Lawton to Cubs

The Pirates traded Matt Lawton to Chicago on Sunday for Jody Gerut and cash. Gerut, the 2003 Sporting News AL Rookie of the Year, hit .275 with a .357 OBP for the Indians this season before being traded to the Cubs, where he went 1-for-12 in just 10 games. As a rookie, the 27-year-old hit 22 homers and drove in 75 runs. A torn ACL cut his sophomore season short.

Minor League Trade

The Pirates have acquired minor league infielder J.J. Furmaniak from the San Diego Padres in exchange for catcher David Ross.

Furmaniak, hit .266 (103-for-387) with 16 doubles, four triples, 14 home runs and 47 RBI in 99 games with Portland (AAA) this year. He made 55 appearances at third base, 38 at shortstop and three at second base with the Beavers and represented the club at the Triple-A All-Star Game.

One Time you Don't want Loyalty

Well, seems more and more that Mesa may stay with the team till the end this year.

Jul 26 - The Pirates won't hesitate to deal closer Jose Mesa -- if the right deal presents itself. According to The New York Post, the Bucs are ideally looking for position players in return. Mesa is earning $2 million this year and has a club option for next year worth $4 million with a $500,000 buyout.

Mesa would rather continue being part of a rebuilding plan in Pittsburgh than go to a contender, phillyBurbs.com reports. "I want to stay in Pittsburgh," said Mesa. "Nobody wanted me after Philadelphia ... only Pittsburgh. Teams told me I can't pitch anymore, so now I don't want to play for those other teams."

Mesa, 39, also has dreams of playing with his son, Juan Mesa, a 20-year-old outfielder selected by Pittsburgh in the 23rd round of the June draft. He signed quickly and currently plays Rookie League ball for the Gulf Coast League Pirates.

Redman to Stay in Florida?

Jul 26 - The Marlins continue to express interest in Pirates left-hander Mark Redman, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. A key part of the 2003 Marlins, Redman could replace A.J. Burnett in the rotation -- if Burnett is traded. "I had a good relationship with the ownership and with Jack McKeon," Redman told the newspaper. "I wouldn't be opposed to going back."

The Pirates have asked repeatedly for Marlins Double-A outfielder Jeremy Hermida, but they have been rebuffed at every turn. A Redman deal could include a couple of young Marlins arms instead, with Yorman Bazardo, Chris Resop and Scott Olsen among the possibilities.


2005 Statistics: Jeremy Hermidia OF Carolina Mudhens
AVG-304 H-92 2B-24 3B-1 HR-15

Talk About an Understatement.

After the Pirates 6-3 win against Florida yesterday winning Pitcher Josh Fog was quoted saying "We play well against these guys".

And that has to be the understatement of the week seeing as they are 4-1 against them this year let alone 13-4 against Florida since the start of 2003, with wins in eight of the past nine meetings.

Which has to make you think, how do you think the Pirate's could rig it to get realigned into a division with Florida AND Colorado? One can dream.

Weekly vs 2004 for July 25th

The Pirates as of Monday the 25th are 99 games into the season:

43 - 56 = Current W-L at this point
48 - 41 = W -L at this point in 2004

Date that it took to reach 43 wins in 2004: July 20th

Pirates have slid back another 2 games off last year's pace to 5 games back.

Williamsport Still on a Run

The Pirate's short-season A league team the Williamsport Crosscutters defeated the Oneonta Tigers 7-6 for their 12th straight win Sunday night. The previous team record had been 10 wins, which was broken with a win on Saturday night.

Gonzo Throws, Van Benschoten Scoped'

Mike Gonzalez is scheduled to throw off the mound Wednesday and Friday. He will throw another bullpen session when the Pirates return from their road trip Aug. 2, then go out on a rehab assignment to probabally the Indians.

John Van Benschoten had arthroscopic surgery performed last Wednesday to remove scar tissue from his left shoulder. Counting this operation he has now had three in the past nine months. Van Benschoten is out for the season after having his right shoulder scoped in January, he is expected to return to the team for spring training in 2006.

Need Some Easy Reading?

So you have some time to kill and want something thats funny, without meaning to be funny? Take a look at Barry Bond's journal entry on his website. Rumor has it not only is it the way that his "fans" can find out what he is up to and how his rehab is going, but also the only good way that the Giants have to find out that information as well.

My only question is to does he really write the journal entry or does his assistant do it, I can't visualize Barry sitting down at a computer and typing out his thougts, I do like that he has a "Shout Out" section though, gotta keep it real you know even when busy rehabing the knee.


In case you did not see the link in the body of the text above here it is
Barry's Journal

Pirates Beatup on Rockies 8-1

Zach Duke allowed eight hits and walked four on his way to winning his third consecutive start and the Pirates(41-55) ended a five-game losing streak with an 8-1 victory over the Rockies(33-61).

Jason Bay went 3-for-4 with a homer that followed Matt Lawton's one-out single in the second to give the Pirates to a 7-0 lead. Bay had singled and scored in a five-run first off starter Jeff Francis. Humberto Cota also drove in three runs with two singles for the Pirates.

Rockies starter Francis (8-7) allowed seven runs off of eight hits and lasted just five innings. After winning three consecutive starts, Francis is 0-2 in his last three starts and has allowed 18 earned runs in that span.

In a Big Country....

The Pirates recalled first baseman Brad Eldred from Triple-A Indianapolis following their 8-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night.

Eldred, nicknamed "Big Country" because of his 6-foot-5, 268-pound frame, was named the organization's Minor League Player of the Year in 2004 after hitting a combined .301 with 38 home runs and 137 RBIs at Class A Lynchburg and Double-A Altoona. The right-handed hitting slugger returned to Altoona for the start of the season before being promoted to Indianapolis after going deep 13 times in 21 games with the Curve. After a slow start with the Indians, he hit .277 with 15 home runs and 48 RBIs in 53 games. Eldred has been on a torrid pace as of late, clubbing 10 home runs and 23 RBIs in his last 11 games.

Source: pirateball.com

Bucs Short Season A Team Streaking

The Williamsport Crosscutters extended their winning streak to nine games Thursday night with a 2-0 over the Tri-City ValleyCats.

Pitcher Joe Bauserman (2-1)allowed only one runner past first base while walking three and strikeing out three in seven innings of work. Derek Moeves pitched a scoreless eighth and Matt Swanson overcame two ninth-inning errors to earn the save.

Cameron Blair provided all of Williamsport's offence with a two-run homer in the sixth inning.

The Crosscutters visit Oneonta Friday night at 7 p.m. where they will try to make it 10 in a row.

Written from Data from minorleaguebaseball.com

Trade Rumors Continued

Kip going to the......

Cardinals?
Diamondbacks?
Tigers?
Devil Rays?
Blue Jays?
Phillies?

ESPN notes that a Phillies' scout was at Wrigley Sunday to watch Wells. And that league wide starting pitchers are at a premium, so scouts from Toronto, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Arizona and St. Louis also showed up. But his less then stellar start did not do a lot for his tradability with the Pirates' 8-2 loss.

Wells is making $3.175 million this season, and will head into his final year of arbitration eligibility at the end of the season, I can see the Pirate's logic in possibly shopping him around some, but he needs to have a good start to make what the Pirates get for him better then say a barrel of BP balls or something.

Trade Rumors for Wednesday.

Jul 20 - According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mark Redman's start Tuesday night might have been his last for the Pirates. The team is engaged in intense discussions to trade Redman to Florida and could do so this week, pending the outcome of the Marlins' efforts with the Orioles to pull off a much larger deal.

The first step is a seven-player trade between Florida and Baltimore. The Marlins would send starter A.J. Burnett, third baseman Mike Lowell and center fielder Eric Reed to the Orioles for outfielder Larry Bigbie and pitchers Jorge Julio, Steve Kline and Hayden Penn. After that, the Pirates would send Redman to Florida for Bigbie. And if Bigbie is not available, negotiations could turn in a different direction.

The Bucs' original hope was to keep Redman, but he has made clear he will decline a $4.95 million team option for 2006 and test free agency unless he has a contract extension covering three years. The Pirates and Redman's agent, Casey Close, had no more than preliminary talks, and the team was unwilling to consider any deal beyond next season.

ESPN Rates Outfielders up for Trade

Sorry can't link to this, its an ESPN Insider Story. And to say that he is just "shaky" in the baserunning area is being a little too kind if you ask me.


Matt Lawton, Pirates

Pluses: Lawton has a .383 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot. He has reached base 59 times by walk or hit-by-pitch this season and struck out only 51 times. He has also shown some pop in the No. 1 spot, with 10 homers and 26 doubles.

Minuses: Lawton is a shaky baserunner (10 stolen bases in 19 attempts) and a below-average defensive player who appears to be regressing at age 33. He also makes $7.75 million, and not a lot of teams are anxious to assume that load.

Not a Good Sunday

Sunday was not a good day for the Pirates organization in general. To find a team that actually won within the Pirates system you have to go all the way down to their Short Season A team the Williamsport Cross Cutters, who beat the Vermont Expos 6-3 at home. What were the results of the rest of the teams in action on Sunday?

Cubs 8, Pirates 2, and were never in the game

Richmond 8, Indianapolis 0

Harrisburg 3, Altoona 3, 4th run scored in the bottom of the 9th

Potomac 7, Lynchburg 4

Greenville 9, Hickory 8, gave up 2 in the bottom of the 9th

Weekly vs 2004 for July 18th

The Pirates as of Monday the 18th are 91 games into the season:

40 - 51 = Current W-L at this point
43 - 48 = W -L at this point in 2004

Date that it took to reach 40 wins in 2004: July 16th (Same date that the 40th win happened this year)

So the Pirates slid back another 2 games off last year's pace to 3 games back, hopefully things will improve with this homestand against the Astros and Rockies.

Duffy Recalled

From the Pirates Website.

CHICAGO -- Players generally want to make an impact right away when called up to the Majors, but no one could really blame Chris Duffy if he felt a little relieved to not be starting on Sunday.

It has been a bit of a whirlwind 24 hours for Duffy, after he was told about the Pirates' decision to call him up following Triple-A Indianapolis' 10-inning, 3-2 victory in Richmond on Saturday night.

After Indianapolis' night game stretched into a three-hour and 20-minute affair, Duffy had to get up at 4:30 a.m. CT on Sunday to catch a flight that got him into Chicago around 8:30 a.m. CT, just in time to head straight to the ballpark.

Duffy will take over the empty roster spot that came after the Pirates had to place Craig Wilson on the 15-day disabled list with a fractured fifth metacarpal in his left hand. Wilson suffered the injury when he was hit by a Greg Maddux pitch in the first inning of Saturday's game.

For the whole article Pirateball.com

Bucs Drop 3 of 4 against Cubs

Kip Wells was the third Pirates starter to give up at least five runs during the series, and picked up his 10th loss of the year in the Pirates' 8-2 loss to Chicago on Sunday afternoon.

Wells (6-10) lasted only 2 2/3 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out two. The only starter to hold the Cubs down during the series was rookie Zach Duke, who tossed eight scoreless innings Saturday.

Another Reason to Boo the Yankees

From ESPN.com Full Story Here

Gary Sheffield wants nothing to do with the World Baseball Classic.

Several major league players spoke of the honor they would feel to represent their countries in baseball's first World Cup-style tournament when the groups for the event were unveiled Monday.

Sheffield was not among them.

The Yankees right fielder told reporters at the All-Star festivities in Detroit on Monday there was no chance he would participate in the event scheduled for March.

"My season is when I get paid," Sheffield told the New York Daily News. "I'm not doing that. ... I'm not sacrificing my body or taking a chance on an injury for something that's made up."

"A lot of guys feel that way. They won't say it like I will, though," he added.

Unlike Sheffield, Miguel Tejada (Dominican Republic) and Dontrelle Willis (United States) were among several players to come out in support of the tournament at press conferences Monday.

section316's comment on this:
People wonder why "other countries" do better then the USA when it comes to things like international baseball and also, now, Olympic basketball Sheffield's comments there basically sum it up.

Where athletes from other nations see it as an honor to represent their countries on the international stage, many American athletes look for ways to get out of it, or just don't want to do it. So what we send is not our "best" but our "best who want to be here" which, as has been shown this past Summer Games and in basketball, is clearly not enough.

If this attitude by our pro athletes gives us lackluster performances in basketball one has to wonder what it will do for baseball, a sport that the USA has clearly NOT dominated lately internationally, and that there are many nations that have a good selection of MLB players that are more then willing to play for them.

100th Post

With the Weekly vs. 2004 post that just went up this Bog has now achieved 100 posts to it. Kind of impressive for something I started kind of on a lark after a few weeks of ball games. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up and we will see 200 even faster!

Weekly vs 2004 for July 11th

I apologize for this being a day late, blogger was having issues with me updating yesterday afternoon.

The Pirates as of Tuesday the 12th are 87 games into the season:

39 - 48 = Current W-L at this point
40 - 47 = W -L at this point in 2004

Date that it took to reach 39 wins in 2004: July 9th (Same date that the 39th win happened this year)

SI.com Pirates Midseason Grade

The Good: The offense is inept, but without All-Star Jason Bay (.299, 16 homers, aq .930 OPS) and leadoff man Matt Lawton (a .379 on-base percentage) it would be downright dead. (Daryle Ward and Rob Mackowiak are OK, but come on.) Mark Redman is pitching fairly well (106 hits in 117 1/3 innings), and both Josh Fogg (4-4, 4.30 ERA) and Kip Wells (6-9, 4.46) are decent pitchers. Jose Mesa, somehow, has 21 saves.

The Bad: The Pirates were 30-30 in mid June, but since then all sorts of things have gone wrong. Ace Oliver Perez (6-5, 6.16) has fallen apart -- and that was before he kicked the laundry cart and limped onto the DL. There are rumors that Redman is on the trade block, outfielder Craig Wilson is out with a bad finger, shortstop Jack Wilson is hitting 80 points lower than he did last season ... it's not good.

What's Next: The Pirates are staying the course with manager Lloyd McClendon. They'll look for trades with an eye to building with their youth, but ... does this sound familiar?
Grade: We've been here before -- F

For the rest of the grades go to John Donovan at SI.com

Mets Win 6-1 to Escape Sweep

Sunday afternoon behind the starting pitching of Pedro Martinez (10-3) the Mets(44-44) avoided being swept by the Pirates(39-48) by winning easily 6-1 on a Sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Mets went up 2-0 in the 1st inning via a Carlos Beltran two-run homer, proving to be the only runs the Mets needed as the Pirates managed but one run in the 5th via a Rob Mackowiak single to center that scored Bobby Hill. The win was Martinez's 1st in 8 years against the Pirates to bring his career record against the Pirates to 9-3 with a 2.78 ERA in 17 career appearances against them, most while with the Expos.

The Pirates now are off for the All-Star Break where Jason Bay will represent them and also bat in the Home Run Derby as Canada's representative. The Pirates will start the second half of the season against Chicago for a three game road series.

C. Wilson Returns, Ross Sent Down.

PITTSBURGH -- Craig Wilson was back in the starting lineup for the Pirates sooner than expected. Pittsburgh recalled Wilson from his rehab assignment at Triple-A Indianapolis and inserted him into the cleanup spot at first base for Saturday night's game with the New York Mets.

To make room on the 25-man active roster, the Pirates optioned catcher David Ross to Indianapolis.

Curve to Host 2006 Eastern League All Star Game

ALTOONA– The Altoona Curve, the Double-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, are pleased to announce that the club has been selected as the host for the 2006 Eastern League All-Star Game. The announcement was made by Eastern League President Joe McEacharn as part of an on-field ceremony prior to Friday night’s game at Blair County Ballpark.

The annual all-star classic will be held at Blair County Ballpark on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 and will be surrounded by several ballpark and community events. In a unique twist, the 2006 Major League All-Star Game will be hosted by the Curve’s parent club, the Pittsburgh Pirates, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh the day before the Eastern League All-Star Game will be played at Blair County Ballpark.

From www.altoonacurve.com

Stay Till the End!

Well if last night's game proved anything its that in sports you ALWAYS stay until the end. Yes I know that 9 times out of 10 the team that’s down 5-1 in going into the bottom of the 9th is going to lose but there is that 1 time that they will come back. I was actually impressed with the number of fans that did stay until the end of the game Friday night, a good deal of that was due probably to the game moving along quickly.

So hopefully the Pirates can make it 3 wins in a row tonight with another W against the Mets.

Weekly vs 2004 for July 4th

With July 4th game played the Pirates are halfway through the season at 81 games.

The past week has not been good to the Pirates in the standings and also in reguards to how they are performing compaired to last season.

The Pirates as of Tuesday the 5th are 81 games into the season:

35 - 46 = Current W-L at this point
37 - 44 = W -L at this point in 2004

Date that it took to reach 35 wins in 2004: July 3rd.

Dodgers Interested in Lawton?

Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta is not giving up on the season and continues to pursue a trade for that can have a significant impact on the Dodgers' fate this season – even if it means parting with some of their highly regarded prospects. With both Milton Bradley and J.D. Drew out for extended periods with injuries, the team is looking to add an outfielder. Some possibilities include Colorado's Preston Wilson, Florida's Juan Encarnacion, Seattle's Randy Winn and Pittsburgh's Matt Lawton.

While trade talks have become more serious, DePodesta still sees most teams as reluctant to deal until after the All-Star break. "We'd love to (add an impact player)," he told the newspaper. "I'm not sure if that guy is available."

Source ESPN.com