Archive for March, 2009

I guess its time to run this story again… Heh, we don’t have many options left. The Pirates aren’t going to go get a major arm. A castoff, ahh…get me some young guys so back to the question.. why not Jason Davis? All he had was another appearance against the Reds, (albeit the youngsters), another two innings and no runs allowed.  For a guy who is 6’6″ its not like he is hard to miss him around Bradenton, but not much has been made of him this spring. The debate at hand is pretty simple. Davis gets paid rather well which was a [...]

  Pirates fans will be surprised today I believe.  Ian Snell will make his first start for the club since February.  I think he will pitch very well.  But it won’t matter to most fans, because it will be all NCAA hoops and Pens/Flyers today. For those fans not glued to basketball or hockey action, the naysayers will be poised to strike if Ian has nothing less than a solid first game back after The World Baseball Classic. Ian has some proving to do to the Pirate fans.  He has in some odd way, not engendered the trust of the average [...]

Paul Maholm is having a great spring.  Old news. The important part of today’s game was his sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning. Jack Wilson had just doubled.  Heh, Jack is back!  The bunt by Maholm moved Wilson to third and he scored on Nyjer Morgan’s sacrifice fly.  A very important run in a 6-5 win over the Reds.  I love watching the Pirates play smart.  It made my day.  If you want to be bored to silliness as I ramble about the importance of bunting continue to read, otherwise click back to more important stories. The other pitchers struggled.  Old [...]

Right about now, the Pirates could use a pitcher like Jim Bibby.  Bibby was orginally drafted by the Mets and then by Uncle Sam.  He served in Vitenam and then he bounced around from team to team and always seemed poised to either have a meltdown or an incredible performance.  He arrived in Pittsburgh as a .500 pitcher with control problems.  He would eat up innings and would allow nearly as many hits per innings pitched, but his earned runs were steadily half of the number of hits he allowed.  He could work out of a jam. Right now, I would be [...]

Presumably, the battle we all have been waiting for begins today for the coveted fifth starter spot for the Pirates. It definently is an undercard as both pitchers have not come up with a cobra clutch on the spot. The final two men standing are…. in the red corner, standing 6’3″ weighing in at 205 pounds from Santa Barbara California, Virgil Vasquez.  In the blue corner, weighing in at 185 pounds and standing 6’3″ from San Diego, California Jeff Karstens ! Pirate fans, it has come down to these two right handed pitchers.  Each have displayed some ability in the minors.  Each has [...]

Heading into last year, Tom Gorzelanny was the number one starter.  Paul Maholm needed to rebound.  What a turn of events a year makes.  It’s been a fall from ace for Gorzelanny and a climb to ace for Maholm.  Take a really close look at the pitching stats for the 2007 version of Gorzelanny when compared to the 2008 season for Maholm.  Mystifying .   2007 Gorzy     14-10    3.88 ERA  201IP  214H  11HBP  68BB  135K 2008 Maholm    9-9      3.71ERA   206IP  201H   9HBP  63BB  139K   2007 Maholm 10-15  5.02ERA   177IP  204H  6HBP  49 BB  105K 2008 Gorzy        6-9    6.66ERA    105IP  120H  1HBP  70BB     67K   [...]

It was a wild ending in the WBC, but Puerto Rico fell to the USA tonight in the bottom of the ninth 6-5.   Good Luck to John Grabow and Team USA today against Venezuela. I will be glad to see Ian Snell back in camp. I don’t think I am alone in that very selfish sentence.  Joe Kerrigan mentioned he had been taping Ian’s performances.  He certainly must have been pleased with the video he watched.  Despite the pleasantries, “Ian is throwing well from what I have seen,” said Kerrigan.  It seemed Kerrigan was anxious to have Snell back in Spring Training.  [...]

After reading the cover of The NY Post today, many Pittsburgh Pirates decided not to attend the game at George Steinbrenner Stadium. The rest of the Pirates that made the trip had a rough night. Pirate pitchers hung breaking balls, pitches caught way too much plate, the Pirates offense struggled with only a few balls making it out of the infield–in fact no outfield putouts were made, and the Yankees mauled the Bucs 9-2. CC Tabathia kept the Bucs silenced for most of the night striking out seven over four innings and allowing only one hit and one earned run.  [...]

The former Mud Hen Virgil Vasquez can take another step toward the Pirates starting rotation tonight.  He threw well against the Twins last time out, three innings pitched and no earned runs.  His outing against the Rays was less than stellar.  Heh, Virg…it’s yours for the taking. Some other exciting tidbits below for all those Grapefruit stats hounds: **Paul Maholm ranks second among all Major Leaguer pitchers with 0.66ERA **Robinzon Diaz has gone 8-for-18 (.444) and has six hits in his last 10 at bats. **Brian Bixler hit safely in 11 of last 13 games **Andy LaRoche has hit safely [...]

I was curious about the Class A team Pedro Alvarez is going to be visiting for a brief time this year.  The Lynchburg Hillcats.  Kinda catchy.  I thought they only had lemonade down there.  Shame on me.  Now they have Lynchburg Lemonade and Pedro.  Sign me up! I saw a few things that were exciting on their website tonight.  A lot of former players…Joey Bats, Brian Bixler, but one glaring and quite noticeable person missing…Pedro?  Pedro Alvarez? http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid=t481 As I perused the site I found that The Hillcats are pleased to announce their promotional schedule for the 2009 season. The upcoming [...]