News came out today on the Pirates web site that the Pirates are going with a very unconventional lineup at the beginning of the season. The biggest thing that sticks out in the new plan is the pitcher hitting in the 8 hole.
The reason for this move is so more capable batters will be hitting in front of Andrew McCutchen, who will consequently bat 2nd in the lineup. Akinori Iwamura will assume lead off responsibilities. The Pirates see McCutchen as one of their better run producers and want to give him every chance to succeed at doing so. This means that Ronny Cedeno will start the year batting 9th. Although Cedeno has never had a good on base percentage, they are hoping batting 9th will force pitchers to give him more pitches to hit and his numbers will increase. The flip side of that is the 7 hole in the order, which will most likely be taken by Andy LaRoche. Hitting before the pitcher requires a lot of plate patience, which the Pirates see in LaRoche. While it may not bode well for Andy's numbers, I agree that he is the best fit for that spot in the lineup. So here's what the opening day lineup is gonna (probably) look like:
1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B
2. Andrew McCutchen, CF
3. Garrett Jones, LF
4. Ryan Doumit, C
5. Lastings Milledge, LF
6. Jeff Clement, 1B
7. Andy LaRoche, 3B
8. Zach Duke, SP
9. Ronny Cedeno, SS
The Pirates implemented this lineup today and had some very nice results, putting up 15 hits and beating the Astros 13-1.
In other news, the Pirates claimed Hayden Penn off of waivers today. Penn was competing for a spot in the Marlins' rotation, but had rough goings in spring training and was DFA'd. The Pirates picking him up will mean that he will start the year on the 25 man roster and in the bullpen. Penn was a 5th round draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles in 2002 and showed some serious promise in his early years. That success has gone away in the last few years and he has put up some rough numbers, including a 7.77 ERA in 22 innings in the majors last year. The Pirates decided his upside was worth the risk and grabbed him. Consequently they DFA'd Brandon Moss, which has made me very happy. That opens the door for John Raynor to make the opening day club, and kind of adds on to the confusion of the bullpen situation. Jack Taschner was looking like a good chance to be in the bullpen, but now not so much (same with Jean Macchi).
Another interesting possibility is that Jason Jaramillo may start the year in AAA while Erik Kratz takes his spot on the major league roster. This move will be made to get Jaramillo regular playing time so he won't go stale and not be ready to assume the starting job in Pittsburgh if Doumit gets injured or traded. I have been wondering about this all offseason long and I think this is the right move. Jaramillo isn't helping the Pirates at all sitting on the bench in Pittsburgh, and he has the talent to be a starter some day if he can just get some playing time. He is best suited playing everyday in Indianapolis so he will be ready to assume the starting job in the majors if (when) Doumit gets injured (or traded).
More 25-man roster announcements will be coming out in the next couple days, so be on the look out for that.
Pirates Starters Fielding Independent Pitching - Charlie Morton
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Tonight is the 4th and final episode of the Pirates Starters Fielding Independent Pitching Posts, here are the links to the first 3:
Zach Duke
Paul Maholm
Ross Ohlendorf
Tonight we'll be taking a look at Charlie Morton, who has everything necessary to be the Pirates ace in 2010. He has more movement on his pitches and better stuff than anybody in the Pirates organization, and with some more maturity and work, he could develop into one of the National League's best pitchers. Let's take a look at those numbers:
Morton has a very small major league sample size to look at. He pitched 74 innings in 2008 for the Braves, and 97 innings in 2009 split between the Braves and the Pirates. In his time with the Pirates, he was a pretty good pitcher. His season ERA ended at 4.55, but it would have been much, much lower if not for a terrible 10 earned run appearance against the Cubs late in the season. That's what you already know, here's what you might not have.
Morton has the possibilities to be a pretty good strikeout pitcher, although his K/9 fell slightly last year. The movement he puts on his pitches gets a lot of ugly swings. I'd definitely expect to see a consistently higher strikeout rate from Morton than what he put up last year. His walks are a problem, while he did improve on the 4.97 BB/9 he posted in 2008, he still has a lot of work to do in that aspect. His time working with Joe Kerrigan should do him a lot of good there, we saw a drastic improvement in Ohlendorf's walk rate from 2008 to 2009, which can probably be largely attributed to Kerrigan's work. If Morton can strikeout more batters and walk less batters, he will easily be one of the Pirates best pitchers.
Morton's 2009 was really defined by a couple of awful outings. His FIP was 4.15, which was significantly better than his season ERA. His BABIP was .310, which is just about average, so there is not much to take from that. The most encouraging thing we see in Morton's stats is the outstanding .65 HR/9 rate. That tied him with Paul Maholm for the best on the team last year, and it really shows that Morton knows how to keep the ball in the yard. He is right about at 50% in groundball ratio, I would like to see that improve a little bit, but for now it's pretty good.
The biggest thing with Morton is going to be control. If he can locate the ball better and walk less batters, he should have a very solid year for the Pirates.
My 2010 prediction for Morton: 13-14, 4.25 ERA, 5.85 K/9, 3.00 BB/9
Zach Duke
Paul Maholm
Ross Ohlendorf
Tonight we'll be taking a look at Charlie Morton, who has everything necessary to be the Pirates ace in 2010. He has more movement on his pitches and better stuff than anybody in the Pirates organization, and with some more maturity and work, he could develop into one of the National League's best pitchers. Let's take a look at those numbers:
Morton has a very small major league sample size to look at. He pitched 74 innings in 2008 for the Braves, and 97 innings in 2009 split between the Braves and the Pirates. In his time with the Pirates, he was a pretty good pitcher. His season ERA ended at 4.55, but it would have been much, much lower if not for a terrible 10 earned run appearance against the Cubs late in the season. That's what you already know, here's what you might not have.
Morton has the possibilities to be a pretty good strikeout pitcher, although his K/9 fell slightly last year. The movement he puts on his pitches gets a lot of ugly swings. I'd definitely expect to see a consistently higher strikeout rate from Morton than what he put up last year. His walks are a problem, while he did improve on the 4.97 BB/9 he posted in 2008, he still has a lot of work to do in that aspect. His time working with Joe Kerrigan should do him a lot of good there, we saw a drastic improvement in Ohlendorf's walk rate from 2008 to 2009, which can probably be largely attributed to Kerrigan's work. If Morton can strikeout more batters and walk less batters, he will easily be one of the Pirates best pitchers.
Morton's 2009 was really defined by a couple of awful outings. His FIP was 4.15, which was significantly better than his season ERA. His BABIP was .310, which is just about average, so there is not much to take from that. The most encouraging thing we see in Morton's stats is the outstanding .65 HR/9 rate. That tied him with Paul Maholm for the best on the team last year, and it really shows that Morton knows how to keep the ball in the yard. He is right about at 50% in groundball ratio, I would like to see that improve a little bit, but for now it's pretty good.
The biggest thing with Morton is going to be control. If he can locate the ball better and walk less batters, he should have a very solid year for the Pirates.
My 2010 prediction for Morton: 13-14, 4.25 ERA, 5.85 K/9, 3.00 BB/9
Pirates Starters Fielding Independent Pitching - Ross Ohlendorf
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Tonight I'm posting my 3rd installment to the Pirates Starters Fielding Independent Pitching series. I'm gonna take a quick look at Ross Ohlendorf. To understand what's going on with these posts, read the Zach Duke post and then once your in a bad mood, read my findings in the Paul Maholm post.
So let's check out Ohlendorf's stats from his last two years in the big leagues:
Ross Ohlendorf was arguably the Pirates best starter last year. He was the only pitcher with an ERA under 4. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I am going to have to say about Ohlendorf in this particular post.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ross as a starter for the Pirates. I seriously believe that he will be in the rotation for years to come. That said, last year for Ohlendorf looks like it involved a ton of good luck.
First off, Ross had a BABIP of .265, which is extremely low. That doesn't happen very often with big league starters. This could be attributed to the fact that Ross throws a hard sinker ball and forces a ton of balls being pounded into the ground. The chances of getting an out on a ground ball are much higher than on a ball hit on a line or in the air. Therefore, Ohlendorf's BABIP will probably be under .300 a lot in his career, but I don't think it will ever be as low as it was last year again.
The second piece of bad news is that Ohlendorf's FIP was 4.72 in 2010. That's an amazing .8 points higher than his actual ERA. That shows that he wasn't as good as a pitcher as his numbers showed.
The good news it that Ohlendorf had a spectacular second half of the year. The last 3 months of the season Ross posted some very nice looking numbers: 3.35 ERA, 6.26 K/9, .246 BAA. Those numbers could be attributed to some increased velocity which we saw at times out of Ross in the second half. He really just seemed to get better and better as the year went on. That was very nice to see when a lot of the other starters seemed to be getting worse and worse.
All-in-all it was a strange year for Ohlendorf. His BABIP and FIP both showed shocking signs of good fortune, but just watching him pitch you could tell he is a legitimate big league arm. I really don't know what to peg Ohlendorf at this year, but I wouldn't bank on him keeping his ERA under 4 again.
My 2010 prediction for Ohlendorf: 13-11, 4.10 ERA, 5.70 K/9, 2.85 BB/9
So let's check out Ohlendorf's stats from his last two years in the big leagues:
Ross Ohlendorf was arguably the Pirates best starter last year. He was the only pitcher with an ERA under 4. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing I am going to have to say about Ohlendorf in this particular post.
Don't get me wrong, I love Ross as a starter for the Pirates. I seriously believe that he will be in the rotation for years to come. That said, last year for Ohlendorf looks like it involved a ton of good luck.
First off, Ross had a BABIP of .265, which is extremely low. That doesn't happen very often with big league starters. This could be attributed to the fact that Ross throws a hard sinker ball and forces a ton of balls being pounded into the ground. The chances of getting an out on a ground ball are much higher than on a ball hit on a line or in the air. Therefore, Ohlendorf's BABIP will probably be under .300 a lot in his career, but I don't think it will ever be as low as it was last year again.
The second piece of bad news is that Ohlendorf's FIP was 4.72 in 2010. That's an amazing .8 points higher than his actual ERA. That shows that he wasn't as good as a pitcher as his numbers showed.
The good news it that Ohlendorf had a spectacular second half of the year. The last 3 months of the season Ross posted some very nice looking numbers: 3.35 ERA, 6.26 K/9, .246 BAA. Those numbers could be attributed to some increased velocity which we saw at times out of Ross in the second half. He really just seemed to get better and better as the year went on. That was very nice to see when a lot of the other starters seemed to be getting worse and worse.
All-in-all it was a strange year for Ohlendorf. His BABIP and FIP both showed shocking signs of good fortune, but just watching him pitch you could tell he is a legitimate big league arm. I really don't know what to peg Ohlendorf at this year, but I wouldn't bank on him keeping his ERA under 4 again.
My 2010 prediction for Ohlendorf: 13-11, 4.10 ERA, 5.70 K/9, 2.85 BB/9
Pirates Starters Fielding Independent Pitching - Paul Maholm
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Yesterday I took a look inside Zach Duke's career with the help of some statistics that completely ignored performance from the things that he doesn't control. Today I am going to take a similar look at Paul Maholm, and the results are encouraging. If you didn't read last night's post, take a look at it here and read the first couple paragraphs to get a feel for what we are looking at. So here we go, here's Maholm's stats:
Paul Maholm has been one of the Pirates best pitchers since he began starting consistently in 2006. When he is on his game, he is one of the top left handed pitchers in the National League in terms of getting hitters out. Maholm isn't going to strike out 10 batters a game or be on Baseball Tonight's "That's Nasty", but he is still a very capable big league pitcher. Let's take a look at the numbers.
Maholm's 2009 was a valley year. He started and ended the year well, but pitched pretty poorly at times in the middle of it. His June-July ERA was well over 5. There were a couple really bad starts in there that he could never really overcome, and his final 2009 statistics reflected it. His ERA for the year was 4.44, which isn't terrible, but when taking a deeper look, you see that he actually pitched much better than that.
Maholm pitched 194.2 innings in '09, which is right about what you want to see from your top guys. However, his strikeouts went down. In 2008 he struck out just over 6 batters per nine, and for whatever reason, that number fell to 5 and a half in 2009. The positives were that he kept his walks down (2.78 per nine) and really kept his HR rate down (.65 per nine, tied with Charlie Morton for the best on the staff). Maholm has always been a great groundball pitcher, and he kept that reputation up last year as well with a 52% ground ball rate.
Now those are all just numbers that don't really predict anything about this upcoming season. The things that do predict what kind of 2010 season he will have come when we look at the BABIP and FIP numbers.
Maholm's BABIP in 2009 was .325, which is incredibly high. That's a lot of bad luck there, which he almost become used to. In 3 of his 4 full seasons as a Pirates starter he has had a BABIP over .310. The law of averages suggests that eventually he is going to have to have a couple seasons under the league average. If that happens in 2010, which is mathematically more than likely will, he is due for a career year.
That last sentence is supported by Maholm's 2009 FIP (fielding independent pitching ERA). His FIP was a very nice looking 3.83. Ignoring BABIP, if Maholm's ERA would have been 3.83 in 2009, he would have been in the top 20 in the NL. If Maholm's BABIP would have been closer to the league average in 2009 and his ERA would have better reflected his FIP, he would be near the top 10 in the NL. That's a confusing sentence. Basically what I'm saying is that if you turn some of Paul Maholm's 2009 bad luck into good luck, he would have had a seriously fantastic statistical year.
So what does this all mean for 2010? It means this:
If Paul Maholm has better luck in 2010, which is mathematically VERY likely, and repeats his performance from 2009, he will be one of the best starting pitchers in the National League.
I'm not predicting that Maholm is going to be in the top 10 in ERA this year or win 20 games, but I am expecting big things out of him in 2010. I believe that he will be the Pirates ace and really turn some heads in the National League.
Check back tomorrow to see what the FIP stats have to say about Ross Ohlendorf.
Paul Maholm has been one of the Pirates best pitchers since he began starting consistently in 2006. When he is on his game, he is one of the top left handed pitchers in the National League in terms of getting hitters out. Maholm isn't going to strike out 10 batters a game or be on Baseball Tonight's "That's Nasty", but he is still a very capable big league pitcher. Let's take a look at the numbers.
Maholm's 2009 was a valley year. He started and ended the year well, but pitched pretty poorly at times in the middle of it. His June-July ERA was well over 5. There were a couple really bad starts in there that he could never really overcome, and his final 2009 statistics reflected it. His ERA for the year was 4.44, which isn't terrible, but when taking a deeper look, you see that he actually pitched much better than that.
Maholm pitched 194.2 innings in '09, which is right about what you want to see from your top guys. However, his strikeouts went down. In 2008 he struck out just over 6 batters per nine, and for whatever reason, that number fell to 5 and a half in 2009. The positives were that he kept his walks down (2.78 per nine) and really kept his HR rate down (.65 per nine, tied with Charlie Morton for the best on the staff). Maholm has always been a great groundball pitcher, and he kept that reputation up last year as well with a 52% ground ball rate.
Now those are all just numbers that don't really predict anything about this upcoming season. The things that do predict what kind of 2010 season he will have come when we look at the BABIP and FIP numbers.
Maholm's BABIP in 2009 was .325, which is incredibly high. That's a lot of bad luck there, which he almost become used to. In 3 of his 4 full seasons as a Pirates starter he has had a BABIP over .310. The law of averages suggests that eventually he is going to have to have a couple seasons under the league average. If that happens in 2010, which is mathematically more than likely will, he is due for a career year.
That last sentence is supported by Maholm's 2009 FIP (fielding independent pitching ERA). His FIP was a very nice looking 3.83. Ignoring BABIP, if Maholm's ERA would have been 3.83 in 2009, he would have been in the top 20 in the NL. If Maholm's BABIP would have been closer to the league average in 2009 and his ERA would have better reflected his FIP, he would be near the top 10 in the NL. That's a confusing sentence. Basically what I'm saying is that if you turn some of Paul Maholm's 2009 bad luck into good luck, he would have had a seriously fantastic statistical year.
So what does this all mean for 2010? It means this:
If Paul Maholm has better luck in 2010, which is mathematically VERY likely, and repeats his performance from 2009, he will be one of the best starting pitchers in the National League.
I'm not predicting that Maholm is going to be in the top 10 in ERA this year or win 20 games, but I am expecting big things out of him in 2010. I believe that he will be the Pirates ace and really turn some heads in the National League.
Check back tomorrow to see what the FIP stats have to say about Ross Ohlendorf.
Fielding Independent Pitching Statistics, Zach Duke
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If the Pirates are going to win any time soon, they need their starting rotation to pitch well all season long. While the pitchers we have on our roster right now aren't going to be winning any Cy Young awards or even consistently shutting down other teams in the league, I think they are good enough to get the Pirates a winning season if the offense cooperates. The rotation was probably the biggest surprise of the 2009 season. They weren't stellar, but they were much better than people expected them to be.
I wanted to try and get a better feel for how the rotation is shaping up for the 2010 season, so I decided to compile some stats. I didn't compile your every day stats though, I set out to find the stats that were completely based on the pitchers performance. This is a relatively new idea in baseball. Ten years ago everybody was looking at stats like ERA as the best indicator of how good a pitcher was. However, one day, a man named Voros McCracken decided that he didn't buy into that. He was convinced that a large amount of the things that go into calculating an ERA were not controlled at all by the pitcher. He went out on a limb to say that anything that happened after the ball was put into play was more luck than anything, and any statistic that was reliant on those happenings was flawed. From there, the statistics that he weighed most heavily were the ones that had nothing to do with anybody on the field except the pitcher. These stats were strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed. He also put a good amount of importance on a pitchers ground ball rate. He stated the obvious when he said that no ground ball could ever be hit over the fence, and the slightly less obvious when he said that a ground ball was much, much less likely to go for extra bases.
I put together some stats and threw them into a spreadsheet to try and get a better feel for the Pirates 2010 rotation, and I made some pretty interesting discoveries. We're gonna spend some time on this, so we'll look at every pitcher individually. First, we'll start with Zach Duke. The stats we are going to be looking at are as follows: innings pitched, strikeouts per nine innings, walks per nine innings, home runs allowed per nine innings, ground ball percentage (the percentage of balls put into play off a pitcher that were hit on the ground), FIP (basically an adjusted ERA that ignores anything that a fielder had an influence on), and BABIP (opposing batters batting average on balls put in play). I also added in ERA and ERA-FIP to see how a pitcher really pitched compared to his ERA.
Zach Duke made his Pirates debut in 2005. He pitched phenomenally in that year, going 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 84.2 innings pitched. After that stint he was up and down to and from the minors for a little while before permanently joining the rotation in 2007. I'm going to ignore all the stats he compiled before '07 and just take a look at what he's done in his major league career away from the amazing couple of months he had in '05.
The first thing we notice is that Duke had a heavy work load last year. He was over worked and struggled near the end of the year because of it. The Pirates have already addressed this issue and have said that they are not going to leave him in games for as long this year. Therefore I would not expect him to get to 213 innings again. I think around 190 will be where he'll be in 2010.
Duke's 2009 was statistically his best year. He had a higher strikeout rate and also walked batters less frequently than the previous two years.
His home run rate was also pretty good, slightly higher than 2008 but still completely acceptable. That was probably attributed to his ground ball rate hitting a low, at 47.7% in 2009. Duke was giving up more fly balls than in previous years, which never spells anything good for a pitcher. However, he managed to avoid much damage, and kept his ERA under 4 for most of the season.
Like I said, near the end of his season he got roughed up a couple of times and his ERA increased substantially because of it. He ended the year with a 4.06 ERA, which is well above average for a pitcher. However, the other statistics show that he was pretty lucky last season.
His BABIP was about right where you expect it to be. The big league average is right around .300 and it is widely accepted that through a pitchers career it will average out to pretty close to that number. Duke's was .296, so there isn't much to take from that. However, his FIP was 18 points higher than his ERA, which showed that he did not pitch as well as his main numbers showed.
Duke is a pitch-to-contact guy, so he makes his living on getting ground balls and weak contact to increase the chances of getting batters out as frequently as possible. The Pirates were statistically the best defensive team in the National League, which certainly weighs in to their pitcher's statistics. However, it's a completely new defense this year so we can't expect or predict much from the them this year. Because of that, there is really no reason to believe that Duke will replicate his 2009 season. His ground ball rate has decreased each of the last 2 years, so unless his K rate keeps increasing (which is unlikely),
His ERA-FIP shows that he was pretty lucky in 2007 and 2008, and not so lucky in 2009. The law of averages says he will have another unlucky 2010. Therefore, I see no real way that Duke is going to improve on his 2009 numbers. If his BABIP is close to .300 again in 2010, I'd expect a mid-4's ERA from him at best.
Zach Duke's stuff is nothing more than average, so there is a ceiling on exactly how great of numbers he can put up. Looking at those numbers, I would say that his 2009 season was pretty close to that ceiling, and probably as close to it as he's ever going to be.
Conclusion: Zach Duke will take a step backwards in 2010.
Check back tomorrow for some encouraging news when we look at Paul Maholm.
I wanted to try and get a better feel for how the rotation is shaping up for the 2010 season, so I decided to compile some stats. I didn't compile your every day stats though, I set out to find the stats that were completely based on the pitchers performance. This is a relatively new idea in baseball. Ten years ago everybody was looking at stats like ERA as the best indicator of how good a pitcher was. However, one day, a man named Voros McCracken decided that he didn't buy into that. He was convinced that a large amount of the things that go into calculating an ERA were not controlled at all by the pitcher. He went out on a limb to say that anything that happened after the ball was put into play was more luck than anything, and any statistic that was reliant on those happenings was flawed. From there, the statistics that he weighed most heavily were the ones that had nothing to do with anybody on the field except the pitcher. These stats were strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed. He also put a good amount of importance on a pitchers ground ball rate. He stated the obvious when he said that no ground ball could ever be hit over the fence, and the slightly less obvious when he said that a ground ball was much, much less likely to go for extra bases.
I put together some stats and threw them into a spreadsheet to try and get a better feel for the Pirates 2010 rotation, and I made some pretty interesting discoveries. We're gonna spend some time on this, so we'll look at every pitcher individually. First, we'll start with Zach Duke. The stats we are going to be looking at are as follows: innings pitched, strikeouts per nine innings, walks per nine innings, home runs allowed per nine innings, ground ball percentage (the percentage of balls put into play off a pitcher that were hit on the ground), FIP (basically an adjusted ERA that ignores anything that a fielder had an influence on), and BABIP (opposing batters batting average on balls put in play). I also added in ERA and ERA-FIP to see how a pitcher really pitched compared to his ERA.
Zach Duke made his Pirates debut in 2005. He pitched phenomenally in that year, going 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 84.2 innings pitched. After that stint he was up and down to and from the minors for a little while before permanently joining the rotation in 2007. I'm going to ignore all the stats he compiled before '07 and just take a look at what he's done in his major league career away from the amazing couple of months he had in '05.
The first thing we notice is that Duke had a heavy work load last year. He was over worked and struggled near the end of the year because of it. The Pirates have already addressed this issue and have said that they are not going to leave him in games for as long this year. Therefore I would not expect him to get to 213 innings again. I think around 190 will be where he'll be in 2010.
Duke's 2009 was statistically his best year. He had a higher strikeout rate and also walked batters less frequently than the previous two years.
His home run rate was also pretty good, slightly higher than 2008 but still completely acceptable. That was probably attributed to his ground ball rate hitting a low, at 47.7% in 2009. Duke was giving up more fly balls than in previous years, which never spells anything good for a pitcher. However, he managed to avoid much damage, and kept his ERA under 4 for most of the season.
Like I said, near the end of his season he got roughed up a couple of times and his ERA increased substantially because of it. He ended the year with a 4.06 ERA, which is well above average for a pitcher. However, the other statistics show that he was pretty lucky last season.
His BABIP was about right where you expect it to be. The big league average is right around .300 and it is widely accepted that through a pitchers career it will average out to pretty close to that number. Duke's was .296, so there isn't much to take from that. However, his FIP was 18 points higher than his ERA, which showed that he did not pitch as well as his main numbers showed.
Duke is a pitch-to-contact guy, so he makes his living on getting ground balls and weak contact to increase the chances of getting batters out as frequently as possible. The Pirates were statistically the best defensive team in the National League, which certainly weighs in to their pitcher's statistics. However, it's a completely new defense this year so we can't expect or predict much from the them this year. Because of that, there is really no reason to believe that Duke will replicate his 2009 season. His ground ball rate has decreased each of the last 2 years, so unless his K rate keeps increasing (which is unlikely),
His ERA-FIP shows that he was pretty lucky in 2007 and 2008, and not so lucky in 2009. The law of averages says he will have another unlucky 2010. Therefore, I see no real way that Duke is going to improve on his 2009 numbers. If his BABIP is close to .300 again in 2010, I'd expect a mid-4's ERA from him at best.
Zach Duke's stuff is nothing more than average, so there is a ceiling on exactly how great of numbers he can put up. Looking at those numbers, I would say that his 2009 season was pretty close to that ceiling, and probably as close to it as he's ever going to be.
Conclusion: Zach Duke will take a step backwards in 2010.
Check back tomorrow for some encouraging news when we look at Paul Maholm.
Tuesday Thunder
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The rhyming post titles continue.
The Pirates defeated the Yankees today by the score of 12-7. The offense started early and continued often. McCutchen singled to begin CC Sabathia's rough outing. After McCutchen, Cedeno doubled to left and moved Cutch to third. Milledge then brought him in with a single into right field. Garrett Jones joined the party in a big way, with a monstrous home run to deep right center field that put the Pirates up 4-0.
Charlie Morton could have done better to keep the lead, he gave up 3 runs in his 3 innings of work. He had 2 walks, which you don't want to see, but he did throw some good pitches in his outing. His high point was when he struck out Curtis Granderson on 3 pitches. It really didn't matter what Morton would do today, because he could not have possibly looked worse than Brian Burres did. Burres gave up 4 runs in .2 innings including 3 walks. He was awful. But don't fret Pirate fans, he doesn't have a chance to make the team out of spring training. That was all the Yankees would get though. Ronald Uviedo, DJ Carrasco, Donnie Veal, and Anthony Claggett teamed up to shut out the Yankees in their combined 5.1 innings of work.
The same couldn't be said for the Yankees bullpen. The Pirates scored 6 runs off of the relief pitchers today. RBI's after that first inning went to Lastings Milledge (his second of the game), Andy LaRoche, Bobby Crosby, John Raynor, Pedro Alvarez, Steve Pearce, Doug Bernier, and Hector Gimenez. Cedeno, Jones, and Raynor all had multi-hit games. At the end of the contest, the Pirates had another 15 hit game on the board.
Speaking of John Raynor, he has been absolutely no fire this spring. He is now hitting .538 this spring (that's 7 hits in 13 at bats). He is one of the guys battling for the 5th outfield spot, and if he keeps hitting like this I don't think the Pirates will have any choice but to give it to him. He plays great defense and he can fly around the bases. He sure has my vote right now.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow against the Orioles at 7:05. The game will be on FSNPittsburgh and we will be having another live blog. Be sure to check back here during the game and chat with us!
The Pirates defeated the Yankees today by the score of 12-7. The offense started early and continued often. McCutchen singled to begin CC Sabathia's rough outing. After McCutchen, Cedeno doubled to left and moved Cutch to third. Milledge then brought him in with a single into right field. Garrett Jones joined the party in a big way, with a monstrous home run to deep right center field that put the Pirates up 4-0.
Charlie Morton could have done better to keep the lead, he gave up 3 runs in his 3 innings of work. He had 2 walks, which you don't want to see, but he did throw some good pitches in his outing. His high point was when he struck out Curtis Granderson on 3 pitches. It really didn't matter what Morton would do today, because he could not have possibly looked worse than Brian Burres did. Burres gave up 4 runs in .2 innings including 3 walks. He was awful. But don't fret Pirate fans, he doesn't have a chance to make the team out of spring training. That was all the Yankees would get though. Ronald Uviedo, DJ Carrasco, Donnie Veal, and Anthony Claggett teamed up to shut out the Yankees in their combined 5.1 innings of work.
The same couldn't be said for the Yankees bullpen. The Pirates scored 6 runs off of the relief pitchers today. RBI's after that first inning went to Lastings Milledge (his second of the game), Andy LaRoche, Bobby Crosby, John Raynor, Pedro Alvarez, Steve Pearce, Doug Bernier, and Hector Gimenez. Cedeno, Jones, and Raynor all had multi-hit games. At the end of the contest, the Pirates had another 15 hit game on the board.
Speaking of John Raynor, he has been absolutely no fire this spring. He is now hitting .538 this spring (that's 7 hits in 13 at bats). He is one of the guys battling for the 5th outfield spot, and if he keeps hitting like this I don't think the Pirates will have any choice but to give it to him. He plays great defense and he can fly around the bases. He sure has my vote right now.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow against the Orioles at 7:05. The game will be on FSNPittsburgh and we will be having another live blog. Be sure to check back here during the game and chat with us!
Monday Slumber
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Firstly, the Pirates played 2 games today and lost both. They collected 1 hit in their 6-0 loss to the Yankees and didn't do too much better against the Rays. If you want more details, check out Raise the Jolly Roger and/or North Side Notch.
Secondly, if you saw yesterday's post, you'd realize that this title is really clever.
Thirdly, the Pirates play Tuesday at 1:05 against the Yankees.
That is all.
Secondly, if you saw yesterday's post, you'd realize that this title is really clever.
Thirdly, the Pirates play Tuesday at 1:05 against the Yankees.
That is all.
Sunday Lumber
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The Twins weren't ready for what the Pirates brought to the field this afternoon at McKechnie Field, as the Buccos put up 15 runs and defeated the Twins, pushing their spring training record to 2-2-1. Leading the Pirates today was Bobby Crosby, who drove in 4 runs, and Delwyn Young, who drove in 3 of his own. The Pirates got home runs from Crosby and Garrett Jones, who hit his first bomb of 2010 in the 4th inning. It should also be noted that Pedro Alvarez hit a triple today, don't get used to that. The fact that the Twins were playing with a split squad today may have attributed to the beating. I should also mention that I have never heard of any of the pitchers the Twins sent to the mound today. Regardless of that, the Pirates had a great showing at the plate today. They collected 15 hits, which is impressive against any level of pitching.
As for the Pirates on the mound, Ross Ohlendorf made the start and it didn't go exactly how he wanted it to. In the first inning, Denard Span (the lead off hitter) drew a walk off Ohlendorf. Two batters later Justin Morneau drove a mistake pitch a long ways out of the ballpark, and the Twins were on top 2-0. Ohlendorf settled down from then on, and finished his outing with 2 hits allowed in 2 innings pitched, a long with those 2 earned runs. Next in was Chris Jakubauskas, who didn't fair particularly well either. His line looked like this: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO. After that it was smooth sailing for the buccos. Ronald Uviedo, Vinny Chulk, Bryan Morris, Anthony Claggett, and Ramon Aguero teamed up to shut out the Twins through the final 5.1 innings of the game. Morris and Aguero both pitched perfect 1-2-3 innings, and Claggett struck out the side in his frame.
It was all-in-all a very good effort from the Pirates today. They certainly put on a show for the Pirate faithful watching the game in Bradenton.
We've now played 5 Cactus League games, so before the Pirates start a new work-week, let's take a look at some of the stats from some very important Pirates so far this spring:
Pedro Alvarez: 2/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 5 SO
John Raynor: 4/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Ryan Church: 3/9, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Bobby Crosby: 3/9, 2 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SO
Ryan Doumit: 3/8, 0 XBH, 2 SO
Garrett Jones: 1/8, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 SO
Andy LaRoche: 1/8, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 SO
Akinori Iwamura: 2/7, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SO
Andrew McCutchen: 3/6, 1 R, 0 SO
D.J. Carrasco: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
Vinny Chulk: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
Ross Ohlendorf: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Chris Jakubauskas: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
Ramon Aguero: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
Anthony Claggett: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO
Jack Taschner: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 S0
Steven Jackson: 2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Charlie Morton: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO
Daniel McCutchen: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Kevin Hart: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB
I bolded those last two for obvious reasons, let's hope that one of them steps up and decides to win the job as the Pirates 5th starter. Neither of them have looked good at all in their very limited innings, but we're hoping that will change soon.
You have to be careful looking at pitching stats in spring training because a lot of them can be deceiving. However, the one that I have found to be completely reliable as a check for how a pitcher is performing is walks. The main thing pitchers work on in spring is control, so if they can't keep their walk rates down while they are consciously trying to just that, it doesn't bode well for them heading into the regular season. The Pirates pitchers have done okay with it so far, with the exceptions of Kevin Hart and Charlie Morton, who were pretty much the last two guys we wanted to see struggle with it. They both have less than 3 innings of work so far so it is hardly even worth mentioning.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow as they have a split squad day. Half the team will face the Yankees in Bradenton and the other half will travel to play the Tampa Bay Rays. Both games start at 1:05.
As for the Pirates on the mound, Ross Ohlendorf made the start and it didn't go exactly how he wanted it to. In the first inning, Denard Span (the lead off hitter) drew a walk off Ohlendorf. Two batters later Justin Morneau drove a mistake pitch a long ways out of the ballpark, and the Twins were on top 2-0. Ohlendorf settled down from then on, and finished his outing with 2 hits allowed in 2 innings pitched, a long with those 2 earned runs. Next in was Chris Jakubauskas, who didn't fair particularly well either. His line looked like this: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO. After that it was smooth sailing for the buccos. Ronald Uviedo, Vinny Chulk, Bryan Morris, Anthony Claggett, and Ramon Aguero teamed up to shut out the Twins through the final 5.1 innings of the game. Morris and Aguero both pitched perfect 1-2-3 innings, and Claggett struck out the side in his frame.
It was all-in-all a very good effort from the Pirates today. They certainly put on a show for the Pirate faithful watching the game in Bradenton.
We've now played 5 Cactus League games, so before the Pirates start a new work-week, let's take a look at some of the stats from some very important Pirates so far this spring:
Pedro Alvarez: 2/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 5 SO
John Raynor: 4/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Ryan Church: 3/9, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Bobby Crosby: 3/9, 2 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SO
Ryan Doumit: 3/8, 0 XBH, 2 SO
Garrett Jones: 1/8, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 SO
Andy LaRoche: 1/8, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 SO
Akinori Iwamura: 2/7, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SO
Andrew McCutchen: 3/6, 1 R, 0 SO
D.J. Carrasco: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
Vinny Chulk: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
Ross Ohlendorf: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Chris Jakubauskas: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
Ramon Aguero: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
Anthony Claggett: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO
Jack Taschner: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 S0
Steven Jackson: 2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Charlie Morton: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO
Daniel McCutchen: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Kevin Hart: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB
I bolded those last two for obvious reasons, let's hope that one of them steps up and decides to win the job as the Pirates 5th starter. Neither of them have looked good at all in their very limited innings, but we're hoping that will change soon.
You have to be careful looking at pitching stats in spring training because a lot of them can be deceiving. However, the one that I have found to be completely reliable as a check for how a pitcher is performing is walks. The main thing pitchers work on in spring is control, so if they can't keep their walk rates down while they are consciously trying to just that, it doesn't bode well for them heading into the regular season. The Pirates pitchers have done okay with it so far, with the exceptions of Kevin Hart and Charlie Morton, who were pretty much the last two guys we wanted to see struggle with it. They both have less than 3 innings of work so far so it is hardly even worth mentioning.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow as they have a split squad day. Half the team will face the Yankees in Bradenton and the other half will travel to play the Tampa Bay Rays. Both games start at 1:05.
Sanchez Shines
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Tonight was the best Pirate game of the year so far, the main reason for that is the Pirates first round draft pick of last year, Tony Sanchez.
Sanchez did all kinds of things well tonight. First, in the 6th inning, he nailed a would-be base stealer at second. Second, he blasted a solo home run in his first at bat in a Pirate uniform in the 8th inning, which helped the Pirates greatly in their 5-3 come from behind victory. Sanchez also made a nice play fielding a bunted ball to throw a runner out at first.
You can read this same story on pretty much every Pirate blog there is, so I'm gonna phrase it in a way that you haven't heard before : Tony Sanchez is a pimp.
The Pirates were frowned upon for taking him with the 4th overall pick. People said he didn't have the skills to become anything more than an average big league player. They all said that the Pirates only picked him because they wouldn't have to pay him very much, just another typical safe, cheap, wasted draft pick for the Pirates. While it's still extremely early in Sanchez's career, so far he has done nothing but prove all of those things wrong. Scouts rave about his defense, he has the all the tools to be THE BEST defensive catcher in the game when he gets to the bigs. That's not just my opinion, real scouts say it too. In addition to that, his offense is by no means going to keep him off the field. The guy has power potential. We're not talking 30 bombs, but we're talking consistent 15-20 homers a year with an above average catcher batting average. He's not going to Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer, but I really think that if he reaches his potential, he will be a top-5 catcher in the majors.
Tony Sanchez just keeps making the Pirates look smarter and smarter, and it will be extremely fun to watch him the rest of this spring training season. Tomorrow the big league starters will be back out as the Pirates open up their home spring training schedule at 1:05 when they host the Phillies at McKechnie Field.
Sanchez did all kinds of things well tonight. First, in the 6th inning, he nailed a would-be base stealer at second. Second, he blasted a solo home run in his first at bat in a Pirate uniform in the 8th inning, which helped the Pirates greatly in their 5-3 come from behind victory. Sanchez also made a nice play fielding a bunted ball to throw a runner out at first.
You can read this same story on pretty much every Pirate blog there is, so I'm gonna phrase it in a way that you haven't heard before : Tony Sanchez is a pimp.
The Pirates were frowned upon for taking him with the 4th overall pick. People said he didn't have the skills to become anything more than an average big league player. They all said that the Pirates only picked him because they wouldn't have to pay him very much, just another typical safe, cheap, wasted draft pick for the Pirates. While it's still extremely early in Sanchez's career, so far he has done nothing but prove all of those things wrong. Scouts rave about his defense, he has the all the tools to be THE BEST defensive catcher in the game when he gets to the bigs. That's not just my opinion, real scouts say it too. In addition to that, his offense is by no means going to keep him off the field. The guy has power potential. We're not talking 30 bombs, but we're talking consistent 15-20 homers a year with an above average catcher batting average. He's not going to Victor Martinez or Joe Mauer, but I really think that if he reaches his potential, he will be a top-5 catcher in the majors.
Tony Sanchez just keeps making the Pirates look smarter and smarter, and it will be extremely fun to watch him the rest of this spring training season. Tomorrow the big league starters will be back out as the Pirates open up their home spring training schedule at 1:05 when they host the Phillies at McKechnie Field.
The "Mc" Speaks
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The Pirates lost to the Braves today 4-2. I don't have time to give many details from the game, but the high point of it for the Pirates was Andy LaRoche hitting the Pirates' first Grapefruit League home run this spring. Charlie Morton started the game and had some control issues, just the normal Charlie Morton. Let's hope he works those problems out.
Anyways, Nate McLouth, 50% of the inspiration for this blog's name, made some comments after the game - which were quite interesting. You can check them out Jennifer Langosch's most recent post.
Pirates take on the Orioles tomorrow night at 7:05.
Anyways, Nate McLouth, 50% of the inspiration for this blog's name, made some comments after the game - which were quite interesting. You can check them out Jennifer Langosch's most recent post.
Pirates take on the Orioles tomorrow night at 7:05.
Pirates/Braves Lineups
CommentsThe Pirates face the Braves today in their 2nd spring training game. Here are the lineups:
Pirates:
1. McCutchen, CF
2. Crosby, SS
3. Milledge, LF
4. Church, RF
5. Clement, 1B
6. Alvarez, DH
7. LaRoche, 3B
8. Young, 2B
9. Jaramillo, C
Starting Pitcher: Charlie Morton
Braves:
1. McLouth, CF
2. Heyward, RF
3. Jones, 3B
4. Glaus, 1B
5. McCann, C
6. Diaz, LF
7. Hinske, DH
8. Infante, SS
9. Conrad, 2B
Starting Pitcher: Kenshin Kawakami
Let's Go Bucs!
Spring Training Game #1, Pirates vs. Yankees, Wrap-up / Liveblog
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The Pirates lost their first game of the spring in good style today, as Virgil Vasquez started off his year by giving up a 3 run walk-off home run to Colin Curtis. His ERA now sits at 81.00, which almost reflects how bad of a pitcher he really is.
It was a pretty good game until the ninth inning though. The pitching was dominant early on, as the Pirates staff didn't allow a hit until the 5th inning. Maholm, Ohlendorf, Bass, and Carrasco all put up hitless frames. Steven Jackson had some bad defense played behind him, but did give up a home run to Eduardo Nunez, and he finished his day with 3 runs allowed (2 earned). Jack Taschner and Jean Machi had good innings, putting 6 Yankees down in a row. After that it was Vasquez's game to lose, and he did just that.
The offense wasn't too impressive, except in the 7th inning, when Erik Kratz scorched a hanging breaking ball to the left center field gap which drove in 2 runners (Delwyn Young, who was hit by a pitch and Jose Tabata, who hit a soft single over the second baseman's head). Kratz advanced to third when the throw from left missed the cut off man, and he scored on the next batter when Ryan Church grounded out. The Pirates collected only 3 hits all game long, from Andrew McCutchen and then aforementioned Kratz and Tabata.
The guys I was interested to see today were Akinori Iwamura and Jeff Clement. It was weird seeing Aki in a Pirates uniform. I am a pretty big Rays fan, so I usually watch a lot of their games, so it was weird seeing Aki not sporting the Rays blue. Clement is probably the guy I am most intrigued with this year. The reason for that is his offense, but his defense is another pretty big reason to watch him with interest. He isn't experienced at first but he looked pretty solid there today. Early in the game, Ronny Cedeno fielded a ground ball and made a throw that was a couple feet to the right of the bag, which Clement stepped off, caught, and applied the tag very nicely. The next batter hit a grounder to Clement, which he fielded easily and flipped on to Maholm for the out. Two plays in the first inning and I was feeling good about his defense. He looked pretty comfortable out there. One game doesn't prove anything, but at least he didn't mess those two plays up. Keep your eyes on Clement when he's out there this spring, he could be a big part of the future.
3-up:
Erik Kratz (+2): 1/1, 2B, 2 RBI (plus a beautiful throw from his knees from catcher attempting to catch a base stealer)
Ross Ohlendorf (+1): 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K, 7 of 12 pitches for strikes
Jean Machi (+1): 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K
3-down:
Virgil Vasquez (-1): 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 HRA
Steven Jackson (-1): 1.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 K
Gorkys Hernandez (-2): 0/2, 1 SO
So there's your recap, here's the live blog we did during the game. Next game is tomorrow at 1:05 against the Atlanta Braves. Charlie Morton, Brian Burres, and Brad Lincoln will all make appearances on the mound. Until next time!
It was a pretty good game until the ninth inning though. The pitching was dominant early on, as the Pirates staff didn't allow a hit until the 5th inning. Maholm, Ohlendorf, Bass, and Carrasco all put up hitless frames. Steven Jackson had some bad defense played behind him, but did give up a home run to Eduardo Nunez, and he finished his day with 3 runs allowed (2 earned). Jack Taschner and Jean Machi had good innings, putting 6 Yankees down in a row. After that it was Vasquez's game to lose, and he did just that.
The offense wasn't too impressive, except in the 7th inning, when Erik Kratz scorched a hanging breaking ball to the left center field gap which drove in 2 runners (Delwyn Young, who was hit by a pitch and Jose Tabata, who hit a soft single over the second baseman's head). Kratz advanced to third when the throw from left missed the cut off man, and he scored on the next batter when Ryan Church grounded out. The Pirates collected only 3 hits all game long, from Andrew McCutchen and then aforementioned Kratz and Tabata.
The guys I was interested to see today were Akinori Iwamura and Jeff Clement. It was weird seeing Aki in a Pirates uniform. I am a pretty big Rays fan, so I usually watch a lot of their games, so it was weird seeing Aki not sporting the Rays blue. Clement is probably the guy I am most intrigued with this year. The reason for that is his offense, but his defense is another pretty big reason to watch him with interest. He isn't experienced at first but he looked pretty solid there today. Early in the game, Ronny Cedeno fielded a ground ball and made a throw that was a couple feet to the right of the bag, which Clement stepped off, caught, and applied the tag very nicely. The next batter hit a grounder to Clement, which he fielded easily and flipped on to Maholm for the out. Two plays in the first inning and I was feeling good about his defense. He looked pretty comfortable out there. One game doesn't prove anything, but at least he didn't mess those two plays up. Keep your eyes on Clement when he's out there this spring, he could be a big part of the future.
3-up:
Erik Kratz (+2): 1/1, 2B, 2 RBI (plus a beautiful throw from his knees from catcher attempting to catch a base stealer)
Ross Ohlendorf (+1): 1 IP, 0 H, 1 K, 7 of 12 pitches for strikes
Jean Machi (+1): 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K
3-down:
Virgil Vasquez (-1): 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 HRA
Steven Jackson (-1): 1.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 K
Gorkys Hernandez (-2): 0/2, 1 SO
So there's your recap, here's the live blog we did during the game. Next game is tomorrow at 1:05 against the Atlanta Braves. Charlie Morton, Brian Burres, and Brad Lincoln will all make appearances on the mound. Until next time!
Pirates vs. Manatee Community College, Wrap-Up
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The Pirates avenged their loss last year to Manatee Community College today by defeating them soundly, by the score of 6-1. Let's get a quick wrap-up then go 3 up, 3 down.
The scoring was started in the bottom of the first, when Pedro Alvarez doubled in John Raynor, who had reached on an error. It wasn't exactly a well-hit double, it was kind just a bloop that was horribly misplayed. The Manatees/Lancers/Whatever they call themselves did not look too good in the field today. After that, home runs from Brandon Moss, Steve Pearce, and Erik Kratz put the Pirates up 6-0 after the third inning. The offense then stopped, as the Pirates put up 3 0's in the next three frames.
The pitchers that took the mound performed did okay today. They gave up 8 hits in 7 innings, which isn't what you want to see, but they kept them off the scoreboard in every inning except the 6th, when Jeff Sues walked 2 and gave up 1 hit that brought in a run. Bryan Morris started the game with a perfect 1-2-3 first inning, striking out two. Donnie Veal pitched a hitless second inning while walking one. Ronald Uviedo and Justin Thomas gave up 2 hits each in their innings of work. Ramon Aguero struck out 2 in his 1-2-3 5th inning. And after Jeff Sues ruined the shut out, Anthony Claggett came in and pitched the seventh. He gave up 3 hits but got out of the inning unscathed, and the Pirates finished their first game of the spring training season with a victory.
For these spring training games we're going to do some 3-up, 3-down, where I will be pick the best 3 performances and the worst 3 performances. I'll keep a tally and see who has the most points when the regular season rolls around. So everybody is at 0 right now, an "up" will give a +1 and a "down" will give a -1.
3-up:
Erik Kratz (1): 2/2, R, HR, 2 RBI
Pedro Alvarez (1): 3/4, R, RBI
Brandon Moss (1): 2/2, R, HR, RBI
3-down:
Gorkys Hernandez (-1): 0/4, 2 SO
Jeff Sues (-1): 1 IP, 2 BB, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 SO
Anthony Claggett (-1): 1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 SO
Tomorrow the Pirates face the Yankees at 1:05, with Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf slated to pitch the first 2 innings. I'd expect to see guys like Tabata, Alvarez, and Kratz back in the lineup, while we see a couple more major-leaguers in there to face some major-league pitchers. The game will be on MLBNetwork and I'm pretty sure it will be on MLB.TV as well, so there are chances for the fans to watch. Regardless if you can watch it or not, be sure to come back right here tomorrow at game time and participate in our Live Chat. I'll be joining the chat around 2:00, and I hope to see you all there.
Let's go Bucs!
The scoring was started in the bottom of the first, when Pedro Alvarez doubled in John Raynor, who had reached on an error. It wasn't exactly a well-hit double, it was kind just a bloop that was horribly misplayed. The Manatees/Lancers/Whatever they call themselves did not look too good in the field today. After that, home runs from Brandon Moss, Steve Pearce, and Erik Kratz put the Pirates up 6-0 after the third inning. The offense then stopped, as the Pirates put up 3 0's in the next three frames.
The pitchers that took the mound performed did okay today. They gave up 8 hits in 7 innings, which isn't what you want to see, but they kept them off the scoreboard in every inning except the 6th, when Jeff Sues walked 2 and gave up 1 hit that brought in a run. Bryan Morris started the game with a perfect 1-2-3 first inning, striking out two. Donnie Veal pitched a hitless second inning while walking one. Ronald Uviedo and Justin Thomas gave up 2 hits each in their innings of work. Ramon Aguero struck out 2 in his 1-2-3 5th inning. And after Jeff Sues ruined the shut out, Anthony Claggett came in and pitched the seventh. He gave up 3 hits but got out of the inning unscathed, and the Pirates finished their first game of the spring training season with a victory.
For these spring training games we're going to do some 3-up, 3-down, where I will be pick the best 3 performances and the worst 3 performances. I'll keep a tally and see who has the most points when the regular season rolls around. So everybody is at 0 right now, an "up" will give a +1 and a "down" will give a -1.
3-up:
Erik Kratz (1): 2/2, R, HR, 2 RBI
Pedro Alvarez (1): 3/4, R, RBI
Brandon Moss (1): 2/2, R, HR, RBI
3-down:
Gorkys Hernandez (-1): 0/4, 2 SO
Jeff Sues (-1): 1 IP, 2 BB, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 SO
Anthony Claggett (-1): 1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 SO
Tomorrow the Pirates face the Yankees at 1:05, with Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf slated to pitch the first 2 innings. I'd expect to see guys like Tabata, Alvarez, and Kratz back in the lineup, while we see a couple more major-leaguers in there to face some major-league pitchers. The game will be on MLBNetwork and I'm pretty sure it will be on MLB.TV as well, so there are chances for the fans to watch. Regardless if you can watch it or not, be sure to come back right here tomorrow at game time and participate in our Live Chat. I'll be joining the chat around 2:00, and I hope to see you all there.
Let's go Bucs!
The Start of Spring... Training... Games
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The Pirates have been in camp for a couple of weeks now and are ready to play some actual baseball this week. Tomorrow they face Manatee Community College, whom they lost to last year. According to Raise The Jolly Roger, the forecast isn't looking to great and the game could be rained out, wouldn't that be a great way to start the year?
Wednesday the Pirates kick their big league opposition games with a 1:05 date with the New York Yankees. There aren't two more different stories in the big leagues than the Pirates and Yankees, and it's always an interesting game to watch. And the good news is you WILL be able to watch it. The game is being shown on MLBNetwork, which a lot of people don't get, but just the fact that it's on there means there will be all kinds of streams of the game on the internet. Our crew from last year will be starting our 2010 liveblogs during the game, so be sure to check out one of our sites and chat about the game with us. You can check it out here at The "Mc" Effect, or head over to Raise the Jolly Roger, North Side Notch, or Bucco Fans.
Pirates beat writer Jennifer Langosch made a post telling us who we will be seeing on the mound in this first week of games. It looks like this:
Tuesday vs SCF (7 innings): Bryan Morris (1), Donnie Veal (1), Ronald Uviedo (1), Justin Thomas (1), Ramon Aguero (1), Jeff Sues (1), Anthony Claggett (1)
Wednesday @ NYY: Paul Maholm (1), Ross Ohlendorf (1); (Brian Bass, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Jakubauskas, Steven Jackson, Jack Taschner and Jean Machi will be available as possible relievers)
Thursday @ ATL: Charlie Morton (2/45), Brian Burres (2/45), Brad Lincoln (1)
Friday @ BAL: Zach Duke (2/45), Daniel McCutchen (2/45), Virgil Vasquez (1)
Saturday vs. PHI: Kevin Hart (2/45), D.J. Carrasco (2/40)
The guys on there I am most interested in seeing are Bryan Morris, Donnie Veal, and Brad Lincoln, for pretty obvious reasons. Those are 3 of the better arms we have in the system and they could all have a major impact on the big league team in the next couple seasons.
That's all I've got for now, be sure to check back Wednesday between 1 and 4 as we kick off the Pirates spring training season with a live blog. See ya then.
Wednesday the Pirates kick their big league opposition games with a 1:05 date with the New York Yankees. There aren't two more different stories in the big leagues than the Pirates and Yankees, and it's always an interesting game to watch. And the good news is you WILL be able to watch it. The game is being shown on MLBNetwork, which a lot of people don't get, but just the fact that it's on there means there will be all kinds of streams of the game on the internet. Our crew from last year will be starting our 2010 liveblogs during the game, so be sure to check out one of our sites and chat about the game with us. You can check it out here at The "Mc" Effect, or head over to Raise the Jolly Roger, North Side Notch, or Bucco Fans.
Pirates beat writer Jennifer Langosch made a post telling us who we will be seeing on the mound in this first week of games. It looks like this:
Tuesday vs SCF (7 innings): Bryan Morris (1), Donnie Veal (1), Ronald Uviedo (1), Justin Thomas (1), Ramon Aguero (1), Jeff Sues (1), Anthony Claggett (1)
Wednesday @ NYY: Paul Maholm (1), Ross Ohlendorf (1); (Brian Bass, D.J. Carrasco, Chris Jakubauskas, Steven Jackson, Jack Taschner and Jean Machi will be available as possible relievers)
Thursday @ ATL: Charlie Morton (2/45), Brian Burres (2/45), Brad Lincoln (1)
Friday @ BAL: Zach Duke (2/45), Daniel McCutchen (2/45), Virgil Vasquez (1)
Saturday vs. PHI: Kevin Hart (2/45), D.J. Carrasco (2/40)
The guys on there I am most interested in seeing are Bryan Morris, Donnie Veal, and Brad Lincoln, for pretty obvious reasons. Those are 3 of the better arms we have in the system and they could all have a major impact on the big league team in the next couple seasons.
That's all I've got for now, be sure to check back Wednesday between 1 and 4 as we kick off the Pirates spring training season with a live blog. See ya then.
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