Pirates vs. Mets, 28 April 2008

by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 28, 2008 1:07 PM EDT

Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets, Apr 28, 2008 7:10 PM EDT

UPDATE: We're rained out. August 11 is the make-up date.

Ian Snell vs. Johan Santana at 7:10 PM at Shea. It'd be incredible if we could steal a win in this one.

A couple of links:

-P- I think Pat's take on the Morris situation is dead-on. It's hard for me to muster much sympathy for multimillionaire ballplayers, but it's true that nothing that happened to Morris after he was traded to the Pirates was really his fault. He just didn't have it anymore. He seemed like a decent guy.

-P- The Post-Gazette explains what John Van Benschoten is doing with the Pirates. He wasn't the most impressive pitcher at Class AAA by a long shot, but the Bucs wanted someone who could potentially pitch for a very long stretch in the next few days in case a starter gets knocked around. After that, they may send him back to the minors and call up someone else, perhaps Sean Burnett. Frankly, though, I'd rather see Jesse Chavez or Marino Salas, who have pitched better than Burnett in the minors, have better recent track records, and are probably better bets to succeed in the long term.

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ESPN.com

Hey…looks like Charlie and the site got noticed. (it is insider-subscription only, though).

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=neyer_rob

by Thunder on Apr 28, 2008 4:51 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks, that’s cool. I wish I knew what he said. :)

by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 28, 2008 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Basically...

that you were spot on when you made your blog entry on August 1st on the Morris trade. He questioned how many professional writers had the story right, then. He did have a hyperlink to Bucs Dugout.

I’m a subscriber to ESPN insider…but I’d probably break at least 1 copyright law posting the entire column here.

by Thunder on Apr 28, 2008 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions

No game tonight

Post Gazette reporting makeup date is 110 pm on August 11th…a 1 game trip.

by Thunder on Apr 28, 2008 5:53 PM EDT reply actions

professional writers

I haven’t seen Stark’s column, but I’m a little surprised by that comment because my recollection is that most writers thought the Morris trade was a bad one at the time, though there were probably a couple who took a contrary view. The Pirates were viewed as losers on almost all of those trade deadline grade columns. I actually remember the Ramirez trade more clearly. On Baseball Tonight, Harold Reynolds commented that the trade was scandalous and that MLB ought to investigate or do something. But Peter Gammons was defending the trade—Bobby HIll is going to be really good, Ramirez isn’t such a good fielder, etc. I really lost some respect for Gammons that night, because he seemed to have an agenda of covering up the fact that the economic disparities in baseball were turning the small market teams into feeders for the large market teams, because he didn’t want to suggest anything negative about the holy Red Sox.

by basmati on Apr 29, 2008 10:23 AM EDT reply actions

Just saw this comment, Basmati. I said something similar in the diary that was just posted about Neyer’s comments.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Apr 29, 2008 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Matt Morris

Nice to see that we can repsect class even when it’s past its playing prime. Good luck to Matt – maybe he’ll be a fine pitching coach, but whatever I’m sure he’ll do well. After all he’s got his $10 million. lol

by meandterry on Apr 29, 2008 11:13 AM EDT reply actions