The club is falling apart at the seams.  Recent clubhouse gossip puts the players at odds with ownership just like we saw in 2002 and 2005. 

As if during the break it finally hit them that they would not be kept together as a core group, a few of the players have become a tick more vocal with their desperate pleas to be heard, but they are being drown out either by those who hold an allegiance to the field staff, or those praying they are dealt asap.

There’s a lot of bad Karma brewing dude. 

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No urgency on the diamond for the second night in a row, coupled with Snell’s inability to command his pitches early, led to our fifth loss in a row on the road and eighth loss in our last twelve games.

Facing Glendon Rusch, who came in with a 6.25 ERA in 2008 and a career 5.40 ERA at Coors, Pirates batters swung early at his soft stuff and did very little with it other than a Bautista home run and in the third and a Sanchez single in the sixth who eventually scored on a Bay sac fly.

The Rockies scored two in the first when Snell threw what appeared to me to be a cutter that ran right back across the plate on a 1-2 count into Halliday’s breadbasket, and he took it yard with a man on. 

They scored again in the second on a gift call from second base ump Dan Lassongna when Traveras walked and stole second and Doumit threw him out, but was called safe.  Traveras then stole third and Doumit airmailed his throw into left and Traveras scored.

Hawpe hit a solo shot in the 6th for their 4th run and then the freak play of the night occurred when pinch hitter Seth Smith ledoff the 7th against Tyler Yates and crushed his 97 mph first pitch heater to center.  The ball hit the gate and careened sharply back toward left field and Jason Bay was nowhere to be seen backing up the play.  So McLouth had to run from right-right-center all the way back to left-center to get the ball, and by that time Smith had an inside the park home run.

Unbelievable.

We looked like crap. 

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Snell settled in after giving up a first inning yardball but he wasn’t very sharp at all.  Velocity was up but isn’t it always up at Coors?  The gun said he was throwing 97 but he sure wasn’t getting swing and misses like he was throwing that hard, and the gun said Yates touched 100 which is simply ridiculous.  There’s no way these guys were throwing that high, regardless of what the guns said.

Still, Snell’s slider looked a tick tighter and he did look to be commanding his fastballs better from the new arm slot, so maybe it’s just a matter of time.  Maybe… maybe.  To me he still doesn’t look healthy.

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Matchups the next two days: Herrera vs. De La Rosa; Duke vs. Cook.

Ouch.

We’ll get to De La Rosa but Herrera will probably cause air raid sirens to go off, and Duke at Coors just doesn’t excite me for some reason, especially with Cook as his mound opponent.

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Phil Dumatrait is on his way to Bradenton to rehab. One media report today said he hasn’t even thrown off flat ground yet other than a little catch.  If he doesn’t end up on the DL with a rotator cuff tear, I’ll be extremely surprised.

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Reports all over the Internet about a Pirates pro scout watching David Price of the Rays throw Friday night in a Southern League game.  Folks, we’ve been shadowing the Rays for at least ten days that I know about and probably longer.  But that’s not the only club - we’re probably shadowing four to six farm systems right now. 

At least, we better have been for some time now.

The higher the probability of a club being a seller, the higher the visibility of a club’s pro scouts watching prospects of another team who have expressed interest.  And sometimes it’s used as a decoy - you send the assistant GM or known top scout to a particular game or two to be seen to get a third club to get off the pot.

BTW, Eduardo Morlan was the 2004 third round pick of the Twins, the organization Pirates pro scout Larry Corrigan came from.  Morlan took the ball right after Price and threw two innings, so if we end up trading Nady to the Rays, look for Morlan to possibly be in the package.  He’s the kind of player who is seen as having solid upside but with a lot of risk (primarily health) that can be a tag on to push the deal over the top the seller’s way.

Just a guess.