The Sweet Snell of Success

Who is the best pitcher in the National League? That's a question guaranteed to start an argument, but let's just say, for the sake of discussion, that it is Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks (11-3, with a 2.50 ERA over 154 IP). Webb has won 22% of his team's 50 victories.

Who is the best pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates? The answer to that one should not start an argument. It is Ian Snell, who after tonight's 6-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers (seven innings, one earned run, nine strikeouts) is 9-6. Although his ERA is 4.63 (over 119 IP), he has accounted for 25% of his team's 36 victories.

Back on May 20 (see post "Searching for Our Soul in the Heart of Rock and Roll"), the Buccin' Ear had this to say about Snell:

"Tonight the team rebounded with a 9-6 win, beating up Jason Johnson with lots of early offense (a homer and four RBIs for Jason Bay), enough even for Ian Snell, who staggered through five innings to get his third win. His ERA is as beefy as C.C. Sabathia: 5.74. I've heard for a couple of years now how promising this guy is. Enough. He was given a shot in the second half last year, showed little, and is now the fourth best pitcher on a bad staff. Apologists (or optimists) will point to the fact that of the five runs he gave up, only two were earned. Well, that probably says more about the lack of clutch hitting tonight by the Indians (they stranded 12) than Snell's hard luck. The guy threw 105 pitches (about 60% for strikes) and walked five. Most nights that kind of pitching is going to send you off to lather up with Irish Spring a lot earlier than the fifth inning."

I'd like to make like Charles Barkley, who famously said he was misquoted in his autobiography. But those were the observations in this blog then, and the observation now is, Snell has done a lot to prove that he does belong in the Bigs. He still has his bad outings, and he falls prey to big innings too often. Still, he is nowclearly the best pitcher on this bad staff, has lowered his ERA by more than a run in two months, and is probably the only pitcher at this point who would generate any significant interest from another team (not that we're advocating a trade).

The obvious comparison is to Zach Duke, who was lambasted by the Brew Crew last night in an ugly 12-8 loss. Duke now sports an ERA higher than a pint of your best microbrew: 5.50. Back on June 4 (see post "A Mixed Bag"), the Buccin' Ear had this to say about Duke and Snell:

"Duke, who has pitched much better overall than Snell, has shown that he can make adjustments as the game goes on, the mark of a smart pitcher. If he can make a further adjustment in his approach in the early innings, he may return to the form of last season. As it is, he is 4-6 with a 4.23 ERA, not where he or anybody else wants to be at this point, but certainly not a disaster on a team that is 14 games under .500."

This is not to say that the Pirates should give up on Duke, anymore than they should conclude that Snell has arrived as an ace. But surely the question must be raised: what is the reason for Snell's relative success over the past two months and Duke's precipitous decline? Personal observation suggests that Snell's power pitching has given him more room for error than Duke, who relies on location and changes in velocity. He looked like he was pitching batting practice last night, which is what happens when a finesse pitcher can't locate.

Whatever the case may be, the Pirates would do well to start looking for answers in the performances of that small number of players who have been able to achieve success this year, just as they need to seriously reexamine those players who have underachieved. The bromides of RG Jim Tracy just won't cut it anymore.

Hook, Line and Stinker

It's 4:10 p.m. Eastern time. Do you know where your Buccos are?

Answer: floating face down in the Atlantic Ocean, comatose once again from another Lost Weekend in which they drank deeply from the dregs of defeat and despair.

After a surprise win in Miami Thursday to open a four-game set with the Florida Marlins, the Pirates put their bats away Friday and Saturday, mustering a grand total of one run in losing 4-1 and 5-0. Today's matchup was unpromising, with Dontrelle Willis starting for Florida and the disappointing Tom Gorzelanny going for the Bucs. Gorzo was fresh off a ghastly performance Tuesday against the Rockies, but he bounced back today with what was easily his best outing of the year. He departed after six innings with a 3-2 lead, which Matt Capps quickly coughed up, yielding a two-spot to the Fish. The Pirates tied it in the ninth when Joe Randa doubled home a run. However, they had a chance to win it, but sent Senor Strikeout, Jose Hernandez, to the plate with two out. No sense in relating what happened.

No matter. Mike Gonzales gave up the game-winner in the bottom of the ninth anyway, surrendering a run-scoring single to Dan Uggla with one out. Gonzo has made a habit of high-wire acts in pressure situations all year, and this time he got burned. Fact is, though, the game was lost, as it was throughout the series, at the plate, where the Pirates stranded 12, including seven in scoring position. Randa, Jason Bay and Craig Wilson stranded a collective 18. The team scored a pitiful 10 runs in four games, thereby almost completely negating a rare decent series on the mound for the starters. Only Kip Wells turned in a marginal performance, although by his standards it was a semi-gem (three runs in 5 2/3 innings). Of course, the Marlins' starters on Friday and Saturday were flat-out better than anything the Pirates had to offer.

Speaking of (Bottom of the) Wells, he's 0-5 after Saturday's loss, has lost 18 of his last 21 decisions, and is 8-23 since the opening of the 2005 season. Some trade bait, huh?

The Kipster's mediocre effort last night lowered his ERA to about 8-and-a-quarter. So given all of that, perhaps he can be excused for his post-game emphasis on his ability to "stay out of the big inning" and his complaint that he felt wet during the entire game. Hey, pal, you don't pitch so good when you're dry, either.

Wells also got no help from his defense, notably center fielder Jose Bautista, who misplayed a fly ball that cost a run for Wells, and another in the eighth that resulted in two more for the Marlins.

But none of it mattered, as the Pirates were completely baffled by rookie Ricky Nolasco, who threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings before the Florida bullpen effortlessly shut down the Bucs, who, as Wells might say, were all wet.

Do you know where your Buccos are? Exactly where they were coming out of the All-Star break: 30 games under .500 and ready to resume their award-winning performance as the Putrid Patsies of Piratedom on the road.

The 1985 watch: the 2006 Pirates (35-65/.350) must go 23-39 (.374) the rest of the way to better the fifth-worst record in team history. Put on your rally caps.

JG and the Sunshine Band

Let's review. When the season began, the Pirates had some extra money to spend, and the talk was that the bright young pitching prospects (Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Oliver Perez), the promising and established position holdovers (Jason Bay, Jose Castillo, Jack Wilson, Craig Wilson), and the veteran newcomers (Jeromy Burnitz, Joe Randa) would help the team to avoid a 14th straight losing season.

In Florida, the talk was that the latest demolition of the team and payroll, which left the team with a pitifully inadequate roster, would lead to an historically bad season. Why, no one but Miguel Batista and Dontrelle Willis was left from a team that won the World Series just three years ago. How could they possibly compete?The Pirates went out and hired a manager whom they believed had a proven track record and would help them get out of their decade-plus-long funk: Jim Tracy. The Marlins managed to convince experience-free Joe Girardi to take on the lost cause that was to be the Marlins.

Well, following the Marlins' 4-1 victory over the Pirates tonight, which evened the series at 1-1 (the Pirates picked up a victory in the series opener on Thursday), the Marlins are 43-52; the Pirates are 35-63. Paul Maholm, tonight's Buccos starter, turned in a typical performance (six innings, four runs, three earned) and fell to 3-9. His opponent, rookie Scott Olsen, went 6 2/3, innings gave up an unearned run, struck out 11, raised his record to 8-4, and lowered his ERA to 4.01, a full run less than Maholm's.

So which team is rebuilding? The Marlins, because the term with that team means something: building again. The Pirates don't rebuild, because there is nothing to build from. The Marlins, on the other hand, have torn down a World Series team once (1997) before creating a new one (2003), and now they have defied expectations once again, in building from the ashes a team whose record the Pirates would gladly take.

The discussions in the Post Gazette Q&A recently made much of the commentary of various All-Stars that the Pirates shouldn't blame their relatively low payroll for their difficulties. Various readers and the team's beat writer bemoaned the unfairness of the MLB economic systems. All well and good. Obviously, another $100 million would help this club. Or is it obvious? I'd like to see the evidence that the Pirates would spend any extra money they might magically be granted wisely -- or spend it at all -- which is exactly the big-market clubs' argument against revenue sharing: why should they spread their money around to ineptly run clubs?

The fact is, the Pirates are a poorly managed franchise that has failed since 1992 to get the maximum of the players they've had (with 1997 being one possible exception) . Don't forget, they were a small-market club in 1990, when they surprised the world by beating out the supposedly superior big-market Mets.I'm tired of hearing about the inequities of the system. Sorry, MLB isn't the NFL and it isn't the NBA, and it's pointless to bemoan the fact that it isn't. Somehow, despite the incredible unfairness of Major League Baseball, an unprecedented number of teams have playoff aspirations in 2006. The Pirates aren't even close to being one of them. Whose fault is that?

The true fallacy of the defeatist attitudes of that segment of fans is that they seem to believe that a team's success is measured only by playoff seasons. There is another segment of us who have been complaining about the Pirates for years, but aren't even asking for championships. We're only asking for teams that aren't out of it by July 15 or earlier. We're asking for teams that can develop talent and make the most of the skills of the players that take the field. We're asking for a team that can COMPETE.

The Pirates do justice to the words of the immortal Walter Winchell, who said, "Nothing recedes like success." Jeez, the Great Depression only lasted 12 years. If the recession-bound Pirates ran the economy, the U.S. might be competing with South Yemen in the economic development category.

Yo, Jim Tracy, Dave Littlefield, et al. Joe Girardi has a crap payroll, young players and a disinterestd fan base. He also has a team that can hang. What's your excuse?

The Shape of Things to Come

Like a sailor celebrating one last day on land before shipping out to seas feared and forbidding, the Pirates snagged another victory in the comforting climes of PNC Park today. The 6-5 triumph over the Colorado Rockies was notable in several regards: a rare one-run win, and in come-from behind fashion, no less; a fine recovery from what could have been a dispiriting nine-run loss the night before; a win over a pitcher (Jason Jennings) whose recent performances had been among the best in the league; and last, but not least, a second straight series win, giving the the team a 4-2 homestand.

Zach Duke also got his second straight win, although again in unimpressive fashion, to improve his record to 7-8. The win is the good news; the bad news is he surrendered a 3-1 lead in the sixth by giving up three runs, before the offense rescued him with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning.

With slightly less than two weeks to go before the trading deadline, we are again left to ponder a question raised by the Buccin' Ear earlier in the season: Who are these guys? (see post of June 11.)

Zach Duke is one of these guys, of course, but the Buccin' Ear, for one, has no clear idea of who he is. His two wins since the All-Star break have done nothing to improve his plus-five ERA, and he has been in a month-and-a-half-long funk. At least he's consistent. His outing today (six innings, four earned runs) is about what you expect from him these days, which is more than you can say for any other pitcher on the staff.

Lest anyone ask why the Buccin' Ear is quibbling after a win, the simple response is, the team is about to go on the road, where the offense has been far less potent than at home. The Pirates keep looking for a lift from their pitching staff, and it simply hasn't been there. Simply stated, this team is going nowhere (as if it weren't there already) if the starting pitching continues at its current pace.

So that brings us to the subject of Kip Wells, whose departure is apparently imminent. It's hard to lament the loss of anyone whose post-2003 contribution has been as minimal as Wells', but we are still left with the question of who will fill his spot. At this point, the only viable options appear to be Victor Santos or Oliver Perez. The latter is 0-2 for Indianapolis with a 4.58 ERA since his demotion, which isn't very encouraging, although he has 23 strikeouts vs. 4 walks in 20 innings. The Buccin' Ear isn't much of a fan of Santos as a starter, so it says here that OP gets a call-back. The more nagging question is, how long does the team with Tom Un-Terrific Gorzelanny, but we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.

All signs point to an end to the brief homecoming of Sean Casey, who deserved better. The best bet here, as the Post-Gazette pointed out, is to work out a deal for the Rockies' Ryan Shealy, who has no future with Colorado as a first baseman. The kid can hit, and the Pirates have some relievers who could help the Rockies, who are hurting in that area with the collapse of Ray King and the departure of Chris Dohmann and David Cortes to the minor leagues. As noted in an earlier post, the Rockies' recent travails can largely be blamed on their suddenly vulnerable bullpen, including All-Star closer Brian Fuentes. Could Roberto Hernandez or Damaso Marte help them? You bet. And Shealy would be a great addition. The team needs to make this a top priority.

Joe Randa has shown a lot of class since his injury and job loss to Freddie Sanchez, who simply made the third base job his. Joe has hit well in spot duty since his return, which is not an easy thing to do, and the team would do well to reward him with a trade to a contending team.

Jeromy Burnitz, on the other hand, has zero trade value, as he combines a hefty contract with a poor set of stats. The Buccin' Ear could come up with all the different possible scenarios for moving JB, but the fact is, the inept front office got themselves into this one, and they probably need to eat plenty of unwanted material to move him along. It would be nice to think that this will be a lesson to them, but....naaaaaaaaaaaah.

So excluding pitching and assuming for the moment that the Pirates were to get Shealy, the position player problem for the Pirates is as follows:

Jose Bautista has obviously earned a spot somewhere. If he stays in CF, however, RF would be manned by Craig Wilson or Nate McLouth, with one of the two left out in the cold. If the team doesn't get Shealy and lets Casey go, Wilson is the only option at first, barring some other move. That leaves McLouth in right, not his natural position.

If McLouth is in center, Bautista becomes the question mark. His natural position is third, but there is a guy named Sanchez there.

The X Factor, it says here, is Chris Duffy. If he could return to the form he had shown last year, he could man center, Wilson could take over right, Bautista would move to third, Sanchez would move to second and...

Jose Castillo, who would command some value, would be traded. The trade choice, otherwise, is Wilson, but that leaves RF in the hands of McLouth or...Jose Hernandez? Have another drink. Trade McLouth? Okay, but for whom? He has an OBP of .298 and has yet to prove himself.

The problem, as it has been for some time, is frickin' right field.

Want to be Pirates GM? Be my guest.

Rocked and Rolled

Has anybody here, seen my old friend Oliver?

Let's just say that Tom Gorzelanny isn't making anyone forget the dearly departed Oliver Perez.

Gorzo, the latest in a long line of highly touted young Pittsburgh hurlers, delivered another X-rated pitching performance tonight, allowing the Colorado Rockies to snap their eight-game losing streak without breaking a sweat. Well, except that they had to spend lots of energy running around the bases.

In short, Tom Un-Terrific was awful, lasting only into the third inning and playing not only the Rockies' best friend but also his own worst enemy with walks, elevated pitches and a silly throwing error that helped to open the floodgates to what was ultimately a 13-4 pasting.

The last we saw of Tom, he'd buried his head in a Terrible Towel. Maybe there was a mug hidden underneath and he was crying in his beer.

Not that TG was alone. With the score 5-0, he left the game in the uncapable hands of Victor Santos, who toted his kerosene can to the mound. By the time the erstwhile fifth starter was finished, the score was 12-1, and the only suspense left was whether Freddie Sanchez could boost his league-leading BA (he did, going 2-for-4, and driving in two runs. He's now hitting .365, which might even be better than what the league is now batting against Pirate pitchers).

Speaking of Pirate pitchers, they would do well to look at the Rockies staff. Traditionally the laughing stock of the league, the Colorado starters had a collective ERA of 4.17 coming into tonight's game, third-best overall in MLB. In days past, the Rockies sprinting to a 7-0 lead wouldn't have been cause to give up hope. No more. Starter Jeff Francis (7-8, 3.98 ERA) coolly shut down the Pirates over seven innings, allowing just one earned run. The team's eight-game losing streak wasn't the fault of the starting pitchers, who by and large threw well over that period. The bullpen broke down and the hitters went into a funk. Until tonight, that is.

The Rockies' five starters (Francis, Aaron Cook, Jason Jennings, Josh Fogg -- yes, that Josh Fogg -- and Byung-Hyun Kim) have combined for 558 innings (well over six innings per start), counting tonight's game, and Kim didn't start the season in the rotation. They have struck out 348 and walked 188.

Consider that the six pitchers who have started for the Pirates this year (Gorzelanny, Perez, Santos, Kip Wells, Zach Duke and Paul Maholm) have combined for 512 innings (about an inning less per start than the Rockies' starting staff) and have issued about 70 more walks, and you begin to see why Colorado has reason for hope (as their respectable 45-48 record suggests), while the Pirates are still floundering.

During the horrid 26-game stretch that began June 12 with a 2-1 loss to St. Louis and ended July 9 with an 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Phillies, the Pirate pitching staff gave up 160 runs, or more than six per game, and the bulk of that total was attributable to the starters. A Pirate starter gave up three runs or fewer in just four of the 26 games.

Obviously, good pitching is hard to come by, and the Pirates, for the time being, at least, are going to have stick with what they've got and hope that experience will pay off, as it seems to be with the young Colorado staff. Kip Wells may well be on the block, but if the plan is to trade Sean Casey and Craig Wilson, a first baseman is going to have to come from somewhere. And even if Jeromy Burnitz and Joe Randa are about to end their storied careers with the club, one can hardly hope that either will net a prized pitching prospect.

Tonight shows us once again that the Pirates' call to arms in '06 has gone largely unheeded.

The Second Season

The Pirates of Penance returns after an All-Star break for the Buccin' Ear. The first "half" (90 games) of the Pirates' season is best forgotten, and some of their bad karma must have rubbed off on the National League at PNC Park, as the American League scored two times in the ninth inning to take the All-Star game again. It marked the first AL victory in a Pittsburgh park.

The Buccos returned to action with three games against the Washington Nationals, and won two, their first series victory in over a month. Zach Duke picked up a win in the series opener despite another mediocre effort (5 2/3 innings, three runs), then the team posted a rare come-from-behind win on Saturday. After stranding Nationals by the score throughout two games and most of a third, the pitching finally succumbed on Sunday in an 11-inning loss to thwart a sweep.

But there was more positive news tonight as Kip Wells worked out of several jams to go seven innings against the Colorado Rockies and help secure a 3-1 win. Wells didn't get the win, but he and the team were desperate for this kind of outing after a dreadful return from the disabled list.

None other than Freddie Sanchez drove in the winning run in the eighth tonight, further cementing his status as the team's most consistent performer and valuable player. Sanchez came up with one out and Jack Wilson on second against sidewinder Byung-Hyun Kim, who had thrown more than 120 pitches, and took a tailing pitch the opposite way for a run-scoring double. The Pirates tacked on one more before Matt Capps threw a hitless ninth for the save.

So the Pirates, still a discouraging 33-61, have won three of their first four "second season" games. Okay, it helps that they have taken on struggling teams (the Rockies lost their eighth straight tonight), but who is to quibble at this point?

Instead the Buccin' Ear, with a chance to see the game tonight, prefers to give a tip of the hat to Mr. Sanchez, who, as they say, plays the game the right way. He made several excellent plays in the field tonight, but for me the most impressive was in the ninth. The lead-off hitter for the Rockies, Choo Freeman, topped one down the third base line that appeared to be heading foul. Freeman, probably thinking just that, hesitated just a bit coming out of the box, and Sanchez, charging the ball aggressively all the way, grabbed it in fair territory and threw Freeman out. Those kinds of plays are why you keep an eye on a guy like Freddie all year long. His head is in the game all the time.

And the team continues to show those tantalizing flashes of talent. To wit: with one out in the top of the eighth and the Rockies' Todd Helton at first, the Rockies got a gapper from Garrett Atkins that seemed a cinch to score Helton. Jose Bautista fielded the ball cleanly and relayed to Jose Castillo, who threw a strike from short right field to Ronnie Paulino. Helton's hand was reaching for the plate just as Paulino swiped him on the shoulder for the out. It was a perfect play, and one that took advantage of Helton's ill-advised look back for the ball as he came around third. Your coach waved you home, man, forget about where the ball is.

If these plays come more frequently in the next two and a half months than they have thus far, perhaps the Pirates can salvage a bit of pride.

The 1985 watch: to better the fifth-worst mark in team history (57-104), the current club must go 25-43 (.368) the rest of the way.

Stars in the Darkness

In a nicely ironic twist, the best players in Major League Baseball are gathered tonight in Pittsburgh, home to the worst team in either league. Two Pirates, Jason Bay and Freddie Sanchez, made the NL squad, and it's nice to say that both are deserving. Bay will actually start, an unexpected treat for the home crowd. Sanchez's selection is even more gratifying in that a last-place team rarely gets more than the mandatory selection. Freddie earned it, hitting the break with a BA around .360 and solid play in the field.

This is, of course, PNC's first time to host the so-called Midsummer Classic, and it's hard to imagine a finer setting, even if the team that regularly calls it home rarely if ever does it justice. The Buccin' Ear dropped into PNC last summer and was stunned by the perfection of the park, with its wonderful sightlines and flawless display of the city skyline. Of course, the mid-July game, played in sweltering heat, didn't match the surroundings. The Bucs went down to the Astros 9-1, with the departed Dave Williams taking the loss.

But back to the All-Star game. This is the fifth time that Pittsburgh has played host, the most recent being in 1994 at Three Rivers, an 8-7 win for the National League, which scored three times in the last two innings. Former Pirates Moises Alou (traded to Montreal for Zane Smith in 1990) got the game-winner. Carlos Garcia represented the Pirates, which tells you what kind of year they were having.

In fact, the NL has won each of the previous games played in Pittsburgh.

In 1974, a tilt attended by your faithful correspondent, the NL prevailed easily, 7-2 (MVP: Steve Garvey). Only one Pirate appeared in the game, the late Ken Brett, but he threw two scoreless innings to get the win. The paucity of Pirates seems curious, given that they were the eventual winners of the NL East that year, until one remembers that the team began 18-32. Obviously, few Buccos were boasting All-Star stats in early July, given that start.

The 1959 match in Forbes Field was notable in that it was the first year that two games were played, one in an NL park and one at an AL field. The first game, in Pittsburgh, was won by the NL with two runs in the bottom of the ninth off none other than Whitey Ford. Game-winning hit (a triple)? Some guy named Mays, who drove in some guy named Aaron. The first six innings, which ended 1-1, featured these four pitchers: for the NL, Don Drysdale and Lew Burdette. For the AL, Early Wynn and Ryne Duren. Anybody who saw the game, contact the Buccin' Ear. That one lived up to the word "Classic."

Bill Mazeroski, Dick Groat and Elroy Face appeared for the Pirates in the 1959 game. Unfortunately, Face was the victim of a three-run uprising by the AL in the top of the ninth that forced the NL heroics in the bottom frame.

The luster of the 1944 game, also played at Forbes, was obviously dimmed by the war, and the loss of many great players, who were in Europe and the Pacific fighting fascism. Still, those notables who were still around included Bobby Doerr, Vern Stephens, Hal Newhouser, Rip Sewall (he of the Ephus pitch), Stan Musial, Walker Cooper, Joe Medwick, Mel Ott and Marty Marion. There was even a Dimaggio (Vince, who made the team as a Pirate). The other Pirate attendees were Sewall and first baseman Bob Elliott (2,061 career hits). The NL cruised, 7-1.

So perhaps all of this history bodes well for an '06 NL squad everyone is declaring overmatched. The balance of power in baseball has undoubtedly shifted to the AL, but perhaps an old NL city can inspire the Senior Circuit again. And don't forget, the NL skipper is none other than a Pittsburgh favorite: Phil "Scrap Iron" Garner, who was a key member of that long-ago 1979 World Championship Pittsburgh Pirates team.

Keystone Krap

Annoyed by the endless carping about their one-run losses, the Pirates stormed out Saturday and Sunday and lost to the Fadin' Phils by a combined score of 14-5. That'll show 'em.

With that, the team slinked home for the All-Star break with a dismal 30-60 record. Seemingly a lifetime ago, the Buccin' Ear wrote a post entitled "Who Are These Guys?", a musing, it now is clear, that occurred through a pair of glasses tinted a rosy red, or maybe Jack Daniels brown. The obvious answer to the question now is, "A supremely, maybe historically, bad team composed of some individually talented players."

After inexplicably winning three of four games in San Francisco in early June (a series the Giants will look back on ruefully if they come close to winning their division but don't make it), the Pirates have lost eight consecutive series, reeled off a 13-game losing streak, and dropped 20 of their last 24 games.

They are also the cure for any team's woes. The Mets had hit a rough patch in the road when the Pirates rolled into Flushing and were promptly flushed three out of four. The Phillies had lost of 18 of 23 since their humbling 3-2 loss to the Pirates on Friday night. The Buccos naturally curled into a ball for the final two games, with Paul Maholm and Zach Duke providing the Phillie offense with just the shot in the arm it was looking for.

It's time to declare that these two highly touted pitchers have been nearly total busts this year. Duke hasn't pitched a decent game in over a month. His last win, in mid-June, featured a performance no different than most of the ones that resulted in losses. You can count on Zach for about five innings and about five earned runs. Maholm specializes in producing high pitch counts and yielding lots of hits. What a combo!

But of course both of them will keep their spots in the rotation, because not only is this a club with no answers, it is obviously also one that has become used to losing. They appear to be a bunch of guys who slouch into work, punch the time clock, do what they are told, and keep an anxious eye on the clock for the five o'clock whistle to blow so they can collect their paycheck and blow the foam off the first of several frosty mugs of brew. "Why sweat it?" they seem to say. "The checks cash the same, whether you win or lose."

The sorry series in Philadelphia is doubly painful for any Pirate fan who remembers what matchups between these two teams once were. As the Buccin' Ear noted in another post, once upon a time, Pennsylvania teams ruled the NL East. Between 1970 and 1980, either the Pirates or the Phillies won the division every year except one (1973), and the two combined for three World Series championships. Their games were wonderful grudge matches filled with bad blood and dominated by stars and characters, from Greg Luzinski to Larry Bowa to Steve Carleton to Mike Schmidt on one side and Willie Stargell to Dave Parker to Al Oliver to Manny Sanguillen to Phil Garner to Dock Ellis on the other. (And I could go on. I omit The Great One -- Roberto Clemente -- only because his tragic death occurred early in the rivalry.)

Now? The teams, inexcusably, aren't in the same division, so the rivalry has been allowed to die. On top of that, of course, good baseball has been seen but rarely in Pennsylvania in a quarter century, and particularly in the last decade and a half. The Pirates, as we all know, are headed toward their 14th consecutive losing season and have rarely menaced .500 during the dry spell. The Phillies, after going a remarkable 176 games over .500 between 1975 and 1984 and appearing in two World Series (winning one), fell on hard times as well. Between 1987 and 2000, they recorded just one winning season, although that one (1993) produced a World Series appearance. They have not made the post-season since 1993, although they can at least boast of four winning seasons in the last five (2006 isn't headed in that direction).

So a tip of the hat to Freddie Sanchez, Jason Bay, Chase Utley and Bobby Abreu. The ghosts of Keystoners past would at least recognize your efforts.

Man Bites Dog

The final score of tonight's Pirates-Phillies game: 3-2.

GROAN.

But wait! In a jaw-dropping development, the Pirates won a one-run game!

And with that, they also recorded their 30th victory of the season. Nine of them (30%) have been of the single-run variety. On the other hand, 25 of their 58 losses (43%) have been by one run.

We've lambasted our Buccos for the last three weeks, so let's be fair and give credit where credit is due. We've been begging for a starting pitcher to throw a shoulder to the wheel, and Ian Snell did that tonight, going seven innings and giving up just one run in recording his eighth win of the season. We've been asking for the team to make a play when it counts, and Jack Wilson did so, throwing out Jimmy Rollins on a relay to save a run in the fifth.

Okay. The Phillies have played just as ineptly as the Pirates in the past month, going 8-20. No matter. The Buccos got a road win, a one-run win, a solid starting performance and timely plays. Let's check our reservations at the door.

1985 update: Tonight's win, coupled with the 7-5 loss to the Mets on Thursday (Thanks to Jonah Bayless for his flawless portrayal of Ryan Vogelsong in that one), leaves the Pirates 30-58. Goal for the remaining games: 28-46 (.377).

Staggering to the Break

The Pirates continued their metronome-like season tonight, falling in dispirited fashion to the New York Mets, 5-0. With the loss, they have lost two of the first three games of the series, last night's defeat being of a more wrenching but no less typical variety, 7-6. That one was their 25th one-run loss of the season.

So after nine games with three of the top teams in baseball, the Pirates are 3-6, with one more game remaining with the Mets. The team is marching in lockstep toward a 54-108 finish, which, as discussed in yesterday's post, would put them as the fifth-worst in club history.

Tonight's loss featured a lifeless offensive performance against over-the-hill Orlando Hernandez. Although admittedly still crafty, El Duque is hardly the pitcher he once was, and is of an age no one can determine and he won't reveal. But the Pirates' offense, which had shown some life in the past week, was baffled, and the Ancient One put up seven scoreless innings before turning the game over to the Mets' bullpen for the final disposal of the snoozing Bucco bats.

Tuesday's loss would have been excruciating in another season, but in 2006 it seemed merely yet another variation on an endless theme and produced nothing much more than a weary shrug. Up 6-4 in the eighth, the Pirates turned the game over to Salomon Torres and Roberto Hernandez, who combined to yield three runs en route to a 7-6 loss. The inning featured a disputed play at the plate that resulted in the winning run scoring. On a single that tied the game, Nate McLouth fired a throw to catcher Ronnie Paulino that appeared to beat Endy Chavez, who was trying to score the lead run. Of course Chavez was called safe, touching off a rhubarb that resulted in Jim Tracy's ejection.

Of course, the Pirates made much of what they believed to be -- and by all appearances was -- a bad call at the plate. But as The Buccin' Ear has observed in previous posts, much of this carping is beside the point. And even Torres, who ripped umpire Angel Hernandez for that call and for what he considered Hernandez's inconsistent balls-and-strikes call, finally had this to say:

"It's on us, too," Torres said. "There's no excuses for that. We should have done better."

'Nuff said.

Torres occupies a particularly difficult spot on this team. He is used frequently, far too much, it says here, despite his frequent protestations that there is nothing wrong with his arm and that he is not tired. The numbers say otherwise. His ERA is creeping near 5.00 and he has had numerous poor outings over the last month and a half. He and other team members keep talking about his velocity, which they claim is still where it has been, but obviously velocity is only one part of pitching. And a player's velocity doesn't begin to measure his mental fatigue. Torres himself has admitted that he's "just not making his pitches." Doesn't matter what label you put on it, that's fatigue.

Forty-one-year-old Roberto Hernandez and rookie Matt Capps are two more workhorses who could join Torres in the glue factory unless the staff gets better performances from its starters. That seems unlikely. Zach Duke officially crossed the 5.00 ERA barrier with his five-plus-inning, four-earned-run performance Tuesday, the latest in a string of mediocre starts. He blamed this one on one unlucky inning, which featured a few cheap hits.

Then there is Kip Wells, he of the stratospheric ERA who promptly put his team in a 5-0 hole this evening. No doubt we will hear much brave talk of his putting up five scoreless innings the rest of the way. A guy who lowers his ERA to 12.00 by giving up five runs in six innings doesn't really have much to say that The Buccin' Ear needs to hear, but he'll lay down a mythical dollar that some variation of the word "gritty" appears in Resident Genius Jim Tracy's comments tonight on the Kipster's sterling performance.

The 1985 Watch Update: The Pirates must now go 29-47 (.381) the rest of the way to better the final mark of the 1985 team (57-104). Things are looking grim.

Avoiding History

The Pirates caught a break when Pedro Martinez slipped in the shower, scrubbing him from his start against the Bucs Monday. The team responded to its good fortune with an 11-1 win over the Mets, keyed by some timely hitting and a gritty pitching performance from Paul Maholm, who labored through a 116-pitch, six-inning effort, but yielded just one run and improved his still disappointing record to 3-7.

With a win today, the Pirates can reach double digits in road victories (they are currently 9-31) and post their 30th triumph. All this by the Fourth of July!

Too bad the team can't chop up its 10-run win of last night into 10 one-run victories to partially replace the 24 single-tally losses they've piled up this year. If that could magically happen, they'd be 39-45 and on the fringes of the division race in the aggressively mediocre NL Central.

But let's walk on the sunny side today. The team still has a mission, which is to distance itself from the worst squads in Pirates history.

The worst record, unlikely ever to be broken (we hope) belongs to the 1890 forebears of the Pirates, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, who went 23-113. The current team racked up its 24th win on June 11. Even if it were to lose every remaining game and finish 29-133, they could not finish with a worse winning percentage than the '90 Alleghenys (.169).

More good news: The 2006 Pirates will not approach the number of errors committed by nonpitchers on the 1890 team: 439. (Did they have really tough scorers in those days? Bad fields, no doubt.) In fact, the entire infield on the current team probably won't combine for the 70 miscues recorded by Doggie Miller in split duty at third base and shortstop. (Doggie tacked on another five for good measure in a fill-in role behind the plate.)

The 1952 club (42-112, .273 WP) has the second-worst record in team history, and it will stay that way if the current team can go 16-62 the rest of the way, which seems likely, even by its lowly standards. No three pitchers on the 2006 staff will combine for 54 losses, as the '52 club's Murray Dickson (21), Bob Friend (17) and Howie Pollett (16) did. From a statistical hitting standpoint, the third-best player on the 1952 team was Joe Garagiola. The Buccin' Ear is confident that when the dust settles on the '06 campaign, the team's third-best offensive player's numbers and performance will leave Joe in the dust, although none will probably achieve the same notoriety the then-broadcaster-in-waiting did.

From second place to third place on the Worst Of list is a short step: the 1953 team went 50-104 (.325). The current Buccos can speed past that one by playing a little better than .300 ball (24-54) from here on in. Definitely doable.

If the 2006 team can put the '53 club in the rearview mirror, it will also likely speed past the 1917 Pirates (51-103/.331). That team had one thing in common with its Modern Era counterpart, though: its ability to ditch promising pitching. It had a young righthander named Burleigh Grimes, who would record 270 career victories and be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1964. For the '17 Buccos, however, he went 3-16 and was traded to Brooklyn, where he posted a record of 19-9 the following year.

So to avoid placing among the bottom five, the Pirates must get past the previously discussed (see post of May 31) 1985 team (57-104/.354). The 2006 edition is already halfway to its goal of 58 wins for the season. However, it is also more than halfway to its maximum loss count of 104. So the magic numbers for our heroes are 29 (wins), 49 (losses) and .377 (WP) the rest of the season.

Can they do it? They can, of course, but there is a huge potential catch looming: the last five series of the year are all against teams that have an excellent or at least decent chance of being in contention for something in September (in order, the Mets, the Dodgers, the Padres, the Astros and the Reds). On the plus side, the Mets may be coasting by that time; on the minus side, the road games are against the Dodgers and the Padres, the two teams most likely to be battling it out down the stretch, as they are in the closely contested Western Division.

The Buccin' Ear's advice? Circle the dates of September 4-7. That's when the Pirates invade Wrigley Field for a series with the victory-challenged Cubs that may go a long way toward not only determining the team's place in history, but also toward revealing this year's worst team in baseball -- or at least the National League, which these days is another way of saying the same thing.

Thanks to www.baseballreference.com and www.postgazette.com for help with the research on this post.

The Best of RG

When Resident Genius Jim Tracy arrived in Pittsburgh to take over the reins of the team, he was vocal in his desire to change the way the team approached the game of baseball. He stressed accountability and declared that the days of accepting losing in Pittsburgh were over.

So it was with surprise that The Buccin' Ear noted this comment from RG that followed the Pirates' latest loss, yet another of the one-run variety, to the Tigers Sunday. The Pirates, who have become jazz musicians endlessly riffing on the theme of the close-but-not-cigar game, trailed this one by seven before getting back six -- but only six.

Quoth RG: "This was just a terrific comeback, again. Unfortunately, it fell short. To come back after trailing 9-2 so late in the game as we were and given their bullpen, which has been so special to get them off to the start they are off to, it is big. We were in a position to tie the game once in the later innings then in the position in the ninth inning to win. We just couldn't get the hit. We couldn't get the sacrifice fly."

So what is the message here? Sounds to me like RG is providing a soothing pat on the back to his team, telling them not to feel bad, they tried, they gave it all they had, but gosh darnit, things just won't go their way.

Hey, the Buccin' Ear is all for keeping a losing team's morale up. Trouble is, RG swings between taking shots at players (see Jack Wilson and Mike Gonzales), making excuses for his own questionable decision making and offering this kind of empty encouragement. In the Buccin' Ear's book, an effective manager finds a way to encase his lash on the team in velvet -- good job coming back, but what the hell were we doing falling behind by seven in the first place? Nice job, Ian Snell, pitching three scoreless innings after giving up four in the first two, but you and I are going to find a way to put an end to the bad innings that are ruining your games.

To illustrate the way a top-flight manager handles a team, here's what Tigers skipper Jim Leyland told Post-Gazette writer Paul Meyer in a recent interview. Leyland was discussing an early-season tantrum triggered by a loss that featured irritating play from his team.

"They played hard that day. It wasn't that," Leyland said. "It was just that it was like, 'Well, we're behind. I'm going to hit a cheap home run.' We kept popping balls up to the outfield.

"I said, 'That's just not going to be tolerated. We don't play the game that way.' "
And Leyland made his point.

"I don't think you ever plan those things. You just react," Leyland said. "You know, every once in a while, you say, 'Shut the doors. I've seen enough of this [act].' It wasn't pretty."

The Tigers, duly chastised, went 6-3 on their trip to Oakland, Seattle and Anaheim. That made their record 13-9.

"But I don't think that [meeting] had [anything] to do with it," Leyland said. "You just have to do what you feel. That's what managing is. You get a feel for something -- good or bad -- and you have to handle it. I wasn't just going to let it slide."

Long-time Pirates fans will remember spring training of '91. The team was coming off an NL East championship, and reigning MVP Barry Bonds' head had gotten a little big. (Hard to believe, I know.) Leyland ignored Bonds' behavior for about a week before he upbraided the player in full view of players, fans and media. End of problem.

"I just wasn't going to let it slide."

To counter that quote, we have another gem from RG, this one on the heels of a carbon-copy one-run loss to the Tigers to open the weekend set. The Pirates fell behind by five in that one, only to get back -- you guessed it -- four.

The post-game blather began with rookie reliever Matt Capps, who at least can be forgiven for trying to buck himself up in the midst of a horrible season. From the Post-Gazette:

"We never hang our heads," Capps said. "And that's how it's been all year: We get into some trouble early on, but we get back into it, no matter what the score is, no matter who we're facing."

One would be looking for the manager to give his young player some guidance, words along the lines of, "It's fine to make a comeback. But we need to find ways to stay in the game early."

No, RG offered another variation on the "Gosh darn we're close" theme:

"It was a tremendous comeback," Tracy said. "And it's a tremendous effort when you consider how the early part of the game went."

So the Buccin' Ear, following the lead of RG, has this to say to the Buccos: keep it up guys. You are on track to become the gosh-darn best 105-loss team in Major League Baseball history. Quite an accomplishment.

Mailbag

The Pirates played to form in their six games with the two best teams in baseball, the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers, losing four and winning two. After picking up a win Saturday night over the Tigers, who played shoddy defense to hand the home towners a 9-2 win, the Pirates today did what they do best, bowing 9-8, their 24th one-run loss in 32 opportunities. After falling behind 9-2, buried by poor pitching performances by Ian Snell and John Grabow, they rallied for six runs in the seventh, but couldn't get over the hump. In other news, the sun came up in the east this morning.

The Bucs scored 23 runs in three games off the Tigers' excellent pitching staff, which for most teams would translate into more than one victory. But even in scoring eight runs, their uncanny inability to win games emerged. They left a combined total of 22 men on base, with Jose Castillo, Humberto Cota and Jack Wilson being responsible for five each. The Pirates had the bases loaded and one out in the ninth before Castillo struck out and Cota hit a ball up the middle that was deflected by pitcher Todd Jones and fielded by second baseman Placido Polanco, who threw Cota out. As is their practice, the Pirates bemoaned their bad luck on Cota's ball. That's what losing teams do. Yo, Adrian, would being down seven runs early in the game have anything to do with the loss?

So on to the Buccin' Ear's first shake of The Pirates of Penance mailbag. A good rustling of the sack produced mostly a flutter of moths, but there were a few cyber missives that fell out.

Zack from Shanghai mocked the Buccin' Ear's elegaic "Time to Move On" post, at once an ode to the Pirates' past glory and a lament for the current state of affairs.

"Woe is me, O woe is me," Zack wrote. "Try World Cup soccer instead!"

Well, Zack, much as the Buccin' Ear's psyche might be soothed by shifting his attention from the Buccos to something more worthwhile, he is afraid that soccer isn't the answer. He breathlessly awaited the outcome of the Trinidad-Sweden match recently, and asked a coworker how it came out. "Nothing-nothing," she replied. "What, they haven't played yet?" he inquired. "No, that was the score," she said impatiently. And they call baseball boring.

Paul from Denver reacted to the recent post "Halfway to Nowhere," which questioned a decade and a half of Pirate futility by pointing to the team's small market status:

"As with most teams in small- to middle-size markets (Indians, Brewers, Reds, Royals, etc.), unless there is a compelling reason for younger players to stick around -- a team mentor, an ownership group that is honestly looking to build a winner, or loyalty to a city's fan base -- the Pirates will forever be forced to develop good, young talent and watch it be snatched up by big-market teams with deeper pockets. "

The argument that the Pirates and other small market teams don't succeed because the economics of the game won't allow them to is one commonly advanced, and it certainly has merit. However, it does not fully explain the lack of success of the Pirates. First, as The Buccin' Ear noted, the job of the front office has at least as much to do with evaluating talent as it has to do with deciding how much money to spend. The Pirates' talent evaluation, as we have seen, has been woeful, while other small-market teams, including the A's and Twins, have been able to attract, keep and restock good players consistently. Baseball is like any other business: it helps to have massive amounts of capital, but it doesn't guarantee success, and the converse is true. Michael Lewis's Moneyball famously showed Oakland GM Billy Beane's ability to put together teams that were based on a different model for evaluating talent.

Interestingly, the general consensus among the Pittsburgh press is that the Pirates aren't losing money. The team's problem is that it spends its dollars foolishly and has proven incapable of arriving at a consistent approach for developing young players.

Teams that preserve their young talent -- assuming, again, that they are smart enough to evaluate it correctly in the first place -- have a chance, even with small payrolls, of achieving success. One of the best examples is the Indians, previously discussed in this blog, who were on the short list of worst teams in baseball for more than three decades before they started finding and stockpiling good young players in the early '90s. By 1995, they were in a World Series, had a brand-new stadium and a rejuventated fan base. They reinvented themselves again recently and, it says here, will have great success again, their disappointing 2006 notwithstanding.

An anonymous poster writes, in response to "Eye of the Tiger":

Why can't the Pirates emulate what Detroit has done? They were the laughing stock of MLB a few years a go. Now they are a contender. When oh when will the curent Pirates ownership sell this team?

See above. The interesting thing about the Tigers' pitching staff is that only Justin Verlander was originally drafted by the team. Detroit picked up Jeremy Bonderman, Mike Maroth and Nate Robertson from other teams, and of course Kenny Rogers is a veteran acquisition who has helped solidify the staff on a short-term basis. Don't forget also the value of patience. In 2003, Bonderman and Maroth lost 19 and 21 games, respectively. It's easy to say now that all the Tigers had to do was wait for them to mature, but it doesn't work that way. Seasons like those could easily have ruined those two pitchers' self-confidence, but the Tigers' coaching staff apparently was able to help them survive their trial by fire.

Pirate pitchers, on the other hand, have nearly universally gone downhill as their careers with the team have progressed. Kip Wells is a classic example. In 2003, he was 10-9 with a 3.28 ERA. Since then he has gone 13-28 with an ERA well over 5.00 and has been a complete disaster since his return to the team this year.

Finally, as noted above, the Pirates are doing okay financially, so it's hard to say that a sale of the team is imminent, and as Bob Smizik of the Post-Gazette recently pointed out, it's hard to get an answer from ownership about anything these days, much less their financial plans.

The Buccin' Ear will end this mailbag session with the following note from a reader in Australia:

"Your site is on top of my favourites - Great work I like it."

Thanks, mom.

Halfway to Nowhere

The Pirates' loss last night completed the first half of their hellish 2006 season in neat mathetematical fashion. The team is 27-54, meaning that it has lost exactly twice as many games as it has won, and has lost exactly two of every three games it has played.

That's about the only thing that is orderly about the mess that is the Pirates. Other than the fact that it has no reliable starters, an overworked bullpen, a perennial hole in center field, no established leadoff hitter, inconsistent fielding, an inability to win close games and a comically bad road record, this is a heck of a team.

The Post Gazette's recap of the lost first half pretty much hit the nail on the head in all areas, doling out especially well-deserved criticism to the front office and new manager Jim Tracy. Also rightly singled out was the starting pitching, which has been nothing short of disastrous. What is it with this team? Why can't pitchers perform when they come up with or come to Pittsburgh? In my mind, it all started going bad with Tim Wakefield.

A lot of people probably never knew or have long since forgotten that way back in 1992, Wakefield achieved the status of folk hero with the Pirates. A late-season call-up, he won two games in the playoffs that year against the Braves, pitching especially bravely and brilliantly with his dancing knuckleball in Game 3, with the Pirates down 2-0 and on the verge of being humiliated. Wakefield won that tense game, then picked up another win in a Game 6 blowout that sent the series to the ill-fated Game 7 that the Pirates came within a whisker of winning. Instead, the decline of the Pirates began.

As did the seeming demise of TimWakefield. He lost control of his knuckleball, pitching poorly in '93 and not at all in '94. Suddenly in '95, however, he was rescued from the scrapheap by Boston, where he resurrected his career, winning 130 games going into this season.

From Wakefield on, the story of Pirates starting pitching has been a litany of failed promise and lost opportunity. On the rare occasion that a Pirates pitcher has seemed to fulfill his potential, the team has promptly traded him away. Denny Neagle comes to mind. He was 14-6 in 1996 when the cash-strapped team sent him off to Atlanta. The marvelously talented Jason Schmidt came over in that deal. But of course Schmidt was never anything better than a .500 pitcher for the Buccos, who sent him on to San Francisco, for whom he pitched well in a World Series. Schmidt is still a SF staff mainstay. The cruelty of the loss of Schmidt can be summed up with one name: Ryan Vogelsong, whom the Pirates acquired for him. Ryan Freaking Vogelsong!

But the list goes on and on: Esteban Loaiza, Jon Lieber, Bronson Arroyo, Chris Young, Kris Benson; none were able to prosper until they left Pittsburgh. And the utter ineptitude of the Pirates front office is illustrated by the list of what the team received in return for these pitchers: Arroyo was claimed off waivers. Jon Lieber netted Brant Brown, a name that I am sure is still on everyone's lips. Loaiza fetched Warren Morris and the immortal Todd Van Poppel. Chris Young got Matt Herges to the club, which was great because that gave them a chance to release him before he had thrown a regular season pitch in a Pirate uniform. The only faint glimmer of hope came from the Benson deal, which brought them Jose Bautista (the great Ty Wigginton has gone on to another powerhouse, Tampa Bay). At best, the jury is still out on that one.

Then there are the Francisco Cordovas, Todd Ritchies and Oliver Perezes of the world: one or two decent seasons, followed by flameout. Oh, and the careers that probably will never get off the ground due to arm troubles: John Van Benschoten, Bryan Bullington, Sean Burnett.

If I were Zach Duke, Ian Snell or Paul Maholm, I'd demand a trade right now. It could be dangerous not to.

Well, as Gnarls Barkley says, I could go on and on and on, but who cares? That's all water over the broken levees of Piratedom. But it does make the point that in the end, the biggest, reddest F that could be scrawled on the club report card belongs to the front office. They've earned that honor so many years in a row, it hardly needs to be awarded anymore. This year, the brain bust came up with another classic: the Joe Randa/Jeromy Burnitz two-fer that is the worst piece of free agent foolishness since the Derek Bell signing (the trophy may have been retired with that one, with apologies to Raul Mondesi). (The Buccin' Ear feels like he should make like Bobby on The Sopranos in addressing the Bucco front office: "I'm in awr of you.")

You have to give them this: they're bad at judging talent in their own organization, but on the other hand, they're pretty bad at judging talent in other teams' organizations too.

So tonight begins the Tom Gorzelanny Story. In it, young man arrives in Pittsburgh from Indianapolis full of hopes and dreams that he will be a star pitcher on a Major League Baseball team. The Buccin' Ear doesn't have the heart to write the ending.