Pittsburgh Pirates

This post is for the Sunday, May 26th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: Wandy Rodriguez (LHP, 4-3, 2.73 ERA) vs. Yovani Gallardo (RHP, 3-4, 4.50 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and remember to take a moment to remember those who have come before you and have sacrificed to make this game, along with many far more important things, possible. The next scores update will be on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, Good Luck, and Viva Los Piratas! This post is for the Sunday, May 26th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: Wandy Rodriguez (LHP, 4-3, 2.73 ERA) vs. Yovani Gallardo (RHP, 3-4, 4.50 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and remember to take a moment to remember those who have come before you and have sacrificed to make this game, along with many far more important things, possible. The next scores update will be on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, Good Luck, and Viva Los Piratas!

This post is for the Saturday, May 25th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: Jeff Locke (LHP, 4-3, 2.73 ERA) vs. Mike Fiers (RHP, 1-2, 5.93 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and remember to take a moment to remember those who have come before you and have sacrificed to make this game, along with many far more important things, possible. The next scores update will be on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, Good Luck, and Lets Go Bucs! This post is for the Saturday, May 25th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: Jeff Locke (LHP, 4-3, 2.73 ERA) vs. Mike Fiers (RHP, 1-2, 5.93 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and remember to take a moment to remember those who have come before you and have sacrificed to make this game, along with many far more important things, possible. The next scores update will be on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, Good Luck, and Lets Go Bucs!

We've heard a lot over the past few weeks about Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli's workloads this year, and how they're not sustainable. Pitchers are fragile, and concern about their health is rarely completely misplaced. Who knows -- maybe one of them will fall apart completely. They're relievers. It happens. But in my opinion, the talk about Melancon and Grilli's workloads has been overblown. Math! Well, arithmetic. The Pirates have completed 29 percent of the season so far. Melancon has pitched 25 innings. Project that over a 162-game season, and Melancon will throw 86 innings. That sounds like a lot. But Melancon has only thrown 338 pitches so far this season, about 13.5 per inning. As of 2010, the average pitches per inning was over 16. Melancon has been more efficient than most pitchers, so it stands to reason that he should be able to pitch more innings than we might expect. He's on pace for 1,165 pitches this season, barely more than he had in 2011 with the Astros, when he threw 1,118 pitches over 74.1 innings. Essentially, Melancon's workload should not be a major source of concern right now. His pitch total should be sustainable. Grilli has pitched 21.2 innings so far this year, which projects to 73 innings over the season. He's on pace for 1,241 pitches on the season. It's hard to know where Grilli's limit is -- he threw 998 pitches in 2012. He threw 1,376 in 2007 and 1,300 in 2008 as a reliever for the Tigers, but that was five years and a major knee injury ago. In any case, there's no reason to think a modest increase over his 998 pitches in 2012 isn't possible. If the Pirates need to limit his workload, which I'm not sure is certain at all, a simple way to do it that would have very limited effect on games won would be to keep him out of games when the Pirates have a three-run lead. I'm not sure if Clint Hurdle would actually do that, but that's what I'd suggest. In any case, though, Grilli's workload this year has not been exorbitant. * * * The Pirates have a .617 winning percentage, which projects to 100 wins on the year. (Yes, really.) No one thinks they're that good, and so of course some elements of their performance so far are unsustainable. Grilli has 19 saves, which leads the majors. Over the course of the season, the Pirates will likely simply have fewer leads than they've had so far, and Melancon and Grilli's usage will naturally be limited a little bit that way, anyway. There are plenty of reasons not to expect the Pirates to win 100 games this year. (I think most fans can live with that.) But Melancon and Grilli's workloads really aren't among the top 10 reasons why.

This post is for the Friday, May 24th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: A. J. Burnett (RHP, 3-4, 2.57 ERA) vs. Marco Estrada (RHP, 3-2, 5.44 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: The scoring this week has been spread out amount among ten players, all of which guessed one team score. Except j1066 who has a three game scoring streak going and the week 8 lead going into the weekend. Overall, the only changes are God Loves taking sole possession of seventh place and pittbluedevil moving into a tie with Turner Ward Hits the Wall for eighth place. j1066 moves into a tie for eleventh place and is now one point from tenth place. I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and remember to take a moment to remember those who have come before you and have sacrificed to make this game, along with many far more important things, possible. The next scores update will be on Wednesday. Thanks for playing, Good Luck, and Lets Go Bucs! Season Totals Weekly Totals weltytowngang 38 j1066 6 DaWolf at the door 34 Da Wolf at the door 2 GoBuccos 32 GoBuccos 2 Chiburgh 29 MDBuc 2 Schide 28 weltytowngang 2 MDBuc 27 theAtrain 2 God Loves 21 Schide 2 Turner Ward Hits The Wall 19 God Loves 2 pittbluedevil 19 rintintinsoldier 2 BobDH 17 pittbluedevil 2 Clutch22 16 j1066 16 curevefan 14 cg44 10 GermanBucco 9 JCBucs 8 that412kid 6 Xenograft 6 Nikhizzler 4 Kevin Kraczkowski 4 JustinM 4 WillCallaway 2 Star(ling) Power 2 RDV across the sea 2 pton16 2 Maguro 2 C Shint 2 Aphthkid 2 afbassi 2 2010 will be the year 2 teddyrowe 2 theAtrain 2 rintintinsoldier 2 Season Week 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place 1 pittbluedevil (7) weltytowngang (4) Tie x 3 (4) 2 Da Wolf (13) Go Buccos (9) Tie x 2 (5) 3 Weltytowngang (8) Da Wolf at the door (6) Schide & Clutch 22 (5) 4 GoBuccos (11) weltytowngang (10) Da Wolf (5) 5 Turner Ward (7) j1066 (6) Tie x 2 (4) 6 Schide & Chiburgh (9) God Loves (7) 7 Clutch22 (9) MDBuc & BobDH (5) This post is for the Friday, May 24th, game in Milwaukee. Today's Pitchers: A. J. Burnett (RHP, 3-4, 2.57 ERA) vs. Marco Estrada (RHP, 3-2, 5.44 ERA) The Game Rules: [ A ] Please put your prediction in the title line which should begin in the format: Pirates xx Opponent xx e.g. Pirates 5 Brewers 3 Putting the Pirates score first, then the opponents score makes tallying points much easier. [ B ] Please make the full prediction, instead of a "+1" to someone else whose prediction you agree with [ C ] Don’t worry about minor spelling mistakes, like "Piartes". We can handle those. PERFECT GUESS 5 POINTS NAILING ONE TEAM SCORE 2 POINTS Please submit you guess by the official game start time. Update: The scoring this week has been spread out amount among ten players, all of which guessed one team score. Except j1066 who has a three game scoring streak going and the week 8 lead going into the weekend. Overall, the only changes are God Loves taking sole possession of seventh place and pittbluedevil moving into a tie with Turner Ward Hits the Wall for eighth place. j1066 moves into a tie

Episode five of The Pirates Prospects Podcast can be downloaded or streamed below. This week’s episode includes analysis from Tom Bragg (@TomBraggSports) and James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) on the Pirates, John Dreker (@JohnDreker) on the draft, an interview with Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Mark Melancon (@Mark_Melancon_), and more. Highlights of the show include: Minor League Update: **With the mid-season prospect rankings coming up, I give a view of what goes into my rankings and what I consider for each player. It’s not all about upside. If it was, Tyler Glasnow would be the number one prospect in the system. As for that number one prospect, the guy I’m leaning towards right now is Gregory Polanco. **John Dreker joins the show to discuss the average mock draft rankings, and compares those rankings to his own personal rankings. We discuss why we wouldn’t want D.J. Peterson to be taken by the Pirates. With James and Tom: **A continued discussion of the potential regression of Jeff Locke. **The Pirates pitching staff is for real, and is a big reason why the team is contending. We talk about A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, and Francisco Liriano and how they’re anchoring the rotation. **The return of Charlie Morton and Jeff Karstens will bring some interesting decisions, and we talk about what the moves could be when those guys return. **Is the other shoe going to drop? What should the expectations be for the Pirates? **Why does James hate Ted Lilly? Player Interview **This week’s player interview is with Mark Melancon. Mark and James Santelli discuss his bounce back this year, Jason Grilli, Russell Martin, which starters have stood out to him in the rotation, and his nickname on the team. Mark also teases a new addition to the “Shark Tank” over the next week that the fans will enjoy. Click here to download the show (right-click and “Save Link As”) or stream it below.

The Bucs are on a tear (8-2 in last 10) but Neil Walker is not hitting. In his last 10 games he is hitting .171! On the season he is hitting just .228 with only 1 HR! His splits are .167 vs LH and .250 vs RH. Is there something wrong? Maybe Mercer should start platooning with Walker as well as with Barmes. Maybe Inge needs to spot start at 2B while Walker works things out.The Bucs are on a tear (8-2 in last 10) but Neil Walker is not hitting. In his last 10 games he is hitting .171! On the season he is hitting just .228 with only 1 HR! His splits are .167 vs LH and .250 vs RH. Is there something wrong? Maybe Mercer should start platooning with Walker as well as with Barmes. Maybe Inge needs to spot start at 2B while Walker works things out.

Jim Callis just posted his second mock draft at Baseball America today, and both of the Pirates' first-round picks have changed from the 1.0 edition. Callis had the Pirates' taking Colin Moran and Sean Manaea in his first mock, but now he's got Moran coming off of the board before the Pirates pick at #9 (gone to the Indians at #5) and Manaea dropping all the way down to the end of the first round due to concerns with his arm. Instead, Callis has the Pirates taking Reese McGuire at number nine. McGuire's a high school catcher from Washington (the state), though it's possible that the Marlins will take McGuire ahead of the Pirates. McGuire has a strong defensive profile and it seems like a lot of people like his left-handed bat for the power potential. At #14, Callis has the Bucs taking DJ Peterson. Peterson's a corner infielder for New Mexico that's emerged as one of the better college hitters this year. I've seen his name connected to the Pirates a LOT in these last few weeks, though he could also generate interest among the teams picking ahead of the Pirates, according to Callis. Anyway, go read the whole thing; it doesn't just lay out pick predictions, but it discusses team mindsets and contingency plans and all sorts of good stuff like that, which is pretty invaluable information when it comes to something as unpredictable as the MLB draft.

In Baseball America’s first mock draft the Pittsburgh Pirates were projected to take Colin Moran and Sean Manaea. Today Jim Callis released his second mock draft at BA, and has two different names. With the number nine pick, Callis has the Pirates taking prep catcher Reese McGuire. Moran was the previous pick, but went fifth overall this time around. Callis notes that the best case for the Pirates would be landing McGuire and D.J. Peterson. Peterson ended up going 13th overall, one shy of the Pirates next pick. Another guy Callis has the Pirates passing on is Austin Meadows, who went tenth overall. He notes that Trey Ball would be a possibility, although Ball went one pick before the Pirates. With the number 14 pick the Pirates are projected to take Hunter Renfroe. Callis has the Pirates leaning with a college bat here, noting that the Pirates will take Peterson if he’s there. He also lists Notre Dame third baseman Eric Jagielo, Samford outfielder Phillip Ervin, Stanford outfielder Austin Wilson, or Fresno State outfielder Aaron Judge. With the exception of Peterson, all of the other guys are projected in the 19-27 range, with the Cardinals getting two of those players.

A hot day at the hot corner, Connie Mack and breaking a streak in style...1889 - Willie Kuehne converted 13 chances at the hot corner, handling three putouts and 10 assists without an error‚ for a MLB record. His stellar work in the field helped Pittsburgh to a 9-7 win over Washington at Swampoodle Grounds. The Alleghenys’ Kuehne wasn’t exactly noted for his glovework, though. He had 34 errors that season and finished with a .908 fielding average. 1893 - C Connie Mack intentionally allowed a popup to drop in front of home plate that led to a triple play against the Browns. He followed by droving in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to propel Pittsburgh to an 8-7 win over St. Louis at Exposition Park. Mack was a backup catcher who hit .286 for the Pirates that year, and later entered the Hall of Fame as a manager. 1955 - The Bucs broke an 11 game losing streak in style by pounding the Brooklyn Dodgers 15-1 at Forbes Field. Preston Ward had a single‚ triple and HR to lead the attack. Ward, Gene Freese and Roberto Clemente each had three RBI. One of the Dodger relievers they tortured was future manager Tommy Lasorda, who gave up five runs in two innings of work.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 14-6 in the month of May.  The ballclub did what they were supposed to do against some struggling teams. Now the 2013 schedule gets intensely more difficult with the team facing the Milwaukee Brewers at the House of Horrors, the Detroit Tigers, the hated Reds,  and then the Atlanta Braves. For the team to survive the challenging stretch a few things must happen. The offense can’t be 20th in Major League Baseball in runs scored.  The Tigers have scored more runs than any team in the game in large part thanks to Miguel Cabrera and his incredible thunder stick.  The Reds are also in the top ten with the Braves not too far behind. The key for the stretch is how well the offense can perform against these high octane offenses.  The Pirates played well recently against the Brewers and Milwaukee isn’t scoring a ton of runs either.  It might be a good time for the Bucs to roll into beer town and grab a series. If the team can hang with Detroit in a home-and-home interleague series, it sets up the anticipated showdown with the Reds at PNC Park next weekend. Neil Walker must breakout of his .171 slump over the last ten games.  Walk has reached base seven times via free passes, but has also been punched out nine times in his last ten games. Pedro Alvarez will have to ignite the Bucs offense with his power stroke for the Bucs to put runs on the board and match the vaunted offenses they see on the schedule. Can Clint Barmes keep hitting at the .324 clip he has been on in his last ten games?  If not, Jordy Mercer has provided some punch and should be an alternative to spell Barmes, Walker and Alvarez.  It might be a good time to insert Mercer at a few infield spots to keep his bat fresh and the Bucs offensive machine churning. This week it will be about scoring runs, there isn’t a doubt in my mind.  The 1-0 wins against lowly teams are still wins, but don’t look for anything like that against Milwaukee or Detroit. Should the offensive firepower heat up a bit when combined with the effective Pirates pitching they have received of late, the stage will be set for a much anticipated June battle for positioning atop the National League Central next weekend. Who would have thought?