Link Roundup, 5/10/07: Bucs Play Dead for Marquis

by Charlie Wilmoth on May 10, 2007 2:08 AM EDT in News

-P- In case you didn't notice, the Pirates made another crappy pitcher look like Walter Johnson yesterday. Yesterday's King for a Day was Jason Marquis, who took a perfect game into the sixth inning and ended up throwing a three-hit, no-walk shutout. The only Pirate who pulled his weight offensively was... Ryan Doumit, who was 1-for-3 with a double. Tom Gorzelanny struck out five and only allowed one run, but that run, a solo homer against Alfonso Soriano to lead off the first, did him in.

Isn't it horrible when you see the other team score a run in the first and your cynical side thinks, "Oh well, the game's over now," and then your sensible side tells your cynical side to shut it, and then your cynical side turns out to be exactly right? Anyway, the Bucs lost, 1-0.

-P- Andrew McCutchen apparently hit a 500 foot homer yesterday. Wow.

-P- Speaking of McCutchen, WTM has a prospect report card up that also reads like a State of the System. It's well worth checking out. (McCutchen, by the way, gets a D.)

-P- I'm not sure how many baseball blogs will even post this, but Rudy Giuliani might wind up in some trouble over his connections with the Yankees. He has World Series rings from all the championships the Yanks won while he was in charge, and it seems he acquired them under shadowy circumstances.

-P- John Smoltz beat the Padres yesterday, while opposing starter Greg Maddux took a no-decision. The two pitchers hadn't faced each other as starters since 1992, the year before Maddux joined the Braves.

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Agree, Marquis

has seldom risen above mediocrity in his career. Don't know what the Cubs saw in him after last year to throw a lot of money at him, but he's having a hell of a season (WHIP under 1). If he's only mediocre the rest of the way he'll still have a good season. But the point I want to raise is how silly it was for us ever to think we would have a chance to compete this year because the division was so crappy last year. Nobody operates in a vacuum. When a team wins a division with 83 wins, EVERY team in the division sees the opportunity. And the Cubs, among others, jumped on it. And last night they beat us with two guys they threw a lot of money at (Soriano, Marquis ... maybe Piniella too). And they regularly beat us with Aramis Ramirez. What did we do to upgrade? We traded our closer for a bat who always "starts slow." Bet the Braves were conscious of that when they dealt LaRoche. Bet their thinking was, We need to get out of the box in a hurry if we're going to keep pace with the Mets, as we learned last year. By the time LaRoche starts to hit for the Pirates they'll be four games under .500 and 9 games out. Little good he'll do them. Make the deal.

by bucdaddy on May 10, 2007 9:37 AM EDT reply actions