The Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, our beloved Buccos. The team we watched get embarrassed and become one of the laughing stalks of the league the past two decades. The team we watched put together deals to trade away their best players for practically nothing. The team we watched play in front of home crowds featuring less than a thousand fans. The team we watched six hours of baseball for last year just to see our season collapse on the shoulders of Jerry Meals. The team we all of a sudden expect to ... Read More
Pirates top 20 prospects
1. RHP Gerrit Cole (AA): Cole may not be dominating the minors like some hoped, but he’s been pitching well since joining the Pirates system and his stuff has been as advertised. He still looks like a frontline starter and 200 inning+ workhorse. 2. RHP Jameson Taillon (AA): Taillon joined Cole in AA Altoona last week, and had an impressive debut, pitching five shutout innings while striking out six. Taillon, like Cole has had good but not great minor league numbers. Cole and Taillon are 1a ... Read More
A New York state of mind: Pedro Alvarez embraces his roots
“Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. When I was dead broke, man I couldn’t picture this. 50-inch screen, money green leather sofa. Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur.” – Notorious B.I.G. When Brooklyn, New York native Notorious B.I.G. hit the scene with his breakout hit “Juicy” in 1994, Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher Wallace talked about his rough upbringing and coming from nothing to something. While Pedro Alvarez would probably substitute PlayStation 3 and X-Box for Super Nintendo and ... Read More
Has the extra wild card helped the MLB in general?
This year, the MLB has installed a second wild card spot (per league) to make each league more competitive down the stretch. It was implemented, also, to keep the general fans interested later into the season rather than tailing off then coming back when the playoffs started. It also has made more teams competitive. Rather then packing it in at the trade deadline, more teams were willing to be buyers because they still had a chance for once and it has shown in the standings. So far, I think the ... Read More
Following setbacks, Jeff Clement finds his way back to Pittsburgh
When the Pirates traded fan favorite Jack Wilson to the Seattle Mariners just two days before the trade deadline, the main asset they were getting back was first baseman Jeff Clement. Clement was one of the bigger prospects for the Mariners at the time and to start the 2010 season, he won the everyday job at first. Unfortunately, Clement made a bigger impact in his Pepsi commercial chatting it up with Alfonso Soriano than he did on the field for the Pirates that year hitting just .201. ... Read More
Opportunistic Pirates make Brewers pay in 4-0 win
In baseball, especially when you're struggling like the Pirates are, you have to strike when your opponent makes a mistake. Thankfully for the Pirates and their fans, that's exactly what they did. With matching scoreless frames going into the bottom of the fifth, it was an error to lead off the inning by center fielder Carlos Gomez to allow Neil Walker to reach. Now errors are costly for teams, but in no way did the Brewers, Pirates or any of the 37, 568 in attendance see it being this ... Read More
Pirates reflect upon their time with the Navy Seals
The Pirates recent trip to San Diego was one to forget. Following their 19 inning win against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, the Pirates were hoping to to use that momentum in the series against the lowly Padres. Unfortunately for them however, they were swept by San Diego. Not all of the trip is worth forgetting for all of the Pirates though. As they annually do, members of the Pirates made a trip to the U.S. Naval base while in San Diego. This year for the Pirates, Chris Resop was ... Read More
Travis “Lunchbox” Snider lives up to his nickname
The days of nicknames in baseball seem to be in the decline. In year’s past, you’d have the Crime Dog, Babe Ruth, El Duque, Pudge, Godzilla and so on. Now there are still some good ones out there such as Kung Fu Panda for Pablo Sandoval and Big Puma for Lance Berkman, but one of my favorite nicknames just happens to belong to one of the newest Pirates. Travis “Lunchbox” Snider. Now Snider makes it no secret that he loves food almost as he loves baseball. If you check him out on Twitter at ... Read More
Pirates acquire Gaby Sanchez from the Marlins for Gorkys Hernandez
With under an hour left until the end of the non-waiver trade deadline, the Pirates made another move and this time, they improve their bench. The Pirates traded defensive specialist Gorkys Hernandez and a competitive-balance pick (as of now pick No. 33 in next year’s draft) to the Miami Marlins for first baseman Gaby Sanchez. Sanchez is another buy low pickup for the Pirates, similar to their acquisition of Travis Snider. Sanchez, who will turn 29 next month, is under control until the end ... Read More
Why do people pitch to Andrew McCutchen?
There’s always that one player that comes to the plate that you just know is going to come through for his team. You say out loud or to your friends, “They shouldn’t pitch to him.” Sure enough, the pitcher does and the hitter makes him pay. This year, that guy is Andrew McCutchen. McCutchen is leading the league in hitting at .369 and has been tearing the cover off the ball in June and July especially. This month, McCutchen has a .458/.524/.792 line with seven home runs. .792 slugging? That’s ... Read More