Bunts and Base Hits......

Some random thoughts on the Pirates.....

• With their first four selections in this year's entry draft, the Pirates take Cole Tucker, Conner Joe, Mitch Keller, and Trey Supek.  They are, respectively, a high school short stop, a high school outfielder, and two high school pitchers. 
• Nothing in sports - NOTHING -  is harder to predict that how a 17 or 18 year old kid will perform in the Major Leagues four or five years down the road.  These kids could be the second comings of Andrew McCutchen, Jeff King, Neil Walker, Richie Hebner, or Gerrit Cole.  The odds are that they  will be the second comings of Austin Manahan, JJ Davis, and Chad Hermanson.  Nobody knows, but I feel safe in saying that the Pirates scouts and personnel guys who drafted these guys have a far better idea than those folks in cyber-space and talk radio who are already blasting the Pirates for these selections.
• Chances are just as good that sometime today or tomorrow, the Pirates will draft a guy in Round Thirty-something who will turn out to be better than any kid taken by  any team in the first round last night.  Someone like Dave Parker, Albert Pujols, or Mike Piazza...guys who all were drafted deep after the thirtieth round.
• The Bucs sit this morning at 28-31 in third place in the NL Central, five games behind the Cardinals, and seven behind the Hated Brewers, and those same Hated Brewers are in Pittsburgh this weekend for a three game set.  A sweep of the Hated Brewers would be fantastic, but almost too much to ask for. Two out of three would be good.  Getting swept could be disastrous, or at least as disastrous as one could get given that it is  the first week of June.
• Pirates fans still await the call up of Gregory Polanco.  Would be nice it it was tonight since I'm going to the game and would get to witness has debut, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen.  The Pirates will do business the way they do business, and I'm trying not to get my knickers in a knot over it.  I'll just be glad when he does arrive so that we can all just stop talking about it!!!!
• Another popular topic of speculation is "who will go when Polanco does get here?".  If I had to guess, I would say that Travis Snider will be the one to lose his job, and it's hard, if not impossible, to make a case to keep him here.  However, one name keeps niggling in my mind when I think about dumping Snider, and that name is Brandon Moss.  He looked like a complete bust when he was here with the Pirates, and no one, NO ONE, complained when the Bucs finally got rid of him, but look what he's done in Oakland the last three seasons.  Fifty-one home runs in 2012-13, and so far in 2014, he has 15 HR, 49 RBI, and a .961 OPS.  
• And how about a tip of the cap to Josh Harrison?  I have always said, and I am not alone in this, that if Josh Harrison was a starter on your ball club, then you had problems, but it cannot be denied that Harrison has been a real spark plug on this team in recent weeks. Water is bound to find it's own level at some point, and Harrison will revert to what he is, an okay utility guy.  But until that happens, let's give Clint Hurdle a lot of credit for riding Harrison while he is hot.  
• I shall be at PNC Park tonight.  I have a 2-0 record in games I've attended so far.  Let's hope the streak continues.