The Pirates at the 24.69% Pole

The Pirates have now played 40 games, almost, but not exactly, one-quarter of the season. (I have gone for strict mathematical accuracy in the headline so as to save my pal Fred Shugars the bother of correcting me.)  Their record is now 23-16.  They are in a virtual tie for second place in the NL Central with the Cardinals, one-half game behind the first place Brewers.  They are on a pace that would win 94 games over the course of 162 games.

If you tell me that you saw that coming back in Spring Training, and your name is NOT Neal Huntington or Clint Hurdle, I simply do not believe you.

A couple of observations:

• The much reviled trade of Andrew McCutchen was and will perhaps always remain an emotional gut-kick to all Pirates fans.  From a baseball standpoint, though, it seems that the time to move McCutchen had indeed arrived.  He is being thoroughly out performed by the man who replaced him in the lineup, Cory Dickerson.  However, it should also be pointed out that the jury is still out on whether or not the players received from the Giants for Cutch, Kyle Crick and Brian Reynolds will prove to be sufficient value received over the long haul.
• The Pirates have certainly proved to be a winning, exciting, and thoroughly likable team to watch in 2018.  Dickerson has probably been the best position player on the team thus far, Colin Moran appears to be a solid, if unspectacular guy at third base, and Francisco Cervelli would be the NL's All-Star catcher if the game was being held today.
• On the down side, Josh Bell needs to bring his hitting up to the levels that it approached last year, and I have my doubts that Gregory Polanco will ever achieve the superstar status that many had hoped that he would obtain.
• The pitching concerns me.  Starters with ERA's over 4.00 cannot, it would seem, be sustainable over the course of a long season.  The bullpen has shown some signs of improvement in recent weeks, but you still have to worry about whomever comes in to bridge the gap between the starter and Felipe Vazquez.

The big message is that the Pirates have proven thus far that they have earned the right to be taken seriously.  They are exciting to watch, and with 24.69% of the schedule behind them, it is no longer "still early" in the season.  A summer that looked to be a moribund one, baseball-wise, back in March now shows promise of giving us some hope and excitement here in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of Andrew McCutchen, Marilyn and I did make our way to PNC Park on Friday night to see Cutch's first game back in Pittsburgh, and I managed to get these pictures of what I though was the emotional highlight - Jameson Taillon, Francisco Cervelli, and home plate umpire Chris Segal stalling for time during McCutchen's first plate appearance in order to let the ovation continue for a sustained length of time.  It was also cool that Taillon struck him out, and that the Pirates won the game 11-2.

Pirates 12 - Braves 9

What a microcosm of the 2016 Pirates season that 12-9 win over the Braves was last night.

After two innings, the Bucs had fashioned a 9-0 lead over arguably the worst team in the Majors.  What a gift for the pitching staff, right?  Let you starter settle into a rocking chair, throw strikes, and maybe - maybe - turn it over to some middle reliever to finish the last two or maybe three innings while coasting to an easy victory. Instead, you know what happened:

• Starter Juan Nicasio gave back five runs and struggled to finish five innings so he could be the pitcher of record for such an "easy" win.
• Given a six run lead, Ryan Vogelsong gave back three runs, had to face a batter representing the tying run, and couldn't get trough two innings.
• Arquemides Caminero, in relief of Vogelsong, promptly gave up a home run before getting the one out needed to close out the inning.
• The Pirates had to turn over what should have been a laugher to their One-Two bullpen punch of Tony Watson and Mark Melancon to close out this win, something that I am sure that Clint Hurdle was not envisioning with a 9-0 lead in the second inning.

Well, it was only one game, you might say, but I think that this game was an example, perhaps an extreme one, but still an example of what the Pirates biggest problem has been: middling starting pitching and poor to awful relief pitching.  If the Pirates are to go anywhere in the pennant race this season, the situation with the pitching staff, particularly the bull pen, must be addressed.  If dummies like me can see this, I am certainly confident that Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle are seeing it, too, and are working diligently to address the problem.  They had better be.

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Last night's game aside, the biggest news of the day for the Pirates yesterday was the announcement of the signing Francisco Cervelli to a three year, $31 million contract extension (through 2019), and by the way, didn't Cervelli look classy and terrific by showing up at the press conference announcing the signing in a suit and tie?  

Interestingly enough, I heard about this while listening to 93.7 The Fan while driving home from the golf course.  Joe Starkey and Chris Muller were expressing surprise that no one was calling to (a) talk about the news, and (b) complimenting the Pirates for making this move.  Imagine, said Starkey, how the phone lines would have been on fire with people boiling tar and plucking feathers had Cervelli been allowed to go to free agency at the end of the year and then signed a $31 contract with some other team?

Anyway, Cervelli now joins other key Pirates Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Josh Harrison, and Gregory Polanco under long term deals with the team.  Significant, I'd say.

Looking forward to three plus more years of this....

Selected Sports Subjects

A Whirl Around the Wide, Wide World of Sports on a Sunday Morning.....

The Pirates were much in the news this week with the trade with the Yankees that brought Francisco Cervelli  

to the Bucs, and which I commented upon earlier in the week.  Somewhat more surprising, was the signing, or should I say re-signing, of free agent pitcher A.J. Burnett.  



It is surprising that Burnett, who spoke so longingly of retirement two years ago, would forgo a Player's Option with the Phillies that would pay him $12 million and re-sign with the Pirates for "only" $8.5 million.  Maybe he is the rare athlete who means it when he says, "it's not about the money".

The real question is, can he help the Pirates in 2015?  No question of the value that Burnett brought to the Pirates in his two year stint here in 2012-13, but he is now 38 years old and coming off a year in which he lost 18 games, albeit with a lousy team, and posted am ERA in excess of 4.50.  I suppose that there is no great risk in signing him, especially if you feel that Francisco and Liriano and Edinson Volquez will not be back with the team.

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I heard Neal Huntington in a radio interview earlier in the week, and found him to be quite forthright and not spilling the usual line of obfuscating b.s. that is his wont.  Most interesting thing I heard was his flat out statement that among three first baseman, Pedro Alvarez, Ike Davis, and Gaby Sanchez (yes, he included Alvarez as a first baseman), only two would be with the team next year.  

Been nice known' you, Ike.

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So what else is knew?  Pitt scores a ton of points against North Carolina yesterday, and loses.  Pitt has now scored 111 points in their last three games, and have lost all three of them.  

We keep hearing how Pitt is a young team, that they start lots and lots of freshman and sophomores.  Okay, I'll give you that Paul Chryst had an uphill battle when he arrived here three years ago, and that he has to get the building blocks in place, but this is Year Three, and that line of reasoning (or is it excuse making?) is wearing thin, and it will not be the least bit tolerable in 2015.

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As hard as it can sometimes be watching the Panthers play football, the play of James Conner

and Tyler Boyd

make it worth your while to tune in.

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I watched the entire Florida State-Miami game last night.  The inevitability of an FSU victory became apparent when Miami began the second half playing to protect their lead rather than trying to build it further.  They completely stopped playing in the manner that gave them that big lead in the first place.  Why do coaches do that?

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Best line on Facebook yesterday came courtesy of friend Fred Egler.  In commenting upon Wisconsin laying a 35 point beatdown on Nebraska in snowy Madison, WI yesterday, Fred said that "Bo Pellini looked like a German general at the Battle of Stalingrad."

Classic.

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Speaking of unwatchable performances, I went to the Sewall Center on Friday night to see Robert Morris tip off their Hoops Season, and suffer an 77-50 thrashing at the hands of Lafayette University, and trust me, the game was nowhere near as close as that 27 point spread indicates.  Be that as it may, I trust that Andy Toole will work with his team and coach 'em up to the point where they will be a contender for the Northeast Conference title once again.

What I did find interesting at the game was that fact that a video board has been installed in front of the Media Table that sits court side at the Sewall Center, and that RMU has been able to sell advertising on said board that scrolls throughout the game.  Sponsors ranging from a Moon Township ice cream parlor to PNC Bank to the Allegheny Heath Network are now are getting their messages across to patrons attending the basketball games.  

RMU has indeed entered the Big Time!

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The Steelers take on the awful 2-6 Tennessee Titans tomorrow night.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Welcome, Francisco Cervelli

Almost two years ago to the day, November 30, 2012 to be exact, I wrote a blog post entitled "Welcome, Russell Martin", and now, we have a strangely similar circumstance, as the Pirates bring a new catcher to the team from the New York Yankees.  In this case, Francisco Cervelli arrives via a trade as Russell Martin prepares to hit the Free Agent Jackpot, probably with the Chicago Cubs.

All Pirate fans feel bad that Martin will be departing the team, and I am not going to go down that well travelled road again.  It should be noted that back in November of 2012, most fans greeted the signing of Martin with an attitude of, at best, "let's wait and see what happens".  Well, we know now that the Martin signing could hardly have worked out better for the Pirates and, it will turn out, for Martin.  So, let's be grateful to Martin for what he did here, wish him well with whomever he signs, and look to the future.

In Cervelli, the Pirates get a young, age 28, player who has shown flashes of great promise, but has been injury plagued throughout his career, playing in only 250 games over seven seasons.  Projected to a 162 game season, Cervelli's career shows a .278 BA, 6 HR, 60 RBI, and .729 OPS.  Over a very small sample size of 2013-14 (56 games, 198 AB), his OPS is over .800, so that is something to grasp on to, is it not?

The Pirates gave up left handed reliever Justin Wilson to get Cervelli, and it would be a rare occasion where I would NOT be happy to get an everyday player in exchange for bridge-the-gap-to-the-closer relief pitcher.  Wilson has a fast ball in the high 90's, and he had a great season in 2013, but he regressed a bit in 2014, so viewing this trade in a vacuum, I say this is a good deal for the Pirates.  Not to sound too much like Neal Huntington, I think that Cervelli brings a lot of upside to the team, but he will need to stay healthy.  That is the Big Question that Cervelli brings with him to PNC Park.  It also tells us that the Pirates have no faith in former Number One pick Tony Sanchez as an everyday catcher, and they also feel that Elias Diaz is not yet ready for Prime Time.

Notice that I didn't mention money.  Such transactions are always about the money where the Pirates are concerned, but you know what? I don't care.  Yeah, I wish that they would spend more money, I wish that they could have kept Martin, and I think that the Pirates may, MAY, be overly concerned with the almighty bottom line, but there is nothing that I can do about that, so I try very hard not to expend too much personal angst over such matters.

That said, MY bottom line is that I think GM Neal made a fairly good deal here.  It may not work out, but, as my friend Dan Bonk, channelling his inner Johnny Rivers, said on Facebook this morning, that's life on the poor side of town.

One final comment. Included on Cervell's resume is a fifty game suspension in 2012 for PED use.  It brings up a conundrum for us Bucco fans.  You know, us fans who vociferously boo each Ryan Braun at bat at PNC Park, and who curse Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, and others of their ilk, as we cheer on Francisco Cervelli as he wears the black and gold tools of ignorance.  What do we make of that?  

Sometimes being a fan can be complicated.