The #Pirates have acquired 1B Ike Davis from the #Mets in exchange for Zack Thornton and a PTBN. — Pirates (@Pirates) April 18, 2014
Ike Davis traded to the Pirates for Zack Thornton and a player to be named
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/18/2014
Archives
Building on a blowout
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After last night’s fun win, it seems like a fair goal to hope that the Pirates can get two out of three of the rest of their Easter weekend series against Brewers to help put last week’s sweep way back in our memories. If Morton’s surprising success last year was built on the increased velocity […]
The best pitch that Edinson Volquez made last night
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It’s fine if you’re still skeptical of Edinson Volquez despite his strong start to 2014. It’s kind of crazy not to be, to be honest. Volquez has been one type of pitcher his entire career, and suddenly after a few months with the Pirates, he looks like something else entirely. It’s going to be a […]
Game 16: Pirates 11 Brewers 2
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/17/2014
I’m trying to think of the best way to describe Edinson Volquez’s start tonight, and I’ve settled on “shocking in its efficiency.” Volquez is a guy who’s never had a walk rate lower than 4.0 BB/9, and tonight he cruised through seven innings on just 77 pitches, throwing 53 of them for strikes. He only […]
Return to PNC
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The Pirates’ road trip got ugly after they left Wrigley Field last week, so the good news is that they’re back at PNC Park for a week starting tonight. They’re playing the same two Brewers and Reds teams that they dropped six of seven to on the road, of course, but I suppose we can […]
Game 15: Reds 4 Pirates 0
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/16/2014
One of the difficult things about the early part of the baseball season is that it’s relatively easy to swap causes and effects with each other and end up tumbling down a rabbit hole of overthinking that can drive a fan crazy. Let’s start with a simple statement: the Pirates are 7-8, and they have […]
Francisco Liriano tries to get back on track
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One of the big questions surrounding the Pirates all winter was whether Francisco Liriano would be able to replicate his fantastic 2013 season, given that he’s never managed to put together two good seasons at any other point in his career. Through three starts, Liriano turned in a solid Opening Day performance against the Cubs, […]
Game 13: Pirates 8 Reds 7 / Game 14: Reds 7 Pirates 5
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/15/2014
Please excuse me while I try to get back into the swing of writing recaps. Before I get there, let me say this: a lot of you said a lot of exceptionally nice things about the piece I wrote about my grandfather last week. I didn’t have time to respond to everyone individually since the […]
Catching up
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First things first: The Pirates and Reds will play 1 1/3 baseball games at Great American Ballpark tonight, starting at 5:30. The first game will be the resolution of last night’s homerfest, in which the Pirates and Reds combined to hit ten home runs in six innings, only to be tied at seven with the […]
A weekend in Milwaukee
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/11/2014
It’s early, of course, but the Pirates and Brewers will play three games in Milwaukee this weekend with first place in the NL Central on the line. The Pirates’ 6-3 start includes a number of pretty fortunate wins (four of those six wins are against the Cubs and by one run, a fifth of the wins […]
Cadaco All Star Baseball, my grandfather, and me
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On what must’ve been my six or seventh birthday, my dad gave me the late-80s version of the Cadaco All-Star Baseball. If you played it as a kid, you might know it as “the spinner baseball game.” It’s the one where baseball player’s faces were printed on discs, with the outer part of the disc […]
Game 7: Pirates 7 Cubs 6
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/9/2014
The Pirates had to overcome a lot of unusual stuff to sneak out a win from the Cubs tonight. After the Pirates took a 4-0 lead against a really ineffective Edwin Jackson in the first inning, the Cubs fought back to tie the game on a three-run homer by Starlin Castro. Morton had only allowed […]
The first road trip of 2014
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/8/2014
The Pirates play their first game of the year outside of PNC Park tonight at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, who we just so recently saw. Charlie Morton starts for the Pirates while Edwin Jackson goes for the Cubs. Emilio Bonifacio only went 3-for-12 in the Cubs’ three games against the Phillies, so his batting […]
Watch Gregory Polanco obliterate a baseball
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/7/2014
There’s no Pirate game today and I think we’re all still a little down in the dumps from yesterday’s Jameson Taillon news, 4-2 record and Improbable Volquez aside, so here’s a clip of Gregory Polanco’s monster home run from yesterday. Enjoy!
Jameson Taillon, Tommy John surgery, and the Pirates’ pitching depth
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Let’s start off up front: the news about Jameson Taillon’s Tommy John surgery is terrible. This sort of injury was the elephant in the room when Taillon and Cole were the Pirates’ only two truly elite prospects a couple of years ago, and it was a terrifying thought in 2011 and early 2012. The Pirates’ […]
Game 6: Pirates 2 Cardinals 1
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/6/2014
One point that I try to drive home every year during March is that spring training results don’t matter so long as the player in question is working towards something. That was a particularly difficult task with Edinson Volquez this spring since so many questions exist around him, but obviously Volquez was progressing towards something in […]
Jameson Taillon needs Tommy John surgery
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Jameson Taillon has been diagnosed w/an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow & has elected to have Tommy John Surgery — Pirates (@Pirates) April 6, 2014
The Edinson Volquez experiments launches today
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Before anything else today, I want to redirect you to Jerry Crasnick’s piece about the Pirates’ coaching staff, their approach for helped wayward pitchers, and how they’ve tried to tackle Edinson Volquez this winter. I think that a lot of us, myself included at times, tended to chalk the Volquez signing up to borderline hubris […]
Francisco Liriano, Joe Kelly, and the early season
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/5/2014
I never know what to do with myself for the first few weeks of baseball season; it’s always awesome when baseball comes back, but it’s incredibly hard to find meaning in anything that happens in the first few weeks of games. If you’re worried about how Francisco Liriano will hold up to a full season […]
Pirates extend Neal Huntington, Clint Hurdle
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BREAKING: #Pirates have extended the contracts of GM Neal Huntington & Manager Clint Hurdle for 3 yrs, w/club options for the 2018 season. — Pirates (@Pirates) April 5, 2014
