There has been a lot of questions about Ryan Doumit's future with the Pirates since the Pirates brought in Chris Snyder at the trade deadline. Doumit has made some rehab starts and will be rejoining the Pirates soon. It seems that management has a decision to make about what they will do with Doumit for the rest of this 2010 season.
The bottomline on Doumit is that he's a one-way player. He is an above average bat when he plays catcher, but probably a below average bat when he plays first base or right field. And anywhere you put him, the defense stinks. In years past his defensive struggles have been overlooked because of the excitement he brings at the plate when he's going good. However, in 2010 his defense seemed to hit an all-time low and now there isn't a Pirate fan out there that wants to seem him behind the plate starting next season.
So now that Chris Snyder is the starting catcher, the question remains to if and where Doumit will play. The Pirates have been working him in right field during his rehab and he previously played a couple games at first base earlier this year. It's no secret that the Pirates have an interest in trading him, and they think that giving him playing time will up his trade value. While it's important to show the rest of the league that he is healthy and capable of playing everyday, I don't believe that making him the everyday right fielder will give him any significant trade value. The rest of the league knows what Ryan can do, and seeing him do it for 2 more months isn't going to change anything.
So what do I want? Honestly I'd like to see Brandon Moss and John Bowker get some starts out there while Lastings Milledge still takes most of the action. There really aren't too many games left, so there isn't enough time to get a fair evaluation of both Moss and Bowker, but I think they have definitely both done enough in the minors to earn a chance in the bigs.
In 54 minor league games this season, John Bowker has hit .319/.393/.604 with 14 home runs, 15 doubles, and 38 RBI. He is 5/10 so far with Indianapolis. His major league stats aren't impressive this year (.207/.256/.354), but it's a small sample size of only 82 at bats.
Brandon Moss has hit .267/.332/.483 in AAA so far this year, but that was after an absolutely dreadful first couple of months. Moss has been Indy's best hitter since the call ups of Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez, and he attributes it to a chance in his batting stance, which is encouraging news. He has hit 19 bombs and driven in 77 in his 106 games played. Moss has always been a guy with a lot of potential and was pretty much written off after his awful 2009 season. However, looking at what he's done after changing up his batting stance, I think he needs some more big league at bats before he's written off for good.
The other guy that still has a lot of potential is Jeff Clement. Clement hit .305/.335/.555 after being demoted to AAA a couple months ago, and has since been recalled and has shown some pop, hitting 2 home runs in 7 at bats since July 31st. While there really isn't much room for him to play, I'd like to see him start a couple of games.
There has also been some talk of the Pirates starting to give Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata some significant time off for the rest of this year, just to avoid overplaying them. I don't really believe that that's a smart thing to do. These guys are extremely young and extremely athletic and they aren't the kind of guys who are going to get fatigued and have it effect their long term play. While taking them out of games would decrease the chances of an injury, I think it's best to let them get their regular at bats for the rest of the year. They still have room to improve, especially Tabata.
So what does all this say in the end? It says that the Pirates have a lot of players that deserve playing time, but not a lot of playing time to give them. I still say that Lastings Milledge is the best option to start in right field next year, so he should get a majority of the starts, but I really want to see Jeff Clement and John Bowker get some at bats. The Clement situation would require Garrett Jones to move to right field, obviously. As I said, I would also like to see Brandon Moss get starts too, but I would probably pick Clement and Bowker over him.
The 2010 season is over for the Pirates, they are doomed to finish in last place again this year, so right now the Pirates need to start evaluating talent that they haven't fully evaluated yet, and Ryan Doumit has been fully evaluated. I don't want to see Ryan Doumit starting too often, I want to see guys like Clement, Bowker, and Moss, who we don't fully know what we have in yet.
McWin
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I know a lot of you don't realize it, but my blog is a pretty big deal. Thanks to me making the "Mc" effect known to the public, Neil Huntington went out and got this James McDonald guy who was absolutely dominant tonight in his first Pirate start.
The newest member of the "Mc" crew struck out 8 batters in 6 innings while giving up only 4 hits and not allowing a single run. He earned his first win of the year and gave Pirate fans a lot to cheer about. McDonald struck out the first 4 batters he faced, and 5 in the first 2 innings. He looked like the real deal tonight, pounding the strike zone with fastballs that reached the mid 90's and a curveball that had batters off balance all night long. The bullpen came in and put up 3 innings while giving up only 1 run and got the Pirates a well deserved victory.
Game 2 is tomorrow night and it's Andrew McCutchen bobblehead night, so get yourself a McBobble head and watch Zach McDuke try and replicate some of James McDonald's success and beat the Rockies for the 2nd straight night.
The newest member of the "Mc" crew struck out 8 batters in 6 innings while giving up only 4 hits and not allowing a single run. He earned his first win of the year and gave Pirate fans a lot to cheer about. McDonald struck out the first 4 batters he faced, and 5 in the first 2 innings. He looked like the real deal tonight, pounding the strike zone with fastballs that reached the mid 90's and a curveball that had batters off balance all night long. The bullpen came in and put up 3 innings while giving up only 1 run and got the Pirates a well deserved victory.
Game 2 is tomorrow night and it's Andrew McCutchen bobblehead night, so get yourself a McBobble head and watch Zach McDuke try and replicate some of James McDonald's success and beat the Rockies for the 2nd straight night.
The New "Mc" In Town
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Seventeen months ago I started writing this Pittsburgh Pirates blog. After the first few months of having a very uninteresting blog name, I changed the name of my website to "The 'Mc' Effect". I did this because my two favorite Pirates players, Nate McLouth and Andrew McCutchen both had two things in common - they played centerfield and their last names both began with the letters "Mc". The name came about before Nate McLouth was traded to Atlanta, and consequently before Andrew McCutchen made his big league debut.
Was I upset when the Pirates traded Nate McLouth out of nowhere? Certainly. Was the call-up of Andrew McCutchen worth every bit of it? Absolutely. The younger "Mc" replaced the elder "Mc" and has been a better player by leaps and bounds since the trade and will continue to be for the rest of their careers.
That's the past, this is the present:
The Pirates, who always have the welfare of my blog in mind, traded Octavio Dotel for a couple of prospects, one whose name is James McDonald. McDonald is making his first start as a Pittsburgh Pirate tomorrow, so I figured that I would welcome him in correctly to the Pittsburgh Pirates "Mc" family (a very small, awkward family it is...).
James McDonald came over from Los Angeles, where he has been playing since 2008. McDonald is 25 years old. He was drafted in the 11th round of the 2002 draft at the age of 17. He was rated baseball's 59th best prospect in 2009, and got as high as #2 on the Dodgers prospect list last season. It took McDonald over 5 years to finally reach the major leagues, where he has compiled a 4.11 ERA in 76.2 innings. He has made 5 starts in his major league career and the rest has come out of the bullpen. His career strike out rate is 7.4 K's/9 and his walks are at 4.7 BB/9.
Our newest family member is 6'5'' and is the son of former NFL receiver James McDonald, who played for the Rams and Lions in the mid 80's. He throws a fastball in the lower 90's velocity wise, a fairly nasty curveball, and a changeup that is effective only when used at the right time. His stuff isn't spectacular, but he can definitely get some swings and misses with the curve, and his size seems to add weight onto his heater.
McDonald has some success in the majors in 2009, his first full season as a big leaguer. He made 4 starts and appeared in 41 other games, posting an ERA of 4.00 with a WHIP of 1.492.
As a new "Mc" rolls in, a different "Mc" rolls out... at least into the bullpen. Daniel McCutchen is headed to the bullpen as McDonald takes his spot in the rotation. McCutchen has really not turned out to be anything like what the Pirates thought he could be when they acquired him in the Xavier Nady/Damaso Marte trade. That trade has worked out majorly for the Pirates with guys like Jose Tabata and Ross Ohlendorf, so no hard feelings towards McCutchen from me.
As of right now, 12% of the Pirates players on the active roster are apart of the "Mc" family. I've e-mailed all the players requesting legal name alterations so we can get that number up some. The Pirates offense needs to get going against the Rockies this weekend get our home record back around .500, and I expect Pedro McAlvarez and Garrett McJones to step up their game a little bit and help McDonald get a win in his Pirates debut. Let's Go Bucs.
Was I upset when the Pirates traded Nate McLouth out of nowhere? Certainly. Was the call-up of Andrew McCutchen worth every bit of it? Absolutely. The younger "Mc" replaced the elder "Mc" and has been a better player by leaps and bounds since the trade and will continue to be for the rest of their careers.
That's the past, this is the present:
The Pirates, who always have the welfare of my blog in mind, traded Octavio Dotel for a couple of prospects, one whose name is James McDonald. McDonald is making his first start as a Pittsburgh Pirate tomorrow, so I figured that I would welcome him in correctly to the Pittsburgh Pirates "Mc" family (a very small, awkward family it is...).
James McDonald came over from Los Angeles, where he has been playing since 2008. McDonald is 25 years old. He was drafted in the 11th round of the 2002 draft at the age of 17. He was rated baseball's 59th best prospect in 2009, and got as high as #2 on the Dodgers prospect list last season. It took McDonald over 5 years to finally reach the major leagues, where he has compiled a 4.11 ERA in 76.2 innings. He has made 5 starts in his major league career and the rest has come out of the bullpen. His career strike out rate is 7.4 K's/9 and his walks are at 4.7 BB/9.
Our newest family member is 6'5'' and is the son of former NFL receiver James McDonald, who played for the Rams and Lions in the mid 80's. He throws a fastball in the lower 90's velocity wise, a fairly nasty curveball, and a changeup that is effective only when used at the right time. His stuff isn't spectacular, but he can definitely get some swings and misses with the curve, and his size seems to add weight onto his heater.
McDonald has some success in the majors in 2009, his first full season as a big leaguer. He made 4 starts and appeared in 41 other games, posting an ERA of 4.00 with a WHIP of 1.492.
As a new "Mc" rolls in, a different "Mc" rolls out... at least into the bullpen. Daniel McCutchen is headed to the bullpen as McDonald takes his spot in the rotation. McCutchen has really not turned out to be anything like what the Pirates thought he could be when they acquired him in the Xavier Nady/Damaso Marte trade. That trade has worked out majorly for the Pirates with guys like Jose Tabata and Ross Ohlendorf, so no hard feelings towards McCutchen from me.
As of right now, 12% of the Pirates players on the active roster are apart of the "Mc" family. I've e-mailed all the players requesting legal name alterations so we can get that number up some. The Pirates offense needs to get going against the Rockies this weekend get our home record back around .500, and I expect Pedro McAlvarez and Garrett McJones to step up their game a little bit and help McDonald get a win in his Pirates debut. Let's Go Bucs.
Chan Ho Park?
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The Pirates lost another baseball game today and in turn lost another series to the Cincinnati Reds. Andrew McCutchen, Jeff Clement and Pedro Alvarez both homered in the game to put up all 3 of the Pirates runs. We know for sure that McCutchen and Alvarez will be a big part of the Pirates future, but because of events earlier in the year it was doubtful that Clement would factor in. However, after some swing-tweaking in AAA he was back to mashing the ball and earned another call up. Since that call up he has 2 home runs and a single in 5 at bats. Might be luck, but it could be the start of a comeback for Jeff Clement. He could definitely still be a major part of the 2011 Pirates and help us down the road.
In other news, the Pirates DFA'd Steven Jackson and claimed Chan Ho Park off of waivers, which is pretty laughable.
My guess is that the claiming of Park was just a short term remedy for the amazingly young, mediocre, and inexperienced Pirates bullpen that we now have after the trades of Lopez, Dotel, and Carrasco. Park is 37 years old and isn't much to write home about. So far this season Park has an ERA of 5.60 in 35.1 innings with 7.4 K/9.
So that means that Park will be the Pirates oldest player, by about 75 years. Can you think of any 2 players that are more different than Andrew McCutchen and Chan Ho Park? I can't, should be nothing short of interesting to watch Park work in a Pirates uniform.
Tomorrow will be interesting as James McDonald, the newest "Mc" in town, makes his Pirates debut against the Colorado Rockies.
In other news, the Pirates DFA'd Steven Jackson and claimed Chan Ho Park off of waivers, which is pretty laughable.
My guess is that the claiming of Park was just a short term remedy for the amazingly young, mediocre, and inexperienced Pirates bullpen that we now have after the trades of Lopez, Dotel, and Carrasco. Park is 37 years old and isn't much to write home about. So far this season Park has an ERA of 5.60 in 35.1 innings with 7.4 K/9.
So that means that Park will be the Pirates oldest player, by about 75 years. Can you think of any 2 players that are more different than Andrew McCutchen and Chan Ho Park? I can't, should be nothing short of interesting to watch Park work in a Pirates uniform.
Tomorrow will be interesting as James McDonald, the newest "Mc" in town, makes his Pirates debut against the Colorado Rockies.
The Aftermath
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The 2010 trade deadline wasn't nearly as hyped up for the Pirates as the 2009 deadline, but when all was said and done the Pirates seemed to do a pretty nice job again this year.
By this time we all know the trades that were made and we probably all have our own opinions on them. The bottom line this year was that we got something for (basically) nothing. Of all the guys we traded this year (Church, Carrasco, Crosby, Dotel, Lopez), there really wasn't much of a chance for anyone of them to help the Pirates past this season. Sure, there was a chance we could have held on to a couple of those guys for next year, but the only guys that were really even helping the team this year were the bullpen guys, and Huntington showed us last year that they are extremely easy to replace.
The best trade Huntington pulled off was the Dotel trade, where he got a potential middle of the rotation starter in James Macdonald. Macdonald will join the club next week and should get some starts. It'll be fun to watch him pitch.
Macdonald throws his fastball 70% of the time, and it stays at a velocity around the 90-92 range. He can occasionally get in the 93-94 range but he will typically stay in the much lower 90's. He throws a low 70's curveball and a mid 70's changeup. He doesn't have too much else besides those 3 pitches, but when his location is on he can be very effective. He was the Dodgers #2 prospect in 2009, which shows that his stuff is certainly good enough to be a solid starter. In AAA last year Macdonald had a strikeout rate of 11.9 per 9 innings, that is outstanding. If Macdonald can turn into a solid starter for the Pirates, it would be huge boost with the offense performing how they can.
Macdonald wasn't the only guy we got for Dotel either, the Pirates also acquired Andrew Lambo, a very young speedy outfielder that could turn into a decent bench option or even a good sparkplug starter in the future. Lambo isn't a guy that you're going to be checking on every night in the minor leagues, but he was a good throw in for a deal that would have been very positive without him.
The deal that is going to effect the Pirates right now the most was the Crosby/Carrasco/Church for Chris Snyder deal. The biggest thing this deal does is takes away the misery of watching Ryan Doumit catch every night. Snyder is nothing special with the bat, but he is a solid defensive catcher, and definitely an upgrade over Jason Jaramillo and Erik Kratz. This also opens the door for Ryan Doumit to play more first base and right field, which could help the offense. I expect Doumit to spell Lastings Milledge in right field against right handed pitchers, which could be advantageous.
Who knows where Chris Snyder fits into the future of the Pirates, but with the setbacks Tony Sanchez has faced it's nice to have another big league catcher on the roster. I expect Doumit and Snyder to split time the whole way through 2011 and then the team to cut ties with one of them in order to get Sanchez up in the bigs sometime in 2012 (assuming he gets rid of the injury bugs and keeps progressing how he was before).
While this means good things for the future of the Pirates, it means the opposite for the rest of this year. The bullpen has been the best part of the Pirates (and really the only good part), and now it will be one of the worst looking pens in the National League. Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan will anchor the 8th and 9th innings, and the rest will be up to guys like Wil Ledezma, Steven Jackson, Justin Thomas, and other mediocre pitching options. Should be an ugly last 2 months for the Pirates pitching staff as a whole, but next year I expect it to start turning a corner (slowly) as the offense did this year.
So there you have it, another successful trade deadline in my book. Let's Go Bucs.
By this time we all know the trades that were made and we probably all have our own opinions on them. The bottom line this year was that we got something for (basically) nothing. Of all the guys we traded this year (Church, Carrasco, Crosby, Dotel, Lopez), there really wasn't much of a chance for anyone of them to help the Pirates past this season. Sure, there was a chance we could have held on to a couple of those guys for next year, but the only guys that were really even helping the team this year were the bullpen guys, and Huntington showed us last year that they are extremely easy to replace.
The best trade Huntington pulled off was the Dotel trade, where he got a potential middle of the rotation starter in James Macdonald. Macdonald will join the club next week and should get some starts. It'll be fun to watch him pitch.
Macdonald throws his fastball 70% of the time, and it stays at a velocity around the 90-92 range. He can occasionally get in the 93-94 range but he will typically stay in the much lower 90's. He throws a low 70's curveball and a mid 70's changeup. He doesn't have too much else besides those 3 pitches, but when his location is on he can be very effective. He was the Dodgers #2 prospect in 2009, which shows that his stuff is certainly good enough to be a solid starter. In AAA last year Macdonald had a strikeout rate of 11.9 per 9 innings, that is outstanding. If Macdonald can turn into a solid starter for the Pirates, it would be huge boost with the offense performing how they can.
Macdonald wasn't the only guy we got for Dotel either, the Pirates also acquired Andrew Lambo, a very young speedy outfielder that could turn into a decent bench option or even a good sparkplug starter in the future. Lambo isn't a guy that you're going to be checking on every night in the minor leagues, but he was a good throw in for a deal that would have been very positive without him.
The deal that is going to effect the Pirates right now the most was the Crosby/Carrasco/Church for Chris Snyder deal. The biggest thing this deal does is takes away the misery of watching Ryan Doumit catch every night. Snyder is nothing special with the bat, but he is a solid defensive catcher, and definitely an upgrade over Jason Jaramillo and Erik Kratz. This also opens the door for Ryan Doumit to play more first base and right field, which could help the offense. I expect Doumit to spell Lastings Milledge in right field against right handed pitchers, which could be advantageous.
Who knows where Chris Snyder fits into the future of the Pirates, but with the setbacks Tony Sanchez has faced it's nice to have another big league catcher on the roster. I expect Doumit and Snyder to split time the whole way through 2011 and then the team to cut ties with one of them in order to get Sanchez up in the bigs sometime in 2012 (assuming he gets rid of the injury bugs and keeps progressing how he was before).
While this means good things for the future of the Pirates, it means the opposite for the rest of this year. The bullpen has been the best part of the Pirates (and really the only good part), and now it will be one of the worst looking pens in the National League. Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan will anchor the 8th and 9th innings, and the rest will be up to guys like Wil Ledezma, Steven Jackson, Justin Thomas, and other mediocre pitching options. Should be an ugly last 2 months for the Pirates pitching staff as a whole, but next year I expect it to start turning a corner (slowly) as the offense did this year.
So there you have it, another successful trade deadline in my book. Let's Go Bucs.
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