…is an inevitable consequence of putting crappy defenders like Young and Jones in the lineup in place of the stellar ones from earlier in the year.

It’s not the pitchers’ fault.

Ask me when Alvarez and Clement (plus maybe Tabata) are in the lineup sometime next year. Now, of course they are bad with extremely questionable players at 2B, RF, 1B and slight question marks still at SS, 3B, and LF.

We all knew this was the inevitable byproduct of a complete rebuild, so don’t get too discouraged. It’s like watching exhibition football, or minor league baseball. Forget about the results and focus on individual performances of important players.

Actually what you note as ‘the good news’, is actually the worst news to me. Capps and Maholm have both been disappointing, but Duke still seems to be playing pretty well, while suffering through a weaker defense behind him as Vlad pointed out. I would also like to see a little resurgence in batting average from LaRoche as we head into Sept., but his defense has been a pleasant surprise to me all season.

Otherwise, Cutch has been amazingly consistent for a rookie. Delwyn has been a pleasant surprise. His MiL stats show a good hitter with high SO, which has held true at the ML level, but his defense seems to be improving game by game. I’m not too concerned about Jones and Moss b/c I don’t really seem them as more than serviceable stopgaps auditioning for future bench roles when more talented players can take over their positions. Cedeno has been a pleasant surprise showing more of a glove and stick than I had originally anticitpated.

While certainly not spectacular, Pearce has played well, and at least seems to no be way overmatched by ML pitching as he did in previous stints. Milledge has been a little bit of disappointment, but it’s still very early and he has time to turn it around.

I think we all knew that this would be a bad season. That was pretty much a given from the start, even with Nate, Mario, Freddy, Jack and Nyjer on the team. But lately, I just haven’t had the energy to care anymore about most of these games, they’re just plain terrible. It’d probably be more fun for most of us to watch Altoona, West Virginia or Indianapolis than the Pirates. I believe that for the most part, Neal is doing a good job, but I’m just getting sick of seeing them loose. I want them to be good now.

I keep going back and forth in my mind about going to Milwaukee on August 29th and staying home. I really want to see another game and will probably enjoy the drive there and I do enjoy baseball. On the other hand, I just don’t want to see them loose again, especially to the Brewers and spend a hell of a lot money for tickets. I mean $20 for upper deck seats is just insane.

Less crowds at PNC park. Shorter lines for beer. Easier to get parking space, and easier to get home. For me, this is the best part of the season. Just have fun man.

the pirates might be demoted to triple AAA if they continue to play like this. i can’t believe there is another pirate fan in illinois

you knew it would happen if they traded Jack or Freddy since they were the vetran leaders of the team Andy is still propably mad that they traded his brother The Milledge Experiment must stop the man has talent coming out the woodwork but my God he can’t actually play sure he can hit occasionally he can field when HE wants he has a great arm when HE wants to use it he has his head somewhere far away the field of play i expect Cutch to have growing pains since he is only 22, 23 something like that Garret we all knew was going to cool off but JR can’t manage I have a feeling Kerriagan has no idea what happened to the pitching staff, Neal Hunington has stock piled the Minors but that doesn’t help the big club for a few more years and we will have traded everyone by then because we are afraid of how much people MIGHT cost us not how much they will. When will this end with the complete distruction of a once proud franchise I mean i heard of this talk of pardoy in baseball I missed that memo I mean suposedly all the teams can play close to each other. As I end this monologue I have one question when will there be a Salary Cap and a draftie pay scale I mean this is getting rediculous MLB make it happen

is they only care about the steelers in Pittsburgh fans should be protesting and boycotting all these sellout moves

and why there will be 15 more years of sub five hundred last place baseball