reporting no fracture on Bautista. Barthmaier sent back down to bring up Taubenheim.

I’m not one to post megadittoes if I don’t have anything to add, but I was thinking before last night that this series was a turning point, which may or may not be synonymous with “pivotal.” With the whole rotation healthy, this week was going to say a lot about what the PBC’s realistic ceiling was—and maybe that’s only flirting with .500, but still. Now, with starters commuting from Indy, this series is about containing damage. Whatever one thinks about the value of psychology and chemistry, both of those are a lot harder to maintain when a team is in free fall. They survived Chicago; if they get trounced by the D-Rays, let’s see how “reslilent” they are.

Other notes from the game:

-- No one minds a doomsayer when he's right, but let's not forget one positive, that the Bucs got to Kazmir, hanging a 4 on him in one inning.  It doesn't matter a lot, but it matters.  He was looking pretty tough before that.

- I’m really starting to think JR is in over his head. Calling for the bunt with Jack Wilson, no outs, guy on first, down 7 runs, when DBautista is up next…. Sorry, that doesn’t make sense on any level. Tony Beasley is also a disappointment. I don’t have stats, but he’s gotten a lot of guys thrown out this year. Even the Doumit wave, where he got thrown out by 45 feet against the Yankees… “but the pitcher was up next!” Ok, well, let’s break down the probabilities, and this could be done quickly - like, at game speed:

PROBABILITY THAT THE PITCHER WOULD GET A 2-OUT HIT: somewhere between 5-10 in 100, conservatively

PROBABILITY THAT A MAJOR LEAGUE OUTFIELDER WOULD not GET THAT BALL HOME IN TIME TO GET RYAN DOUMIT OUT: 0 in 100, unless you account for the possibility of Dave Dravecky-like catastrophic injury.

I don’t care if there’s two outs and the pitcher’s up next, you don’t choose to take the third out. That’s cretinous. Last night, he almost got another guy killed at third, I forget who, but whoever was covering third for TB dropped the throw. I’m sure that’s “aggressive baserunning” and “forcing the action” and etc etc. It would have ended the inning if TB had executed that part of the play with routine competency, and this isn’t second-guessing; that was by far the most likely outcome at the time.

I know everybody loves to second-guess, and it looks easier from the seats than it is on the field. But I think a good rule of thumb is that if a mgr/coach makes one decision per game that is obviously dumb AT THE TIME - not because it didn’t work, but because “not working” and “not adding any value” was the obvious outcome - then your team is in trouble. When/if the Pirates get good, JR isn’t going to be the guy to take them from 80 wins to 90. Maybe he was hired to be the steward of a 70-win team in transition, but I’m officially off the JR bandwagon. There’s got to be 750 guys who can do what he does.

(end semi-coherent off topic rant; resume coffee consumption; consider switching to decaf)

- KPat

Is when there’s runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs or if the pitchers up with a runner on base. If you’re fast and think you can bunt your way on fine just don’t do it every other day.

One coach that’s notorious for bunting is WVU baseball coach Greg Van Zant…...he would have cleanup hitters bunt runners over even if they’re down by six runs…..easy to say it doesn’t work all the time.

Wilson was obviously bunting on his own for a base hit.

I am not a fan of Russell from a strategy standpoint, but even Russell would not have had Wilson bunt in that situation.

As for Bautista going to third, my guess is that he went on his own even though I am not a fan of or defender of Beasley. I think that he has made many mistakes in judgement this year, both too conservative at times and too aggressive at other times. He does not think ahead very well.

I cannot believe that at this stage of the season, given how they have played, that the Pirates are ONLY five games below .500.

back on the mound for Monday’s start.