Getting the big hit

Drove home last night and caught some of the game (the 5-3, 6-5, 8-6 part) as we pulled into the area. Lanny of KDKA was going on about Craig Wilson not getting the big hit with runners in scoring position. During the losing streak Mac went on a couple times about we didn't get the big hit when we needed it, etc. etc. It's friggin' demoralizing to play every game like the Bucs can't win if they don't bat .800 with RISP. Wilson had two strikes and it was looking dark and darkest before dawn dark again etc. etc. etc. Bucs will never win another game etc. etc. etc. That kind of dark. And Wilson crushed the next pitch for a three-run homer.

When reporters asked Coach Cowher about the Steelers' struggles in the red zone, he said that he thought those problems would straighten themselves out so long as the Steelers kept getting into the red zone.

The Bucs should take the same attitude. The runs will take care of themselves if the Pirates worry more about getting into scoring position and less about getting an RBI every time they bat with a RISP.

No more posts from me until Monday next week as I'm back out the door. Scoop's gonna put Honestwags on his back and carry us Craig Wilson-style.

Roster moves

Chris Kahrl's right about Bobby Hill.

Put Hill in the same category as Hee Choi: he was an uberprospect before Dusty Baker got a hold of him. He's also thriving under Mac's play-for-play platoon system. He's made the most of limited time, so he's earned all the PT the Bucs can find for him.

Paul Meyer notes today that J.J. Davis would have to stay on a big-league roster if claimed off waivers. That makes it less certain he'll be claimed if he's waived. If he can't make a push for more playing time in Pittsburgh, where half the starting spots are pretty wide open, where else could he go? Still, that won't stop a team that needs help yesterday from making the claim and giving him a chance. Odds are he would get claimed, and odds are he'd get waived again, and odds are he'd bounce around and not do much of anything for anyone.

Hearing Ward at 1B last night as I swung home surprised me a bit; I imagined Mateo would be up to replace Mondesi. On second thought, it makes a lot of sense. It tells us that the Bucs would like to find more PT for Craig Wilson in the OF. Rivera had a chance for a 1B job. Now Ward gets it. Odds are he won't set the world on fire and he can be returned to Nashville when Simon's ready.

Gildon vs. Rocket?

Sweet extra inning win. Man, the Bucs needed this after the last week. The losing streak is ended at 6 and Bucs improve to 13-17, only 4 games back of .500. Again, Craig Wilson carried us on his back with sick line of 5-4-4-7 with 2 HRs and 2 BBs. Mesa closes it out with a flawless non-save opp. Mackowiak gets the GWRBI hitting fourth.

So who needs Mondy? With Simon coming off the DL, the OF logjam, and Mateo poised in AAA, there are other options. What hurts is the vanishing option of trade booty for basketcase.

I've been thinking a lot about ways the Bucs can manufacture a few wins here and there. This idea is admittedly out-of-the-box, but why don't MLB teams hire goons like in the NHL? Picture this: Bucs sign Ty-Domi-type-expendable-thug (I keep picturing Jason Gildon). In first inning of crucial NL Central match-up, leadoff hitter Gildon leans into a Rocket heater then rushes the mound. (Or Rocket angrily and unexplainedly scoops up piece of Gildon's broken bat and murderously chucks it at Gildon) Gildon rolls on the Rocket's ankle, then in the ensuing melee manages to strain Bags' back and spike Biggio. Before the MLB fines+suspension land, in the next series Gildon rolls on Kerry's ankle. The Pirates apologize, fire Gildon, pay fines, and rake in increased ticket sales and win an extra 6 games down the stretch, taking the NL Central by half a game.

Mondy takes the money and rests

Breaking news says Mondy will take the rest of the year off. Mondy's quote to AP:

`I won't play another game this season. I can't concentrate well enough to play baseball. I don't want to become a distraction for the team. This is the best for the Pirates, for myself and my family...I've played 20 straight years of baseball all year round. I deserve a rest even if it's only a few months. Today I took my children to school for the first time in my life. It was an amazing feeling.'

Have fun with the family, Mondy. Good luck supporting them in a few years when you're out of work and begging Carlos Rivera for that watch you bought him.

Meanwhile, back on Earth: Wells vs. Elarton tomorrow - favorable matchup to stop the bleeding.

Haynes on R & R

Guess who just arrived for the beach party ... Jimmy Haynes. Looks healthy, too. I'm raising a drink to that as I speak.

Growing up

Five straight hurts, but note the silver lining:

RV rebounded nicely from the first inning Green jack: 'I threw the pitch I wanted to against Green,' Vogelsong said . 'I wanted to go inside on him and he still got to it. It's one of those things where you just tip your hat to him...I felt I learned a lot about myself tonight on the mound. I think I grew up a lot tonight. The rest of the night I was just trying to locate my pitches, trying to keep the ball down.' After the jack, RV two-hit the Dodgers for 6 innings and left with the game tied. Nice work RV.

In other good news: Mac finally acknowledged that Craig has earned the right to play everday. And the 20 inning scoreless streak at PNC is over, thanks to Tike's first jack of the year.

Of the loss Mac said:'This hurts. Certainly we had some opportunities to push that go-ahead run across and couldn't get it done.' I don't know if I'd call Nunez and Tike vs. the Beast (73 for last 73) 'opportunities' but the pain is real: The Dodgers have pistol-whipped us at PNC, taking 12 of 14.

Fogg vs. Odalis Perez today, could be a tater-fest.

Funkytown

Ouch. At least Stynes capitalized on Riggleman's brilliant defensive shift to avoid the ultimate humiliation. Nice effort by class-act Alvarez, who after the game commented `If they want me in the bullpen, I'll do it. I just want to win'.

'He threw a good ballgame, but we just didn't swing the bats at all,'McClendon said. 'It wasn't much of an effort on our part. He hit his spots, but we can hit the ball better than that. The fact is, we're in a funk right now.'

Tonight the Bucs hitters looked like E.T. in the creek- all weak and sickly. We've lost four in a row and are in the basement. BUT Perez looked good again and Bay is back, and we still believe in our .500 prognostication.

We hope everything's OK with Mondy and his family. Come back soon, big guy, your Pirate family needs you too.

Vogelsong vs. Nomo today, look for Bucs to rebound big.

Later date

Business and some pleasure has me on the road the next ten days & it's doubtful I'll have the time or the access to do any blogging. Scoop and Bones will keep up the rowdyism & generally elevate the quality of thought and writing about these parts. These should be exciting days for the Bucs and who knows, maybe there will be some long-anticipated and over-analyzed turn in the QB situation for the Steelers. Take care.

Hill pinch-hits

Sure, we're down 5-0, but Bobby Hill crushed a double leading off the eighth.

Lanny just pointed out that the Pirates only have eight pinch-hits. Hill has five of the eight. He's 5-for-11 with two walks as a pinch-hitter.

Down 5-0 late in the game.

This sucks. Makes me long for the day the Bucs return to the NL East.

D'Angelo Jimenez

Compare D'Angelo Jimenez and Jack Wilson. Jimenez has 21 walks and 102 at-bats for .216 / .343 / .352. Wilson has two walks and 102 at-bats for .363 / .377 / .549. Both bat at the top of the lineup. D'AJ has 17 runs and 12 RBIs; JW has 14 runs and 12 RBIs. The Reds have scored 130 runs and the Pirates have scored 102 runs, so percentage-wise D'AJ has scored 13% and driven in 9% of his team's runs. With JW the numbers are 14% and 12%.

Who has shown better plate discipline?

Priorities

It's a full-on rush for the honor of Man Who Protects Baseball:

U.S. Rep George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who is a former part-owner of the Greensboro Bats and the Michigan Battle Cats minor league teams, sent a letter to Selig protesting the decision.

"Little Leaguers deserve to see their heroes slide into bases, not ads," wrote Nethercutt, who is running for U.S. Senate.

They do not. Little leaguers, like all children, deserve good shelter, healthy food, clean water and air, lots of love from the grownups, high-quality medical care, and plenty of educational and economic opportunity. They do not "deserve" to watch baseball on television. They do not "deserve" to go see Spider-Man. If they "deserve" a trip to the ballpark, they do not "deserve" to see their heroes sliding into "bases, not ads." It's absurd that members of our government would take time off from our real problems to participate in such distractions. Do Pee-Wee League football players "deserve" to see their heroes run across a football field that does not have an ad at the fifty-yard line? This is vote-mongering, pure and simple. It's free to complain, right, and the media will lavish attention on politicians who make such complaints. Why can't we have a better media?

...did anyone blow his horn and rally the sheep to protest the painting of ads on the fifty-yard-line during bowl games? If little leaguers deserve to see their heroes sliding into bases not ads, don't pee-wee leaguers deserve to see their heroes crossing 50-yard lines not ads? Don't big wheelers deserve to see their heroes driving cars not ads?

Happy Mondy pt. 2

From Joe Rutter's article in the Tribune-Review:

To celebrate his good fortune, Mondesi went on a spending spree at Louis Vuitton yesterday. He bought a watch for left-handed reliever Mike Johnston as payback for Johnston giving up his No. 43 in spring training to Mondesi.

Mondesi also bought Louis Vuitton gifts for Tike Redman, Carlos Rivera and J.J. Davis.

"I have my money," Mondesi said, playfully jumping up and down.

That was all Mondesi would say about the matter.

"I really want to concentrate on baseball now," he said.

What a goofball.

Davis probably out of here

Read between the lines. If Mac says can't play both corners, he's buried very deep on the depth chart. Davis understands the situation. He's even whining about it:

"I don't think they like me over here," said Davis, who is hitting .100 with two RBI in 14 games and who has struggled in the outfield.

Nothing against you personally, J.J., but your outfield play has been sad and you've been lost at the plate and we have a half-dozen guys who can do your job better than you.

A lot of teams could use him as AAA depth. On another team, if given the chance to play everyday, Davis could surprise people. I'm sure Littlefield's on the phone this week.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Does Roger Clemens always work this slowly?

Happy Mondy

He'll get his dough.

That high school guy

At the end of March we did a long rant about criticism of the way Littlefield has drafted and esp. with the Paul Maholm over Jeff Allison pick which embodied, for a lot of critics, the college vs. high school options. That long post may not have been our most shining moment, but there are some good points in there. FWIW, Allison is out of baseball again. At Lynchburg, in five starts and 30 innings, Maholm has allowed zero homers, eighteen strikeouts, nine walks, and 24 hits for a 1.29 ERA. He may never make the big leagues but he looks like a better prospect than Allison.

Flat Earth Society

Jay Jaffe has a nice full-on rant about some people at ESPN and their idiocy on OBP. There's a lot of good stuff there, like a run expectancy chart, and Jaffe's right.

I enjoy the anti-sabermetric backlash. We need to debate these things, and having all kinds of views on the new ideas is the quickest way to weed the weak ones from the strong ones.

FWIW, I rarely watch Baseball Tonight. It doesn't interest me. I haven't seen it since last season, and Jaffe's article does nothing to convince me that I'm missing anything. Give me games, games, and more games, and give me box scores to read and beat writers to read.

Bucs on Old Time Radio

Anyone know of any recordings of Pirates games from the mid-20s to the mid-50s? Not necessarily famous games but typical ones. Were they recorded? Do collectors trade them as they trade other old-time shows? I'd like to hear a few. If anyone knows how that could be accomplished, send me an email. The link is on the right. Thanks.

Ed Eagle's Q & A with Dave Littlefield

Ed Eagle asked some good, specific questions about players and got some nice answers from David Littlefield.

Littlefield is saying all the right things about Kris Benson. More than anything, we want him to pitch well and we want him to pitch well for us. It sounds like Sanchez is a ways from playing everyday and it sounds like Bay is going through a very cautious rehabilitation schedule.