Gerrit Cole To Pitch In Arizona Fall League

The big news today was that the Pirates are sending this year's first overall draft pick to the Arizona Fall League, which is music to my ears. That adds just another thing to keep track of and make the offseason more entertaining. Click the image below to read more.

Good News

The game isn't over yet, but I've seen enough to write this post.

Charlie Morton threw six very strong shut-out innings. Pedro Alvarez hit a bomb for his 4th homer of the year. Both of those happened in the same game, that's something we haven't been seeing a lot lately.

Ground Chuck is looking to finish his season strong and has his ERA down to 3.67 after throwing up six zeroes tonight. He struck out five in those innings while walking three. It is always a good thing to see a strong start from one of your pitchers, but it always seems a little more satisfying when Morton does it.

Alvarez was the other good story tonight. Now Pedro has seemed to only have had a handful of good games at the plate this year, which is extremely frustrating, but tonight was one of those nights. He hit an absolute blast to right field for his fourth home run of the year. All four of his home runs have been on the road. Post coming up about that tomorrow or Thursday.

Chris Leroux was kind of disappointing tonight, which you can excuse because of how good he has been lately. Jason Grilli did a great job cleaning up for Leroux after he allowed two singles to start his inning. Grilli gave up a run on a single but then got three outs without allowing another. Tony Watson also did a good job cleaning things up for Veras and the Pirates look well on their way to a victory as Joel Hanrahan is warming up as I type.

It's looking to be a good win for the Pirates, knock on wood. Regardless of what might happen in the 9th, it was a positive game for the Bucs during a time when wins and losses do not mean much.

Pirates Boast Three Top GCL Prospects

Very interesting article over on Pirates Prospects today. Click here and check it out.

Rays & Red Sox (David & Goliath)

I don't normally write anything about the American League, but the Pirates season has been over for a long time and I figure maybe I can capture some interest talking about other teams.

That said, I can not tell you how badly I want to see the Red Sox miss the playoffs. They were the story of the offseason and were everybody's pick for AL Champion.

The signing of Carl Crawford was huge for them when it happened, but he has proved to not be worth the 7 year, $142 million deal they gave him. Crawford has a pretty pedestrian .255/.292/.402 line with 11 home runs and 18 stolen bases, by far the worst season of his career (his career triple-slash line is .293/.333/.440). Crawford's poor season is one of the biggest reasons that the Red Sox find themselves just 2 games up in the wild card race right now after losing 3 of 4 to the Rays.

The other big acquisition the Red Sox made this offseason was getting Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres. They acquired him in a December trade and gave him a hefty contract. From 2012 through 2018, Gonzalez will make $154 million dollars. He is making just $5.5 million this year but will make over $20 million a year for the next seven years starting in 2012. Unlike CrawfO.D. Gonzalez has actually performed for the Sox. He is hitting .338/.407/.551 with 26 home runs and 113 RBI in 151 games. He has been their best player and is the main reason that they are in playoff contention right now.

Right now, the Red Sox have a 87.8% chance of making the playoffs, while the Rays have an 11.8% chance. Those aren't great numbers for someone rooting against Boston. However, I really don't think any Boston fan expected that number to not be 100% with just 8 games left to play.

The Rays put themselves in much better position by taking three of four from the Sox last week, but they still have their work cut out for them. Seven of their final ten games are against the Yankees, with the other three coming against the Blue Jays. They are realistically going to have to win at least six of those games to have a prayer. The Red Sox finish with five games against the Orioles and three against the Yankees. The Rays do have the luxury of having two more games to play than the Red Sox, but the chances aren't great right now.

The fact that these two teams are even close in the race is pretty remarkable, as it has been for the last four years since Rays management turned their franchise around.

The Red Sox total payroll for 2011 is $161,762,475, the third highest in the league (behind the Yankees and Phillies). The Rays have a payroll of $41,053,571, which is second lowest in the league. That's a difference of 120,708,904. The Pirates payroll is even higher than the Rays. Only the Royals have a lower number than Tampa Bay (at $36,126,000).

Knowing that, how could you not root for Tampa Bay? I have been doing it ever since the turnaround in 2008 (bandwagon, yup). This year I find myself pulling even harder for them, since everybody wrote them off after they lost the best player in the history of their franchise (the aforementioned Crawford) to a division rival. Despite all the disadvantages they face being a small-market team, they find themselves right in the race yet again.

Yesterday, I wrote about the Arizona Diamondbacks, and how pitching has been the story for their turnaround. This is again true for the Rays this year. James Shields and Jeremy Hellickson have ERAs under 3, David Price has a 3.36 mark with a ridiculous 8.7 K/9 ratio. Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann have been inconsistent at times but have been serviceable starts and have 21 wins combined. That's how you win over a long stretch of time, starting pitching. The Rays have that figured out and they just keep producing good pitching prospects (they just brought up another possible phenom in Matt Moore who has been coming out of the bullpen, keep an eye out for him).

Major League Baseball is far from a perfect organization. The lack of a salary cap makes the game unfair, but stories like the Tampa Bay Rays gives us fans of other small market teams hope for the future.

Two Hits

Ian Kennedy is a very good starting pitcher. However, the Pirates offense just didn't seem to even try tonight.

The Pirates got two hits, one of which came from Jeff Karstens. The second one came from Alex Presley in the ninth inning, and it was a one-out triple. With Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen coming up behind him, the Pirates chances of tying the game looked pretty good. However, Walker grounded out and Cutch struck out and the Pirates lost another game. The offense is completely pathetic.

The good news is that Jeff Karstens finished his season on a strong note, going six innings and giving up just one run (on a solo home run, fittingly). He struck out three and walked one. He has done more than enough to sure up a spot in the rotation next year, although I'm not going to be excited about it when that time comes.

If you read my earlier post, you know I'm cheering for the Diamondbacks for the rest of this season, so I was kind of glad to see the Pirates help them out a little bit. However, it looks like this team has checked out.

More coming in the next few days.

The Arizona Diamondbacks Model

Last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks had too much in common. Both teams finished last in their division and gave people very little hope for more success in 2011.

At the halfway point, both of these teams were right in the heat of their division races and were the Cinderella stories of baseball. However, three months later they have taken quite different paths.

Here's the all-star break records:

Pirates: 47-43
D-Backs: 49-43

And here are their current records:

Pirates: 68-85
D-Backs: 88-64

So that means that Pirates have 19 wins and the Diamondbacks have 39 wins since the midsummer classic. While this second has been extremely discouraging for Pirates fans, the fact that the Diamondbacks have been able to maintain their success is encouraging. Here's why:

Arizona's 2011 payroll is $53.6 million, which is the 6th lowest in the league (The Pirates are 3rd lowest with a payroll of $45 million). Despite that, they have built a strong young team that has proven that it can compete with the rest of the league.

Justin Upton, Chris Young, and Stephen Drew are really the only players that the Diamondbacks have money invested in. Upton is owed $4.25 million this year, $6.75 million in 2012, $9.75 million in 2013, $14.25 million in 2014, and $14.5 million in 2015. That's a hefty contract, but he has proved to be worth the money.

Young is owed $5 million this year, $7 million next year, and $8.5 million in 2013, with a $1.5 million option in 2014. Drew is making $4.65 million this year and $7.75 million next year with a $1.35 million option in 2013.

Outside of those three, the Diamondbacks have a lot of financial leeway with their current roster.

Upton is the only established star on this ball club, much like Andrew McCutchen is in Pittsburgh. The Diamondbacks are going to have to build around him if they want to be competitive in the long-term.

Over the last few years, the Diamondbacks' farm system has been far from impressive. They were perennial ranked in the middle of the pack or near the bottom. However, they have done a pretty good job turning it around recently. This article from AZ Snake Pit claims that the D-Backs have a top-5 system in the league. I'm not sure if I would go that far, but they certainly have some strong prospects as mentioned in that article.

Let's get our focus back to the present. The Diamondbacks are in the driver's seat in the NL West. They are 5 games ahead of the Giants and have a 98% chance of making the playoffs. The question is, how have they done it?

As is true in most of these stories, the Diamondbacks have been getting it done with pitching. Ian Kennedy, who the Pirates will face tonight, has been one of the best pitchers in the National League. He has only 4 losses to go along with his 19 wins and a 2.99 ERA to boot. Daniel Hudson, Joe Saunders, and Josh Collmenter have also been terrific. The highest ERA of those three belongs to Saunders, who has a 3.66 mark. None of them walk batters often and they all get their strikeouts when they need them. J.J. Putz, David Hernandez, and Joe Paterson have done a great job collectively out of the bullpen.

On the offensive side of the ball, Upton has been carrying the team. He has a triple-slash line of .293/.374/.537 with 30 home runs and 86 RBI. His 6.8 WAR leads the team and is one of the better numbers in the league. Arizona has also gotten good contributions from Miguel Montero (.281/.352/.470) and Gerardo Parra (.296/.358/.438) with the sticks. Young has 20 home runs despite a .232/.325 AVG/OBP.

The story with the Diamondbacks this year has been pitching, as was the story with the Pirates for the first three months. Arizona is going to need some more bats in their lineup to compete for more than this year, but help is on the way through their farm system.

This is just another example that points to the fact that the Pirates need more pitching to be competitive. I'm not buying that next year's rotation of McDonald - Morton - Karstens - Correia - Lincoln/Ohlendorf is good enough to come anywhere near a division title with. The good news is that the Pirates have arms like Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon in the system now that give us hope down the road.

I don't see any way this Pirates team can win a division title until one or both of those arms is in the rotation and dominating. There is the possibility that Pedro Alvarez figures it out and starts mashing the ball while McCutchen continues to get even better and move his way up the list of best players in the league. The Pirates should get solid contributions from Jose Tabata and Neil Walker next year, but without a good pitching staff, it's not going to be enough.

As for right now, I am rooting hard for the Arizona Diamondbacks to win another championship in 2011.

Ugly

I didn't watch the game today, but I did look at the box score on my phone for a few seconds before dropping the device out of disgust.

This was one of those games that makes you shake your head and wonder how this team was ever competitive. I'm not going to go back to the box score to give you specifics, but it was a terribly ugly performance, reminiscent of the 20-0 spanking the Brewers put on us last year.

Brad Lincoln had looked good at times this year but pretty much gave all that positivity back today. Again, not looking at the box score at all but I think he gave up like 7 runs in less than 2 innings. I don't care who you play, that is terrible.


I guess it was a good day for the offense not to show up, but it would have been nice for there to be some positive today. Not that any of this matters anymore, right now we're at the spot where we almost want to lose to move up the draft board. Although the Cubs are now just a game behind us and we are in serious danger of finishing 5th in the division this year instead of the 4th place we thought we had locked up. The Astros have 100 losses already, so we don't have to worry about finishing last again.

Until tomorrow.

Jeff Locke September 16 Pitch F/X

As the season winds down, there are only a few reasons to watch this Pirates team play. One of those reasons is Jeff Locke, who was on the hill tonight. This is a guy that started this year in AA and ended up in AAA and pitched very well for most of the year. That was enough to earn him the september call-up and now he is up at the major league level trying to prove that he is good enough to make the major league roster out of spring training next year.

So far, we haven't got to see much from him. In his first start, he went 5 innings and gave up 3 runs. Tonight he only made it through 3 innings despite throwing just 68 pitches and allowing 3 more earned runs. Sure, 3 runs in 3 innings isn't great, but normally not bad enough to get a pitcher taken out of the game. I am sure the organization is worried about his pitch count as he has thrown more innings this year than ever before, so his workload would be limited regardless of performance. It's hard to get a feel for what he's got when he's only getting 3-5 innings a start. You can't tell anything from 8 innings, so I'm not making judgments based on the numbers, but I really don't think he has much of a chance to make the opening day 25-man roster next year. That is mainly just because of all of the other guys that will be fighting for the spot and their current situations. Ross Ohlendorf and Brad Lincoln would have the edge at the beginning just because of their age and contract status, Locke is young enough that he can still get better from pitching in the minor leagues and has some things still to learn.

We'll get more into that as the season winds down and we go into the offseason, for now let's look at Locke's pitch F/X for his abbreviated start tonight.

3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K

Pitch Type	Avg Speed	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strikes/%
4-Seam	90.4	5.98	9.66	37	20/54.05%
Change	79.8	-5.27	7.41	8	8/100.00%
Slider	75.8	-5.20	-0.94	5	2/40.00%
Curve	74.1	-5.99	-4.69	5	2/40.00%
2-Seam	82.0	6.76	6.95	5	3/60.00%

We should see at least one more start out of Locke, and hopefully two. He will definitely be a topic of much discussion this offseason, so get used to reading his name.

Fall Instructional League Rosters

I'm stealing thunder from Pirates beat writer Kristy Robinson here, but here are your rosters for this year's fall instructional league. The camp runs from September 18th to October 22nd. The two stars by a player's name indicates that the player will participate in the Arizona Fall League. Check it out.

PITCHERS (45)
Allie, Stetson — RHP, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Baker, Nathanial — LHP, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks **
Beckman, Ryan — RHP, Bradenton/West Virginia, first two weeks
Benedict, Matthew — RHP, State College Spikes, entire camp
Black, Victor — RHP, Bradenton/West Virginia, first two weeks
Brewer, Colten — RHP, 2011 4th round draft pick, entire camp
Burnette, Jacob — RHP, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Cain, Colton — RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Campos, Luis — RHP, VSL Pirates, entire camp
Cole, Gerrit — RHP, 2011 1st round draft pick (No. 1 overall), entire camp **
Cooper, Jordan — RHP, State College Spikes, entire camp
Creasy, Jason — RHP, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Cumpton, Brandon, RHP, Bradenton/ West Virginia, first two weeks
Dodson, Zackary — LHP, West Virginia/ State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Espinosa, Roberto, RHP, VSL Pirates, entire camp
Fuesser, Zachary — LHP, West Virginia, first two weeks
Glasnow, Tyler — RHP, 2011 5th round draft pick, entire camp
Hafner, Ryan — RHP, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Heredia, Luis — RHP, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Herrand, Yonatan — RHP, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Holmes, Clayton — RHP, 2011 9th round draft pick, entire
Inman, Jeffrey — RHP, Bradenton/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Jagoditsh, David — RHP, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Jefferson, Michael — LHP, State College Spikes, entire camp
Kingham, Nick — RHP, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Kleis, Kevin — RHP, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Lopez, Cesar — RHP, State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Lukashevich, Alex, RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Mateo, Diomedes — LHP, State College/ GCL Pirates/ DSL Pirates, first two weeks
Merejo, Aneudy — RHP, DSL Pirates, entire camp
Miller, Quinton — RHP, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Neverauskas, Dovydas — RHP, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Otamendi, Andy — LHP, VSL Pirates, entire camp
Owens, Rudy — LHP, Indianapolis Indians, Rehab
Perez, Clario — RHP, DSL Pirates, entire camp
Pounders, Brooks — RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Poytress, Joshua — LHP, State College Spikes, entire camp
Sadler, Casey — RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Singh, Rinku — LHP, West Virginia/ State College/ GCL Pirates/ DSL Pirates, first two weeks
Stevenson, Trent — RHP, West Virginia/ State College, first two weeks
Strickland, Hunter — RHP, Bradenton Marauders, N/A
Taillon, Jameson — RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Trepagnier, Bryton — RHP, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Von Rosenberg, Zachary — RHP, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Waldron, Tyler — RHP, Bradenton/ West Virginia, first two weeks

CATCHERS (9)
Cabrera, Ramon — C, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Diaz, Elias — C, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Fryer, Eric — C, Pittsburgh/ Indianapolis/ Altoona, N/A
Gonzalez, Samuel — C, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Hornback, Ryan — C, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Jhang, Jin-De — C, N/A, N/A
Sanchez, Tony — C, Altoona Curve, first two weeks
Schwind, Jonathan — C, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Trent, Derek — C, State College Spikes, entire camp

FIRST BASEMEN (4)
Anderson, Calvin — 1B, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Curry, Matthew — 1B, Altoona/ West Virginia, first two weeks
Dickerson, Alexander — 1B, State College, entire camp
Lakind, Jared — 1B, GCL Pirates, first two weeks

SECOND BASEMEN (4)
Cunningham, Jarek — 2B, Bradenton/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks **
Friday, Brian — 2B, Indianapolis Indians, first two weeks
Gamache, Daniel — 2B, State College/ GCL Pirates, entire camp
Hanson, Alen — 2B, State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks

THIRD BASEMEN (3)
Espinal, Edwin — 3B, DSL Pirates, entire camp
Gonzalez, Elevys — 3B, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Lashmet, Christopher — 3B, State College Spikes, entire camp

SHORTSTOPS (8)
Barrios, Yhonathan — SS, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Carvajal, Jodaneli — SS, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Gonzalez, Benjamin — SS, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Gourley, Walker — SS, State College Spikes, first two weeks
Herrera, Dilson — SS, VSL Pirates, entire camp
Maggi, Drew – SS, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Ngoepe, Gift — SS, West Virginia/GCL Pirates, entire camp
Singer, Kirk — SS, State College Spikes, entire camp

OUTFIELDERS (17)
Bell, Joshua — 2011 2nd round pick, Entire camp
Chambers, Evan — OF, Bradenton Marauders, first two weeks
Fortunato, Raul — OF, DSL Pirates, entire camp
Freeman, Wesley — OF, West Virginia/ State College, first two weeks
Garcia, Willy — OF, State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Grovatt, Daniel — OF, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Jones, Roderick — OF, State College/ GCL Pirates, entire camp
Latimore, Quincy — OF, Altoona Curve, first two weeks
Lewis, Taylor — OF, State College Spikes, entire camp
Marte, Starling — OF, Altoona Curve, first two weeks
Mesa, Carlos — OF, State College Spikes, entire camp

Myles, Candon — OF, GCL Pirates, entire camp
Osuna, Jose — OF, State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Polanco, Gregory — OF, State College/ GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Rojas, Jr., Mel — OF, West Virginia Power, first two weeks
Urena, Luis — OF, GCL Pirates, first two weeks
Vasquez, Jesus — OF, DSL Pirates, entire camp

Let Pedro Play

Tonight's Pirates lineup is posted and Pedro Alvarez is in it. He is playing third and hitting 7th. That is good news in my eyes, because honestly I have been questioning why they haven't been him more often since his recall earlier this month.

Over the last six games, Alvarez has started three of them. I understand that the Pirates want to continue to get Josh Harrison and Brandon Wood playing time, but I think it makes more sense to let Alvarez start every day for the rest of the season.

There is really nothing more important to the future of this Pirates team than the bat of Alvarez. He's not going to turn it around in two weeks of playing time, but it is going to do him more good than having him ride the bench will. This season is over and the Pirates need to do everything they can to make Alvarez a better player in 2012.

That probably involves him playing some winter ball, which we are all hoping helps him at the plate substantially because he has just been miserable this year at pretty much every level. It bas been an extremely disheartening season for Alvarez, and overall it is probably the worst non-injury thing that could have happened to the Pirates.

Alvarez will probably hit .200 the rest of the way out with the small amount of at-bats that he gets, but I feel that is very important to at least get as many plate appearances as he can.

We Have Seen The Last of Paul Maholm

I just realized this. Paul Maholm has pitched his last game in a Pirate uniform.

Is that a hasty assumption to make? Maybe. But check out the facts.

Maholm is due to be a free agent this offseason, although the Pirates could pick up the $9.75 million option to keep him around. When the Pirates were in first place and he was pitching great, that seemed like a legitimate thing to consider. However, it looks different right now.

When you look at his 2011 season as a whole, it wasn't stellar. A 3.66 ERA with 26 starts and 1.94 K/BB ratio. Sure, that's a solid season, and certainly did a lot to help this team this year. However, the Pirates are a small market team and it does not make a ton of sense to shell out that much money for an average starter, even if he would be one of our best.

Aside from that, let me say this. I do not think Maholm would have the same success he had this year in 2012. I think this year was largely flukey and what we saw in the second half is more what you should expect from him next year. Despite that, there is something to be said for a guy that doesn't miss starts (I still do not buy his injury this year being legitimate), but you do not pay a guy with a career ERA of 4.36 that much money when you are the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Looking aside from the money perspective, the Pirates have a real log jam at starting pitcher next year. Taking Maholm out of the picture entirely, there is going to be at least seven guys competing for five slots. James McDonald, Charlie Morton, and Jeff Karstens are locks to take three of those spots, and the final two will be fought for by Kevin Correia, Brad Lincoln, Ross Ohlendorf, and Jeff Locke. If Maholm comes back, he would automatically be a lock for the rotation because of the money he will have got. He could easily not be in the top five in that group of players in terms of ability as a starting pitcher, so why pay him way more than you are paying everyone else? It does not make sense, and even if it did make sense, the Pirates are not the team to throw money around loosely.

So all of that said, I firmly believe that Paul Maholm has thrown his last pitch in a Pirates uniform. That means he was 0-5 in his final seven starts as a Pirate and watched his season ERA climb from 2.96 to 3.66 in his final 48.1 innings.

All-in-all, Maholm is a great guy and has given a lot to this franchise. He was never in the news for the wrong reasons and was an absolutely gamer in his time with Pittsburgh. He gave it 100% all the time and it was too bad that he could not be a little more consistent. He will be missed, but I think the money would be missed more.

I Like Ryan Doumit

I'm trying this new thing where I'm going to post a bunch of really short posts with short thoughts and comments. This one is about Ryan Doumit.

The Pirates are about to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and Doumit ripped another double just a few minutes ago. It was well known going into and throughout this year that this was most likely Doumit's last year in a Pirates uniform. The team could not trade him this July because he was injured, and the option on his contract seems way to steep to even consider picking up given his track record with the Pirates.

That said, Doumit has hit .327/.370/.525 since returning from his injury (that's in 33 games) and he has probably been the Pirates best player overall. Getting that kind of production from your catcher is something that is of major value, and probably worth the money that they would have to pay Doumit to stick around.

So is Doumit performing better right now because he knows he is basically auditioning for a job with another team as the offseason approaches? Yeah, probably.

There is no reason to believe that something suddenly clicked for Doumit while he was on the shelf and now all of the sudden he is a more consistent hitter. If that is the case, that would be great, but it just looks like it is too late to even consider that possibility. The option on his contract is worth $7.25 million, which again, is too much to pay an inconsistent offensive catcher that cannot stay healthy and plays horrible defense.

If you would tell me that Doumit would have a .500 slugging percentage next year I would say give him the money, especially when you look at what the catching depth chart is going to look like next year. It's going to be ugly.

I have never been one to hate on Doumit, I have always overvalued what he brings to the table offensively, and I am going to be sad to see him go. I am also pretty confident that Pittsburgh will join me in my sadness when the Pirates do not sign a real catcher in the offseason and end up with Michael McKenry and Jason Jaramillo as the starters next year. Yikes.

The possibility remains that the Pirates could rework Doumit's deal and get him to stay, but I really don't think Doumit wants to be here enough to even consider that. This will be the last two weeks we see of Doumit in a Pirate uniform, and he looks prepared to go out with a bang.

Ross Ohlendorf September 15 Pitch F/X

7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

Pitch Type	Avg Speed	H-Break	V-Break	Count	Strikes/%
4-Seam	91.8	-6.77	7.66	17	12/70.59%
Change	82.6	-10.6	5.05	4	3/75.00%
Slider	81.0	1.13	-0.49	27	20/73.91%
2-Seam	91.5	-9.31	5.12	23	17/73.91%

Ross Ohlendorf Just Hit A Home Run

I am in shock. Here's Ross Ohlendorf's career spray chart before tonight:


Now put another green square out right next to that 375 marker, what a blast.

Nineteen

The Pirates loss today clinched their 19th consecutive losing season. You know what I say? So what.

Every day that passes we are getting further and further removed from when the Pirates were in first place and the city of Pittsburgh was in love with baseball again. However, grab some perspective, two months isn't that long ago. The Pirates provided us with more excitement and entertainment this year than they have in any season in recent memory.

What this team did from April to mid-July was more than enough to put a smile on my face that nothing could take away. As you may know, I'm a 20-year old college kid, which means that the last time the Pirates were in the playoffs I was not yet 2 years old. What I saw from this team this summer was amazing, and made my everyday life incrementally better.

Now I am not the type that gets my happiness from sports, I'm a very reasonable guy with a strong faith in God and bigger things, but there is no doubt that the Pirates did a lot this summer to make me happy. So why let that go away?

When you look back at this season a few years down the road, it'll look like just another losing season. It won't be a dismal 100+ loss season, but it will not stand out. So let's just let that happen when it happens and continue to remember the excitement that we felt just a few months ago. This team made Pittsburgh completely forget about the NFL lockout, and made them feel less pain when the Penguins were eliminated from the NHL playoffs.

Now we are back into football season and the Pirates have 82 losses. Things have changed a lot, but there is still good news.

On April 5th of next year, the Pittsburgh Pirates will be back at .500 and tied for first place. Something similar can be said any old year, but this time we have more reason to believe that they can stay competitive for longer than a few weeks.

Andrew McCutchen is already one of the best players in the league and should continue to get better. Jose Tabata is getting better every week and has a sense of security and confidence with the Pirates that should only help him capitalize on the potential that he has. Neil Walker played a full season in the major leagues and nobody will argue that he is capable of being an everyday second (or third) baseman in the bigs. James McDonald looks like a very capable big league pitcher with upside to flirt with "ace" status. Charlie Morton can dominate a team on any given night, and can now say that he has had a full year of competency at the major league level. The Pirates have three ace-calibur arms in the minor leagues and some solid young hitters as well.

The 2011 season was a successful one. Nobody expected this team to break the streak this year, although there is an element of disappointment since they started so well, but in the end they will have the amount of wins that most optimistic Pirate fans thought they would. There is reason to believe that the Pirates will be better next year, and there is major reason to believe that the division will be worse next year (thanks to the hopeful departure of Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols).

Today is a sad day for the Pirates, but keep your head up Pittsburgh, the future is bright. And even if the future is just as bad as the past, at the end of the day, it's just a game, right?