Milwaukee vs. Pittsburgh, 5 July 2007

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 2:14 AM EDT in News Comment 43 comments

12:35 PM, WPGB

UPDATE: The game will start at 3:00 PM, the Post-Gazette reports.

Ben Sheets (10-3, 3.19) vs. Tom Gorzelanny (8-4, 3.05).

This should be a pretty excellent pitching matchup. Sheets had a very weird April in which he only struck out 13 batters in 30 innings, but he's since returned to normal, ringing up 28 batters in May and 40 in June.

Here's the box for this one, if it ever gets going.

I watched a ton of baseball this July 4th and caught excellent pitching performances from one guy in a Pirate uniform and another guy who should be. Allowing a three-run jack to Ryan Braun in the first inning seemed to cause Ian Snell to tighten up, and he pretty much mowed the Brewers down after that, allowing only a double to Prince Fielder and a smattering of singles. It was a gutsy performance, given that he could have assumed the game was over after allowing a three-spot at the very beginning of the game. But the Pirates' offense came through for once, with homers by Ryan Doumit - who hit the ball Playstation-hard - and Adam LaRoche to help Snell collect the victory.

Then I went to see Chris Young at PETCO. It seems like every time I go there, either he or Jake Peavy is pitching, and I never get to see anyone score. Young was just dominating, striking out nine Marlins, walking none, and leaving the game after seven with a shutout. This is his third straight start with at least nine strikeouts, and his ERA is down to 2.00. I know PETCO is an easy place to pitch, but that doesn't explain a 2.00 ERA. Dave Littlefield is going to look so bad if Young wins the Cy Young award this year - and he might, if Peavy or Brad Penny or Cole Hamels doesn't beat him to it.

Anyway:

-P- Marty McLeary has re-signed with the Pirates and will start for Indianapolis tomorrow. From the same article, it's uncertain whether the struggling Jason Bay will re-join the lineup today.

-P- I missed this, but Matskralc caught it and put it in the comments. Oof:

While this case might normally be written off as nothing more than a player being disgruntled and Torres must take some of the blame for not getting anything in writing, there are too many past instances of grievances being filed against the Pirates in the Littlefield era.

Freddy Sanchez, Pat Meares, Dennys Reyes and Jody Gerut filed over service time issues while on the disabled list and Matt Herges filed over being unfairly released.

Since grievance filings are not announced, there is no way of knowing how many other times this has occurred but as one agent, who asked not to be identified because he has a player under contract to the Pirates, put it: "They lead the league in grievances because they're always trying to save a buck and (mess) with their players."

Two other agents agreed with that remark, though they also asked not to be identified because of the sensitive subject nature.

Wow, is that bad.

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Littlefield's stake in Chris Young

>>Dave Littlefield is going to look so bad if Young wins the Cy Young award this year.<<

Please, refresh my memory. What is Littlefield's stake in Chris Young's performance?

by piratemacfan on Jul 5, 2007 8:16 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

if I recall correctly...

Chris Young used to be a Pirates prospect until DL traded him away for bag of magic beans... or something like that.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/y/youngch03.shtml

by humbucker on Jul 5, 2007 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Young

Young was a big-bonus draftee signed under Mickey White. They had to buy him out of a basketball scholarship at Princeton, IIRC (and there was some talk when he negotiated his last contract extension that he could pull a Henson and jump to the NBA if he wanted).

Anyway, DL didn't value him properly (as was the case with a lot of the guys drafted before he got here), so he traded him away (with another prospect - Jon Searles) for Matt Herges during the winter, when Herges was likely to be non-tendered by the Expos in a cost-cutting move. We then cut Herges in spring training. Young had good numbers in the minors, but DL was supposedly upset that he didn't show more velocity. For whatever reason (mechanics or simple physical development), he started throwing significantly harder almost immediately after he left the system.

Herges almost immediately signed with the Padres. He had a good half-season with them, and then they flipped him to the Giants for Clay Hensley (who's kind of anonymous, but had a 3.71 ERA as a starter for them last year). It was really the last good season of Herges's career up to this point, and since he's 37 now, it'll probably end up as his last good season, period.

Incidentally, our bullpen was a disaster that season. Mike Williams and Boehringer were horrible, and we ended up cutting the guy we kept instead of Herges (Dennys Reyes) after only ten innings.

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 9:29 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Chris Young Giveaway ...

Littlefield's giveaway of Chris Young was disconcertingly mystifying at the time and looks worse and worse as time passes.

For one thing (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), but memory says that the Pirates over-paid to sign him as a second- or third-round draft choice ... invested something like first-round money in the neighborhood of $2.3 million.

Then DL just GAVE him away. Not smart. Not at all. And look what's happened since. Chris Young SURE would look good at the top of a rotation backed by Snell, Gorzo, etc.

by bern1 on Jul 5, 2007 10:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

One starts to wonder...

...if Nutting finally cuts Littlefield loose (and sends Tracy packing with him,) will the heat be off ownership for a short while?

I mean, look at Littlefield's version of "scouting" - Tony Armas! Jeromy Burnitz! Derek Bell! Victor Santos! The blame still sorely rests on ownership with a bigger profit margin than team payroll, but having a GM who was at least vaguely aware of what talented baseball players look like would be a nice step.

by SeanCollier on Jul 5, 2007 11:23 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Santos

Santos wasn't as bad an idea as the others on that list, since he was cheap and expectations were low. The problem is that he's a bottom-of-the-staff type of guy even at his best, and we had a team full of those guys when we picked him.

There's nothing wrong with buying the occasional lottery ticket just for fun. The trouble starts when you start needing a certain number of tickets to come up as winners to pay your mortgage and utilities...

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

To be fair ...

Derek Bell was Bonifay's mistake ... but, still, Littlefield has made more than his share of similarly egregious errors. In fact, he KEEPS making them (Tony Armas).

by bern1 on Jul 5, 2007 12:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not defending Littlefield's other errors,

but Armas was a cheap gable who many thought had a good chance at being better than Chacon for the 5th spot in the rotation. He was bad so he was pulled.

by The New Guy on Jul 5, 2007 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Many may have thought it...

...but I sure didn't. Guys with torn labrums are just dead weight 95% of the time.

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

John Perrotto was right

Actually, Young did not impress the Pirates, Expos, or Rangers before being traded in the "let's make the Padres a contender deal." The buzz was that he did not throw hard enough to succeed. John Perrotto was mildly skeptical at the time: "Peronally, I thought Young had too much upside to give up for a middle reliever. However, the Pirates' organization did not view Young as highly as I did."

Apr 3,2004 - Traded by Expos with Josh McKinley to Rangers for Justin Echols and Einar Diaz. Jan 4,2006 - Traded by Rangers with Terrmel Sledge and Adrian Gonzalez to Padres for Adam Eaton, Akinori Otsuka and Billy Killian.

Although Eaton was fairly effective when healthy, he had already established a hotline to the DL at this stage in his career. Apparently rule A is don't trade with the Padres. Of course rule B is "don't trade with the Braves for pitching."

Viva Clemente!

by Roberto on Jul 5, 2007 11:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wow...

Otsuka is good but the Rangers got burned on that one

by The New Guy on Jul 5, 2007 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Actually

Young was quite good for the Rangers considering the ballpark. Most pitchers would have a major improvement in stats after going from the Rangers to the Padres.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Uh, yeah

I wouldn't pay much attention to the "value" that the Rangers place on a guy. They've managed in recent years to trade away Young, Alfonso Soriano, Adrian Gonzalez, and Travis Hafner while getting virtually nothing in return.

by WTM on Jul 5, 2007 2:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ironic

It's ironic that Einar Diaz is now in the Pirates' organization (with AAA Indianpolis).

by bern1 on Jul 5, 2007 12:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Stuck at work...

...can't find a scoreboard site that's not blocked out. Have they started this one?

by SeanCollier on Jul 5, 2007 2:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

No, it's delayed.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Starting at 3:00 PM.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And we're underway.

Ball one to Corey Hart.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 3:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Double for Sanchez

One out, we're in business.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 3:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

So

LaRoche and Nady struck out, but you have to love the lineup on paper. Now if we could just get Bixler in there instead of Wilson...

by The New Guy on Jul 5, 2007 3:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Upgrading on Wilson would be nice

I'm not 100% convinced that Bixler is the guy, though.

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Homer for Doumit!

That's two days in a row. This one's to dead center - he hit iit a long way.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 3:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bill Hall hurt on the play.

He got hurt trying to climb the wall. You can see the indentation where his knee hit the cushioning.

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 3:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, crap

You never want to see that.

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

homer

sorry to hear about bill hall.... but this was awesome; I tabbed over to the box score, thought "hmm. Ryan Doumit. That would be sweet if he homered right now." Then tabbed back a minute later, and he had! That was awesome.

by escroll on Jul 5, 2007 3:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

wow

the same thing just happened for the LaRoche homer.

by escroll on Jul 5, 2007 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did you wish Geoff Jenkins would homer?!

by Charlie on Jul 5, 2007 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

HRs two days in a row

will earn him most of the ABs at catcher for the next week or so I hope

by The New Guy on Jul 5, 2007 3:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

But what about game-calling?

Without Paulino in there to maintain order, the pitcher might become confused and throw the ball into the stands, or else start wandering aimlessly. Can we really afford to take that risk?

by Vlad on Jul 5, 2007 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Indeed!

But of course! In fact, I heard that Paulino was the only one on the team who even knew the WORD "slider!" Why, if he weren't back there, the pitcher would probably just sit wearily on the mound, wondering what was going on around him!

(Paulino broke Masumi Kuwata, Doumit got 10 strikeouts out of Shawn Chacon. There's your game calling, Tracy.)

by SeanCollier on Jul 5, 2007 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs