No offense. Well, what did you expect with Doumit sitting? Look at this gem:
True, 25 games is only the equivalent of 15% of a season. But that’s the whole point - it IS fifteen percent of a season. And yes, I could find periods of other seasons where run production tanked. But not 25 straight games at 3 runs per game in any year during the last three decades.
Ouch.
Pirates fans are used to watching rookie players trying to learn all the parks, learning the leagues batters and pitchers, and learning to play with new peers. We’ve been watching development at the major league level for more than a decade.
Take Wednesday’s game against the Cubs… everything is going at least ok until LaRoche is caught playing too deep with Johnson at the plate who lays down a bunt on him, and LaRoche can’t even get to the ball in time to make a throw. It was a rookie mistake which eventually cost us a run.
DeRosa was the next batter and he hammered a line drive to left. Moss picked the ball up and fired it… to third, not second to stop DeRosa from advancing. Whether or not a throw from Moss to second would have prevented DeRosa from taking the bag isn’t relevant - it’s where you are taught to throw in a play like that. He didn’t and it potentially cost us a run too.
This wasn’t the first time rookies cost us runs and it certainly won’t be the last. As a Pirates fan I wouldn’t mind that so much if we were learning from our mistakes but Moss has already thrown to the wrong bag twice this year and LaRoche can be beat on a bunt any day he plays.
We’re not learning and because of it we’re losing more often than not.
Remember what Branch Rickey once said: luck is the residual of design. With all the one-dimensional players we have, we can’t afford simple little errors like these which should have been long ironed out in the minors. Or else, our field staff has to be smart enough to make adjustments during a game which ours clearly isn’t.
And man, did anyone see all the problems Moss has had the last few days covering the ball? I noticed none of the media reports I saw mentioned three balls going off Moss’ glove yesterday - all they talked about was Wilson’s blunders which was far from the real problems of the day. Today was no different - Moss had to make a basket catch one time because his route was so poor and, as mentioned above, a bad throwing decision might have cost a run in a tight game.
If Neal Huntington doesn’t take the time to develop these young men into ballplayers, then he’s no better than Dave Littlefield was when he brought up and burned out players like Jose Castillo. Huntington’s wasting your time as a fan along with the player’s time. These guys aren’t ready for the show and that’s more than obvious from even the basic fan’s eyes.
–
Have no fear, we’ll be playing the Giants shortly and our pitching staff will look like Cy Young candidates, our fielders look like Gold Glove candidates, and our rookies look like ten-year vaterans.
Maybe.
Well, maybe not.
Too bad the only homestand left this year seems to be all against contenders.
–
I told you the other day there were only three reasons Alvarez could be holding out, and one of those was a grievance. Now it seems that’s the case.
The obvious problem to all this is that no matter who wins, Alvarez and the Pirates will always have a tainted relationship. Like Benson had, and many, many others.
What bothered me about the draft signings was that the Pirates legal counsel, Larry Silverman, was on vacation during August and specifically the last week of the signing period, leaving Neal Huntington and, I assume, Frank Coonelly, handling the negotiations.
adam and eve download free True, vacation is a relative term anymore with cell phones, but still, that was quite odd for a team signing the most expensive draftee in franchise history and led me to believe something was amiss to begin with. After the deadline passed and we heard the media report that it took a three-way conversation between Boras, the Pirates, and Alvarez to sign, I felt something was up. That wasn’t typical reporting.
Lastly, Vandy’s coach Tim Corbin all of a sudden went into hiding, which had been unlike him.
So I’m going to assume there’s a lot more to this than just $200,000 between the parties. I’m guessing Alvarez didn’t agree to the deal verbally until after midnight, although his advisor (and notice that Boras was only advising, not Alvarez’s agent) agreed before midnight.
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If so, the Pirates are going to lose. And I’m guessing that’s probably what they wanted all along since Silverman was convieniently on vacation and rookies Huntington and Coonelly dicked around with Boras too long.
Notch another up for Bob Nutting - he saves $6M and did it so Boras looks like the bad guy. Typical Nutting BS. Somethings will never change in Pittsburgh.
–
Thanks for reading,
Peace.
Jake
–
Ryan
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 5:13 pm:
i cant belive this all i have to say is unfreaking belivable!!! i am going to give up now on the pirates for the future two this was the best prospect in the draft and also the best hitter in the draft! i am soooo discusted at mr scott boras!. plus this makes no sense tho with alvarez holding out and wanting to get the heck out of new york lf i was frank and neal i would go 7 million at the most and if he doesnt take that give up on alvarez and hopefully he gets hurt so it will look good for us and we can all laugh at him and bo him in 3 years when he is a star in the making i guss alvarez,drew,and varitek all didnt sign
-same old bucoooos i gave up on them until i know alvarez is done holding out and mr boras!!! grrrrrrrrrr
Ryan
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 5:14 pm:
i cant belive this all i have to say is unfreaking belivable!!! i am going to give up now on the pirates for the future two this was the best prospect in the draft and also the best hitter in the draft! i am soooo discusted at mr scott boras!. plus this makes no sense tho with alvarez holding out and wanting to get the heck out of new york lf i was frank and neal i would go 7 million at the most and if he doesnt take that give up on alvarez and hopefully he gets hurt so it will look good for us and we can all laugh at him and bo him in 3 years when he is a star in the making i guss alvarez,drew,and varitek all didnt sign
-same old bucoooos i gave up on them until i know alvarez will sign!
DrewRit21
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 5:23 pm:
I noted several days ago something was amiss as well.
It sounded to me though that PA agreed to the deal before midnight, but Boras did not. Did I miss something?
Boras doesn’t want to mess with Coonelly, he will have a biased upper hand in this process. I hope we still get PA, but the bottom line is that the relationship will always be tainted. This is unbelievable as Ryan said. We needed this guy in our system…bottom line.
One final point, Chavez was catching today. He did a great job recognizing the runner breaking for third and trying to bring Duke’s pitch up and in, which Duke didn’t do. BUT, I feel that ball had a good chance to roll foul, and don’t think Chavez should have picked it up. Worst case scenario - down 2-0 runner at first. Best case scenario - down 1-0 with another shot at Blanco.
PNC316
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 5:45 pm:
Jake, I noticed you removed Silverman’s name from a post. How did that come to happen?
edit by Jake — for the first time in two and one-half years of blogging on the Pirates, the team wanted me to correct something in my post — to absolve Silverman of being involved and hoping I would sing some praise for Huntington. So I did as instructed.
Obviously Silverman already knew there was a problem and the Pirates wanted his name off my record, much like that coal miner’s son did in 2007 when he heard there was a chance Littlefield was going to get fired and he wanted his butt saved.
And the fact they wanted Huntington’s name printed louder can only mean… well, I’ll let you fugure that out.
Nate
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 8:26 pm:
I wish you well Jake. I usually didn’t agree with your insights, but they were interesting to read. We’ll miss ya. Godspeed.
Ryan
on Aug 27th, 2008
@ 8:47 pm:
Jake i also wish you well i enjoyed everything that you said and all your blogs hopefully alvarez and the pirates get something done!
Billy
on Aug 28th, 2008
@ 7:59 am:
Another post, another way to twist it in a negative way.
Maybe Boras is to blame? Maybe Boras didn’t want Alvarez to accept, but Alvarez really wanted to? Maybe Boras, who dislikes the midnight deadline, is pressing it this year?
Discuss all the possible scenarios, not just the ones that support your displeasure of Nutting.
I’m rather happy you are leaving, I’m growing tired of your negative posts.
SoCalBucs
on Aug 28th, 2008
@ 11:21 am:
Hey Billy
Is your last name nutting?
Jake, good luck and I wish you well. I am going to miss your posts.
Everyone pray that this alvarez situation gets worse. I hope that this embarrasses Nutting enough that he sells the team. If no Alvarez means no Nutting I am all for it.
jasond
on Aug 28th, 2008
@ 11:59 am:
My personal opinion is that Boras wants to break down the signing deadline and he is using Alvarez as a goat. He doesn’t like it for negotiation and he doesn’t like small market teams using it as a weight over his somewhat impoverished clients.
Seriouisly, Larry Silverman on vacation. Come on, any GM and a man of Coonelly’s legal experience (especially in that of baseball contractual disputes) can easily handle a verbal contract negotiation.
Billy
on Aug 29th, 2008
@ 8:26 am:
SoCalBucs
Maybe you should hop on the same bus as Jake?
CaptainKid
on Aug 29th, 2008
@ 9:43 am:
Billy the Apologist…
Wake up moron!!! If you want a sugarcoated rendition of this fiasco (or anything else related to the abysmal Pirates), then simply hop over to the PG for some “fresh” perspective.
It’s laden with sparkles and kisses, which I’m sure is more in line with your tastes.
Kid
MissinJake
on Aug 29th, 2008
@ 4:57 pm:
Reading Jake’s take on the Alvarez problem, I wonder if he knew the call was after midnight and the Pirates would lose the pick saving Nutcase six-million? Maybe he left because he knew Neal was going to screw this all up leaving the system bare naked? Uncanny.
I miss his posts.