Around the Diamond- Catchers

A couple weeks into spring training and we will begin to take a daily look around the diamond.  Let's begin behind the dish, which has turned into one of the Bucs deepest positions in the organization.

Matt Wieters should be the starter, but wait... Dave Littlefield passed on him.  Ryan Doumit will start and hopefully, the team can finally get 140 games out of him and truly see what type of player he is.  I know we've been down this road before, but hopefully Doumit's poor 2009 was due to injury.

If John Russell intends to bat Doumit in the middle of the order, he has to start swinging the bat. I know I'm very hard on Doumit at times, but it's make or break time for him.  I have a feeling he will answer the call and perform well. (That was painful for me to say).

What's more important is for Doumit to handle the young pitching staff and become a leader of this young team.  He has it in his personality to do so.  If he starts putting up numbers offensively and the pitchers throw well, this could become his team.  I look for big things from the soon to be 29 year old backstop.  he won't be a big long ball guy, but could become a decent run producer.

Other catchers in camp are last years backup Jason Jaramillio and non-roster invitees: Luke Carlin, Hector Gimenez, Erik Kratz and 2009 first round pick Tony Sanchez.  Carlin and Kratz have impressed at times so far.  As for Sanchez, he is having a great camp, but don't expect him to come north opening day.  What he is doing is showing Doumit that he has to produce, or Sanchez's time will be sooner, rather than later.

As for the backup, look for it to be Jaramillio; although he does have an option left.

Position Grade Compared to the rest of the league-  C - Average at best production and I'm probably being kind here.

The Curse of Francisco Cabrera

Every time I see that picture, I want to throw up. That was the moment, where what I call, "The Curse of Francisco Cabrera," began. At that very moment, every thought of winning baseball in Pittsburgh went away. Who would have thought that after that very moment, we would be here talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates being the losingest franchise in sports history. Seventeen seasons in a row. It's sad, that a seventeen year old kid can drive to a game and buy a ticket to see a team play that has never had a winning season in his/her lifetime. NEVER

That damn, Francisco Cabrera. I've watched that game replayed on ESPN Classic about 20 times. Each time I watch, I keep thinking we're going to win this time. Guess what, we never do. Each time I say to myself, "This time Bonds is going to throw Sid Bream out." He never does.

About the streak, what's to say? It's been bad, but it doesn't effect me. I'm not even upset anymore. I will trade another year or two of losing, if it gets the ship righted. What's another couple years, we have suffered through 17 already. I will trade 18 or 19 years to be consistently a competitive team. We shouldn't have to, but that is where we are with this team..

Back to that damn Francisco Cabrera. If we win that game, would we still be here talking about 17 losing seasons in a row? I believe we would. We may have won the World Series in 92, but things probably would have played out the same. Bonds still would have signed with the Giants. We still would have bad ownership and we more than likely would have sent out bum after bum to play for us.

So who's to blame for the last 17 seasons. I'm not going into huge detail, because if I did, I would be authoring a book and I don't feel like writing all day. It's too easy to point the finger at the ownership groups, but I will, because they deserve it. From Kevin McClatchey to Bob Nutting, they deserve a big part of the blame. As positive as I am about the future, a big part of me still says we will never succeed under the current ownership group. What is sucess? It's not finishing .500 next season. It's not making a run at the Wild Card in two seasons. It's competing for the playoffs every season. I just don't know if the Nutting family will allow that to happen. He is the modern day Rachel Phelps from Major League. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but I'm sure I'm just kidding myself.

Next, the bad General Managers. Not having good baseball people, making key baseball decisions has hurt this team. Anyone else want to point the finger at Dave Littlefield? It will take the team the better part of a decade to make up for some of Littlefield's awful mistakes.

Next let's look at the awful job the scouting department has done, along with the bad drafts. Not one positive draft in 17 seasons. The lack of young talent and bad draft after bad draft after bad draft has crippled this organization. Only recently has the organization taken the right approach to the draft. Why did it take 17 years to simply just draft talented baseball players. Why did it take 17 seasons to not draft with your pocket book in mind? Daniel Moskos instead of Matt Wieters anyone?

Finally, the bad contracts. The Pirates made a habit of giving aged out veterans one last big contact. Derek Bell, Pat Mears, Raul Mondesi, Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa, etc. (I'd list more, but I'd be here for a week). The few players they did have, they gave bad deals to as well. Giving Jason Kendall, a singles hitter, a deal worth 60 plus mil, just wasn't smart.

So, what have the Pirates given us in the last 17 seasons? Yeah, we got PNC Park, but try this one, 362 different players. Check out this list. It's great reading some of the bums of this list. It's a must read. http://www.post-gazette.com/downloads/buc_roster_Streak.pdf

Ah the names. let me know which are some of your favorites. By that I mean, which of these bums just make you laugh reading their names. Which of these guys had no business being in the big leagues? believe me there are a lot of them. Let me know what you think. I'm kinda partial to "Steamin" Trey Beamon, J.J. Davis, Will Pennyfeather and Andy Tomberlin. I could really go on all day here, so I will stop.

I also want to know some of your low points during the losing streak. One that sticks out in my mind was the Aramis Rameriz salary dump. Not so much the horrible trade, but Darren Lewis, who was acquired in the deal elected to retire rather than play for the Bucs. Another one was Mondesi, who the Bucs just let quit on them, yet to go sign with a contender 2 months later. Finally, there is good old Operation Shutdown. Enough said.

What else have we seen in 17 seasons? Three ownership groups, six managers and millions and millions of disgruntled Pirates fans. It's got to stop and I think it will eventually. I just want to see Huntington stay the course. Keep acquiring young talent, keep investing in the draft, and when the time is right, start to add to the good young core the Pirates have. At no time in 17 seasons have I had hope for this franchise, but I really do now. At no time in 17 season's, have i had any faith in Pirates managements decisions, I do now. At no point in 17 season's, have I been confident in what some of the players can do on the field, I am now. At no point in 17 seasons have I felt the ownership was interested in winning. I still don't.

Don't blame this group of young Pirates. They aren't the reason we hit 17 seasons in a row of futility. Look at this group as the bunch that will break The Curse of Francisco Cabrera. I can only hope.

For more good reading on the Bucs streak of futility, check out these tow links sent to me by Bill Gorby. Very good articles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/sports/baseball/06pirates.html?_r=2&8dpc
and
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-pirates-losingtheirway&prov=ap&type=lgns

Bucs Notebook 6-29

I like what I have seen the last week from the Buccos. Getting ready to roll into July, the Bucs sit just five games out of both the division and the Wild Card races. Laugh all you want, but while being still four games under .500 still, the Bucs have caused some excitement. Tough loss on Sunday, but Grienke was dominant and they battled.

The pitching has been good enough to keep them in games and they have gotten just enough offense to win some games. Now as July comes, everyone will stop paying attention to the team as always, when Steelers camp begins, but Neil Huntington will have some difficult decisions to make. My advice to Neil is....... STICK TO THE PLAN. eighty percent of the young talent in the organization has been acquired within the last calender year, either by draft or trades.

I like to play GM from time to time and there is one move I would like to see the Bucs pursue. Although the Angels have been playing very well of late, here is a team that needs to make a few moves to seriously contend for the title. They're top four starters from last season have combined to make only 16 starts. They could use an arm, either a starter or bullpen arm and probably another bat.

I ship the Halos Matt Capps and Adam Laroche right now. In return, the Angeles have made known that shortstop Brandon Wood can be had. Two years ago, Wood was hands down the best prospect in the majors. The Angels just haven't found the room for Wood and Mike Scoscia just isn't gonna give a youngster major playing time on a team that's contending. Wood is a five tool talent that the Bucs should take a run at.

Include a young starter and maybe a first base prospect, the Angels have a wealth of both and this is a move the Bucs should try and pursue. The halos, might not want to take on a ton of salary, but it would make sense for both teams. Deal Capps while his value is high again and it's getting hot out, so that means so is Laroche. Adding Wood, gives the team more options to deal Jack Wilson as well.

OTHER NOTES
- Speaking of trades, Nyjer Morgan's name has been out there in a deal with the Nats. Main components of the deal was Morgan for Lastings Milledge. The deal apparently fell apart when the Bucs also asked for pitching prospect Craig Stamen. As much fun as Morgan is to watch, he is a 29 year old outfielder with no power and also is not part of the Bucs future. I'm not a big Milledge fan, mostly due to his attitude, but if the opportunity is there to acquire a five tool guy like Milledge, it would be hard to pass up.

- Matt Wieters is hitting around .270 with a couple of bombs. Here is an interesting note on the should be Pirates catcher. Wieters reached the majors after only 150 games in the minors. That's 75 games quicker than any other catcher in major league history.

-Andrew McCutchen went 0-4 his last 2 games of the KC series. The scouting report is out now. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts. My feeling is he will be fine. Don't panic, he wasn't going to hit .370 for his whole career. He is young and will experience several 2-20 stretches. Now it is up to him to adjust.

-Speaking of scouting reports, Virgil Vasquez was very good in his Bucco debut. he threw strikes and got a win. Part of that was due to there not being a scouting report out on him as well. We will see how he is throwing after 5 starts. Guys who come up from the minors generally have success their first couple of starts. Even JVB went six strong innings his first call up start against the Braves a few years back.

-Ryan Doumit will be back soon. It will be interesting to see which catcher stays up, Jaramillo or Diaz. Both have their positives and negatives to look at. My guess is JJ stays.

-Brandon Moss has heated up again. hitting close to .600 the last 10 days. Boy is he streaky. JR is using him well though and putting him in situations to succeed. it looks like it has become a straight platoon, with Delwyn Young playing against lefties. Either way, Moss is up around .270 after a horrid start. Whoever plays, they are getting production out of right field.

- Speaking of Moss, we got to start seeing some power and run production out of both he and Andy Laroche.

-Charlie Morton's first home start went well. Key stat NO WALKS. he should have gotten a win, but not too many guys get wins against Grienke.

-Ian Snell walked the first batter in his first AAA start and proceeded to strike out the next 13 in a row. Seventeen overall. This guy makes we want to puke. All of the sudden he is "Having Fun". After checking it out further, I discovered that the team he faced, the Toledo MudHens lead all professional baseball in strikeouts by a large margin. Even Tom Gorzelanny struck out 12 Mudhens the night before. So I'm not quite impressed just yet. Or yet maybe it was all that negativity in Pittsburgh. Hey Ian, if you strike out 17 in a Pittsburgh uniform, there won't be any negativity left for you.

- Big series vs. the Cubs. That's the 2 games under .500 Cubs. Since they can't win on the road, it would be nice to take this series at home. Nice match up tonight in Duke vs. Harden.

-I'm doing my Bucco farm report now so that should be posted later in the week. Let's go Bucs.

Bucs Lose Doumit for 10 Weeks

Just when things started going good, the Pirates suffered a major loss that just may be too difficult to replace. Catcher and cleanup hitter Ryan Doumit will be lost for 8-10 weeks after suffering a right wrist injury in Sunday's loss to the Braves.

Doumit will have surgery and the timing couldn't be worse. Here is a guy that just can't seem to stay healthy no matter how hard he tries. I have always been very critical of Doumit behind the plate, but he was starting to win me over. Not only will they miss his bat in the middle of the order, but he has become a true leader of the team and that is hard to replace for a team that hasn't won forever. He has done a great job with the pitching staff and Bucco fans can only hope the replacements can do the job for him.

The immediate replacements will be a platoon of youngsters Jason Jaramillo and Robinson Diaz. The problem being is at face value, Jaramillo can catch but can't hit and Diaz can hit but can't catch. If the position turns out to be a weakness, I would expect Neil Hunnington to look to acquire a catcher for the short term.

With the injury, Dave Littlefield's presence has lured its ugly head over the team one more time. This wouldn't be a major problem if the Littlefield regime would have drafted Matt Wieters. Yes, that same Wieters that has drawn comparisons to Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza. Yes, that same Wieters that was the 2008 Minor League Player of the Year. That same Wieters that should have been there to call up to make his major league debut on Tuesday. Yes , that same guy.

I would say, that knowing the Pirates, that they would offer Baltimore a sweet deal to acquire Greg Zaun, just so Baltimore can get Wieters to the big leagues quicker, but Neil Hunnington is much better at his job than his predecessor.

Jaramillo and Diaz will do just fine. They won't replace Doumit's bat, but it's not like Doumit was a 30 plus homer guy anyway. The concern is that when he comes back can he be the middle of the order hitter that he was pencilled in every game.

What do we need a Matt Witers for anyway? If we drafted Wieters, how in the world would the Bucs be able to replace Daniel Moskos? I mean seriously, who would be the number four starter in Lynchburg for the next five years.

American League Predictions

To recap previous posts, here is how the American Leaue will shape up
AL East- Red Sox
AL Central- Twins
Al West- Angels
AL Wild Card- Rays

AL Champions- Red Sox

AL MVP- Grady Sizemore
AL Cy Young- Francisco Liriano
AL Rookie of the Year- Matt Wieters
AL Manger of the Year- Ron Gardenhire

It's time to make history

Well it's one of my favorite time of the year, baseball season is upon us. The first spring training games have just begun and I guess that means that the Pittsburgh Pirates are now officially mathematically eliminated from post-season play this season.

Bucco fans, not only will you not be playing in October (AGAIN), but your faithful are ready to put their names in history as the worst sports franchise of all time- 17 losing seasons in a row. How can one team be that bad for that period of time? The Clippers, Rays, Lions etc. have all had playoff appearances in the time.

I can list the reason and throw out blame to just about everybody, but you have heard it all before. What i am here to do is offer hope. Yeah i said hope and I swear I'm not on drugs at the moment, although as I keep writing this maybe I should be.

When I say I'm here to offer hope, I don't mean this year or next or maybe not even the year after that, but it will happen eventually (I HOPE). First off all lets get this straight, finishing above .500 accomplishes nothing unless you make the playoffs. That's the goal here, to win.

Lets look at this years team first. The fact is they are not getting better and have no chance to compete this year. It hurts to say but this could be the worst team yet. The pitching staff as a whole stinks. I like Maholm, but not a staff ace and Capps is good at the back end of the pens, but the other 10 on the staff offer nothing for now or the future. Even if you get bounce back years from Snell or Gorzalanny or both, it still isn't any good.

Offensively, Ryan (No-Mitt) Doumitt and Nate McClouth had decent years in 08 and hopefully can continue to progress, but you look at the rest of the offense, guys like Sanchez, Wilson and both Laroche's and there just isn't cause for excitement.

I did say I would give you hope so i will give it my best shot to sell you on their plan. Actually the best hope I can offer is that the Nutting family sell the team, but that won't happen anytime soon.

First thing to do is continue to blow this team up and start over. Not one player on the opening day roster should be considered untouchable. Deal them all, but when you do, you must command top young talent in return. The problem with that is that other than McClouth, Doumitt and Maholm, they just don't have much to offer to teams in return. So if that means trading your best players away, then do it if the return is right. I know fan don't want to hear this, but the Pirates need talent throughout the organization and right now they simply don't have it.

Next, I continue to show confidence in my baseball people and continue to add to the front office. Hunnington has done some good things, give him the time to continue the plan. Don't get overly excited about giving guys like McClouth, Sanchez, Capps, Maholm, Snell and Doumitt extensions. All they did was buy out the arbitration years for these guys. If anything, I give the front office credit for making these guys have More trade value.

Next, I continue to shell out money through the draft. I was very encouraged by last years draft and they need at least five more years of that. Continue to draft the best players on the board and get as many of them signed as possible. The fact of the matter is the Pirates are paying now for having very poor drafts in the past (Matt Wieters anyone?). The early reviews of Pedro Alvarez are great right now. Imagine if you had drafted Wieters, who is hands down the number one prospect in the game, after only one year of minor league ball.

Did I mention the Nutting's could sell the team?

The fact is there are no more excuses. The Rays gave you the blueprint on how to build through the draft and all they did was come from nowhere to win the toughest division in sports. Fluke? No chance. They might not repeat this year, but they have enough young talent in their organization to stay competitive for a long while.

Finally, after you stockpile enough talent in the organization, bring them up together. Bring 3 or 4 up at a time and let them learn to win together. Once enough pieces are in place, maybe the Pirates can use free agency to improve the team and add the missing pieces (Of course Nutting would have to sell the team).

Don't be excited over this team, if the plan works out, none of them will be here when the Pirates start to win anyways. get excited about: Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchon, Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln, Shelby Ford, Jose Tabata and the new class of future Pirates

It is the only thing for Pirates fans to get excited about, because the current group is about to make history, just the wrong kind. I hope i am wrong but it doesn't look good.

Unless........ Mark Cuban still wants to buy a baseball team.