Pittsburgh vs. St. Louis, 4 September 2007

by Charlie on Sep 4, 2007 5:07 PM EDT in News Comment 4 comments

8:10, FSNP, WPGB

Matt Morris (8-8, 4.41) vs. Joel Pineiro (4-3, 4.37). Pineiro has been surprisingly good, with a 3.71 ERA along with 21 strikeouts and just five walks, since the Cards acquired him from Boston for a PTBNL. He pitched badly out of the 'pen for the Sox, looking like pretty much the same guy who stunk up the joint in Seattle in 2006, and even landed in the Sox's minor league system in July. It turns out he was tipping his pitches, and Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan was able to pick up on that pretty much immediately. Nice job, Cards coaching staff. (Apparently, Kip Wells' problems aren't so easy to fix.)

Here's the box; Nyjer Morgan is in the lineup for the third straight day. Not that Morgan hasn't played well so far, or that Nate McLouth is any great shakes, but seriously, what does McLouth have to do to win a starting job over guys whose main professional accomplishments are looking like leadoff hitters? Morgan is an even more limited player than Duffy is. Wishing that one of your super-fast guys will turn into a leadoff hitter will not make the team better. McLouth is better than either of them, and the sooner the Bucs figure that out, the better.

-P- Xavier Nady is fine after being beaned by Andy Cavazos yesterday, but he probably won't be in the lineup tonight.

-P- Pedro Martinez, pitching in the bigs for the first time this season, recorded his 3,000th career strikeout yesterday.

-P- The Padres have acquired Brett Tomko. Basically, the Padres dumped David Wells and the Dodgers dumped Tomko to make room for him; now the Padres have acquired Tomko. The grass is always greener, I guess. Personally, I don't see much immediate hope for either of them.

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Tomko <=> Wells

If there was ever any need for proof of the silliness of these desperate, grab-the-crappy-veteran moves, there isn't any more.

by WTM on Sep 4, 2007 6:00 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Morgan/McLouth

Charlie, several days ago you were unhappy because Tracy wasn't going to play the call-ups. Now it appears you're unhappy because he IS playing them.
I know Morgan is older than McLouth and he appears to have been the backup in Indy. I don't see much in his stats to indicate he's the next, say, Tike Redman. But even as good as McLouth has looked since the All-Star break, his BA since then is .251. He has 64 strikeouts in 283 ABs. Is he your leadoff hitter of the future?
The Pirates aren't in the race. They appear to be willing to sacrifice the W-L record a bit to give a rookie some at-bats. If Morgan never got a chance here and succeeded somewhere else, you'd be the first to criticize them for that. Right?

by Zadoras on Sep 5, 2007 12:25 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

only one problem

Morgan is a poor man's Rajai Davis and he's older than McLouth.

by bolton on Sep 5, 2007 2:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You get me all wrong. :)

Charlie, several days ago you were unhappy because Tracy wasn't going to play the call-ups. Now it appears you're unhappy because he IS playing them.

No, I was unhappy because he made no commitment to play Pearce. I think I specifically said I didn't care about Morgan.

Is McLouth your leadoff hitter of the future?

Probably not, but possibly. Morgan definitely isn't.

If Morgan never got a chance here and succeeded somewhere else, you'd be the first to criticize them for that. Right?

Depends on the circumstances, but my point is that I just don't see Morgan as a useful player. I've never been in favor of playing young players indiscriminately. I'm in favor of playing the right young players. And right now, Morgan's at bats come at McLouth's expense.

by Charlie on Sep 5, 2007 4:03 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs