Archive for April, 2009

TODAYS TO DO LIST: Wake up and ponder the seven month love affair that is ‘officially’ about to begin.  God this one looks like a real heartbreaker already. Send countless emails to ensure everyone makes it on time Jump on the bus with friends who treat opening day like their 21st birthday and New Years eve wrapped up into one. Make sure Nick has the tickets. Put my wad of cash in safe spot. The ATM lines are long. Cash is the best way to get the cheapest beer in all of Major League baseball Take a deep breath.  Smell it.  Ahhhhh….Opening [...]

On a gorgeous day at The Great American Ballpark, Nyjer Morgan lead off the game with a hustling double off the end of the bat.  Not so fast….the Pirates stranded their only scoring threat. And then didn’t get near second base again.  Frustrating.  Aaron Harang held the Pirates to three hits. Harang got himself in trouble with his fastball in the past.  It looks like he isn’t in love with it anymore.  And that meant trouble today for the Pirates who weren’t able to catch up with his assortment of off speed pitches.  Harang took advantage of a strike zone [...]

Brian Friday is a man on a mission. He isn’t big physically standing only 5’11″, but he has played huge in his short time with the Pirates organization. He played in Hawaii this year, spent time with Craig Biggio and the Texan is turning some some heads.  He is quickly moving up the ranks and is off to another hot start, hitting .667 after a 3-3 night against the Erie SeaWolves. Here is a great story about Friday in my hometown paper.

Both Aaaron Harang and Ian Snell are coming off terrible offseasons.  Today could be the highest scoring game of the season, but I see it differently.  For some reason. Harang lost 33 pounds in the offseason.  Snell doesn’t have a weight problem, it seems more mental. Harang gave up 35 homeruns last year.  Snell gave up 18 homeruns. Harang is from one coast, San Diego while Snell is from the other Delaware. A little over two weeks ago in Brandenton, Harang brought a 1-2 record and a 7.24 ERA to the mound to face the Pirates.  He pitched six innings of no-hit [...]

  The Curve (0-2) lost another nailbiter this time 2-0 in Erie.  Altoona pitcher William Hughes went six strong no hit innings and gave up no runs for the Curve against Erie.  He struck out four batters. Hughes left the game with no run support from his team however.    Shawn Nottingham took the loss as the left hander walked one, gave up two hits and two runs. The Curve knocked out seven hits on the night including the usual suspects DH Jose Tabata with a double in four at bats, 2B Jim Negyrch had a single and no errors on the night.  CF [...]

I believe the Pirates look at the next six five games as very winnable.  I tend to agree.  Rumbunter looks at this stretch and we see some favorable matchups.   And I just found out the game might  has been  called due to rain. The Pirates and Cincinnati Reds got to know one another quite well this spring.  They met six times with the Bucs taking four of those games.  As we discussed earlier this year, the Pirates need victories against the Reds (1-2) and their shaky pitching staff.  The Pirates will send two one question mark pitchers themselves to the mound this weekend.  [...]

The Pirates roll into Cincinnati today.  Jeff Karstens gets the start in the city where Leon Hall continues to mire most NFL players in a bad light.  It is so bad in Cincinnati that this quote was on the wire…’Hall is the first Bengals player to face criminal charges in nearly a year.’  Huh?  Like that is a good thing?  Nobody busted for nearly a year?   He’s scheduled to be arraigned in Clermont County Municipal Court today.  I trust it was just a mixup and he didnt really blow  0.149. The legal limit in Ohio is 0.08.  It seems that [...]

While everyone was busy losing in various fashion from blowout to nailbiters yesterday in the Pirate organization, Pedro Alvarez was taking care of business.  He led his team to victory in the season opener in Lynchburg. He batted third for the Hillcats and went 3 for 4.  He drove in four runs, slammed a two-run opposite field home run of reliever Andrew Kown and rapped a two-run double in the seventh that provided the winning margin. Welcome to professional ball fella.  We said yesterday that we wanted Alvarez to have a ”one night stand” and move through Lynchburg quickly.  Heh, [...]

Everyone knows that Virginia is for lovers.  Plenty of passion surrounds the baseball team as well.  Record attendance numbers of 162,000 were set last year.  Buckle your seat belts Ladies and Gentlemen, The Pedro Alvarez Show is set to crush that record.  Starting tonight it will be the spot for towering home runs and much joy begins tonight in Lynchburg.  Watch the rising birth rate in Lynchburg this season, because fans are going to absolutely fall all over themselves when they see the PedroA Show.   But for the thousands of us Heartbroken Hostages in Pittsburgh (with all due respect )I hope Alvarez is in [...]

Heh, Zach Duke struck out Albert Pujols on three pitches.  That’s all I need to type.