what a genius

Yesterday, for the last game of the road trip, the Pirates did something crazy-insane-wacko: they actually batted their best hitters AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LINEUP.

This insane-genius way of running a baseball team has never been seen before in Pittsburgh.

Instead of the normal Duffy-Wilson-Sanchez-LaNewGuy-Bay lineup, we had Sanchez-Bautista-Bay-Doumit-Nady. Duffy was relegated to the bench, and LaNewGuy and Jacko were shuffled to the back of the lineup.

The immediate payoff? Our top four batters went 7-19 with a walk, scored 4 RBIs and we beat the Cubs 6-4 to win the series.

Jim Tracy! This new lineup is great! Will you keep this lineup for the forseeable future?

"It's not the lineup you want to stick with. There are flaws to this one, too. There isn't any base-stealing speed up at the top. Is it perfect? No. But it's something else to try."

Base-stealing speed??? LaNewGuy, Paulino and Wilson went a combined 1-11 last night, but we really need them up there stealing bases. How many stolen bases have the Pirates achieved with the "can't hit but stolen base ready" Pirates lineup we've seen for most of the season so far?

Nine, next to last in MLB.

So pardon me, Tracy, if I prefer actual hits and walks and the like over the appearance of being able to bunt and steal bases and get hit by pitches or whatever you think constitutes as good baseball.

How do we get stuck with these guys???