All Hail Paul Maholm
by Charlie Wilmoth on Jun 29, 2010 12:05 AM EDT
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PrintMan did the Pirates need that. One reason I think the Bucs won't trade Paul Maholm at the deadline is because he seems like the only pitcher on the staff right now who's capable of what he did tonight, pitching eight one-run innings to help the Pirates eke out a badly-needed win. As much as we made of the Bucs' weird tendency to win close games and lose blowouts at the beginning of the year, they've actually lost quite a few close ones in the past month or so, and many of those had this weird feeling of inevitability about them, in which the Pirates would have a tie or a small lead and find some way to mess that up. It was a real relief to see that not happen today. And good for Jose Tabata for hitting the game-winning double off the amazing Carlos Marmol. Watch the highlight if you haven't yet - Ryan Doumit almost found a way to blow it for the Bucs.
A few notes for today:
-P- New SB Nation Pittsburgh columnist Ray Oaks has an excellent piece about what it means to be a Pirates fan.
-P- Steve Pearce went 2-for-4 for Indianapolis today, and as others have pointed out, the Pirates face four straight lefties in the next four games. The Bucs should promote Steve Pearce, unless they hate winning.
-P- Bryan Morris had another nice start for Class AA Altoona, although relief prospect Diego Moreno had an uncharacteristically awful outing in the ninth to allow Binghamton to come back and win.
-P- Bradenton had a huge game, piling up 16 runs against Fort Myers thanks to big days from Robbie Grossman (who I'd love to hear more from), Erik Huber and Calvin Anderson. They also got a good start from Jeff Locke (who probably should be promoted from). Locke was relieved by Matt McSwain, who was making his second appearance of the year. This is strange, because the scuttlebutt in Spring Training was that McSwain had retired. He's not a prospect, really, so it's not a huge deal either way.
-P- Zack Von Rosenberg had another disappointing outing for State College. Trent Stevenson made his first State College appearance after he left. It's way too early to worry much about bad outings for these teenage pitchers; even at West Virginia, it's pretty clear that the Pirates aren't having these guys pitch with the idea of piling up the best stats possible. I'm sure they're working with Von Rosenberg on a lot of things, and particularly his fastball. Still, good outings are better than bad ones.
-P- Relatedly, pretty much every pitcher on either team who threw in the Pirates' GCL League game today got rocked, but at least Colton Cain, who pitched for the Bucs, racked up a few strikeouts and didn't walk anyone. Gregory Polanco had six RBIs for the Bucs, and Jorge Bishop, who's off to a huge start, had a big game as well.
-P- You may have also seen that the Pirates are one of the front-runners for Mexican pitcher Luis Heredia, who's one of the top Latin American amateurs this year. Good to hear, although this is a story we heard before with Miguel Sano. Heredia could get a bonus in the range of $2-3 million.
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Coonelly seems high on him too
“The Bradenton roster has eight players who were just named to the Florida State League All-Star team, and that does not even include Calvin Anderson, who has been on a tear over the last three weeks and who was just named the Florida State League Player of the Week. "
From Franks Chat alil while ago…i mean he didnt have to throw his name out there if he didnt think much of him i guess right? but hey Calvin is 6’7 240lbs and seems like hes finally coming into his own…294 AVG. 9 HRs 45 RBI but he is 23 playing in high A…Hopefully a promotion to Double A will come soon to see what we really got…and his dad played D Line for the Steelers so he at least got Pittsburgh connection going for him right? lol
His K/BB rate is very troubling.....
Something like 5-6/1. At 1B, he will have to hit for some more power as well.
AVG is irrelevant, considering he is 23 in High-A…..he should be posting a much better OBP and should not strike out – without drawing walks – nearly as much as he has.
by CabreraKilledMyChildhood on Jun 29, 2010 11:04 AM EDT up reply actions
Let's hope NH and company learned something from the Sano negotiations.
I’m willing to forgive the blown negotiations with Sano as it seemed to be an error borne of exuberancy. But it will be a bad sign if there’s a similar communication breakdown (cue the Zeppelin) with Heredia’s representatives.
Speaking of which, does anyone know anything about whoever is representing him? It sure would be a hell of a coup to land Heredia, Taillon and Allie this August.
Would the Pirates offense be more productive vs. left-handed starters with Steve Pearce in the lineup and Jones on the bench? Looking at the numbers, the answer is yes.
Is that fair to Jones, who is the second best overall hitter on the squad? No, but Jones isn’t quite Pujols. The team needs all the runs it can get, and Pearce starting vs. all lefties would likely lead to more runs. I definitely don’t expect this to happen in a million years, though.
but...
“it’s tough not to run Church out there”
by BlindSquirrel on Jun 29, 2010 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah...they run Church out there...
right over Neil Walker’s noggin.
Ryan Doumit almost found a way to blow it for the Bucs.
Tell you what, though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him run as hard as he did when he realized it.
I thought he was dead to rights
but thankfully Theroit has a average arm that allowed Doumit to score
Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Greg Llyod, Andy Russel, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene and Jerry Kramer
"You Don't mess with the USA" Landon Donavan
Canal Street Chronicles resident Steelers Fan
by WVPiratesfan on Jun 29, 2010 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions
True.....
but an incredibly bad baserunning decision to go back to second. I really don’t understand what guys are thinking when they make decisions like that. Has he not been in that same exact situation twenty or thirty times in just his major league career?
I don’t get it.
+1
Unacceptable….especially for a ‘veteran’.
by CabreraKilledMyChildhood on Jun 29, 2010 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions
On Moreno
Some folks over on OBN that attended the Curve game in Binghampton said there was a caveat — it started pouring during his inning and they didn’t stop the game. Apparently, Moreno had trouble controlling his FB with the pouring rain and had to throw all off-speed stuff.
Said posters also said that Morris was throwing 94 in the 7th (nice!!).
Heredia
$2-3m really scares me for a 15 year old pitcher.
According to the article
He turns 16 on 8/16, so that’s when he could be signed.
Cubs are poorly run in general, but they hit a bullseye with the Marlon Byrd signing. Byrd and Beltre have, unsurprisingly, been the free agent steals of last offseason. Also unsurprisingly, Bay was overpaid.
I think we could have fit a premium player like Beltre (if not Byrd) in our lineup this season, although that would have involved Andy LaRoche to 2nd to start the season and potentially Alvarez to first base. Of course the downside of the current situation (not having anyone to trade) is that you don’t get any prospects of consequence at the deadline. Given the current state of the farm (post-callups and pre-signings), we could use some more talent right about now. Just something to think about.
although that would have involved Andy LaRoche to 2nd to start the season and potentially Alvarez to first base.
Not picking on you but I don’t understand why people continually mention moving Pedro to 1st. It would almost immediately decrease his value dramatically and essentially ensure that he was an overdraft at #4. It also assumes he would even make the change, which I doubt. He knows that hurts his value and so does Boras. IMO his defense has been better then I expected and I’m not worried it about it in 2010.
Yinzers uber alles
His defense has been really good.....
And, a lot of people on here have quieted the ‘Pedro to 1B’ talk……rightly.
I haven’t heard as much…..interesting.
by CabreraKilledMyChildhood on Jun 29, 2010 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions
“Really good” may be an overstatement. But he’s also not been Delwyn Young-level as some had suggested. He seems so far to be perfectly average at 3rd, so now all he has to do is start hitting
replace "really good"
with “way better than we all expected, and certainly good enough to remain at third for the foreseeable future”
Nope, sticking with 'really good'
W/r/t his play so far. He has made far more plays than an average 3B would have thus far, especially considerin that this was his first two weeks up in the Big Leagues.
Will he be ‘really good’ for the whole season? Probably not. But, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been really good thus far.
May be semantics, but, according to some on here, he was going to have trouble knowing where to line up. Obviously, some have exaggerated his deficiencies, based mainly on the fact that all they were going on is ‘reports’ and ‘scouting reports’. I watched probably 30 games of Indy this year…..and he has had little difficulty making both the routine and the exceptional plays.
In other words, he has been doing this all year.
by CabreraKilledMyChildhood on Jun 29, 2010 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m sticking with below average. Good or maybe great arm, but below average footwork and a good size number of missed balls that LaRoche would have gotten so far. Pedro’s defense is really good like Lincoln’s outings have been encouraging.
We can’t make any clear judgments either way until there is some defensive numbers to dissect. If good LaRoche last year was only +5/150 games, hard to imagine Pedro above something like -10 in that span, but again we’ll see. Again, I’d guess he’s not in unplayable Braun/Gamel -20 range, but not too good either.
As an aside, I saw him last year in Altoona a few times and he looked a lot better than he has so far. We’ll see.
by Adam Reynolds on Jun 29, 2010 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions
interesting thought
now, what happens if the Pirates DO win the Rendon sweepstakes? He supposedly has an above-average glove for 3B (i.e., better than Pedro). Surely Pedro would move in 2012 then, right?
Is it bad to say I still don’t trust Maholm with a baseball (not unlike any of our starters this year sans Morton’s first two innings in Arizona)? If we can ship him out for something good from, say, Texas, I say do that move in a heart beat. They seem to need a starter or two. However, as much as I dislike Maholm, I would only move him in an extreme situation as such.
Unsolicited advice to Rene Gayo
Do not attempt to do an end-around on Luis Heredia’s agent.
Just sayin’.
Pedro Alvarez
Pedro does not have the ability to hit major league pitching. He hits an average in 100s.
They benched Laroche who hits around .240 for him.
Obviously...
the Pirates hate winning. No Pearce.
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