Busy Morning for the Bucs

The Pirates try to win their second successive series today against the Rockies. Zach Duke is on the hill for the Bucs, against Ubaldo Jimenez for the Rockies. Just looking at the batter vs. pitcher stats on ESPN, the LaRoche boys are a combined 7 for 12 against Jimenez. And a number of Rockies have had success against Duke, most notably Matt Murton (10 for 25).

Anyway, the Pirates have also placed reliever Tyler Yates on the 15-Day DL this morning and recalled Tom Gorzelanny. Here's the PBC Blog piece on it. So, apparently Gorzelanny will pitch out of the bullpen, which finally gives Pittsburgh a long reliever. Gorzelanny had been pitching okay in Indy. In 40 2/3 innings, 40 hits (only 2 homers), 16 walks and 36 strike outs. Nothing spectacular, but decent. Yates, of course, has been struggling a bit this year and it looks like right elbow inflammation is at least partially to blame. Gorzelanny in the 'pen is interesting. I doubt the Pirates would pull Karstens from the rotation too quickly, since he has been pitching pretty well, but having Gorzelanny around might make it easier to make that switch, if and when the times comes.

Also today, the Bucs made a couple of small trades. They acquired outfielder Jeff Corsaletti from Boston and pitcher Randy Newson from Cleveland. Both were acquired for players to be named later and both are to be assigned to AA Altoona.

Doing a little research, I see that Coraletti is 26 years old and bats left-handed. Splitting time between AA and AAA last year, he hit .285 with 14 homers and 65 RBIs, with a pretty respectable BB:K ratio of 71:93. He's even stolen some bases in the minors. Though at that age, and having not yet seen the majors, I doubt the upside is too high.

Newsom is a 27 year old right-hander. He's been a reliever his entire pro career, reaching the AAA level this year and last. In his minor league career, in 275 innings, he has an ERA of 3.17, with 115 walks and 166 strike outs. Not especially impressive numbers. Both of these acquisitions were, most likely, just organizational moves aimed at increasing the overall talent in the system. Neither players will likely have an impact in the Majors.

5/16/09 Pirates vs. Rockies: LIVE!

7:01 PM: Here we go folks. Since I didn't figure out a legitimate live blog technique, there will have to be a lot of refreshing to get the full experience. Someday I'll do this the right way.

First a little Bucs' news: The team made a trade today with the Yankees, acquiring minor league starter Eric Hacker for Romulo Sanchez. Also, Nyjer Morgan will be out for a couple games with a sore hamstring.

7:07 PM: Here's ESPN's live box score for the game.

7:09 PM: I know it's early, but Snell's looking pretty sharp.

7:11 PM: I spoke too soon. Now Snell's getting squeezed a bit.

7:15 PM: 2 on, 2 out. Hopefully Snell can bear down and get out of this. I'd hate to see a 2 out walk turn into some 1st inning runs for the Rocks.

7:18 PM: I'm jinxing him, apparently. 2 run double for Spilborghs.

7:21 PM: I excited to see Delwyn Young. I haven't seen him yet with Pitt.

7:24 PM: C'mon, Nate. My fantasy team needs you too.

7: 28 PM: Nice little bit on the charity baseball thing with Freddy. He seems like a good guy. Someday we'll be friends.

7:29 PM: Homer for Barmes, on a hanger. Snell's stuff looks decent tonight, aside from the hanger, so I hope this is one of his starts that begins ugly and only gets prettier.

7: 33 PM: Ian finishes the 2nd strong, but 46 pitches through 2 doesn't bode well. How tall is Fowler? 6'7"?

7:35 PM: Hit for Adam. For some reason cleanup hitters kill Cook. Hitting like .600 against him.

7: 36PM: Hit for Moss. All the sudden he's good. I like that.

7:37PM: 3 straight hits and the Pirates are on the board. Nice to see big Adam chugging around 3rd. 3-1 Rocks.

7:40 PM: Bases juiced. It's Jack Wilson time! (no double play, please)

7:41 PM: Slow ground out, 1 run scores, everyone else advances. 3-2 CO.

7: 45PM: DELWYN! 2 run, 2 out hit gives the Bucs the lead. This is the clutch hitting absent from the last 2 games, and the dozen or so games prior to Tuesday.

7:47PM: I guess the rain is picking up, and here comes the tarp. Announcers say it shouldn't last long. I hope that's the case, what with the Bucs putting a nice rally together. 2 outs, Young on first, Sanchez due up, whenever the game resumes.

8:03 PM: When you only get to watch maybe 10 Pirate games a year, "bonus" coverage of the Orioles and Royals just doesn't cut it. Maybe if Greinke was pitching it would be ok.

8:25 PM: The weather forcasts shows that the rain will pass, I'm just not sure how quickly. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

8:37 PM: This rain delay has given me the opportunity to make a roster move on my fantasy team. Placed Frank Francisco on the DL and added Scott Downs. Oh, the excitement.

9:16 PM: Game should resume soon. I've spent the delay catching up on last night's The Soup ("Take it."). I wonder is PNC has a mound indoors, you know, to keep the pitchers loose. I'd hate to see the bullpen have to absorb 7 innings tonight. That might mean Donnie Veal, which is almost as bad as Matt Capps. Oooh.

9:24 PM: First play after the delay and the Bucs get a borderline call in their favor on Young's steal.

9:28 PM: Snell is out. Sean Burnett is in. Maybe he can go 3 innings.

9:32 PM: Not a good start for Burnett: leadoff walk, single to Helton. 1st and 3rd, no outs. And now Hawpe's up.

9:33 PM: Sac fly, 4-4. And Helton advanced to 2nd. The ball carried really well. We could be in for some fireworks the rest of this game.

9:36 PM: Another break for the Pirates as Helton ran into an out at third. Now, 2 outs and a runner on first.

9:43 PM: Oliver Onion build a bear? What the?

9:46 PM: Belisle is bit concerned with Nate at 1st. Perhaps enough so to groove a fastball to Moss?

9:48 PM: McLouth steals second, now let's see if Moss can bring him in...nope. Ground out, McLouth to third.

9:51 PM: I'm getting sick of this Speed Stick commercial. What's my pit type? Itchy? Hairy? Sweaty? Lonely? Grumpy? That's too personal a question.

9:53 PM: Apparently bobbleheads of specific players debuted in 1960. Who knew? Also, Jack Wilson is a stud.

10:02 PM: Clemente, Mays, Mantle and Maris were the first 4 bobbleheads. Interesting.

10:05 PM: Burnett gets a very rare at bat and grounds out. Looks like he's going 3+ tonight.

10:08 PM: Leadoff double for Tulo. Helton and Hawpe up next. Can Burnett bear down and get some outs? Well, Helton just grounded out, Tulo to third. One out.

10:09 PM: Infield is in, the Bucs don't wont to allow a run here since their odds of scoring the rest of the night is slim, if recent history is any indication. Hawpe just grounded out, runner held at third. Now, 2 outs. Very nice.

10:11 PM: Line out to center, three outs. Nice pitching by Burnett, keeping that leadoff double from hurting. Maybe this will be a momentum builder. I'm too optimistic. And again with the freaking pit ad!

10:15 PM: Turns out this is Delwyn's first time batting lead off in pro ball. At least as far as he can remember.

10:16 PM: It's my new BFF! Best Friend Freddy!

10:17 PM: The Miracle League field is awesome. It's designed for kids with disabilities, with a synthetic turf so kids in wheelchairs and walkers and play.

10:19 PM: Home Run for McLouth!! On his bobblehead night too! 5-4 Bucs!

10:20 PM: Way to kill the high LaRoche. He just struck out on a pitch that I believe was just below his left foot. Like, directly below. And, again with the pits. I might have to write a strongly worded letter to the MLB Net. Though I think they only have three different commercials total here. The Pit, Ken Burns and themselves.

10:22 PM: Hannah wins the pierogi race. Well done.

10:24 PM: Evan Meek is pitching now. And Iannetta just threw his bat about 20 rows into the crowd on a swing. It looks like no one was hurt.

10:26 PM: Easy play, but Jack Wilson rushes his throw and pulls LaRoche off first. E-6.

10:31 PM: How often will Adam LaRoche outrun Dexter Fowler? Well, I guess if Adam has a 50 foot head start.

10:32 PM: New pitcher, Jason Grilli, and Moss greets his first offering by drilling it into the notch. Moss is like 9 for his last 15. Sweet. Now, a wild pitch. Moss to third.

10:35 PM: The Bay Boys (named for Jason Bay trade) are getting things done tonight. Andy Laroche just singled in Moss. 6-4 Bucs. Still no outs.

10:37 PM: The Pirates look like a real team right now. Hit and run single by Jaramillo, LaRoche to third. No outs. Jack Wilson time!

10:41PM: Sac fly for Wilson, 7-4 Bucs. And apparently Jason Grilli and Jim Leyland are not friends. Pitching change now.

10:44 PM: In ex-Buc news, Jason Bay just homered for Boston. He must have heard that Moss and LaRoche are having good games and he needs to make sure that it is known that he is superior to both of them combined. Also, our good friend Jose Bautista had the game winning hit for Toronto today.

10:46 PM: Blass is talking about Matt Capps. That's making me nervous.

10:52 PM: I always get excited when I see that commercial with Tim Lincecum in a Pirates hat. I know it was when he was like 9 years old, but the Pirates could use a 9 year old Lincecum in their rotation.

10:54 PM: Jesse Chavez is now pitching, top of the 7th. Who would have though back in spring training that Chavez would be the most reliable reliever the Bucs have. I was just trying to remember which trade the Bucs got him in. I was thinking the Sean Casey one maybe, but the announcers just said it was the Kip Wells deal. I would call that a good trade for Pittsburgh.

10:57 PM: Chavez just made Helton look foolish on a wicked change up. . Now a fly out to center ends the Rockies half of the 7th.

11:02 PM: Really nice to see Adam drill a double off a lefty. Now Moss is up and...fly out to center. Boo.

11:13 PM: Andy LaRoche called out on a close pitch to end the 7th. He argued some but wasn't tossed. It was close, too close to take with 2 strikes. Grabow in now.

11:17 PM: Pretty quick 8th for Grabow. They just showed footage of Kerrigan working with a partially blindfolded Capps on his delivery. Perhaps Capps will use the blindfold in the 9th tonight.

11:21 PM: First Burnett, now Grabow with an at bat. Exciting day for the bullpen.

11:22 PM: Really nice sacrifice bunt for Grabow. I'm impressed.

11:23 PM: Capps coming in. Here comes twubble.

11:27 PM: Leadoff walk. Capps looks to be having a little trouble with location. Shocking.

11:28 PM: 6-4-3 double play. What a relief. Seriously.

11:30 PM: Ground out to short, Pirates win 7-4! Save for Capps, win for Burnett, nice all around game. Clutch hitting, great job by the bullpen pitching 7 innings after the rain delay. Zach Duke pitching tomorrow, going for the series win, and once again needing to eat up some innings.

If anyone was out there tonight, thanks for dropping by for my first ever live-ish blog. Have a good night.

Who's Ready for a Live Blog?

Thanks to my new favorite channel, the MLB Network, the Pirates' game on Saturday against the Colorado Rockies will be on TV here in Indiana. And I'm taking this opportunity to do a little live blogging experiment. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:05 pm Eastern, so don't be late. Just in case any of you might possibly have something better to do on a Saturday night (but really, what's better than a Pirates/Rockies game?), the complete transcript will be available afterward. Actually, realistically, the actual live blog will probably just be a regular entry that I continuously update, unless I can figure a more fancy professional way to do it. Anyway, I'm excited about it.

The game itself features Ian Snell pitching for the Bucs against Aaron Cook for the Rockies. Cook's a good pitcher, but he doesn't have great numbers against the Pirates in his career (4.83 ERA in 31 2/3 innings), though Snell's are not much better (4.78 ERA in 26 1/3). Snell does have a little history with the Rockies though, with the infamous "I will kill that dude" sign-stealing incident from 2 years ago. I'm pretty sure enough time has passed that that won't be an issue at all, however.

As for this Rockies series in general, it begins a stretch of 7 games against teams that might just be worse than the Pirates (3 vs. Colorado, 4 at Washington). It presents a nice opportunity for the Pirates to build on their series win against the Cardinals. With Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Sanchez apparently slump-proof, and with Adam LaRoche and Brandon Moss starting to hit, the Bucs' offense appears to be getting things going again, if you consider yesterday's abysmal hitting with men on base an aberration. So, hopefully the team can pull off a couple more series wins before their first taste of Inter-League play begins next Friday (followed by their first games against the Cubs, another crux of the Bucs).

Off the Schneid

A tale of two games:

Game A: A home game. Brandon Moss hits an RBI triple off the center field wall. Andy LaRoche homers. The Paul Maholm pitches superbly. Matt Capps tries to close it out in the 9th.

Game B: A home game. Brandon Moss hits his first homer. Adam LaRoche homers. Zach Duke pitches wonderfully. Matt Capps finishes it off in the 9th.

Game B was last night against the Cardinals. The Pirates won 7-1, ending their 8 game losing streak. A very well played game, completely dominated by the home team. Game A took place just 8 days prior. From a superficial perspective, many of the same things happened in this game that happened in last night's, but each was to a lesser degree. And, of course, Game A was played against the Brewers. What a difference a week makes, and what a difference the opponent makes.

Another interesting note about last night's game is that it was the Pirates' first win in a series opening game since April 20, against the Marlins. Actually, the Pirates had won the first game of each series up until that point, and they've lost the first game of every series since, prior to last night's game. This does not necessarily mean the Bucs are about to embark on some epic winning streak, it just means that last night may have marked a return to their winning and, more refreshingly, competent style of baseball that they began the season with.

Ross Ohlendorf takes the hill tonight, against Joel Pineiro for the Cards, looking to give the Bucs their first series win since late April in San Diego. On Thursday, Jeff Karstens faces Mitchell Boggs, hopefully going for the sweep. It should be a good series.

Jack Wilson Returns

Prior to tonight's home game against the St. Louis Cardinals, shortstop Jack Wilson should be activated from the disabled list, and fill-in Brian Bixler will be returned to Indianapolis, where he belongs. Now, it's no secret the Pirates have been struggling horribly the past 2 weeks, losing 8 games in a row, and 12 of their past 13. And, though I don't think Jack Wilson alone could have prevented this losing streak, I feel that the Pirates would have perhaps won another game or two in this span, or at least, not looked quite so bad, if Wilson had been here. To be fair, I should add that the Wilson was placed on the DL prior to the game in San Diego on April 26. The Pirates won that game, so, technically, they lost 12 of 14 with him gone.

Speaking just of the team's record, with Jack Wilson on the disabled list this year, the Pirates are 2-12. In 2008, Wilson also missed time due to injury. While he was on the DL last year, the Pirates went 22-24, which is actually a better winning percentage than they're accustomed to. However, the primary fill-in for Wilson the past two seasons has been Brian Bixler. Though Bixler has performed well in AAA, the Majors does not seem like his cup of tea.

Covering parts of the last three seasons, Bixler has hit a combined .280 with 12 home runs and 95 RBIs in 988 plate appearances for the AAA Indianapolis Indians. Decent, but unspectacular statistics. Bixler has stolen 53 bases in this time, but his strike outs-to-walks ratio is a poor 2.74:1. With the decent average and the speed and some extra-base-hits, it would appear that Bixler is performing very well in AAA, and perhaps that performance would translate to the Bigs. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.

In these past couple of weeks, where Wilson was injured and the Pirates turned a solid start to the year into the usual sad routine, Bixler made 8 starts at shortstop for the Bucs. In those 8 games, Bixler hit .200, with 1 walk and 18 strike outs. Among his 5 hits, he did manage 3 doubles, and he did drive in 3 runs. But striking out in 18 of your 25 at bats? Absolutely horrid.

In 2008, Bixler was just as bad. Though he only struck out 36 times in 108 at bats (by the way, that's still a pace of 200 K's for a 600 at bat season, which is Mark Reynolds territory), Bixler hit just .157 with 3 extra-base hits and 2 RBIs. Aside from his 2004 campaign, Jack Wilson has never really been thought of as an offensive shortstop. However, compared to his backup, Wilson is a regular Luke Appling.

Now, much has been made of the fact that Wilson's contract runs out after this season (he does have an option at around $8.5 million that the Pirates will absolutely NOT pick up). Wilson has stated that he would like to remain in Pittsburgh, even at a lower salary, for at least one more year. Just how low? I don't know. I've said it before, if Wilson will take something in the $3-4 million range, he would be well worth it.

Though Wilson's not the long term answer at short, he is the best option for this year and next. Bixler has proven, thus far, that he's not capable. There are a number of other intriguing shortstops in the lower levels of the minors (AA: Brian Friday, High A: Jordy Mercer, Low A: Chase D'Arnaud, Injured/Out for Year: Jarek Cunningham) but only Friday would have a legitimate chance of being major league ready at some point in 2010, though if he were to have to wait a little longer in AAA, or share time in the Bigs with Wilson, I doubt his growth would be too stunted.

I get the rebuilding, or whatever you want to call it, and I'm all for that. I would have no problem with saying so long to Wilson, and letting Bixler flounder around out there for a full year if I thought he would get it figured out and become a competent shortstop. However, I don't see Bixler reaching that level and he's probably looking at an uninteresting, and somewhat disheartening, career in the mystical in-between world of 4A.

Karstens Pitches Well (!), but Moss and Offense Fail Again

The much maligned Jeff Karstens pitched a very solid game tonight in New York only to be let down by his bullpen and offense, in a 7-3 loss. The Dynamic Duo of Tyler Yates and Sean Burnett combined to allow 5 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in the 8th before being bailed out by Donnie Veal, of all people. And, once again, the Pirates' offense did very little in this one, leaving 9 runners on base and failing to get the clutch hit. The dreariness continues.

Brandon Moss continued to make a case for a trip to Indianapolis with another 0 for 4 game. Moss is 3 for 22 this month and is hitting only .185 on the year. Now with AAA pitcher Jimmy Barthmaier scheduled for Tommy John surgery, and a trip to the 60-Day DL, a 40-man roster spot will soon open up. I can't help but think this could mean Andrew McCutchen could be coming up. However, if we are to believe management, McCutchen's call-up will be based on when he's ready, not on any other factors. Still, I think a move of some sort could be coming. I'm pretty sure Moss still has a minor league option, so he could be sent down for a bit to get himself straightened out. Maybe the more likely replacement would be Steve Pearce, who, by the way, hit his 6th homer tonight for Indy. Or possibly Jeff Salazar, who is not on the 40-man, but now could be added. Although, Moss could just see some more time on the bench, with capable outfielder options in Craig Monroe, Delwyn Young and Eric Hinske currently on the active roster. I'm not sure if the bench is the best spot for Moss though. Or for the team, for that matter. Maybe a little roster shuffle could help motivate the hitters. And with Jack Wilson due back on Tuesday, perhaps two moves might do the trick.

Correction: Moss is, in fact, out of minor league options. So, scrap all that I wrote above here. I made a miscalculation.