Busy week for Bucs

A busy couple of weeks of moves for the Buccos.  The Bucs signed Ryan Church to a 1yr/1.5mil deal as a fourth outfielder.  I like the move.  Could be a good bench guy.  He is a good fit for the Pirates.  He hits left handed, something they desperately need.  He also plays solid defense and could play everyday if Jeff Clement doesn't work out at first base and they have to move Garrett Jones there.  He was often injured last season, splitting time between the Mets and Braves, combining to hit .273.  Church only hit four homers last season, but did hit 15 in 2007 with Washington.  Not a splashy type of signing, but teams need good bench guys also.

The Bucs also signed a couple relievers in D.J Carassco and Brenden Donnelly.  Carrasco is 32 and will earn a 950k base salary if he makes the squad.  He had a god year with the White Sox last season, posting a 3.76 era in 93.3 innings pitched.  Intresting that Carrasco and Brian Bass (who also signed a minor league deal with the Bucs) were 1&2 in the majors last season in innings pitched by relievers.

Donnelly was signed to a major league deal for 1yr/1.35mil.  He is a bit of a risk, coming off Tommy John surgery in 2007.  He saw his first big league action since 07 last year with the Marlins and was very effective, posting an era under 1.5 in slightly over 25 innings pitched.

The Bucs are also very close to signing Octavio Dotel.

The Pirates also cleared a spot for Donelly on the 40 man roster by dealing Brian Bixler to the Indians for ss Jesus Brito.  I don't know much about him but he is 22 and hit .353 combined between the Indians Rookie and Short Season teams.

I believe for Dotel to be signed, another spot on the 40 man must be cleared.  The likely guy in my mind to be released or dealt is Steve Pearce.

Again, not big named relievers, but the bullpen should be a bit more reliable this season.

One funny note is that with the signings of Donnelly, Carrasco and Chris Jakubauskas- that gives the Bucs three pitchers that used to pitch  in the Frontier League.  Probably three too many.

Zach Duke Shelled in Milwaukee

Well remember how much I praised the pitching during the last home stand. How much I said the pitching was responsible for 7 win out of the last 9 games. Forget it. Just the opposite held true in the first game of the road trip at Miller Park last night.

Zach Duke got pounded. Giving up 7 runs and 11 hits in only 3 innings of work. he gave up 7 hits and 5 runs in the first alone. By far, his shortest outing of the season. I have been waiting all season for the 07-08 version of Duke to re-emerge, and it did last night. The 07-08 Duke in which the league batted over .300 against him. What went wrong for Duke? Horrible location on all of his pitches. The Brewers are a good hitting team, especially in their ball park and Duke made it easy for them early.

Still though, the young Bucs kept fighting back, but just didn't have enough in the tank. The losing streak at Miller Park extends to 19. The Bucs looked good early though. Runners on second and third with no outs in the first and somehow don't score. Of course the rally was killed by No-Mitt, bouncing weakly into a double play. A Prince Fielder monster shot moments later had the Bucs down 3-0, instead of possibly up 3-0.

Hard to blame Tony Beasley for not sending McCutchen on Young's first inning double, with no outs. Ryan Braun played the ball well, but I still feel Cutch scores easy. Kudos to Ken Macha for managing the game to win, even early. Walking Andy Laroche intentionally to get to Doumit proved to be the big play in the game. If Doumit comes through, the Bucs probably win the game. Just goes to show how big moments in a game aren't saved for the 8th and 9th innings all the time.

Even though Duke gives up 5 in the first, if he limits the damage in the second and third innings, after the Bucs score the previous inning, it may have been a different game.

NOTES
- Doumit was pulled from the game. He isn't hurt and wasn't sick the Bucs say. One can only hope he was close to being dealt. However the likely scenario was that he was pulled because he flat out sucks.

-Great job by the Bucs bullpen. In particular, Bootcheck, Jackson, Hanrahan and Bautista. One hit allowed through 5 innings of work.

-Boy is Cutch something to watch or what. I'm starting to run out of things to say about him.

-Did you see Luis Cruz get hit in the head by a line drive in BP? Hard to believe he was in the lineup. He looked a step slow and had to have a headache. Would have been a good opportunity for JR to get Bixler a start. Bixler came through with a pinch hit double though.

-Thumbs down to FSN Pittsburgh. Why do they have to drop the Bucs game and show the meaningless Steelers preseason game? The Steelers game is already on KDKA. I see why the casual fan doesn't get interested in this team when the Steelers are shoved down peoples throats.

-September call ups will be coming soon. We know that Alvarez and Daniel McCutchen won't be coming. i expect Neil Walker, who is tearing the cover off the ball finally to get a look, but where? I don't want him taking many at bats away from Laroche. Clement will get a look as well. Erick Hacker will likely get a start or 2. Other than that, not too many youngsters will be up. I would like to see Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata get a quick look. Some other arms will get the quick promotion as well. Nothing to get excited about though. probably a Virgil Vasquez type pitcher or 2.

-Here is where I want this rebuild to go. Did you see the Scott Kazmir deal to the Angels last night? The Rays unloaded Kazmir, who's velocity has been down & his 23 mil left on his deal, for 2 quality prospects and possibly a third. What do they do? They replace Kazmir with Wade Davis and aren't likely to miss a beat. The Rays keep loading up their system and keep filtering young studs through the major league club. That's where I want the Bucs to get to. Being able to deal a struggling star for a good return and have plenty of options to step in a do the job. Tampa is becoming a well oiled machine. Too bad they are in the AL East

- Gallardo (who we never hit) vs Hart tonight. Should be a great game since it's not on TV. Let's go Bucs

Today's Notebook- A-Rod Book Not Worth Buying

A little time on my hands so here are some thoughts for today

- Did you see the book on Ster-Rod, I mean A-Roid, I mean A-Rod has come out early. Right on time with his return. Don't buy the book. It says that A-Rod lied during his interview with Peter Gammons. (Like we needed a book to know that). It says A-Rod used steroids back in high school as well and also he continued using with the Yanks. My thoughts are Who Cares? I'm tired of the steroid stories already. Keep him out of the Hall of Fame and that is the ultimate punishment. If you are gonna keep Bonds out, no way A-Rod can get in.

- The one thing that bothers me though about the book is the allegations of pitch tipping. This bothers me a lot. In essence that is the equivalent to point shaving. Ask any baseball player if they would rather have the unfair advantage of steroids or know every pitch coming. Every single hitter would choose knowing the pitch. Do I believe the allegations? Hell, Why not? Especially with A-Rod being the most fragile superstar of all-time.

- It seems like everyone forgot about the other 103 names on that failed drug test. I really wanted to see them, but would that mean 103 more books? I don't need to know that bad, but it would sure be nice.

- I hope you got to catch some of the Bulls-Celtics series. I don't devote much space to the NBA, but this series is worth mentioning. A great 7 game series that had it all. I really enjoyed watching Ben Gordon and Ray Allen, 2 of my favorite players, go at it. I can only imagine what the pickup games are like when the alumni visit U Conn.

- The Bucs are now sitting at .500 after dropping 5 of 6 to the Brewers and Reds. Lack of hitting the whole week caught up to them and the bullpen let them down on a couple occasions. Like I said before, this trend will continue all year. Good pitching will beat this team all year. Not being able to beat the Brewers in over two years is very disturbing though.

- Another case of you don't know what you have til it's gone with Jack Wilson. I have never been the biggest Wilson supporter, but Brian Bixler looks over matched in the big leagues. The same Bixler that tears it up in spring training and in AAA, just can't put the bat on the ball in the big leagues. After a very nice debut in which he had a two run double, Bixler has looked lost at the plate ever since. At least he hasn't taken his struggles into the field with him this season. Until he can hit MLB pitching, he looks to be a Mr. March candidate.

- Mark Eaton has 3 post season goals, which is more than everyone on the team not named Crosby or Malkin. It's great for Eaton. The team needs scoring from the blue line. It's bad for the Pens though. If they don't start getting scoring from their wingers, then the Pens will be on the wrong end of a short series.

- Finally, let's discuss the Pens power play. Ha, What power play? I don't want to make myself angry by thinking about it. The Pens are 4 for 37 with the man advantage in the playoffs. Remember 3 of those gaols came in the first two games. Gotta get it fixed.

- Almost forgot to hand out my player of the month awards. National League honors go to Albert Puljos and the Pitcher of the month goes to Chad Billingsly, who has had a fantastic 5-0 start to the season. In the American League, Carlos Pena's 11 HR gives him the nod and Zack Grienke has been the most dominant pitcher in the game so far, so he gets the award.