Pirates Thoughts After a Big Weekend

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• It looks like the Pirates will use that overall #1 selection to take RHP Gerrit Cole of UCLA. He appears to be a "can't miss" top-of-the-rotation guy, and as a college guy, he's that much closer to the Big Leagues, so what's not to like? Me, I would take a "can't miss" middle-of-the-order slugger like Anthony Rendon, but there seems to be enough concerns over Rendon's health, so I'll yield to the baseball guys in the Front Office here. God knows there will plenty of time to second guess this one in the years ahead.


• And as has been mentioned many times in this space, baseball scouting remains an inexact science, so who really knows who the "can't-miss" guys are?


• Thanks to the kindness of Highmark, Facebook, and SABR friend John Carney, I will be at PNC Park tonight for a Draft Party that the Pirates are hosting for their season ticket holders. Should be fun to be a part of ushering in the Gerrit Cole Era.


• Sure was a great weekend for the Pirates. They rebound from that terrible loss to the Mets last Thursday by taking two of three from arguably the best team in the NL.


• That 2-1 twelve inning win on Friday was more than just another win. That was real test of character for this team. Put that game in a World Series, and people would be talking about it for years to come.


• The Pirates sit at 28-30, and there will be some spoilsports who will tell you that they had the same record at this point in such-and-such season and they went on to lose 98 games. True, but something just feels different about this squad.


• You can feel that difference in the air. When I went down to the ballpark on Friday afternoon to buy tickets for Sunday's game, there were lines to buy tickets, and you can tell that people are excited about this bunch.


• And isn't it great to feel excitement over the Pirates after all these years?


• Makes me want to take in one of these Diamondbacks games this week, and the return of Zach Duke on Wednesday night could be the one to see.


• If you ask me, Daniel Moskos should never have to play another game in the minor leagues again. He's earned his spot with the Pirates at this point.


• Jose Ascanio is another story.


• The Matt Diaz/Garrett Jones RF platoon struggles while Alex Presley continues to tear it up in Indy. How long until a change gets made?


• So far I love Clint Hurdle, but his having guys at the top of the order bunting drives me crazy. I get having the pitcher or Ronny Cedeno sacrificing, but I wonder about having Jose Tabata or Andrew McCutchen doing so.


• I have not mentioned the new Root Sports Network so far this season. It looks they are shit-canning that "Yinzer Guy" voice over announcer, so give them credit for that. They get criticized for too many crowd shots, but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me are the incessant references to the "Range Resources Strike Zone" and the "AGH Cam."


• And what really drove me up the wall on Saturday's game was the constant shilling among Greg Brown, Steve Blass, and Dan Potash to have people text their vote for the "most impressive Pirates pitcher" so far this season. The cloying debate among them for their candidate while a great ballgame was going on was enough to make you mute the sound.


• While they will never say so, I am guessing that Brown, Blass, and Potash hated it almost as much as the viewers did.