Matt Morris To Pittsburgh...Really? Matt Morris?

So this is what happens when two bad general managers get together and talk shop. Courtesy of the Giants official site:

LOS ANGELES -- Trade rumors involving Matt Morris came to fruition Tuesday as the San Francisco Giants dealt the right-hander to the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Rajai Davis and a player to be named.

Morris, 32, was 7-7 with a 4.35 ERA. Giants general manager Brian Sabean said that Pittsburgh will pick up the remainder of his salary. Morris is in the second year of a three-year contract that pays him $9.5 million both this year and next season. The deal includes a $9 million club option for 2009 with a $1 million buyout.

It's doubtful the player to be named will be of any significance, but that's not the problem. The problem is....Matt Morris and what exactly we're going to do with him. And the Pirates are picking up all of his salary? That's just great.

Before it's all said and done, the Pirates will be paying Morris over $13 million between today and the end of next season, which is an incredible amount of money for a team like the Pirates to invest in a player like Morris, who, by the way, doesn't seem all that thrilled with the news that he's headed to the Pirates.

"It is what it is," Morris said in a phone interview from the Giants' hotel in Los Angeles. "I'm just moving on. It's just a shock. You hear rumors. I never heard Pittsburgh."

It is what it is indeed. From the same AP article, Giants general manager, Brian Sabean:

"Almost at the 11th hour we were talking to two other teams I would consider competitors in the playoff situation," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. "As it turns out, Pittsburgh stepped up not only to take the player as is, with the contract."

Apparently, the Pirates were close to shipping Jack Wilson to Detroit for a prospect by the name of Brett Clevlen (whoever he is), while the Tigers were willing to pick up all of Wilson's contract (perhaps so the Pirates could afford to pay Matt Morris!). As the rumor goes, the Tigers insisted on having Salomon Torres included in the trade, which then resulted in the Pirates raising their demands as the talks broke off.

The question then becomes this: If the Pirates were so determined to get rid of Jack Wilson's contract (so they could play an inferior player, whether it be Cesar Izturis or Brian Bixler), how could they be so willing to go out and pick up Matt Morris? And all of his $13 million dollars over the next season and two months?

Moving Morris in another deal seems unlikely - unless Dave Littlefield finds a way to make a trade with himself - and he's not going to make all that much of a difference to the Pirates if he becomes a regular member of their rotation in 2008. Morris, who at one time was an excellent starting pitcher, has been alarmingly mediocre the last four years, posting ERA+ marks of 89, 104, 90 and 99 (this season). It just doesn't make sense.

Right now, the Pirates are sitting at 42-61, good enough (or bad enough?) for last place in the National League Central. They are 2-14 since the All-Star break. And in the last two weeks, they have traded for Cesar Izturis and Matt Morris.

Meh.

It's actually quite interesting to see this happen on the same day the Boston Celtics rejoined the NBA (they traded for Kevin Garnett in case you forgot the NBA even existed). Up until today, the two teams weren't all that different (when you get past the obvious difference, that being they play different sports). Two storied franchises, both in terms of championships and legends, lost in the irrelevance of losing and being among the worst teams in their respective leagues in recent years.

The Pirates find themselves in a situation where they have been in a winnable division the last two seasons (83 games won it last year, less than 90 could win it again this year); The Celtics, found themselves in the NBA's Eastern Conference, a conference that is so bad a team from Cleveland actually took it last season, a conference that Stephen A. Smith refers to as, "A JV League."

The Pirates solution to their situation, has obviously been to do a whole bunch of nothing, and then trade for Cesar Izturis and Matt Morris just to show they still show up to the office on a daily basis. The Celtics solution, has been to spend the off-season trading for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to go along with Paul Pierce, a trio that could make them instant contenders in that "JV League" that is the Eastern Conference.

I can't believe it's come to this. Matt Morris pitching every fifth day for the Pirates, and me longing for Danny Ainge to run my team.

Hey, isn't there a football game on Sunday night?

Steelers News And Notes From Around The Web

Here's something new i'll try around here...

- Mike Ciarochi, Herald-Standard, with some training camp commentary.

- Jim Wexell writes about Casey Hampton becoming a leader on the team.

- Musings from Gerry Dulac of the Post-Gazette.

- More From Mr. Dulac, this time on the aching groin of Lawrence Timmons.

- Ed Bouchette's daily Q & A: Is this the end of the Dan Krieder era?

- Bob Labriola, Steelers.com: Offensive line a work in progress.

---

The Steelers held their annual night practice at Latrobe's Memorial Stadium tonight, and according to the local television stations, over 10,000 people showed up. Apparently the workout went quite well as head coach Mike Tomlin cancelled the practice scheduled for Saturday Morning.

I haven't had a chance to make my way to camp yet, but i'm planning on heading out this weekend if the weather holds up.

---

Some random thoughts:

1. It's disappointing to keep hearing about the groin of Lawrence Timmons, but on the other hand, it's encouraging to keep hearing about the progress of second-round draft pick Lamar Woodley.

2. If you were wondering what Ben Roethlisberger's next contract might look like, here is a rough idea. Pittsburgh's own Marc Bulger signed a rather large contract today that is going to guarantee him over $25 million and potentially be worth over $65 million if he plays out the deal. Not bad for a sixth round draft pick who was cut out of training camp by the New Orleans Saints.

3. Sticking with some local roots around the NFL, Curtis Martin officially retired this week. In a way, that kind of disappoints me, because I actually remember him playing for some God-Awful Pitt teams (and being replaced by Billy West!) and now his career is over. He retires as the NFL's fourth all-time leading rusher.

It's kind of funny though, my favorite memory of Martin has absolutely nothing to do with anything he did on the field (sort of). Prior to a Steelers-Jets game back in 2001, my dad and I were driving to the game and listening to the WDVE Pre-game show. Somewhere early in the show, DVE's Eddie Crow received a tip (it was later revealed that this tip came from a tailgater in the parking lot) that Curtis Martin was going to be sitting out the game with a case of what Crow described as, "The Skidders." If the story ended there, it would have been funny.

Fortunately, it didn't end there.

They ended up bringing Craig Wolfley on to the broadcast and Wolfley started telling a story about how Merrill Hoge actually did have a case of "the skidders" during a game. As Wolfley told it, Hoge took a hit early in the game and completely let loose, which forced him to untuck his shirt and play the rest of the game with the tail of his jersey hanging down over his pants. This, of course, is against the No Fun League's dress code and Hoge was asked by a referee to please tuck in his shirt. Hoge explained what happened and the ref supposedly gave him a pass. Somebody managed to work in a joke about "getting the crap knocked out of him" and the rest of the broadcast was focused on the bowel movements of random NFL running backs.

There were updates every 15 minutes on the status of Martin (mainly coming from the parking lots) and despite the skepticism of his co-hosts, Eddie Crow was sticking by his source. He was just so damned sure.

Imagine my disappointment when Martin was announced as a starter at game time. Ah well, thanks for the memories Curtis...

4. The Steelers were supposed to announce the name of their new mascot tonight, but have delayed the announcement due to an "overwhelming response."

From Steelers.com

LATROBE, Pa. ─ Due to the overwhelming response by Steelers fans who submitted entries to the team's contest to name the new Steelers mascot, the club has decided to delay the announcement of the results. The new mascot's name was to be originally announced today during the Steelers 7 p.m. practice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium.

"Steelers Fans have stepped up once again and due to this overwhelming response and so many good suggestions, we need more time to make the final decision," said Steelers President Art Rooney II.

The Steelers have received over 70,000 entries to name their new mascot. "The field has been narrowed down to a short list of finalists and we expect to have a final decision soon," said Mr. Rooney. "We want to thank the greatest fans in the world for their support!"

I was hoping for an announcement from the team that said it was putting this idea on the shelf. For good. It's bad enough the Steelers started selling pink merchandise (I hate it, passionately) a few years back, but do we really need a mascot? It's not like the team is hurting for fans or excitement (Not that mascots attract either one).

If that thing gets in my way at the top of section 522, even once, he's going down.

I'm dreading the inevitable announcement in a few years where they announce cheerleaders...

Troy Polamalu Is A Rich Man

Well, the first day of Camp Tomlin seems to be quite the success. Aside from being the only team in the NFL to have all of their draft picks signed, sealed, and delivered, the Steelers also managed to lock up one of their franchise players to a nifty little extension.

From Mr. Ed Bouchette...

The Steelers agreed to a contract extension today with safety Troy Polamalu, assuring one of their best players will remain in Pittsburgh for a while longer.

Polamalu signed a five-year contract worth $33 million, making him the highest-paid Steeler and highest-paid safety in the NFL. He will receive bonuses -- including signing and roster bonuses -- of $15,375,000.

Polamalu, who has made every Pro Bowl since he became the Steelers' starting strong safety in 2004, had one year left on the contract he signed as a rookie in 2003.

Yeah. That's going to move him in to a new tax bracket. And good for Troy, he's certainly earned it and he's perhaps one of the easiest guys in the NFL to root for. It's great to have him in the fold for the next five years, and, it's one less potential headache after this season.

Also of positive note today, the Steelers took part in their annual run test, and so far, there have been no reports of a Jamain Stephens incident. That's actually quite impressive considering Coach T's run test is a little different from Coach Cowher's run test. And by a little different, I of course mean in the same sense that Jessica Biel is a little different from Bea Arthur.

As always, training camp will open up with the traditional run test on Monday afternoon -- but this year, there's a twist.

Under former coach Bill Cowher, players were required to run a series of 14 40-yard dashes outside in the heat.

But new head coach Mike Tomlin is changing it to 16 110-yard sprints -- covering the entire length of the football field and end zone.

Anyone who attended at least 44 of Tomlin's 50 optional off-season workouts was exempt from running today, but that didn't stop the entire team from participating.

16 110-yard sprints seems kind of hard to believe. But, if true, it's great everyone took part and kicked its ass.

On Tuesday the real practices begin...

Camp Tomlin Is Here

Now that Pirates season for all intents and purposes has ended (and not a moment too soon) we can finally shift our focus to the Steelers, who are reporting to Saint Vincent college tomorrow for the start of training camp.

With today's news that first round pick Lawrence Timmons has agreed to a five year contract, everyone will be in camp on time. Even our resident Debbie Downer, Mr. Alan Faneca. Faneca says he won't cause any problems or be a distraction, but he's doing a poor job of it thus far. It seems every time someone puts a microphone in front of him he's talking about how the Steelers have done him dirty and how this is his last season in Pittsburgh. Whatever. Normally, it would be difficult to see a player like Faneca - who has been a great Steeler - leave town...but Alan seems to making the goodbye a little less tearful.

I understand his point. Really. I do. He's been a great player and just wants to be paid his market value, that's great. And he soon will be. But he has to understand that's not going to happen right here, right now.

It seems to me that the Steelers are reluctant to extend guys into their third contracts, which is where Faneca will be heading after this season. It's difficult to argue with their success with this strategy. It's also difficult to feel sympathy for Faneca when the Steelers made him one of the highest paid guards in the history of the league with his second contract. It's not like they've been underpaying him and treating him like garbage the past decade...it's just time to move on.

I just wonder what will happen when Faneca, who doesn't seem to handle change very well, gets to camp and realizes he's actually going to have to work this summer. It seems coach Tomlin means business and is setting out to show everyone who the new sheriff is.

Perhaps all of this about Faneca is a bit too harsh. After all, by all accounts he is a real pro, and he is essentially playing for a job, so it's not like he's going to come in here and just tank it to spite the Steelers. He has something to play for. A lot actually. I'm sure once they finally put the pads on and start cracking skulls everything will be fine. I just wish he wouldn't be constantly reminding us about how unhappy he is. Lets just play football.

I for one, am looking forward to this camp (and season) with a great deal of anticipation. In fact, I think i'm looking forward to the start of this season more than I was the start of last season coming off the Super Bowl.

I'm excited to see what Bruce Arians does with the offense. I'm also interested to see how the Steelers plan on using Matt Spaeth (and i'm not joking about that). 3-4 or 4-3? Or both? Who will make a bigger impact this season: Lawrence Timmons or Lamar Woodley? Will Ben Roethlisberger take the next step? Same question to Santonio Holmes? I could go on.

Pirates Do The Impossible: Make Themselves Worse

The Pirates today completed a trade with the Chicago Cubs to bring infielder Cesar Izturis to Pittsburgh. The Pirates, from everything I can find, are giving up the infamous Player-To-Be-Named-Later, who will probably end up hitting 30 home runs for the Cubs one day (we are talking about the Pirates here).

Seriously, this is perhaps the most pointless move in the history of pointless moves.

If the Pirates are planning on trading Jack Wilson, and replacing him with Cesar Izturis, they've succeeded in finding one of the few ways in which they could actually make themselves worse. If they're planning on keeping Jack Wilson, and still finding a place to play Cesar Izturis...well...then they've managed to find another way to make themselves worse.

In case you want to feel better about the move, I give you our fearless leader, General Manager, Dave Littlefield.

"This is a guy who, with his abilities, should be an upgrade for our team this year," Littlefield said of Izturis. "Our goal is to win more games. You have to be cognizant of things that happen, whether they're injuries or a need for more depth. Certainly, we're in that situation right now."

Nice. Upgrade our team? How? Izturis, for his career, has an OBP under .300 and an OPS of .629. Jack Wilson thinks that sucks.


Littlefield went on to say that Izturis will be used in whatever manner manager Jim Tracy sees fit. Keep in mind, when Tracy managed Izturis in Los Angeles, the manner in which he saw fit was as a lead off hitter. Supposedly, Izturis will be starting at third base in tomorrow's series opener against Houston. Fantastic.

The Pirates...How You've Tortured Us

Last week, I wrote this on this very site:

- The Pirates 9-4 run to end the first half of the season was just enough to keep me interested to see what they'll do in the second half.......until they open up by losing six in a row.

Well done gentlemen. Well done. The Pirates dropped their fifth in a row tonight - at the hands of...wait for it.........JOSH FOGG - and currently sit something ridiculous, like, 12 games under .500.

Now the season can really begin to spiral out of control, as if it already hasn't.

This video has been circling around the internets today and does a nice job of pointing out the landmark moments in history that have happened since the Pirates last posted a winning season.

Some of my favorites...

- Two White House terms for Bill Clinton (not to mention two terms for Dubya)
- Seven Olympic games
- The career of Jerome Bettis (and what a career it was!)
- Sidney Crosby entering kindergarten
- Alex Rodriguez graduating High School
- Tiger Woods going from wildly successful amateur golfer to perhaps the most dominating force the sport has ever seen.
- Michael Jordan's careers (#45 with the Bulls, Triple-A baseball player, Washington Wizards player/owner, Charlotte Bobcats owner)


The incredible one, to me anyway, is the impressive list of teams that didn't even exist way back in 1992, and what makes that list even more unbelievable - and sad - is the number of them that have not only played for championships, but won championships.

- The Florida Marlins won two (1997 and 2003)

- The Arizona Diamondbacks won one (2001)

- The Anaheim Ducks won one (2007) and played for another (2000).

- The Tampa Bay Lightning won one (2002)

The Florida Panthers played in the Stanley Cup finals, and lost, in 1996, while the Carolina Panthers lost the Super Bowl in 2003 to the New England Patriots. Just this past season, the Ottawa Senators, advanced to the Stanley Cup finals and were beaten by the previously mentioned Ducks.

What this means is, since the Pirates last had a winning season, there have been nine teams that did not exist in 1992 who played for a championship in the four major North American sports.

Five of those teams, actually won.

Incredible.

And that's just the expansion teams. That doesn't include the teams who relocated from other cities:

- The Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2000 (they played in Cleveland in 1992) by defeating the New York Giants.

- The Tennessee Titans (Houston in 1992) lost the Super Bowl in 1999 to the St. Louis Rams (who played in Los Angeles in 1992) .

- The Carolina Hurricanes (Hartford) won the Stanley Cup in 2003.

- The Colorado Avalanche (Quebec) won two Stanley Cups (1996 and 2001)

- The Dallas Stars (Minnesota) took the Stanley Cup in 1999, even though Lindy Ruff and the city of Buffalo still disagree.

Yes, over the last 15 years the sports scene has changed quite dramatically. The NFL has completely abandoned the city of Los Angeles. Houston, Cleveland and Charlotte lost professional sports teams only to have them be reborn in different forms, while the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards. The Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints won playoff games. The Boston Red Sox broke the curse. Roger Maris' single season home run record (61) was shattered four different times. Major League baseball went on strike. The National Hockey League had two work stoppages. NASCAR become a sport. The XFL was born, the XFL died, and Tommy Maddox and Rod Smart (He Hate Me) managed to find NFL careers because of it.

All that being said.......

Five days until the Steelers open training camp......

Better Days Are Ahead...

It took the Pirates one series - three games - to destroy any excitement they built over the previous two weeks. But, fear not, better days are on the horizon, and regardless of what the other teams do this upcoming season, it has to be better than the Pirates...

Random Thoughts While Watching The All-Star Game

Coverage of this thing started at 8:00, eastern time. The first pitch was thrown at roughly 8:55. It's 9:29 right now and we're in the bottom of the second inning. What the hell has been going on? I don't really watch the All-Star game, but do the pre-game introductions really take that long? And if so, why?

- Funniest line of the night, courtesy of Joe Buck (of all people): "Prince Fielder playing in the shadows of his dad, Cecil."

Who isn't? Tiger Stadium is still in the shadows of Cecil.

- Tim McCarver just informed the audience that Miguel Cabrera is going to be a free agent at the of the season. Anyone with access to the web and a basic understanding of the most routine CBA rules would know this is not true.

- Ichiro is 2-for-2, and according to the Seattle Times, he is set to sign a contract extension that will pay him over $90 million for the next five seasons. Ichiro is 33 years old, but he's a fantastic player. He's in the middle of his sixth straight 200-hit season and has never hit lower than .303 (the only time he's hit under .312 in the United States) as a Major Leaguer. Over the last season-and-a-half he's stolen 68 bases while only being caught four times, and is a tremendous outfielder at right field or center field (and probably left field if he felt like it). He's not the prototypical $100 million dollar player (meaning, he doesn't hit a lot of home runs), but based on the contracts of other recent free agent outfielders, this seems to be in line with the market, love it or hate it.

And that's just what he brings to the Mariners on the field. Off the field, he might mean more to them as a franchise. The dollar is a mighty tool and Ichiro rakes in plenty of them.

- Monday Night's home run derby was perhaps the worst of them all. I still like the derby, it hasn't yet reached the absurdity of the NBA's Slam Dunk contest, but last night was rather dull. At least the first two rounds.

The sad part is, it had the potential to be great. Hundreds of people in Kayaks, ready to risk drowning in effort to grab a $7 baseball, while Kenny Mayne circled the madness in a Kayak of his own with a helmet cam. Anything with Kenny Mayne is a trip, and this seemed like a great idea, even by his standards...and then nothing happened. Turns out, the pond wasn't as easy for lefties to reach as the Allegheny river was last season. By my count, only two balls reached the Cove, and both of them were foul.

And this may be a silly argument, but this makes you think about what Barry Bonds has been doing the past five or six years in that park. There were three lefties in the contest Monday night: Your American League MVP Justin Morneau, Prince Fielder - who is one behind Alex Rodriguez for the Major League lead in Home Runs - and Ryan Howard, your defending Home Run Derby champion.

Between them, they hit ten home runs. None advanced past the first round. Here you have three of the most powerful left-handed hitters in the league, trying to hit home runs with every swing, while the pitcher is doing his best to give them a pitch in which they can hit into its own earth orbit...and the park kicked their ass. All of them.

- I still can't believe Freddy Sanchez made it here.

- Everytime I see Steve Phillips on Baseball Tonight I think to myself, "This guy traded Jason Bay for Steve Reed."

- The Pirates 9-4 run to end the first half of the season was just enough to keep me interested to see what they'll do in the second half.......until they open up by losing six in a row.

- Sometime last week someone left a comment linking their site, Steelers Gab. Seems solid.

Hockey post to come in the next day or so, if anyone cares (probably not)......Sidney Crosby, in the house for at least the next six years.......

Your 2007 Pirates All-Star: Freddy Sanchez?

Now here was a surprise. On Sunday, the Major League Baseball All-Star teams were announced and the Pirates lone representative was none other than Freddy Sanchez. A real head scratcher, and sort of a joke.

Nothing against Freddy, he is hitting .300 and he did win the batting title last year, so it's not like he's a total zero as a player...but an All-Star? This year? I'm not buying it. I realize the Pirates suck and Major League Baseball requires every team to be represented, but man, couldn't we be represented better than this?

Despite the .300 average, Sanchez really hasn't been that good this season. He's doesn't walk, so his On-Base Percentage is average at best, and he doesn't hit for power. He's been bad at second base defensively and his OPS ranks ninth out of 13 National League second basemen who qualify for the batting title.

Meanwhile, the Pirates have two starting pitchers who currently reside in the top-ten of the National League ERA leaderboard - Ian Snell, who ranks fifth, and Tom Gorzelanney, who comes in at ninth.

One would think either of these players would be a worthy selection for the All-Star team, even if the league didn't require every team to be represented. But...I suppose it wasn't meant to be. Of course, Gorzelanney still has a shot to make the team as he is one of five National League pitchers who can be voted on by the fan, but since nobody outside of Pittsburgh knows who he is, he has almost no shot.

So, with the curious selection of Sanchez, it had me thinking of other recent Pirates All-Stars who should have been forgotten:

2002 and 2003: Relief Pitcher, Mike Williams - In 2002, Williams was a semi-legit choice. In the first-half of the season he posted a 1.83 ERA and had a 25/8 K/BB ratio. A nice season, but hardly an All-Star, even on that team. In 2002, Brian Giles was in the middle of the best season of his career, to pass on him for Mike Williams was quite an error in judgement, at least in my worthless opinion.

2003 was an entirely different animal...at the All-Star break in '03 Williams was holding a 6.44 ERA and had walked more three more batters than he struck out. If they would have taken the bullpen catcher over him it would have been a better pick. Williams never pitched in the game - I wonder why? - and two weeks later he was sent to Philadelphia for minor leaguer Frank Brooks.

1999: Third basemen, Ed Sprague - Sprague had a decent enough season, but still, he was Ed Sprague. Actually, at the mid-point of the season, Sprague was hitting .300 on the nose with a .400+ OBP. It wasn't until the second-half of the season that he realized he was Ed Sprague and began to actually hit like Ed Sprague. He finished the year with a .267/.352/.465 line and 22 home runs. He was one of four Pirates players to hit 20 home runs that season and the PR department had a field day with it in the off-season (actually, that 1999 team set a franchise record for Home Runs in a season. Seriously. The 1999 Pirates...I suppose you need to look at those numbers with some context for the era, but holy hell...the 1999 Pirates!) and tried to promote that quartet of power hitters with a ridiculous "Bomber Squadron #20" campaign. Poster below.


From left to right, that is Ed Sprague, Kevin Young, Brian Giles and Al Martin. One of these is not like the other.

Sprague didn't even play for the team in 2000, which made the poster completely useless. Damn shame, too. That's some quality marketing. *shakes head*

1994: Second base, Carlos Garcia - The 1994 All-Star game was played at Three Rivers Stadium. The All-Star week included such events as the Pirates dedicating the Roberto Clemente Statue, Frank Thomas hitting a ball nearly 500 feet into the upper deck during the Home Run derby, and the game itself was perhaps one of the finest All-Star games ever played. It included Fred McGriff hitting a pinch-hit home run to tie the game late, and Moises Alou doubling in Tony Gwynn from first base to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.

And the Pirates representative during this unforgettable week? The always forgettable Carlos Garcia.

Perhaps the only thing that keeps Garcia from being the worst Pirates All-Star of the last 50 years (or perhaps ever?) is that 2003 selection of Mike Williams.

At the break in 94, Garcia was hitting .267 with a .642 OPS. He finished the season with a .277 average and .676 OPS. Clearly, the stuff of All-Stars. Garcia played two more seasons with the Pirates before he was traded following the 1996 season in an eight player trade with the Toronto Blue Jays. You remember the trade: Carlos Garcia, Orlando Merced and Dan Plesac for Jose Silva, Jose Pett, Brandon Cromer, Abraham Nunez and Craig Wilson.

Oh, the glory days.