An important part of every contender especially in the National League are the guys that they have available to come up off the bench in an import part of any game. The Pirates made some additions at the deadline to try to improve their bench such as acquiring Gaby Sanchez and even Travis Snider even though he's a starter it still improves because now we have an old starter now available off the bench. The Pirates still don't have the best bench in the league but it's improved and I'm trying to figure how just how good it is.
The Pirates right now only have four bench position players on their roster but will probably add another one soon as either a pitcher will be placed on the DL or Jeff Locke will be sent back down. I know not many of you want to hear this but if I had to guess I would say that Jose Tabata is close to a call up even though he has it for absolutely zero power since being sent to AAA but he does have a good batting average of .313 almost a hundred points higher then his batting average earlier this year in the majors.
Josh Harrison- Harrison well he's not that great no matter how hard you try to find something to make him look that way. Harrison has hit .237 average this year in just over 150 at bats and really doesn't add much power to the mix either as he has only hit three home-runs this year and a slugging percentage of .385. The nice thing about Harrison and frankly the only reason he's still in the majors is because he can play just about anywhere on the field. Harrison is listed as an infielder and plays short or third most of the time but can also play right field if you need him to and has done so this year. Harrison's fine to play every once in a while to give a guy a break but he's not the bat I want coming off the bench in a big situation.
Michael McKenry- As much as I don't like to admit that McKenry is a bench bat it seems with the way that Hurdle is handling the catching situation its looks like its going to end up being that way. Unlike Harrison I would feel pretty good if McKenry was hitting with two outs and the winnings run on second, as good as I could feel that is. McKenry has hit 11 home-runs this year and carries a strong .281 average as well. I wrote a post last week about Mckenry's unbelievable at-bat to home-run ratio if you want to check it out, the guy has shown amazing pop this year and I don't see if falling off to much especially with the limited playing time that he already gets.
Gaby Sanchez- If you follow the team much at all you would know that Gaby Sanchez is the first-baseman the Pirates just acquired from the Florida Marlins in exchange for Gorkys Hernandez and the 33 overall pick in this upcoming draft. Sanchez has not been great this year but has improved since being shipped to Pittsburgh at the deadline. A lot of guys aren't quite has high on Sanchez as I am partly because I value long at-bats more then most and Sanchez always seems to be good for one of those. Sanchez always works long counts and in turn raises pitchers pitch counts, which we know is under constant watch now a days, but working these long counts also forces the pitcher to throw a good pitch eventually and Sanchez gets a lot of hits that way. In a big pinch hit spot Sanchez might not be the best but he's not going to be terrible either, he's always going to give himself a chance which is about all I can ask for.
Jordy Mercer- The last bench bat the Pirates have to throw out there right now is the primarily shortstop playing Jordy Mercer. Mercer hit his first career home-run the other night but is not really known for his power but instead his steady defense in the field. Mercer doesn't see the field very much but should probably see it a little more, but in 18 game this season Mercer has hit for a .191/.234/.452 line but lets remember this is just 31 at-bats were talking about so we really can't judge Mercer off of this much at all. To the question if Mercer would be good in a clutch situation, I really don't think we have to worry about that much at all as Mercer would probably be the worst option at this point.
Orioles Plan To Call Up Manny Machado
If you are wondering how the Orioles calling up minor league third-baseman/shortstop in anyway relates to the Pirates I can explain I swear.
Manny Machado was the third overall pick back in 2010 by the Orioles, the same year that the Pirates had the number two overall pick in the draft. The Pirates ended up taking the Rice commit in Jameson Taillon who is currently playing for high-A Bradenton and ranks as the Pirates number one or two prospect depending on who you talk to. The decision the Pirates made was seen by most as a pure toss up as they could of just as easily taken Machado, the high school shortstop from Miami.
This move comes as a huge surprise to just about everyone from all around baseball because as of Wednesday night Machado has never seen a pitch above the AA level, and no I did not forget to put an extra A at the end. Machado has only played 108 games in AA this season and has hit for a line of .266/.350/.431 with ten home runs he is only twenty years old. This line is not bad by any means but it is not exactly major league quality. This is an extremely aggressive move by the Orioles and honestly in my opinion probably a little stupid as now the Orioles are going to use their top prospects service time when he is by no means ready. Machado could easily fail to hit .200 in his major league time this year where he will most likely play third base according to Kevin Goldstein.
Oh and one last thing, just because Machado is going to reach the majors before Taillon does not in any way mean that he is the better player, that is just stupid and still undetermined.
A.J. Burnett Named Player Of The Week
Every week the MLB awards one player from both the National and American League with the honor of player of the week, and for the week of July 30 to August 5 the best player in the National League was your own A.J. Burnett.This past week Burnett made two starts one of which he was just four outs away from no hitting the Cubs and was honestly one of the best pitching performances I have seen this year in all of baseball even if it was the cubs. He went on to finish that game as a one hit shutout. The next game against the Reds he wasn't much worse although he allowed two two runs he went 8 2/3 before he allowed a few base-runners and basically forced Hurdle to pull him.
Overall over the past week Burnett finished with 17 2/3 innings pitches 4 hits an ERA of 0.50 and he also added 15 strikeouts to the mix. This was not a real tough decision for the MLB as Burnett's performance was just so dominate that he could not be denied this award. I for one would like to take this moment to personally thank the Yankees for not wanting this man because I can tell you that we sure do.
Watch Out For The Cardinals
The Pirates currently sit at top of the National League wild card standings but that spot is anything but a guarantee for the Pirates. There are several teams who could take that postseason bid from the Pirates including the Diamondbacks who the Pirates start a four game set with tonight, but I think a team that Pittsburgh fans are really under estimating are the St. Louis Cardinals.I can't tell you why but it seems to me that people from around Pittsburgh are just writing off the Cardinals, instead looking just at the Reds acting as if the chance that the Cardinals could go on a run possibly even for the division let alone the wild card is an unreasonable thought. Let me tell you something that thought is not by any means unreasonable in-fact I would say that it's probably likely, not likely that the Cardinals will win the division but rather that they will go on a run putting themselves back in the hunt (not that they aren't in it already).
If your one of those people that disagree with me and think that the Cardinals don't stand a chance, keep reading I might change your mind. In my opinion the second most telling stat of a quality of team in all of baseball besides record is a teams run differential and the Cardinals are not exactly failing in that category. Through 108 games this year the Cardinals have a run differential of +110 the best in all of baseball, 18 runs better then the next closest team in the New York Yankees. Don't value run differential as much as I do? You should because in the last ten years the team with the highest run differential in the league has made the playoffs 100 percent of the time and 9 out of 10 of those same times that team had won their division. Also far all I know this trend might have been continued for another ten years but I can't tell you for sure because I honestly just didn't feel like looking that much further.
There's no guarantee that the Cardinals will end the season with the highest run differential in the majors but a this point their the top pick and it would be pretty amazing if the team leading the entire majors in that category would miss the playoffs. The Cardinals are just two and a half games of the Pirates in the wild card, really not that much considering there's close to a full two months of baseball left. Luckily for the Pirates they still have six games left against the Cardinals so they still have their chance to hold them off along with the rest of the wildcard teams. Oh yeah and there's one thing that I didn't even mention earlier and that's that the Cardinals and defending World Series Champs!!! If the Cardinals don't have a chance to win the division then I don't know who does.
Pirates Lose Second Straight and Correia Scheduled To Spot Start
Tonight the Pirates lost a very important game to the Cincinnati Reds, their second straight loss and some very exciting/interesting stuff went down. I will start off with some of the fireworks that went on in the second inning and then get on to what actually happened in the game.
After last night there were already tensions high and when Mike Leake hit Josh Harrison in the second inning of tonight's game things just escalated from there. It seemed as if after Harrison got hit Leake said something to him as he was getting ready to walk to first base and Harrison then barked something back and gave Leake a long stare. It continued as Harrison started walking towards first this time doing nothing but walking to the base as Leake starting walking to the baseline instead of just receiving a new ball from his catcher. The home-plate umpire Brian Gorman proceed to try to put an end to the unnecessary actions by issuing warnings both bench's, much to the dislike of Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. Hurdle was more then just a little upset, he was steamed and he showed it by proceeding to get ejected from the game. I think Hurdle had a legit beef in this situation, because his bench really did nothing wrong to earn a warning it was the Reds hitting all of our batters, the Pirates had the right to retaliate if they wanted.
But the real disappointment came on the scorecard as the Pirates lost this one 5-4 in the eighth inning. James McDonald didn't have his best stuff tonight but he managed as he got through six innings on four runs just three of them earned. Jared Hughes pitched a scoreless seventh but allowed a lead-off triple to start the eighth to Scott Rolen who ended up scoring the following batter. The next batter Navarro for the Reds hit a dribbler back to Hughes who then went to tag Navarro on the baseline and gave him what seemed to be an obvious push along with the tag, Navarro then walked away and soon turned around giving Hughes a long stare. Chapman came in for the Reds in the ninth to close the game out and give the Reds their fifth straight victory advancing their lead to 5.5 games in the division.
In other news the Pirates announced today that they will give Kevin Correia a spot start on Wednesday against the Diamondbacks. The Pirates are most likely doing this because they are now in the midst of their twenty game in twenty days stretch so starting Correia here will basically serve as an off day for the rest of the staff, pushing their starts back a day. This is one of the nice things they can do with Correia in the pen because it is going to be very important to have all five of your pitchers healthy and rested down the stretch for a playoff run. This will also keep Correia happy which isn't what you necessarily are trying to do but it is a nice bonus to to the fact that it will also keep the rest of the pitchers happy.
A.J. Burnett vs. Homer Bailey tomorrow 1:10 start time, its very important for the Pirates to avoid the sweep tomorrow as their is a big difference between a 4.5 game lead and a 6.5 game lead. Get it done.
After last night there were already tensions high and when Mike Leake hit Josh Harrison in the second inning of tonight's game things just escalated from there. It seemed as if after Harrison got hit Leake said something to him as he was getting ready to walk to first base and Harrison then barked something back and gave Leake a long stare. It continued as Harrison started walking towards first this time doing nothing but walking to the base as Leake starting walking to the baseline instead of just receiving a new ball from his catcher. The home-plate umpire Brian Gorman proceed to try to put an end to the unnecessary actions by issuing warnings both bench's, much to the dislike of Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. Hurdle was more then just a little upset, he was steamed and he showed it by proceeding to get ejected from the game. I think Hurdle had a legit beef in this situation, because his bench really did nothing wrong to earn a warning it was the Reds hitting all of our batters, the Pirates had the right to retaliate if they wanted.
But the real disappointment came on the scorecard as the Pirates lost this one 5-4 in the eighth inning. James McDonald didn't have his best stuff tonight but he managed as he got through six innings on four runs just three of them earned. Jared Hughes pitched a scoreless seventh but allowed a lead-off triple to start the eighth to Scott Rolen who ended up scoring the following batter. The next batter Navarro for the Reds hit a dribbler back to Hughes who then went to tag Navarro on the baseline and gave him what seemed to be an obvious push along with the tag, Navarro then walked away and soon turned around giving Hughes a long stare. Chapman came in for the Reds in the ninth to close the game out and give the Reds their fifth straight victory advancing their lead to 5.5 games in the division.
In other news the Pirates announced today that they will give Kevin Correia a spot start on Wednesday against the Diamondbacks. The Pirates are most likely doing this because they are now in the midst of their twenty game in twenty days stretch so starting Correia here will basically serve as an off day for the rest of the staff, pushing their starts back a day. This is one of the nice things they can do with Correia in the pen because it is going to be very important to have all five of your pitchers healthy and rested down the stretch for a playoff run. This will also keep Correia happy which isn't what you necessarily are trying to do but it is a nice bonus to to the fact that it will also keep the rest of the pitchers happy.
A.J. Burnett vs. Homer Bailey tomorrow 1:10 start time, its very important for the Pirates to avoid the sweep tomorrow as their is a big difference between a 4.5 game lead and a 6.5 game lead. Get it done.
Not An Ordinary Series Preview
This. Is. Huge.
Tomorrow the Pirates start their biggest and most important series of baseball since the day I was born. Wow. They will play the Cincinnati Reds who are a full three games up on the Pirates in the division and are coming off of a four game series win against San Diego. Luckily for the Pirates they are coming into this series fresh because of Thursday's off day allowing them to start A.J. Burnett on Sunday instead of the previously scheduled Erik Bedard.
Game1- In the opening game of this series the Pirates will send the newly acquired Wandy Rodriguez to the hill to make his Pirates NL Central Debut against the Reds right hander Mat Latos. Latos is a perfect example of why record is completely meaningless as he come in with a 9-3 record but an ERA as high as 4.17. Rodriguez will enter this one with a 7-9 record and a 3.79 ERA, It will be important for Rodriguez to hold the Reds to preferably under three runs in this one since the Reds offense has been one of the best in the league this past month.
Game 2- James McDonald (10-5, 3.37) has been struggling as of late really starting to decline, in his past three starts he has a solid 9.00 ERA but somehow squeezed out a win in one of those three games. McDonald has been good against the Reds so far this year however only giving up one run in just over fourteen innings. McDonald will take the hill against the Reds Mike Leake, the man who skipped the minors. Leake well he isn't that great, and he really sucked in his last outing not even making it two innings, the Pirates can only hope that his struggles continue against them. This is probably the best chance the Pirates have as far as pitching match-ups go, and they do have a chance in every game.
Game 3- The Pirates originally scheduled to have Erik Bedard start the series finally but then decided that because of the Thursday off day that it would be a better idea to start the better pitcher in A.J. Burnett because of the importance of the series. Burnett as you might know is 13-3 with a 3.27 ERA and is having one of his best years since he left the Marlins in 2004. Homer Bailey will take the bump for the Reds as he enters this one with a strong 9-6 record and 3.85 ERA. Bailey is basically as advertised nothing real special but has solid stuff with good command, I am not a fan of hitter-pitcher numbers but Garret Jones has some pretty good numbers against Bailey I would not be surprised if he has a good game on Sunday. But all in all I think that the pitching match-ups in this series favor the Pirates for sure.
"Defy odds. We won't let history define our future. Our actions will do the talking. Our determination will turn doubters into believers." -Andrew McCutchen
Tomorrow the Pirates start their biggest and most important series of baseball since the day I was born. Wow. They will play the Cincinnati Reds who are a full three games up on the Pirates in the division and are coming off of a four game series win against San Diego. Luckily for the Pirates they are coming into this series fresh because of Thursday's off day allowing them to start A.J. Burnett on Sunday instead of the previously scheduled Erik Bedard.
Game1- In the opening game of this series the Pirates will send the newly acquired Wandy Rodriguez to the hill to make his Pirates NL Central Debut against the Reds right hander Mat Latos. Latos is a perfect example of why record is completely meaningless as he come in with a 9-3 record but an ERA as high as 4.17. Rodriguez will enter this one with a 7-9 record and a 3.79 ERA, It will be important for Rodriguez to hold the Reds to preferably under three runs in this one since the Reds offense has been one of the best in the league this past month.
Game 2- James McDonald (10-5, 3.37) has been struggling as of late really starting to decline, in his past three starts he has a solid 9.00 ERA but somehow squeezed out a win in one of those three games. McDonald has been good against the Reds so far this year however only giving up one run in just over fourteen innings. McDonald will take the hill against the Reds Mike Leake, the man who skipped the minors. Leake well he isn't that great, and he really sucked in his last outing not even making it two innings, the Pirates can only hope that his struggles continue against them. This is probably the best chance the Pirates have as far as pitching match-ups go, and they do have a chance in every game.
Game 3- The Pirates originally scheduled to have Erik Bedard start the series finally but then decided that because of the Thursday off day that it would be a better idea to start the better pitcher in A.J. Burnett because of the importance of the series. Burnett as you might know is 13-3 with a 3.27 ERA and is having one of his best years since he left the Marlins in 2004. Homer Bailey will take the bump for the Reds as he enters this one with a strong 9-6 record and 3.85 ERA. Bailey is basically as advertised nothing real special but has solid stuff with good command, I am not a fan of hitter-pitcher numbers but Garret Jones has some pretty good numbers against Bailey I would not be surprised if he has a good game on Sunday. But all in all I think that the pitching match-ups in this series favor the Pirates for sure.
"Defy odds. We won't let history define our future. Our actions will do the talking. Our determination will turn doubters into believers." -Andrew McCutchen
Michael McKenry's Breakout Year
Remember last year when the Pirates traded for that 5'10" catcher from the Rockies because every other catcher from Chris Snider to Jason Jaramillo was down with an injury, that guy who ended up being the teams seventh catcher of the season? Well guess what that same guy who was just an average catching prospect in the Rockies system is now making it hard to deny him a starting spot in the major leagues.Michael McKenry started the year as just the back-up catcher behind Rod Barajas but is now starting to split time behind the plate because of some of the impressive things he's been doing both at the plate and behind the dish. There have been a total of 395 plate appearances between both of the Pirates catcher's this year and McKenry has gotten just 38% of them so when I say that McKenry has hit 10 home-runs this year it might not sound all that impressive but it is.
Michael Mckenry has an at bat to home-run ratio of 13.2, for those of you who don't know really what that mean's let me put that in perspective for you. The National Leagues MVP at this point is Andrew McCutchen and his AB/HR ratio is at 17.1 which means that it take McCutchen 17 at bats to hit one home run but it only takes McKenry 13 to hit one, that's a big difference. What this stat basically says is that if McKenry has the same number of at bats as McCutchen this year he would have hit 28 home-runs, which is only one less then the National League leader in Ryan Braun who has 29 long balls so far this year. If McKenry played every game this year at catcher for the Pirates this year his stat line would look something like .273/.344/.568 28 HR's, 76 RBI's, and a WAR of 4.26, these are all-star like numbers.
McKenry isn't one of those catchers who only made it to the major leagues because of their offense, in fact he probably made it to the big's because of defense earning him the oh so popular nickname "The Fort". McKenry's fielding percentage this year comes in at .991 and throws runners out at a 17% clip, not all that great but far better then the usual starter Rod Barajas. There really isn't a stat out there for ball blocked but I can tell you just from watching with my two eyes that Mckenry is one fantastic blocker of the ball behind the plate, he saves runs on a regular basis by putting his body on the line. McKenry has established himself as a fantastic defensive catcher.
The Fort has gotten his opportunites this year and has surely made the most of them, his teammates say he spends more time in the cage then just about anyone they have ever seen and it is sure paying off at the plate. McKenry spent his off-season not taking a break but instead taking lessons from Clint Hurdle trying to improve his swing earning him the title of a blue collar catcher. If I'm Clint Hurdle I start McKenry every game the rest of the year unless A.J. Burnett is pitching, but then again Clint Hurdle doesn't usually do what I say.
Pirates Trade McGehee For Chad Qualls From Yankees
With the addition of the first-baseman Sanchez this left the Pirates with three first-baseman which means that one has to go for sure and it was obviously going to be McGehee. The Pirates really had only had two options here DFA McGehee pay him and get nothing, or trade him get a really bad reliever who they can try to fix and make good even though that probably won't happen. Hurdle said today that Qualls is one of those guys that they have had an eye on for a few years now so hopefully that means they see something in his delivery that everyone else is missing and they can fix, but probably not he's pretty bad.
Qualls carries a strong 5.73 ERA and 5.12 FIP in 43 appearances and 38.2 innings so far this year, I do not know how much better he could possibly get. I would much rather see either Daniel McCutchen stay up or Bryan Morris get the call up before I have to watch Qualls blow a game in the seventh inning. I don't think the Pirates won this trade by any means but I do think this move is more successful then just straight up DFA'ing McGehee so I guess you can say they won in that sense.
Pirates Receive Gaby Sanchez For Gorkys Hernandez and Competitive Balance Pick
Gaby Sanchez the right handed first baseman formerly of the Marlins was another solid pickup for the Pirates today at the deadline. Sanchez is having a down year to this point so far with a split of .202/.350/.306 in just 55 games and 183 at bats but hey its still better then what we gave up in Gorkys Hernandez.
I think that Sanchez is also going to get better as the season continues because he has not been this bad in the past and at just 28 years old he isn't out of his prime. Sanchez was an all-star last year for the National League for whatever that's worth, but he did finished 2011 with .266/.352/.427 line and 19 home-runs, he only has three home-runs so far this year. Sanchez also has only a .234 BABIP so far which also means that he is most likely due to do better then he has been at the plate. I don't expect Sanchez to start at first but he might platoon some and just some of the time with Jones if Hurdle feels that the match up is right. Sanchez will be more of an improvement in the late game pinch-hitter category, an area the Pirates have not been so successful in.
Some people look at this trade and don't take it quite as seriously as they should because the only other name involved besides Gaby Sanchez is Gorkys Hernandez who I think we all can agree is not very good but the what the Marlins are really getting is the #33 pick in next years draft. This #33 pick is the pick that the Pirates received in this year's competitive balance lottery put on by major league baseball. Most likely the #33 pick in next years draft is going to turn out to be more successful then Gorkys Hernandez, so the Pirates are giving up more then just a good defensive outfielder. I am not in love with this trade but I do think the Pirates won only because Sanchez in not a free agent until 2016, so the Pirates are going to have at least a good bench bat for some years to come.
I think that Sanchez is also going to get better as the season continues because he has not been this bad in the past and at just 28 years old he isn't out of his prime. Sanchez was an all-star last year for the National League for whatever that's worth, but he did finished 2011 with .266/.352/.427 line and 19 home-runs, he only has three home-runs so far this year. Sanchez also has only a .234 BABIP so far which also means that he is most likely due to do better then he has been at the plate. I don't expect Sanchez to start at first but he might platoon some and just some of the time with Jones if Hurdle feels that the match up is right. Sanchez will be more of an improvement in the late game pinch-hitter category, an area the Pirates have not been so successful in.
Some people look at this trade and don't take it quite as seriously as they should because the only other name involved besides Gaby Sanchez is Gorkys Hernandez who I think we all can agree is not very good but the what the Marlins are really getting is the #33 pick in next years draft. This #33 pick is the pick that the Pirates received in this year's competitive balance lottery put on by major league baseball. Most likely the #33 pick in next years draft is going to turn out to be more successful then Gorkys Hernandez, so the Pirates are giving up more then just a good defensive outfielder. I am not in love with this trade but I do think the Pirates won only because Sanchez in not a free agent until 2016, so the Pirates are going to have at least a good bench bat for some years to come.
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