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?