This and That

Bits and pieces from the musings of the Buccin' Ear on a nearly perfect day in Denver:

Minor considerations: Dejan Kovacevic's excellent roundup in the Post-Gazette on the state of the Pirates' minor league system contained this intriguing comment from Dave Littlefield on the present lack of prospects at Triple A Indianapolis and Double A Altoona:

"We like the group, and we like where it's headed. And the thing to keep in mind is there probably will be very little attrition at the major-league level for the next three to five years, so we're going to be able to pick and choose who we keep at the upper levels of the minors."

Really. So can we take that to mean that the Pirates have pretty well settled on their starting lineup and starting pitching rotation for the coming years? I'm not sure too many other observers, the Buccin' Ear included, would agree that the 60-87 product that we see on the field is one poised on the brink of success.

A Little success: But let's give Littles a dollop of props. Freddie Sanchez wakes up this morning the leading hitter in the NL. Mike Gonzales, before suffering an elbow strain, was perfect in save attempts and beginning to show signs of being one of the top closers in the league. Both were pilfered from the Boston Red Sox, presently suffering through a bullpen meltdown that has thrust Mike Timlin into the closer role -- where he has approached a double-digit ERA. As Genarro Filice writes for "Inside Baseball" at www.cnnsi.com:

"Think the Red Sox regret moving Sanchez and stud closer Mike Gonzalez to Pittsburgh for Jeff Suppan, Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez?"

The Buccin' Ear will refrain from any "even a blind pig finds an acorn" comments.

Howard's end: Ryan Howard, the Phillies' larger-than-life slugger, drove in an absurd 41 runs in August alone. To put his achievement and the Pirates' dearth of power in perspective, consider that Jeromy Burnitz, hired by Littlefield to fill the power vacuum in right field, has 49 RBIs in 311 ABs for the season. Jose Bautista has taken 355 ABs to drive in the same number of runs that Howard did in that one month.

Christal clear: Chris Duffy's .307 OBP won't turn any heads. But Pirate fans can find a measure of hope in his recent play. On August 7, his OBP -- not his batting average! -- was .233, and the Buccin' Ear was moved to write,

"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" (see Aug. 7 post, "Bruin Ruin").

Since then, however, Duffy has boosted his BA to .240 (from well under .200 five weeks ago), has injected some speed into the lineup (something it desperately needed, given the lack of power), and continued to play the solid defense that was expected of him.

Rockies Road: Hopes for the Colorado Rockies matched the mile high altitude of Denver in early July, precisely mirroring the Pirates plummeting fortunes at the time. The Rockies were in the thick of the NL West division battle, their young hitters, notably Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday and Brad Hawpe, were producing, and most notably they had unfathomably good pitching.

Fast-forward to this bright September morning, and the Rockies are in familiar territory: last place. The hitting has gone through lengthy dry spells (although Holliday is challenging for the batting title and Atkins has been one of the best players nobody outside of the Mountain Time Zone has heard of). And the pitching finally began to unravel, with Aaron Cook, Byung-Hyun Kim, Jeff Francis, and yes, Josh Fogg all showing serious signs of coming back to earth. Overall, the team has gone 24-35 since the All-Star Break (compared with the Pirates' 30-27 mark).

The Rox have still shown great improvement over last year, but their present struggles should give pause to Pirates fans who are banking on a stunning turnaround from a young club in '07.

Tracyism of the Week: Commenting on the Major League debut of pitcher Shane Youmans, RG had this to say:

"You're always anxious to see a young guy make his first appearance and wet his feet at the major-league level. There have been a lot of very special players come along in this game who had to make their first of something -- whether it was their first at-bat, their first start, their first relief appearance -- and it goes on from there."

The Buccin' Ear isn't sure. But did RG say that even some very special players have to make their first appearance in a game? Hmmm...wonder how many special players we missed over the years who never made an appearance? And if special players play but never appear and are therefore never seen, did they really play at all?