Once Again Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Wow. I mean, seriously. Wow. As hard as it is to believe, this one hurts more than that meltdown last Saturday against Arizona.

Shawn Chacon deserved better tonight. And Jason Bay deserves better every single night.

For seven innings Shawn Chacon pitched his ass off, striking out 10, walking one and allowing only three hits (and no runs). The Pirates managed to scrach out two runs against Greg Maddux and held a 2-0 lead heading into the top of the ninth leaving the game in the hands of Solomon Torres, who then proceeded to drop it like a wet bar of prison soap.

And then, for reasons that escape me, Jim Tracy decided the top of the 11th inning in a 2-2 game would be a good time for Josh Sharpless to get his feet wet in the Major Leagues. After giving up a leadoff home run to Mike Poop-In-His-Pants Cameron, Josh Bard hit what everyone thought was another home run. He rounded the bases, went into the dugout and began putting on his catchers gear. The umpires then huddled up and decided that it was not a home run and would instead be ruled a ground rule double, which prompted Bard to pull a George Brett and come storming out of the dugout like a rabid dog. He made contact with one of the umpires and was tossed, along with manager Bud Black. It didn't matter however as the run came across anyway and Trevor Hoffman showed Torres how you close out a two run lead.

The real kick in the nuts is this; Solomon Torres has blown four saves in two months this season. Mike Gonzalez blew three saves in his entire Pirates career, including zero over the last two years. I realize Gonzalez season is over (as is most of next season) and he wouldn't be here anyway, but sometimes you don't realize how good you have it until you no longer have it. It might be easier to swallow if Adam Laroche were winning a few games with his bat, but so far, he's not.

And amazingly, that's not even the biggest kick in the nuts. The biggest kick in the nuts is the fact we have played two months of baseball, and despite the teams paltry 23-30 record, they are still in second place in the National League Central.

If this team had just one more legit Major League hitter and didn't piss away games like this...they might be able to play .500 baseball, which would probably be enough to win this God forsaken division.

I have to be some sort of masochist to keep hanging on every pitch like this. It's horrible. They once again took the first game of the series - with relative ease - and found new and improved ways to crap their sheets in the rest of the series.

Games like this hurt more than 9-0 drubbings. This should have been a win.

Sometimes I wonder why I still care so much.

Perhaps I should write about the Steelers more.......

Brian Giles: An All-Time Great Pirate?

During tonight's broadcast the FSN camera showed a quick glimpse of Brian Giles (currently on the DL) sitting in the Padres dugout. The image of Giles prompted Steve Blass to say, "Make no mistake about it, that right there is one of the All-Time great Pirates."

Pretty strong praise when you consider some of the players, many of whom Blass was teammates with, the City of Pittsburgh has been fortunate enough to see over the years.

When Giles was here there was no question he was as good a hitter as you could find in the Major Leagues not named Bonds. But how did his time here stack up against hitters named Wagner, Vaughn, Stargell and Kiner?

As I watched Tom Gorzalanney stand on the mound like a heavyweight, throwing out hay makers at the Padres lineup, I decided to do a little research comparing Giles with some of the legendary Pirates of years gone. Said research only takes into account offense because anything else would have taken far more time.

My tool of choice: OPS+. I figure it's the best tool as it not only measures how good a hitter each player was, but it also measures him against the rest of his league.

The first ranking is simple: Career OPS+

1. Barry Bonds - 183
2. Honus Wagner - 153
3. Ralph Kiner - 149
4. Willie Stargell - 147
5. Brian Giles - 140
6. Arky Vaughn - 136
7. Paul Waner - 134
8. Fred Clarke - 132
9. Roberto Clemente - 130
10. Dave Parker - 121
11. Pie Traynor - 107
12. Max Carey - 107

Not a bad place to be, sandwiched in between Willie Stargell and Arky Vaughn. It's obviously difficult, if not impossible, to compare these guys as they played in such different eras. When it's all said and done, Giles will be remembered as an often times underrated and overlooked two-time All-Star, while Stargell and Vaughn are Hall of Famers. Actually...outside of Bonds and Parker...they're all Hall of Famers, and Bonds someday will be. And if he's not, then they should just probably shut the place down. But that's another argument for another day.

Next, I looked at each player during his peak years as a Pirate (the best five year stretch of said players career...as a Pirate...so those superhuman years Barry Bonds had as a Giant? They don't count here...we're only looking, in this case, what they did as Pirates).

1. Honus Wagner - 184.2
2. Willie Stargell - 170.6
3. Ralph Kiner - 168.6
4. Barry Bonds - 161.1
5. Roberto Clemente - 158.6
6. Brian Giles - 157.8
7. Arky Vaughn - 153
8. Dave Parker - 146.4
9. Fred Clarke - 145.8
10. Max Carey - 115.6
11. Paul Waner - 113.8
12. Pie Traynor - 113.8

The expected suspects at the top. Wagner's peak years appeared to be the five year stretch from 1904-1909, during that time he put up OPS+ numbers of 187 (twice) and topped out at 205 in 1909, all while he threw in a 174 and 168 just for laughs. Clearly the Barry Bonds-Alex Rodriguez of his era.

Just simply looking at the raw numbers (offense only) Giles compares very favorably with some of the franchise greats. You would however be hard pressed to find anyone that would take Giles' career over Paul Waners or Arky Vaughn's (or Max Carey's or Fred Clarke's) but it could be an interesting debate. The numbers are certainly there......

Random Baseball Stuff

The Pirates went for a rare four game sweep today in Cincinnati and came up short as Kyle Loshe scattered six hits in a complete game shutout in the Reds 4-0 victory. Normally, getting shut out by Kyle Loshe would be worthy of outrage and anger, but it's difficult to be upset when you just took 3 out of 4 from a team on the road, regardless of how craptastic that team is.

Fortunately, the rest of the division did its part - minus the Reds of course - and continued to lose. As a division, the NL Central went a mind boggling 6-17 this weekend while three of those wins belonged to the Pirates. Yeah. It's that bad, and seemingly getting worse.

The Bucs return home on Tuesday to open a three game series with San Diego as they remain a half game behind second place Chicago and just 5.5 games behind first place Milwaukee. It is somewhat frustrating to know that had the Pirates been able to hold a 7-1 lead last Saturday, and scratched out even one win against the Cardinals not-so-lethal trio of Adam Wainwright, Kip Wells and Braden Looper that they would be within three games of first place.

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For some reason I had this crazy idea that ESPN would be showing all day baseball today. You know, seeing as how it's a summer holiday and there was a full slate of games in the American League and five games in the National League...you might think they would find a way to show even one game, right? Just one?

Wrong.

I'm not sure what ESPN2 showed today (Poker most likely...or perhaps a hot dog eating contest?) but ESPN's selection for the afternoon was the NCAA Lacrosse finals. Because nothing says summer in the United States like college lacrosse. Go Johns Hopkins.

In the early evening, ESPN did broadcast part of a baseball game but only the part that Roger Clemens pitched against a Triple-A team. Speaking of which...

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About the only thing that could excite me about Roger Clemens return is if he did so with the Yankees ten games under .500 and 15 or so behind Boston in the American League East standings. Right now the Yankees are trailing Toronto 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth. They're coming off a three game sweep at the hands of the Angels and currently sit six games under .500 at 21-27.

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Earlier this week, Pittsburgh radio host Ellis Cannon went on a mini-tirade about Jason Bay's lack of "clutch"and actually played radio clips of every one of his strikeouts on the season. Another radio/TV personality (some guy named Erik Hagman) suggested that the Pirates trade Bay while just about everyone else (Stan Savran, fans on call-in shows, etc. etc. etc.) pointed the finger firmly in his direction for the teams slow start.

It's true that Bay is off to a slow start - by his standards anyway - but even with that, he's still an above average hitter. And this weekend, he started to bust out.

Currently, Bay has his average over .300, his On-Base Percentage over .380 and his OPS is closing in on its usual .900 mark. He also entered play today tied for fifth in the National League with 37 RBI.

Not bad.

Last night on the KDKA Sunday Sports showdown, Hagman suggested the Pirates trade Jason Bay for Adam Dunn, his basis for the suggestion was the fact Dunn was left-handed and the Pirates needed a left-handed slugger. Which is true. But his suggestion was horrible.

For one, Dunn is a free agent sooner than Bay (after 2008 as opposed to after 2009 for Bay) and makes money in the short term.

Second, while Dunn is an extremely productive hitter, he isn't quite as good as Bay. So what does a suggestion like this accomplish? Instead of using Bay as trade bait to add a left-handed slugger, why don't the Pirates do something crazy, something completely out of character for them, and try to add another hitter to build around Bay?

Crazy. I know.

When Ron Cook - of all people - actually pointed out that Bay's production has steadily gone up for three consecutive seasons, Hagman responded with, "Well, his batting average went down last year."

Well then by all means, lets trade him for Adam Dunn.

One of the reasons people like Ellis Cannon scream at Jason Bay when he doesn't get every big hit in every big situation is because the Pirates have nobody else that can pick up the slack when he doesn't. When Jason Bay doesn't get the hit, nobody does, and the lack of a hit is just that much more magnified.

If you look at every good team there is always that other guy capable of picking it up.

In New York, if Derek Jeter doesn't get it...Alex Rodriguez gets it. If David Ortiz doesn't get it...MAnny Ramirez gets it. If Joe Mauer doesn't get it...Justin Morneau gets it. If Andruw Jones doesn't get it...Chipper Jones or Brian McCann get it.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

In Pittsburgh, if Jason Bay doesn't get it...nobody gets it. And that is the biggest problem.

Xavier Nady has been playing better the past two weeks and Adam Laroche has at least shown that he has a pulse thus far in May, but other than that...it still remains Bay or nobody on most nights.

If the Pirates want to remain competitive in this division they're going to need Laroche, Sanchez and Paulino to pick up some of the slack.

Or add somebody else......

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In the minors, Neil Walker appears to be turning into the player the Pirates imagined he would be when they chose him in the first round back in 2004. He hit three home runs this weekend (he has nine on the year so far) and has an OPS well over .800 despite being one of the youngest players in the Eastern League. Walker has already admitted this season that the move from Catcher to Third Base has been a huge lift mentally and has allowed him to focus far more at the plate. I was against the move at first, but the kudos to the Pirates for making the switch.

The other high profile prospect on that Altoona team is center fielder Andrew McCutchen who is actually a year younger than Walker. After a dismal - to put it kindly - start to the season, McCutchen is also starting to pick it up as of late as he has raised his average over 30 points in the last week.

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- Craig Wilson signed a Minor League deal with the Chicago White Sox.

- Baseball Tonight has become unwatchable. Which is a shame, but seems to be par the course for the present day ESPN.

- Mark Redman, recently released by Atlanta, signed a Minor League deal with the Texas Rangers.

Oh That Whacky NL Central

For the second time in three days, the Pittsburgh Pirates were the only team in the National League Central to actually win a game. And as we stand now, the Pirates - 22-27 - find themselves just 5.5 games behind first place Milwaukee and only a half game behind second place Chicago.

Should things break just right on Monday - things breaking just right would be a Pirates win - they would return home from this road trip in second place. It's amazing. Especially when you consider this team looked absolutely helpless in losing three straight games in St. Louis.

This division rules.

Finally, A Win

After five straight losses - including a blown 7-1 lead and a clean sweep at the hands of the struggling Cardinals - the Bucs finally blew up in the 10th inning against David Weathers to do something they hadn't done in a week...win a baseball game.

Right now, the Pirates are the only team in the division that has won tonight. The Reds lost, the Cardinals dropped one to Washington, and as I type the Cubs are down 3-0 to the Dodgers, the Astros are getting pounded by the Diamondbacks 10-2 and Milwaukee is down 8-3 in San Diego.

Even with the last week of bad baseball, the Pirates are still within seven games of the division leader, and should the Cubs and Astros scores hold up tonight, they are one game out of second place. It's incredible, really.

And Jeff Kent just laced a double to left-center field to make it 5-0 L.A. over the Cubs.

They might really be on to something if Adam Laroche and Freddy Sanchez started hitting even half as good as they did last season.

Because They're The Pirates

What else can you really say? I only heard the last four innings of tonight's "game" and it was four innings too many. Last night, the Bucs had to fight harder than they should have for the win, considering they had a 7-0 lead at one point, and tonight they decided to let go all together as they managed to blow a 7-1 lead.

Plenty of blame to go around from Tom Gorzalanney (who couldn't get past six innings despite having a 7-1 lead - he threw 110 pitches in those six innings) from Jim Tracy whose use of the bullpen was absurd, to the bullpen itself who couldn't get anybody out.

Tony Clark hit a pinch-hit Grand Slam in the top of the seventh to tie the game at seven and Carlos Quinten hit a 2-run single in the top of the 8th to complete the carnage.

With Paul Maholm Vs. Randy Johnson looming tomorrow - ugh - this series has the makings of yet another Pirates special, and if you're not used to it by now, that is where the Pirates win the first game of a series and find new and improved ways to blow the remaining games in a ridiculous manner.

It's disgusting. And it shouldn't happen. Ever.

Ryan Doumit Owns Everyone

Being out of the starting lineup wasn't enough to stop Ryan Doumit from continuing to ransack and pillage the National League. Coming off the bench in the bottom of the 8th inning, Doumit took a 3-2 fast ball from Arizona's Tony Pena and crushed it over the right-center field fence to put the game out of reach and seal an 11-5 victory for the Pirates.

The 3-run blast raised Doumit's season average to .397 and an unheard of .442 against right handed pitching. Simply put, he's crushing everything right now.

Oh, and Tony Armas was officially lifted from the pitching rotation prior to yesterday's game.

Does This Mark The End Of The Tony Armas Experience?

Even though the Pirates won tonight - in what sounded like a game that could have used the Tom Emanski instructional video - Tony Armas had another, shall we say, lackluster performance on the hill. For the second consecutive start - and third start this season - Armas failed to last longer than three innings. He had another start where he failed to get past four. He's only gone past five innings once, and even with the victory tonight, the Pirates are only 2-5 in his seven starts. That's not going to cut it, even for a #5 starter.


- The Pirates are 10-6 when Ian Snell and Tom Gorzalanney start. They're even 4-5 when Zach Duke starts. That of course means they're 4-11 when Paul Maholm and Tony Armas start.

Shawn Chacon came on in the fourth inning and was lights out for five shutout innings, which has been quite the theme for him so far this season. I'm obviously not expecting any miracles from Chacon, but with nobody really dominating in AAA, and Yoslan Herrera still trying to shake off the rust of inactivity for the last two years, Chacon might be the best possible replacement for Armas in the rotation right now, assuming Armas is removed from his spot. Which he should be.

Sticking with Chacon for a minute, it's kind of bizarre that the Pirates have ended up on the winning end of the infamous Shawn Chacon for Craig Wilson trade last summer. Wilson was a total bust for the Yankees - having been left off of their post-season roster - and was just released by the Braves today.

Back to tonight's game for a second, and kids, shut your eyes, because this isn't how you play baseball. The two teams combined for: 10 walks, 6 errors, 3 hit batters, 1 wild pitch.

Jim Tracy meanwhile was back to his silly lineup construction where he hits Jason Bay fifth and Ryan Doumit sixth. Right now, the Pirates have three guys with an OPS over .700, and one of those guys (Jose Bautista) is barely over the line at .706. The other two: Jason Bay at roughly .830 something, and Ryan Doumit with the absurd early season mark of 1.000+. Doumit's number will drop, Bay's number will increase, but that doesn't really matter right now. What matters right now is these two guys are clearly the best hitters on the team right now, constructing your lineup so these two guys won't make their first trips to the plate until the second inning is just downright silly. And yeah, I know, we did score seven runs with that lineup tonight...but we were also aided by Miguel Cabrera and Hanley Ramirez fielding ground balls off of their foreheads and Ricky Nolasco and Wes Obermueller walking 10 batters.

1. Freddy Sanchez
2. Jason Bay
3. Ryan Doumit

Give it a shot.

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According to the Tribune Review the New York Mets called up left-handed pitcher Adam Bostick from Triple-A New Orleans. This is big news to me because I spent some time playing baseball with Adam Bostick when he was in High School. So, if he ever gets into a game I can point and say, "Hey, I played baseball with him!" and it wouldn't be a lie.

Now, the only down side of this is I haven't found the news anywhere other than the trib, which leaves me kind of skeptical because they have been wrong before. Of course, they did include a quote from Bostick's dad, so.........who knows.

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- With two walks tonight, Jack Wilson has 13 walks on the season, and 11 strikeouts. Who would have thought?

- Brian Bixler is second in the International League with a .358 batting average. He has the highest On-Base Percentage at .454 and a .937 OPS that ranks 6th. And an impressive 15/21 BB/K ratio...and he's 24. I never thought he'd hit like this for any period of time, let alone the first two months of the season. I hope he keeps it up.

- Kyle Farnsworth isn't a very big fan of Roger Clemens being allowed to leave the team when he's not pitching. I still think that Roger Clemens is a bigger horses ass and more loathesome individual than Barry Bonds could ever be. I enjoy watching Barry Bonds play. I hate looking at Roger Clemens.

We Took A Series!

The Pirates managed to do something today that they haven't done in quite a while...they actually took two out of three from somebody. Heading into this series in Wrigleyville the Pirates had a dubious run of winning the first game in four consecutive series...and then losing the remaining games of each. It was quite frustrating, and when the Pirates dropped a 1-0 contest last night - wasting one of the teams best pitching performances of the season - with Carlos Zambrano looming today, it seemed like deja vu.

Fortunately, the Pirates were able to do what the rest of the National League has done this season and smacked Big Z around the field. Jason Bay had a two-run double and a homer while Ryan Doumit continued to hit everything thrown at him.

Matt Capps picked up Paul Maholm in the bottom of the 8th while Solomon Torres continued his strong pitching of late. After a really bad start, Torres has looked like the Torres we've grown to know the past couple of years. Over his past four appearances he has not given up a run - or a hit - while only allowing two batters to reach base. Today, he struck out the first two batters he faced before giving up a towering fly out deep in the right field corner to Daryle Ward. The shocking thing about the final out wasn't so much the fact that Doumit showed some impressive range in tracking down the fly ball, but the fact that Daryle Ward is still in the Major Leagues.

While there have been a lot of frustrating things from this team early on - Adam Laroche, Ronny Paulino and Freddy Sanchez to name a few - there have also been some pleasant surprises - Such as Tom Gorzalanney, Matt Capps and Jose Bautista.

Bautista's bat hasn't been all that great so far, but it's getting better. He's drawing more walks and I think he'll show some of the power he flashed last season. The best aspect of Bautista's game thus far has been the rock solid glove work he's displayed at third base. According to the stats, he's been among the top third-sackers in all of baseball over the first month-and-a-half.

He's yet to make an error - only three other regular third basemen in the league can make that claim - and his 3.57 range factor is tops. If you're going to have three lefties in your rotation - who are ground ball pitchers - you better have a solid left side of the infield.

Some Numbers And Stuff From The Farm

Andrew McCutchen is the best prospect in the system, but Neil Walker is having one of the best seasons. Despite being one of the youngest players in the Eastern League, Walker is currently sporting a solid .807 OPS and showing more patience and discipline at the plate than anyone could have expected. It's a good thing.

He's also mashing from the left side of the plate to the tune of a .967 OPS. He's also doing all of this at Blair County Ballpark, which is historically one of the better pitchers parks in the Eastern League.

He's slugging nearly .600 on the road.

The most surprising player so far - to me anyway - is AAA shortstop Brian Bixler, who is just going crazy in the International League. I had a lot of doubts about Bixlier heading in to the season, but so far so good. Right now he's hitting around .340 with an almost .900 OPS. Tough to beat that.

FREE RYAN DOUMIT!

Here are Ryan Doumit's combined stats between AAA and the Majors this season:

AVG: .354
HR: 6
2B: 11
BB: 12
SO: 16
OBP: .425
SLG: .614
OPS: 1.039

I realize it's misleading to combine AAA and MLB stats, but still...he's the hottest hitter in the organization from top to bottom. I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but they have to ride him as long as it does. Jim Tracy has hit him cleanup the past couple of days, and he should continue to do so until he stops hitting.

Other Stuff Around The League

- If you're not up with Grady Sizemore then you're not up with baseball. He's quickly approaching, and perhaps passing, Joe Mauer as my favorite player in the league. His batting average is a little low, but he still gets on base - a ton - and he's clearly the best center fielder in baseball, perhaps by a wide margin. Every night is a highlight with this guy and he alone is worth the price of admission. I just wish the Indians were on TV a little more often. But hey, I hear Roger Clemens is coming back, for the Yankees I think.

- Deadspin (the best website on the internet right now) posted this link to a story about John Kruk, where he admitted what we've suspected all along. John Kruk never really believed that the Pirates would be in first place by the end of May - the Rat Bastard. It's a shame that the self proclaimed world wide leader in sports has resorted to crap like this. It makes me long for the days of Charlie Steiner. But then again, what should we expect from a series of networks that shows 18 hours of poker in any given day instead of, you know, SPORTS! I'd settle for Australian Rules Football or more Premier League Soccer. But no...poker. And Sean Salisbury. Disgusting.

- Poor Kansas City.......

Hey, Roger Clemens Is Back

Excuse me if i'm not tickled pink with the news that Roger Clemens has chosen to end his yearly soap opera and sign with the Yankees. This crap is older than Brett Favre.

From rotoworld:

ESPN's Dan Patrick is reporting that Roger Clemens will receive a prorated salary of $28 million after signing with the Yankees on Sunday.

That means he'd earn $4.67 million per month or $18.67 million if he returns at the end of May as planned. So much for the Yankees' payroll reduction. This will put them back over $200 million, even after factoring in what the Rangers are paying Alex Rodriguez. In addition to the record salary, Clemens is expected to have the same travel privileges he did in Houston. So if he isn't pitching, there's a good chance he won't be with the teim (you can't tell us there's no I in team).

Yup. Screw you Clemens. This yearly act of hanging around until the middle of May, skipping out on spring training and picking whatever team looks like the best and who will let you do whatever the hell you want for 28 million dollars is for the birds.

It's funny, Barry Bonds gets dragged across the coals for being a jerk to the media and fans, yet Roger Clemens gets welcomed back with open arms so he can be a complete and total jerk to his own teammates. And yeah, I consider showing up when you want and not traveling with the team - or even being with the team when you're not pitching - to be a complete and total jerkass move.

I hope he suffers the same fate as the rest of the Yankees pitchers this season.