Ian Snell was the Saturday winner (1-2) and Zach Duke was hammered in the loss on Sunday (2-1).
I missed the win (non-televised here) and most of the loss (it was 6-0 when I started watching and I went to bed).
The Pirates are scheduled to play Florida tonight,but the forecast does not look very favorable for the game to be played with the
Northeast be blanketed by rain...But just in case.
Pitching Matchup
Florida:Andrew Miller (0-0 6.43 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Ross Ohlendorf (0-2 4.91 ERA) 7:05
Pirate Hooks
1) Nice to see Ian Snell show his stuff in a positive fashion for a change.
The toolbox is there for Snell the question is does he have the mental capabilities to deal with difficulty.
2) Craig Monroe smacked two homers in the win.
That ought to buy him some extra time as a pinch hitter....
3) Delwyn Young made his Bucco debut as well in the series going hitless in two at bats.
Word is that the Pirates plan on using him occasionally at second and third base.
I don't feel very confident on that working out,but we will see..
4) Craig Hansen took a step back after two nice outings in the Sunday loss.
Just when you think,maybe......
5) Donald Veal pitched in the game as well,walking four and allowing a run.
I didn't see his appearance,but to me,I just don't see the people that are griping about him staying on the team.
His stuff is there,he needs control work and Joe Kerrigan is an excellent teacher.
Keep him around as the mop up man,let him learn and work with Kerrigan and then send him to Indianapolis for next season.
Veal has potential,which is more than I can say for the majority of the pitchers that hold a similar spot on other teams....
Bonus Round
Hopefully rain will not cost us a shot at looking at Andrew Miller in the Marlins series.
Miller was rated as the top pitcher in the draft in which the Pirates took Brad Lincoln and the Pirates bailed on Miller due to cost,Scott Boras or poor evaluating by Dave Littlefield and it would not surprise me if it was all three.
Of course,in hindsight-you take Tim Lincecum over all of them.
On the signing front
Lakewood was a better team than Delmarva,even though I didn't have as much for them.
Travis D'Arnaud signed and was nice enough and Jeremy Hamilton was as well.
Ebay pickup;Duke Snider!
I went to the Frederick Keys season opening series for their game against the Salem Red Sox.
As always the Boston farm teams are not one of the better teams for signing,but I did reasonably as I was able to get the four guys that I wanted the most in Ryan Kalish (pretty cool),Jason Place,Yamaico Navarro and Kyle Weiland (signed,but kinda distant).
Salem has two Taiwanese players and I didn't even mess with them.
They don't understand English (or so they claim) and I saw them displeased with others that asked.
Life is too short to have to deal with that stuff....
I have pretty much been able to pick up the Hagerstown guys so far with two exceptions,they have not been problems,just haven't gotten to them yet.
My clear favorite thus far has been Derek Norris.
Norris combines being an excellent signer with being the Suns top prospect which is a pretty nice combination.
With no Suns or Keys this week,one would think that the blog would be light,but you would be wrong as with the extra time,we will (hopefully) begin the Pirates top prospect series,work on the Browns and Seahawks draft preview and continuing Devils and Pirates coverage....
Back later with the Devils huge overtime win at N.C. State!
Photo Credit
Monroe:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
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