Snap Judgements - Tough at Home/Interleague Blows/LaLost at the Plate
The Battlin' Buccos are fresh off a 10-game homestand against Houston, Arizona, and Washington. My goal for the homestand was 7-3 while taking all three series. The Pirates nearly achieved that, going 6-4 and winning series against Houston and Washington while splitting with the Diamondbacks. The Buccos now sit at 33-34 on the 2008 season, tied for 4th in the NL Central with the Astros, 10.0 games behind the first-place Cubbies.
Ian Snell picked up his third win of the year and first in 11 starts as he beat the Nats on Wednesday night.
Let's dig into the numbers a little bit, shall we? The Pirates are now 21-15 at PNC Park on the season. This is significant because the Bucs have only achieved one winning record in the seven completed seasons since PNC Park opened. In 2006, Jim Tracy's club finished the year with a 43-38 mark at home. What's shocking about this isn't the .531 winning percentage the Pirates achieved in games played on the banks of the winding Allegheny, but the absolutely horrid record they had on the road. The 2006 edition of the Pirates finished 24-57 on the road. You read that correctly. 24-57. For those of you who like to do long division, that's a winning percentage of .296. I didn't look, but I have to assume that was the worst record of any team in '06 on the road.
During this past homestand, I saw a lot of good-to-great things out of the Pirates. I also saw a lot of lingering problems that management must address quickly if this team is to be competitive this year and in years to come. Matt Capps blew a save against Washington in the first game of the series, but that didn't bother me as much as Adam LaRoche's continued absence in the middle of the order. For as bad as LaRoche has been, Ryan Doumit has been that good. Doumit was an absolute monster against Washington, homering in all three games of the series and four times total in the three-game set, while going 9 for 11 against Nationals pitching and knocking in seven runs. While his offense has captured the headlines, Doumit continues to improve defensively behind the plate. It looks as if the Pirates have finally found a solid No. 1 backstop.
Ryan Doumit, aka "The Punisher," trots around the bases following one his four home runs in three games versus the Nationals. Doumit is hitting .365 with 9 home runs and 22 RBI on the season, all while missing 32 games with a broken thumb.
While Doumit, Nate Mac, The X-Man and JBay continue to carry the Pirates offensively, first baseman Adam LaRoche remains a ghost at the plate. Here's the thing about Adam LaRoche: he is flat-out terrible. I thought of all kinds of interesting ways to break down his numbers, but the fact of the matter is this. He stinks. For two years we've heard, "LaRoche is a slow starter." Yeah, and water is wet. Big deal! He hit .272 last year, mainly because he hit the ball well in the latter part of the season when the Pirates were completely out of it. This year, as of today (Friday, June 13th), LaRoche is batting .213 in 225 at-bats. This is unacceptable from the guy who occupies the 5 or 6 spot in the lineup every single night. LaRoche has 25 RBI on the year, or one more than recently acquired bench outfielder Jason Michaels has in less than half the at-bats. The most telling stat of all, though, is this: LaRoche has come to the plate with 95 runners in scoring position so far this season. He has knocked in 15 of them. It is high time that management makes a decision on LaRoche. Either send him to the minors or bench him for a couple of weeks and try to re-teach him how to hit. Doug Mientkiewicz is a reliable option at first base in the short-term while LaRoche tries to figure out hitting a baseball again. If he continues this pace for the rest of the season, I will be highly disappointed if he isn't sent packing.
LaRoche covers his face in shame at the sight of yet another strikeout.
Finally, the Bucs start a series in Baltimore today, their first trip to the third-worst city in the country (Philly and Cleveland are worse, of course), since the 1979 World Series. The Orioles started strong, but have fallen back to earth over the past month-and-a-half and sit in last place in the AL East with a record of 32-33. Like the Pirates, they are one game under .500 with a young team that nobody expected much from before the season. Friend and fellow Buccos fan Wibby is heading to the game tonight. He's going to have a report on Camden Yards, one of the few parks in this great country that I would really like to visit in the near future.
While a three-game set in Baltimore in mid-June might not seem important to a lot of folks, the players inside the Pirates' locker room know that interleague play has had a nasty habit of sinking their season over the past three years. Who can forget the infamous 13-inning loss to Tampa Bay in 2005? I certainly can't. The Pirates had pounded the then-Devil Rays 18-2 the day before to raise their record to 30-30. It was the latest .500 mark for the Bucs since 1992. The Rays held the lead in the bottom of the 9th when Humberto Cota homered down the left field line to send it to extras. in the 13th, the forgettable Brian Meadows served up a gopher-ball to light-hitting third basemen Alex Gonzalez and that was that. The Bucs then hit the road for six against the Yankees (TNons and I went to all three of that series in Yankee Stadium. We watched as the Pirates were robbed in game two of that series on the worst non-double play call I have ever seen. Even Yankees fans around us agreed that the Bucs had been hosed.) and Red Sox and lost five. The Pirates never recovered and they finished the year in last place with a 67-95 record, 33.0 games out of first.
With any luck, the Bucs can start to exorcise their interleague demons and climb above that seemingly unattainable .500 mark all at once.
The last time the Pirates went to Baltimore, they left the city as World Series Champions.
Ian Snell picked up his third win of the year and first in 11 starts as he beat the Nats on Wednesday night.Let's dig into the numbers a little bit, shall we? The Pirates are now 21-15 at PNC Park on the season. This is significant because the Bucs have only achieved one winning record in the seven completed seasons since PNC Park opened. In 2006, Jim Tracy's club finished the year with a 43-38 mark at home. What's shocking about this isn't the .531 winning percentage the Pirates achieved in games played on the banks of the winding Allegheny, but the absolutely horrid record they had on the road. The 2006 edition of the Pirates finished 24-57 on the road. You read that correctly. 24-57. For those of you who like to do long division, that's a winning percentage of .296. I didn't look, but I have to assume that was the worst record of any team in '06 on the road.
During this past homestand, I saw a lot of good-to-great things out of the Pirates. I also saw a lot of lingering problems that management must address quickly if this team is to be competitive this year and in years to come. Matt Capps blew a save against Washington in the first game of the series, but that didn't bother me as much as Adam LaRoche's continued absence in the middle of the order. For as bad as LaRoche has been, Ryan Doumit has been that good. Doumit was an absolute monster against Washington, homering in all three games of the series and four times total in the three-game set, while going 9 for 11 against Nationals pitching and knocking in seven runs. While his offense has captured the headlines, Doumit continues to improve defensively behind the plate. It looks as if the Pirates have finally found a solid No. 1 backstop.
Ryan Doumit, aka "The Punisher," trots around the bases following one his four home runs in three games versus the Nationals. Doumit is hitting .365 with 9 home runs and 22 RBI on the season, all while missing 32 games with a broken thumb.
While Doumit, Nate Mac, The X-Man and JBay continue to carry the Pirates offensively, first baseman Adam LaRoche remains a ghost at the plate. Here's the thing about Adam LaRoche: he is flat-out terrible. I thought of all kinds of interesting ways to break down his numbers, but the fact of the matter is this. He stinks. For two years we've heard, "LaRoche is a slow starter." Yeah, and water is wet. Big deal! He hit .272 last year, mainly because he hit the ball well in the latter part of the season when the Pirates were completely out of it. This year, as of today (Friday, June 13th), LaRoche is batting .213 in 225 at-bats. This is unacceptable from the guy who occupies the 5 or 6 spot in the lineup every single night. LaRoche has 25 RBI on the year, or one more than recently acquired bench outfielder Jason Michaels has in less than half the at-bats. The most telling stat of all, though, is this: LaRoche has come to the plate with 95 runners in scoring position so far this season. He has knocked in 15 of them. It is high time that management makes a decision on LaRoche. Either send him to the minors or bench him for a couple of weeks and try to re-teach him how to hit. Doug Mientkiewicz is a reliable option at first base in the short-term while LaRoche tries to figure out hitting a baseball again. If he continues this pace for the rest of the season, I will be highly disappointed if he isn't sent packing.
LaRoche covers his face in shame at the sight of yet another strikeout.
Finally, the Bucs start a series in Baltimore today, their first trip to the third-worst city in the country (Philly and Cleveland are worse, of course), since the 1979 World Series. The Orioles started strong, but have fallen back to earth over the past month-and-a-half and sit in last place in the AL East with a record of 32-33. Like the Pirates, they are one game under .500 with a young team that nobody expected much from before the season. Friend and fellow Buccos fan Wibby is heading to the game tonight. He's going to have a report on Camden Yards, one of the few parks in this great country that I would really like to visit in the near future.
While a three-game set in Baltimore in mid-June might not seem important to a lot of folks, the players inside the Pirates' locker room know that interleague play has had a nasty habit of sinking their season over the past three years. Who can forget the infamous 13-inning loss to Tampa Bay in 2005? I certainly can't. The Pirates had pounded the then-Devil Rays 18-2 the day before to raise their record to 30-30. It was the latest .500 mark for the Bucs since 1992. The Rays held the lead in the bottom of the 9th when Humberto Cota homered down the left field line to send it to extras. in the 13th, the forgettable Brian Meadows served up a gopher-ball to light-hitting third basemen Alex Gonzalez and that was that. The Bucs then hit the road for six against the Yankees (TNons and I went to all three of that series in Yankee Stadium. We watched as the Pirates were robbed in game two of that series on the worst non-double play call I have ever seen. Even Yankees fans around us agreed that the Bucs had been hosed.) and Red Sox and lost five. The Pirates never recovered and they finished the year in last place with a 67-95 record, 33.0 games out of first.
With any luck, the Bucs can start to exorcise their interleague demons and climb above that seemingly unattainable .500 mark all at once.
The last time the Pirates went to Baltimore, they left the city as World Series Champions.