Some fans are jumping off the Zoltanic

Want to know what I don’t want to happen today?  The phrase that has been used so much recently.

If the season ended today, the Pittsburgh Pirates would be in the playoffs.

We think it’s a really dumb comment.  The season doesn’t end today, but we get it.  As much as we think it’s dumb to say, we understand it.  Actually, we don’t want it to go away.

But it seems like the Pirates need a fresh face or two.  New blood will be coming, it’s only a matter of when.

So until then we dug up some video on some players that might help.  Here is what we came up with you guys.

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Chris Leroux is dominating in Triple-A.  The right hander let the Pittsburgh Pirates know he wanted to be a starter again after clearing waivers this summer.  Damn.  It’s a great thing he did.  The guy is tearing it up.

Jeff Clement rips a thing of beauty below.  But you know what, Clement is hitting .176 in the past ten games.  A call-up for the first baseman doesn’t seem evident at this time. Clement’s comeback is a great story, his bat coming off the Pirates bench would surely help, maybe just not right now.

Justin Wilson has serious heat, but just look at this filth.  He obviously wants to be a starter, he responded with a no-no when the Bucs let him know he was going to the bullpen.  We admire that, but wonder if having Wilson in the bullpen would really help.   We could see him coming up and being Hurdle’s last option out of the pen.  So, really the help might be minimal.

Kyle McPherson is enjoying his promotion to AAA.  He has made two starts with impressive results.  McPherson is a guy that would soak in a September promotion.  We trust it happens, we are big fans of the right hander.  He is also a double black belt, which is cool….real cool.

Jose Tabata is having a nice August.  If Snider is hurt yet again, Tabata needs to be brought up.  It might be the easiest of these decisions.

Yamaico Navarro could replace Josh Harrison.  That would be a good thing, a really good thing. Navarro has eight homers and a solid OPS in AAA, although Brock Holt has been the shortstop, Navarro could play short to spell Barmes against the fly ball heavy Pirates starters. We think he would be a better option off the bench, not ideal, but better.  Harrison might be the top hitter of the bench, I think he’s around .230, the rest of the bench is actually hitting for a worse average as hard is that to believe.  The bench needs help.

Tony Sanchez is the wildcard.  Strong defense, good-not great arm.  It definently is interesting to think about, especially with the power strokes, maybe September is the time. He has an .822 OPS in his past ten games.

Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Chris Leroux made a rehab start for the Bradenton Marauders tonight.  When he wasn’t striking out the bad guys last night, he was getting them to ground out.

The Pirates right hander threw three innings.  Who knows what he was working on as it was just his first rehab outing,  but Leroux was just one out away from getting out of the third inning when he allowed a run-scoring triple to Daytona leadoff hitter John Andreoli.

Leroux followed it up with a punch out to end his outing.

Here is how Leroux’s night went from the Marauders website:

Daytona Bottom of the  1st

Adding it all up, the hard throwing Leroux gave up two hits, walked one and punched out two.  In sad news, the light hitting Marauders had just three hits and were shutout.  Drew Maggi had two of the hits.

The Marauders struckout ten times.

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