2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

[steelcurtain311]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Well, here's what I'm hoping, best case scenario, but probably won't happen: LaRoche pans out and does great at third. Alvarez comes up and looks awesome. We move Andy to SS, where he's played before, and dump Jack Wilson, which they should of did two years ago when Detroit offered Jair Jurrjens straight up for him.

Walker, should just be moved back to catcher. I don't get why they want him at third when we're so weak at the C position. Doumit is never healthy and it's doubtful he ever has a big season like last year again. Plus, he's awful defensively.

A future lineup with McCutchen/Pedro/Andy/Nate/Tabata/Walker seems pretty nice if you ask me.

[LetsGoBucs]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Maholm has been pitching pretty well this spring. I caught one of his starts a week or so ago against the Rays on MLB Network and he looked sharp. Then I saw he pitched another good game last week. I'd love to see their rotation be solid this year...

[smurface]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Maholm has been pitching pretty well this spring. I caught one of his starts a week or so ago against the Rays on MLB Network and he looked sharp. Then I saw he pitched another good game last week. I'd love to see their rotation be solid this year...

well the good news the pitching can only get better compared to last season.

Seems like every year one starter has a career year while the other 4 drop off, last year Malholm, 2 years ago Snell and 3 years ago it was Duke. so by this trend, my guess is Karstens is going to blow up this year.

[jHammack]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Nice to see some fellow bucs fans here. It's a shame to see such a nice stadium be wasted on this organization. I hate how every year is rebuilding. I can't take it every year, but I've started to get used to it.

I love the Pirates, and baseball in general but I don't know anymore about the Buccos.


Unlike many of you guys, I'm a Zach Duke fan and I love his potential. At least, I did before the last two seasons and the dreaded downfall he has had. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's amazing, but he has solid stuff and his slider is wicked. I also am a big fan of Andy, I think he can be solid if the Pirates coaches actually did something and helped him improve.

I've only watched a handful of ST games, but the starting pitching doesn't look terrible, however our bullpen might need some work.

[steelcurtain311]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

What's a shame about Zach Duke is, he had the potential to be a really good pitcher. Hell, you could still see it from him in doses over the past few seasons. It's just that he's had so many different pitching coaches screwing with his mechanics that it's destroyed him.

[smurface]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

All 3 yahoo writers have Snell on this years sleeper list for pitchers.

http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/mlb/news?slug=ys-highfives_040109

1. Ian Snell – New pitching coach, fresh start, less pressure (Paul Maholm – go get him – is the team’s ace now). Not that many pitchers offer a legitimate 200-strikeout upside, but Snell does

5. Ian Snell – Mechanically flawed last year, he’s tweaked his delivery this spring; 11 Ks in 12.1 IP encouraging sign

2. Ian Snell – Fits the Cliff Lee model – great year (’07) followed by a miserable year (’08). His K-rate remains high and he hasn’t lost velocity. Needs his luck to turn around on BABIP (.358 ’08)

[steelcurtain311]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Yeah, last year was clearly a mechanical problem with him. His stuff was still the same, he lost nothing on his fastball or slider. He changed his delivery late last season, and carried over into this Spring/WBC, and he looks all the more better.

Who I'm more curious about is Ross Ohlendorf. I liked what I seen from him last season, as no one was expecting much. He was considered trade filler from the Nady deal. I'll tell you what though, his fastball/slider are filthy. And ontop of last year, he's had an excellent Spring. He could turn out to be something.

[LetsGoBucs]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Great comeback W today. In the 8th, I was thinking "same old Buccos". It was great to see Jack Wilson come through with the big hit. It was also nice to see Adam LaRoche have a couple of knocks and an RBI.

First place!!!

[bluengold34_OS]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Nice comeback win today guys, nice way to start the year off....congrats.

[smurface]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Great comeback W today. In the 8th, I was thinking "same old Buccos". It was great to see Jack Wilson come through with the big hit. It was also nice to see Adam LaRoche have a couple of knocks and an RBI.

First place!!!

haha..i was thinkin the same thing in the 8th.

In the 9th, when they hit Moss to get to Wilson I thought for sure the game was over, but good for Jack and the Bucs.

if i was the manager Andy Laroche wouldnt see the field for the rest of the series, and i would play Vazquez, Andy played awful. Only other sore spot was the bad baserunning.

[steelcurtain311]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Yeah, wow, Andy looked terrible today. K with the bases loaded and two really bad errors, one that cost us two runs basically. He did work a walk and come around to score, but it could of very well of been a strikeout with how close the pitches were. Either way, he did not look good at all. He looks sooo nervous at the plate, he takes pitches that he shouldn't and then gets behind in counts and just panics, it seems.

Maholm pitched a nice game though. Capps did too in the 9th, he had to face the heart of the order, which contains Albert Pujols, and he still got the save.

I don't think it had to do as much with the Bucs as it did with the Cards bullpen having another one of their signature meltdowns. That walk to Maholm by Kinney was the turning point of the game. The count is 3-1 to a pitcher, and he throws a breaking ball down and inside for ball four, just a horrid pitch and decision, LaRussa was so infuriated. Then Motte's meltdown in the 9th, wow.

[LetsGoBucs]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

That walk to Maholm by Kinney was the turning point of the game. The count is 3-1 to a pitcher, and he throws a breaking ball down and inside for ball four, just a horrid pitch and decision, LaRussa was so infuriated.

I though LaRussa was going to blow a gasket. Especially since it was the 2nd time Maholm walked that game.

I'm giving Andy a pass for yesterday, hopefully he turns it around ()

[jHammack]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Great win, I'm really impressed we battled back and got the win, even if they did get lucky with the meltdown.

[jHammack]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Snell got shelled last night, but we got the win tonight. Duke looked pretty good. 2-1

[steelcurtain311]

Re: 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates

Snell got rocked.

But yeah, at least Zach Duke looked decent. As did the Pirates offense, which seemed to explode. Freddy Sanchez is so key, he needs to hit .300 this year and be consistent about it.