Get Outta Town

August 30. Pittsburgh. PNC Park. Under a gray late-summer sky, two battered ballclubs battled it out. The game may not have been big, but the numbers were:

• 11 innings
• 19 runs
• 40 hits
• 35 singles
• 28 men LOB
• 13 pitchers
• 8 walks
• 17 strikeouts.

From the Pirates' perspective, the biggest numbers were the 10 runs they scored versus the nine runs the Cubs scored, which added up to 53, as in victories, and three, as in sweep. For a second night in a row, they did it by coming from behind in extra innings, this time courtesy of a two-out, two-run single from -- who else? -- Freddie Sanchez, who continues to stake his claim to folk hero status in Pittsburgh. With the hit, the guy finished the day at a measly .347 for the season -- "measly" because he's hitting an absurd .423 with runners in scoring position.

Idea for movie remake: "The Devil and Freddie Sanchez."

How well are things going for Freddie? In his pivotal at-bat, he spun a weak nubber up the first base line that twisted foul a nanosecond before Derrek Lee grabbed it (he would beg to differ). Reprieved, he managed to plunk one the opposite way just over the outstretched glove of the unfortunate Mr. Lee, and moments later he was being pummeled by his teammates.

The whole sequence led to a memorable take from the beleaguered Dusty Baker. As the Chicago Sun-Times put it,

"If the questionable roller was foul, video replay suggested it was by a razor-thin margin."

Responded Dusty:

''But it seems like 'razor-thin' always cuts us."

Talk about your cutting-edge commentary.

Later, Dusty, at least to these buccin' ears, sounded like a guy doing a "Saturday Night Live" routine:

''Boy! Our guys battled and fought. ... I thought Ronny Cedeno's run in the 11th would be enough. That was real tough. Damn!''

Gosh-darn the luck! Gee-whillikers!

Well, the Buccin' Ear advises himself and all Pirate fans to enjoy it. It's now off to St. Louis to meet Chris Carpenter and a bunch of red-hatted guys undoubtedly still sore from that three-game sweep in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago. Let's hope RG and Company can find some spirit in St. Louis.

As for the Cubs, to quote '60s supergroup The Happenings, "See You in September" (4-7). Talk about a battle of the titans.

Our Kind of Team, Chicago

If the Cubs are trying to avoid finishing last in the NL Comedy Central, they have a funny way of showing it.

After last night's 11-inning, 7-6 victory over Chicago, which can only be described as a hugely extravagant gift, the Pirates improbably find themselves just 2 1/2 games behind their rival in ineptitude. If last night's performance was any indication, the Cubs might be happy to concede fifth place to the Pirates in exchange for cancelling all games in September.

The Pirates trailed 4-0, 5-4 and 6-5 before rallying for two runs in the 11th -- with the help of the Cubs, of course. They prevailed despite an unsightly five-inning, 113-pitch performance from starter Paul Maholm; two hideous at-bats from Ryan Doumit and Jose Castillo with a runner on third in the bottom of the eighth; shaky play by Doumit at first base; and comically inept baserunning from Humberto Cota (who may have forgotten what to do on the basepaths due to lack of practice).

The game ended, fittingly, with a Cub mistake: ball four from reliever Bob Howry to Jose Bautista, which forced in the winning run. Prior to that Ronnie Cedeno and Freddie Bynum had botched a double-play ball that would have ended the game. Prior to that, starter Carlos Zambrano's promising start (no hits allowed through five innings) had died at his own hand, as he committed two errors, both on potential double play balls. Even the Pirates couldn't turn down that many extra outs.

If one play exemplified the x-rated highlight reel, it was Cota's pinch hit in the 11th. The seldom-used backup catcher bounced a ball down the third base line that eluded ex-Buc Aramis Ramirez. The ball rolled into foul territory, and Ramirez loafed after it, seemingly giving Cota plenty of time to reach second except Cota -- getting no help from statue-like first base coach John Shelby -- inexplicably held up. So here we had the Cubs essentially offering the Pirates an extra base but the Pirates graciously declining the offer. A single by Castillo, and the aforementioned muffed double play and bases-loaded pass secured the win.

The post-mortem on this one produced several gems from the participants. The Buccin' Ear offers these highlights:

• ``It seems like we find ways to lose ballgames,'' said Aramis Ramirez. "Seems like"? Don't sell yourself short, bud. You guys do it!
• ``Basically we gave it to them,'' Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. No, Dusty, you did give it to them. After all, one doesn't say, "Basically, I was in a hideous car crash."
• ``Everyone contributed to this win,'' Xavier Nady said. ``It's always nice to see that. We'll have to continue to build on this.'' Sorry, X, but you won't be able to schedule the rest of your games with the Cubs. Let's see how we do without the Cubs' contributions.

Let's end with some Bucco bright notes:

• John Grabow and Salomon Torres combined for three scoreless innings of relief to help pick up Maholm.
• Freddie Sanchez had just one hit, but it was a big one, a game-tying, two-out single in the seventh.
• Nady had three hits and scored two runs, continuing a recent run of good hitting.
• Chris Duffy and Ronnie Paulino each laid down perfect sacrifice buts when they were called for.
• Jose Castillo threw out all three runners on groundballs in the sixth, meaning the scorecard read 4-3, 4-3, 4-3, with the score 4-3.

The Pirates go for the sweep today.

Gonzo-Gorzo-Gones-O

The Pirates pulled to within 3 1/2 games of the fifth-place Chicago Cubs Monday night with an uncharacteristic offensive burst that produced an 11-6 win. Although starter and winner Ian Snell disappointingly broke down in the sixth inning after five solid innings, the 9-1 lead the team had built up for him was enough to secure his 12th win of the season.

The victory was strongly tempered by the news that both closer Mike Gonzales and rookie starter Tom Gorzelanny have elbow tendinitis, meaning their seasons are probably over. At least let's hope so. An organization that has had the kind of thick cloud hanging over it, particularly where pitchers are concerned, should hardly be even voicing the possibility that either could return this year, as Jim Tracy has seemed to do. What for, the Buccin' Ear wonders?

What makes the news of the injuries so Pirate-esque, of course, is that both players were pitching extremely well prior to the disclosures. Gorzo had pitched more consistently than any of the other starters for the month leading up to his recent missed start. Gonzo, of course, had not only converted all 24 of his save opportunities, he had retired the last nine batters he faced in his final three saves, six by strikeouts. So what Buc fan could be surprised that they would be hurt?

The name Sean Burnett should be pasted to the foreheads of all "The Deciders" in the Pirate camp, so they can remind each other of what can happen to young pitchers seemingly filled with promise. Burnett, the 19th pick in the 2000 draft, was coming on strong in 2004 and had won five games before he suddenly lost effectiveness at midseason. After getting hit hard a few times, he was shelved with elbow problems and has not made it back to the Big Leagues yet. He's currently 8-10 for Indianapolis with an ERA over 5.00 and as many walks as strikeouts.

Said Snell to the Associated Press following last night's game:

``I'm excited for myself and for my team because every win we get is a hard-fought. We're fighting to get as close to .500 as we can.''

Commendable. But .500 is a distant shore, and there is no sense wasting arms trying to get there.

ChaconGate: Shawn Chacon's latest poor effort continues to shine a light on Pirate management's shoddy performance at the trading deadline. After acquiring Chacon in a questionable (at best) exchange with the Yankees for Craig Wilson, the pitcher revealed that he had a bad knee. The Pirates, of course, had made no mention of this at the time of the trade, but Dave Littlefield attempted to cover his tracks by saying that the team was aware of the current problem, which he claimed was different than another knee problem Chacon had had -- whatever that meant (see August 14 post, "Little Laughs").

After a poor performance in his second start as a Pirate, the team announced that Chacon would be sent to the bullpen to "work on his mechanics." Then it was seen fit to put him back in the starting rotation, before he had made even one relief appearance. His lack of control and poor location point either to a knee problem or poor mechanics or both. The question for the Pirates is, which is it?

If his knee is sound but his mechanics are not, why not work on his mechanics before thrusting him back into a starting role? If his mechanics are sound, but his knee is not, why is he back in the rotation at all?

Pirates Present: On August 29, 1993, a man who was to become a familiar face for the Pirates made his Major League debut : Salomon Torres. Since coming to Pittsburgh in 2002 (he appeared in just five games that year), Torres has been the team's most dependable bullpen arm. He made his 286th appearance as a Pirate last night, and logged his 411th inning.

Pirates Past: Paul ("Big Poison") Waner, one of the greatest players in Pirates history, died on this day in 1965. Waner patrolled rightfield for the Pirates for 15 years (1926-1940). He collected more than 150 hits in every one of them except the last, and had eight seasons of 200 hits or more (he finished his career with 3,152).

In 1927, just his second year in the league, he won the MVP for the pennant-winning Pirates, batting .380 (on 237 nits) and driving in 131 runs. He probably would have won another MVP in 1934 but for Dizzy Dean, who just happened to win 30 games that year.

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1951, Waner and his brother (and fellow HOF'er), Lloyd ("Little Poison"), have curiously never garnered the attention from the Pirates organization due them, a fact noted by Post-Gazette writer Bob Smizik in a June 12, 2005 column:

"Waner is a forgotten man in Pirates lore, a legend dimmed by time and the ESPN generation."

To read the entire column:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05163/519943.stm

The 14ers

If it is tough for the Buccin' Ear to write a blog entry following the Pirates' lost weekend against the Houston Astros, imagine how the players must feel as they face the last month of the season.

The Bucs' modest run of success that included three straight wins against the Braves and Astros came to a crashing end Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Astros crushed the Pirates by a combined 28-6, and put an exclaimation point on their dominance Sunday with a 13-1 shellacking that sent Shawn Chacon to another early shower. On Saturday, Zach Duke was cuffed around in a 7-4 loss, and Friday, Victor Santos had the misfortune of facing Roger Clemens. Santos pitched credibly, but Clemens pitched better, and the Astros won 5-1.

As a result of all this, the Astros, winners of six of the past seven contests with the Pirates, left town with their playoff hopes still alive, although they undoubtedly had hoped for a sweep. As for the Pirates, they are 50-81, one game away from a 14th consecutive losing season. Loss Number 82 could come as early as tonight against the Chicago Cubs.

The 1985 Watch: The 1985 Pirates fell to the Braves in Atlanta 7-6 on August 27, bringing their record to 39-83. The team went 18-21 the rest of the way to finish 57-104. The '06 edition (50-81) must finish at least 8-23 to reach the magic win total of 58.

Tracyism of the Week: Thanks to regular reader bern1 for bringing this one to the Buccin' Ear's attention:

Following Paul Maholm's victory over the Astros on Thursday, RG said, according to the Post-Gazette:

“He battled like crazy and hung in there. Early in the game, he pitched, but he wasn't pitching.”

Move over Yogi.

Little Laugh of the Week:

Dave Littlefield remarked in today's Post-Gazette that the Pirates should have "plenty of dollars" to spend over the winter to beef up the roster. He then contributed this howler:

"We've had plenty of fan support this year, and I know Kevin and Bob are committed to investing that money in baseball operations for more resources to go in whatever direction we want, so that the product on the field keeps improving."

"The product keeps on improving"? The team has lost at least 87 games every year since 2000. The total climbed from 87 in 2003 to 89 in 2004, 95 in 2005, and is on course to reach 100 this year. If the product is improving, why aren't the results?

Also, the self-serving comment about the commitment "to investing that money in baseball operations" is especially inane. The revenue-sharing arrangement that governs Major League Baseball at this time requires that the money clubs like the Pirates receive from the wealthier teams be put into baseball operations. What can't be required is that the recipient teams invest the money wisely. Pirate fans aren't about to assume that the Brainless Trust will do that with the extra moolah.

Pirate Past: Second baseman Jose ("Chico") Lind made his Major League debut August 28, 1987. Lind went on to bat .322 in 35 games that year and became a regular the following year, holding the position through 1992. A solid fielder, Lind unfortunately was one of the players at the center of the seventh-game loss to the Braves in the '92 playoffs, as he made a crucial error in the bottom of the ninth that helped Atlanta to rally for the win.

Even more unfortunately, Lind's life took a big downturn after he left baseball at the conclusion of the 1995 season. In 1997, he was arrested for drunk driving and was found to be behind the wheel sans britches.

From Wikipedia:

"On November 21, 1997, highway police in Tampa, Florida stopped Lind for leaving the scene of an accident. They discovered that he was visibly intoxicated, and that he had been driving while naked from the waist down. A search of his car revealed seven cans of beer and one gram of cocaine. Lind ended up spending a year in jail."

Bad things can happen when you leave Pittsburgh.

Home Warriors

One night after pushing a pin into the artificially inflated playoff hopes of the Atlanta Braves, the Pirates put the squeeze on another fringe playoff team, the Houston Astros. The 5-3 victory came in the Friendly Confines of PNC Park, where the Bucs are 33-30, and a solid match for most teams in the NL.

The game followed what has suddenly become a satisfying formula: decent starting pitching
(6 2/3 IP, 3 ER from winner Paul Maholm), timely hitting (3 hits for Jason Bay, who is emphatically back on track; 2 hits and 2 runs scored for Chris Duffy, who is showing signs of settling into his leadoff role), and shutdown relief work, with another suspense-free ninth from Mike Gonzales (24 for 24 in save opportunities).

The Astros were struggling coming into the series, having lost nine of 12. The Pirates have been quite good at extending the misery of struggling teams this year. Of the six series they have won since the All-Star break, all but one have come against teams in the midst of a rough patch:

• July 14-16: The Washington Nationals had lost four of five.
• July 17-19: The Colorado Rockies had dropped seven straight.
• July 24-26: The Milwaukee Brewers had lost nine of 11.
• July 28-30: The San Francisco Giants had dropped four straight.
• August 11-13: The St. Louis Cardinals had lost 10 of 14.
• August 21-23: The Atlanta Braves had split their previous six games.

The numbers demonstrate the weakness of the National League, which in turn offers some hope for the Pirates in the future. In the past, dominant teams beat up on lesser lights like the Pirates, particularly in August and September as the playoff races heat up. It appears this year, however, that a struggling team with playoff aspirations facing the Pirates will not be able to count on easy victories -- particularly in Pittsburgh.

As the Buccin' Ear noted above, some of the elements of a truly competitive team appear to be coalescing for the Pirates, although it is far too early to get overly excited. The team needs to nurture its young pitching, keep the bullpen intact, and let the current lineup play out the season so that a reasonable evaluation of the team can be done during the winter. The fans have not deserted this team, and management needs to reward their patience in the offseason by making acquisitions based on strategic improvement (e.g., settling the uncertainty in right field and adding some lefthanded pop), not on merely patching holes, which of course has been their pattern in recent years.

The Pirates also need to take a reasoned look at why they have played so poorly on the road this year. Is the 17-48 record an aberration or a sign of poor preparation or some other shortcoming? Common sense says that a bad trend that persists over 65 games isn't an accident.

Other views: Writing for sportsillustrated.cnn.com, SI baseball correspondent Tom Verducci has this to say about the Pirates' young pitching staff:

"I like Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny and Paul Maholm, even if they still look raw, but I just don't know if any one of them is going to be a No. 1. What the Pirates need to do is keep running these guys out there, the way the Braves did with Tom Glavine, the Cubs with Greg Maddux and the Twins with Brad Radke, while managing their innings on a year-to-year basis. History tells you at most two of those guys will stay healthy and be consistent front-line starters, but you can only know that by sticking with them. I also think it's very important for the Pirates to get an older veteran who can counsel them. One of the underrated stories of this year is how important Kenny Rogers has been to the young Detroit staff. That's the kind of influence -- and innings-eating -- a young staff like Pittsburgh's needs."

Kick 'em When They're Down

Want angst? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Atlanta Braves.

After 15 years of gleeful tomahawk chops, dominance accompanied by a shrug and a sense of noblesse oblige, hard times have arrived in the City That Doesn't Give a Crap If We Win the Division Every Year.

Yes, the team is under .500, their wild card playoff hopes, which are alive only because they play in the Circuit That Plays Like Seniors, are on the life support.

But wait, those New Southerners who still care had murmured at the start of the week. The Pirates are coming to town! Surely we shall resurrect our hopes by feasting for three games on these Rust Belt Schmoes. Then the Nationals are coming in, and that's three more and...

Well, in the immortal words of somebody, Not so fast, Bubba.

Things started off on schedule Monday, with a John Smoltz-authored win. But then came the eighth-inning collapse Tuesday, and then came, shockingly, another win for the road-challenged Buccos last night, courtesy of a Freddie Sanchez homer and another dominating performance by Mike Gonzales to close things out.

Hold the presses. The Pirates won two of three. On the road. In Atlanta.

How are the Braves fans taking it? The Buccin' Ear thinks this entry from the Braves blog at the Atlanta Constitution-Journal Web site sums it up best:

"We lose to the Pirates, the sorry, stinking, good for nothing, everybodies (sic) doormat Pirates. If we were losing against the Mets or Dodgers or somebody good you might understand it, but the Pirates? It is hard to accept the fact that the Braves are just a sub .500 team. They are not playing bad, this is just the kind of team they are. I would never have believed it earlier in the year but their play has proved it."

On behalf of Pirates fans everywhere: Welcome to our world. Deal with it, Bubba.

But enough on the sorry, stinking, good for nothing, everybody's doormat Braves. As Butch Cassidy said to the Sundance Kid, "Boy, a little cloud appears on your horizon, and you go all to pieces."

We Pirate fans take our satisfaction where we can get it, and Atlanta is as good as it gets. Since 1997, a trip to Atlanta has been as welcome for the Pirates as, well, a summer trip to the Deep South, which is to say sticky, uncomfortable and unsatisfying. Yes, it has been that long since the Bucs won a series from the Braves in Rhett Butler Country, so named because most Braves fans have that famous fictional southerner's most famous reactionto their team: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

But then this series might be called the resistable force against the movable object. As bad as the Pirates have been on the road (now 17-48), the Braves have been just as woeful at home (now 26-33). Certainly, the Braves must have been looking enviously at the Pirates bullpen this week. While the Pirates feasted on Braves relief pitching the last two nights, Pirates relievers held the fort after a decent outing by Shawn Chacon on Tuesday, and bailed out Ian Snell Wednesday. Matt Capps entered last night's game with the bases loaded and two out after Snell suddenly tired. Capps got a strikeout, and that was all she wrote for the Braves.

Gonzales may not be drawing a lot of attention from fans because of the team he plays on, but he should be. After a season of high-wire acts, Gonzo has shown that he belongs among the elite closers in the game. He now does what they do: simply slams the door.

And that door you heard slamming was on the playoff hopes of the Braves. Chipper, Andruw, Marcus, enjoy the rest of your nice, quiet summer at home.

The End of An Era

So long, Jose K. It all ended much too soon.

Three days after Resident Genius Jim Tracy made his compelling case for Jose Hernandez as not only the best 25th man in baseball, but also the defensive equal of anyone on the team, the Pirates unceremoniously shipped the All-Purpose, Man-About-PNC to the Phillies for cash. How much? Not disclosed, although probably more than the $9.95 cynically conjectured by one of the Buccin' Ear's faithful readers.

And so ends the strange tenure of Senor Strikeout. He must be wondering, as many do, just exactly who is in charge in Piratedom. Not only was he cut loose after RG's ringing endorsement; the Pirates even saw fit to go with 24 players for a day. (Ryan Doumit was to join the team tonight. No word on whether he will be christened the best 25th man in baseball, or if Rajai Davis or Humberto Cota will battle him for the prized designation. On the other hand, perhaps RG will decide that no one but Senor K could ever merit that moniker.)

Hernandez was the perfect symbol for the Buccin' Ear of the strangeness of this season, with its oddball personnel moves and surreal decision making. No game symbolized this better than the May 21 contest in Cleveland (memorialized in the May 22 post, "Facing the Indians with an Empty Quiver"). Masochists will recall that RG sent Jose (hitting about .150 at the time) up with runners on first and second to pinch hit -- with Craig Wilson on the bench. To top it off, he asked Hernandez to bunt. Needless to say, the strategy worked out poorly, prompting a torrent of criticism from this quarter and others.

In any event, the Pirates showed what they were made of Tuesday night, recovering from the shock of JH's departure and going out to score a 5-3 victory over Atlanta that was, well, brave. It was just their 16th road win of the year, and it came in the rarest of fashion: a four-run rally in the eighth that featured a string of big basehits.

Still, RG contributed another of his alternate-universe observations following the game:

"You love to see that. And I'm seeing more of it in the second half."

Really? The Buccin' Ear is stuck for a response.

Shawn Chacon returned to the mound and, on paper, the results were encouraging: five IP, one ER. However, it's hard to wax too rapturously over a performance that included five walks and two hit batsmen. Could be the Braves were not at the top of their game.

But why quibble? He was probably pitching through tears.

The Pirate Past: According to baseballlibrary.com, on August 23, 1970, Roberto Clemente got five hits against the Los Angeles Dodgers in an 11-0 Pirates win. It was the second straight five-hit day for The Great One, making him the first Major Leaguer in the 20th century to collect 10 hits over two games.

The Pirate Prescription

Say you're a team that has won 15 division titles in a row, but has finally fallen on hard times. Your playoff hopes are still alive, but time is running out. To make matters worse, you're 26-31 at home.

Now say you're the last holdover from the team that began the great run in 1991. You view yourself as a team leader, but the last time out, you got shelled, and you pronounced yourself "embarrassed" by your performance.

Such was the situation for the Atlanta Braves and righthander John Smoltz heading into last night's game against the Pirates. And the Pirates provided the perfect rejuvenating elixir for both, falling 3-0 without raising much beyond token resistance to Smoltz, who scotched the memory of his last outing with a four-hitter and 10 strikeouts. Smoltz required just under two hours to dispose of the Belittled Bucs, now 15-48 on the road and 6-25 in their last 31 games in Atlanta since 1998.

Smoltz has found the Pirates easy pickings over the last decade. His lifetime record against them is only 14-11, with a 3.31 ERA, but he is 11-3 with an ERA just over 2.00 since 1996. This year, he is 2-0 against Pittsburgh, with an ERA of 1.20. The Pirates last night were able to mount only one very modest threat, when they put two on in the eighth with two out, but Jack Wilson grounded out. Smoltz retired to towel off the light sweat he'd broken, and Bob Wickman doused the barely wavering Pirate lights in an uneventful ninth.

Zach Duke put up a game effort in opposing Smoltz, giving up three runs in seven innings in another encouraging performance. He gave up a two-run double to somebody named Martin Prado, which was probably his worst pitch of the night, but his control was solid. He just happened to be facing a surefire Hall of Famer who was mad at himself for not meeting his own high standards and wasn't about to get even nicked by a last-place team.

There are no John Smoltzes in the Pirates' locker room, it seems, and the Buccin' Ear isn't talking about a guy with his talent, but rather a guy who refuses to accept mediocrity -- either his own or his team's.

25th Man Update: Benchwarmer extraordinaire Jose Hernandez did not get into last night's game. He is opposed in this series by Atlanta's BBW (Best Benchwarmer -- thanks to reader Paul in Denver for that splendid acronym, although the Buccin' Ear also contributes PPR -- Premier Pine Rider), LF Scott Thorman (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/players/7798/).

Other Views: Browsing through the columns of the fine baseball writer Thomas Boswell
at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071202069.html, the Buccin' Ear ran across this statement from TB after he had attended this year's All-Star game:

"On Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, everyone in baseball gazed in admiration at glorious five-year-old PNC Park as it basked in its full All-Star Game glory. Built flush on the banks of the Allegheny River with vast vistas of the glistening Steel City skyline beyond right field and gleaming yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge silhouetted in center field, the Pirates' home could not have been more perfectly conceived and executed. A town on a budget created a baseball masterpiece."

Well said. But a sobering couple of paragraphs he included near the end of the piece might be even better stated, and one can only hope that the Pirates' current management team takes heed:

"Once upon a time, a Camden Yards could carry a team for years. That's history. A new stadium is a huge opportunity, but far from a guarantee. Pittsburgh illustrates what can go wrong. The Pirates' attendance cratered by 26.7 percent just one year after PNC Park opened to universal raves. Pittsburgh lacks D.C.'s demographics. But gulp anyway.

Of the five best attendance seasons in the Pirates' long history, four came in the days of boring old Three Rivers Stadium -- an RFK clone. In '60, the Bucs drew more at Forbes Field than they did at PNC Park in '03 or '04. The reason? That Pirates team was a winner. Fan-friendly ballparks and snooty sky suites are nice. But winning is life's blood."

Rennie's Day of Ruin

The Buccin' Ear received via e-mail today the excellent "Baseball Today" newsletter, available for free from www.baseballlibrary.com, an indispensable source of information. The newsletter noted that on this day (August 21) in 1977, Pirates second baseman, Rennie Stennett, fractured his leg sliding into second base in a game against the San Francisco Giants, ending his season, and, effectively, his career. Stennett never really recovered from the injury, and after two more frustrating years with the Pirates, he went to San Francisco, ironically, in 1980, where he again could not overcome the after effects of the injury. He retired after the '81 season.

Stennett was batting .336 at the time and leading the league in hitting, and there was good reason to believe that he was on his way to becoming one of the top second basemen in the league for years to come. Take it from the Buccin' Ear, who was at the very first game Stennett appeared in as a Pirate (July 10, 1971): Stennett had the goods to do it. He electrified the crowd that first day in the Bigs by hustling a double into a triple and triggering a number of cries of "Who's that?" in the stands. Stennett went on to hit .353 in 50 games in '71, but did not qualify for the postseason roster. By '74, however, he was the regular second baseman, and on September 16, 1975, he went 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game against the Cubs (a 22-0 squeaker in favor of the Pirates).

Stennett followed the pattern of many Pirates hitters of that day: he was a free swinger who was capable of hitting a "bad" ball for extra bases. The great Tom Seaver, talking about those Pirates teams, once remarked that he hated pitching against them because he could never be sure what they would swing at. Roberto Clemente, of course, was well noted for this trait, but he was hardly alone. Stennett, Manny Sanguillen and Al Oliver were also quite capable of taking a pitch that a hurler wanted to waste and driving it into the gap.

If one could return to view the tableau of August 21, 1977, this is what he would see at the time of Stennett's injury: a mad dash by Rennie to second; a hard slide; a sickening thud as he hit the bag hard and awkwardly; the Giants' shortstop, Tim Foli, standing over Stennett, yelling at him to get up and motioning for help; and second baseman Bill Madlock looking on.

One of the ironies of this scene is that Foli, traded to the Pirates from the Mets early in 1979 for Frank Taveras, went on to play a key role on the championship team that year, providing the solid defense that the more erratic Taveras had never proven capable of at short. As noted last week (see August 16 post, "Mad Dog and Freddie"), the other half of the eventual left side of the Pirates' '79 infield (Madlock), was also on the field. With the trade of Madlock, Stennett, who had been playing second, was shuttled to the bench, in favor of Phil Garner, who played second so that Madlock could return to his natural position at third.

Finally, while Stennett lost a chance at a batting crown that day, another Pirates player did collect one in '77: Dave Parker, who hit .338. Parker duplicated the feat in '78, hitting .334, and adding a Most Valuable Player award for good measure.

As for the '77 Pirates, they were one of the better teams before and after not to make the postseason. In those days, of course, you had to win your division, and although the Bucs won 96 games, they were no better than five games behind a great Phillies team at season's end. The Phillies, in turn, proved no match for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs that year, giving us some idea of the strength of the National League in those days.

The '70s Pirates teams are usually associated with great power hitting -- and for good reason, of course. But the '77 team was a thieving bunch, as well, with a total of 260 stolen bases. Stennett stole 28 bases (he was successful on slightly more than 60% of his tries) before his injury, making him one of eight on the team with more than 10 swipes. Taveras (70) and Omar Moreno (53), both legitimate speedsters, led the team in base thefts, and each had outstanding success rates. The team committed to a run-at-all-cost approach under Chuck Tanner, one designed to put pressure on the opposing defenses, and in some cases, it worked unexpectedly well (Garner stole 32 bases in 41 tries), while in others, the concept probably should have been reined in (neither Dave Parker or Al Oliver achieved a 50% success rate). But you could never say the team was boring.

One player that many may not remember was on the '77 team was Goose Gossage, who had come over to the Pirates from the White Sox at the end of the '76 season. Gossage had a great season, with 11 wins, 26 saves, a 1.62 ERA and 133 innings pitched in 72 appearances. (Do they make them like that anymore? Nope.) Of course, the Pirates couldn't hold him, and he went off to the Yankees via free agency in '78, where he did the best part of building, it says here, a Hall of Fame career, although the powers that be haven't seen fit to acknowledge that yet. The Buccin' Ear would argue that Parker and Oliver were two other members of the '77 team deserving of HOF status, but that's a story for another post.

The 1985 Watch: The Buccin' Ear is going to go out on a limb and put tonight's game against the Braves in the loss column (they are down 3-0 to John Smoltz in the sixth). Assuming that holds, they will fall to 47-78, and their "magic number" for bettering the record of the '85 team will remain at 11.

As for the '85 Band of Buccos, on August 21, they lost to Cincinnati, 8-5, at Three Rivers Stadium, bringing their record to 36-80. Note that the present team is only two up in the loss column.

Closing Night Jitters

For the sixth time in the past eight series, the Pirates followed an opening-game win of a road series (this one in Cincinnati) with two consecutive losses. These guys must be allergic to rubber.

After imitating the Steelers' seven-point exhibition game loss (don't give me this "preseason" crap), with a pigskin-style 14-7 defeat to the Reds Saturday, the Pirates, as has been their pattern, put their bats away today and fell 5-1, mustering very little against Aaron Harang (13-8). The Reds even managed to cool off Freddie Sanchez, who went hitless in four trips and struck out twice. Spot starter Victor Santos was dreadful.

So it's back to 30 games under .500 and off to Atlanta for this team that makes every road trip a fresh round of self-flagellation.

Rather than dwell on the two losses, the Buccin' Ear ends the week with a couple of quick pitches (and one not so quick).

Tracyism of the Week: Following Saturday's loss, in which the Pirates came back from deficits of 6-0 and 7-1, only to self-destruct in the seventh, Resident Genius had this to say: "This ends up being a loss, but it will help to make us better. It's going to be nothing but a tremendous omen for us as we move forward." He failed to elaborate, at least to the Post-Gazette.

The Buccin' Ear is wondering just what this game was an "omen" of. Perhaps it means the team has put us on notice that it is ready to deliver a new style of seven-run loss to its hungry fans.

First Things Last: Saturday night's starter, Paul Maholm, surrendered six runs in the first inning to the Reds. Maholm has yielded 28 first-inning runs and 49 runs through the third inning or earlier so far this season. The following was all Maholm could muster by way of explanation to the Associated Press: ''For some reason, that first inning again."

Can you just hear regular stiffs like the Buccin' Ear explaining another poor performance during, say, the first two hours of each workday? "For some reason, that darn 8:00-10:00 time period! I'm sure we can get the client back tomorrow."

Tracyism of the Week, Part Duh: Reprising a recent gem, RG spoke up on behalf of Jose Hernandez again, voicing early support for a return engagement by Senor Strikeout with next year's team. Quoth RG to the Post-Gazette:

"I think it's fairly safe to say there's probably an opportunity for a continuation. I'm hopeful of that. Does he [Hernandez] continue to make sense for this ballclub? I would like to think that at the moment the answer to that is yes."

Following the tangled syntax of that last sentence, RG resurrected the infamous "25th man" endorsement of a couple of weeks ago:

"If you match him up correctly, he can do some very good things for you offensively. And you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that there's a better 25th man in all of baseball. His playing time has been fairly sporadic, but he's hitting [.267]. He's as a good a defensive player as we have regardless of where he plays."

Okay, to be fair, Senor Strikeout has hit better lately. And the Buccin' Ear doesn't dismiss the "good guy in the clubhouse" argument that Tracy goes on to make. There is a lot to be said for character. The Rockies just signed Vinnie Castillo, for example, to a minor league contract and plan to bring him up for one last round with the team he played so well for for a good portion of his career. Part of their rationale is that Vinnie has a lot to pass on to young players on how to play the game correctly, and that's probably a good thing.

But there is a big difference between the Castillo and Hernandez situations. Castillo is retiring at the end of the season. The Rockies recognize that the best thing for them to do in '07 is thank Vinnie for his services, while probably keeping him around to help develop the team's presence in Mexico. Why aren't the Pirates thinking the same way?

RG's weird hyperbole when talking about Hernandez is baffling. He still is a strikeout waiting to happen, and while he has not hurt the team defensively this year, over the course of his career, he has been an average fielder. He's as good a defensive player as we have regardless of where he plays"? Anybody tell Freddie Sanchez that?

And then there's the mysterious "best 25th man in baseball" argument. The Buccin' Ear refuses to conduct extensive research into this question, but offers up the following:

When the Astros' Morgan Ensberg went on the disabled list in mid-July, they didn't waste any time worrying about their 25th man. Instead, they recalled Luke Scott, who is hitting a mere .425 at this point:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=7521

Best of all, Astros manager Phil Garner doesn't seem to be worrying about who he is matching Scott up against, and he probably figures that having one of his best eight position players on the field on a regular basis is a little bettereven than having the best 25th man in baseball, however worthy that may be.

Would the Pirates like to have a player of Scott's caliber, even if it meant sacrificing the best 25th man in baseball? The Buccin' Ear thinks that RG has the best answer to that question:

"I would like to think that at the moment the answer to that is yes."

Here's the Pitch

The Pirates floated down the Ohio to Cincinnati Friday night to begin another of those dreaded road trips. "Dreaded" might be too gentle a word, of course; the team was 14-45 heading into tonight's game.

As has been a pattern lately, however, the Pirates took it to the Reds tonight in the opening game of the Series (they've won the first game in five of their last seven road series), winning
7-3 behind another very good pitching performance by Ian Snell (7 IP, 1 ER), who notched his 11th win; a four-hit game by Freddie Sanchez (.351 average!); and four more hits from Xavier Nady (more on him later).

Fortunes have changed a bit for the Bucs since the All-Star break. They are now 17-15 in the season's second half, and although the road woes have continued (5-9 this half), there have been signs of a modest turnaround in the team, most notably in the pitching staff.

Want proof that pitching rules the game? Look no further than the Pirates. In their 17 wins since July 9, the staff has given up a total of 38 runs, including tonight. That's an ERA of around two-and-a quarter, which will win you a lot of games. Contrast those numbers with the 15 losses, in which the staff has surrendered 101 runs, or nearly seven a game. In 11 of the 15 losses, Pirate pitchers have given up five runs or more. The Yankees would have trouble overcoming that kind of largesse.

Here's the dilemma for the Pirates. They've got a good thing beginning to emerge with their four pitchers of the future: Snell, Zach Duke, Tom Gorzelanny and Paul Maholm. All are 24 years of age or younger, and all have put together two or more consecutive strong starts since the break. But as the Post Gazette recently reported, all are approaching their career-high innings pitched total + 20, which is the organizational cutoff for work for young pitchers.

There is talk of going to a six-man rotation, with Victor Santos filling the sixth spot -- and assuming Shawn Chacon really is ready to take the ball the rest of the way, bad knee and all.

If the Pirates choose to follow the safe path and rigidly control the number of innings for these four the rest of the way, we're close to seeing the last of Gorzelanny in particular. There is a valid argument to be made on this point -- the last thing this organization needs is another Bryan Bullington or Sean Burnett -- but it raises questions as to who exactly is going to take the ball down the stretch, and how a restriction on innings pitched is going to affect a bullpen that has already been worked hard this year.

The Buccin' Ear's only other question is whether taking the ball out of the hands of these young pitchers just as they seem to be gaining confidence is the best course to pursue. True, all of them are close to exceeding the greatest number of innings they've ever pitched, but they all seem to be responding quite well at this point.

Well, when you're 47-75, there probably is no reason to tempt fate.

Now, as to Xavier Nady. It appears that the Buccin' Ear has found a sure-fire way to breed success for the Bucs: rip the players. In yesterday's post, Nady was taken to task for his lack of power production, so of course tonight he blasts a three-run homer (his first as a Pirate) and collects, as mentioned before, four hits.

Previous rip-ees Zach Duke and Chris Duffy have similarly responded to the Buccin' Ear's negative posts. So did Nate McLouth, but he also got hurt shortly thereafter, so maybe we can't count him.

So, look, Shawn Chacon...you've shown us nothing, ok?

Let' s see how that works.

Bay Watch

Need some heat or ice on that hammy, Jason?

The Pirates, after 307 straight games with Jason Bay in the lineup, endured a third straight game without their injured slugger Wednesday (although he did make a pinch hit appearance), and the result was a second straight loss, this one in 13 innings, to the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-2. The Brew Crew was only to happy to get out of PNC Park with two wins in three tries, their previous trip having ended with four straight losses.

What we saw during the three games was a toothless offensive attack from the Bucs: nine runs in 31 innings, or fewer than three a game. That was enough to neutralize excellent pitching performances from Tom Gorzelanny on Tuesday and Zach Duke yesterday. Duke was lifted, strangely, with two out in the seventh, having thrown just 83 pitches. Jim Tracy insisted the hook made total sense, but then this was the same guy who left Oliver Perez in to start the ninth in a late-May game in which he had thrown 120 pitches (see May 29 post, "Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud"). Such genius surpasseth the understanding of the Buccin' Ear.

Still, the real story was the Pirates' inability to score after the sixth inning, succumbing to a succession of Brewer relievers who followed Chris Capuano. Oh, they mounted a threat or two, most notably in the bottom of the ninth, when Chris Duffy walked and stole second. Jose Hernandez and Freddie Sanchez were walked and hit by a pitch, respectively, to load the bases. Joe Randa ended the threat by striking out. All told, Randa left eight men on base in a tough day. Damaso Marte collapsed in the 13th and was tagged with his second loss in as many days.

Randa was in the lineup, playing first, due to Bay's absence, which necessitated Xavier Nady moving to right and Jose Bautista to left. Not to knock Joe, who has done a thoroughly professional job this year in dealing with having to spot-start, but he's not a power guy and doesn't begin to fill the void left by Bay With Jeromy Burnitz largely MIA this year, the Pirates' lineup is short on juice with Bay in the lineup, and anemic when he's not.

One hopes for Nady to step up, but so far he hasn't shown much pop. In 49 ABs in August, he has no homers and a paltry four RBIs. Furthermore, he's thoroughly average against righthanded pitching (.252 with 10 HRs and 31 RBIs in 234 ABs). Numbers like that aren't going to make the Buccin' Ear forget Kevin Young.

Where else might the power come from? The Pirates seemed to have hope last year for Brad Eldred, but the Buccin' Ear didn't share that hope then, and he's badly hampered right now by a slow recovery from a thumb injury. This is a guy who whiffed 77 times in 190 ABs last year. Sorry, but the Buccin' Ear isn't interested in the second coming of Dick Stuart (http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/stuardi01.shtml) or Rob Deer (http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/deerro01.shtml).

Of course, we can probably count on Dave Littlefield to go out for next year and get an aging outfielder whose best power years are behind him. Maybe he can talk Sammy Sosa into coming back.

In the meantime, Jason, rest that hamstring. You're going to be doing a lot of walking the rest of the year.

Mad Dog and Freddie

When Paul Simon sang, "One man's ceiling is another man's floor," he could have been talking about the 2006 editions of the Pirates and the Milwaukee Brewers. The two teams have been partners in frustration for nearly 15 years. Neither team has had a winning season since 1992, although Milwaukee finally reached the .500 mark last year.

The Brewers, however, have had aspirations of finally creeping into the black in 2006, and it would seem that the time should be ripe. They play in what some are dubbing Comedy Central, where the best team (St. Louis) is a shell of its former self, and two teams, the Pirates and the Cubs, make up two-thirds of baseball's Axis of Ineptitude (along with the Kansas City Royals). And of course the Brewers had all those games with the Pirates scheduled.

But the Pirates have proved to be the Brewers' floor this year, as we've noted, taking seven of the past eight contests between the two teams heading into Tuesday night's game. It seemed the Pirates' mastery was ready to continue after Jose Bautista hit a two-run homer that would have made a deserving winner of Tom Gorzelanny (seven IP, two runs, one earned), who continues his strong bid to show he belongs in the Bigs. But then the Pirates' bullpen unexpectedly collapsed, as Damaso Marte, Salomon Torres and John Grabow broke down en route to a 6-3 loss.

Despite these kinds of all too frequent disappointments, one of the happy distractions of this season has been watching the consistently excellent play of Freddie Sanchez, of course, and his pursuit of a batting title has been a double delight. After last night's one-for-four effort, Freddie is hitting .345, which leads the league by 10 points. His success rekindles more memories of Pirates past, this time Bill Madlock, the last Pittsburgh player to win the title (1983).

"Mad Dog," as he was sometimes known, actually won two batting crowns with the Pirates (and four overall), although his first in Pittsburgh occurred during the strike-shortened '81 season. Besides being a fine hitter for the Bucs, Madlock occupies an important place in club history for at least two other reasons.

First, it was Madlock whom the Pirates acquired from San Francisco at midseason in 1979 to help solidify the lineup during the pennant race that ultimately resulted in an NL pennant and World Series championship for the team. The Giants had tried to move him from third base to second that season and, possibly as a result, his offense declined (he was hitting .261 at the time of the trade.) The Pirates put him at third, where he hit a Madlock-like .328 the rest of the way. The acquisition enabled the team to move Phil Garner to second base, where he prospered as well. Madlock also went on to hit .375 in the seven-game World Series triumph over Baltimore.

Madlock also figures obliquely in a less pleasant chapter in Pirates history. In 1985, the team did him a huge favor by jettisoning him to the Dodgers, where he made another solid contribution in helping a team get to the playoffs (he had three home runs in a losing cause in the NLCS against St. Louis). The Pirates acquired R.J. Reynolds, Cecil Espy and Sid Bream from the Dodgers in that trade. Of these, Bream had the most success in a Pirate uniform, posting four decent seasons (he lost most of '89 to injury) and starting for the '90 team that returned to the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.

Bream departed as a free agent after the '90 season for Atlanta, where he was part of the Braves teams that eliminated the Pirates from the playoffs in both '91 and '92. And of course, as every Pirates fan knows -- painfully! -- it was Bream who slid across the plate with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 of the '92 playoffs, thereby bringing to an end the team's last successful run.

Oh, what a tortured web of history baseball weaves!

Jason and Omar

The Pirates got in some more action on their favorite whipping boys Monday night, disposing of the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2, for their fourth win in a row. The victory was the Bucs' fifth straight against the Brew Crew at PNC, and their seventh win in the past eight games between the two teams. Another round, anyone?

The game was notable in a number of other regards. Chris Duffy continued the excellent run he began over the weekend, collecting another two hits, scoring two runs, stealing a base and generally playing the role of offensive instigator, just as the team(and the Buccin' Ear) has been hoping. Victor Santos, pressed into a starting role due to Shawn Chacon's knee injury, contributed five serviceable innings and collected a win with the help of four flawless innings of relief from the Pirates 'pen. And perhaps most notably, Jason Bay's consecutive game streak ended at 307, a casualty of a tight hamstring.

Bay was nearly 200 games short of the 503 straight games started by Omar Moreno between 1979 and 1982. Moreno, who was the leadoff man on the last Pirates championship team ('79), holds the club single-season stolen base record -- unlikely to be broken -- (96, in 1980), and ranks third in team history in total steals (412, behind Max Carey and Honus Wagner). After the '82 season, Moreno departed as a free agent for the Houston Astros, and his career went quickly downhill, ending after the '86 campaign, when he was released by the Atlanta Braves.

Moreno's name is linked in an odd and circuitous way, the Buccin' Ear discovers, to the travails of the current team.

According to baseballlibrary.com, Moreno, nicknamed "Omar the Outmaker" for his unfortunate penchant for avoiding walks and thus not taking advantage of his blazing speed (career OBP: an incredibly low .306), was part of an unfortunate incident on September 8, 1983 involving his Yankee teammate, Steve Kemp. Moreno had been traded by Houston to the Yankees 97 games into the season after hitting just .242 and striking out 72 times while drawing only 22 walks.

During batting practice of the Yankees' game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Moreno hit a line drive that caught Kemp in the face, shattering his cheekbone and ending the outfielder's season. Kemp, a coveted power hitter going into '83, had signed a then-notable five-year contract worth more than $1 million per year with the Yanks, but was enduring a terrible season (12 HRs and 49 RBIs) at the time of the mishap, so in some ways his season came to an unfortunate but fitting end.

After another terrible year in the Bronx in '84, Kemp was traded to the Pirates. He was part of the ill-fated '85 squad with whom the current team shares a historical link, as has often been noted in this space. In 105 forgettable games over two seasons in Pittsburgh, Kemp, once considered a top player, hit a grand total of three home runs and drove in 22 runs. He was a poster child for the horrid direction management took the team in the mid-80s. George Hendrick and Sixto Lezcano were other disastrous signings of the period.

But a more important negative consequence of the Kemp trade for the Pirates was that they gave up a real talent to get him. Buried in the transaction was an outfielder named Jay Buhner, whom the Yankees later involved in a calamitous trade of their own. During the summer of '88, the Bombers gave up on Buhner, shipping him off to Seattle for third baseman Ken Phelps, who was another monumental bust. Buhner, on the other hand, went on to hit 310 homers for the Mariners over 13 seasons, while manning right field.

As the Buccin' Ear has noted, right field has been the Boulevard of Broken Dreams for the Pirates since Dave Parker departed (see August 4 post, "Right is Wrong"). Between 1989 and 2001, while Buhner was averaging 23 homers and 74 RBIs for Seattle (and putting up three consecutive seasons of 40 or more roundtrippers), the Pirates ran through seven different right fielders, including one (Bobby Bonilla) who was a part-timer.

The latest news on right field in Pittsburgh? Nate McLouth, a contender for the spot, has injured his ankle and is on the DL.

Call it The Curse of Jay Buhner.

Little Laughs

Now the truth can be told: Pirates GM Dave Littlefield thought so little of outfielder/first baseman Craig Wilson, that he was willing to trade him for an injured pitcher.

Today's Post-Gazette contains this item from beat writer Dejan Kovacevik's "Pirate Notebook" column:

"On Friday, starter Shawn Chacon described his ailing right knee as having been 'sore all year.' But Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield, who acquired Chacon from the New York Yankees July 31 for outfielder Craig Wilson, said yesterday he has no issue with the trade.
'We're aware that he's had some surgeries on it," Littlefield said of Chacon's knee. "But this is something that's identified to us as being different than past issues.'"

Oh.

Chacon allowed that he probably has a torn meniscus that will likely require surgery in the offseason.

So let's get this straight. Not only was Littlefield content to trade Wilson, a righthanded power hitter who can play two positions for a struggling pitcher who hadn't started in a month; he devalued Wilson even further by trading him for a pitcher who possessed all of the aforementioned qualities and is injured besides.

Is Rod Serling in the house?

Littlefield's comments that he was "aware" of the past knee problem and that this one is "different than past issues" are classically empty bits of rhetoric from a guy who specializes in them. It's not a justification for a bad trade to say you were aware of problems or that the one that has now sprung up is different. He's saying that it's okay to trade for an injured player because the injury that they knew about is a new injury, not the old one.

Oh.

The Buccin' Ear's comments on Chacon (see August 3 post "The New Guy") stand: he has shown he is capable of throwing well, but he comes with lots of warning labels attached. Even if the pitcher were healthy, the trade for Wilson wouldn't have earned high marks. But this new revelation puts yet another black mark on the Littlefield regime (as if another one were needed) and its continued demonstrations of ineptitude on the trade front.

The fact is, the Pirates were perfectly capable of finishing the season without Chacon even after the trade of Kip Wells by simply returning Victor Santos to the starting rotation. Since cracking a nail a couple of months ago, Santos has been shunted off to the bullpen for long relief work, a task for which he has proven particularly ill suited. He's a journeyman starter, at best, and showed no better than marginal success in the fifth spot, but can one say the rotation is better off with Chacon today than it was with Santos in June? Methinks not, and with Santos in the mix, the team had Wilson on the roster.

This is not to say that Wilson should have been untouchable; it's ridiculous to say such a thing about a merely decent ballplayer on a bad team. But that doesn't mean that he should have been discarded for damaged goods.

As Ricky Ricardo might have put it to Littles, "You got some 'splainin' to do!"

Life Is Just Duffy

Time will tell if the Pirates' improbable sweep of their longtime tormentors, the St. Louis Cardinals, was a series of golden moments or more fool's gold. We can fervently hope, however, that the three days signaled the arrival of the real Chris Duffy.

Duffy, returning to the leadoff spot for a second straight day Sunday, concluded a satisfying series by playing a major part in the 7-0 victory with two hits, a run and three RBIs. For the series, he went 7-for-11, with three RBIs and three runs scored. Suddenly, he's dragged himself above the .200 line and, perhaps, has found the jolt of confidence that he has been looking for all season.

And so this strange season continues. The Pirates, fresh off another dispiriting (1-5) road trip, returned to PNC Park to face a team that has had owned them for several seasons. The Cardinals were 7-2 against the Pirates coming into the series. Last year, the Cardinals won the season series 12-4; in 2004, 12-5. Things couldn't have looked bleaker.

But this is a Pirates team that plays Dr. Jekyll at home to Mr. Hyde on the road. With today's win, they are 31-28 at home, a pace that equals the Cardinals' 62-56 overall record. On the road, of course, they are a hideous 14-43. The reasons for this lay buried in the psyches of the team's players.

But it must be said that a solidified lineup, with Duffy as a key part of it, seemed to be on display this weekend, even if the Cardinals are not the team of the past two years. And if we are catching a glimpse of the pitching staff of the future, there may be cause for hope as well. This weekend's starters, Zach Duke (9 IP, 1 ER), Ian Snell (7 IP, 2 ER) and Paul Maholm (6 2/3 IP, 0 ER), each earned a victory and combined for an ERA of 1.19.

There is no escaping, though, how essential Duffy's contribution at the top of the lineup is to any continued success the Pirates may achieve. Here's hoping that the blues he forced St. Louis to sing will be the tune he foists on other teams the remainder of the year.

One Shining Moment

The leadoff man had two hits, scored a run and drove in three. The erstwhile leadoff man, dropped in the order to work out a slump, drilled two hits and scored a run. And last year's pitching phenom hurled a complete game while throwing three-quarters of his pitches for strikes.

Pirates win, 7-1, over the division-leading Cardinals -- behind Nate McLouth, Chris Duffy and Zach Duke, all three of them recently roasted in this space. McLouth even contributed a home run, and Duke despite giving up yet another first inning run and four hits to Albert Pujols, did everything else right: 101 pitches, 75 for strikes; no walks; 12 groundballs and three double plays. Seemed like old times -- like last August, when Duke displayed that kind of form more often than not.

It's a measure of how desperate the Buccin' Ear is for positives with this team that despite all the evidence cited in recent postings on the ongoing shortfalls of these three players specifically, and the team in general, that just one game in which things go the way some of us have imagined kindles a spark of hope, however silly that may be.

Let's also not forget also the contribution of Jason Bay, who has quietly fallen into an offensive funk the last couple of weeks, which goes along way toward explaining why the rest of the team has also. Bay collected three hits and an RBI (his 79th). Let's hope that a hot streak follows.

Most tantalizing for the Buccin' Ear, however, was a tweak that Jim Tracy gave to last night's lineup: Jose Bautista played third, with Freddie Sanchez moving to second and Jose Castillo taking the bench. We undoubtedly can't expect that move to be repeated on a regular basis, but it says here it should (see post of July 19, "The Shape of Things to Come").

A recent post the Buccin' Ear read on another blog lamented the lack of power that Freddie brings as a third baseman. Leaving aside the fact that he brings many other positive qualities to the field with him (which the writer also acknowledged), the point is valid. At second, his lack of power would be a nonissue. Bautista has already shown that he has some pop (12 homers in 74 games, or about 25 over the course of a regular season). Problem solved, at least potentially.

Castillo? Well, he has power, but his inconsistencies, both at the plate and in the field, have been well documented here and elsewhere, and he lacks the versatility of Sanchez and Bautista. Rather than shuffle Bautista around the remainder of the year, Tracy should make a bold move and give him plenty of reps at third.

Bold move? Jim Tracy? Hmmm, the Buccin' Ear really is having pipe dreams.

A Culture of Losing

The Pirates slunk out of Houston having lost three consecutive games by a combined score of 22-4, leaving them at a new low: 31 games below .500. There is little to comment on in the series, particularly the 14-1 atrocity on Wednesday, other than to give a nod toward another decent performance by Tom Gorzelanny, who gave up two runs in six innings last night, holding his own with Roger Clemens, although TG took the loss. The lifeless offense would have been no match for Roger Craig, much less the Rocket. The funk may have rubbed off on Clemens, who said of his performance, "I didn't feel like I had any life."

Well, at least he was going up against the right team. And as Pirates fans, we can sympathize with him.

A regular correspondent to The Pirates of Penance, code name bern1, brings up a salient point about the sorry state of the team, which the Buccin' Ear prints in its entirety because it is particularly worthy of discussion:

"When Craig Biggio's pop-up “home run” clanked off a fan’s outstretched hands last night, even Bucs television announcers Greg Brown and John Wehner were moved to observe, “That’s fan interference! Why no argument?”

As in, where's Jim Tracy? Which was also a fair question to ask during Sunday's game after the reversed call on Bay's catch/trap and the subsequent, ill-fated sequence of ball-strike calls that culminated in Ian Snell surrendering a decisive home run following what should have been called Strike Three for end of inning.

If Tracy doesn't have a “discussion,” much less an argument, with the umpires in situations like these, then ... when? When? Just when is going to back up his players? Just when might he show enough passion to get thrown out of a game? After all, the team’s record, for cryin’ out loud, is 42-71.

Granted, arguing the phantom home run would have been a futile gesture. But a gesture, nonetheless, and it might have snapped to attention a team that subsequently sleepwalked through what the Post-Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic described as a “listless” performance. Last night, just after the home run, Jack Wilson entered a mildly animated discussion with the umpire. It was Tracy’s responsibility as a manager to pop out of the dugout, back his player and take over the argument. If he gets tossed, so be it. "

The Buccin' Ear can quibble with the point on Bay's trap -- he didn't argue it, and the manager will normally take his lead from the player's reaction -- but bern is right on the money on the essential idea: the Pirates have long since become a team not only used to losing, but one that appears to have accepted losing, and has made it a way of life.

That attitude begins at the top, with Kevin McClatchy's phony insistence that the Pirates can't afford to compete (in fact, reliable sources conclude that the Pirates are profitable) to Dave Littlefield's lame laments that he does all he can while he continues to overpay for mediocre players, to Jim Tracy's empty praise for losing performances and strange passivity. As bern correctly notes, why was Jack Wilson left to argue the non-homer by Biggio while Tracy lounged, poker faced, in the dugout, undoubtedly thinking about how tough it is to play these gosh-darn Major League teams and that it's not his or his player's fault that they stink.

Anyone who has watched this team must conclude that the losing attitude has trickled down to the players. Xavier Nady's body language in Chicago on Sunday said it all: he hung his head, he trudged back to the dugout after an out, and he appeared for all the world like a guy wondering what the heck he did to get exiled from New York to this outpost of futility.

After last night's game, Jeromy Burnitz, discussing the team's recent failures to hit, put it on the quality of the pitching they had to face in the Houston series, even going so far as to lump Brandon Backe in with Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens. You see? It's not our fault.

The Buccin' Ear looks back with some muted nostalgia for the days of Lloyd McClendon, which is not to say that Lloyd was a great manager. Far from it. But what would a beaten-down Pirates fan give to see one of LM's patented base-throwing tantrums right now?

McClendon, you see, knew the truth: teams and umpires walk all over the Pirates because that's what happens to losing teams if they don't show at least a spark of life. He was shouting into the void that dammit, we've got a Major League team too, and we deserve to be on the same field with these guys.

Sometimes you have to act like that's true, even if it's not.

The McClendon mention is also relevant because it was Resident Genius Tracy who swaggered into town proclaiming that there would be no more of the one-run losses and poor decisions that characterized his predecessor's reign. Oh, no. RG was going to impose accountability. Losing was not going to be accepted.

How funny does that sound now?

Now comes the news that Shawn Chacon, bombed in his start in Houston, has knee pain. The team swears this is the first it's heard of any such thing.

Gosh-darn the luck.

The 1985 Watch: At 42-73, the current team is still six games ahead of the pace set by the 1985 team (36-79) through the same number of games (115). However, to best the '85 record (57-104), the '06 squad must go 16-31 (.340) the rest of the way. The '85 club finished at a comparatively torrid 21-25 (.457) pace. It won its 115th game, 3-2 over Cincinnati, on August 20, 1985, at Three Rivers Stadium.

Look out below!

Houston, We've Got a Problem

The late Gilda Radner's creation Roseanne Roseanna-Dana famously declared, in her addled musings on Saturday Night Live, that "it's always something." She might have been talking about the 2006 Pirates. No matter the locale or the situation, it's always something with this team, and that something usually means a loss.

And so it was tonight at the Ballpark Suggesting a Frozen Juice, er, Minute Maid Park, in Houston, where the Bucs fell to the Astros, 3-1. Not that there is anything unusual in the team losing to the Astros in this locale. At Minute Maid, nee the Ballpark Formerly Named for a Company That Screwed the Public (Enron), they are now 11-40, a record even more preposterous than their 14-43 road record this year.

No, the "Always Something" anti-hero for tonight was Paul Maholm who, on paper, threw one of those infamous "quality starts" that the Buccin' Ear hates: six innings, three earned runs. Since when did a 4.50 ERA become quality? But enough digression. Maholm, who uncharacteristically struck out six, just as uncharacteristically walked four, and that was enough to do him in tonight. In the first, he walked three, which led to a run; in the sixth, he walked Morgan Ensberg, who came around to score when Adam Everett doubled. Throw in a Craig Biggio solo homer, and you've got a 4-10 record for your starting pitcher and the makings of another road trip to nowhere. The record for the current one is now 1-3.

But in defense of Maholm, he got little help from the offense, which mounted virtually no attack against Brandon Backe, who is now 3-1 lifetime against the Pirates. The league hits about .270 against him; the Bucs less than .200. Tonight the "big hit" was a sacrifice fly from Jose Castillo, accounting for the lone run. Brad Lidge, who has been troubled this year by other teams, breezed through the ninth, striking out the side, to send the weary Pirates home to bed.

This is a scenario that we can expect to see the rest of the way. The Astros are now 54-58, which in most years would mean playing out the string. Not in 2006, the Year of Mediocrity in the National League. Houston, like all but a handful of bottom feeders, which of course includes the lowermost bottom feeders, the Pirates, are in contention for a playoff spot. Most of the teams that the Bucs face the rest of the way will have circled on their calendars their dates with Pittsburgh, hoping to fatten up and improve their chances of eking into the postseason, however unimpressively. The Pirates will have plenty of opportunities to play spoiler, but the way they are going they are more likely to be placed on the broiler for consumption by teams hungry for victories.

This is the fate of teams that wearily trod through the endless string of games and the lengthening shadows of late summer towards October and yet another offseason in contemplation of just what it takes to win games. When it comes to losing games, it's always something.

Bruin Ruin

The Pirates rolled into Chicago Friday with the unlikeliest of hopes, given their performance this year: making a serious move to escape the NL Central cellar. Despite their horrible April, their 13-game losing streak in the run-up to the All-Star break, their erratic pitching and a host of other problems, the team was just 4 1/2 games behind the Cubs, who have underachieved so badly this season that manager Dusty Baker is about as popular on the North Side as A.J. Pierzynski.

Things started out gloriously on Friday, with a 6-0 victory, courtesy of the rejuvenated Tom Gorzelanny, who tossed eight shutout innings, evening his record at 2-2, and lowering his ERA to 4.41. Since a debacle against the Rockies a couple of weeks ago, Gorzelanny has gotten his act together, picking up wins in his last two starts and slicing about three runs off his ERA.

Unfortunately, TG's win wrapped up the highlights for the Pirates for the series. They followed up the Friday win with a 7-5 loss on Saturday that featured yet another bad outing for Zach Duke. After recording outs on the first two hitters, he gave up five consecutive hits, ended the inning with four runs on the Cubs' side of the ledger and departed with an all-too familiar line: six innings, five earned runs and a loss. The Pirates crept to within a run on three occasions, but the pitching wasn't up to the task of closing the door.

The series ended with a drab 6-1 loss lowlighted by losing pitcher Ian Snell giving up a three-run homer to light-hitting Ronny Cedeno, and the hitters meekly submitting to the immortal Rich Hill (1-4 with a 7.92 ERA going into the game.)

What can the Buccin' Ear say about Duke? Since the beginning of June, he has given up 51 runs in 71 innings and has been easily the least reliable pitcher on the staff, which is saying something. As has been noted here and elsewhere, he is especially inviting to opposing hitters in the early innings. Of the 91 runs he has given up, 56 (62%) have scored in the third inning or earlier. The four runs he gave up in the opening frame Saturday were no aberration: Duke has surrendered 28 first-inning runs this year.

Looked at another way, Duke gives up about one run for every four batters he faces in the first inning. The ratio in innings 1-3 is 1:5; in innings 4-6, it is 1:7; in innings 7-9 (admittedly territory he hasn't seen all that often), it is 1:15.

Duke seems as puzzled by all this as anyone, although he told the Post-Gazette after Saturday's game that he thinks hitters are being more aggressive early in the game, anticipating that he will be trying to get ahead with strikes. Well, fine. Time to adjust? One wonders what the discussions between Duke and pitching coach Jim Colborn center on these days. "Any ideas on me not giving up runs in the first?" Duke asks. "Nope, tapped out," Colborn replies. I mean, can you guys come up with something?

The weekend series also exposed the glaring hole at the top of the Pirates lineup. Those of us who called for the return of Chris Duffy are looking pretty foolish so far. Duffy has gone 3 for 26 since his call-up and hasn't shown much reason to believe that his bad start in April was a fluke. His first at-bat Sunday against Hill was demoralizing. Fastball, swing and a miss. Fastball, called strike. Curveball, called strike.

When Duffy is paired at the top of the lineup with Nate McLouth, the Pirates not only do not have guys that set the table, they have guys that don't even get the dishes out of the cupboard. Both have OBPs of under .300 (in Duffy's case, way under), and they hit very poorly with two strikes. With two strikes, (including counts of 0-2, 1-2, 2-2 and 3-2) Duffy is 11 for 64 (.172), but McLouth is far worse: 17 for 140 (.121).

Even granting the obvious, that pitchers have the advantage with two strikes, these numbers are horrible for hitters at the top of the lineup. For example, the Cubs' leadoff man, Juan Pierre, a guy having a very average year, is 43 for 198 on counts with two strikes (.217), hardly great shakes, but a league apart from Duffy and McLouth.

If Duffy proves not to be the answer at the top of the lineup, the Pirates must make it a priority to find a leadoff man for next year. The holes on this team are starting to make them look like the national spokesmen for the Swiss Cheese Association of America.

Right is Wrong

The Shawn Chacon Era got off to a good start Thursday afternoon, with the newly acquired righthander pitching five decent innings, giving up one run and picking up the win in the Pirates' series-salvaging win over Atlanta, 3-2. Chacon departed after just 80 pitches, probably a good idea given the 90-degree heat and the fact he hadn't started a game in about a month. He showed an ability to pitch out of trouble, but also displayed some control problems (see August 3 post, "The New Guy") in walking four while striking out three.

But hey, he's 1-0 as a Pirate. The two losses in three games with the Braves can't be blamed on the pitching staff. Chacon, Ian Snell and Paul Maholm combined to pitch 19 innings and gave up just 7 runs (3.32 ERA). That should translate into two wins instead of two losses, but the offense produced a measly seven runs for the entire series. Given that, the pitching staff (and today, especially, that includes the relievers, in spades) gets kudos for not allowing a sweep by the Braves.

And there was even a Chris Duffy sighting: he got his first hit since returning to the bigs, and swiped two bases, setting up a run early. This is what the Pirates are looking for from him, but he also struck out twice. That's got to stop.

Jose Bautista got the start in rightfield, which brings the Buccin' Ear to the subject for today: the ongoing and glaring hole in rightfield. Jeromy Burnitz is near the end of his career and won't be back next year, in all likelihood, which leaves RF at the present in the hands of either Bautista or Nate McLouth for next year. The uncertainty in right continues a long-running trend for the Pirates, and there is no relief in sight.

A bit of history is in order. Right field was manned during 32 of the 47 years between 1926 and 1972 by just two players: Paul Waner (1926-1939) and Roberto Clemente (1955-1972), both Hall of Famers. From '55 to 1981, Clemente and Dave Parker (1975-1981) were the only right fielders for the Pirates save a two-year gap ('73-'74) when Richie Zisk started. All told, Waner, Clemente and Parker handled right field for 70% of the 56 seasons between '26 and '81.

The quarter century since has been an entirely different story. According to records on baseballreference.com, between 1982 and 2005, no fewer than 16 different players were considered the primary rightfielder for the Pirates; add a 17th this year. And keep in mind the list includes the likes of Bobby Bonilla (1990-91) who logged considerable time at third base. The longest run by one player at the position was Orlando Merced ('93-'96), a first baseman by trade who played exclusively in right only in '96. The position has been graced by such luminaries as Emil Brown (1999) and Doug Frobel (1984 -- try that name on your buddies who think they're Pirates fans), and the last player to be credited with back-to-back seasons as the "primary" right fielder was John Vander Wal (2000-2001).

The Pirates' futility in filling the position is best illustrated by the case of Armando Rios. Acquired in the ill-fated Jason Schmidt deal in 2001, Rios was projected to fill the hole in right field, but hurt his knee almost immediately after he was acquired. In 2002, he played in 76 games for the Pirates, and he ended his career 49 games later in 2003 with the White Sox. This year's stopgap, Jeromy Burnitz, got off to a horrible start, and has yet to push his BA above .240 as he moves ever closer to a life of surfing and motorcycles, dude.

What gives? Well, the mix of rightfielders in recent times has included rent-a-players ( Reggie Sanders and Matt Lawton), players who the club chose to jettison before their time (Jose Guillen), part-timers or jack-of-all-trades (Craig Wilson, Rob Mackowiak, Lee Lacy) or warm bodies (Frobel, Brown, Cecil Espy, Glenn Wilson). Never has there been a player during this period that the Pirates appeared to commit to in right, as they have in left with Jason Bay and three other notables: Barry Bonds, Brian Giles and Al Martin. In fact, over the same quarter century, just nine players have seen time in left field for the Pirates on a "regular" basis, half the number the team has auditioned in right.

The point? A primary problem of the Pirates has been establishing a clear direction for the team. The club is plagued by trying to fit players into positions in a haphazard way. Right field is the poster child for the team that is on its own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, as well-known baseball enthusiast Robert Zimmerman might put it.

The New Guy

The Pirate bats took it easy for another night Tuesday, producing just two runs for the second straight game en route to a 3-2 loss to the Braves. The puny offensive production negated another strong pitching performance, this one by Paul Maholm (his second in succession), who went seven innings, allowing just two runs. His reward was a no-decision. Errors by Jason Bay and Salomon Torres handed the Braves the win in the eighth.

So the Pirates hit the two-thirds mark of the season at 40-68, which projects to a 60-102 finish. On the bright side, they are 10-8 since the All-Star break, but need to win today to avoid a sweep at home at the hands of Atlanta, which still clings to playoff hopes in the mildly competitive National League.

The task of preventing the sweep falls this afternoon to Shawn Chacon, recently acquired from the Yankees for Craig Wilson. Chacon is 5-3, but his ERA of 7.00 will rightly make Pirates fans skeptical about his talent. Take it from the Buccin' Ear: Chacon has plenty. He has an above-average fastball and a curveball that is devastating when he is using it effectively. Therein lies the rub, but more on that later.

Chacon's career has been enigmatic, which makes him a good replacement for the inscrutable Oliver Perez. A product of the Colorado Rockies' organization, he, like many Rockies starters, was brought to the big leagues early and asked to contribute right away (he pitched 160 innings in his rookie season, 2001, at age 23). After difficulties with management in 2002, he rebounded in 2003 with a sterling first half (11 wins) that earned him an All-Star spot. However, arm troubles derailed him in the second half, and he didn't win another game before ending the season on the disabled list.

In 2004, Rockies management, thinking that they would save wear and tear on his arm, decided to make him a closer, which turned out to be a disastrous decision. Chacon saved 35 games for a very bad team, but endured a huge number of blown saves and poor performances and never looked comfortable in the role. He was returned to the starting rotation in 2005, went 1-7 (a deceiving record, as his ERA was barely over 4.00 -- again for a bad team), and was traded to New York, where he helped the Yankees get to the post-season by going 7-3 with an ERA under 3.00. He also pitched well in the playoffs, although he lost his only start.

This year, he failed to hold his spot as a starter with the Yankees and had been banished to the bullpen at the time of the trade. Can he salvage his season with a couple of good months with the Pirates? Maybe.

On the plus side is his aforementioned stuff and his obvious mental toughness. Anybody who could go into New York in the heat of a pennant race and win big games obviously can handle pressure. He also survived a tumultuous period with the Rockies with his sanity and at least a measure of his confidence in tact.

On the minus side is his control, which is the alpha and omega of any analysis of his chances of success. When he is right, he spots his fastball, then relies on his curve and changeup to keep hitters off balance. When he does this, he can be dominant. When he doesn't, hitters can ignore his off-speed stuff, and he gets bombed. Through 2005, he had a career 425 strikeouts, or close to seven per game. Unfortunately, he walked 323 batters, or around five per game. Given that he had allowed fewer than a hit per inning going into this year, the goal for the Pirates' pitching staff is clear: get Chacon to throw strikes and get ahead in the count. Easier said than done.

As noted in yesterday's post, the performances of Zach Duke, Paul Maholm and Ian Snell will go a long way toward establishing whether we Pirate fans can once again summon up hope for next year. We can probably add Chacon to that list, and his audition starts now.

The 1985 watch: As mentioned, the 2006 team is on pace to win 60 games, meaning it would avoid becoming the fifth-worst team in club history. It must go 18-36 (.333) the rest of the way to hit the magic number of 58 wins, bettering the 1985 team's 57-104 mark.

Addendum: The 1985 team lost its 108th game on August 12, falling to the Cardinals 8-1 and bringing its record to an abysmal 33-75 (.306). The current team, at 40-68, has a seemingly commanding seven-game lead through the same number of games. However, the '85 squad went a respectable 17-18 (.486) after September 1. The 2006 club would do well not to rest on its laurels.

Dog Days

The "new-look" Pirates took the field last night and produced a decidedly "old-look" result, a 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves and ageless righthander John Smoltz. It seems like only yesterday that Smoltz was battling the Pirates in the tense playoff games of 1991 and 1992. Times have changed, but the results haven't: the future Hall-of-Famer went seven innings, giving up just two runs and notching the win over Ian Snell, who pitched decently, giving up four runs in seven innings, while striking out 10. He had no answer for Adam LaRoche (two solo homers) and Marcus Giles (three doubles).

Chris Duffy returned to start in center and went hitless; newcomer Xavier Nady was placed at first and collected a single; and call-up reliever Josh Sharpless pitched an unimpressive scoreless inning. For Tuesday night, at least, Jose Bautista was a man without a position, as Jeromy Burnitz got the start in right. And in a most fitting note, Jose Hernandez, recently proclaimed by RG Jim Tracy to be "the best 25th man in baseball" struck out with two men on to end the game. Wonder what the worst 25th man in baseball would have done in that situation.

Of course, it's one game, and we have 55 more to watch before this season draws to a merciful close. With that in mind, the Buccin' Ear will be keeping an eye on these players, looking for signs of hope to carry over into 2007:

• Zach Duke. This has been a season of discontent for last year's Last Best Hope. He has never really gained a rhythm. Groundballs that were turned into double plays last year have been finding the hole with regularity this year, leading to the suspicion that his location has been spotty, although the poor defense of Jose Castillo probably bears a share of the blame as well. Duke pitched well on Sunday; we'll be watching to see if he can build on that.
• Chris Duffy. Centerfield has been a trouble spot since Andy VanSlyke left. Duffy showed promise last year as a late-season call-up, collapsed after a month this year, and has returned to try to prove once again that he belongs. The Buccin' Ear will be looking for signs that he can improve his atrocious strikeout/walk ratio, which has ruined him as a leadoff man.
• Jose Bautista. The real question here is whether he will get an adequate chance to play. With Duffy recalled, he presumably will get his time in right. Given some of the challenges he faced in adapting to a new position in center, you'd like to see him be given a chance to grow into a set spot, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards for him on this team. Here's hoping the team doesn't make him into the next Craig Wilson.
• Jose Castillo. Despite his sporadic power surges, Castillo still doesn't get on base enough due to his impatience at the plate, and has declined drastically in the field. The Buccin' Ear wil be looking for one thing from Castillo the rest of the year: consistency. If he continues to display offensive and defensive lapses, he should be seriously considered trade bait this winter.
• Paul Maholm. See Zach Duke.
• Matt Capps. Much has been asked of Capps this year, and for the most part he has delivered, despite being heavily worked. The best thing that could happen to him the rest of the year is improvement from the starters, which would ease his workload. Assuming he still gets called on often, however, his ability to hold up under the strain bears watching.
• Ian Snell. He has become the best pitcher on the staff. Can he step up and display leadership the rest of the way?

Answers...looking for answers....

Groundhog Day

The Buccin' Ear is back from San Francisco, where the angst is as thick as the fog that rolls in from the Bay every morning, the result of the Giants' three-game swoon in the heat and humidity of Pittsburgh. Your faithful correspondent was too busy enjoying the 65-degree weather, along with the seafood, nightlife and yes, a taste of American League baseball (A's over Blue Jays, 7-4 on Saturday) to watch much of the Pirates' triumphs, but took favorable notice of the positive starts of Tom Gorzelanny and Zach Duke. Kip Wells? Sayonara. Thanks for the sterling performance on the way out of town. That is the way of exiting Buccos.

Of course, if the Bucs could play the Giants and the Brewers more often, they might have something. They are inexplicably 12-2 over the last 14 games played against these two teams, 28-64 against the rest of the league. It also helped this weekend to catch the Giants on a severe downturn, led by the combustible Armando Benitez, who blew three saves during the team's six games in Washington and Pittsburgh, but seemed to think he never threw a bad pitch, as he frequently told the city's sportswriters.

But this is August 1, and that means waking up to yet another Grave New World, wherein the Pirates ditch their failed hopes of April for the dreary reality of a fading summer. Gone are Sean Casey, Craig Wilson, Kip Wells, Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez. Through the revolving door are Xavier Nady, Shawn Chacon, Brian Rogers and Jesse Chavez, the latter two works-in-progress. The most notable no-show for the Pirates is Ryan Shealy, whom the Buccin' Ear hoped would replace Casey. But the Royals, who dominated the Pirates in interleague play, stole the Bucs' thunder again, grabbing Shealy for themselves.

So that leaves first base to Nady, apparently, although the names of Randa and Hernadez have been tossed around as well. Leave it to the Pirates to trade their only natural first baseman and not get one in return. Of course, we can always wait for the careers of Brad Eldred and Ryan Doumit to blossom.

The annual reshuffling allows Chris Duffy to return to the big league club, where we hope he reestablishes himself as a legitimate centerfielder. Because the team chose not to move Jose Castillo, Jose Bautista will not move to third, but goes to right field instead.

The Stats Geek in The Post-Gazette correctly points out that Dave Littlefield's failings were not exposed at yesterday's trade deadlines, but in his overpricing of the contracts of Wells, et al. The Buccin' Ear will add this, which is really a variation on the comment: DL (what a telling pair of initials for this baseball man) has an unerring ability to trade players when the market for them is low. The Curious Case of Oliver Perez is the latest case in point. Perez was sent to the minors more than a month ago with his career at its lowest ebb. Rather than holding on to him to work out his problems (he apparently did not pitch badly for Indianapolis), Littlefield packaged him with Roberto Hernandez for Nady, an okay player with a troubling wrist problem.

Similarly, the Pirates' "shopping" of Craig Wilson consisted of benching him for the better part of a month, which meant they could get the struggling Shawn Chacon who, like Perez, has shown flashes of brilliance during this career but is currently putting up Perez-like numbers -- the 2006 kind, not the 2004 kind.

Are the Pirates better off today than they were yesterday? The unqualified answer is no. They did not upgrade their pitching, they did not get a first baseman and they have not solidified their outfield, unless Duffy comes through, and that will not be the result of a trade. They dumped salary, and that's it.

And so, like Bill Murray, we Pirate fans awake to another August 1, blinking in bewilderment as another year, just like the one before, continues to unfold in its unsurprising way.