Pirates Trade Brad Lincoln For Travis Snider

For all of my viewers out there that have been checking into the blog the past few days and have seen no updates and wonder whats going on, let me first say I'm sorry. I've been on vacation as of late and I still am so I haven't had time to really write anything about the team, but I do have some time on my hands tonight so I'm going to try to write an individual post on each trade the Pirates since late last night.

The first trade I will talk about is the one that the Pirates made last night for outfielder Travis Snider from the Toronto Blue Jays. If you asked me I would say that this is the premier trade that the Pirates made at the deadline aside from when they acquired Wandy Rodriguez from Houston. Snider was a first round pick by the Jays back in 2006 and has had both his ups and downs in his career spending time in the majors every year since 2008 but never playing more then 82 games at that level weather it was due to injury or just frankly not being good enough.

Snider has never put up great numbers but has really been starting to get the hang of it lately, he will most likely be the starting right fielder for some time to come, and he happens to only be slightly older then the recently recalled Starling Marte. He has a ton of time to improve. The Pirates also have control of him for the next four years and most likely he will play for the league minimum next year because he is not eligible for arbitration until the end of the 2013 season so not only is he an improvement but he is cheap. Snider is by far a huge improvement from what the Pirates had in the outfield earlier this year i.e. Jose Tabata and Alex Presley, not that the bar was set to high to begin with.

To get talent you have to trade talent and that's what the Pirates had to do by giving away Brad Lincoln. I myself am not to disappointed about the fact that we had to move Lincoln because I do not even think that he will be more then a very good reliever or number four starter in the big leagues, both of which are not that hard to find. Bullpens are easy to piece together because well there a bunch of guys who can throw 96 for one inning and have decent second pitches, but there aren't a ton of guys who hit left handed play the outfield have good pop to their bat like Snider does. Last night Kevin Goldstein made a very good point when he said that basically Snider is the hitting version of Brad Lincoln, both were first round picks in 06, both had their struggles but now are starting to click, so if you ask me I would rather have a outfielder who is starting to click instead of a bullpen arm who is starting to click so I say this was one of the better and sneakier moves from the whole deadline, not just moves the Pirates made.

What We've All Been Waiting For Starling Marte

Just one day after the Pirates announced the trade for Wandy Rodriguez from the Astros they tell us officially that arguably the best hitting prospect in their entire system with Starling Marte,will join the club for the Thursday night in Houston. To make room for Marte on the roster the Pirates will option the recently recalled Evan Meek to Indianapolis.

There have been a ton, and I mean a ton of people screaming for Marte in the past week or so especially with lack of production the Pirates have been getting recently from both the corner-outfield and lead-off position. That being said there is no guarantee Marte is going to start his career in the lead-off spot, if I had to guess I would say he hits fifth tomorrow, but just a guess.

Neil Huntington has consistently said that they were going to do their best to not rush Marte to the majors just to help a team that is in contention and I still think that even with this call up that those statements remain true. I believe that Huntington honestly thinks that Marte is ready to be an impact player on a contending team and I also thinks that he still wishes he could get Marte another 100 at bats or so before making this jump but the situation just demanded the call up. I am with Huntington in that no matter what the Pirates did with Marte was not the wrong move. If the Pirates left Marte in AAA and tried to continue his development there for the rest of the year I would of been completely fine with that move since it seems that the Pirates made the mistake of calling up some other players too soon such as Jose Tabata, Pedro Alvarez, and even Alex Presley. But that being said I do not one bit think it is the wrong move to call up Marte to play everyday in a Pirates uniform for the next six and a half years either, especially since the team is currently in a pennant race and they need all the help they can get.

This is an exciting time for Pirates baseball, I think that it is very possible starting tomorrow that for the next six years the Pirates could be 100% locked up at two of the starting outfield positions, I don't think I have to tell you who those two are. Marte is still a question mark though, he could be called up and make a huge immediate impact on this team or he could do nothing at all, we still don't know. But none the less I can't wait to see the line-up card for tomorrow in Houston, I think its going to be an exciting one to say the least.

Looking Into AAA Indianapolis Hitters

The Pirates are 54-41 on the season, 13 games over .500 and just a game and a half out of the division lead but even with the great year they are having they aren't even the best team in their own organization. The team's AAA affiliate located in Indianapolis has put in a record of 65-40 and is a convincing nine and a half games up in their division, clinching the organizations title for best record so far this season. Record isn't necessarily what you look at when you are looking at the minor leagues, you look more at the individuals on those teams who could eventually make an impact at the major league level, so I thought it would be a good idea to go through some of those individuals and give you a good idea of what to expect just a year or two down the line.

Jeff Clement- One of the most surprising performances in the whole Pirates minor league system so far this year came from the former Mariners first round pick Jeff Clement. Clement has spent nearly all of his time at the first base position this year, and putting up some really impressive numbers too. Clement has put up .293/.352/.517 slash and has added thirteen home-runs to that mix as well. I wrote a post back in June about weather or not the Pirates should promote Clement you can read that by clicking here. I still think that Clement could be that left-handed first-baseman that the Pirates are trying to acquire, but they know their players better then I do.

Starling Marte- If you have been paying attention to the Pirates trade talk of late most people are either demanding for a trade or for this guy to come up. Marte had a crazy good spring training for the Pirates but was as expected sent to AAA to start his season. Marte has not been as good as hoped for so far with a .284/.347/.497 slash, 12 home-runs and 21 stolen bases so far this year.  One of Marte's higher numbers this year has been his strikeouts, posting a 90 in that category. Even with some of the disappointments around Marte I would not be surprised to see him called up at some point, even with Neil Huntington being clear that they will not rush his development like they had done with others in the past.

Brandon Boggs- Boggs has been the Indians everyday left-fielder and has had a very solid season. Boggs .263/.362/.422, is the one time draftee of the Rangers and has spent time in the majors both in Texas and Milwaukee. Boggs is twenty-nine years old so his best year's aren't exactly ahead of him, but he could be called up for a game or two if the Pirates have a real need.

Anderson Hernandez- Hernandez has spent most of his time at second base, which is a tough spot to be in since the Pirates seem to be pretty set at that position in the majors but he has had a solid season none the less. Hernandez has virtually no power one going yard one time this season, but he does have a .274 avg and only 39 strikeouts so there's that.

Tony Sanchez- As you probably know Sanchez is the Catcher that the Pirates drafted fourth overall all the way back in 2009. Sanchez started his season in AA Altoona and was moved up to Indianapolis about a month and a half ago and has hit .233 with five home-runs. Sanchez has turned it on as of late hitting all five of his home-runs in the past week or two. The upside to Sanchez is that he plays excellent defense which can alone get you to the major leagues if you are good enough, so I like to think of Sanchez as bust proof. The Pirates look at Sanchez as a guy they want to be their starting catcher for a long time, so if I had to guess he will spend the rest and all of this next year in AAA before being placed on the opening day roster in 2014.

Chase d'Arnaud- Just a year ago it looked like the Pirates had some big plans for d'Arnaud when they called him up to play some SS for a competing team, but now he is looked at as not even a everyday starter in AAA. d'Arnaud has hit for just a .227/.316/.367 line this year and just 3 home-runs and 68 strikeouts in just 65 games. I really don't know where d'Arnaud is headed but it doesn't look good, I think Jordy Mercer will be the teams future SS instead of Barmes.

As you probably noticed there are not any pitchers on this list and that is because I wanted to strictly focus on hitters in this post, if you are interested in the pitchers in AAA check back in the next day or two because I am planing on writing a similar post focused strictly on the pitchers. The Pirates future looks bright, they have been building a strong minor league system for years now and it is starting to show on the major league level. Obviously not all of these guys mentioned above are going to have successful major league careers nor would anyone expect them to, but there is a good chance that a few of them could be playing a important role on the big club as soon as this year.

Pirates Acquire LHP Wandy Rodriguez from Astros

When there's rain there's rainbows and tonight is a perfect example of that as the Pirates suffer their second straight loss to the Cubs but acquire the strong LHP Wandy Rodriguez from the Astros. Tom Singer was the first one to break this story tonight on twitter but was latter officially confirmed by the Pirates at the conclusion of tonight's loss.

Rudy Owens, Robbie Grossman, and Colton Cain were the ones dealt to the Astros in this deal, which I think is a very good thing for the Pirates. Rudy Owens has had a very solid year thus far in AAA but has had his bad starts as well, with the stuff Owens has he will never be more then a number three starter, which is something the Pirates can afford to lose in their situation. Grossman has had a solid past month in AA for Altoona but was pretty bad before that putting up close to a .230 average in that time. That being said a lot of scouts like what Grossman has in his tool bag but I haven't heard anyone ever predict he will be an impact big league player, so not a crazy huge loss there. Colton Cain was the Pirates eighth round pick back in 2009 and made it all the way to A+ ball this year in Bradenton, throwing 75 innings with a 4.20 ERA to this point. I really don't look at Cain as much of a loss since I really don't think he will ever see time in the major leagues.

 The Pirates showed tonight that they are trying to go for it and are willing to make some fairly aggressive moves to do so. One of the other big things the Pirates got in this trade was some very good cash to pay for Wandy's contract which goes all the way through 2013 with an option for him to pitch for the Pirates in 2014. Reportedly the Astros will pay 2 million this year 4.5 next and 5.5 in 2014, meaning that the Pirates will only have to pay 17.5 million of his contract through 2014, a pretty good deal if you ask me. It will be interesting to see if the Pirates go out and try to acquire another bat and continue there pursuit for the postseason, or if they will stand pat and go with what they have. None the less this whole year just got a little more exciting, I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Sweeping Is A Luxury

Sweeps look cool on paper, they bring fans to the ballpark, they get you attention on Baseball Tonight but that's just about all they do. Sweeps don't win championship, pennant's or divisions, but just winning two out of three do and that's what the Pirates did tonight. If the Pirates win two out of three every series the rest of the season they will run away with the division, but they won't get the attention for winning six or seven straight but that doesn't matter because all that stuff's overrated.

Sweeps are like the three run home run, do they help? Yeah of course, but do you need them to win? Heck no. Obviously you want a sweep because they help there's no denying that but two of three is always the goal no matter who you're playing, any major leaguer would tell you that. People fall in love with the sweep they think you need them but you don't, the best teams can win without them.

Fortunelly for the Pirates they have a chance for a sweep tomorrow, which even I can agree is awesome but probably for a different reason then you do. When I look at the game tomorrow I look at it strictly as a bonus, no matter what happens we win. If the Pirates do end up winning tomorrow that's awesome, they exceeded expectations, but if they lose so what? The worst case scenario for tomorrow is that the Pirates lose but still gained a game on .500 over the last three games. Some people will look at the loss and say we lost a game on .500 which is technically true if you look at it on a one game scale, but if you look at the slightly bigger picture its still a huge win for the team.

Don't get me wrong a sweep tomorrow would be great but if it doesn't happen, the Pirates still took care of business. I will be sitting in the stands tomorrow waving my broom loud and proud just like everyone else, but just remember this a sweep is a luxury.

2012 Awesome Videos

As you all know its an off day so I was just sitting here on my computer messing around on YouTube watching what I think are some really awesome Pirate videos and then it hit me that it would be a great idea to put these all together and give you guys something to watch since there is in fact no game tonight. Here's the best of what I came up with.

Obviously these are not the only 2012 Pirate video out there these are just the top three in my opinion. If you go on YouTube and search for Pittsburgh Pirates 2012 you can find about twenty other quality videos to watch maybe even more with the success the team is having this year. Have fun.

Stephen Drew Rumors

Earlier today Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports reported that the Pirates among two other teams were interested in the Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew. This rumor is particularly interesting because, well he's a shortstop and the Pirates don't get much there offensively. I am not a particular fan of this move because honestly I think it just doesn't make much sense.

Stephen Drew has only played in six-teen games so far this year because of an ankle injury and only played in eighty-six games in 2011 because of injuries as well, so health is far but a guarantee with Drew. Even though it is a small sample size so far this year Drew has only hit for a .192/.246/.250 line, not very good at all, just about Barmes level. In 2011 he posted better numbers at the plate with a .252/.317/.396 line not bad at all for very good defensive shortstop.

The problem with Drew beside from the injuries are one that his price is a little high both market value and contract wise. Drew is only inked up for the rest of this year at a 7.75 million clip and has a 10 million club option for next year which most likely the Pirates would not grant. Drew would also probably demand some good prospects in return and I would honestly would only give away as much as one of the three AAA pitchers to get him because of his rental status and I don't think the D-Backs would accept that deal anyways.

In case you are one of the people who did want Drew I don't want to ruin your party but earlier today Buster Olney of ESPN reported that the Pirates and D-Backs have not even discussed the possibility of getting Drew. This doesn't mean that this still couldn't happen but it does decrease the chances, but the good thing for the Pirates Drew is not their trading option and with just about a week and half left before the deadline some other talks could be getting more serious.

Important Start For Bedard

The Pirates have lost three of their first four games coming out of the All-Star break not exactly the way they wanted to start their second half against some very average teams. Unfortunately for Erik Bedard this is on the bottom the list on why he needs to pitch well tonight. Just to give you a look at how Bedard has pitched recently here's a quick look at his lines from his last five starts

7/6 vs. SFG. 3.2IP, 4H, 5R, 4ER, 1 HR, 1BB, 3SO


7/1 vs. STL. 4.2IP, 8H, 5R, 5ER, 2HR, 2BB, 5SO


6/26 vs. PHI. 6.0IP, 8H, 4R, 4ER, 1HR, 2BB, 3SO


6/20 vs. MIN. 6IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0HR, 2BB, 7SO


6/14 vs. BAL. 3.1IP, 8H, 7R, 7 ER, 0HR, 2BB, 1SO


As you can see over Bedard's last five start he only has one solid line and that came at home against Minnesota, the worst of the five teams record wise. To say the least this is an important start for Bedard and the team. The Pirates are doing everything the can to help Bedard, giving him close to ten full days rest since his last start on July sixth. Bedard has said that this is the best he has felt in years so injury is not what we are dealing with when it comes to Bedard, which makes his case even less arguable for staying in the rotation. I don't want to get to much into this now but the Pirates do have some AAA pitchers they are very confident in, left-handers as well, so it could be a easy one for one switch if Bedard's struggles continue. I can't imagine the Pirates give Bedard more then one or two more bad starts before pulling the string but then again I said the same thing about Brad Lincoln.

How Pittsburgh Should Treat Mark Appel

Earlier this week the Pirates announced that they would not be signing their first round, eight overall pick Mark Appel the right-handed pitcher out of Stanford University. I decided not to write anything about the no-sign earlier because it was the biggest news at the time so I figured you could get some much better perspective from someone who knows more about the guy then I do. I'm not writing this post to tell you about Appel's curve-ball or his mid to high 90's fastball with movement, but rather to tell you how you should be treating Mark Appel, particularly on twitter because most people are not doing it the right way.

"you're a fucking piece of shit... Break your arm dick."

"Hey buddy, fuck you. 3 million wasn't enough? You'll be making millions in a few years. You and Boras can go kill yourselves."

"As a Pirates fan I hope your arm blows out.#Godhatesgreed"

"hope u get hit by a car on your birthday you piece of shit"

See that, those are all actual tweets sent to Mark Appel since he decided not to sign, I didn't make up a single letter of anything you just read. These are tweets sent to the same guy who just hours earlier posted things like Jeremiah 29:11 meaning For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. The same guy who immediately thanked thanked the Pirates organization and their FANS after he decided not to sign. The same guy that did absolutely nothing to the Pirates warranting anything close to what he recieved

Let me ask you this, was this your decision to make? Was it your life on line? Were you the one that was going to be receiving the payout of this contract? For about 99.9% of you the answer to all three of these questions is no, which means what you care or what you say he should of done means nothing. This was the biggest decision of his life and it could turn out to be a bad move for him and we just don't know that yet, but to say to him you hope he throws out his arm or even hope that he kills himself might be some of the stupidest things I have ever heard.

I'm sure most of the people who said these things probably don't actually hope he throws out his arm or goes and kill's himself but the fact that people care this much about a pitcher who might turn out to be nothing is pretty stupid. Let me remind you that baseball is just a game, and means just about nothing when it comes down to it. I am a huge Pirates fan and will always be one, but if the Pirates didn't win another game for the rest of time how many people would it seriously effect? The answer is not many, so stop wasting your time by threatening a college kid and praying he turns out to be a bust because, how is that going to help you? Instead send this kid a tweet wishing him luck or tell him your disappointed he didn't sign but you understand why because that's how you should really feel about this whole thing

When I started this post I wasn't really sure where I was going with it or what real point I was trying to get across because to be honest I was just kind of mad. Mad that people were treating this guy like a robot, not a human. Maybe I get a little to worked up about this subject and maybe that's okay but when I saw all these tweets being sent to Mark Appel I was actually ashamed to be a Pirates fan. Not ashamed because this team hasn't won in nineteen years or because we lose just about every time we play in Milwaukee but because this one guy might think that all Pirates fans are idiots, when that's not the case at all. Whenever I read these tweets I didn't not want to be a Pirates fan because that's just who I am and I can't hide that but for a second I didn't want to be associated with the group of people that I'm around every time I go to a game and sit in the stands. It's about three days after the majority of this hate has happened so it has settled down pretty well for the most part, and now some people are actually wishing this guy the best which is a nice thing to see but next time Pittsburgh has a situation like the one we had on Friday I hope they handle it differently.

Series Preview vs Brewers: Starting the Second Half Right

The Pirates are eleven games over .500 and at top of their division to start the second half, where they will face the Brewers in a three game set. The Pirates have traditionally struggled in Miller Park the past few years but did win a weekend set there earlier this year, so hopefully their bad luck at that stadium has run out. I would love to see the Pirates win this series for one big reason being that it's the first series back since the All-Star break so it would be nice for them to show that the four day break didn't effect them at all, and that their are going to go right back to work.

Game 1- Since its the first game back from the All-Star break and all you would expect a pretty good pitching match-up because of the four day break giving all of the pitchers a chance to rest up, and that's exactly what we have. James McDonald will take the mound for your buccos, entering this one with a 9-3 record and a 2.37 ERA, he has been outstanding this year to say the least. McDonald will face the best the Brewers have to offer with Zack Greinke who currently has a 9-2 record with a 3.32 ERA. Greinke's name has been floating around as a trade piece recently because of the Brewers lack of success this year, and the Pirates name had even been in that talk for some time. An interesting note on Greinke is that if he does end up starting today's game he will tie a major league record for most consecutive games started for one team at three a record that has not been achieved since 1917. This can happen because Greinke started the second to last game before the All-Star break for the Brewers but was ejected after just four pitches because he spiked the ball against the ground. Since Greinke had only thrown four pitches the Brewers decided to start him the next day as well, and then because of the long break he had rested enough to start again today, a kind of interesting and pretty cool record for the right-hander to talk about.

Game 2- In game two of three Kevin Correia will pitch for the Pirates entering with a 5-6 record and 4.34 ERA. Do not think that in any case the reason Correia is starting the second game back means that he is the second best pitcher in the rotation because that is in no way shape or form the case. I'm frankly not exactly sure why Correia is the second pitcher in the second half rotation my guess guess would be its because they didn't want to stack the top of the rotation and they wanted to spread out their better pitchers, but who knows for sure. Marco Estrada is expected to get the start for Milwaukee on Saturday as he enters the game with a 0-3 record 4.06 ERA, note that these numbers are slightly better as a starter but possibly due to a small sample size because he has only appeared in nine games this year at the major league level. Estrada doesn't especially impress me, I think he is a middle of the rotation guy at best. I think the Pirates will have there chance to win this one with the long ball, something they have been pretty good at this year and Estrada has not been quite as good at. The key will be to have runners on base for these bombs though because Estrada does have a particularly good WHIP at 1.02.

Game 3- In the final game of this series the Pirates will throw A.J. Burnett, the sure number two of the staff. Burnett has been having his best year since 2005 and will enter game three of the series with a 10-2 record and 3.68 ERA. Burnett is a veteran so I am not expecting any fall off for him in the second half if anything I expect him to get better because he has been in pennant races before therefore he will know exactly how to handle it. For the Brewers they will try to get past the Bucs with Yovani Gallardo on the hill who currently has a 7-6 record with a 3.74 ERA. For what its worth I think that Gallardo has potential to be a absolutely great pitcher but has not done it this year. Most of the time when you see pitchers with great stuff and only okay numbers it means that they are start to start. What I mean by this is that Gallardo could go out there and go just two innings and give up eight runs or he could go out there and throw nine scoreless innings you're just never quite sure what you're getting out of him. I think this game will be interesting, hopefully the Bucs can pull it off.

This is an important series for the Pirates because I think that it can set the tone for the whole second half, plus if you win the series you might put Milwaukee out of the picture for the rest of the year. The biggest thing I am looking forward to seeing in this series is if the offense continues its dominance from the past month in a half or if we go straight back to forgetting how to hit, I personally think it will be somewhere in-between but hey what do I know?

Should We Thank McClatchy and Littlefield?

2012 has seen a remarkable resurgence for the Pirates.  As the media and fans offer their recognition to the Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington team for their work in putting this Team together, maybe it is time to thank two other people for this resurgence - Kevin McClatchy and Dave Littlefield.  You heard it right, McClatchy and Littlefield, the 2 guys who supposedly failed to develop the farm system leaving the current management team to have to "start from scratch" when they took over the reins following the 2007 season.  A look at the facts reveals that without the players drafted during the McClatchy/Littlefield tenure, the current Club would almost certainly not be in first place and and, in fact, would probably not be in a position to end the nineteen years of below .500 baseball that has been the monkey on the back of this franchise for so long. Consider the following:

(1) five players on the current 25 man roster, including two everyday players - Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker - were drafted during the McClatchy/Littlefield era.  The other three players - Brad Lincoln, Jared Hughes and Tony Watson - are all key pieces of what has become one of the best bullpens in baseball. You can also add Alex Presley to this mix as he is currently on the disabled list with a concussion.

(2) The three McClatchy/Littlefield (Walker, McCutchen, and Presley) hitters have a combined total of 30 HR's (over 1/3 of the Team's total of 89), 114 RBI (again over 1/3 of the Team's total of 330), 128 runs scored (almost 40% of the Team's total of 345) and their combined batting average of .305 far exceeds the overall Team batting average of .246.  These 3 even have 29 of Team's 48 Stolen bases (60% of the total). As you can see the position players that the previous management had drafted and signed accounts for a large part of the 2012 teams offense, even though these two guys no longer have any major involvement in the team.

(3) The three bullpen draftees of McClatchy/Littlefield  - Lincoln, Hughes and Watson - are a combined 10 wins and 0 losses! I am not a huge fan of win loss record for arms coming out of the bullpen but when a group of guys are a combined 10-0 its hard to ignore. Their combined ERA of 3.16 is below the Team's overall ERA of 3.47, nothing that special if you really think of it, but when you have the best bullpen ERA in all of the major league's like the Pirates do everyone coming out of that pen plays a big role.

In addition to the six players highlighted above, the best position player prospect in the Organization and the position player closest to the majors is Starling Marte, you guessed it, a player signed (out of the Dominican) during the McClatchy/Littlefield era. Also arguably the pitcher at AAA most likely to get the call if one of the five current starters is hurt or Bedard continues to struggle is Rudy Owens who, no one should be surprised to learn at this point in the post, is yet another player drafted by the much maligned McClatchy/Littlefield duo. In fact, with Bedard on a 1-year contract and Correia on the final year of his 2-year free agent deal, Owens is likely to make the Club in 2013 and with Marte a sure bet to be on the Team, it is likely that nearly 1/3 of the 2013 25-man roster will be players drafted by this "dynamic duo", with as many as 1/2 of the starting position players (McCutchen, Walker, Marte and Pressley) and 2/5 of the starting rotation with Lincoln and Owens joining Karstens, McDonald and.Burnett.  

Those are the facts.  If you are listening, McClatchy and Littlefield, the leftfieldloonies want to say Thanks to helping to make the 2012 Pirates contenders again and for building a farm system that laid the groundwork for the Club's current success.  We urge Pirates fans everywhere to give a shout out to the two of you as well and maybe, just maybe, the current management team will thank you as well. 

Second Half Preview

The All-Star game is over and the N.L.won for the third straight year this time by a score of 8-0 now everyone's eyes are heading to the second half, an especially exciting second half for Pirates fans. There seem to be a lot of things that could go right for this team in the second half but there are also a ton of things that could go wrong as well. I'm not really sure exactly what to say for this post but it seems like a good idea so I'm just going to go through well just about everything.

The Pirates have 77 games remaining on their schedule which means even though the All-Star break is considered half way it really isn't, its a little past it. The Pirates have a relatively easy road the rest of the way and you can see that in this heat map made by Captain Jolly Roger, he does a pretty good job of explaining it. Just click here to see it. As you can see by this link out of the total 77 games left 32 of them are against teams with winning percentage's under .395. The numbers I am referring to are just slightly off because the date this chart was posted was on July 4th and each team has had about three games since then, so please forgive me for that. Also as you can see the Pirates have no games left against any teams that have a winning percentage of .556 or higher now that the Giants series is over. The Pirates do however end their schedule on a fairly tough stretch as they play ten games against three different teams who all have winning percentage of .525 or higher luckily for the Pirates they play six of these games at home where they have a winning percentage of .674.

The pitching staff in my opinion still has many questions that need to be answered before I can be completely sold for a number of different reasons. Lets start from the top and work down with James McDonald who has established himself as the ace of this staff. I personally believe that McDonald has made a long lasting turn for the better in 2012 but there are some numbers that would suggest otherwise, mainly those of years past. Last year was basically McDonald's first full year in the majors appearing in 31 games and pitching exactly 171 innings posting a 4.06 ERA and 4.68 FIP. This year McDonald is already at 110 innings and is well on pace to significantly pass his previous high of 171, which brings up the question can he maintain? I think that he will because of the mentoring or Burnett helping him through this, but if McDonald looses a mile or two on his fastball things could go bad real quick.

A.J. Burnett is having one of his better years since 2005 when he pitched for the Marlins and seems to have found his spot in Pittsburgh but then again he hasn't pitched this well in a long time. Burnett is a veteran and has been in pennant races before so he knows how to handle the pressure so probably won't be affected to much by that but he is getting older so the innings might start adding up on his arm. Jeff Karstens has recently returned from his long stint on the DL and is basically just starting his season now. I think that if the Pirates stay in this race Karstens and his 88 MPH fastball are going to play a huge role in it. Innings won't really be a concern for Karstens because of his trip to the DL so every fifth day Karstens can just go out there and throw as long as he wants without any watch on his innings.

The bottom two guys in the rotation are the ones I'm concerned about, Kevin Correia and Erik Bedard that is. Correia has a 4.34 ERA this year which actually sound's better then he actually is, which is terrible. It seems like every time Correia takes the hill he strikes out two guys allows 4 runs and gets pulled in the fifth and makes the offense have a great day just for the team to even have a chance to win. When you're in a race for the division like the Pirates are you can't afford to have this all the time, which is what the Pirates are getting from him. The next guy is Erik Bedard who is the only lefty in the rotation which is probably what is keeping him his job. Earlier this year Bedard was the opening day starter and was pitching well locating his fastball and putting nice spin on his curve and then got pulled from a start with back spasms and hasn't been the same since. Bedard was quoted as saying that this is the best he's felt in years so that takes away the excuse of injury which means that Bedard needs to improve quickly which this ten day break for him will help. If neither one of these guys improve I would expect Rudy Owens of Jeff Locke to replace them at some point, if you want to know more about them visit Pirates Prospects they will have everything you need.

Although the Pirates offense had a great last month plus lets not forget that they also had one of the worst first two months since the dead-ball era. Some guys are going to fall off such as someone like Andrew McCutchen, and when I say fall off I mean that he is still going to be really really good but not unhuman like. McCutchen is hitting .362 and chances are that he will not continue at this pace, but he can still hit at a pace of like .320 or somewhere around there. One guy I would really like to see step it up in the second half would be Clint Barmes. Barmes is way below his career lows in just about everything which I think has to improve at some point and hopefully soon, if he improves he can really help this team out. I would also like to see some one like Alvarez hit for a higher batting average, which is in fact already improving but if he hits .280 the second half that would be awesome.

I am really excited to see what happens the second half especially because the Pirates are legit contenders this year and I don't think that's changing any time soon. With the second wild card this year, that only means the chances are greater of something special happening. Even if the Pirates are 10 games below .500 the second half hey it's still a winning season which ends a twenty year drought which is all I really wanted at the beginning of the year.

Andrew McCutchen to Replace Stanton in Home-Run Derby

Tonight at 8:49 Eastern time Karl Ravech of ESPN tweeted that Andrew McCutchen is to replace Giancarlo Stanton in the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Home-run Derby. At this point the move is basically official, we are still waiting on the MLB to confirm the tweet but basically everyone else has said it to be true. Stanton announced that he would not be participating in the derby and all star game after he found out that he was going to have to have surgery on his knee, Bryce Harper will be replacing him on the team its self.

This move comes not as a huge surprise I guess as McCutchen ranks sixth in the NL in home-runs with 16 to this point in the season. McCutchen is obviously not just a huge slugger like someone who typically come to mind when you think of the home-run derby, as he has the highest batting average in all of the major leagues at .359. The other seven participants include Prince Fielder, Robinson Cano, Jose Bautista, Mark Trumbo, and for the National League Matt Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez, Carlos Beltran and of course Andrew McCutchen. This is kind of exciting for the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh as it will give the team some nice national attention, well deserved  for the season they have had so far.

Some people in the blogosphere seem to be upset about McCutchen being in the derby as they claim that it will mess up his swing for the second half of the season. People have been making these claims for just about as long as they have been having the event and hardly ever do they prove to be true. Obviously there are some cases where some of the participants have fell off greatly such as in the case of Brandon Inge in 2009 or Dan Uggla in 2008 but its hard to even blame these drop offs on the derby and not just natural regression after outstanding first half's. Since 2000 43% of hitters in the derby have actually improved onward from the event, a high enough percentage to prove that regression is not a given. Naturally you would expect all-stars to regress the second half as well because most of the time they are putting up career high numbers which are hard to maintain for an entire season as is the case for McCutchen. So if you see McCutchen fall down to a .300 BA the second half and only hits 12 home-runs don't go blaming it on the derby because a return to human form can be almost expected at some point.

If you are interested in watching the event you can check into ESPN on Monday night and watch the whole thing. I myself enjoy watching the event as it is a nice warm-up before a very boring all-star game which you can watch the following night, Tuesday. If you are going to only watch part of the derby make sure to watch McCutchen's swings because the national analysts will probably spend a good amount of that time talking about the magnificent things the Pirates are doing so far this year, should be fun to watch.

Series Preview vs Giants

Right now as you know the Pirates are probably playing their best baseball of the year if not the past twenty years and they have sure been fun to watch lately. The team is currently coming off of a rare four game sweep of the Astros outscoring them by fourteen runs during those games and now look at the slumping Giants for their next series, a three game set. The Giants are entering the series on a three game losing streak in which they got swept by the Nationals who currently have the best record in the National League.

Game 1- In game one of this series the Giants will send Barry Zito to the hill to try to beat the struggling Erik Bedard. Zito is 6-6 this year with a 3.84 ERA and has been overall pretty good. Erik Bedard who seems to be trying to work his way of the rotation will enter the game with a 4-9 record and 4.57 ERA and has looked terrible as of late. I think that both for both Bedard's and the teams sake he needs to pitch well tonight and try to get himself back on track and give himself something positive to hang on to before the All-Star break.

Game 2- Game two is shaping up to be the best pitching match-up of the series when Ryan Vogelsong will go up against A.J. Burnett in the middle game of the series. Vogelsong is truly a nice comeback story from last year when he came back from pitching in Japan trying to save his career to pitching for the Giants and having a great year posting a season long 2.71 ERA. Luckily the Pirates are throwing their ace in James McDonald who is 8-3 with a 2.45 ERA and having a career year. If this game ends up being half of what is is supposed to be it should be very exciting to watch.

Game 3- In the final game before the All-Star break the Giants will throw their former Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum who is having the worst year of his career by far. Lincecum is a mere 3-9 with a hideous 6.08 ERA and should be throwing batting practice for the Giants instead of pitching for them. The Pirates will throw their second ace in A.J. Burnett who is having having a career year for the good winning in nine straight start and has had a 3.74 ERA during that time. Burnett might have a chance to start in two straight games as he might be the first pitcher to pitch after the All-Star break when the Pirates play the Brewers in Milwaukee.

I think it would for sure be nice to win the last series before the All-Star break and try to carry that momentum over to the second half where the Pirates will give it their best shot at a playoff bid. The Giants don't have a great offense only scoring 329 runs on the year just five ahead of the Pirates who have scored 324. The Giants live off of their pitching so it will be important to get runs early and often if they want to have a shot.

Pirates Going After Greinke or Hamels?

If you have not seen it yet the highly regarded Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports Baseball wrote a interesting article on Monday talking about the Pirates and how they should go after either Zack Greinke of the Brewers or Cole Hamels of the Phillies and you can read that by clicking here. I have a lot of respect for Rosenthal I think he does a lot of good stuff and brings up some interesting points but this idea is just crazy and would not be worth it for the Pirates for multiple reasons.

The first reason being the Pirates would have to give up way to much. Obviously I can't say anything for sure because I am not Neil Huntington so therefore I have no idea what deals are actually being proposed and not proposed but I think that if you just wanted to trade one or two prospects you would defiantly have to give up one of your top three guys. The Pirates top three guys included Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, and Starling Marte all of whom are performing outstanding in the minor leagues and are expected to have excellent major league careers.

If the Pirates did get either Greinke or Hamels they would be undoubtedly be a two month rental because of their contracts expiring at the end of the year. Some people might say why don't the Pirates just stop being cheap and sign these guys when the year is over? The answer to that is weather you want to believe it or not the Pirates are still a small market team, they do not build around signing big time free agents which both of these guys are going to be. Both Greinke and Hamels will receive monster contracts and the only way the Pirates will be able to afford those is if they just decided to not sign anyone else the rest of the off-season.

The second reason this is stupid is because the Pirates biggest need in my opinion is not pitching. The Pirates are still ranked sixth in all the the Major Leagues in team ERA but are only ranked twenty-sixth in total runs scored. If you had never watched the Pirates play before and you saw this stat you would say that the Pirates needs are on the offense side of the game not the pitching. Although the Pirates scored the most runs in the MLB in the month of June their offense is still the weak point of the team. If you are going to throw away prospects do it for hitting not pitching.

The third and final reason is because you have perfectly capable pitchers in AAA that could come up any day you want at no additional cost and perform possibly just as well. Rudy Owens has had a 2.45 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP to this point in AAA. In my opinion the worst this could transition over to in the Major Leagues would be a 4.00 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP which is still very good for a player that you would have to pay nothing for what so ever. Plus there is the possibility that they could perform better, because for all we know he could keep a sub 2.50 ERA and be the teams third best pitcher. Also Jeff Locke and Justin Wilson are also posting very good numbers as well and are also ready to come up at any time and perform well.

I am not in any way denying that getting either Greinke or Hamels would help the Pirates down the stretch but I do not think that it would be worth it for the Pirates to give up a big piece of their future just to have a guy that plays once every five days for two months. This is a neat idea by Rosenthal but I don't think it would work. Maybe he's right it might bring a few more fans to the ballpark for the rest of the year but is it going to bring more fans then when Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon are pitching for the next six years? Why go for it now when you can go for it the next six or seven years if not longer. The Pirates have a nice team now and are shaping up to have even a even nicer team in 2014 lets not throw that away for another year that might or  might not be a playoff year.

Jose Tabata Optioned To AAA Gorkys Hernandez Called Up

Today the Pirates announced that they had officially had enough with Jose Tabata for the time being and showed their displeasure by sending him down to Indianapolis where he will be playing his games in the International League. To replace Tabata on the 25 man roster the Pirates called up OF Gorkys Hernandez who had previously appeared in nine games this season but getting only ten at-bats.

Tabata who has been tremendously unproductive this year basically hit and in some peoples opinions hustled his way to minor leagues, which is never a good thing. Tabata has only hit for a .230/.295/.341 triple slash this year compared to his .266/.349/.362 in 2011. Clint Hurdle said yesterday that he doesn't think that Tabata is a lazy player but "there are times when the ball is coming down and drops in front of him".

Gorkys Hernandez who has appeared in 64 games this season in AAA has hit for a line of .268/.364/.362 with two home runs and thirteen stolen bases. Hernandez appeared in 9 games in the majors earlier this year mostly coming in as a late game defensive replacement only getting ten total at-bats. Hernandez will most likely be the fourth outfielder for the time being backing up McCutchen, Presley, and Sutton.

JMac Snubbed McCutchen and Hanrahan Named All-Stars

Yesterday the rosters for the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star game to be held in Kansas City were announced and two Pittsburgh Pirates made the team for the National League. The two Pirates that made the team were OF Andrew McCutchen and reliever Joel Hanrahan.

McCutchen who earned a bench spot on the All-Star team probably even deserved a starting job but because of fan voting deciding that he only got a spot on the bench. McCutchen among outfielders in the National League ranks 2nd in average (.346) and OPS (.993), 7th in home-runs (15), 1st in OBP (.401), and 3rd in Slugging (.593). However there is still a chance that McCutchen can start in the game because of out-fielder Matt Kemp missing the game due to injury. Kemp was the leading vote-getter for out-fielder's in the National League and has said he would like to play in the All-Star game any way possible, but his team management has come out and said that he has to play in real games first before he can play in the All-Star game.

Joel Hanrahan made his second straight All-Star team along with Andrew McCutchen once again posting very impressive numbers out of the bull-pen. Hanrahan has earned a save in 20 of his 22 chances this year also posting a 2.10 ERA in 30 total innings pitched.

The Pirates also had a few arguable snubs in James McDonald and A.J. Burnett. In my opinion James McDonald was the only one of the two that should of made the team. McDonald has posted a 7-3 record and a 2.44 ERA so far this year by far good enough numbers to earn him an All-Star bid. I think that McDonald has proven himself as the Ace of the Pirates pitching staff to this point in the year seemingly getting the team a win every time he goes out and pitches. Perhaps the biggest argument for McDonald  making the team came from his own teammate in Joel Hanrahan. McDonald has been much better then Hanrahan so far this year but Hanrahan most likely got the nod because he is a reliever so he would be better suited in a one inning situation which most likely he will receive in the All-Star game.