Tag: sports

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Pirates Morning Report: Send Down Suwinski, DFA Tellez PLEASE

Final Score: Pirates 5 Cubs 4

Why The Pirates Won: A battling start by Jared Jones as he struggled through 6 innings giving up 3 runs, 7 hits, walking 0, striking out 7 while throwing 91 pitches. There were only two 3 up 3 down innings, but when he needed an out Jones was able to persevere. The Cubs were only 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The bullpen did the job, with very encouraging performances by Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar. Chapman threw 17 pitches, with 12 being strikes in a clean 7th inning. Bednar had a 3 up 3 down 9th with not even a loud foul being hit off of him. The Pirates offense thanks to a misplay in right field had just enough to pull out this tight win. What was not encouraging was the performances of Rowdy (They Are Putting Me In For Defensive Purposes?) Tellez and Jack (6 Swings And Misses, 3 Called Strikes, 3 Foul Balls) Suwinski. By the way that adds up to 4 strike outs in 4 at bats. Neither one should be playing in the majors at the moment. It is hard to win games with only 11 position players. Somehow the Pirates managed to pull out this game to improve their record to 20-25.

Key Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 8th the Pirates were leading 5-3 when Colin Holderman took the mound. The first pitch he hit the batter. Cody Bellinger on an 0-2 pitch hit a little dribbler in front of the plate. Yasmani Grandal’s throw was not good, but our defensive specialist Mr. Tellez made a half ass effort on trying to catch the ball. It got past him allowing the Cubs to have runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Holderman got the next batter to hit a sacrifice fly and the score was 5-4. From the Pirates point of view, Holderman miraculously struck out Ian Happ who crushes Pirate pitching. Just to make things interesting he walked the next batter and fell behind 2-0 on Nick Madrigal. He got 2 strikes and then Madrigal hit a weak ground ball up the middle that Alika Williams made a nice play on to end the inning. The Cubs scored a run without getting a hit, but it could have been much worse. Bednar pitched the magnificent 8 pitch 9th and the Pirates escaped with the win.

Next Game: This afternoon, Cubs in Chicago. Paul Skenes makes his 2nd start and hopefully will be able to lead the Pirates to the 2nd win of the series. Last night was a huge win for the Pirates but can they keep the momentum going in of all places Chicago. It will be hard, especially when you have only 11 major league players to choose from to start the game.

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Be The Czar Of Baseball

Daily writing prompt
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
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For one day I would love to be the Czar of baseball. I would have complete autonomy over the game and make the following changes. Add two more teams immediately making a 32 team league, forming four 8 team Divisions. The first year I would do it by geography. There would be no American and National League. The schedule would be entirely within the division. Each team would play each other 22 times going back to a 154 game schedule. With each team playing each other that many times a true division champ should be crowned. The divisions would be named Aaron, Ruth, Robinson and Clemente. At the end of the season the division winners would play each other in an eleven game series. The series would run 3, 3, 2, and 2. If after 10 games the series was tied then the team that scored the most runs in the series would have the home field advantage for game 11. If the runs are tied, then there would be other tiebreakers to determine home field. The World Series would be 11 games with the same format. The next year, the teams that finished 1, 3, 5, and 7 in the Aaron division would move over to the Ruth division. The teams that finished 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the Ruth division would move over to the Aaron Division. You would do the same thing in the Robinson and Clemente division. That would guarantee a new division winner in two of the divisions. The fans in each city would get to see four new teams. The following year the Aaron and the Robinson division would make the switch, along with the Ruth and Clemente. Third year Clemente-Aaron, and Ruth-Robinson would be making the switch. Fans would get to see different teams every year. This would put back more significance to the regular season with only 4 teams advancing to the playoffs. It is abundantly clear that baseball is not really a playoff sport with such a long season. For two straight seasons the National League has sent the 6th seed to the World Series. I can envision those tremendous 11 game series right now and crowning a true and deserving champion.

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Pirates Morning Report: It’s Time For Replacements.

Final Score: Pirates 2 Rockies 3

Why The Pirates Lost: You’re kidding right. The Pirates made the no brainer move, pun intended, sending down Henry Davis and recalling Yasmani Grandal. It is time for this management team to get some testicles and shake up this team. The replacements are ready and are hitting. Check out these slash lines and this is not a misprint. Ji Hwan Bae .414/.516/.577, Nick Gonzales .358/.420/.575 and Jake Lamb .394/.483/.606. Now I know this is AAA but all of these players are slugging well over .500 and Bae is getting on base more than he is making outs. Who would these guys replace. Try ANYBODY. For now, I will take Jack Suwinski, Jared Triolo, and Rowdy (Rawhide) Tellez. Last nights game had some mind boggling stats. Six innings the Pirates went 3 up 3 down. Six innings they failed to get a hit. Their hitting coach said it is all about the process. WELL, THEIR PROCESS STINKS DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Their problems can be summed up by one pitch in the bottom of the ninth to Ke’Bryan Hayes. The first pitch was right down the middle. It couldn’t have been more down the middle and Hayes just looked at it for a called strike. That is one great process. The Pirates are now 14-19 losing their last 5 games. Here is the real scary thing. In the last three series, the Pirates have faced teams with worst records than theirs, when each series started. Their record is 1-6. Can’t wait to play the Dodgers and the Braves.

Key Moments Of The Game: Anytime a Pirate came to the plate. When the Rockies scored their first run on a home run you knew the game was over. Cruz did hit a home run in the bottom of 9th to make it close, but you knew they were going to lose.

Next Game: This afternoon, Rockies in Pittsburgh. Jared Jones will start for the Pirates. Jones is debating whether or not to fake an illness. He was seen in the locker room staring at 2-day old Sushi. He might have been thinking why are Suwinski and Tellez playing. What is the thinking here. I do not think there are going to be any miracles. There are 3 solid options in AAA. This team needs help. How about giving them some management.

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Pirates Morning Report: Thirty Two Games In

The Pirates stand at 14 wins and 18 losses. Talk about a tale of two halves. First 16 games 11-5, the last 16 games 3-13. I will take a look at the offense, defense and pitching. With all the stats and analytics today, it still boils down to three things when it comes to batting and pitching. Batting you have to get on base, score runs and then compare how you are doing with the rest of the league. The comparison stat is OPS+ with 100 being league average. This stat compares a batter with the rest of league based on the ballpark, competition and a variety of other factors. With pitching you have to be good at what you can control, home runs, walks and strikeouts. This is Fielding Independent Pitching known as FIP. As a pitcher you have to prevent runs and the comparison stat here is ERA+, again with 100 being league average. I always use Baseball References Defensive Efficiency to evaluate how a team is fielding. This takes in all aspects of fielding not just errors. Let us see how the Pirates shake out.

The Hitting: They are 15th in on base percentage, 21st in runs scored and 24th in OPS+. Quite frankly I thought they would be worse. All the runs they scored in the beginning of the season must have helped them score more runs than 9 other teams in baseball. These stats show that they are not that bad about getting on base but have not been able to take advantage. Right now, the Pirates have 5 players hitting above league average. A very small sample size Joey Bart (154), Connor Joe (140), the surprising Alika Williams (120) Bryan Reynold (115) and Ke’Bryan Hayes (101). On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Henry Davis (44) Jack Suwinski (55), Jared Triolo and Rowdy Tellez each at 61. This means they are performing 39 to 56% below the major league average hitter. In my view all of these players are disappointing if not surprising. The biggest surprise here is Triolo. I thought he would have to perform like he did the last 2 months of the season for the Pirates to have success and he has not come close. As a whole the team has lacked power which was supposed to be a plus. There are only 4 teams that have hit less home runs than the Pirates. Ke’Bryan Hayes has been one of the disappointments here. The last 2 months of the season he slugged .501. So far this year it’s .345.

Pitching: The Pirate staff is 17th in FIP, 15th in runs allowed and 12th in ERA+. This time I thought the Pirates might be better. The rotation did get off to a slow start and the hitting bailed them out in the first 10 games or so. The Pirates are right in the middle of the pack with these key pitching stats. This has not been good enough to overcome the horrible hitting over the last 2 weeks. The Pirates have 3 starters that are above average, Martin Perez (144), Jared Jones (126), and Quinn Priester (122). Out of the bullpen, we have small sample size Colin Holderman (317), Josh Fleming (184), Hunter Stratton (136), Luis Ortiz (131), and Roansy Contreras (100). What is amazing that 2 pitchers with ERA+ well above 100 are in the minors, Ryder Ryan and Jose Hernandez. Missing from the list is Mitch Keller, Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar. Despite all the hype about Mitch Keller being the Pirate ace and what a great year he had last year, the truth is 2022 and 2023 were the same. His ERA+ was 104 for both years. This computes to being 4% better than the average starter in baseball. Nice, but not someone you want to pitch in game one of a playoff series. If this team is going to do anything Bednar and Chapman better get their act together even if they start to hit again.

Fielding: The Pirates are 12th in Defensive Efficiency. I thought they would do better, but this is still one of their highest positions. Part of the reason I don’t think they are better is because they have not played Michael Taylor enough. I know this team needs offense, but this is a premier centerfielder, and you need to play him, bat him 9th and take your lumps. He is not really doing that bad at the plate when you compare him to Tellez, Davis and Suwinski and they are either terrible or below average fielders. This is one aspect of the Pirates that needs to get better even though it is tied for the highest ranking of any phase of Pirate baseball at the moment.

What’s Next: I was going to speculate on what some of moves the Pirates might make. Trying to predict what this management team might or might not do is just about impossible. First of all, their bizarre batting orders and line ups are enough to drive you crazy. That could be an entire blog but let me give a couple of examples. When Andrew McCutchen is put in the lineup he should bat in one spot and one spot only, lead off. HE IS NOT A CLEAN UP HITTER. The opening game against the Giants they started Oneil Cruz against a left hander. The next night against a fire balling right hander he is on the bench. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? Like everybody else I will just wait until later today to see if the Pirates are going to make any personnel changes. Looking ahead there is good news and there is bad news. The bad news is the Cubs, Brewers, and Reds are looking like they are going to make this a 3 team dog fight. That could be the good news too, if they keep knocking each other off. All three, unlike the Pirates, are looking like very good baseball teams. The good news is the Pirates cannot be this offensively inept all season or can they? Can Hayes get his power back? Can the whole team get their power back? Will Triolo start to hit? Will they start to get more both offensively and defensively out of the catcher’s spot. Will management start playing players that are performing and not players who are projected to perform? Will the bullpen mainstays Bednar and Chapman turn it around? Finally, what if any changes are going to come today? Only The Shelton knows. All the preceding questions need to be answered with a yes if this team is going to contend.

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Pirates Morning Report: Swept By The A’s

Final Score: Pirates 0 A’s 4

Why The Pirates Lost: The offensive woes continue to get worse. The A’s tried to help the Pirates score a run or two by committing 3 errors and walking 4, but the Pirates were even more incompetent. The Pirates could only muster 4 hits, one double and three singles. Pirates did hit some hard balls, but they were not deep enough or right at someone. This was a game that you typically see when a team is going bad. The Pirates are now 3 and 13 in their last 16 games. In their first 16 games they were 11-5. Quinn Priester had a quality start giving up 3 runs but one was unearned. When you get shutout, it means you are either going to lose or play forever. The Pirates are not playing as I am writing this. The Pirates have a must needed day off and it will be interesting to see if they make any moves. I am not going to speculate but you have to figure they have to do something. You cannot help but feel the season is slipping away, but it is early and after all is said and done, they are only 4 games below .500.

The Key Moments Of The Game: It was all on the Pirates side of the ball. In the 2nd, first and second with 2 out, in the 3rd, runner on 2nd 2 out, in the 4th, runner on 3rd one out and then 1st and 3rd with 2 out, in the 7th, bases loaded 2 out, and finally in the 8th, 1st and 2nd 2 out. The Pirates could not score. They left 10 men on base and were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position. The road trip came to a merciful end at 1-5. The Pirates record now stands at 14 and 18, last in the division. They are heading home for a 9 game homestand.

Next Game: Tomorrow, Rockies in Pittsburgh. One of the reasons I said it will be interesting to see what if any moves the Pirates make on their off day is they may stand pat because they are playing 2 teams that are probably worse than them in the Rockies and the Troutless Angels. Tomorrow will be the 32 game report and it will be rather sad.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Baseball Version Of Groundhog Day.

Final Score: Pirates 2 A’s 5

Why The Pirates Lost: Just ask Bill Murray. No hitting, mediocre pitching, all add up to another loss for the Pirates. The top of the 8th put this all in perspective. The last 2 batters in the inning were Jack ( I Shouldn’t Be In The Majors) Suwinski and Joey ( I Don’t Want To Make Henry Davis Look Too Bad) Bart. Together they were thrown 4 pitches each. They both struck out. They did not take a full swing at any pitches. Gee, I wonder what the problem could be that the Pirates do not get any hits. I wonder if they take pitches during batting practice. Mitch Keller had another mediocre start but here is another head scratcher. J J Bleday had 2 home runs, one off of Keller and the other off lefty Josh Fleming. Both pitches were almost in exactly the same spot. Unlike the Pirate hitter he swung at the ball and hit it out of the park, twice. Can I please read the scouting report on this guy? Wow, that is all I can write.

Key Moment Of The Game: The 2nd homer by Bleday in the bottom of the 7th to give the A’s a 5-2 lead and you knew the game was over. The Pirates sealed the deal by striking out their last 5 at bats of the game. They made it. They are in last place. From first to worst in 30 days in 5 easy lessons.

The Next Game: This afternoon, the A’s in Oakland. If the Pirates score a run in the first inning just turn the game off. You are really watching Groundhog Day, baseball style. Fans in the stands have to put themselves through it, along with the players but you don’t.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Art Of Scoring, Obviously Not The Pirates.

Final Score: Pirates 1 A’s 5

Why The Pirates Lost: Anybody want to guess why the Pirates lost? Here is one of many interesting things. For a team that is desperate to score runs, they had 3 guys on the bench with on base percentages of .303, .351, and .365, which is higher than 5 of the players that started. They put McCutchen in the clean up spot. Why? Jack Suwinski, Rowdy Tellez, and Henry Davis are on the team. Why? On the other side of the coin the A’s showed the Pirates what to do. They did hit a home run to get their first run, but 3 of the runs scored on sacrifice flies. Do the Pirates have 3 sacrifice flies this year? Don’t know, don’t care. That is way the way you manufacture runs. Barry Falter did not have a good game giving up 5 runs on 6 hits after 5 innings. Contreras and Kyle Nicolas finished up the game giving up no runs, but they tried to let the A’s score by giving up 4 walks, 2 hits while throwing 71 pitches. Why didn’t they send Chapman out for an inning to see if he can straighten himself out a little? So what if he walked a couple of runs in, this game was over. Oh yeah, I forgot they are probably saving him for the playoffs. Could this be the low point of the season? I don’t know but I hope so.

Key Moment Of The Game: The game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the 4th when the A” led off the inning with a single and a double. The next 2 hitters hit sacrifice flies and the score was 3-1 A’s. Second and third with no outs, the A’s scored 2 runs without getting a hit. Something the Pirates haven’t been able to do for 3 weeks. The A’s added 2 more in 5th with one of those runs scoring on a sacrifice fly.

Next Game: Tonight, the A’s in Oakland. Starting for the Pirates tonight will be Mitch(I Got The Most Run Support In Three Weeks And Still Couldn’t Win) Keller. It would be something if both he and the Pirates bats would come out of their funk at the same time and win something like 6-0. After tomorrow’s game I will have the Pirate 32 game report on Friday evaluating the team 1/5th of the way through the season. The best the Pirates will be is at .500, but right now that seems like it will take a miracle.

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Pirate Morning Report: Despite Embarrassing Offense Pirates Split 2 Games

Final Scores: Saturday Pirates 4 Giants 3 in 10 innings

Sunday Pirates 2 Giants 3

Why The Pirates Split: They were able to pull out one game because of a big 10th inning where Bryan Reynolds hit a 2-run homer, followed by Ke’Bryan Hayes’ first home run of the season to give the Pirates a 4-1 lead, that they barely held on to, winning 4-3. The Pirates “played” 18 innings of baseball and put up these offensive (as in stinks) numbers, 3 runs, 14 hits, 11 of them singles, 4 walks, 20 strikeouts, leaving 15 men on base. They were 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. What is amazing about this decrepit, anemic hitting is that they just keep doing the same thing over and over again. They take strikes and swing at balls. Henry Davis is the leader in this group. Right now, he does not look like he can hit Little League pitching he looks so lost. Why is he playing? The Pirates are very fortunate to be only one game below .500 at this point of the season.

Key Moment Of The Games: On Saturday, the back to back home runs in the top of the 10th the Pirates hit that accounted for 3 of the 6 runs that they scored all weekend. This gave them the much needed victory. On Sunday, in the top of the 5th, the Pirates had runners on 2nd and 3rd with no one out and could only score 1 run. Of course, you can’t expect the Pirates to do situational hitting when they cannot hit at all.

Next Game: Tonight, the A’s in Oakland. Barry (It’s The Batting Coach’s) Falter is taking the mound for the Pirates. Will this offense ever hit again? They have lost 10 of their last 13 games. With the exception of one loss, the offense has been responsible. Their next 9 games are against teams that have a record of 29-56. It’s early but this could be the key to the season. I think 3 series wins is essential.

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Pirates Morning Report: Pitching Debacle

Final Score: Pirates 5 Brewers 7

Why The Pirates Lost: The pitching staff won the 2nd game of the series but lost this game handily. The pitchers did have some hard luck, but they dug themselves into a hole by walking 5 and they only had one 3 up and 3 down inning. Nobody seemed to have command of their pitches, especially Mitch Keller. He either threw the ball way out of the strike zone or right down the middle. He was not alone, with the staff giving up 7 runs on 12 hits including 2 home runs. The Pirate defense, although did not make an error, did not come up with plays they should have made. The offense put 5 runs on the board with 8 hits and even walked more than the Brewers, with 7. Joey Bart hit a 3-run homer in the first to get them off and winging. They had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 7th and a runner on 2nd with no outs in the 8th and could not score either time. They did score 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th after 2 were out, which had been their MO in the first 11 games of the season. This is the way things go for a team that is still in the down mode. They again stand at .500 with a record of 13-13. A disappointing end to a disappointing home stand.

Key Moments Of The Game: In the top of the 3rd with Pirates leading 3-1, Keller starts the inning by walking the first 2 batters. He strikes out the next batter but gives up a single to the .176 batting Jake Bauers to make the score 3-2. The Pirates have the runner trapped between 2nd and 3rd. Unfortunately, the cut off throw was caught by Rowdy Tellez. For some reason he hesitated was out of balance, made a weak throw to third and the runner was safe. Boo Tellez, Boo Boo Tellez, Boo Boo Boo Tellez. If he makes the play, even if Bryan Reynold does not make the play he should have made, the Brewers would have scored only 1 run instead of tying the game. Boo Boo Boo Boo Tellez. Then in the top of the 8th with the Pirates now leading 5-4. Aroldis Chapman came in and looked pretty good through the first 3 batters. He gave up a swinging bunt single down the third base line but got the next 2 batters on a ground out and strike out with the runner moving to 2nd base on a wild pitch. He had pinch hitter Gary Sanchez down 1 ball 2 strikes, when Chapman threw a high hard one 102 MPH. It was outside the strike zone, but Sanchez went with the pitch and parked it in the right field seats to give the Brewers a 6-5 lead. Contreras pitched the 9th and gave up a run just to round out a spectacular day for the pitching staff.

Next Game: Tonight, Giants in San Francisco. This will start a 6 game west coast road trip where the Pirates face the Giants and the A’s 3 games each. Both teams are under .500, the Giants 2 and the A’s 6. The offense did perk up in the last game. A winning road trip would wash out the bad taste of the last 10 games. Quinn Priester will start tonight. Let’s hope he turns things around, or this could be the second bad game in a row for the pitching staff.

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Pirates Morning Report: Rough Trip From Philadelphia to New York.

Final Score: Pirates 3 Mets 6

Why The Pirates Lost: Oniel Cruz’s at bats summed up this lost. He struck out 3 times, He took 6 strikes, and all 3 swings were out of the strike zone. On his last at bat, again he took a strike, swung at a pitch out of the strike zone, but did manage to hit a ball to right field to end the game. Rowdy Tellez had one excellent at bat to start the top of the 8th. He took a strike, swung at a ball and took a called 3rd strike. Both pitches were well inside the strike zone, far from borderline. Even though they managed 3 runs the offense really stunk out the joint. They only got 3 hits. They walked 7 times but struck out 10. On the defensive side of the ball Henry Davis and Connor Joe excelled. Davis had trouble catching anything and made a lousy effort on a tag play at the plate. Just to go along with the offensive philosophy of the night, he took 3 called strikes in the top of the 9th, with all of them well within the strike zone. Connor Joe caught a ball and just had to toss it into the infield to keep the runners from moving up, but threw in the dirt toward the dugout, allowing the second Met run to score. The Pirates were ahead going into the bottom of the 6th and completely collapsed. The pitching staff gave up 3 runs in the 6th and 3 runs in the 8th as the Pirates lost 6-3 to send their record to 11-6. There can only be one explanation for such an all-round poorly played game. That trip from Philadelphia to New York must have been brutal with the time change and all. If it would have been possible, I am sure that Shelton would have rested anybody that played Sunday, after such a brutal travel day. This was by far their worst game of the year.

Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates had taken a 3-0 lead in the top of the sixth. Martin Perez had danced through some raindrops but was cruising along pretty well. Then the Mets opened the inning with 2 singles. Perez got Pete Alonzo to pop up in the infield one out. One more single loaded the bases and the Pirates started to crumble from bus lag. Perez walked in the first run. Then a pop up to short right field that Connor Joe managed to catch but then crapped his pants and threw the ball at the same time allowing the second run to score. Shelton then removed Perez in favor of Hunter (I Like To Throw The Ball Right Down The Middle In High Leverage Situations) Stratton. This type of pitching resulted in a double and the score was tied 3-3. Just for good measure he hit the next batter but did manage to get the third out, FINALLY. Then came the Henry Davis show in the bottom of the 8th that sealed the deal for Mets. Aroldis Chapman started the 8th and struck out the first batter. Then Jeff McNeil struck out on a ball low and away that was ruled a wild pitch, but Henry Davis made a half ass swipe at the ball and literally scooted the ball further to the left to allow McNeil to reach first base. It was the key play of the game. Chapman walked the next batter and both he and McNeil stole 2nd and 3rd. A double by Harrison Bader gave the Mets a 5-3 lead. They added another run thanks to the Davis I don’t know how to tag play.

Next Game: Tonight, the Mets in New York. Hopefully the Pirates will be well rested after such an exhausting trip. Jared Jones will take the hill for the Pirates’. The road trip stands at 2-3. I know it has been exhausting for me, just watching them play the way they did last night. I have nothing more to write except I hope there are better days ahead.