The Pirates handed two games to the Milwaukee Brewers in an attempt to help them make the playoffs.
On Tuesday,Prince Fielder took T.J.Beam(LP 2-2) over the wall with two outs in the ninth that broke a 5-5 tie in a 7-5 Milwaukee win.
Steve Pearce smacked his second homer for the only Pirate longball.
Wednesday's game saw the Pirates hold the Brewers to just two hits,but Paul Maholm(LP 9-9) and Denny Bautista combined to walk NINE in a 4-2 loss.
Maholm actually walked in two of the Brewer runs.
Adam LaRoche hit his 24th homer in the ninth inning of the loss.
Shawn's Thoughts
1) Maholm's loss means that no Pirate will reach double digits in victories for the
season.This is the first time (other than the strike shortened seasons) since 1890 that this has happened for the club.
2) The sudden increase in the Maholm walk rate is concerning to me,but I think it is just a matter of a long season coming to a close.
Maholm threw the most innings in his career this season and pitched 39 more than last season.
Just part of the workload.
So I hope.
3) Tom Gorzelanny was placed on the 60 day DL in a paper move to be able to put Pedro Alvarez on the 40 man roster (more below) as part of his revised contract.
Nothing new to note other than that.
4) Some fans on various blogs think the Pirates should explore dealing Freddy Sanchez instead of Jack Wilson this off season.
I disagree.
Wilson will be at his max value with the shortstop market being low this off season and could bring two good prospects.
Sanchez ,on the other hand,suffered through an injury-plagued season that was his least productive ever that places his value at its lowest point.
Trading chips when they are at their lowest point is exactly the stuff that Dave Littlefield used to do.
5) Give some credit to the Pirates front office for this,even though they knuckled under a bit at the end to Scott Boras,they did the right thing by sending Pedro Alvarez to Florida instead of a more prestigious assignment to Florida or Hawaii.
Why? Because sending Alvarez to either of those means someone would need to come off the roster.
Sometimes doing the right thing can be a sign to players that the right thing is more important than the prudent thing..
Pedro Alvarez finally signed his contract (with revisions) and will begin to play ball.
It appears that the two revisions are these-the contract is now a major league deal instead of a minor league deal and he got about 300,000 extra bucks to make Scotty Boras feel warm inside.
The Pirates made no claims on where the third baseman will start,but my guess is that he will start in Lynchburg and with a good six weeks or so,could be at Altoona....
Still no word on the final piece to the local leagues affiliation puzzle in Winston-Salem.
You will excuse me for thinking that John McCain's "throw it against the wall" style is in play again with this "I am needed" Underdog type claim to delay tomorrow's debate.
I have no problems with either campaign suspending ads and campaigning while the bailout issue is in debate/negotiations,but I struggle to believe that after many practices and the amount of time that both candidates have spent preparing that both Senators could not fly down to Mississippi in mid afternoon and be ready to go.
And if you cannot handle that,how can the American people expect you to juggle the various issues that a President deals with?
Until next time
Photo Credits
Pearce and Maholm:AP Photo
Alvarez:David Arrigo:Pittsburgh Pirates
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