Bari! Bari!
By Jake • May 8th, 2008 • Category: Feature Story
Just a fast note to acknowledge the Pirates sweep (bari!) of the lowly Giants from Aruba. My wife says we can stay here as long as they continue to win. Good stuff there.
I thought it was funny the island magazine that greeted us in our suite was “The Green Edition” - how appropriate considering the green initiative of Pirates.
I’ll be back in the groove here after the Braves and Cardinals series. LaRoche’s Ladies emailed and said they were planning to be at some of the games I believe starting Thursday and I assume for a couple of the Braves games. We’ll have to see how Adam responds with his peaches yelling like crazy and flashing for him (signs guys, just signs).
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So we traded for Jason Michaels, huh? Traded for him. Now that’s hilarious.
I’m sure to be the only one seeing a huge red flag here that Coonelly allowed Huntington to make any deal with Shapiro, much less one that adds a one-dimensional old fart to our roster.
I assume this means Huntington has a deal cooking for Jason Bay because there is absolutely no reason to add Michaels with Pearce and Thompson sitting in Indy. And that’s especially true because Michaels can only play left (below average arm for right and a horrid route runner for center) and his bat only plays against southpaws, as long as he doesn’t play everyday, that is. Why else would we hurt our bench so bad (exit Morgan’s speed to Indy where there is a full house, enter more junk)?
If we are paying more than $200k for Michaels and have to give up more than a D- prospect who couldn’t get out of 1A the last 5 years, we’re paying too much because we didn’t need him now, we won’t need him later, and we’ll never need him.
But again, I view this deal as nothing but a simple way for Huntington and Shapiro to get the door open past Coonelly so Huntington can deal someone like Bay for a bunch of Indians junk down the road.
Oh well - it’s now a 101 loss team with Michaels instead of a 100 loss team with Morgan. I mean, does it really matter?
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I saw the boxes where Sanchez has been leading off. Gee, what an ingenious move. Bucco Blog readers know I proposed that over the winter with Jackie Flash batting second and Nady third. But I also saw they moved McLouth to third in the order, and that’s not good.
But as we all know, the reason they are doing it is to jump start Sanchez and Bay with McLouth in between. The problem is going to be, once Bay and Sanchez start getting hot, opposing teams aren’t going to feed McLouth fat juicy watermelons up in the zone he likes anymore and his average will
sink..
sink…
sink….
But the Pirates don’t care. This isn’t about McLouth - it’s about dealing Sanchez and Bay. Wait till the fans finally figure all this out and start wondering what happened to him.
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The Pirates finally stated Wilson won’t be back until the end of May just as I’ve been telling you would happen since the week he went down.
Trust me on this one, Wilson is in no hurry to return. None. After all, he’d probably be traded to Toronto if he was around and that’s the last thing he wants.
Watch him draaaagggggg this out.
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Ok I’m off to dinner. It’s been fab-u-lous getting away from the grind.
Jake is a contributing writer at Bucco Blog, a fan blog covering the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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I have to agree with the Michaels move. This makes no sense. It is no wonder why the Pirates organization is viewed as the laughing stock of MLB. If they even give away some one with a pulse to the Tribe for Michaels, then why not start shipping everyone out now and commit to the next decade of rebuilding.
Why make this deal? Why add another fledgling Tribe outfielder who isn’t getting any younger. The only thing I see coming from this is another move that probably won’t make any sense either. Do we have any baseball people in this organization anymore????
So you propose that Huntington is making the lineups instead of Russell? Because I\’m pretty sure Russell could not care less about trade value right now. He\’s just trying to make a lineup that will score some runs. I\’d much rather sacrafice some of Nate\’s production to get the other 2 to start hitting.
Picking up Michaels makes sense. Why bring up Pearce or Thompson, only to have them sit the bench? Why continue to have Morgan on the roster only to sit the bench?
Bring in a cheap veteran who can handle the spot starts, pinch hitting, and sitting the bench.
On one hand, you are praising Russel for leading off Sanchez to pat your own back. On the other hand you are chastizing him for moving McClouth to #3, although McClouth is proving to be the best hitter on this team.
I\\\\\\\’m not so sure I agree with your ideas of McClouth\\\\\\\’s pitch selection. The reason why this kid is hitting so well is because he doesn\\\\\\\’t swing at too much garbage.
Doesn\\\\\\\’t matter, they are going to lose 101 games now that they have Michaels on their bench.
???
Why would we bring up Pearce??? That makes NO SENSE AT ALL!! Pearce needs to play everyday and he obviously won\’t be getting any playing time with the Pirates with the over achieving trio in the outfield. You don\’t call up prospects to sit.
Didn\’t McLouth only bat 3rd in one game?
Morgan to Indy makes perfect sense…more ABs.
Picking up Michaels makes perfect sense…a guy who doesn\’t need ABs but will prove useful from our bench…for this year only. Disclaimer: It only makes perfect sense if we gave up almost nothing - which it sounds like we did.
Watermelons up in the zone for McLouth? Thats not fair Jake, and I know you know it. I get very limited Pirates TV coverage, but in the few games I have seen, he has taken a total of three pitches low and inside and turned on them hard to drive them out over the RF wall. In my limited exposure to seeing him this year, even I know he isn\’t only hitting watermelons high in the zone.
Perhaps because you are on vacation you did not realize that Michaels was picked up for next to nothing to serve as the 4th OFer, which would be a waste of McCutchen and Pearce. I don’t think this has anything to do with a Bay trade.
I suspect the Michaels acquisition does have something to do with Bay. Dejan K wrote recently that Huntington\’s projection for the Pirates is to have 2-CFers. Along with that is I suspect the Michaels acquisition does have something to do with Bay. Dejan K wrote recently that Huntington’s projection for the Pirates is to have 2-CFers. Along with that is JR’s reported urging to get Michaels as he liked him in Philly. He may turn out like Minky has but then, maybe not. Moreover, if accurately reported, Thompson was originally intended as Morgan’s replacement but he injured his wrist.
I think they HAD to send Morgan down. He was supposed to split time with McLouth as they came out of spring training and that hasn’t happened. If he is to have any value either to the Pirates or another team he has to play so scouts can see what he does and project him (rightly or wrongly) onto their team. That won’t happen on the Pirate bench.
My suspicion is that the Michaels move is also a preliminary move for a Bay trade and McCutchen promotion to starting CFer while McLouth moves to left giving Huntington his “2-CFers”. In addition, Nady is complaining about some leg issues and that has become a regular recurring issue.
However, as Drew said, the PTNL will decide the wisdom of the Michaels acquisition.
Jason Michaels i guess was a move to get Nyjer some at bats in AAA. Jason Michaels acquired in trade from Cleveland 5/8/08 ($1,680,055 remaining, with Pittsburgh responsible for $468,852) Does Bay get dealt who knows i would think Nady is the first to go cause of his prior injury bug over the last few years but we will see.
I miss the blog entries, but love the wins. Stay away Jake!
I’d think Bay’s knee issues for the last 2 years might be more of a worry than Nady’s injuries. Once the knees are shot, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done.
the irony of jake being away and a 5 game win streak going on is funny. jake any chance of you buying property in Aruba?
John Russell gives away the last game of series. JOHN VAN BENSCHOTEN TO FACE THE BRAVES why oh why? I would rather have luis munoz or someone else from AAA to start in the waste of space crap vancrapschoten mvp for game 2 for the braves is John Russell great job stooge.
How does Paulino even play against lefties? He is so terrible.