7:05 PM, FSNP, WPGB
Yovani Gallardo (7-4, 4.27) vs. Bryan Bullington (0-1, 15.00). Judging from Bullington's performance last time out, the Bucs' chances of winning this one look remote. Bullington had nothing, and the Cardinals walked all over him. Here's the box; I'll be in the comments for a while.
-P- UPDATE: Zach Duke and Salomon Torres have both returned from the DL and will be available to pitch out of the bullpen tonight. No one needed to be removed from the active roster since it expanded from 25 players to 40 at the beginning of September, but Ryan Doumit has been placed on the 60-day DL to make space on the 40-man roster for Duke.
-P- The Stats Geek claims that Dave Littlefield was a better GM than Cam Bonifay. I beg to differ, and any argument for Littlefield over Bonifay needs to grapple with the Pirates' success in the late rounds of the draft under Bonifay - the Bucs managed to grab Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Nate McLouth and Jose Bautista between the 20th and 26th rounds while Bonifay was GM, and as a result, Bonifay left the farm system in pretty good shape.
It's true that Littlefield hasn't left his successor with tons of bad contract, but it isn't as if he hasn't wasted tons of money like Bonifay did. The main difference is that Littlefield wasted it on one-year contracts rather than long-term deals. Maybe that's an improvement, but it certainly doesn't make up for Littlefield's negligence with regard to the farm system, the draft and Latin America. I'll take Bonifay - at least he was trying.
-P- From the why-the-hell-did-they-do-that? file, the Jays signed shortstop John McDonald to a two-year, $3.8 million extension. McDonald is hitting .252/.276/.332 this year and .240/.278/.315 for his career. If he had Inspector Gadget's arms, he might play defense well enough to make up for his inability to hit. To put it in perspective, he's a substantially worse hitter than Cesar Izturis. And he's almost 33, so it's only going to get worse. Terrible move by the Jays.
-P- If this prank is real, it's just incredibly hilarious and mean.