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Golf Diary

The Round: Played South Park Score 75 Greens In Reg: 5 Putts: 24

The Good: It is called putting out of your mind. I only hit 5 greens in regulation but made one birdie. I made a nice 25 foot putt for bird but my other GIR’s were over 40 feet from the pin and never 3 putted one of them. I chipped in from about 50 feet for another birdie. I drove the ball well and I chipped well because I had lots of opportunities, 13 to be exact. My short game was pretty good but I made every putt I had from around 7 feet in. Another way to get to 3 over par.

The Bad: You could say my iron game, but it was not as bad as the stats make it out to be. I had a lot of shots that were on the fringes or close to the green. The conditions were tough with some wind and temperatures barely into the 50’s. We have had pretty terrible weather the last week, as this has been my first 18 hole round since last Thursday. I did play some 9 hole rounds in temperatures that were in the mid 40’s top. We are supposed to get improving conditions for the next few days, that can’t come soon enough as far as I am concerned.

The Luck Of The Round: There was good fortune everywhere during this round. My chip that I holed hit the pin, went around the cup, teetered on the edge and then fell into the cup. One of my few really bad shots hit a tree and did not find a hazard and I was able to salvage a bogey. All my 6-7 foot putts that I made seemed to find just enough of the cup to hit the hole and fall in rather than lip out. I made a 20 foot putt on another hole from the fringe to save par. All my lies in the rough were doable. As written previously, this is how you shoot 3 over par.

Next Round: Tomorrow, Mt Lebo, will play 18 holes.

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Pirates Morning Report: Catch The Ball, Throw The Ball, Catch The Ball, Throw The Ball.

Final Score: Pirates 1 Rays 8

Why The Pirates Loss: The Pirates did not pick a good time to have one of their worse games of the season, on both sides of the ball. They made 2 errors and there were other balls that were either misplayed or misjudged, that were ruled hits. This is the 2nd game in a row that the defense has been bad. The offense has not been much better. Again, the Pirates went hitless with runners in scoring position going 0 for 7 and stranding 8 runners. This is their first 3 game losing streak of the season and the offense has scored a total of only 4 runs. Compound that with the fact, that the Rays are hitting at an unbelievably rate. The Ray’s OPS+ is 148, which means they are hitting almost 50% better than the league average, as a team!!!! The Toronto Blue Jays led the league in OPS+ last year with 117. The Pirates have only 3 players with an OPS+ of over 150. This is a Pirate offense, that for the most part as been doing pretty well. To say that the Ray’s offense is on fire is a huge understatement. Mitch Keller, even though he only pitched 5 innings, deserve a much better fate, as the Pirate’s defensive blunders extended many innings. He only gave up one earned run. The Pirates can move on quickly from this one since they play this afternoon.

Key Moment Of The Game: Andrew McCutchen had homered in the top of the 3rd to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead and Keller quickly got the first 2 outs in the bottom of the 3rd. Up to that point Keller looked extremely sharp allowing only one walk. Then all hell broke loose. Line drive single, another line drive single that ate up Bae, that put runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 out. Rodolfo Castro then botched a routine ground ball to allow one run to score and extend the inning. Bang, Brandon Lowe then doubled, and the Rays never looked back from their 3-1 lead.

Next Game: This afternoon, the Rays in Tampa Bay. Will the Pirates be able to snap the 3 game losing streak in Tampa today. I am sure this will not be their last 3 game losing streak, but it sure would feel good to win one today. Certainly, this is no time to panic but I do think there needs to be one change in the lineup. Ke’Bryan Hayes needs to be removed from the leadoff spot, until he shows he can hit and get on base. Currently his OBP is .281, which accounts for his OPS+ of 72. This simply cannot be your leadoff hitter. Vince Velasquez gets the start today. He has been the best Pirate pitcher over the last 3 weeks. He will get the supreme test today. I am really hoping I was wrong about this guy because I would like to see us avoid 4 losses in a row.

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Pirate Morning Report: Looking For The .143 Miracle

Final Score: Pirates 1 Rays 4

Why The Pirates Loss: Despite a below average performance by Roansy Contreras, this game was lost because of a lack of timely hitting and some questionable strategy. The Pirates got 5 hits, added 6 walks, but could only muster 1 run. They were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. Contreras did not pitch horribly, but did walk 4 batters, gave up a home run and threw 99 pitches in 5 and 1/3 innings. Did not have a lot of luck in the bottom of the 5th, as the Rays posted 2 runs on a walk, a pop up single that should have been caught, a hard single just out of the reach of the defenseless Mark Mathias, and a double steal. It was just one of those games, as the Pirates dropped their 2nd game in a row to fall to 20-10

Key Moment Of The Game: After the Rays took the lead in the bottom of the 5th, the Pirates started the 6th inning with a bang, on a Connor Joe double and Castro getting hit by a pitch to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Tucupita Marcano pinch hitting for the gloveless Mathias, apparently was told to sacrifice bunt to see if a .143 hitter could get 2 runs home. I don’t have a big problem with the sacrifice bunt, if that was indeed the plan, but you have to pinch hit for Hedges if you are going to go that route. To add insult to injury the umpires missed a balk that would have brought a run home. Hedges then struck out and Ke’Bryan Hayes on a 3-1 pitch swung at a ball that as Bob Prince use to say ” He couldn’t have hit with a bed slat”. He took a called 3rd strike to end the inning and the Pirates hopes of a comeback.

Next Game: Tonight, the Rays in Tampa Bay. Mitch Keller will try and get the Pirates back on track. This is a little like the game following last week’s Dodger loss, the Pirates don’t have to win tonight but they have to play a better all around game. One final thought, the next time you sacrifice two runners to 2nd and 3rd with no one out and you have the .143 catcher coming to the plate, put in the .390 hitting catcher. No charge for the tip.

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Pirates Morning Report: 29 Games In

Every 30 games or so, I will take an overall look at the Pirates to see how they are doing. In this day of analytics, you could try and breakdown every little thing the Pirates do, but in my opinion, it boils down to some basic things on offense, defense and pitching. On offense, it is how often you get on base (On Base Percentage OBP), how you convert that into runs, and how you compare with the rest of the league when all things are taken into account, OPS+. OPS+ is a number with the league average being 100. Pitching boils down to preventing runs, how well you control what a pitcher can control, home runs strikeouts, and walks. This is known as Fielding Independent Pitching, FIP. I use Baseball Reference’s Defense Efficiency Rating for evaluating a team’s defense. There are others and you can argue the merits of all the sites defensive ratings, but this isn’t life changing here, so I will go with them. Let’s see how the Pirates are doing, obviously quite well.

Offense: The Pirates are 3rd in baseball in getting on base with an OBP of .343. They are doing well on getting men home, scoring 5.38 runs per game, which is 5th. The Pirates OPS+ is 4th at 115. Everyone pales before the Tampa Bay Rays, who are at an astounding 150. The Pirates lead the league in stolen bases which is helping score runs but as the saying goes you cannot steal 1st. This is as high as the Pirates have been in these offensive stats in 5 or more years. Who is the poster child for this offensive resurgence? No question the most improved offensive player is Jack Suwinski. His batting process has improved dramatically. Batting average from .202 to .279. OBP from .298 to .393. Slugging from .411 to .618. He is tied for the team lead in walks with 14. This all due to a newfound plate discipline that hopefully will continue. This can be said for most of the team, as the offense has been pretty good for these 29 games.

Pitching: In run prevention the Pirate’s pitching staff is just as good as the offense is in producing runs, allowing 3.72 runs per game, which is 4th best in baseball. The pitching is 4th in ERA+ at 128 just 9 behind the Houston Astros. Their FIP is 3.81, which puts them in the 6th spot. As far as the pitching is concerned this has been a team effort. All the active pitchers at the moment have ERA+’s over 100, except Johan Oviedo and he is at 94, due to the bad outing the last game. Certainly, the surprise of the pitching staff has been Vince Velasquez. After a horrendous beginning, giving up 8 runs in a little over 7 innings in 2 starts, he has become the Pirates best pitcher. The last 4 games, he has given up 0 runs in 3 of them and 3 in the other game. His current ERA+ is 146. His lifetime ERA+ is 87. Whether it is him or something the Pirates saw, they have now honed him into a top pitcher. If he can keep this up even a little bit, it will make this rotation very formidable. I will admit I never saw this coming, but I am very happy.

Defense: Despite what you hear in the Pirate broadcast booth the Pirates are just an average fielding team at 17th in Defensive Efficiency. I think a lot of this is due to Rodolfo Castro having to move over to shortstop to replace Oneil Cruz. If Tucupita Marcano could prove that he can hit major league pitching, moving him to shortstop may help. The Pirates did this late in a game recently moving Castro over to second where he is better. Regardless the Pirates are fielding better than they have in a long time. It’s amazing what a real 1st baseman can do for you, thank you Carlos Santana.

The Pirates had a surprising great April. I expected this team to play meaningful games in August and September and contend for a playoff spot. I never thought they would get off to this good of a start, especially with some to the injuries that have occurred, beyond the devastating Oneil Cruz injury. The schedule is a little tougher in May, beginning with the next 6 games against the Rays and the Jays. If these Pirates can play .500 ball the rest of the season, they will wind up with 85+ wins. I certainly do not expect the Pirates to be 40-20 at the next 30 game report. 35 and 25 would be nice and I feel they are more than capable of accomplishing that record around the 1st week of June. They need to stay away from the injury bug if they are going to be in the hunt. They have had enough of that. I think the most important thing that happened this month was the long term signing of Bryan Reynolds. It shows that the Pirates have a true belief in this club and the future. If things continue like this, the future is now.

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Pirates Morning Report: Throw Me The Damn Fastball

Final Score: Pirates 2 Nationals 7

Why The Pirates Loss: For the 2nd outing in a row Johan Oviedo seemed to want to throw nothing but breaking pitches and the results this time were disastrous. In 2.1 innings he got racked up for 7 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks while striking out only 1 batter. In the bottom of the 3rd all 4 batters he faced hit the ball hard. He has a fastball that is around 96 to 98 MPH but for some reason he seems to be reluctant to throw it. The bullpen pitched the last 5.2 innings and gave up no runs on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out 4 batters. After the big day on Saturday the Pirate bats were quiet getting only 6 hits, with just one being an extra base hit. The Nationals scored their first 5 runs after 2 were out in the 1st and 2nd inning. Rich Hill, give Oviedo some lessons. The starting pitching for the Pirates got blitzed to send them to their 9th loss of the season.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates trailed 5-0 going into the top of the 3rd inning. Ji Hwan Bae singled to lead off the inning and worked his way around to 3rd base with 2 out. Bryan Reynolds singled him in to make the score 5-1. Then the Pirates got 2 walks to send Jack Suwinski up with the bases loaded for the 2nd game in a row. He hit a ground ball down the 1st base line and just missed beating the pitcher to the bag by a half step to end the inning. The Nationals added 2 more runs in the bottom of the inning and never were threatened the rest of the way. For this game anyway, the Nationals got the 2 outs hits and the Pirates did not.

The Next Game: Tuesday night, the Rays, in Tampa Bay. The teams with the best 2 records in baseball with square off against each other for a 3 game series in the Fascist state of Florida. The Pirates will need to win at least one game to make this a .500 road trip. Tomorrow I will give the Pirate 29 game report. Around every 30 games or so is a good time to see how the team is doing when compared with the rest of the league. Needless to say this will be their best report card in about 7 years.

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Pirates Morning Report: So Nice To Be On The Right Side Of Blowouts.

Final Score Game 1: Pirates 6 Nationals 3

Final Score Game 2: Pirates 16 Nationals 1

Why The Pirates Won: Let’s get Game 2 over with. As I use to write about the Pirates, Chad Kuhl and the Nationals took the field. Game 1 was much more competitive. Rich (I Prefer Pitching With Men On Base), Hill pitched another dancing through the raindrops 6.1 innings, giving up 3 runs, 2 earned, on 8 hits, walking no one, and striking out 5. Hill also had his at’em ball going, recording 5 line drive outs, many of them with runners on base. The bullpen came in with one out in the 7th and recorded 8 consecutive outs. The Pirate hitters took advantage of 7 walks and scored 6 runs. Miguel Andujar had a huge 2 games, going 4 for 5, with 2 home runs and 6 RBI’s. Jack Suwinski didn’t have a bad day either going 3 for 6 with 5 RBI’s, including a grand slam homerun. For the 2 games the Pirates scored 22 runs on 27 hits and walked 14 times. They are now 20-8 and need only one more win to make this a successful road trip. Of course, more than that is fine too.

Key Moments Of The Game: The 2nd game, Chad Kuhl took the mound. In the first game it was the Rich Hill, how to get out of jams show, for the 2nd consecutive start. This was almost a carbon copy of his last start. In 6 full innings of work, he had one 3up, 3 down inning. This was the Nationals nightmare. 1st inning leadoff double, no runs scored with 2 line outs. Bottom of the 3rd, bases loaded nobody out, no runs scored thanks to a line drive double play. Bottom of the 4th, they were finally able to take advantage of catchers interference with a key 2 out double to tie the score 2-2. Bottom of the 5th, no runs scored after a 1 out double, thanks to another line drive out to Connor Joe at first. The Nationals were able to get 1 run after a leadoff triple in the bottom of the 6th. The Nationals were 2-13 with runners in scoring position. How long will Rich Hill be able to keep doing this?

Next Game: This afternoon, the Nationals, in Washington D. C. Johan Oviedo will take the hill for the Pirates as they go for the sweep. You do not know if Andujar’s performance was just a fluky thing or maybe he has found something. The Pirates could use another productive right handed bat. It looks like the Pirates are going to find out, as he is staying up for a while. Let’s hope mother nature lets them go for their 21st win.

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Pirates Morning Report: Only Mother Nature Can Stop This Team

The Pirates were rained out of their game with the Nationals yesterday and will play a day night doubleheader today. The Pirates have finally captured the attention of the national media. The main theme is, are the Pirates for real? Many are not believers, saying that the Pirates are playing out of their minds, or things are going their way. Nothing could be further from the truth. What is true, is that the so-called experts, can’t stand looking so bad. Even though I thought this team would be a contender, when few people did, they are playing better than even I thought they would. Let’s take a look at why the national media thinks the Pirates are off to such a good start.

The Pirates are playing out of their minds. If you look at the stats the Pirates are quite good but they are at the bottom of the top 10 in the important stats. They are below average in the overall fielding stat. They do lead the league in stolen bases but unlike the Tampa Bay Rays they are not on top of almost every batting stat. The same can be said for the pitching. They are in good solid position when it comes to the most important pitching stats, but they are not leading the league. I will go into their stats in more detail at the 29-game report. The point is these are not stats of a team that is playing out of their minds.

Things are going the Pirates way. Wrong again media moron. Things have not gone the Pirates way, especially on the injury front. I thought losing Oneil Cruz would be the loss that sent this team on a downward spiral, and I think it did, but for only one game. They quickly shook it off and got right back on the winning track. Right now, the Pirates have 7 pitchers that are either about to come off the shelf or are on the shelf. Let’s count them: Max Kranick, J. T. Brubaker, Chase De Jong, Will Crowe, Mike Burrows, Rob Zastryzny, and Jarlin Garcia. All of these pitchers, most likely would have had big roles, or pitched on the major league team this year. Jarlin Garcia was going to be a major piece of the bullpen, and there is no timetable for his return. Some of this group will return in the next couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see what the Pirates do. The Pirates are showing a surprising amount of depth. There have been a lot of games this year where the Pirates had some really bad luck. Now this is going to happen during the course of a long season, but it was not like the Pirates got a huge number of breaks during this 26 game stretch.

Are Pirates going to keep playing close to .700 ball, of course not but who is? But is this team for real, absolutely. This team, in my opinion, was always going to be solid. I felt that they would be playing meaningful games in August and September. Like every team, I am sure they will go through a bad spell. In the long run, the Pirates are a contending team, with a good chance of making the playoffs, and may be the surprise story of the decade.

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Pirates Morning Report: How Many Ways Can I Beat You

Final Score: Pirates 6 Dodgers 2

Why The Pirates Won: Mitch Keller went Nolan Ryan striking out 10 batters in 6 innings. After giving up 2 runs in the 1st he settled down and shutout the Dodgers through the next 5 on only 3 hits and no walks. Then the bullpen really went to work as DUJ, Jose Hernandez, David Bednar retired all 9 batters they faced. The Pirate batters showed two different ways to score 3 runs in an inning. In the bottom of the 1st, they scored 3 runs on 4 singles, one a bunt single with 2 strikes, a sacrifice fly and had a double steal. In the bottom of the 6th, they scored 3 runs on a walk then consecutive home runs by Connor Joe and Rodolfo Castro to stretch their lead to 6-2. Small ball one inning and long ball another inning to score 6 runs. The Pirates won the series and stretched their record to 18-8.

Key Moment Of The Game: The immediate break back in the 1st inning after the Dodgers had taken the lead 2-0 in the top of the 1st. The Pirates tied the score on 3 singles and a sacrifice fly and Andrew McCutchen had move all the way to third with 2 out. Then Jack Suwinski got a little check swing bloop single to score McCutchen to take the lead 3-2. That’s all the Pirate pitchers would need as they really shut down the Dodgers. It was nice to add on in the 6th inning with the long ball.

Next Game: Tonight, The Nationals, in Washington D. C. Rich Hill will be pitching for the Pirates when they start a 6 game road trip against the Nationals and then the Rays. Being on the road, a 3-3 record will be satisfactory. The Pirates are looking better that I even expected them to be thus far. The Oneil Cruz injury I thought would be a crushing loss but this team seems to have great depth. Just enjoy this while it lasts because there will be some ups and downs. I will be sad to see April end on Sunday. Go Bucs!

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Golf Diary

The Round: Played Riverview Score: 80 Greens In Reg: 11 Putts: 36

The Good: Iron play improved greatly hitting 11 greens. Drove the ball well. Short game was good.

The Bad: The putting numbers were bad, and I missed 2 really short 4-6 feet birdie putts. If you don’t putt you don’t score was proven again. I continue to make some bad decisions out there trying to do too much, which cost me at least 4 strokes.

The Luck Of The Round: Had absolutely no luck on the greens. I did hit some bad putts especially those short birdie putts but I burned as many edges as I had all year. I am listing them damn it. 1st hole upper edge for par. 6th hole a 25 foot birdie putts that burned the high side and stop right behind the hole. 4 footer on 10 for birdie that skimmed the hole. 10 footer on 12 left edge for birdie. A 10 footer for par on 16 slight lip out. Birdie putt on 17 left edge. Finally a 12 footer for par on 18 burned the low edge. None could find the hole hence the 36 putts. Just a major frustrating day.

Next Round: Who knows? We are in for some rainy and then rainy and cold weather for the next 5 days. May not golf for a week.

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Pirates Morning Report: Take That Dodger Blue

Final Score: Pirates 8 Dodgers 1

Why The Pirates Won: Roansy Contreras really shut the Dodgers down over the first 5 innings not allowing a hit. He skirted some trouble in the 6th to pitch a solid game, giving up no runs on just 2 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 5. The Pirate bats after a slow start got hot in the 5th inning and continued to pour it on. The bottom third of the order, Castro, Bae, and Delay went 8 for 11 with 6 RBI’s. Jason Delay went 3 for 3 knocking in 3 of those runs. The Pirates made no errors and had a nice clean bounce back win over the mighty Dodgers to improve to 17-8.

Key Moment Of The Game: The Pirates had just taken the lead 2-0 in the bottom of the 5th inning, when in the top of the 6th the Dodgers got 2 singles around one out. It looked like that Contreras may be giving the lead right back. He got Jason (I Am Batting Third In The Dodger Lineup Despite The Fact That I Can’t Hit) Heyward to hit a shallow fly ball to right for the second out. Contreras ended the threat and preserved the lead by getting James Outman to fly out to centerfield. The Pirates added a run in the 6th inning and then added a big 5 spot in the bottom of the 7th to put the game away.

Next Game: This afternoon, Dodgers in Pittsburgh. The rubber match will feature Mitch Keller squaring off against Julio Urias, who, just like the Dodgers has had his ups and downs this year. Even if the Pirates lose today the homestand will be a successful 5-2. The Pirates have blasted the Dodger pitching staff for 15 runs in 2 games. A 5-2 homestand is really nice but 6-1 would be oh so sweet.