Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

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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Still a month to go…

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Ugh, I hate all this waiting for opening day. In the mean time, the first televised Pirates Spring Training game is on Wednesday afternoon. Then there’s 30 Clubs in 30 Days. The Pirates-Cubs game from 1991 is going to be on TV again, which is always a lot of fun.

It’s fun to see all the videos from Spring Training. The Post-Gazette has some, MLB.com has some and Langosch has some as well. Really has gotten me in the mood for baseball, no matter how bad the Pirates end up being this year. Who knows, they might pull a 91 Braves out of their asses this year, although I wouldn’t bet on it…

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World Series thoughts.

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

First of all, Phillies in 7. Game 7 ends with A-Rod hitting it to the fence with bases loaded, but is caught by Shane Victorino to end it.

Secondly, Bucco Fans has written an interesting article about how teams like the Pirates don’t really have a good chance to win or even play in the World Series. A lot of small market teams say they like what Oakland and Minnesota have done, but they haven’t been to the World Series since the early 90′s. Tampa Bay went to the fall classic last year when the Yankees had an off year. And Florida won one, but then traded away most of the team within a few years because they couldn’t afford the guys as they got older.

The real issue for future Pirates teams won’t be so much buying free agents as much as it will be keeping the team together if they’re a good or great team. Will the Pirates be able to keep McCutchen, Alvarez and Milledge or will they be gone as soon as they can leave through free agency or in tades? Unless the Pirates become a lot more popular team and start selling out every game at PNC Park, if the Pirates are successful, we’re going to see a few successful years with a few years of rebuilding bookending it.

Bud Selig talking about parity in baseball is absurd. The Yankees haven’t had a losing season since 1992. The Braves won 14 straight division titles. The Pirates have had 17 straight losing season. The Orioles have 12, the Reds have 9. The Royals have 14 of 15. The Nationals have lost 100+ games each of the last two years. You never see that kind of thing in the NFL or NBA or NHL. Those teams have taken steps to make every team a contender. Meanwhile, Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and other rich teams are doing their best to stop true economic parity in Major League Baseball.

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Stupid questions…

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Dejan had another of his chats today at the Post-Gazette website. Mostly just the same stuff “Bench this guy” “pull the plug on that guy” “sell the team” and so on. Then came one of the dumbest questions with the smartest answers:

Q: How can Robbie Grossman be seen as overachieving, if he only has 4 RBIs in mid-May?

A: He is batting leadoff, and most of the rest of the Power’s lineup is awful, so he likely is coming to the plate with few chances.

Dejan nails it here. If you’re hitting .350 or something and the rest of the line-up does nothing, then you’re not going to have a lot of RBI chances unless you have a ton of home runs. RBI is the most bullshit stat ever because it’s based entirely on other members of your team being on base when you go up to bat. If you hit a double with nobody  in the 1st inning, it’s just a double. On the other hand, if you hit a double in the 6th with the bases load and two runs score, you get rewarded with a double and 2 RBI.

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Two men out.

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Harry Kalas, one of the all time greatest sports announcers, has died earlier today. He really was the voice of the Phillies. The state of Pennsylvania has lost two of the best TV announcers, first Lanny retires and now this. However, it had to be great for him to see the Phillies win another World Series last year. I can’t imagine a better way for a baseball announcer to leave the game.

Then on top of that, Mark Fidrych, a.k.a. “The Bird” has died as well. It’s a damn shame when a pitcher who used to talk to the baseballs and smoothed out the pitcher’s mounds with his hands passes away. He was awesome.

Of course the Pirates game was pretty nice today. A big 7-0 win for the first home victory of the season. Just need another 90 some wins like that…

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