Game 87: Pirates at Phillies

Ohlendorf and Hamels at 7.

Game 86: Pirates at Phillies

Duke and Blanton at seven.

38-47

No game today. The Pirates have a better win-loss record than Arizona, San Diego, and Washington.

Game 85: Pirates at Astros

Stuffy Morton and Wandy Rodriguez at 2.

Jonezilla batting clean-up, again.

Weather is good for beer-fort repair. Pretty hot in 77002, however. Not sure if they will open the roof on Five Alive Field.

Game 84: Pirates at Astros

Maholm and Moehler at 8.

Beer fort in smoldering ruins.

Game 83: Pirates at Astros

Vasquez and Hampton, who somehow owns the Bucs, at 8.

Game 82: Pirates at Fish

Ohlendorf and Nolasco at 1.

At the half-way point, the Pirates are on pace for 74 wins.

Game 81: Pirates at Fish

Duke and Miller at 6.

Game 80: Pirates at Fish

Morton and Volstad at six. (Six??)

Pirates are 36-43 and well in the cellar, but they still have a slightly plus run differential, which is curious.

Game 79: Mets at Pirates

Redding and Maholm at 12:30.

Game 78: Cubs at Pirates

Wells and Vasquez at 7.

Game 77: Cubs at Pirates

Lilly and Ohlendorf at 7.

...adding ... Pirates make two trades today. First Hinske to New York for some minor leaguers and then, as Dejan Kovacevic reports here: Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett for Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan.

There will be a cascade effect from this deal. Bottom line is no padded cage for Ryan Doumit. He will have to play the field as the Pirates trade away a key part of the two-outfielder defense we've been perfecting on paper.

Game 76: Cubs at Pirates

Pirates are 35-40, in last place, and host the Cubs, who are 35-37 and 3.5 games out of first.

Harden and Duke at seven.

Game 75: Royals at Pirates

Greinke and maybe some Morton at one.

At 35-39, the Pirates are still in the cellar.

Game 74: Royals at Pirates

Chen and Maholm at seven.

Bucs are 34-39 after a three-game win streak. Still in the cellar and somehow only five games out of first place.

I am entertained by the talk of Nyjer for Milledge.

Game 73: Royals at Pirates

Meche and Vasquez, in his debut, at seven.

Game 72: Indians at Pirates

Lee and Ohlendorf at seven.

Pirates are 32-39 after last night's win. In the NL, only Washington, San Diego, and Arizona have fewer wins.

Game 71: Indians at Pirates

Pavano and Duke at seven.

Game 70: Indians at Pirates

Huff and Snell at seven.

That draft

Finally got around to reading Wilbur Miller's analysis of the draft. I've been looking forward to it since draft day. And I look forward to checking back against his analysis as the picks are signed. (Links to his analysis are at bottom of this page.)

As I followed the early news of the draft, I remembered writing this post some time ago in the foggy past. Very rarely do I read in the Honest Wagner archives. It is always embarrassing to re-read portions of your baseball fan diary when you are a Pirates fan. Over the last 16 years at least. The Pirates really have to do something to fix that, btw. It takes some 90-minute courage, which I happen to have in abundance this afternoon.

I haven't seen any comparison of the Pirates' 2009 draft with what the Tigers were doing in 2007. Did I miss something?