Pirates Enjoying the Role of Spoiler

The Pittsburgh Pirates have waited all season long to get good outings from their starting rotation. Little did they know that they would have to wait until September against the first place Atlanta Braves. The Bucs received back-to-back solid outings from the likes of Brian Burres and James McDonald. While that’s great for the Pirates, it’s next to crippling for the Atlanta Braves.

While the Pirates are enjoying the the role of spoiler, the Braves offensive struggles have knocked them out of first-place for the time being. The Braves have no one to blame but themselves. Quite frankly there is no excuse for a team like the Braves to get shutdown on consecutive nights by a team that is 44 games under .500 and sports a major league worst 5.12 team era.


Quite frankly, a team that scores one run in 18 innings of play against the Pirates doesn’t really deserve to make the playoffs anyways.

The Braves can and likely will turn things around, but they have to get the bats going. The pitching is there.

One guy who will be heavily scrutinized is first baseman Derrick Lee. Lee has been a total bust since the Braves acquired him and has left a small village on the base paths for Atlanta hitting in the middle of their order.

To make it a successful final season for manager Bobby Cox, the Braves offense must heat up. If they finish the season a game or two out of first, the can look directly back at this series in Pittsburgh as the one that cost them.

For a two game stretch, the Pirates are showing a combination of good pitching, flawless defense and timely hitting.  What happened the other 100 + games.

New and Notes From last night's loss

Time to take a break from looking at each position to bitch a little bit.  Why are the Reds better than the Pirates?  It's not because of talent.  It could be because of coaching, but quite frankly, it's because the Reds do the little things necessary to win ball games while the Pirates continue to fail at them.  It's called good fundamental baseball and the Pirates never seem to play it.

What have the Reds done that the Pirates haven't?  They catch the ball, they throw strikes, they hit behind the runner when called for, they can lay down bunts, they control the running game,  they throw to the right base- Should I continue?

Is Bronson Arroyo that good that the Pirates have scored one run off him in the last 14 2/3 innings? Of course not, but he pounds the strike zone and hits his spots.  Pirates starters aren't getting ahead of batters on a consistent basis and miss location more times than not.

The Pirates defense has also cost them more than one game this season.   The Pirates have also made mistakes both on the base paths and controlling the running game.  These mistakes have also cost the team on more than one occasion.  The outfielders always throw home, even when there is no play, allowing runners to advance; also costing the team more than once.

All of this and that isn't even what upsets me the most.  Why do the others teams pitchers have so much success swinging the bat against us.  I have added up all the numbers and the pitcher is hitting .250 against us.  The Pirates have seven offensive players hitting under .250.  They also have Andy Laroche at .256 and Lastings Milledge at .258.  So nine of their 13 bats are hitting under .260 and the opposing pitchers are hitting .250 against us.

On the other side of that, Pirates pitchers a a combined 4 for 80 on the season.  If your scoring at home, they are hitting .050 as a unit.  Brian Burres has two of the four hits, so the rest of the staff has two freaking hits all season.  That's a big problem.  I'm not asking for them to win batting titles, but they have to be able to handle the bat.

Also, what Pirates pitcher can lay down a successful sacrifice bunt?  Most of the time the other teams pitcher bunts, he either gets the job done or somehow winds up on base with a bunt hit.  When a Pirates squares to bunt, it's likely a double play or they lead runner is thrown out.  This is not acceptable.

Who's to blame?  John Russell?  Hitting coach Don Long?  You would think Russell has these guys working on things, but maybe they don't.  As far as long goes, his guys just don't hit.  maybe it's time for an experienced hitting coach that can get through to these guys.  When the opposing pitchers are hitting better than nine of your offensive guys, there is a huge problem.

Add all of the little things together.  If the Pirates would just do the little things right on a consistent basis, they would likely be over the .500 mark at the moment.  Good teams do the little things necessary to win ball games.  i don't know why this message isn't hammered into these guys on a daily basis.

Battle For Fifth Spot in Rotation

Other than today's outing by Paul Maholm, the Pirates starting rotation has been starting to pitch well of late.  With Ross Ohlendorf scheduled to get the ball tomorrow, spots 1-4 are secure for really the first time all season.

Manager John Russell had a tough decision to make on who will fill that number five spot for the time being.  Both candidates- Brian Burres and Jeff Karstens have thrown well of late and coming off of their last performances, both deserve to get another chance at starting.

Let's look at the season numbers

Burres- 2-1, 4.09 era. 22ip, 21h, 10er 14bb, 13k
Karstens- 1-1, 4.08era. 17.2ip, 20h, 8er, 7bb, 11k

Both guys have had similar numbers and similar outings- 2 good starts and 1 bad one.

Russell announced that Burres will get the ball and Karstens will head to the pen.  Did he make the right decision?  In this case I'm going to say yes, but only for the short term.

Burres has allowed 10 runs, but six came in his first start and four came in a bullpen outing.  In his last 12.1 innings of work, Burres has allowed only seven hits and hasn't allowed a run.  How do you not give him the ball again.

Karstens has shown in the past that he was pretty valuable as a swing guy.  Preforming well as a long guy and can spot start if necessary.

In the end though, does it really matter?  That fifth spot will go to Brad Lincoln sometime this season anyways, so Burress is just keeping it warm for him.  In the meantime though, it would be nice to see what this kid can do a couple more times through the rotation.

Looking at the Quality Start

Another quality start for a Pirates pitcher tonight. This time it was Jeff Karstens pitching well in a 2-0 win over the Cardinals.

No team has played by the theory of good pitching beats good hitting more than these Buccos.  I've been charting the outings all season and it breaks down like this.  Through 30 games, the Pirates have gotten 15 quality starts and 15 very bad starts.

I'm not that big on the quality start numbers, I prefer to go by the eye test.  I still look at the six inning pitched and three earned runs or less, but I prefer to go by "Did the starting pitcher give the team a chance to win today" theory.  Yes, I know, I'm an innovator.

Let's take a look.  When the Pirates receive a quality start, they are 13-2 as a team and their starters are sporting an impressive 2.55 era.  Paul Maholm has led the team with five of my quality starts, followed by Zach Duke with four and Brian Burres and Jeff Karstens with two a piece.

When the Pirates don't get a quality start, it's ugly.  They are 1-14 as a team and have an astronomical era of 12.24  Naturally, Charlie Morton leads the team with five non-quality starts, followed by Duke with three.

When this team gets good pitching, they are a fun team to watch.  If they get quality starts and can score just enough runs to win; then the power arms in the bullpen can really be effective.  I know it's a cliche, but all they need from their starters are six quality innings.  They currently have a effective late innings bullpen with Evan Meek in the seventh, Joel Hanrahan in the eighth and Octavio Dotel in the ninth.

It's been 30 games, so teams begin to show trends.  The trend of this Pirates team is the quality start.  They can hang around the .500 mark for a while if and only if the starting pitching continues to perform well.

Check back tomorrow and I will break down John Russell's tough decision that lays in front of him.  With Ross Ohlendorf coming back to the rotation on Monday, one of Karstens or Burres will be out of the rotation.  Both guys have pitched well and coming off their last outings. deserve to get the ball again.

Check out our post-game report, following tonight's win, featuring Randy Gore.  Click HERE

Until then.  Let's Go Bucs

Today's moves

The Pirates needed to make some roster moves because their bullpen is taxed and who knows how long Charlie Morton will last.  Chris Jakubauskas was placed on the 15 day DL and Brian Burres was called up from Indianapolis.

Brian Bass was called up and Danirl McCutchen was sent down to Indianapolis.  Bass wasn't on the 40 man, so they DFA'd Brandon Jones to clear room for Bass.

Wonder if we will do anything offensively today?  We've only scored in 4 of our last 49 innings. 

I will have a column about the offense, or maybe the pitching up after the game likely.  Depends on which pisses me off more today.