Hot-lanta, Hot-Mess

Things didn't start off quite as well as we thought, to say the least. The Pirates were absolutely pathetic this weekend, looking nothing like the team that won 9 of the previous 13. They couldn't field (Doumit's passed ball, LaRoche error, Castillo's throwing error); they couldn't hit (Wilson 0-4, 2 K's and 6 LOB including the tying runs in the top of the 9th on Saturday, Bay, Nady, LaRoche going 4-31 in the series).

Snell was pretty bad on Friday night. That however can be excused, how often does he allow 3 home runs in a game? Looking back on it though, the Pirates should never have been down 3 after the first inning. In the bottom of the first, Snell quickly got the first two batters out. Then Chipper Jones hit a weak ground ball to first that LaRoche simply botched. Still 2 outs, Chipper on first and Andruw Jones walks after Chipper had stole second. The Braves have first and second with 2 outs and All-Star catcher Brian McCann at the dish. He hits a home run just inside the RF foul pole and suddenly the score is 3-0 in an inning which should have ended 1-2-3.

I thought Maholm pitched really strong again yesterday. He went 6 innings, allowing 2 ER. A case could be made that perhaps the wild pitch that he was charged with should have been a passed ball on Doumit. He called for a pitch inside and Maholm threw it up and away. Doumit reached up but it ricocheted off his glove to the backstop allowing a run to score. Granted Maholm's pitch wasn't where it was supposed to but it wasn't that far outside or up that Doumit shouldn't have caught it.

In light of this weekend's misgivings, I still have a positive outlook on the team. With each start that Maholm makes, it appears more and more than he's putting it all together and really solidifying that third spot in the rotation. If you add him to Snell and Gorzelanny, that's a pretty good top of the rotation. If you can trot out three guys in your rotation that you're reasonably sure will give you quality starts, that's 60% of your games that you have some confidence.

Jason Bay's slump is really beginning to reach epic proportions. His average on June 1st was a season high .314. He's now sitting at .249. At this point I have a tough time choosing who will have a higher batting average at the end of the season; Bay or LaRoche. Jason's been really slow at the plate, taking too many pitches (especially with two strikes) and he just seems lost. Smarter people (well, debatable) are getting paid a lot more than I am to find a solution so I don't really know how to fix it at this point but somebody needs to figure out something. This is a guy who was/is the face of the franchise. He was guy you could always count on to hit 30 HR's and drive in 100 RBI's a season.

Tonight starts a series against the Colorado Rockies. Their record might only be around .500 but they are a very dangerous team. Jeff Francis is a good pitcher and the Rockies have some really quality hitters. Matt Holliday, who was an under the radar guy until the Home Run Derby, is a leading favorite for the National League MVP this season. Let's hope our boys can take 2 of 3 to make up for this weekends debacle.

We're back and better than Zach Duke!

Hello and welcome to the new and improved CrossingTheClemente.com...or the blog formerly known as "Pittsburgh Baseball Guy". That's the causes of the delay since the last post but I should be back regularly again and now onto the ranting.

It's the All-Star break already. Wow. A lot of people hate the game, think it's pointless, stupid, boring, etc. I personally love it. I get excited to watch it and focus my whole week on it. Think of all the great All-Star game moments people remember:

1) Torii Hunter robbing Bonds of a home run in 2002 (my favorite AS moment)

2) Cal Ripken playing in 2001, his last AS game. A-Rod gives up short to take third and let's Ripken move to short where he should be. It was a momentary image of class from A-Rod. People also forget that Cal also jacked one out too.

3) Hank Blalock dialing yard in the 2003 game and the American comes back from being 4 runs down.

4) Last year in Pittsburgh, Michael Young's 2 out, 2 run triple gives the AL the 3-2 win.

5) The indelible scene from this years game (at least for me) is Ichiro flying around the bases on his way to the first ever inside-the-park home run in All-Star history.

I said it before, if Ichiro was on the Pirates, they'd be fighting for the division. That's how close I think this team is to competing. Then again, Ichiro is a HOF player and they don't grow on trees (or our farm system apparently).

I love the homerun derby almost as much. I don't know how people can't! Especially when guys like Alex Rios, who I knew of but didn't really KNOW, puts on a show like that. I'll be looking at Toronto's box scores now and keeping an eye on him. The PG reported this weekend that last year the Jays wanted to trade him to the Bucs for Paul Maholm. Passing on that deal could be a big mistake.

Onto the Pirates talk. We're already half way through the season and several things have become apparent in the first 81 games. This team has some holes...but they also have a lot of promise and have some decent building blocks in place. Now here's my take:

First Half Awards

MVP
Xavier Nady

Best Pitcher
Ian Snell

Second Half Guesses

2nd Half MVP
Adam LaRoche

2nd Half Cy
Ian Snell

Prediction
The Bucs pull within 6 games of .500 and finish 78-84. Snell and Gorzelanny finish with over 15 wins each. Maholm doesn’t lose 20 games, in fact goes 7-2 in the second half to finish 11-12. Capps continues his rise to one of the prominent young closers in the game, finishing with 31 saves. Xavier Nady will continue his fine season with 32 HR and 105 RBI’s. Meanwhile Adam LaRoche is really going to turn it on (as is his MO) and get to around .275/.340/31/115. And finally the easiest prediction of all…atleast one Pirates pitcher will require major surgery at some point.

Player Grades

Pitchers

Tony Armas: F
What else can you say about these stats: 8.96 ERA, 1 HR allowed every 4 inning.

Matt Capps: B+
I wish he’d bring his hits allowed down but 8 saves in 9 opportunities is good to go along with a 2.37 ERA and a K:BB ration of 3:1.

Shawn Chacon: A-
With the exception of his two starts, he’s been great out of the bullpen. He’s really settled into the 7/8 inning spot nicely. He’s also prime trade material.

Zach Duke: D-
Simply put, he needs to be sent down. He can’t locate his pitches and when he does locate a pitch it gets hit; hard. He’s taken a huge step back and has no business being up with the big club. These problems need to be worked out in Indy. The problem is if you send him down, who takes his spot in the rotation? The Pirates need Bullington or Burnett to get healthy to possibly take Duke’s spot.

Tom Gorzelanny: A
7th in NL in ERA, on the Final Vote for the All-Star game, anchoring the #2 spot in the rotation. Pleasant surprise so far. I was surprised he didn’t make the All-Star game. More strikeouts might have gotten him there (never mind pitching for a better team might have helped).

John Grabrow: D
Injury rumors keep cropping up. Could he be hurt? Could this explain his lack of effectiveness this season? So far he’s been junk.

Masumi Kuwata: C
He was rolling along until the Brewers lit him up for a TD on the 7th. Still though he throws strikes and is a real crafty guy to have out of the bullpen. Plus he’s one of the few guys you can trust.

Paul Maholm: C
Weird first half for Paul, he had a terrible first 6 weeks of the season and a pretty good second 6 weeks. He’s gone at least 7 inn in his last 5 starts and 7 of his last 9. He hasn’t given up more than 4 ER since May 15. If he keeps pitching like this the top 3 of the rotation can really become something special.

Damaso Marte: A
He’s established himself at the premier lefty specialist in baseball. Could be traded but he’s really helped settle a once unstable bullpen. Along with Chacon he’s fit into the 7/8 inning spot nicely.

Ian Snell: A
The only thing that Snell’s done wrong this year is trying to cook chicken for his salad. He’s only given up more than 4 ER once all year and he has 13 quality starts already this year. He’s become one of the unnoticed aces of baseball this year. You could make an argument that he should have made the All-Star team over any of either Chris Young, Ben Sheets, Roy Oswalt, Brandon Webb and maybe even John Smoltz.

Salomon Torres: D
He did much better when he was moved out of the closer role. He was rumored to be nursing an injury coming out of spring training. Hopefully after taking about 6 weeks off he can come back and really turn this bullpen into a strong point with Chacon and Marte coming through. You have to wonder though about those 75+ games pitched in each of the last 3 seasons.

John Van Benschoten: I
So far, not so good but he’s only started 5 games. We’ll give him 3-5 more before passing judgment…but I’m not optimistic.

Ronny Paulino: D-
A real disappointment so far. Defense is down, hitting is down, effort appears to be down. Seems like half the player he was last year. His hitting is up as he's hitting .262 in the last month.

Jose Bautista: B
He's played a great third base, is leading the team in runs, .739 OPS and filling in nicely as an untraditional leadoff hitter. He's showed great patience at the plate, gap power (going to come close to 40 doubles) and a knack for getting on base.

Adam LaRoche: C-
The good so far: going to come close to 40 doubles and 100 RBI's. The bad: Low .200's average for much of the season and will have over 150 K's. Has really shown recently though signs of breaking out (.304 over the last 30 days).

Freddy Sanchez: B+
The average is back up around .300, the gap power is back (20 doubles so far) and will be close to 200 hits again. Still learning second base but is slowly getting more comfortable at the position. Starting to make plays that he wouldn't have made earlier in the year.

Jack Wilson: D
Great defense, terrible hitter. The guy never sees more than 3 pitches in an at-bat it seems. He turned one .308 season into $38 million and lots of mediocrity since then. The sooner he leaves the better. I loathe Jack Wilson. All the Stepfords at PNC Park though love him so I’m sure he’ll stay.

Jason Bay: C
Talk about the slump of slumps 14 for his last 109, bringing his average from .308 on June 1 to .250 today. He’s too good a player to not break out but he seems to be too tentative at the plate. He’s been striking out watching the third strike quite a bit. People get on him saying he doesn’t seem pissed about the slump but you know it eats at him. He’s a quiet guy, it’s not in his demeanor to break bats, throws helmets, etc. He’ll be ok. My fearless prediction is that he’ll finish like this: .270/.365/29/105

Ryan Doumit: B
We got to get this guy in the lineup more. He just hits the hell out of the ball. Unfortunately now he’s got another hamstring problem. With the emergence of Nady, right field is out of the question and same with first. Catcher would be an option but Tracy seems to be sticking it out with Paulino. I think he’ll be a semi-regular the rest of the year and then in the off season the Bucs need to pick between Paulino and Doumit.

Chris Duffy: F
Let’s see…leadoff hitter with a .249 AVG and a .313 OBP but he does play a great centerfield. As far as I am concerned, the Chris Duffy experiment is over. He’s proven that he does not have the ability to lead off for the Pirates. Plus he quit on them last year only to come back and actually get the job done. Now he’s back to his very average self. He’s another one I wouldn’t mind seeing leave town.

Nate McLouth: C+
He’s a great bench player but is electric when he does get in. The guy is just hustle and energy. I’d love to see him start over Duffy but that won’t happen. He certainly can’t be worse though.

Xavier Nady: A
Where would we be without him? Coming into the season we expected Nady to platoon, hit 15 HR’s and just be another body. What he’s done this year is simply turned himself into the leader of this team. According to all reports his hamstring is killing him but still he plays on it and not only that but he stretched out a triple last week on that bad hammy. Before this season the knock on Nady was always that he killed lefties and couldn’t hit righties. Well this season he’s hitting .313 against LHP but up to .284 against RHP. He’s now a guy to build this team around now, too bad we had to give up Oliver Perez to get him.

Straight from the McLouth

Anyone else find it ironic that the Pirates had Franco Harris speak to the team before the game, only for the Bucs to go out and lose by a touchdown? Maybe he also shared the secrets of avoiding contact and running out of bounds like a girl.

On to more serious topics, Jesus Christ we have some terrible pitchers.

Exhibit A: Zach Dookie, the latest in a long line of Pirates pitchers to have arm trouble. He's initial assessment came back as just being a tender elbow. However he is scheduled to fly to Alabama to meet with the illustrious Dr. Andrews this week for a second opinion. I don't know about you but in my opinion when players go to see Dr. Andrews for a second opinion, they tend to come back needing Tommy John surgery or some other kind of invasive surgery. How much says Dookie boy has something more serious going on?

John Van Benschoten is terrible. The guy can not locate a pitch to save his life. The problem is that you can't send him down because who are you going to bring up? He's the best of the crap that's down in AAA. I just looked at AA and saw that Dewon Brazelton is there. Remember him? Young hotshot pitcher the Devil Rays rushed up to the majors only to watch him get slammed. He's now at our AA affiliate after cruising from team to team for the last couple of years. He's pitching relief at Altoona. Now that we've brought up Youman there really is nothing left in the minors that we can bring up. Burnett and Bullington need more time to come back from injuries, Armas is not an option...the only other idea is to give it back to Chacon. I think the Pirates are hesitant about doing that because of two reasons:
1) It leaves the bullpen really short
2) They are getting ready to trade him and want to showcase him as a reliever where he'll have more value.

Now some good news. Nate McLouth needs to start. He plays with a reckless abandon that Duffy NEVER shows. His slide last night into home was beautiful. He's one of the few players on this team who gets me excited. I love nothing more than when I go to a game and he's in the lineup. That's probably why I love going on Sundays, Nate Dog and Doumit usually always start. He's about the only motor guy on this whole team and it says a lot about the Pirates that they didn't follow his lead last night. I've never seen a team look more comatose. It's unbelievable. Jason Bay looks like he's just riding out the next 2.5 years of his contract uninjured so he can sign a big deal somewhere else or get traded in the summer of 2009.

I love how the Pirates Bandwagon is trying to build up the next 7 games as "make or break". Make or break what? .500? Do people actually believe that this team can contend for the Central? Obviously people do and that amazes me. Perhaps it's because it's been so long since people have seen good baseball that they can't remember what a good team looks like. There's no way this team can catch the Cubs, let alone the Brewers. I believe that both teams will be in the playoffs; Brewers as the division winners and Cubs as the Wild Card.

I am going to the game tonight, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I must be a masochist...or a baseball fan. (Aren't they the same though?)

A Really Big Load of Waste of Time

I know I said before I wouldn't comment on the strike, on ownership, etc but I feel the need to tonight. This will be the last time that I comment on the off the field.

Congratulations Pirates fans! Plain and simple. The protest was a flop. Sure before the game there was a lot of people with shirts and hanging out in the vicinity of Hi-Tops. Then came the walk out and no one left. Sure a couple hundred did but it wasn't enough to make a noticeable difference in the stands.

The most shocking thing about the protest was the amount of ANGER...and not from the people leaving but from the people STAYING! I saw people yelling at people leaving, telling them, "Get the hell out and don't come back loser!". That just shocks me. That's like the people who call you anti-American if you speak out against the President. It reminds me of the Iraqi Minister of Defense who was in the middle of Baghdad, missiles destroying the city, declaring, "There is nothing wrong. There are no attacks, it's a lie. Everything is fine." I never want to hear another Pirates fan complain about ownership. You've had your chance, you had the national media's eyes turned to Pittsburgh for once and you blew it. Well, maybe not blew it but you let your opinion be known loud and clear. You accept this administration, you accept 70+ giveaways a year. Pirates "fans" have spoken and they have loudly declared that they will happily give up good, quality baseball in exchange for fireworks, bobbleheads and coin nights. Congrats you, you deserve Nutting.

In the post-game show, Jack Wilson was asked about the fan protest. He said that he was heartened by the fact that most of the fans stayed in their seats and booed those who were leaving. He said it was nice to know that most of the fans "had our back" and he called those who did not leave, "the Pirate Faithful."

Seriously, Jack Wilson can just go *%@&@\! off at this point. Though he did have a big at-bat in the 4th, what the hell else has he done since signing that big contract? He's an average player and is part of the problem, not the solution.

Zach Dookie

Opponents are hitting .362 off of Zach Dookie. That would win the batting title by a mile most years. I am at the point now where I WANT to see that average get up to .400. I really am interested in finding out what is the highest opponent's batting average a starting pitcher gave up while starting over 25 games. The problem with Duke is his stuff. Like I wrote about Paul Maholm, Dookie pitches to contact, he let's his fielders do their work. The difference is while Maholm has induced weak, little, nubby grounders recently, Dookie has been giving up hard hits all over the place. These just aren't balls that get by fielders, these are rockets that he's giving up. Very few have been fluke hits. He lacks confidence and command right now. The major leagues are not the place for a pitch missing one, if not both. That's what Indianapolis is for and that's where Duke should be. He is killing this team right now. Everytime he starts you just know, know that it's going to be a loss.

Loathin' Van Benschoten

Wow, John Van Benschoten was terrible last night. He had absolutely no control over any of his pitches. He went to three balls on 9 of the 19 batters he faced. That's terrible. He was really lucky that the Marlins must lead the league in pitches swung at. They put a lot of balls into play that they had no business swinging at. That's why Van Benschoten's line of 4 IP, 3 H, 2 ER looks somewhat decent. It should have been worse, much worse. He walked 5 batters, that number could have easily be double that. However the Marlins kept swinging and in cavernous Dolphin Stadium, that usually equals outs. Van Benschoten needs to have a better outing in his next start on Monday against Milwaukee because the Brewers will take those walks and will put up a lot more than 2 ER's against him.

The All-Star game voting ends tonight at midnight. If I was to vote for the Pirates All-Star and make no mistake, there will be only one, it would have to be for Xavier Nady. He's a been a really pleasant surprise for this team. He has approximately 60 less at-bats than Jason Bay (who will probably get the call for the game) but is one ahead in HR's, 4 back in RBI's and their OBP are nearly identical. Nady is this team's All-Star. I personally believe that either Snell or Gorzelanny should also get the nod but LaRussa is never going to take two Pirates, let alone one of them being a pitcher, no matter how much they deserve it.

Jose Bautista. Just listen to how the name rolls off your tongue. Jose Bautista. Jose Bautista did not make one out last night. He was 1-1, with 3 BB's. I think if he could make homemade meatballs and sauce like my wife that I'd have to leave her for him. He's incredible and he'll be at the PNC Bank on Ft Couch Rd Saturday from 12-1 signing autographs. I'll be there and I may scream like a little girl seeing N'Sync in concert for the first time. In fact my wife may have to catch me from fainting. My man crush turned into an all out love affair last night. I love a man, I can admit it. I have a problem and I need help.

Game #76: Pirates @ Marlins: Who are you and what have you done with Paul Maholm?

Um, will the real Paul Maholm please stand up? The man who's been an enigma the entire season (and his career) appears to have settled down and become a real life big league pitcher before our eyes. He'll never been an ace or even a #2 pitcher but he's certainly become a very good pitcher for this team. He's gone atleast 7 innings in 5 of his last 7 starts (and went 6 2/3 in another) allowing 4 ER or lower in each start. Don't be shocked, those are great numbers. They are put into even great light when you figure that (as noted in the MLB.com Wrap of the game) that the Pirates are 24-15 this season when they score at least four runs.

The difference I see more than anything in that 7 game stretch is Maholm's sinker and control. He will never be a dominating, top of the rotation pitcher. That's not his style. He pitches to contact and let's the fielders do their job. However since he's found his control and his sinker has become a really good out pitch, it's easier for him to keep the ball down. Keeping the ball down means ground balls and those usually equal outs. This is evidenced by the fact that in his first 9 starts, when he was atrocious (the one CG shutout withstanding) he allowed 10 Hr's or a little over 1 per game and in three of those starts allowing more than one HR. However in his last 7 starts he's only allowed...4 home runs. It's really tough to jack a ball out when it's consistently hitting the bottom of the strike zone. The average player can't do anything with that pitch but hit a grounder. In short, Paul Maholm has become Jamie Moyer (minus about 20 years). That's a return I'll take for the eighth pick in the first round. Let's hope he can keep up, the future is bright for this team if Maholm can team with Snell and Gorzelanny at the top of the rotation. Now if Zach Duke can just figure it out...