Tag: sports

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Sports: College Football Semifinals

We are down to a final 4 in college football, Penn St. Ohio St. Notre Dame and Texas. To me the most surprising game was the way Ohio St. handled Oregon. In fact, Ohio St. was the only winner to have a statistical edge. Let’s face it Buckeye fans, which I am a proud member, this football team looked like it was doing it with mirrors all season. They habitually got off to slow starts and trailed such teams as Northwestern, Akron, Indiana, only scoring 7 first half points against Iowa, almost losing to Nebraska at home, and finally ending the season with that abysmal performance against Michigan. That loss to Michigan must have woken up the entire team and coaching staff because this looks like an entirely different team in the playoffs. The key to their success is they have used the passing game to set up the running game rather than the usual reverse. They have started both games on fire, leading Tennessee by 21-0 and Oregon by a whopping 34-0 before the first half ended. I wasn’t a believer after the Tennessee game because Tennessee had many key injuries, but after this game Ohio St. is the odds-on favorite to go all the way. My second biggest surprise was the way Georgia shut down the Notre Dame running game. Neither offense shined but Georgia outgained Notre Dame 296 to 240. The two turnovers for Georgia and the opening half kickoff return for a touchdown by Notre Dame to take a 20-3 lead were the keys to victory. Although no surprise to me but I think this was lost on the media, was the way Arizona St. totally dominated Texas, but lost because of ineptitude in Texas territory and one of the worst non targeting calls in the history of college football. Arizona St had drives that reached the Texas 25, 34, 19, and 2 yard lines and walked away with no points. The drive that ended on the 2 did eventually give ASU a safety, but at a minimum they left 16 points on the field which would have won the ball game easily. ASU out gained Texas 510 to 375, made 29 first downs to 17 for Texas and controlled the ball for almost 38 minutes of the game. Arizona St. was clearly the better team, but the inconsistent Texas offense came up with enough big plays and returned a punt for a touchdown to pull out the win. Boise St. put up a game fight against Penn St. even outgaining them 412 to 387. Four turnovers and a critical hands to the face penalty nullifying a 20 yard pass and run touchdown which would have made the score 24-21 with 30 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter were the things that sealed the victory for Penn St. Both of these controversial 3rd and 4th seeded teams put up competitive games, but we may still see a new way to seed teams’ next season. On to the semifinals.

The first game will pit Notre Dame against the Penn St. Nittany Lions and their disgusting incompetent coach James Franklin. Notre Dame should win this game on that fact alone. Despite not being able to run the ball in their normal fashion Notre Dame played about as complete of a game as possible. They played great defense, scored a special teams’ touchdown and quickly scored when Georgia turned the ball over deep in their own territory. Georgia never really threatened to make a game of it thanks to the Notre Dame defense. Many people felt that Penn St. had the easiest road to the semifinals because of the way the committee seeded the teams. I disagree. SMU for whatever reason just could not get out of the gate in their last 2 games of the season. Whether it was the pressure who knows. Boise St. played a good game and could have beaten Penn St. The Nittany lion defense has played well the whole playoffs. This game is going to come down to who can run the ball better. I think Notre Dame has two other advantages. They have the better coach by far and Notre Dame’s quarterback, Riley Leonard seems to be able to improvise better than his Penn St. counterpart. It should be a good game but I think Notre Dame prevails.

The second game will see the red hot Ohio State Buckeyes go up against the Texas Longhorns. The Texas offense will be the key to this game. I do not think they can go 42 minutes without scoring against Ohio State and win this game. When the Texas offense is on, they are explosive and pretty much unstoppable. The two overtime periods showed how this offense is so inconsistent. In the first overtime it took a 4th and 15 30 yard touchdown pass to save the day for Texas. In the 2nd overtime they scored on one play. Their defense will have their hands full with the Ohio St. offense. The Texas offense needs to control the clock and score points in the process. Texas has had offensive inconsistencies all year. It is unlikely that they are going to find that consistency one game down the road. If OSU gets out of the gate fast for the third straight game, Texas is going to be victim no. 3.

We should see Ohio St. and Notre Dame in the championship game. I called the Penn St and Notre Dame game correct in the quarter finals but missed with the Buckeyes. I should have had the big upset pick, but Arizona St. couldn’t turn total domination into a win. The pressure will really be amping up and it will be fun to see how each team responds. Even though it has had its ups and downs it has been a great playoff season so far for College Football. The only question remains is what took you so long to do this NCAA College Football. It is a shame that this has not been going on for 50 years. See you after the semi finals.

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Sports: College Football Quarterfinals

The first round of the College Football Playoffs (CFP) was not good for the ACC and the playoff committee. The two controversial picks by the committee got smoked as well as the ACC conference champion Clemson Tigers. The first round did not have any real surprises except that SMU had the big game chitters again and Ohio St. blew away Tennessee. There were no upsets and the top 8 seeds are in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals should be more competitive with the committee’s automatic seeding process under close scrutiny during this round. The committee needs both Boise St. and Arizona St. to put in good performances against Penn St. and Texas or there will probably be a different way to seed the teams next year. I like the honoring of conference champions with a 1st round bye, so I am hoping that both of these games will be competitive. Let’s take a look at the quarterfinals in chronological order.

The Fiesta Bowl: Penn St. vs Boise St. Penn St. is once again a solid favorite, but I find it hard to believe that if the game is close, James Franklin will not blow it. The question will be if Boise St. can keep it close. I won’t be shocked if Penn St. loses this game, but I think they will wind up beating Boise St., but it will be a close one. If Boise St. can somehow run the ball and control the clock, then Penn St. may be in for a long day.

The Peach Bowl: Texas vs Arizona St. Texas is an even bigger favorite to beat Arizona St. Texas is coming off their most impressive win of the year. Arizona St. seems to have a lot of momentum as they finished the season strong. Texas’s offense has had its ups and downs this year. I think Arizona St. wins this game with the surprise of the playoffs so far.

The Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs Oregon. Even though Oregon is in the Big Ten now this has the feel of a good old fashion Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes are around 3 point favorites and I will be pulling for them, but Oregon I still feel is the cream of the crop, with Ryan Day getting back into his big game mode. Oregon wins and it might not be that close of a game.

The Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame vs. Georgia. You could say this is the marquee game of the quarter finals. With Georgia’s problems at quarterback and Notre Dame’s stout running game I like Notre Dame to win this game solidly.

I think this round will have much better games as the pressure will ramp up on all 8 teams. The great thing is to have all these meaningful games on New Years Eve and Day. I feel the final 4 will be Penn State (grudgingly) Arizona St. Oregon and Notre Dame. We will see how right or wrong I am. See you before the semis.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Blake Snell Signing, High Risk But What Kind Of Reward.

The Dodgers signed Blake Snell to a 5 year contract that will pay him about 36 million a year for the next 5 years. Blake Snell was a high risk signing. He has played in the majors for 9 seasons. In only 2 of those seasons has he pitched in over 30 games. He has had 2 outstanding seasons which has netted him 2 Cy Young awards. Besides not coming to the post all that often his overall numbers are not that impressive. His career OPS+, the comparison stat where 100 is league average, is 128. Simply put, over the past 9 years he has pitched better than 28% of major league pitchers. Max Fried of the Braves is a free agent also this year. His career OPS+ over 8 years is 140. He has had his share of injuries, even more so than Snell. He has averaged 21 starts per year whereas Snell has averaged close to 24 starts. Snell’s biggest problem is his control. Even his Cy Young year with the Padres he averaged 5 walks per 9 innings. Until Snell threw his no hitter this year where he went 9 innings, he had never had a complete game. Let that one sink in for a while. Naturally when the Dodgers signed Snell all of the media was moaning and complaining that the system is broken, blah blah blah. The idea that only about 5 or 6 teams could afford Snell is ridiculous. Even the Pirates could afford Snell even though they would never admit it. However, what teams like the Pirates cannot do is take the risk of Snell having a mediocre year which he did for 3 of those 9 years. They also cannot take the risk of him taking the mound only 24 times or less which he did 5 out of 9 seasons. The Dodgers can take that risk and are taking that risk. In my view it is a big risk. The Dodgers have one of the strongest stables of starting pitching in all of baseball. The question will be how many of them will be able to come to the post. Not many did last year for various reasons. Despite all of this the Dodgers did manage to win the World Series. They still have the big three, Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman, who combined for 15 WAR last year. The starting 9 for the Pirates had a combined WAR of 8. This was not a player that the Pirates needed to or should have signed. It is obvious they need position players. Even for the Dodgers the Blake Snell signing is a burden for their payroll. It is very likely a signing that they will regret.

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Golf: Revisiting Grip Pressure, Overswinging, and Starting The Downswing.

I wrote these three articles about 2 to 3 years ago and they remain my most popular blogs, especially the one on grip pressure. The overswinging blog was titled You Cannot Overswing and the blog on starting the downswing was Maybe Sam Snead Was Right After All. Snead had a unique thought on how to start the downswing which was mostly criticized by other golf instructors. Over these last 3 years I haven’t really changed my mind, but I thought it might be time to clarify a few points in each area and even strengthen some points because there are still instructors out there that teach a different philosophy that in my view hurts the average golfer more than helps. All three subjects are what it takes to hit a golf ball consistently. A most important aspect of the address, the grip, how to make a backswing, and the first move in making the downswing. If you can do these things correctly then your chances of making solid contact with the ball increase dramatically. Unfortunately, golf instruction has some strange ideas on these subjects, especially the first two, which makes learning the game very difficult. They are not as far off on starting the downswing mainly because there are as many ways to start the downswing as there are body parts. What makes this difficult at times is that the methods used will work, it just boils down to finding what might work for you. This is different when it comes to the grip and backswing, because what most golf instruction teaches is wrong. So, let’s dive in.

There are way too many endorsers of the light grip. I saw a recent video aimed at senior golfers that said it is very important to start with a light grip. They say that your grip will tighten up automatically when you start to swing. What happen to constant grip pressure during the swing. Most of the older instruction books write about having a firm grip. The pressure points are the middle two fingers of the right hand and the last 3 fingers of the left hand. All of this light grip stuff started because some beginners take a death grip on the club. To put a number on it, let’s say that 1 is the lightest you can hold the club and 10 is the tightest you can squeeze the club. In order to grip the club with the correct firmness I would put a number around 7 to 8 depending on the shot. 8 for the driver and longer clubs and for hitting out of the rough no matter what the club. If you don’t want the club closing over out of the rough, you had better firm up those last 3 fingers of the left hand. For all short shots and short irons I would say it should be closer to a 7. It is perfectly fine to work your fingers and have some hand movement before the shot. Just before you start the swing you want to feel that the hands are firming up and ready to control the clubhead. Your hands are never going to be able to react to the movement of the swing, especially at the point of contact with club accelerating at full speed. You do not need to choke the life out of the club, no pun intended, but you do need to take full command of the club and the clubhead. There is no way you are doing this with a light grip. If you played these sports think of how you held a baseball bat or a tennis racket. Be the firm handshake, not the dead fish.

I still believe that you cannot overswing. However, you do have to do two things at the end of your backswing. Your weight should be solidly on the right foot, and you should feel that you are in balance. One of the biggest swing faults I see is that people take too short of a backswing. This short backswing is caused by anxiety in trying to hit the ball, and the odd feeling of turning away from your target. It does not help that most golf instruction talks about restricting the hip turn. This all started with what is known as the X factor. The X factor being the more you can turn your shoulders without turning your hips the farther you will hit the ball. The basic swing is a 45 degree hip turn and a 90-degree shoulder turn. This is a difference of 45 degrees. The goal of the X factor swing is to increase this 10 to 20 degrees. If you do this, you will hit the ball farther. Is this correct. Absolutely. Will you be able to play golf well into your 70’s with this method. Probably not. A big hip turn is essential if you are going to minimize the wear and tear on the body. I feel the hips should turn at least 45 degrees and you should try to turn them anywhere from 60 to 70 degrees. The great Bobby Jones had a huge hip turn. None other than Jack Nicklaus had a big hip turn. He even raised his heel off the ground to ensure that his hips were turning quite a bit. Once you start making a big hip turn you will really feel your swing loosening up and become more fluid. The only danger of making a big hip turn is that as you turn toward the 70 degree mark, there may be a tendency to throw the body toward the left side or on the left foot. Make sure you maintain the weight on the right foot at the top of the backswing, and you will be hitting the ball in an effortless way. You will not be stretching the left side of the body to its limits, causing damage to tendons and muscles. Try a big hip turn backswing and let the body heal from restricting those hips.

All right, we are at the top of the swing. Now it is time to start down and make contact with the ball. There are many correct ways to start the downswing. None of them are wrong. As a player you need to find the one that works for you. However, you don’t need to be a slave to any of them. If one of them does not seem to be working, then go to another one. Before we get to all the ways to start down, let’s look at what Sam Snead said. He said that the best way to start down was to think about pulling a rope down that was attached to a church bell. Snead was really panned for that idea because as golf instruction developed and video came into use, the lower body became king as the way to start down. The idea was to keep the hands out of the picture until the last minute when they would release for a powerful smash right at the ball, but not any sooner. What Snead did not emphasize when he wrote about this, is that the hands need to start straight down form the top. All of a sudden you see this being advocated under the heading of the gravity swing. When you get to the top drop the hands straight down. The difference is, Snead used the word pull, and now people are talking about letting the hands just drop. To me this indicates a more passive move to start the downswing, where Snead’s words of pulling the hands down is more aggressive. It is a matter of semantics but there is no question this is what Snead was telling people to do 65 years ago. There are other effective ways to start the downswing. I am going to briefly mention a number of them without any explanation. If you want to read more about them, you can look them up. They all can work. Straightening your left leg. Kicking your right knee toward the ball. Raising your left shoulder. It helps if you are thinking of lowering your left shoulder during the back swing. Bump your hips to the left before turning toward the target. Just shift you weight to the left foot before starting down. Falling into the lead foot. Unscrewing your backswing with the legs and then firing the shoulder away from the body. Moving the core forward then increasing the arm speed. Lots to choose from there and none of them are bad. However, none of them are going to give Snead’s method of starting the downswing a thumbs up. Believe me it is another effective and yet very simple way to start the downswing. It is a method you should definitely try.

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Pirates Morning Report: .500 Road Trip Locked UP

Final Score: Pirates 6 Astros 2

Why The Pirates Won: For two days in a row it was the .200 club that contributed mightily to this win. It is not often you win a game when your 3-4 hitters in the lineup go 1 for 10 and strikeout 7 times. Jared Triolo and Michael Taylor went 2 for 7, with 1 walk, driving in 3 runs. Barry Falter pitched a nice 5 and 1/3 innings coming back from the IL. He gave up 1 earned run on 6hits, walking no one. Dennis Santana came in the bottom of the 6th to snuff out the rally and pitched a scoreless 7th inning. In his last 7 games he has 9 and 2/3 innings and has not given up a run, while striking out 16 batters. Whether it is the change of scenery, or he and the Pirates found something, he has been lights out over his last 10-11 appearances. Glad I was wrong about him. Kyle Nicolas and Hunter Stratton finished up. Even though they had some issues, the Astros failed to score any runs and the Pirates had pretty much of a stress-free win.

The Key Moment Of The Game: In the top of the sixth there were two out, nobody on and Jared Triolo was behind in the count 0-2. Over the next 6 pitches Triolo battled to get a walk. Michael Taylor for the second straight day hit a big 2 out home run to make the score 5-1 Pittsburgh, which gave the Pirates a very nice cushion. The Astros did get a run in the bottom of the inning but never had a major threat going for the rest of the day. The Pirates got the final run on a bases loaded walk to Andrew McCutchen to clinch the series win.

Next Game: Tonight, Astros in Houston. The Pirates will start recently acquired Jake Woodford. He has had an up and down career. Let’s hope he has an up night so the Pirates have a shot at getting the sweep. The Pirates made modest noise at the deadline, which should help the team some. I will discuss that more when the Pirates make their final roster moves. Right now, just basking in the glory of a 3-game road winning streak, against some pretty good competition.

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Pirates Morning Report: Unlikely Heroes Even Up Road Trip

Final Score: Pirates 5 Astros 3

Why The Pirates Won: The .200 Club won this game. Yasmani Grandal, Michael (I Refuse To Write The A) Taylor and Jared Triolo all had big hits to help win this game. Taylor in particular had the big game going 2 for 3 with a homer and 3 RBIs. Paul Skenes had another solid outing allowing only 1 earned run on 5 hits, walking 3, striking out 6, while throwing 101 pitches. He was not his sharpest, but if Ke’Bryan Hayes makes the play on a ground ball, it might have been a double play, and he would have given up 0 runs. This game was very similar to the previous win except the Pirates tied it in the 8th and took the lead in the 9th. The bullpen had another shaky bottom of the last inning but held on to pick up the win. No matters what happens on the rest of the trip, it cannot be consider a disaster.

Key Moments Of The Game: Oneil Cruz’s double to tie the game and Michael Taylor’s 3 run homer to give the Pirates a 5-2 lead came when 2 were out. David Bednar came in to get the save in the bottom of the 9th. After quickly getting one out, things began to go awry. Victor Caratini singled up the middle. Bednar walks the next batter. Jose Altuve singles to left to load the bases. Alex Bregman hit a 102 MPH liner that Michael Taylor was able to snag for the 2nd out. Up to the plate stepped the ever-dangerous Yordan Alvarez who was already 2 for 4 with an RBI. The Pirates decided on a gutsy move by giving him nothing to hit walking him to make the score 5-3 putting the winning run on base and the tying run in scoring position. It paid off as Bednar got Yainer Diaz to pop out to Cruz to end the game. Whew!

Next Game: Tonight, Astros in Houston. Barry Falter returns tonight and at least he is not facing a top of the rotation guy. A 3-3 road trip has now become more of a possibility. More so than the Pirates doing anything to really improve this team. We have about 11 hours to find out.

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Pirates Morning Report: Punchless Pirates Lose Again

Final Score: Pirates 3 Diamondbacks 4

Why The Pirates Lost: In the last 7 innings of the game the Pirates scored 0 runs on 3 hits. The 4 through 7 hitters went 2 for 14. The team was 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. They left 9 men on base. The Diamondbacks tried to help out by walking 3 and hitting 2 batters but the Pirates refused to take advantage. Oneil Cruz looked like he was suffering from jet lag, his at bats were so bizarre. He took 2 out of 3 strikes to strike out on 3 pitches. To make up for it on his next at bat, he swung at all 6 pitches even though only 1 was in the strike zone, to strike out again. On his 4th at bat, he took 2 strikes and then could not hold up on a pitch that was almost over his head. Mr. Cruz is 6′ 7″. Luiz Ortiz for the first time in a long time had control issues. In just 5+ innings of work Ortiz gave up 3 runs, 5 hits, walking 3, striking out 4, while throwing 93 pitches. With this offense you have to do better than that.

Key Moment Of The Game: It was 3-1 Pirates going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Ortiz had been dancing through the raindrops giving up just 1 run. The inning started off with a bang when Joc Peterson hit an 0-2 fast ball 453 feet to make it 3-2. Then Ortiz walked the next batter and was done for the day. Out went Ortiz and in came Carmen Mlodzinski, who also seemed to be jet lagged. In 5 pitches he gave up 2 singles and before you could say how do spell Mlodzinski, the score was tied 3-3. If the Pirates would have somehow won this game, the next play would have been the play of the game. Eugenio Suarez hit a line drive but right at Ke’Bryan Hayes and he threw out the runner at 1st to complete a very fortunate double play. Mlodzinski took the game into his own hands by throwing a wild pitch to make sure that the Diamondbacks would win the game 4-3. The Pirates never really threatened the rest of the way and the road trip started with a loss.

Next Game: Tonight, Diamondbacks in Arizona. Marco Gonzalez starts for the Pirates tonight and apparently has a good record against the Diamondbacks. When will this team ever get offensive help. The Pirates are 2-3 in their last 5 games. The offense has averaged barely over 2 runs per game. They completely wasted an impressive performance by Paul Skenes. Management continues to do nothing.

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Pirates Morning Report: Win Streak Over, How Will They Respond?

Final Score: Pirates 0 Philllies 6

Why The Pirates Lost: The 6 game winning streak came to an end with a big fat thud yesterday. If you are going to lose you might as well do everything bad and just get it over with. The Pirates offense was so bad, that even though they had 6 hits, they had only one at bat with a runner in scoring position. The offense did manage to strike out only 6 times again. They played lousy defense making 2 errors and not making plays on balls that should have been caught. Marco Gonzales had an ok start giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, walking 1 over 4 and 2/3 innings. The bullpen gave up the rest of the runs although 3 of the 4 runs were unearned. The Pirates stunk out the joint, but we will see which one was the anomaly. The first two wins or yesterday’s lousy performance.

Key Moment Of The Game: It is hard to come up with a really key moment in this game because you felt the Pirates were not going to score if the game went 15 innings. No question giving up the 3 runs on just 2 hits in the top of the 7th to make the score 5-0 sealed the deal. Oneil Cruz dropped the throw from Nick Gonzales on a possible double play ball that opened the floodgates. You really did not think that the Pirates were going to sweep the Phillies, did you.

Next Game: Tonight, the Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The big guns go for the Pirates, Keller and Skenes in the first two games of the series. The Cardinals have won 4 out of the 6 games they have played against the Pirates. The bear minimum here is to take the Cardinals 2 out of 3. We will see how the Pirates respond to a very poor performance. This team needs to keep the momentum going if they are really going to make a run at the playoffs. This all starts by beating the Cardinals 2 or 3 times this week.

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Pirates Morning Report: Couldn’t Lose Even Though They Tried.

Final Score: Pirates 8 Phillies 7

Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates offense won this one because it sure as hell wasn’t the pitching. The offense was led by Reynolds, 3 hits, Cruz, 3hits, 3 RBI’s and Rawhide Rowdy Telles with 3 sacrifice flies. Management essentially forfeited the game. They had 5 choices to start the game, Perez, Gonzales, Priester, Keller, and Ortiz. They picked the worse pitcher of the bunch in Martin Perez, and you could say he came through. He pitched 3 and 2/3 innings giving up 6 runs on 7 hits, 2 of which left the park, walking 2 on 82 pitches. That is over 20 pitches per inning. Hopefully the next time we see Perez he will be coming out of the bullpen. Naturally with a break, the Phillies, who want to win every game, started one of their better pitchers in Aaron Nola. Surprisingly the Pirate offense came alive and lit him up for 4 runs on 6hits and 1 walk in just 5 innings. The Phillies bullpen is not quite as good as Bob Walk and Greg Brown made them out to be, but they are solid, ranked 8th in all of baseball. Of course, Walk said the Pirates have a good bullpen also. He must think being ranked 22nd out of 30 teams is good. None the less, last night the Pirate bullpen did out do the Phillies bullpen. The Pirates scored 4 runs over the last 4 innings to open the post All Star break with a win. Unbelievable.

The Key Moments Of The Game: It boiled down to the 9th inning. Going into the 9th the score was 7-6 Phillies. Carmen Mlodzinski came into pitch. The Phillies opened the inning with 2 singles to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Mlodzinski got a pop out and fly out to right field moving the runner to third base. One pitch later the other runner stole 2nd to put runners on second and third with 2 out. Mlodzinski struck out Brandon Marsh on a beautiful 97 MPH fast ball on a 3-2 count. In the bottom of the ninth the Phillies brought in lefty Jose Alvarado. Connor Joe singled to left field followed by an Andrew McCutchen walk. Michael Taylor pinch ran for Connor Joe after his single. The Pirates then pulled off the double steal, with Taylor just making it to third base. This changed the dynamics of the inning and set the Pirates up for victory. Bryan Reynolds struck out, but Oneil Cruz hit a chopper over the mound that the Phillies tried to make a play at the plate on, that was a mistake. Instead of getting the 2nd out now the Pirates had first and third with one out and the infield had to play in again. Nick Gonzales drilled a ball to left field and the Pirates had an unexpected win.

Next Game: Tonight, Phillies in Pittsburgh. The best thing about this win last night was that the Pirates are not getting swept. To win any game 8-7, let alone against the Phillies, makes you wonder if things are starting to go the Pirates way. Time will tell. Shelton did ask Martin Perez if he could start again tonight but Perez said no. It certainly was a miracle win last night.

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Pirates Morning Report: All Star Break, Part Two

The Pirate broadcast booth, some on social media, and the written media are just downright giddy over the Pirates 4 game winning streak and getting to .500 at the All Star break. Derek Shelton says that the Pirates are playing better. The cold hard facts do not show that. Beginning today the reality check will begin. The Pirates are going on a 24 game stretch where they play 6 games at home, 6 games on the road, 6 games at home and 6 games on the road. They will play 3 games each against 2 of the best teams in the National League, the Phillies at home and the Dodgers on the road. The other 18 games are going to be against teams that currently have better records than the Pirates. The Pirates’ home and road record is pretty much the same. There are 12 games before the trade deadline. Six at home against the Phillies and the Cardinals. Then they go on the road to face the Diamondbacks and the Astros. Losing something like 9 out of 12 is a distinct possibility with the team that they now have assembled. Shelton said recently that they are looking to add a bat. He did not say that there would be a player attached to that bat. Ben Cherrington said earlier that he felt the Pirates were going to fix their offensive issues from within the organization. The bottom line on all of this is, as usual, the Pirates will not be major players at the trade deadline. It will be a big surprise to me if they even make one trade. What is life if not to have some fun. Here is simply what I would do if I ran the Pirates.

Gone are Jack Suwinski and Jared Triolo to be replaced by Ji Hwan Bae and Liover Peguero. There are three blue chip names that are most likely on the trade block. Two of them for sure and the other one a definite maybe. Taking them in the order of most desirable for the Pirates. At the top of the list is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. His current OPS+ is 130 and that is after getting off to a very slow start. He would add a whole new dynamic to this team. He is under team control until 2025 and this guy stays on the field. The last 3 years he has played between 156 and 161 games. Next at a very close 2nd is A’s closer Mason Miller. This would bolster the bullpen which right now sits at 22nd in baseball. Finally, another Oakland A Brent Rooker. The problem with him is that he is basically a DH. McCutchen has not exactly been chop liver at that position, but to think that he can play the field on a regular basis may be stretching things a bit. When Rooker has been out in the field he has been horrible. The Pirates do seem to get along with a mediocre right fielder and there is no question his bat is elite. If I ran the Pirates, I would make sure that I got two out of three. If this team is going to make the playoffs they need some huge upgrades in certain areas. You are not making the playoffs with the worst centerfielder and a bottom third right fielder. This trade deadline is tricky to say the least. There are only about 6 teams that are definitely sellers. The Blue Jays are not one of those teams. They are a borderline team, and they may not be in the selling mode. Getting the other 2 Oakland players would be just fine. It would take some bold strokes to pull this off, so it is unlikely to happen. Which is the same thing you can say about this organization making the playoffs this year, very unlikely. The next 12 games and the Pirate activity at the trade deadline may change my mind.