Yeah, it disgusts me that Russell would rather trot out Steve Pearce than Moss. Pearce’s garbage defense cost us a run tonight, and his great minor league bat has never done anything in the majors. Moss needs to play. He’s the hot hand right now offensively, and he won’t give you headaches in the field like Young, Hinske, or Pearce.

McCutchen is awesome. Tonight was the first time I ever saw him in person, and man was I impressed. He smoked the ball every time up except, ironically, on his only hit of the game. That said, it was nice poise and clutchness to step up and get that hit in the 9th.

Also, it’s nice to see Gorkys Hernandez has worked out the kinks a bit, statistically speaking, over the last few games.

Dubee continues to impress. One strikeout and no runs in one inning pitched. This guys is starting to look very intriguing. Maybe he is just a mediocre pitcher that is on a tear right now, but he is absolutely dominating right now. And we got him for Andy Phillips??

At Vanderbilt he showed that he had a propensity for strikeouts when he was healthy. His K percentage his freshman year was 26.6 % with a .675 SLG. 23.9% k with .684 slg as a sophmore and 16.7 k with .593 slug as a junior with some health issues. After watching many times at Vandy he was much less successful on Friday nights when SEC teams throw their best pitchers. Saturday and especially Sundays his results were far greater. I have always thought his lines in his early MLB career would be about .270/.350/.600 with a 23-25 % K rate and I will take that. As he reaches prime years it will will be near .282/.360/.615 with sligtly less K’s but never below a 22% K rate. Of course the one unknown factor will be his dedication to conditioning. With his body type he will always struggle with weight issues but he will have to see that it becomes a problem before he will truely see the need to dramatically change his diet and training intensity.

I guess “rocket science” would have been better served by finding out how Pearce will do while playing first base, not the outfield.

Gotta love it…

Everyone seems to be taking a view at one extreme or another in this discussion (and in the other thread). He’s either going to fail miserably or be the next Pujols. Both of those things are almost certainly exactly wrong.

The question I have, though, is how will “success” be defined for Alvarez? Does he have to become a legit MVP-contender to be labeled a success? If so, he’s probably doomed already. Part of my problem with the current state of prospect evaluation is that everyone that doesn’t succeed almost immediately is seemingly written off. For me, I don’t think Alvarez is going to be Pujols. He’s probably not even going to be Ryan Howard. But I guess the question is whether or not we can all live with him being something a little short of those guys. I would hope we could all be happy with a guy that puts up 270/350/550+.

I would like to see Pearce get a decent opportunity, the same way I would like to see Young and Moss get a decent opportunity. I don’t want to see any of them playing out of position to achieve their chances. Pinch-hitting (consistently) and giving LaRoche a few days off here and there could be enough of a chance for Pearce. I would almost like to see Moss and Young fight it out in right field for a while. Crazy idea, but a “platoon system” could help the situation. Moss seems to be the better prospect, but Young, in my opinion, seems to be outplaying him.

By the way (sorry for the negativity), I forgot to say good bye to Cutch. He will look great wearing pinstripes, or the unifrom of serious teams in 6 or 7 years, if the Pirates cheap trend continues.

That some people get so distracted by numbers and stats that they don’t see, don’t want to see, or don’t want to remember what has been the teams M.O. for quite some time. Not only about Nate, he is just this year’s example of what’s been going on “forever.”

As a Pirates fan who will base his opinions on watching games (not just looking at statistics), I can only hope it will be different this time around with the new ones that could be on their way . I know it’s difficult, but think about this: How high do you think Mr. Nutting & Co. will let the team salary be when/if all those prospects become good players.? Wear any colored glasses you want…

I guess I will just wait a few years, or months, when the parade of good players leave town. Of course, people will be talking about the great returns the Pirates received. Again…

P.S. – So the glasses were rose. I guess it’s easier to be a Pirate fan that way. Good! And, of course, a certain captain is always correct. Of course…

There will be a salary cap in baseball.

Of course that’s just the optimist in me hoping good in man will shine through and do the right thing to save the game, rather than being subjected to the Yankees-Sox Baseball League for another 20 years.

of course there are things that would make the sport more equitable. But, let’s also remember the Marlins recently won two WS. The Twins, the A’s, Rockies and others have been very competitive. Sure it is much more difficult to do it year in and year out on a smaller budget, which is why you have to take risks and hope they work out.

“much more difficult” ??? It’s impossible and that’s why NO team has ever done it. Sure, you can be a flash in the pan for 1-3 years but none of those teams has enjoyed sustained success like the big money teams.

Also, the Marlins bought a WS with Sheffield and Al Leiter and all those guys and then they hit a perfect storm when Dontrelle, Beckett, Penny, and Pavano led their staff in ’03. You may also notice that none of those guys are on Florida anymore. Even so, their payroll then was still higher than the Pirates of this season with guys like Pudge, Lowell, Urbina taking up dollars.

You win, the A’s did it, but still 1 team in 20 whatever years of free agency? St. Louis spends money so I don’t think they count.

the Yanks didn’t make the playoffs last year and they are no lock this year. What’s your point? It’s easier with tons of money, we all agree.