A tale of two Dukes

Yesterday was Duke here at the world headquarters as the Pirates threw Zack Duke at the Cardinals and the Hickory Crawdads began their visit to Hagerstown with Duke Welker firing the white pill at the Suns.
Sadly,only one of them was able to get the job done in their contest.

The Pirates Duke (Zach) looked sharp for two innings,but then allowed four third inning scores with 2 coming off a LONG home run by Rick Ankiel and then allowed another shot in the following inning by Ryan Ludwick.
Duke was gone after six innings and picked the loss up (4-6) in the 6-0 loss to the visiting Redbirds.
Denny Bautista allowed a run in two innings of mop up work and Sean Burnett tossed a scoreless ninth.
The Pirates only threatened once and it gives me chance to again discuss the dumbness of the batting the pitcher eighth strategy.
After the Bucs loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth with one out,the eighth batter comes up in Duke with Jack Wilson on deck in the preferred pitchers spot in the order.
Had it been Wilson up,the chances of getting at least one run in with an out is dramatically better than Wilson with two out,which is what happened after Duke fanned.
Wilson then flied out deep to center to end the inning and I know that the difference would have been 6-1 instead of 6-0,but I still think that this "latest" strategy is doomed to fail and I could care less on the number of bean counters that think this is a good idea.

The Pirates try again tonight vs El Birdos at 7.

Pitching Matchup
St.Louis:Todd Wellemeyer (7-4 3.94 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Yoslan Herrera (MLB Debut) 7:05

Meanwhile the Crawdad version of Duke (Welker) faced off against Hagerstown prospect Colton Willems.
Looking at Welker's numbers,I was not expecting much,but he pitched very well in allowing just a run over seven innings in the 4-2 Hickory win.
Willems pitched well,except for the four run Hickory 6th,but both pitchers seemed to be aided by a larger strike zone than usual from the umpire behind the dish.
Welker allowed just five hits while striking out a season high seven batters.
Willems only struck out two and that seems to be his major stumbling block.
For a pitcher with his stuff,Colton just does not seem to miss many bats and that is a alarm when it is coming from the Sally league.
Mike Felix allowed a run in his two innings of work in grabbing a save,but seemed to have improved the control problems somewhat that have plagued him since his selection in the second round in 2006.
The series continues tonight with our first look at Brad Lincoln at 7:05.

Bullpen Notes

The revolving door that is the Pittsburgh pitching staff continues as Yoslan Herrera arrives from Altoona to start tonight.
I am not sure that Herrera has the stuff to succeed,but considering the financial investment and the lack of other possibilities,I have no problem seeing what he can do.
Luis Munoz enjoyed a day in the big leagues before being returned to the AA Curve.

The other Pirate move sees Battlin Bob's boy Phil Dumatrait returning to the DL after one bad start.
And if that is not bad enough,his roster replacement is Franquelis Osoria fresh from a Indy rehab assignment.
Yay.

Wladimir Klitschko defends his IBF Heavyweight title in Germany today against American Tony Thompson.
We like Klitschko in 5 rounds.

On the signing front.
We continue to chip away on the Hagerstown Suns with the additions of Hassan Pena and Terrence Engles,only James Lehman remains of the players in the set that are still on the roster.
We also add former Pirate Pokey Reese during his three day stay in Hagerstown.
Reese signed two cards each for me and Ryan on Monday and signed for everyone,but reportedly signed nothing on Tuesday (I wasnt there) and signed nothing Wednesday before his promotion to AAA Columbus.

The Asheville Tourists were tougher than expected.
Not because of unwillingness really,but more because they came out in large groups that make it hard to stop everyone and came out really close to game time.
I cannot complain though as I was able to add their best prospects and former big leaguers in coaches Houston Jimenez and Doug Linton.
The top players were outfielder Brian Rike,third baseman Darin Holcomb and pitcher
Connor Graham,who we selected in the 2007 mock draft at minorleagueball.com.
Graham tossed a two hitter in his start against the Suns during the series.

Until tomorrow!

Photo Credits
Ankiel:Don Wright-AP Photo
Welker:Setlzersports.com