankee high command has always kind of liked Pirates outfielder Craig Wilson (another free agent-to-be) for both his bat and versatility. But it has never had any success in dealing with Pirates GM Dave Littlefield, and apparently it's been no different recently. They would be willing to give up a middle tier prospect for the 29-year-old Wilson, even though he, too, is a rental player, but have no interest in taking on Jeromy Burnitz's big contract, which Littlefield is attempting to package with Wilson. Even though the Yankees might also have interest in Pirates setup man Roberto Hernandez, it doesn't appear as if the Yankees are ever going to be able to do business with Littlefield.

Of course the wealthy, winning Yankees are full of contempt for the "poor," losing Pirates. But is that a whine Madden reports at the end of that paragraph? Or another bad sign suggesting DL's Bonifay-like overvaluation of his own 30-60 players?

Damaso Marte

Yesterday Ken Rosenthal reported the Astros were scouting Marte. The Mackowiak for Marte trade looked good at the time, but Marte has been something of a disappointment with the shoulder woe and all those baserunners he's allowed.

the Marlins' youth movement

John Perrotto writes about the Marlins' $15M payroll.

More trade dope

This could be a long trade-dope bender we've embarked upon. David Briggs offers this bit of news for MLB.com. In it, he upgrades the Pirates' pursuit of Shealy to "heavy." Heavy pursuit. As in heavy-footed? Or hot and heavy? We will ... find out.

Let me shoot down some cavilling objections I've heard to this pursuit of Shealy. (I like the word cavil. It works for me.)

One: he's not left-handed. Jimmykat brought this up in the consistently amusing PG Bob Smizik chat transcript. This kind of thinking got us Jeromy Burnitz. The Pirates have to be flexible; they have to make the best choices from the available options. Unless you can recommend a left-handed first baseman languishing in someone's farm system, do not raise this trivial objection. As we saw today, he can double into right-center just fine, and often. Park effects are real but tiresome in that too many people exaggerate their importance.

Two: he's gonna be expensive. Who cares? The Pirates, because they are the Pirates, should make this trade. They can not afford top-quality first-base free agents. Shealy comes with the usual, incredibly favorable rookie contract. When you really need something, you should not be ashamed to pay for it. Give the Rockies what they need and move on.

Three: the Rockies will want young players. Great! That's about all we got. The inconvenience of being stuck with Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz, and Sean Casey after the deadline pales beside the inconvenience of starting the season 30-60. If the Rockies want young relief pitchers, fine, I say, they should have them. The Pirates can replenish the bullpen with our collection of failed starters now toiling at AAA.

As for the other objections, they remain open questions. Is his nose hard enough? He has to be hard-nosed. Can he flat-out hit? It has to be flat-out. Does he play the game right? If he doesn't know the rules, that's a strike against him, of course. And last but not least, is he clutch? Today he struck out with the game on the line. Not all objections are cavilling--some are quite serious. They are edifying. They proceed deep from the principles which are the heart of Pirate baseball. I thank my fellow fans with the intelligence to note them.

More Shealy talk

OK, so who would you move for that Shealy kid? I'd empty the bullpen and call up some familiar names from Altoona. The Rockies and Pirates are made for each other at this point. They can make a trade that makes both teams happy. There's no sense waiting any longer, either. Please do it, DL, and do it now.

Game 96: Rockies at Pirates

Jason Jennings and Zach Duke today at twelve-thirty.

... Shealy in the lineup, batting fifth.

So who wants Ryan Shealy?

Raise your hand if you want Ryan Shealy. Dejan Kovacevic reports the Pirates, along with a bunch of other teams, are after him.

Shealy will surely be traded soon. For all kinds of reasons, he just must be traded this month. What happens then, is anyone's guess. He'll be 27 in August, and he can only play first. They tried him in the outfield, and he hurt his elbow hitting the cut-off man. There have been published reports speculating that Shealy can't have much trade value. He's old for a prospect, and his skills are somewhat one-dimensional and altitude-inflated. That said, when I read about a 27-year-old hitting prospect, these days I think Josh Willingham. Shealy, even though he's right handed, is surely the kind of lottery ticket the Pirates should be buying. Think of the money we'll save!

The Rockies appear to need what we have in abundance. The X factor here, however, is Josh Fogg, whose reasonably decent performance as a Rockie must have him right by the owner's ear. Who knows what twisted intelligence he will pour into their ears. Will Josh Fogg let this trade happen?

The Pirates also have to keep Shealy away from San Francisco if they hope to trade Sean Casey. For that reason alone, the Pirates would be smart to raise the bid on the Rocky Mountain man-child.

This particular Kovacevic notebook contains many other trade-dope-hound nuggets that will be on next week's test. Study up.

Casey at the deadline

Since the Pirates have reverted to Dipshittery, we'll interrupt tonight's game thread to pretend it's not happening.

In the meantime, sober Grant of McCovey Chronicles analyzes the trade market for Sean Casey for your distraction.

Game 95: Rockies at Pirates

The Pirates try to make it four of five tonight. Two in a row is nice, a win after a loss is good, but until they often win six or seven of ten, there's no hope for improving the winning percentage. The easy way to do that is to win five or six of seven. The more you win, the more you need to win. Psychologically, the tendency may be the reverse: with the Pirates we have seen a lot of "we just won some games, let's get drunk or something and go to the ballpark and play like dipshits."

Jeff Francis and Tom Gozelannyfrattare at seven.

Casey wants to stay; Shealy might play

John Perrotto writes about Casey's answer to the stay-or-go question. He did the same thing yesterday for Jack Wilson.

I understand why a reporter would ask such a question, but I don't see how it's news when they answer the question this way. It would only be news if the player put his foot in his mouth. And said something that made his agent smack a horrible slice from the fourth tee.

Perrotto also notes, in agreement with nearly all published reports, that the Pirates have yet to approach Casey about an extension.

The Rockies, who are in Pittsburgh, on a losing streak, and in some pretty desperate need of a shot of adrenaline, recalled first-base prospect Ryan Shealy last night. The Pirates should take a long look at this guy. Asked about this roster move, Hurdle said perhaps he'd give Helton a night off.

Here's to hoping Shealy gets an audition tonight. Do it, Clint, do it.

Burnitz a burden

The Yankees want Roberto Hernandez. The Staten Island Advance reports this much about the talks:

An official with one of the teams involved said the Yankees were in "very serious" discussions with the Pittsburgh Pirates about relief pitcher Roberto Hernandez. The official, who requested anonymity because he didn't want to jeopardize the discussions, said the Yankees and Pirates had spoken several times in the past few days and that he believed Hernandez to be the Yankees' top relief-pitching target right now.

The Yankees, who had a scout at the Pirates' series over the weekend, have spoken with the Pirates about several players, including infielder/outfielder Craig Wilson and reliever Solomon Torres. But it's the 41-year-old Hernandez in whom they appear most interested.

Hernandez posted a 2.58 ERA in 67 relief appearances last year for the Mets. When he became a free agent in the off-season, the Yankees tried to sign him, but he went instead to Pittsburgh on a one-year, $2.75 million deal. The Pirates are out of the race now and looking to dump some salary. It's unclear what the Yankees would have to send back in return, but they rejected the Pirates initial request that they take outfielder Jeromy Burnitz, who's making $6.7 million this year, as a condition of a Hernandez deal.

Burnitz is hitting .227 / .275 / .414 so far this season. Dan Szymborski was right; these numbers nearly match his .237 / .309 / .415 projection.

Making the Squad

So it's porn in July from the NFL network?

And did you see they will broadcast eight consecutive Thursday night games, beginning with Thanksgiving? Huh. So we gotta get the NFL network to watch the Browns-Steelers game this year?

Game 94: Rockies at Pirates

Kim and Wells. DK chat transcript (link here) has some interesting stuff, including, "The veterans want out, no question." May this be the first off-season in which Littlefield does not hire a bunch of veterans.

Pirates to talk to Casey

Amid many articles, in the PG (Dejan's) and on the AP wire, suggesting a contract for Casey was more and more unlikely, Rob Rossi reports for the Tribune-Review that the team will talk to Casey's agent this week.

They ought to talk, for sure. I'd suggest Casey accept a job as a player/coach. He can play first base three or four nights a week and coach first base the other nights. And duh since he'd be a coach I'd expect him to work for reasonable wages.

Littlefield speaks truth

In this AP story on maybe trading Sean Casey, Littlefield is quoted as saying:

"We've got a lot of interest in a lot of players," Littlefield said. "I don't want to undermine the fact we've got a lousy record. But, as far as pieces go, we've got good individual pieces -- now we've got to turn that into a better record and a more complete performance on the field."

If by "undermine" he means "ignore," as the context suggests, then he's speaking the truth. If he means "excavate the earth beneath," then I'm less sure. And if he was misquoted on that part, then who knows, perhaps he was misquoted throughout.

I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. The Pirates have a lousy record. A spectacularly lousy record. A suspiciously lousy record. With some good individual pieces. Ergo, Littlefield speaks the truth there. If the Reds can be 49-44 right now, I say this Pirate team could be right there around .500 as well.

Game 93: Nationals at Pirates

Livan Hernandez and Paul Maholm at one thirty. The Pirates are feeling good and look for their third win in a row.

Trading Jack Wilson

An infield of Castillo - Sanchez - Bautista looks pretty strong. DK reports the Pirates are fielding offers for Jack Wilson. Such a move would make a lot of sense. A team that has lost as much as this one has no business getting sentimental about the players who have been along for that ride.

Game 92: Nationals at Pirates

Astacio and Snell tonight.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

We skipped the game and saw this film last night -- it was good, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, with obvious Star Wars elements, in an early American setting.

DK Q+A

DK addresses the inequitable economic system in baseball in this week's Q+A. Of course the question is moot for the Bucs until DL is run out of town, but how long will it be until MLB has one of these newfangled equitable economic systems?

Game 91: Nationals at Pirates

Ramon Ortiz and Zach Duke.

Trading Sean Casey

The Sporting News reports Casey could wind up in San Francisco.

On the non-blockbuster front, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the Pirates could deal Sean Casey to the Giants if they can't work out a long-term extension. Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz and Craig Wilson are all likely to head out of the Steel City as well; unfortunately for Pirates fans, it doesn't seem that the same can be said for GM Dave Littlefield.

Casey's career has shown that he's good in limited doses and bad when playing game after game after game. Tracy went to the well more than once too often after Casey returned from his injury. Casey needs regular rest. He'll probably come back from the ASB and hit real well for a week. Then he'll go 0-for-16 over a four-game stretch. Two weeks of 660 OPS later, Tracy will give him one day off.

Casey should be starting five days a week, and he should be getting days off even after an 8-for-12 series. Endurance is not his middle name. The Pirates have plenty of guys who can play first for a game or two. It is the easiest position to fill. It should not be difficult to find time off for Casey by playing the usual platoon advantages with the corner outfielders and middle infielders capable of manning first.

This is another example of how the Pirates fail to get the most from the players they have. Littlefield once talked about flexibility, but Tracy has been anything but flexible. Certain players must conform to certain narrow expectations. When they don't, Tracy takes a page out of G. Ogden's playbook and demonstrates an inflexible patience that only makes the matter worse. This macho stubbornness may look good in the mirror, but it's not been effective as a strategy for managing our young ballclub.

The Pirates won't recognize Casey for what he is. So like most of you, I hope they do not sign him to an extension--at any cost. Even if he's cheap, he's a Loser if he clogs the first-base position with daily 770-820 OPS production.

G. Ogden Nutting vs. the woman who hit Big Ben

Rick Pedone of the Osceola News-Gazette compares their charms.

How about them Penguins?

We can find things to talk about while we give the old cold shoulder to Nutting's losers.

The Penguins released their schedule for the upcoming season.

Can anyone recommend a small handful of Penguins sites? We could use some non-Pirate-related reading material for the slow moments here in our drinking room.

Near-death experience

Ben is now the hero of a soap opera. "Playmakers" was all wrong. The next television drama based on the NFL should be much more like "General Hospital."

Irate

On the Irate front, Steve Z. of IrateFans eloquently argues for a public audit of the Pirates' books. IrateFans also has a nice set of new essays from Jim Krug on Baseball Mogul mockery of DL, Charlie on detailing the DL blunders, and Pat on abandoning all hope.

News of other bloggy goodness brings: Charlie arguing against and even pleading with DL not to resign Casey. I wholeheartedly agree with Charlie and most others here: signing Casey to a 3-year, $18,000,000 deal would be sheer insanity. Billy and Zeke came within 5-10 feet of evil, greedy, master loser Ogden Nutting while wearing their authentic IratesFans t-shirts at the ASG.

Jason Schmidt thinks Pirates not bad

John Perrotto talked to Jason Schmidt for the Beaver paper.

Schmidt makes my point exactly--the team is not that bad. Sure, the rotation has not been good. I don't think they should be a pennant contender.

But 30-60 is far too bad. There must be, under normal conditions, something like a 1% chance of a team with this much raw talent winning only 30 of the first 90 games.

It's suspicious. I reject the bad luck hypothesis. Something is very wrong with this organization.

The irony of Schmidt's comments is that, when Schmidt was a Pirate, I always suspected him of malingering and saving his body for his next club. Perhaps this is because I'd be inclined to do the same thing if I was a player on this team.

The underperformance has been too consistent to expect it to stop. What happens if Littlefield signs great players, makes great trades, and fields a team that, on paper, ought to win 90 games? With no other changes, I expect that team would win 80.

They fall into slumps, stop reading the standings every day, hate going to the ballpark, and sleepwalk their way through games, bemoaning their bad luck and resenting the fact that they can't speak candidly to the press. That's no way to compete.

The organization follows the example of the ownership. Until the owners come out and prove otherwise, all evidence points to them being chisellers with no great desire to win. They conceal their intentions behind a shifting cloud of PR fakery.

Selig lies through teeth

Perrotto reports on Bud Selig vigorously defending the Nuttings:

"There is an accounting for every revenue-sharing dollar and I can honestly say I've never had a club who pays into revenue sharing question where their money is going," Selig said. "We would never allow a club not to use the money to make their team better. That's not happening and it is not happening."

Wow. In sentence one, Selig uses DL tactic of diverting attention with meaningless garble. Just because teams that pay don't question how the money is spent doesn't mean that the Bucs spend all of their revenue sharing money on making the Bucs better (which they obviously don't). In sentence two, Selig employs the Tracy tactic of creating confusion with the double negative. In sentence three, Selig displays the Nutting tactic of outrageous redundant lying with minimal information content.

Is Selig a "scared little man ... cowering to pressure?" Either way, so much for my hope of Selig and MLB wresting control of the Bucs out of the Nuttings' evil, greedy vise-grip. That leaves civil charges (punitive damages), criminal charges, and Senate investigation.

All-Star game

OK, I am generally against these things, the All-Star game, the Hall of Fame, the batting title race, the Rookie of the Year race, etc., as distractions from winning and losing. And with the Pirates a stunning, mind-blowing, hard-to-believe 30-60 at the break, it's even harder to not regard such trumpery without irritation.

But the game is in our beloved park, and J. Bay is hitting fourth, and Freddy of all people could make an appearance. So raise your hand if you are watching the All-Star game, and raise your glass if you have one. To our park, the greatest of parks!

And let's go you Buccos.

A source of the problem

Tom Glavine calls out the Nuttings.

"I don't know the ins and outs of what's going on here with the ownership group, but you have to take a look at that and see if that's a source of the problem," Glavine said. "You have teams over the past few years that weren't doing well before, but they're doing well now. You have to ask that question: Have the economics of those other teams changed so dramatically? Or have the people who run those organizations done a better job of putting a team together?"

All hail Tom Glavine! (Huh, never thought I'd type that.)

Later in the article, DK quotes A.J. on Mack-o-wack's learned helplessness:

A.J. Pierzynski ... said a losing culture can be blamed, too. He said he and teammate Rob Mackowiak, formerly of the Pirates, often discussed the difference in the atmosphere that built the White Sox into a champion last year and the one in Pittsburgh.

"Rob would always say how bad it was, how hard it was to come to the park," Pierzynski said.

Freddy

Looks good in the uniform.

So does Jay Bay.

Pirates' popularity tumbling

Harris Interactive does polling to determine the popularity of baseball clubs. I remember seeing the last one of these - it is probably discussed somewhere in the archives - which reported that the Pirates were a top ten team. As in, one of the ten-most popular baseball clubs in the nation.

This high ranking, obviously, had little to do with recent won-loss records. And it could hardly be the product of the size of the team's market. The fact that the Pirates were ranked at #8 as recently as last year testifies to the loyalty of Pittsburgh fans, who, in my experience at least, are raised to root for one team only. They rarely go over to the dark side when they move to another section of the country.

Well, surprise surpise, that's changing, at least according to this Puget Sound Business Journal report describing the most recent poll, in which our good friends in Seattle spread the word, on the eve of the All-Star game, of "Seattle up, Pittsburgh down." The Pirates have fallen to #21.

Home run derby

Nice uniforms.

Institutionalized futility

The editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette call out the Nuttings.

All hail the Post-Gazette.

Game 90: Pirates at Phillies

Duke vs. Hamels. Tied at 2 after two. Phils are resting Ryan Howard and playing Noonie instead.

House for Sale

Michael O'Keefe surveys the state of baseball in western PA for the New York Daily News. If you have friends or family wondering why you just can't wait another year for the team to be good, this link provides the start of a good answer.

All-Star game publicity stunts

Spike shares his inspired genius in the comments about ideas for All-Star game publicity stunts. My favorites are #1 ("Sinking of a symbolic pirate ship in the Allegheny with giant paper mache heads of Littlefield, Nutting and Tracy on board.") and #7 ("Flyer brigade hands out copies of Jim Leyland's resume to everyone entering the PNC Park area.").

IrateFans plans to make a showing on Monday, July 10th from 6 to 10 a.m. at Pittsburgh’s SoHo restaurant on Federal Street across the street from PNC Park, where ESPN will be broadcasting live. What if an angry mob showed up, wielding protest signs of Bob Nutting, Jr.'s ugly mug with devil horns? What if Bob's daughters later witnessed the protest on the news and demanded "Daddy, why do these people hate you?"

Back to Spike's ideas, a few hundred Pirates fans in attendance at the All-Star game with IrateFans or "Anything is better than Nutting" shirts would likely not attract a huge amount of attention from Fox and the national media. But a (burning) symbolic pirate ship with giant paper mache heads of DL, Ogden, Bob Jr., and Jim sinking in the Allegheny during the 7th inning stretch? Now that would turn some heads!

Pittsburgh just sits there

Wilbur has written another excellent piece for OnlyBucs.net on DL's lack of effort:

"... while other teams are working hard to discover ways of acquiring talent without breaking the bank, the Pirates are just sitting there. This is a team that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to squeezing a few extra dollars out of its customers, whether it's prevailing upon the city to ban T-shirt vendors who might drain off a little of the owners' merchandising revenue, or imposing water bottle bans. Until the Pirates apply some of that determination and ingenuity to their on-field product, they can expect to flail away indefinitely behind the teams that are really trying."

DK Q+A

DK answered questions on Friday. In this miserable year of Pirates baseball, DK's reporting has been one of the few bright spots. Too bad though that this year being refreshingly honest has usually meant being extremely depressing. This week, DK lowers the expectations for the trade deadline, predicting that "no true prospects will be acquired, partly because what is offered has little value" and instead we'll get the usual collection of "Class AAA players no one else wants". DK surmises: "If every move is aimed at improvement in the next year or two, one could argue, then the future never really arrives."

Game 89: Pirates at Phillies

Paul Maholm and Cory Lidle at seven. Bucs are 30-58.

Game 88: Pirates at Phillies

Ian Snell vs. Jon Lieber, 7:05 PM EST. Bucs are 29-58. What will happen first, Win #30 or Loss #60?

Game 87: Pirates at Mets

Gorzelanny vs. Trachsel, just underway. Showcase packed full of rotting garbage tonight, as both Randa and Furnitz get starts. Mets are resting Beltran. Freddy batting second, which I like. The Rake seems to like it too, as he just doubled.

Mid-term grades from Rowdy

Here's the All-Star Break approaching. Time to hand out grades.

Owners: F. Gentility does not excuse chiselling; it further condemns it. Have they no sense of honor? Few pro teams are run with such bad faith. The elusiveness of the group testifies to their dishonesty. If they had nothing to hide, they would do more to vindicate their pathetic efforts. Their silence and inaction is damning. So is the evidence of emulation shown in the lower branches of their organization.

The GM: F. A company man who values loyalty above conscience. He has done some good work, I think, but the way he enables this fraud, year after year, far outweighs the good work he's done.

The coaches: F. More company men who value loyalty above conscience. In his shorter stay with the team, Jim Tracy has been less competent and more vain than David Littfield.

The players: F. This group of fakers blame everyone but themselves. They are fully complicit in the fraud which has been this team. They are too talented, individually, to play this poorly, collectively.

The fans: A minus. The fans should get an A for sticking with this team, despite the obviously addictive beauty of the ballpark, which makes it so much easier. I take points off, however, for the profound lack of self-respect which prevents us from developing more productive and rewarding hobbies. We have very little free time, and we squander it inventing new ways to ridicule these losers?

Feel free to leave your grades in the comments. With the All-Star Break approaching, this is a good time to debate and air our sense of the crimes this team commits, almost daily, against the most basic rules of sportsmanship.

Let this be your inspiration.

Tracy jinxes Wall Street

Even if one wanted to make the argument that everything Jim Tracy touched this year turned into shit, there's most likely no causality between Tracy ringing the opening bell at the NYSE and the Dow falling 0.68% today. But I'm curious, why in the world was he asked to perform this ceremonial act? Do other visiting NL managers get asked to do the same? Did Tracy ring the bell in uniform? Were stepsons Jose Hernandez and Mike Edwards present to assist in the bell-ringing?

Just because Tracy tried to take the blame for blocking Freddy with Randa, and the next day throws his hat down to get ejected, should his critics ease up?

One-run game record

DK unearths the ugly truth:

"The Pirates are the first team in baseball history to lose 25 one-run games by the Fourth of July, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The previous high was 24 by the 1971 Houston Astros."

Game 86: Pirates at Mets

"We" Wells and Orlando Hernandez. Kip will try to lower his 15.19 ERA.

All I hope for is a close game. If the Pirates get a big lead, here's hoping we're not bored with the Mets failing to rally. I also hope we get to see some of the greatest defensive plays we'll ever see. It's OK if the Mets make them. I just want to see them.

I'm also thinking the Pirates could use the All-Star Break to unveil some new uniform details. They could further collect all the undervalued style points the rest of the league (foolishly) neglect in the pursuit of vulgar double-yous.

Game 85: Pirates at Mets

The New Tom Glavine vs. The Old Tom Glavine, 1:10 PM EST.

Which is better: Bengals or Steelers?

Are you not sick to death with all this celebration of Super Bowl victory? Could the Steelers, with all that emphasis on winning, be any less original? After watching the games, purchasing the Big Ben jerseys, the Terrible Towels with the SB score, the t-shirts, the licence plate frames, the beer huggies, etc., are you not feeling empty and unsatisfied? Where is the pleasure? Where is the fun?

The Pirates have me in mind of the 1990s Bengals. Like many fans, I am turning a corner. Winning isn't everything! If we just enjoy the game for what it is, we can achieve a zen-like appreciation of the finer things in life. Like, for example, how Jamey Carroll made one of the greatest defensive plays I'll ever see on radio! Greg Brown was wise beyond his years when he alerted me to the meaning of that excitement.

The 1990s Bengals were characterized by a different attitude. They were original. They did not approach the game the way the other teams approached the game. A come-from-behind victory, they understood in their bones, is worth three or four boring-snoring, "winning ugly" Steeler victories. Fortune favors the brave, they knew. They would bravely spot the opposition seven, fourteen, even twenty-eight points before uncorking the potent beauty of Jeff Blake's dazzling air show.

Such play did not win many games or championships, but that's the point, see. They were above the commonplace, cro-magnon obsession with lofty station and diamond bling. They were different. They were brave!

The Steelers should see the light and adjust their attitude. They need to buck up! Nothing diminishes the beauty and satisfaction of professional sport so thoroughly as this obsession with winning at all costs.

The One-run Losses

Brian O'Neill writes about them.

In addition to the one-run loss record, I wonder if the Bucs are not setting a record for most innings in which they trail. And most runs scored while trailing.

Luck cannot explain the amount of losing the Pirates have done in one-run games. Or the amount of losing they have achieved despite the obvious ability to score 11 runs in a single game.

It is not luck. It is skill. They are magicians!

The Pirates are 29-55 this morning. They have won 34.5% of all games. They are consistently magical! They have won three of the last ten.

Game 84: Pirates at Mets

Paul Maholm vs. John Maine. Starting in fifteen minutes. Maine is starting for Pedro Martinez, who has a sore hip from when he "slipped in the bathroom and fell while changing his shirt during a series in Florida in May". Sounds like something that would happen to the Bucs. Although the Mets are currently the best team in the NL, they've lost five of their last six.

DL feels good

Nevermind the standings, DL feels good:

"Obviously, it's a little clouded right now because our record is not good, and it's been a disappointing season relative to this point and my own expectations," Littlefield said before a 9-8 loss Sunday to Detroit. "But I do feel good in that we've got some talent and I'm confident we'll play better and win more games sooner than later."

More meaningless bullshit from DL. Dave, your Bucs are now 28-55 (.337), the worst team in all of baseball. When I think of the Bucs, I feel terrible. Only the Worst. G.M. would waste his time attempting such turd-polishing. The Pirates are now an unthinkable 8-24 in one-run games. The AP report comments:

However, it also can be argued that one-run losses are indicative merely of a poor team. The expansion 1962 New York Mets, considered the majors' worst team in the last 50 years, had 19 one-run losses at this point of the season. Of those 120 Mets losses, 38 were by one run. They had only two fewer one-run losses than they did victories.

DL has proven himself wholly incompetent, and should be relieved of his duties at once.

All hail the Rake!

Freddy Sanchez, All-Star.

"I'm more thrilled for Freddy," said Bay. "I called my wife and told her Freddy made it. And then I said, 'Oh yeah, I did, too.'"

The Rise of the Rake has been, for me, the most encouraging story of the Pirates this year. All hail Freddy!

Earth stops spinning

In a completely unprecedented move, Tracy uses the words "shame" and "me" in the same sentence:

"Shame on me for saying Freddy Sanchez is a utility player for what this guy has done," said Jim Tracy. "Freddy Sanchez is a winner."

It's ironic that Tracy's first attempt at humility is awkward and undeserved, as he tries to dislodge DL under the wheels on the bus with his own worthless corpus.

(Ed Eagle link via Billy).

All-Star Shame

As much as I'm happy that Freddy and Bay are getting some props, overall I'm ashamed of the Pirates' All-Star game PR blitz. My shame skyrocketed the first time I heard Brownie reading that godawful poetry during a game broadcast, as the game in the background went ignored. Now, DK's Friday Q+A brings the news that Pirates employees have been encouraged to stuff the ballot box while on the clock. I agree that:

"... it's embarrassing to see half of our lineup among the top vote-getters at their position. There is something creepy and disingenuous about teams paying people to vote for their players."

There is also something creepy and disingenuous about the entire McNutting-DL Axis of Evil. I hope that some of the national media attention generated by the All-Star game focuses on why the Bucs have been losers for 14 straight years.

F

In case you missed it, DK handed out midseason grades on Friday to the Bucs. Freddy got an A+, but covered up his answers from cheating losers DL and Tracy, who both earned well-deserved F's.

Game 83: Tigers at Pirates

Zach Minor vs. Ian Snell, 1:35 PM EST.