Random Ramblings,Arnesen wins last start of the season

Sorry I missed yesterday,but between work and the trip to State College was just too exhausted to get anything into the cyber world.
So,for now we will do some random ramblings and either later tonight or tomorrow do the State College trip.
Depending on the results of the Frederick Keys playoff games,the State College game could have been the last of the season for us.
I will miss it,but not sure the family (Except for Ryan) will-Ha Ha!

The Buccos have played twice vs the Cardinals since I last wrote-Winning 11-0 on Monday and dropping a 6-4 decision on Tuesday.
Not going to get in depth on each game,as I missed both,but was encouraged to see Ian Snell pitch 7 shutout innings in the victory.
Snell has been horrid in the second half and it would be great to see him finish up with a strong September.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Bryan Bullington (0-0) at St.Louis: Mark Mulder (0-0) 8:05

So tonight's game should be interesting.
Pirate fans get their first real look at Bryan Bullington and it is against Mark Mulder in his return from injury in his 1st appearance in a year.

LATE ADDITION-Tony Armas will start tonight's game,not Bryan Bullington as earlier reported.

Our favorite Sun Erik Arnesen finished his season with a dominant winning performance in Lakewood on Sunday,as he allowed just 3 hits in 7 + innings in defeating the Blue Claws.
Erik finishes 6-7 on the season and I will have more stats next week as we look back at how some of our favorites from around the SAL and Carolina League performed in 2007!
We also hope to sometime in the off season have an interview here with Erik,so if any of you have any questions,email them to me or post a comment and I will try to get it answered.

Of course,the entry pic is of Erik with my pride and joy,the beautiful Rachel!

Hickory starts the SAL Northern Division title series tonight vs West Virginia in Hickory.
The best of 3 continues tomorrow in Charleston and if game 3 is needed,it too will be in Charleston.
Mike Crotta will start for Hickory,while the Power starter is unannounced.
The Crawdads were the only Pirates affiliate to qualify for post-season play.

One of the nicer NHL players called it quits at 38 yesterday in Pierre Turgeon.
Turgeon played for several teams and was the top overall pick by Buffalo in the 1987 draft.
Turgeon was a solid player,but never seemed to reach the franchise player level that he was expected to become.

Battlin Bob sends us this link,which could either be a sign of things to come with the Hagerstown Suns or simply an oversight in proofreading.
Check the name that is signed for this release.
Thanks to Bob for the link.

The Chris Benoit story took a turn today,as a study showed brain abnormalities that could have contributed to the tragedy.
I remember the studies of NFL players that suffered similar injuries and I do not find this scenario implausible.
Wrestling has changed so much as far as violence with objects than 25 years ago.
In my opinion-there is no need to have objects with no give smashed into the head or body.
One could have the same effect with breakaway objects similar to those used in films......

In better news,we reported that Bill Henry passed away.
However, Henry is still alive and not very "gabby" as his family reports that he is still alive and the fellow that passed away was named Bill Henry.
However, he was not the big league pitcher,but had been passing himself off as the hurler for years.
We happily regret the error and thanks to Ryan for sending us the new info!

Speaking of Henry and his book appearances,here is an interview from SoCalObserved with Jim Brosnan.
Brosnan wrote the Long Season and Pennant Race in the early sixties and both are still fun reads for those of you that miss the game during the upcoming winter.

Finally, I was able to watch the annual Labor Day classic between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts.
After a promising start for the Tabbies in which Zeke Moreno returned an interception for a touchdown,the wheels completely came off in a 32-14 loss.
Timmy Chang got the start at the pivot,but was no more effective than Jason Maas had been.
But the Cats are reportedly in talks with former CFL MVP Casey Printers to come in.
If this is successful,the Cats improve as soon as the ink dries!
Printers was recently released by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Back later with State College info!

Photo Credits
Printers-Sam Leung-CP Photo
Arnesen & Rachel-Me!

Pirates swept in Milwaukee

The Brewers wore down the Pirate starter,Tom Gorzelanny and finished the job on the bullpen on the way to a 7-4 victory and completing the sweep of the Buccos.
Gorzelanny lasted just four innings,allowing 3 runs in compiling a high pitch count that forced his removal.
Just as likely,the 3 run long ball that the likely National League Rookie of the Year,Ryan Braun hit in the 4th was just guilty for chasing Gorzelanny.
Francisco Osoria was the loser (0-1) as he allowed 3 runs in 2 innings,after a two run RBI single by Jose Bautista had tied the game following Braun's blast.
Nate McLouth hit his 11th homer of the season in the 1st inning to give the Bucs a quick 1-0 lead,while Cesar Izturis had the other Pittsburgh RBI.
Pittsburgh now starts a 4 game series in St.Louis vs the Birdos.

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: UNKNOWN,Paul Maholm is reportedly missing this start,but I have no confirmation of this,
at St.Louis: Kip Wells (6-15) 2:15

Bullpen Notes

Interesting read over at Hardball Times on the speedy decline of the Astros and how it occured.
Lisa Gray is the author and if any of you are Astro fans her blog is the best that I have seen on the Astros.

Hard to believe that Hockey is a month away!

Even harder to believe is that our Fantasy Hockey league draft is a week away and I have done ZERO preparation for it!

Sad note on the death of Bill "Gabby" Henry in Florida at the age of 83.
Henry had a major role in the 1961 Jim Brosnan book "Pennant Race" and a 1 page cameo in the best sports book of all time-Jim Bouton's "Ball Four".

Sorry so short today.
Will try to do more later!

HA HA HA HA HA.......................

With all the stuff going on yesterday-Ohio State opens,Suns finish the home portion of their season,Pirates in action,I would not have bet much that our lead story would involve our most hated team in all of sports.
But thanks to the Appalachian State Mountaineers,it is just that.
Congratulations to michigan(Small m is not a typo) and all their fans sitting in the "Big Outhouse" in Ann Arbor for providing the perhaps the biggest upset in college history.
Appalachian State 34 michigan 32!
Now I thought the Wolverines were overrated because their defense (that was far from stellar last season) lost most of their stars and I thought that would catch up to them when they played someone that would capitalize on that.
But not in my wildest dreams could I ever thought that the team to do it would be Appalachian State!
Even if the blocked field goal from michigan ,at the games end,had been good,the fans of um had to realize this season was not going to be what they hoped for.
I mean really, giving up 31 pts to a 1-AA school?
The press conference was priceless too,as Mike Hart (he of the mouthy quotes from ten minutes after the 2006 OSU game to...,well about ten seconds after the Appalachian State contest) defiantly proclaiming michigan to be the better team (gee,really Mike?) to our favorite befuddled coach Lloyd Carr,who looked like a fellow walking to the plank.
I could almost see someone writing Carr's press release behind the curtains as he spoke!
I don't care if michigan runs the table,wins the conference etc,the humiliation from today will never be lived down for them and their wonderful followers!
I cannot express any further happiness over a michigan game!!!!!

Meanwhile the Buckeyes kicked off their season with a methodical 38-6 win over Youngstown State.
Todd Boeckman made his starting QB debut a winning one,as he threw for 225 yards and 2 short touchdowns.
Brandon Saine made his running debut as well,most notably rushing for a touchdown that was called back due to a penalty.
Ohio State was able to get 3 quarterbacks some playing time as Rob Schoenhoft and Antonio Henson each were able to get some snaps in after the game was decided.
Two worries from this game though...
Chris Wells only rushed for 46 yards on 16 carries,although he did have 1 touchdown run.
Wells needs to be the horse for the Bucks and needs to pick things up from yesterdays rather pedestrian numbers.
Also starting defensive end Lawrence Wilson suffered a broken leg and will miss a large chunk of the season,but is not necessarily out for the season.
Look for the Buckeyes to rotate several players at Wilson's position until someone stands out.
Ohio State plays Akron next Saturday at the Horseshoe at 12 noon.

The Pirates were smacked around in Milwaukee losing 12-3 in a game that looks to be remembered only as the debut of Steven Pearce as a Pirate.
Pearce played right field in a smart move to find at bats for him,but may get some time at 1st base,as Adam LaRoche left the game with a mild knee injury after fouling a pitch off his knee.
Pearce did collect his first 2 major league hits in the defeat.
Shane Youman lasted less than 3 innings in losing for the 5th time against 3 wins.
Freddy Sanchez collected two of the 3 RBI with Jose Bautista getting credit for the other.
The series concludes today at 2:05

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh: Tom Gorzelanny (13-7) at Milwaukee: Jeff Suppan (8-11) 2:05

Bullpen Notes

Think the Big Ten network was thrilled to be the only network that had the Appalachian State win on TV and could result in added leverage with cable systems to pick it up?
The BTN also had the overtime battle between Bowling Green and Minnesota in the evening.
Time will tell if the opening week results helps the network gain access to more homes.

The Seahawks swapped players with the Houston Texans from the 2004 draft.
Defensive end Jason Babin,the Texans top pick in 2004 comes to Seattle,while safety Michael Boulware (the Hawks 2nd rounder from the same draft) goes to Houston.
Babin adds depth to the defensive line that needed the help after the loss of Marcus Tubbs for the season due to a knee injury.

I will do a on the signing front next time when the news is less,but I did want to give the Hagerstown Suns some credit for a good job yesterday and giving the fans 1 choice from many items on their Fan Appreciation Day.
Sure beats last years bookcover.
I wrote about this in April comparing the Suns to the Frederick Keys and others and offered this as a possible improvement.
Whether they listened to this or not,I do not know,but full credit given for the addition!

Now the chasing of the collectors from the "Suite area" (not me) on the last day of the season because some "big wigs" were coming was very bush league.
Funny that not one person was seen in that area during the game.
Oh,well.
Sometimes improvements are taken in small steps............

Finally,a HUGE boo to the Hagerstown Herald Mail.
This has been a while in coming,but when you give less space to the ONLY professional sports team in town than to that of GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER,you are deserving of criticism.
Those of you locally that get today's Herald Mail should look at the front page of the sports section for the proof.
Simply ridiculous.

Back either later or tomorrow with some more thoughts on the 2007 Suns,the final homestand,on the signing front,a little on the Bowling Green win over Minnesota and "Snicker"
maybe more on the Appalachian State-michigan game

Photo Credits
Scoreboard-Julian Gonzalez-Detroit Free Press
Dopey Fan-Mandi Wright-Detroit Free Press
OSU-YSU-Lisa Marie Miller-Columbus Dispatch

Gallardo beats Buccos with Arm and Bat!

Youvani Gallardo pitched 7 strong innings for the Milwaukee Brewers,but his bat was the difference in the Brewers 3-2 win over Pittsburgh.
Gallardo smacked a solo homer off Tony Armas in the 4th inning and the run was the Milwaukee margin of victory.
Tony Armas gave up all 3 runs in his 6 inning work shift and grabbed the loss in dropping his record to 2 wins against 5 losses,but overall did not pitch poorly.
Adam LaRoche hit a solo homer in the 4th for his 20th bomb of the year,while "Hustling" Ronny Paulino had the other Pirate RBI.
The series continues tonight in Beer Town at 7;05

Pitching Matchup

Pittsburgh: Shane Youman (3-4) at Milwaukee: David Bush (10-9) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

The Pirates announced 3 callups from Indianapolis.
The most noteworthy was Steven Pearce,who is the one that most fans want to see.
Now lets hope that Pearce can get some legitimate playing time and not just garbage time!

The Nationals are doing a Winter instructional league and therefore will not be sending any players to the Hawaii Winter league.
That is too bad for the Suns fans that will not be able to follow players there,as HWB games are occasionally televised.
Most notably of the former Suns participating are Chris Marrero,Mike Daniel,Cory Van Allen and Marco Estrada,while 4 current members are going as well in Jhonny Nunez,Jonathan Solano, Jeff Mandel and Marcos Cabral.
Thanks to Nationals Farm Authority for the info.

The Ashland Arrows improved to 2-0 on the season with a 31-21 win over the visiting Bellevue Redmen.
The Arrows raced to an early 17-0 lead before a Redmen comeback enabled Bellevue to get as close as 3 pts at 24-21.
Taylor Housewright's 4th TD pass of the night finally put the Redmen down for good.
The Arrows finish their non-conference sked next week vs the Shelby Whippets.

Until tomorrow with Pirates-Brewers,Ohio State-Youngstown State and the final on the signing front from Hagerstown for the season.

Quick OSU preview

This years edition of the Ohio State Buckeyes is the mirror image of last years team.
The strength is on the defensive side of the football ,while the offense took major losses and needs to prove itself.
At Quarterback Todd Boeckman,as expected won the starting job,but at least early in the year,I think you could see at least 2 of the backups see some action and maybe all 3 backups.
Boeckman has the most experience of the passers in the OSU system,but watch out for Antonio Henson,if the Bucks get off to an unexpected slow start.
The Running game will likely be what makes the difference this season as heralded Sophomore Chris Wells has the job all to himself after Antonio Pittman's early departure to the NFL.
Wells was the top rated running back entering college from the high school ranks last year.
Veteran Maurice Wells adds depth,but the dark horse is Ohio's "Mr Football" Brandon Saine from Piqua Ohio.
Saine is a track star as well as a football star and could be a great change of pace for OSU.
The Wide Receivers are led by returnees Brian Robiskie and Brian Hartline.
Hartline is a tough,possession receiver,while Robiskie showed last year that he is more than capable of big plays.
Rory Nicol and Jake Ballard will both see action at Tight End.
Nicol dropped some catchable balls last year and needs to improves his pass catching to avoid losing time to the huge 6'7 target that Ballard provides.
The offensive line needs to make holes for Wells and protect the less than veteran QB corps and is led by returning bookend tackles Alex Boone and Kirk Barton.
Both players could contend for various post season teams.

On defense,the line is led by outstanding ends Vernon Gholston and Lawrence Wilson,but lost both starting defensive tackles and will need someone to step up.
The massive Doug Worthington could be the breakout player here.
The linebackers are dominant led by all everything James Laurinatis manning the middle,but his flanks are covered well by Marcus Freeman and Larry Grant.
This group could be the best in the Big Ten and among the best in the country.
The defensive backs are led by Thorpe award nominee Malcolm Jenkins,but the remainder of the group need to prove themselves as starters instead of nickel backs-Jamario O'Neal is the most notable of these.

The kickers are both back and solid with Aaron Pettrey providing the placements and A.J. Trapasso doing the punting.

I see the Buckeyes getting off to an 8-0 start,due to the schedules starting soft,but failing a bit when the schedule toughens down the stretch.
So, I see them at 10-2,6-2 in the Big Ten.
Here is hoping for better than that!!!

I will try to return later with last night's Pirate game and more!

Photo Credit
Laurinaitis-AP Photo-Will Shilling
Wells-Chicago Tribune-Scott Strazzante

Phillips foils Pirates at the gun

Brandon Phillips made a spectacular throw at games end to throw a disbelieving Josh Phelps out at the plate to end the game and give the Cincinnati Reds a 5-4 win.
After Phelps doubled with two outs,Nate McLouth blooped a ball into shallow right field that appeared would score Phelps easily,but Phillips never stopped moving and was able to launch an off balance throw that landed shoulder high and the stunned Phelps was tagged out to end the game.
Tremendous play by the former Indian and for the most part I cannot blame Phelps except for one thing.
Replays clearly show Jose Bautista,who was on deck,signalling Phelps to slide.
Had Phelps followed his teammates advice,Phillips throw would have been meaningless.
Bautista was the offensive star for Pittsburgh hitting his 13th homer of the season and knocking in two runs,while Freddy Sanchez and Adam LaRoche divided the other RBI.
Matt Capps picked up the loss in dropping his record to 4-6.
The Pirates travel to Milwaukee for an important series tonight.
Of course it is only important to Milwaukee......

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh: Tony Armas (2-4) at Milwaukee: Yovani Gallardo (5-4) 8:05

Bullpen Notes

The Cubs picked up Steve Trachsel from the Orioles for two minor leaguers in an attempt to add depth to their staff for September.
The point is not who Baltimore got,it is more that they got something for someone that was not in their plans.

Nice win for MAC football last night as Kent State defeated Big 12 member Iowa State 23-14 at the Cyclones home in Ames Iowa.
Granted,Iowa State is one of the two weakest teams in the conference (Baylor is the other),but anytime that you can defeat a BCS team on the road,it is a boost for your conference!
The victory was the first for the Golden Flashes over a BCS conference team in 1987 with a win over Kansas.

The Pirates are sending 3 players to the Hawaii fall league.
SS Angel Gonzalez and Outfielders Brad Corley and Jamie Romak will represent the Pirates on the islands.
All 3 spent most of the season in Lynchburg.
Last year some of the sports channels showed a HFB game of the week,so there is a help there from baseball withdrawal.

Time is tight,so I will write more Suns stuff over the next few days.
I am hoping to get the Ohio State football preview up before tomorrow's game vs Youngstown State.

Photo Credits
Phelps-AP Photo-Gene Puskar
KSU-ISU-AP Photo-Charlie Neibergall

Pirates smashed and the Suns destroyed.

The Pirates winning streak ran into the buzzsaw that was Aaron Harang and could only scrape together two hits on their way to an 8-0 loss to the Reds.
Jason Bay and Matt Kata's singles were the only Bucco hits in a game that showcased Harang's bid for Cy Young consideration.
Not much to say other than maybe tomorrow when the series concludes.

Meanwhile in the Hub City-the Hagerstown Suns were pounded about as badly as a team could be in a 14-1 loss to the Delmarva Shorebirds.
The visitors hammered the Suns for 16 hits and scored runs in every inning but the eighth stanza.
Again not much one can say.

The Suns attendance during this homestand has been anemic at best,but should be picking up for the last 3 home games of the season.
Thursday being Thirsty Thursday should bring the drunken crowd out,Friday is fireworks which should be a decent crowd and Saturday will not be too bad since it is the last game of the year.

Will Smith and his gang have had a tough road to travel in the final week of the season.
You have a last place team, the Suns are playing the two teams that they play the most throughout the year,kids are back in school and the weekday games have had no giveaways.
The Suns management only has control of 1 of those things.
Other than attempting some more free gimmicks to help the turnout on these late season games,there is not much that he can do.
The readers here know my opinions on how things are done by the Suns,but you just cannot blame them too much for this one.

I am looking forward to Fan Appreciation Day on Saturday though.
Hopefully,there will be some lessons learned from last year's FAD failures and the Suns can end the season strongly.

Pitching Matchup
Cincinnati: Matt Belisle (7-8) (OH NO) at Pittsburgh: Matt Morris (8-8) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Forgot to mention that pitcher Pat Bresnehan was promoted from Lynchburg to Altoona.
This time last year,Bresnehan was at Williamsport so his rise through the system has been the fastest of any of the Pirate 2006 draft picks.

Here is a funny note from our friends over at the Crawdads blog that reports that Captain Dave was in Hickory taking a look at the Northern Division leading Crawdads and got smacked in the face by a single serving of Hamburger Helper!!!

Speaking of the Helper,a belated note from the trip.
Every ballpark that we visited (and I mean EVERY) had a huge sponsorship logo on their wall from Hamburger Helper.
Is this a southern thing or maybe the parent General Mills is a southern company?
If anyone has any answers,let me know for full credit here!

The Big Ten network goes on the air tomorrow,anyone besides the most devout Big Ten fan even mildly excited?

A hilarious parody of Dragnet on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night poking fun at the Senator Larry Craig fiasco.

On the signing front
Not much to get really from Delmarva, just a few players,but most notably a few Billy Rowell's that I was unable to get the first time Rowell came through town.

Until next time..........

Photo Credit
Harang-AP Photo-Gene Puskar