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Arizona vs. Pittsburgh, 25 September 2007

7:05 PM, WPGB

Doug Davis (13-12, 4.27) vs. Ian Snell (9-12, 3.83). Here's the box; Steve Pearce starts in right.

While you wait for the game to start, you should check out Dejan Kovacevic's chat at the Post-Gazette website. It contains plenty of new information about new GM Neal Huntington. On Huntington's "demotion" in Cleveland:

AwfulHire: Is it common practice for baseball teams to hire GMs that have been DEMOTED in their former organizations? I mean even the Indians front office were surprised that the Pirates wanted this guy. The Pirates dropped the ball once again with this hiring. The person from the Brewers should have gotten the job.

Dejan Kovacevic: That is the large, looming question in this process. I asked Huntington to explain today what happened with him and the Indians, whether or not it truly was a demotion, and he answered that it was a mutual agreement because he wanted to get back to evaluating baseball talent rather than pencil-pushing. At the same time, the team's official press release failed to make mention -- despite being very long -- that his primary duty the past two years was advance scouting. That is not really talent evaluating as much as it is preparing the major-league team for another major-league team's tendencies. ... I share your view that Jack Zduriencik was very qualified for this job.

And on the Indians' bold strategic moves:
WTM: The Cleveland way of doing things was to blow up the team when Shapiro took over. That's where much of their core came from. Do the Pirates have the guts to do that?

Dejan Kovacevic: That is the very large question. I raised the issue with both Coonelly and Huntington today and, while they pointed out that the Indians had a much older roster than the Pirates do now and were forced to move some of those parts, they would entertain all options without fear of public repercussion.

Kovacevic also reports that Huntington said the word "reallocate" to explain how he might increase spending in the draft and Latin America, but he backed away from the word when Kovacevic asked if that meant cutting payroll at the big-league level.

There's also lots of important stuff in the chat about Jim Tracy's future. Tracy, by the way, thinks that the season might have been vastly better if Nyjer Morgan had been available the whole year.

The Mets, Phillies and Padres are vying for the last two playoff spots - the Mets are two games up on the Phillies for the NL East lead, while Philadelphia and San Diego are tied for the Wild Card lead.

The Mets play the Nationals at Shea, with Tom Glavine pitching against Jason Bergmann, 7:10 PM.

Philadelphia hosts Atlanta tonight, with Jamie Moyer facing Chuck James, 7:05 PM.

San Diego visits San Francisco, with Brett Tomko dueling Matt Cain, 10:15 PM.