Pirate Armada

[Black Panther]

Mister B and any other closet Pirate fans are welcome to post thoughts on the Pirates...

[Black Panther]

All hands on the gundeck...lol Big series with the Twins this week. Any thoughts Mister B?

[mister b]

Pirates are going with Maholm instead of Morton. He is improving as are all the Pirate starting pitchers except for Snell under the new pitching coach. The bullpen is a little shaky.

Twins are starting Perkins who is coming off the DL.

Hopefully, the Pirates can use their speed of Morgan and McCuchten on the indoor turf and create some offense. The Pirates don't have much in the way of big bats these days, so Russell is building on speed and defense.

Looking forward to raising the Jolly Roger tonight!!!

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[Black Panther]

Not pretty tonight.Not a typical Maholm outing.couldn't get the big hit when needed and the droped fly ball pretty much summed it up for tonight.The beauty of baseball is there is always tomorrow.

[mister b]

Twins play small ball and win 8-2. They pound out 16 hits in 33 at bats, nearly .500 average for the night. Good grief, Maholm looked like Charlie Brown on the mound tonight. It would have been worse if the Twins hadn't hit into 5 double plays.

As Black Panther said, there is tomorrow and this is a 3 game series and we can still take 2 of 3. Snell is the probable starter. Here's hoping that the Buccos make the Twins walk the plank.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[Black Panther]

Twins play small ball and win 8-2. They pound out 16 hits in 33 at bats, nearly .500 average for the night. Good grief, Maholm looked like Charlie Brown on the mound tonight. It would have been worse if the Twins hadn't hit into 5 double plays.

As Black Panther said, there is tomorrow and this is a 3 game series and we can still take 2 of 3. Snell is the probable starter. Here's hoping that the Buccos make the Twins walk the plank.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

We're you shocked as I was about the McClouth trade? It came after that rainout game v the Mets.I was like...what??Who else goes at the deadline? Do the resign Adam LaRoache?

[mister b]

Yes, I was shocked at the trade of Nate. All-star and Gold Glove winner in centerfield from last year.

The Pirates had made him the face of their advertising campaign. I guess their front office is going after speed and defense. Which Nate had both, they got pitchers instead. I am still puzzeled at why they traded him after they had just signed him to a 3 year $15 million contract in Feb. He was the only pop they had in the lineup.

As for Adam LaRouche, he is in the last year of his 3 year contract. They won't resign him unless it is for alot less and I don't see where he has any trade valve. He was protected in the Braves lineup that had Chipper and Andrew Jones. He got exposed after he left Atlanta.

We need Doumit back and healthy. I look for them to try several folks at first base during the season to get ready for next year.

At this point in time, I would be very happy with a non-losing season.

Hope we can rebound against the Twins tonight.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[Black Panther]

Pretty historic night in a 8-2 win over the Twins.The LaRoche brothers both hit home runs,the last Pirate brother combo to do that before tonight was the Waner bros.back in the 30's..McCutchen has had his first home run in the majors.

[mister b]

I go and talk about the Pirates playing small ball and in 2 games against the Twins they have 4 home runs!

Pirates spread a little chicken on the hill and get 3 round trippers tonight! As Black Panther said, McCutchen gets his first, Andy LaRoche gets his 3rd.

Hats off to Ian Snell for getting his first win since 4-19-09 but this was his 3rd quality start in a row. The last 19 innings he has pitched he has a 3.32 ERA. He got lucky and only had 2 runs scored against him in the 3rd inning when he threw 41 pitches.

Anyway, Raise the Jolly Roger!!!!

Interesting facts about the Pirates...

Prior to tonights game they were next to last in the NL in homers with 37, the Giants are last.

The Pirates are tied for 2nd in MLB for fielding percentage at .989. The Twins are first at .990.

The Pirates are 8th in runs scored and 4th in total hits and have a .266 batting average which is middle of the pack.

Tomorrow's game starts at 1:10 and Zach Duke takes the hill for the Pirates.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[d-5]

Zach Duke ,A good local boy from Cincy by way of the Montreal Expos ,go HABS

[Black Panther]

You must be confused with someone else.Zach Duke is from Texas and went Baylor University.He has no connection to Cincinnati or Montreal.

[mister b]

Duke gives the Pirates a quality start by allowing 3 runs on 7 hits thru 6 innings.

Pirate offense gives him zero runs.

Twins 5 Pirates 1 final.

On to Denver to face the Rockies.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[Black Panther]

Duke is from Clifton,Texas to be exact.You thinking of former Pirate pitcher John Van Benchoten being born in Cincinnati.But even he had no connection to the Expos...

[d-5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Day
Sorry guys

[mister b]

D-5....you got the wrong person.

We are talking about Zach Duke. Drafted directly out of Midway High School in Waco, Texas.

We'll let this one slide since you root for the Habs. You've had a tough go of it the past few years. GO PENS!!!

[Black Panther]

In another head scratching move the Pirates release Craig Monroe and promote Steve Pearce.

[Black Panther]

As we saw tonight NO lead is safe at that joke of a ballpark Coors Field...

[mister b]

Well, we have lost 4 in a row.

Start a home stand against the Indians on tuesday with Snell scheduled on the hill.

The Indians could have a new manager by that time as word out of Cleveland is that Wedge will be gone.

Lets hope the Bucs can right the ship on the home stand.

LETS GO BUCS!!!

[Black Panther]

We could have won all three games as easily as we lost them.But the game Saturday really didn't sit well with me.You have to win those games...Lets hope we have better luck with cleveland.

[mister b]

We could have won all three games as easily as we lost them.But the game Saturday really didn't sit well with me.You have to win those games...Lets hope we have better luck with cleveland.

I agree. The thing to remember with the Pirates is this....at this time, I really don't think any of our starters could be a starter on any of MLB's top teams. They would all be bench players and most would not be on these teams.

Because of this, we will continue to lose games that we should win because for the Pirates to win on a regular basis, they need everyone to produce daily, not just a few players. This is what a young team has to learn, how to win.

Again, I am just hoping for a .500 season that would be great.