The Bucco Blitz

My apologies for being absent for three days. Every five years or so your alma mater comes calling, and you have to answer. I'm back home now, and ready to inundate you with all things Pittsburgh Pirates. To that end, here we go:

First of all, Beyond the Box Score wrote a great piece on the Pirates' offense shortly before I left town that I didn't have time to post here. They conclude that the production from Jason Bay, Nate McClouth, and (a presumably healthy and untraded) Xavier Nady may slip ever so slightly in the second half, but any decrease in production will probably be counterbalanced by an increase from Adam LaRoche and (a presumably healthy) Freddy Sanchez, both of whom have been hurt by a BABIP well below their career averages.

Let me also respond to the huge embarrassing failure that was the Chicago series, just like some A-hole predicted. There's nothing that can be said for the lousy pitching performances that were turned in other than that perhaps after spending some time with Greensburg native Rocco Mediate, Ian Snell is obviously not right, and apparently neither is Phil Dumatrait. Obviously, the problem here is that the Pirates are Old Mother Hubbard when it comes to pitching depth in the minors, so the likes of T.J. Beam (in lieu of Jesse Chavez) and the beloved John Van Benschoten will carry the load in their absence. I'm interested to see what Beam brings to the table, considering JVB and Co. will be keeping him very busy if recent performance is any indication of what is to come.

Dejan says that Snell may only miss just the one start on Friday, and that Dumatrait should be ready to pitch when he is eligible to come off the DL on July 5th. Nyjer Morgan also made his way back to Pittsburgh, going hitless in six ABs over the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend series, The Buccos used the friendly confines of PNC Park to try and redeem themselves, besting the Toronto Blue Jays in their first ever trip to Pittsburgh, in an effort to show what would have happened in the 1992 World Series had he-who-shall-not-be-named been able to throw out Sid Bream. Jack Wilson stayed classy and played in his 1,000th game as a Pirate in the 6-3 win on Saturday. (Also, at the bottom of that article is a note that 15 of the State College Spikes are players from the 2008 draft.)

The Bronx Bombers come to town tomorrow for the first real game since Bill Mazeroski hit the greatest home run of all time to end the 1960 World Series. More on that tomorrow, but to end things, some quick hits:

- Maz will throw out the first pitch tomorrow night, of which I obviously approve. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd love to sit down with Maz and pick his brain about all things Pirate (though mostly Clemente). He just always struck me as an interesting and humble guy.

- Gene Collier plays the same old tune that we hear every year, that MLB is unfair for small-market teams. He's right, but for the wrong reasons. The Yankees are not the team he should hate; I'd say Boston is a much better candidate. More on that this week as well.

- At the bottom of this article, there's a note that Pedro Alvarez and Tanner Scheppers, the first two Pirates picks of this year's draft, may be the last two to sign contracts, which would bring the total to 26 out of 50 that would be signed.

- Ron Cook pats Neal Huntington on the back for exercising patience, while taking slight shots at him for signing two guys to long-term (ish) contracts who are under-performing, referring to Huntington as having a .333 average with long-term contracts so far. Nevermind that the two players he mentions as potential "misses" (Snell and Sanchez) got hurt after they signed those contracts, or that it's not even the All-Star break of the first year of those contracts. Though it's still "too early to pass judgment," let's pass Neal a backhanded compliment by saying that .333 average makes him an "All-Star" compared to Bonifay and Littlefield. The guy signed two of the team's best young pitchers and a batting champion with good years left to reasonable contracts that didn't commit the team to a huge long-term expense, let's not take shots at him because two of those guys got hurt. I hear it happens pretty regularly. As you can tell, I love it when someone writes a column evaluating trades and at the same time says it's too early to pass judgment. "Hey guys, two and a half months into this four-year deal it looks like a real bust! Whatever shall we do now? Did I meet my deadline? Good."

Until tomorrow.