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
3) Hank Blalock dialing yard in the 2003 game and the American comes back from being 4 runs down.
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
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
Ian Snell
Second Half Guesses
Adam LaRoche
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).
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
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
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.
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