I really have to get a laptop sometime,so I can have more time to do this!
So for today,we will stick to the white pellet and will wait until tomorrow for the pigskin review of the draft.
The Pittsburgh Pirates split their weekend games with the visiting and hated Philadelphia Phillies.
On Saturday,the Phillies jumped all over Matt Morris in the final appearan
ce of Morris as a Pirate (more on that later) and easily grabbed an 8-4 win.Morris allowed seven batters in a row to reach base after retiring the first two Phils in allowing 6 runs (3 earned) in just one and two third innings.
Two errors in the first by Brian Bixler and Xavier Nady did not help Morris,but it was a matter of time with the lack of stuff that Morris had in falling to 0-4 in what was likely his baseball swan song.
The only Pirate high spot was Nate McLouth's fourth homer of the season in the eighth inning.
McLouth had singled in a run earlier in the contest,while Freddy Sanchez and Brian Bixler had the other Pirate RBI.
But Sunday was a different story as the Pirates avoided a sweep with a 5-1 win behind the pitching of Paul Maholm.
Maholm evened his record at 2-2 with the two hit complete game and looked as good as he has looked in a long time.
The only downside was that he only whiffed two Phillies,but strikeouts are not Maholm's game to begin with,so why quibble???
Nate McLouth once again was the offensive star with 2 homers (5 and 6) and finished the day with 3 RBI.
The other Pirate RBI went Jose Bautista on a fourth inning single and Luis Rivas "earned" the final one in the sixth when grounding into a double play.
Maholm is certainly pitching like the Pirates second best starter thus far,as only the bad pitch to Mike Jacobs in Florida keeping him from a 3-1 record.
No doubt that he is currently performing better than both Tom Gorzelanny and Zach Duke and if even one of those two can be straightened out then the Bucs rotation moves up considerably.
The Pirates go on the road for a seven game road trip that starts tomorrow with a three game visit to the Big Cesspool and then a four game series in their first ever visit to Washington and their new ballpark.
In tomorrow's game,the Pirates will get their first ever look at the Mets new ace in fireballer Johan Santana.-Yikes
Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Ian Snell (2-1 4.45 ERA) at New York:Johan Santana (3-2 3.12 ERA) 7:10
Matt Morris was released earlier today and likely will hang up his glove for good.
I cannot imagine anyone that would claim him off waivers and give him a shot,although perhaps he may reappear in 2009 spring training for someone that is willing to let him give it a another go.
The Pirates will be eating the rest of his contract,but that is a good thing in its own way.
Yes,I know that no lower income team can afford to get nothing back for that type of money,but this gives me hope that this time maybe things are different for Pittsburgh with Coonelly/Huntington in charge.
Remember how the Pirates would shove underperforming players with big contracts down the fans throats even though that it was clear that better players were not playing in order to "get as much as we can from these guys"?
Kevin Young,Derek Bell,Pat Meares,Tony Armas etc-the list goes on..........
I totally agree with the call,you have to pay the player anyway,so you might as well play the player that gives you the best chance to win.
Morris seemed like a decent enough person that was actually bothered by his poor performance and called it quits before many would have,so give him credit for that.
Besides,the loss of money to me is well worth it.
If this deal was not done,Dave Littlefield may have kept his job for another year and no amount of money is worth that!
Although I cannot say that I agree with the replacement for Morris in the rotation.
Phil Dumatrait was the choice and even thought the alternative was another dose of John Van Benschoten or Bryan Bullington,I still would gone that way.
Dumatrait has walked 13 batters in 20 innings thus far( showing control issues) and has not exactly dazzled in his bullpen work.
Besides,when you consider the wildness of Tom Gorzelanny,do we really need to add another starter that is having problems finding the strike zone?
Dont get me wrong,I am not sure the alternative choices would have been better,but JVB is dominating at Indianapolis and is better suited to the rotation than the pen.
Another thought is this-with Sean Burnett pitching so well at Indy,shouldn't Burnett have gotten the callup?
I mean Burnett is pitching in relief right now and would not have to make the adjustment in mindset that Van Benschoten will.
Van Benschoten was recalled and will be in the bullpen for tomorrow night's game in New York.
We went to the Frederick Keys game vs Potomac yesterday and got to catch up with some Suns of the past.
Had a great 10 minute conversation with Cory VanAllen and was able to get Cory to agree to an off season interview like we had with Erik Arnesen.
Cory told me that he had trained with Harrisburg all spring and was moved to Potomac the day before going north.
That had to be a tough blow,but his performance thus far with the "P-Nats" was been dominant with a 3-0 records and an 0.88 ERA!
Potomac does not return to Frederick until June 12th and I would wager by that time,Mr VanAllen will be a member of the Harrisburg Senators.
Finally remembered to ask Marvin Lowrance about how he started using "Big Bad John " as his plate music.
Marvin told me that a teammate sent it up for him early in his career and he liked it so much that he decided to keep it.
Marvin said that he never sends it up,just tells the team that he is playing for to use the song when he arrives in town.
The game was a tight one won by Potomac 3-2 in the battle between the top two teams in the Carolina League North Division.
Former Texas Longhorns Adrian Alaniz allowed one run in 5 innings in earning the win.
Former Sun Leonard Davis hit a two run homer that proved to be the game winner for Potomac in the 5th inning,while Matt Wieters killed another ball for his 5th HR for Frederick.
The game also saw an appearance from Washington National Elijah Dukes in Potomac on a rehab assignment as the DH.
Dukes went 0 for 2 with a walk and a hit by pitch and left the stadium in the 7th inning.
Back tomorrow with football thoughts and on the signing front from the Potomac game...
Photo Credits
Morris-Keith Srakocic-AP Photo
Maholm/McClouth-Don Wright-AP Photo
VanAllen and some other guy-Ryan Heimberger
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