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We saw Jeff Andrews and John Russell execute what is uncommonly called a ’quick hook on a reliever’ with Marte the other night and Thursday night we witnessed what is uncommonly called a ‘butchering long hook’ of Tom Gorzelanny.

Hung out to dry doesn’t come close to what the Pirates did to Gorzy.  Murder is probably a better term because they are close to ending this man’s professional career.  But as Bucco Blog readers know all to well, that is life with Jeff Andrews. 

Just ask Shane Youman who was handed a 40 pitch inning by Jeff Andrews in 2007 - and then made to come back out the next inning. He was cut by the Phillies and sent to the farm this spring because he issued a walk per inning - his arm was toast. Yet he had a pro career of almost 500 innings in the farm with just a 3.6 BB/9.  And I won’t even go into the abuse JvB, Burnett, and Bullington took at Indy last year - it’s amazing all of them still have their arms attached.

In Gorzy’s last start April 19th, he left after throwing a 39 pitch inning (after a 23) not including pick off throws. That’s extremely high for a healthy pitcher, but off the charts for a guy with known shoulder discomfort. Then Thursday he threw a 25 pitch fourth and then hung out to throw a thirty-one pitch fifth.

Now I understand the fans probably can’t get a feel for how extreme all that is so let me show you a different way:

that’s 174 pitches in Gorzy’s last 7.2 innings of work…

and 172 pitches in his first 8.2 innings of work.

Jeff Andrews is a butcher, imo - always has been.  But more importantly to me is the fact Neal Huntington and John Russell are allowing all this. Perhaps Russell believes Andrews knows the players well enough to make these kind of decisions?  I can’t even come up with an excuse for Huntington. There is none.

During one of the half-innings when Gorzy was on the bench talking with Andrews, Gorzy lit up talking with him and Bob Walk mentioned he seemed to be indicating the strike zone was small. But Gorzy was just showing his frustration - he wasn’t even close to the plate most of the night and could have easily issued five more walks on top of the seven he did.

Gorzy was even so frustrated he was throwing things around the dugout and punching things.  The young man doesn’t seem to understand that when a pitcher’s arm is unhealthy, he can’t control the ball. It isn’t his fault… he just needs to rest the arm. And it seems he needs to understand he has a right under the Player’s Agreement to seek his doctor’s advice. Perhaps he should do that and force the issue since the Pirates don’t seem to understand.

There’s just no excuse for the Pirates to waste long-term value like this, especially in a meaningless year. Huntington’s acts are no different than David Littlefield last year when he ran the kid out there every 5th day or so in September knowing he was far exceeding healthy yearly pitch count limits.

As a fan, I pray I see accountability. I know I’m not the only one wanting to see it.

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Gorzy had a no-no going through four innings but that was the result of the Cardinals taking the field seemingly with very little conviction in their game and hacking away. Gorzy was far from sharp and couldn’t repeat.

But a hat tip to Gorzelanny for keeping his wits on the mound despite being pushed over the edge.

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The Pirates pretty much folded after they witnessed Gorzy’s tantrum in front of Andrews after the top of the 5th.  Cardinals pitchers faced one over the minimum the 5th - 8th and in the 9th we scored another run on a few hits and a walk.

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I’m starting to believe the Pirates don’t have anyone upstairs who understands about the implications of pitch counts, either per inning, per game, game-to-game, or year-to-year. Under Littlefield and Graham, they certainly didn’t seem to care much and we all know what the end result of that was over the years.

Or maybe the Pirates just want to decrease the value of guys like Gorzelanny?  You know, toss him on the mound with a fatigued arm for a year, pray he doesn’t break, then come at him with a low costing five year deal next year showing him his garbage stats for the year? 

Here’s a good one. Maybe Nutting took out an insurance contract on Gorzy for the value of his contract for the year and then tacked on a risk management rider for $10M+/- the franchise would lose in gate proceeds, etc, if Gorzy was to go down under the knife and be gone for two years? Now that one sounds more logical than any of the others, but it’s still out there.

Maybe the real out-there reason is the not so obvious reason - they can’t use the “R” word without justifying to the fans their season is indeed history. You know, if Gorzy goes under the knife and comes back in 2010, he’d still have some service time left and be meeting Lincoln and Moskos coming up. Look at John Russell’s lame excuse for Gorzy not throwing strikes in the PG today:

‘”It’s just a matter of consistency in the zone,” manager John Russell said beforehand. “He needs to challenge hitters with quality pitches, and he needs to have life down in the zone. That’s how he pitches when he’s effective.”‘

Right. When he can feel the ball in his hand, that is.  I mean, Russell puts the blame square on Gorzy as if he’s completely clueless to the entire pitch count process.

Perhaps he is? 

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I’m actually starting to get to like Bixler. The kid’s come a long way in a short period of time. He’ll never be a useful defensive middle infielder but, for being thrown to the fire like he was, he’s handling himself pretty well. Tip of the hat to him.

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Did anyone else drool over Molina’s blocking skills during the Cards series? Square shoulders, guards slammed to the dirt, hunched toward the ground deadening every pitch in the dirt straight off his protector down in front of him. Now if we could get just 50% of that from either of our catchers…

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Looks like my prediction of 12 wins in March/April is going to be pretty close. The Phillies are scoring a lot of runs these days but not as many as the Cubs were.

So what if the Pirates have lost Duke’s last seven Friday night starts. Who cares if the Phillies come in favorites. Or that the Pirates are hitting near the Mendoza line at home against right-handers.

This series boils down to early mashing - the team that does is going to win the games.

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