This news came across right before last night's game started, which means it's a little stale now, but I think it's worth mentioning that Victor Black will go to the Mets as the player to be named in the Marlon Byrd/John Buck trade. Black is a really nice relief prospect and he's been mentioned as […]

Good morning. It is August 29th, 2013. With last night's win, the Pirates are 77-55. Since 1992, the Pirates failed to win 77 games in the following seasons*: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. There are no new seasons left on the list, so let's spend today's post remembering the Shawon Dunston […]

Really, I'm not sure that I can pick my favorite moment from this game. Marlon Byrd's game-sealing three-run homer into centerfield bushes followed by a simultaneous Steve Blass and Twitter explosion of Byrd puns was pretty great, but all it really did was put the finishing touches on a game that had looked like a […]

Charlie Morton and Tom Gorzelanny take the mound tonight. Morton has been quite solid of late. If the Pirates are planning on winning the division, losing tonight would be a poor strategic move. It's easy to joke about Gorzelanny, but he's been fairly solid for the Brewers this year. Except for all of the home […]

One of my absolute favorite late-season online toys is the MLB.com Playoff Probability graph. I love looking at where teams started and what sort of runs are paradigm shifting and how teams fell out of the race. Look at the Pirates' season: their nine-game winning streak changed them from fringe contenders to real contenders, and […]

The poor performance from the bullpen tonight, with Justin Wilson and Bryan Morris both giving up runs with the Pirates tied late in the game, along with the weird bullpen useage by Clint Hurdle (I still have no idea why Bryan Morris pitched the eighth inning over Tony Watson tonight, or why Morris seems to […]

When the news that Marlon Byrd was claimed on waivers by a National League team, it almost made too much sense that that team would be the Pirates. Obviously, it was:  Source: John Buck and Marlon Byrd to

Today is the first day since July 31st that's begun without the Pittsburgh Pirates in first place. Let's hope that this isn't the start of a trend. There are a few waiver-wire notes that I think could be worth talking about. 

This recap is late coming because I'm just not sure there's much to say about yesterday's game: Ryan Vogelsong absolutely dominated the Pirates, and any chance that the Pirates had to comeback was spoiled by AJ Burnett being left on the mound for an inning too long. That's pretty much it. The Pirates had an […]

For the very first time in the month of August, the Pirates are not alone in first place. Last night's loss to the Giants coupled with the Cardinals' third straight win over the Braves put St. Louis into a tie with the Bucs, which is the first time the Cardinals have been in first place […]

On Monday, Francisco Liriano took the mound with the Pirates teetering on the edge of some kind of cliff, just a bad road trip away from falling maybe as far as third place in the NL Central. Liriano responded with a brilliant start against the Padres, which has kicked off a nice run of four […]

Good morning. It is August 24th, 2013. With last night's win, the Pirates are 76-52. Since 1992, the Pirates failed to win 76 games in the following seasons*: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. I've told this story a thousand times before, but my primary memory of the Pirates' 1993 […]

The Pirates were losing to the Giants 1-0, then Clint Barmes hit a three-run home run, then you started to wonder if maybe this season really is going to be the one that's different. It's OK. You can admit it. We're all in the same boat now.

The Pirates already won the Jeff Locke/Matt Cain pitching matchup. Tonight they earn a split and ensure a winning record on their seven-game road trip before Francisco Liriano and AJ Burnett even take the mound on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.  Tonight Charlie Morton will face off against Madison Bumgarner. Morton's been pretty good of late. […]

Good morning. It is August 23rd, 2013. With last night's win, the Pirates are 75-52. Since 1992, the Pirates failed to win 75 games in the following seasons*: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. There are no new additions to the list today, but that's perfect because it means we can talk about The […]

It's awfully late (or early, whatever), so let's limit this recap to this:  Jose Tabata got on base four times, scored twice, and drove in three runs. Those three runs were the bases-loaded double/exclamation point that turned a 3-3 game in the top of the fifth inning into a route. Andrew McCutchen had two hits […]

Jeff Locke has been pretty terrible since the All-Star break. Including his last disastrous start against the Diamondbacks, Locke has a 5.58 ERA over 30 2/3 innings in five starts. The guys at Pirates Prospects have been beating the "this is just regression and he'll even himself out" drum pretty hard, but I'm not convinced […]

This is admittedly overly-reductive and entirely unfair, but in a way, Felix Pie's Pirate debut was actually decided by Felix Pie before any of his Pirate teammates — the teammates that have made up the Pirates entirely without him this year prior to tonight — contributed anything to this game at all. Pie lead off […]

The Pirates already have two West Coast wins in the bank after Francisco Liriano and AJ Burnett dominated the Padres on Monday and Tuesday night, but a sweep would mean that the Pirates could go 5-2 on this seven-game swing just by splitting with the Giants over the weekend. The Padres haven't looked good at […]