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1/2 over.

Monday, July 5th, 2010

I remember a few weeks ago thinking there was over 100 games left to the season. I couldn’t believe that there was so much left. Now that it’s past the half way point it seems like it’s time to get ready for 2011.

So how’s everything going? I’d have to say worse than I expected. Although the past week was pretty good, the Pirates were playing the Cubs and Phillies, two teams in huge declines. Then the rest of this month there are a lot of games against the Astros and Brewers, so the next few weeks shouldn’t be too terrible. After a very rough start for Pedro, he’s started to turn things around the last week. Milledge has picked things up, although he still lacks power. Tabata is doing as well as can be expected for a 21 year old and both McCutchen and Jones continue to do well. What’s really killed the team this year is the starting rotation. The team is getting killed by the 5th inning a lot and then they’re wearing down the bullpen. So clearly, pitching is a problem that needs to be addressed by the start of next season.

I think that JR actually made a good point last week. The Pirates are making a lot of mistakes due to youth and inexperience. If they can avoid that, then maybe they can have a decent second half.

Meanwhile, like I predicted before the season, the Reds and Cardinals are leading the division, although both the Brewers and Cubs aren’t doing as well as I thought they would and the Astros are doing better than I thought they would.

The big problem with the Cubs is that they’re old. Looking at their starting 8, only two are under 30 right now, Geovanny Soto and Starlin Castro. Besides Castro, they are an aging team that’s only going to get worse as they get older. And even worse, they aren’t going to be able to trade most of the guys on the team as a lot of them have huge contracts that last a long time. The Cubs went all in for 2007 and 2008 and now they’re reaping the consequences of not planning long term past 2008. Also Carlos Zambrano is being a bit of a jack ass, which doesn’t help anything. However they did get lucky with Carlos Silva, but that isn’t going to last forever either.

Overall, right now, I think the Pirates have a much brighter future than the Cubs do at this point.

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The weekend.

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Big weekend. On Saturday we went to the Brewers-Mariners game in Milwaukee. We first went to the Miller Brewery and had some beer and went on the tour and stuff. Their tour wasn’t nearly as good as the Budweiser tour I took last year. They both handed out free beer. But I think the cool thing about the Budweiser tour was that they showed pretty much everything and there was just more stuff to show.

Miller had two different movies and they really didn’t show all that much. The only unique things about the Miller tour was that Miller had some really old caves they used to store the beer in because the caves were cold and they showed the warehouse where all the beer was before shipping. That place was gigantic. I mean it was huge. Really gave a great perspective on how much beer they make in a day.

We go to the stadium about 45 minutes before the start of the game and we grilled up some food and sat in some lawn chairs. I bought a grill last week and it ended up making some pretty tasty food. I was pretty happy that everything went well. After we ate, the grill cooled off pretty fast because it was a gas grill and by the time we cleaned up and got ready to go inside it had cooled off. The game itself really wasn’t all that interesting considering it had two teams I really didn’t care about. I was glad to see the Mariners win because the Brewers are in the same division as the Pirates. The seats were nice because they were in the shade the whole game and stuff.

When the game was over, we drove over to downtown and saw the lakefront. After that we drove pretty much straight back to Iowa.

On Sunday we went to a wedding. It was cousins wedding. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go or not. I really don’t know her that well and it was about 1.5 hours away, in Cedar Falls. My sister talked me in to going so that her boyfriend wouldn’t get bored. It was a pretty good wedding. The ceremony was at a theater and the reception was at a ball room outside of town.

On the ride home we watched Field of Dreams and then we played some Trivia Pursuit at home, which I won and then finally got to bed around 1:00 in the morning.

So yeah today was back to normal which is nice.

Oh, 11 days ago I reached level 80 in Warcraft with my very first character. It’s really different now. There’s no more experience points and so I spend most of my time doing dungeons and stuff. I’ve also done a lot of fishing in the game. And I’ve kind of just screwed around. Another nice thing is that it seems like quests are handing out more gold when ya do quests at level 80 since you’re not getting experience points anymore.

Also I finally got the delicious chocolate cake recipe this morning. But it’s a total lie.

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Bryce Harper.

Monday, June 7th, 2010

With all the talk on the Pirates blogs and twitterz about the drafting of Jameson Taillon, I haven’t given much thought to the #1 overall pick of Bryce Harper. Last year, the big hype of the draft was Stephen Strasburg, who will make his Major League debut against the Pirates tomorrow night. This year the hype went to Bryce Harper, a 17 year old catcher who dropped out of school, got his GED and went to a Junior College in order to get drafted this year.

The most shocking thing was that the Nationals drafted him as an OF. That makes perfect sense. In 1970, the Pirates drafted Dave Parker in the 14th round as a catcher. At the time, he was seen as a catcher because he had a cannon for an arm (he pitched in high school as well), but the Pirates eventually moved him to RF because he was just having too much knee problems. I think it really prolonged his career by not crouching behind the plate 9 innings every day. He had a lot of speed and could throw guys out. And so, if the Nationals are going to move him to OF, I think it’s a good plan. They really avoid injuries with their most valuable offensive commodity. So today was a great day for the Nationals, Pirates and Orioles. Let’s see where it goes from here…

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Taillon it is!

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Well the Pirates did something they didn’t do last year, they took a very good pick with Jameson Taillon. Not everyone is happy with this pick, but it’s clearly a good pick for the Pirates. They got a pitcher who has the potential to be a staff ace, which is something the Pirates really need in their minor league system.

Overall though, a lot of teams are going cheap this year. The Cubs with the 16th pick took a player that Baseball America rated 191st in the country. Delino DeShields Jr. was taken 8th overall when Baseball Prospectus didn’t have him going in the first round. Meanwhile, it gave the bigger money clubs like the Cardinals a chance to take on Zach Cox and his big money demands.

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Jim Joyce should get an eye exam.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

It’s really unbelievable that Major League Baseball gives umpires so much power to fuck up games. Tonight, I tuned in during the 7th inning of the Tigers-Indians game. During it Armando Galarraga was throwing a perfect game. In the top of the 9th, he went out and got one big out from Antoine Jackson in CF. The next out was a simple 2B to 1B throw. So with 26 outs, Jason Donald hit a little roller up near 1B, Galarraga ran over to cover the base and he caught the ball a few steps to spare. But 1B umpire Jim Joyce called him safe and the game continued. The next guy hit a ball to SS and he got thrown out at 1B and the game was over.

I mean this was worse than Don Denkinger. I even thought of Denkinger when Johnny Damon got on base in the bottom of the 8th when he was clearly out. So yeah, Jim Joyce is a terrible 1B umpire.

Solution: Overturn the call. Institute instant replay for exactly this kind of situation. Give Galarraga the Perfect Game. Stop letting the umpires do this kind of shit.

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Do Panic!

Friday, May 7th, 2010

The Cubs have decided that with a three game sweep (OMGZ! That’s never happened before), that they need their best prospect, Starlin Castro, to come up to the majors now. Never mind that he was in AA, hasn’t played one game in AAA and is only 20 years old. This whole thing could be Jose Guillen all over again…

Clearly, Cubs GM Jim Hendry is worried about his job and has hit the panic button that Lou Pinella hit a few weeks ago when he moved Zambrano to the bullpen. The window for the Cubs to win anything with the current group of players is quickly closing and the Cubs are hoping to grasp on to one more winning season and moving Castro up is just desperation.

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The boss is making me work late.

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

I hate when the Pirates announcers make predictions like “All signs point to a W.” Nothing like an announcer to jinx the team he works for. Also what’s with all this stuff with the Pirates playing well the last two games and this one? It does not make sense. I mean, they go back and forth between brilliant and playing like shit. And it seems like the shit last longer than the good times. Oh well.

Also it would appear that the Steinbrenners bitched loud enough to get MLB to make the DH mandatory for every All-Star Game. Can’t let those pitchers go up and hit. I mean, they might hurt themselves on the basepaths. Ya know, unlike the majority of NL pitchers who go up and hit.

I just saw a beer commercial where two girls are playing “Spin the Bottle” with each other. I wanna play it with them. I should work on setting that up. Spin the Bottle should always have two girls and a guy. And that guy should always be me.

I heard today on Free Talk Live podcast from last week that the Judge, Andrew Napolitano is getting his own show on Fox Business Channel. It’s like they’re putting all the smart people on that channel (Napolitano, John Stossel, and Dave Ramsey) and then leaving the crazies on Fox News Channel (O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck). But how to explain why Shepherd Smith is still on Fox News?

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Mets already in Mid-Season sucking form?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Some thoughts from the first week in baseball. Of course it’s early and there’s something about small sample size that can fool you, but I think one week can tell you a lot about the coming season.

1. The Mets suck. Even though they threw money away on Jason Bay, they still suck. Dur.

2. The Astros are the worst team in baseball this year. I think the fight to stay out of last place in the NL Central will be a dog fight and it’ll be one the Pirates win and the Astros lose. The Astros are terrible. They’re without Lance Berkman and their pitching has been terrible. The only guy so far who’s actually carrying his weight with the bat is Michael Bourn (not good). They’ve walked a total of 5 times and have struck out 50 times. They’ve hit a total of 2 home runs (Garrett Jones has more than that). Meanwhile, Roy Oswalt is the only starter who’s performing. Otherwise, they’ve given up 42 runs in 62 innings. The Pirates might be bad, but I think the Astros are worse.

3. The Atlanta Braves are good, but probably not good enough to be a playoff team. Likewise, Jason Heyward is probably gonna live up to the hype.

4. I still think that the Reds are this year’s sleeper team. I think they’re gonna contend to get in to the playoffs if not make it. They’re certainly better than the Cubs.

5. As for the Pirates, they could be a good team if their top 4 starters can get it together and all pitch deep in to games with low pitch counts. I think the hitting is gonna be good enough to be National League average. And while some of the pitching suckiness can be blamed on “The Mustache of Sadness” and not having a true fifth starter since Kevin Hart can barely muster pitching a AAA game at this point, I think the Pirates are going to have a tough season scoring enough to make up for their obvious pitching deficiencies. As much as Smizik and others have focused a lot of time and complaining on hitting, it’s the pitching that’s probably gonna make the 2010 season another long season.

Also, watching the Judge Judy from yesterday made me glad that when I rented a limo for Sean’s wedding that I rented from a real company that had more than 1 limo and the driver wasn’t an old man who didn’t know where the spare tire was and all that. Although, getting the trolly stuck at Eric’s wedding was pretty fun. Although, looking back, I wonder if it was a good idea to pay them all in advance, it doesn’t sound like SOP.

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2010 Baseball. Jerry’s preview edition.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

AL:

East:

Yankees: 99-63

Rays: 96-66

Red Sox: 88-74

Orioles: 75-87

Blue Jays: 65-97

Central:

Twins: 90-72

Tigers: 85-77

White Sox: 81-81

Royals: 70-92

Indians: 64-98

West:

Angels: 89-73

Rangers: 85-77

Mariners: 80-82

A’s: 71-91

NL:

East:

Braves: 93-69

Phillies: 92-70

Marlins: 89-73

Mets: 71-91

Nationals: 67-95

Central:

Cardinals: 92-70

Reds: 89-73

Cubs: 82-80

Brewes: 82-80

Astros: 70-92

Pirates: 69-93

West:

Rockies: 95-67

Dodgers: 87-75

Giants: 81-81

Diamondbacks: 76-86

Padres: 65-97

So that’s the regular season.

Playoffs:

ALDS:

Rays 3, Twins 1

Yankees 3, Angels 2

NLDS:

Braves 3, Cardinals 1

Rockies 3, Phillies 2

ALCS:

Rays 4, Yankees 3

NLCS:

Rockies 4, Braves 3

World Series:

Rays 4, Rockies 1.

All-Star Game:

NL 5, AL 4 (13 innings)

Yep, an all expansion team World Series. That should be interesting. I just want the Rockies to lose the World Series so that Jim Tracy will lose it.

As for the Pirates, I had a lot more optimism going in to Spring Training. However, their play in the Grapefruit league has been terrible. It’s a damn shame because I think they’re better than their Spring Training record and everyone knows that Spring Training stats are meaningless. Last year the Pirates had one of the best records in the Grapefruit league and they still lost 99 games, meanwhile the Astros had one of the worst records in all of Spring Training and they went 74-88. But it’s still troublesome to seem the lose so much in Spring Training, it’s not a good sign for the coming season.

However, PECOTA still has the Pirates at 70-92 (which changes daily as teams make changes). CHONE has the Pirates at 74-88. ESPN the Magazine predicted 74-88. At least a few people are picking the Pirates for a 8 to 12 game improvement over last year. It’s just hard to tell what will happen this year, but I think anything more than 76 games is unrealistic. At the same time, anything less than 60 games is also unrealistic as well.

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Murray Chass is retired in the Brett Favre and Jay Leno way.

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Murray Chass is so stupid in this article, it’s just maddening. Oddly, I only found it because Bob Smizik threw it up on his blog. I tell ya, those two should get a website with a bunch of other old school baseball writers. Put them all in one place so that good baseball writers will know what to avoid. Basically it’s all about Billy Beane’s comment:

“The way the system is right now, there really is no difference between a $75 million and $40 million payroll. I think a lot of small-market clubs look at that and ask, ‘Why pay $75 million when $40 million will buy me as many wins?’”

Of course, Murray responds by taking several teams that were above $40 million and yet below $75 million and were successful.

Of course, looking at those situations, those teams got there because earlier they had move funds from major league payroll to the draft, international signings and player development. Much like the Pirates have been doing the last two years. Then when their young core of players became good and started winning games, the team added to major league payroll by keeping those players on their team.

Right now, the Pirates could be spending $75 million and probably still losing 85 to 90 games a season. When they traded away their “core” during the 2008 season they were on pace to lose 90 games. The fact is that when a team losses 95 games a year, every player is expendable. The Pirates could be spending $75 million or $40 million and losing 90+ games a year. They choose to spend $35 million and lose just as much while taking the money they saved and putting it in to the draft and international talent.  That’s what Billy Beane is talking about.

He’s not talking about the teams that are going to the playoffs every year. He’s talking about the Pirates and A’s who are in down years right now and need to reallocate resources to scouting and player development from the major league payroll. I guess Billy Beane thought the average baseball writer/reader would be able to figure out that part. Evidently, Murray Chass couldn’t.

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