Georgia On My Mind

That was quite a four game scrum just concluded between the Pirates and Braves in Atlanta. Some thoughts and comments....

• Tim Neverett and Bob Walk concluded on the post-game last night that that series was as close to playoff baseball as you'll ever see in mid-season. A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but looking back over the four games, I have to agree. If those were the first four games of the NLCS instead of a four game mid-week series in July, the sports world would be in a frenzy awaiting games five, six, and seven.


• Walk also made the observation that with one or two plays here and there, either team could have swept this series.


• While we in Pittsburgh bemoan the Pirates inability to score runs, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the Braves weren't scoring many either.


• That said, there is not scoring runs because the other team's pitchers are better than you on a given day, and there is not scoring runs because your hitters are completely over matched by the other team's pitching. That seemed to be the problem with the Pirates in these four games. Garrett Jones, Pedro Alvarez, Lyle Overbay and others looked like they didn't have the faintest idea what to do in most of their AB's against the Braves (Jones' solo HR on Wednesday notwithstanding).


• And when you saw what the Braves bullpen did to the Pirates hitters, you wonder how the Braves have managed to lose 45 games this season.


• Again, that said, the bullpen efforts of the Pirates were, I am sure, equally frustrating to the Braves and their fans.


• As for what will forever be known as the "Jerry Meals Game", don't count me among the multitudes demanding instant replay in baseball games. At the risk of sounding like an old coot, I have no desire to see red flags coming out of dugouts, and excessive time wasted and added on to games that are already too long while the umpires go under the hood.


• Besides, it is a hoary cliche but true that breaks like that seem to even out over 162 games. While it is a shame to lose a game in that manner, the players seemed to recover from it reasonably well, certainly a lot easier than the announcers did.


• Plus, all of the anguish could have been avoided it the Pirates could have, you know, scratched out one lousy run over the course of the final 17 innings of that game.


• Speaking of Alvarez, while it has only been four games since his recall from Indy, he really is struggling. Totally over matched against the Braves pitchers in this series. That said, the Pirates simply have to stick with him, I believe. He's young, you know what he is capable of, and you've invested just about everything in him. You really have to HOPE that he somehow finds "it" and starts hitting like he did over the last six weeks of last season.


• After watching the Braves for four straight games, I really came away impressed with the play of their first baseman, Freddie Freeman. That is one nice looking young ball player. Wish the Pirates could find someone like that in their farm system. It would sure be an upgrade over Lyle Overbay!


• The team is now approaching the final segment of a 13 game stretch against the Reds, Cardinals, Braves, and Phillies. When the stretch began, the morning crew on The Fan posed the question, Would you be happy if they went 6-7 during that stretch? I think most callers felt that, yes, that would be pretty good. They now sit at 5-5 on this stretch. A mere one of three in Philly would give them the 6-7 mark. Halladay and Lee go in the first two games. We'll see, but wouldn't you positively kill for 2-of-3 against the Phils?

OK, this leads us to Today, and the question of Where Do The Pirates Go From Here? or What Will Neal Huntington Do Before The Trade Deadline? My own thought is that he simply HAS to make some kind of a deal to make an upgrade in the offense. It was one thing to take an attitude of "who cares?" when the team was on the way to 95+ and 100+ loss seasons. I mean did it really matter if they ditched Andy LaRoche or Lastings Millegde at that point? But when you are a mere 1.5 games out of first with a chance of winning the division, standing pat is not really an option. It's not fair to the players who have hung in so valiantly up to this point, to the Manager, and, not incidentally, to the paying customers who are coming out in a manner not seen in 18 years to pay to watch the team play.

Having said that, I don't want to see the farm system gutted of the talent we are told is there (Taillon, Marte, Heredia) to land a guy like Hunter Pence, as much as I'd love to see him play here. This will be a big test for GM Neal, a much bigger one than trading Xavier Nady, which turned out great, or Jason Bay, which was not so great.

The Nutting/Coonelly/Huntington troika have insisted for four years now that they would step up to the plate, spend money, add payroll when it made sense for the team and when the time was right. That time appears to be 2011 in the NL Central. Now, we will see if they really meant it.

We can revisit this topic come Sunday evening.