0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/4/2014
There was a brief moment in time when the outcome of this game was in question. Gerrit Cole cruised through the Cardinals’ lineup the first time he faced them on the strength of his fastball, but it took a while for his other pitches to click. He ran into some trouble in the fourth inning, […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
I don’t think that I need to say a lot about this one to get you excited for it: Gerrit Cole is making his 2014 debut. The Cardinals are in town. Shelby Miller is pitching for the Cards. Technically first place in the NL Central is on the line tonight, though it’s a little bit […]
There was the year after the strike, when the Pirates misplayed a bunt into a three-run home run and the fans littered the field with tiny little flags that had been given away as a promotion. There was the next year when the annual tradition of magnetic schedules began. It turns out the schedules are pretty flimsy and unless you’re an expert frisbee tosser, they’re not easy to get on to the field.
I’m going to be doing some more writing for The Outside Corner this year, which is Bloguin’s general baseball blog. On most weeks, I’m going to try and tackle the weird milestones that fans of bad teams set in their heads to convince themselves that they’re on the way back up. This week, I just wrote a lot about being home for Opening Day and how it compared to Opening Days of yore.
0 comments
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/3/2014
For three innings, I was awfully worried about Wandy Rodriguez. His fastball didn’t seem to have much zip on it, and he wasn’t fooling the Cubs at all. The Cubs dinged him for a run in each of the first three innings, and even when they weren’t scoring, Jason Hammel was fouling off six pitches […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
The Pirates and Cubs are scheduled to play at 12:35 this afternoon, though the weather forecast is not pleasant. Since the Pirates and Cubs play about 100 more games this year and the two clubs played 16 innings last night, I’d be willing to guess they pull the trigger on canceling this one early, if […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
There was a point at which Charlie Morton had pitched relatively well and I was going to make that the focus of my recap (six strikeouts, one walk, four hits, in six shutout innings!), but that seems like it was a whole day ago. He only threw two change-ups. That’s really what you need to […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/2/2014
The Charlie Morton Situation, as it stands, is as such: Morton, when healthy, has generally dominated right-handed hitting with his nasty sinker/curveball combination. He’s always struggled with lefties, though, because he’s never really developed the strong third pitch that’s necessary for sinkerballers to succeed against off-handed hitters. There are pretty explainable reasons for this. In […]
But since [replay] is something brand new, and this is the first we’re seeing of it in action, it’s worth exploring — if not to judge the calls, then at least to see how the still-new process worked in its first day.
Obviously I think this is going to be something that bears watching all year. The amount of time that the replays take and the way that managers wander out on the field waiting for a thumbs up from a coach in the dugout is something that will particularly be worth paying attention to, because game flow (think of the last minute of an NCAA tournament game this year with the incessant review) and abuse of the system are two unknowns here.
0 comments
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/31/2014
There was a moment at the top of the left field bleachers this afternoon just after Jason Grilli shut the Cubs down in the top of the 9th: the score was tied at zero, Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez were coming up, and PNC Park came to life. The fans stood up, and suddenly there […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
For as much as I love the analysis side of things (I mean, I write a Pirate blog), my favorite part about Opening Day is that you get to toss an entire winter of agonizing anxiety about every tiny detail out the window. There is no substitute for real baseball games, and I mean that […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/30/2014
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” — Tolkien How do you follow up the season the Pittsburgh Pirates had in 2013? It’s a cliche, but almost everything about last summer […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
If we’re being perfectly honest, I hadn’t planned on writing about Barry Bonds’ presence at Monday’s opener any more than I already had; I was going to mention it in passing, clap politely for Bonds when he was announced, and then go nuts for Andrew McCutchen. People are really fired up about this, though, and […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/29/2014
The final roster decisions for Opening Day 2014 have been made by the Pirates today. Most of the moves were predictable; Chris Stewart and Jeff Locke are headed to the disabled list, Travis Ishikawa was put on the roster and Andy Oliver was outrighted to Triple-A (which means removed from the 40-man roster) to make […]
Opening Day festivities will highlight Opening Week as many former Pirates players will return to Pittsburgh to participate in on-field ceremonies and present the Pirates 2013 N.L. award winners. The Pirates will welcome back the team’s former N.L. Most Valuable Players as Dick Groat andBarry Bonds will present Andrew McCutchen his 2013 MVP award (Pirates 1978 N.L. MVP Dave Parker was slated to appear as well, but will be unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict). Pirates two-time N.L. Manager-of-the-Year Jim Leyland will be on hand to present Clint Hurdle his 2013 Manager-of-the-Year award. And former Louisville Silver Slugger award winner Jack Wilson will present McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez with their 2013 Silver Slugger awards.
I won’t even pretend like anyone will notice any part of this except for the part about Bonds, but Jack Wilson presenting a Silver Slugger Award is pretty hilarious.
0 comments
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/28/2014
There are a lot of quirks about the Pirates’ 2013 season that are worth revisiting when thinking about the upcoming season, but there’s one specifically that’s stuck with me all winter. That’s the gap between the perception of last year’s Pirates — that they were a strong pitching team with an average or slightly below […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/27/2014
There are still a few odds and ends to be cleaned up with the Starling Marte signing, so let’s get to it. First up are the actual contract details. They are, reported by Jon Heyman, as follows: $2 million signing bonus $500,000 salary in 2014 $1 million in 2015 $3 million in 2016 $5 million […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
OFFICIAL: The @Pirates have agreed to terms on a 6-year contract extension with @Starlingmart w/ club options for the 2020 & 2021 seasons. — Pirates (@Pirates) March 27, 2014
0 comments by Pat Lackey
For most of the Pirates’ winter, there’s been a question that’s been rattling around in my head. It started when the James Loney and Josh Johnson signings fell through around the winter meetings, it carried through the entire AJ Burnett Saga, and it popped up again with the First Base Fiasco playing out this week. […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey
If you are a regular WHYGAVS reader, you have undoubtedly noticed that there’s something a little bit different about the site today. This is because Bloguin (the network that has graciously hosted WHYGAVS since 2008, which just sounds like an insanely long time when I type it out) has migrated the entire network from our […]
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 3/26/2014
Pirates and starling marte agree on 6-year extension. Includes at least 1 optoon year as well. Pending physical. — Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS)
