According to the PG and DVE's Sean McDowell yesterday, an earthquake with a 5.9 magnitude rocked Pittsburgh. If you are not a newspaper trying to over sensationalize an event or a 50+ burned out hippie pothead ,who is also one of my favorite DJs ever, you realized that the epicenter of the earthquake was nearly 300 miles away. I personally felt the quake in my office in Oakland and know of many others around town who did as well. But on the North Shore last night, it was the Brewers' bats providing the shaking and the Bucs' pitchers providing the quaking.
The detestable Brewers took the 3rd game of the 4 games series by crushing the Buccos by a final of 11-4. Ross Ohlendorf was on the hill for the 1st time in months and looked no worse for the wear, giving up 7 runs in the second innig ( 4 earned) and allowing 11 hits over just 5.0 innings of work. Games like this need not be recapped, so I am going to toss a changeup and give the floor to our readers with a list of questions that you can answer in the comments section. I suggest copying and pasting the question or at least putting the correpsonding number with each answer. You should all know the drill by now anyways, this is a total SmizBlog ripoff anyway!
1.) Why can't the Bucs beat the Brewers?
2.) Which NL Central Squad do you loathe the most?
3.) Which NL Central player do you loathe the most?
4.) What will the Bucs final record be for 2011?
5.) Which player on the current Major League roster will have the best career, either as a Pirate or otherwise?
6.) Which player currently in the Bucs minor league system will have the best Major League career?
7.) What was Huntington's best move as GM and why?
8.) What was his worst?
9.) What the worst roster move of the last 19 years?
10.) Who should the Bucs target in free agency during the upcoming offseason?
1) The Brewers are in their heads.
ReplyDelete2) The brewers
3) Ryan Braun, biggest douche I ever ever seen.
4) 69-93
5) McCutcheon
6) I don't know, none look that good right now.
7) The Nady trade was his best. He sure blew his load early, didn't he?
8) The Bay trade. It didn't take a week to go from best to worst
9) The rule 5 fiasco.
10) The SHOULD go after Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols (sp?) but they won't. They will go after someone I never heard of who is trying to resurrect their MLB career because those kinds of players are inexpensive.
When I first felt the quake I thought Prince Fielder must have taken a spill on his way to batting practice.
ReplyDeleteSome interesting facts about Milwaukee and Pittsburgh.
"The population of Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin 2011 is approximately 33,800."
"The population of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 24th 2011 is approximately 304,340."
Team salaries 2011 (from ESPN):
Milwaukee = $85,497,333
Pittsburgh = $45,630,000
Not to beat a dead horse, but I mentioned on SmizBlog yesterday that the Brewers started winning before they started spending money. Their payroll figures hovered around where the Pirates are now before they started increasing payroll considerably. They didn't increase that payroll overnight, either; they added some here, some there, until they got to that number.
ReplyDeleteBut that's not stating the Pirates don't need to increase payroll. I feel quite the opposite on that; they need to bump it by about $10M this offseason.
Anyway, on to the questions:
1.) Why can't the Bucs beat the Brewers?
The Brewers really are in their heads. Read the comments from DK after Brewers games when he stops in the clubhouse. That team is legitimately freaked out by the Brewers.
2.) Which NL Central Squad do you loathe the most?
The Brewers.
3.) Which NL Central player do you loathe the most?
Ross Ohlendorf.
4.) What will the Bucs final record be for 2011?
73-89.
5.) Which player on the current Major League roster will have the best career, either as a Pirate or otherwise?
Well, it's really hard to say, isn't it? How many times has a guy played like complete garbage, or at the very least not up to potential, in a Pirates uniform before flourishing elsewhere?
Probably Andrew McCutchen.
6.) Which player currently in the Bucs minor league system will have the best Major League career?
Well, for the team to have any success whatsoever you have to HOPE it's Pedro Alvarez. Since I don't spend the time scouting the minors, I'm just going to go with him.
7.) What was Huntington's best move as GM and why?
Obviously the Nady trade. Three major leaguers already out of that move, which is more than any of the production the Yankees ever got out of Nady.
8.) What was his worst?
HAHA, oh wow. So many directions to go with this one. The Bay trade is easily number one; I actually think that's worse than Bautista, because I cling to the thought that no one knew Bautista would be this good. Bay, on the other hand, was an All Star with value. Honorable mention to the contract negotiations with Jack Wilson; no, not the fact that he played hardball with him (that's what GM's do), but for the fact that he actually tried to extend him first. As we've seen, the guy is/was washed up.
9.) What the worst roster move of the last 19 years?
I'm a relative young'n, so I'm going to go with dealing Jason Schmidt. More infuriating was the fact he later admitted he didn't put any effort into staying in shape in Pittsburgh.
10.) Who should the Bucs target in free agency during the upcoming offseason?
While it would be good, snarky fun to say "Fielder and Pujols," there are realistically only a few teams that have the ability to pursue those guys anyway, so it's certainly no failure to me if they don't get them. If Carlos Pena is available, I think he would be a good reclamation project; unlike Overbay, his best years aren't well behind him. I think if Michael Cuddyer hits the market, he could help the team at a variety of positions. Maybe if ARam hits the market, you take a swing at him and move Alvarez to 1B for next season.
Basically, corner infield.
1: Same reason the Pens couldn't win in Philly in the 80s, a lethal combination of talent disparity mixed with a huge mental block.
ReplyDelete2: I honestly don't loathe any other teams. Most of my frustrations as a fan have been turned inward toward our clubs ineptitudes.
3: Again, not really into loathing here, but the one I dislike facing/fear the most is definitly Pujlos.
4: I'm going with 70-92. A modest improvement, but so disappointing based on what was going on in late July.
5: McCutchen is the easy choice here and the easy bet. But I'll go off the reservation a little and say that James McDonald figures it out and turns into a stud pitcher, either here or after he is traded. Baseball is such a crazy game.
6: I'll go with Luis Heredia, but he is so young its going to be years before we really find out. We won't even have the slightest clue of what he might really be until the end of the 2013 season.
7: The Nady trade is #1 in results obviously, but I think that was more blind luck jackpot than savvy. The more replicable moves for future consideration would be plucking up Garrett Jones for absolutely nothing and continuing to stockpile young arms through the draft and paying over slot for stand out talents like Bell.
8: Again, the Bay trade was horrible, especially with the leverage we should have had with the Red Sox need to get out from under Manny shenanigans while maintaining a World Series caliber lineup. But another that gets forgotten sometimes is straight up deal of Tim Alderson for former batting champ Freddy Sanchez. Apparently the Giants knew Alderson was a broken down prospect when they dealt him and the Pirates still took the bait.
9: Giving up on Timmy Wakefield ; )
10: 10: The best things the Bucs may be able to do is not make a headline splash with a washed up has been, but try to target some young guys who were blocked out and never really got a chance to prove themselves in other organization that are more top heavy with legit talent. I don’t pretend to be an expert and know who those guys are, but the full time professionals in the Front Office should really buckle down, do their homework, and find them.
This should be fun:
ReplyDelete1.) Why can't the Bucs beat the Brewers?
The only thing I can think of is the Brewers feast on soft-tossers. Also it is clear that they are in the Pirates' heads. The Pirates just aren't confident when they play them.
2.) Which NL Central Squad do you loathe the most? The Brewers. Just have never had that much success against them. The Reds would be second.
3.) Which NL Central player do you loathe the most? Pujols, only because he just kills us every time. Casey McGhee always seems to be a pain in the ass too. And I'm no fan of Braun's.
4.) What will the Bucs final record be for 2011? 75 wins and however many losses.
5.) Which player on the current Major League roster will have the best career, either as a Pirate or otherwise? Obviously it's McCutchen, but I really like the plate discipline that Jose Tabata already has. And he goes the other way with the ball a lot. I could see him being like Jacoby Ellsbury with less power at his peak - a .300 hitter with a high OBP who hits about 30 doubles and 10 HR while stealing around 40 bases. He had a huge amount of steals in April and for whatever reason they stopped sending him.
6.) Which player currently in the Bucs minor league system will have the best Major League career? Pedro Alvarez
7.) What was Huntington's best move as GM and why? Drafting and signing Josh Bell or trading Nady and Marte at peak value and getting four major league players in return.
8.) What was his worst? Not signing or trading Capps and letting him walk for nothing. Also whatever plans they had for Tim Alderson CLEARLY are not working so whoever scouted him and though they could fix him or develop him was clearly wrong and has made him worse.
9.) What the worst roster move of the last 19 years? Wow, tough one. The Pat Meares deal? Getting rid of Wakefield? Drafting Moskos/Bullington/Van Benschoeten? Wow, like I said, tough one.
10.) Who should the Bucs target in free agency during the upcoming offseason? I don't have time to look over the lists right now but I remember slim pickings at first and third base. Honestly I would keep targeting pitching. I'm afraid any first or third base acquisition is gonna be another Overbay type.
Pucks-
ReplyDeleteI didn't read your post til after I wrote mine so I'm glad someone else remember Alderson and Wakefield.
SeanAY-
Ahhhh Jason Schmidt! There's so many friggin' horrible moves I cant keep em straight!
1) Not enough talent. They are professionals. If the Brewers are in their heads, they are already beaten. Get over them, please.
ReplyDelete2) Cubs. Tired of hearing about them, for the past 104 years!
3) Fielder/Braun. Some said Pujols, but why??? He plays the game hard, and with respect. So he kills us. He gets paid top do that. We need to man up and stop him. Sheeesh.
4) 73-89
5) McCutchen. As a Yankee or Sox.
6) All 125 of the guaranteed, HOFamers! (lol)
7) Nady trade.
8) I do not have enough time in my night to address this question adequately....... lets just say there are way too many to mention.
9) Jason Kendalls contract. Nuff said.
10) Fielder. Lets have him on OUR side.