Players win, not good attitudes.

It's a good thing we swept the Astros, because since then the Pirates have been ugly: 1-5 and sitting under .500 for the season, at 4-5.

The Pirates, of course, are not able to compete, talent-wise, with the rest of the league. (Not because of money, but because of stupidity.) So the manager and players have this annual ritual to stir up optimism in which they emphasize how the "culture" in the clubhouse has changed, and everyone is more "confident." They go into games "believing they will win." Everyone is "on the same page this year."

They couldn't just say "we've really upped our talent level this year" because they never do. (And The New Guy hasn't exactly put up Albert Pujols numbers at 1B. Heck, he hasn't put up Daryl freaking Ward numbers yet.) So instead we hear about how we "know how to win" this year, and how "we're building off of last season."

It usually doesn't take long for everyone to forget about all this optimism. This season, it has taken nine games, a respectable run. But now it's all over. It is suddenly obvious to every Pirate fan and player and coach that we are a below average MLB team. This is not going to subconsciously make us play worse, and maybe we'll still get to 77 wins as I predicted, but it's still the facts!

This brings me to another point: managers don't matter very much. Period. Last season I was jealous that the Tigers hired Leyland (our former skipper), believing that if we had Leyland and the Tigers had Jim Tracy, we'd be the competitive team and the Tigers would still be near the cellar. But, I thought, we should at least improve because Tracy is a better manager than Lloyd McClendon.

This is, of course, absolutely silly. The Tigers got better because their players got better. Not because of Leyland. And Jim Tracy does not make the Pirates play better than Lloyd McClendon.

Lloyd was universally thought to "suck" by all Pirate fans, but you know what? Lloyd could have gotten just as many wins as Tracy will get this year, and he could have been way more entertaining doing it. Firing McClendon was just the front office's attempt to pass the blame.

Lloyd was fine. Not great, but if he were managing the Yankees, he'd give them a chance every year. Managers don't make great teams, and either does a culture of winning or a good attitude. Players win ballgames, period.

I'll be gone all weekend, at a Jars of Clay concert and at a conference in Indy. So my next post should be Monday.

Almost No Hit

Welcome to Jon the Greater! I can't wait to read about Bronson Arroyo every five days.

Diasuke was on the mound again tonight. The big deal was that he was gonna face Ichiro as his first hitter ever at Fenway. The first game Hideo Nomo, then a Red Sox, pitched against Ichiro in America, he drilled him in the back. Matsuzaka had better luck in the Ichiro battle, getting hime to ground out and fly out...and I think he struck him out too. But he lost the war as the Red Sox were almost no hit by Felix Hernandez and lost 3-0. J.D. Drew led off the eight with a single. I almost wish he didn't. If your gonna get shut out, might as well be no hit.

Diasuke was ok. He wasn't $100 million dollar good. But if it was any other number three starter, I'd be happy with the start. With him and all the hype around him and all the drama about if he'd sign or not, I have really high hopes for him. Not winning 20 games would be a dissapointment. It's early yet though. Pennants aren't won in the first half of the season... but still. 4-4 after eight games without seeing a real team yet. This is kind of scary.

The Reds finally win a game in Arizona!!

After watching 2 painful games of baseball, the Red's finally defeated those pesky D'Backs. I feel like David Weathers tried to take a page out of Bob Wickman's book and make every save opportunity as eventful as possible, and as a fan, it drives me nuts. People tell me that bacon will take years off of my life. They should try watching Weathers come into a game in the bottom of the ninth with a 2 run lead. No wonder Carl Lindner sold the Reds, he knew watching Weathers save a game was bad for his heart, and at 80+ years, he shouldn't be taking chances.

On a more serious note, Josh Hamilton looks like a heck of a player for the Reds. If he has indeed cleaned up his life, this is quite a pickup. The former #1 draft pick has hit a home run in the last 2 games.

Offensive team names

Keith Law has a great article at ESPN's Page 2 imploring baseball to really honor Jackie Robinson by making the Indians and Braves change their names. I have always been a proponent of this. Native American people and culture are regularly abused and stereotyped and generalized. If this was done with ANY other ethnic group, there would be RIOTS. And no, it is NOT honoring them.

I'm only writing this because I'm too depressed to think about the Pirate's loss tonight. That is all.

The Pirates are bad at hitting.

Hopefully this tiny flaw won't stop us from achieving a winning record this season.

Tonight's lineup!
CF Duffy
SS Wilson
2B Sanchez
LF Bay
RF Nady
1B The New Guy
C Paulino
3B Bautista
P Gorzalanny

Gorzalanny was great in his first start against the Astros. I don't believe he will be anywhere near consistent this season, so I'm not expecting him to last long tonight.

The New Guy has been moved from fourth to seventh in the order because he's been so pathetic at the plate so far. Unfortunately, he's not the only guy hitting badly. He's just the guy for whom the bad hitting is surprising.

I'll be listening to tonight's game on MLB.com radio. A quick review of my MLB media history this season:

Before the season opener, I bought a month of MLB.tv with a free five-day trial. Of course this comes with MLB radio as well. It turned out that I can't watch Pirates games on MLB.tv because of blackout restrictions, even though I am not in a Pittsburgh or Houston TV area. So I sent an e-mail to cancel MLB.tv before the five days were up. The MLB radio is still working, well after the five days are up. I am not sure what the deal with this is. I suppose they will eventually charge me or stop giving me radio broadcasts.

Go Bucs!

UPDATE: In the bottom of the first, The New Guy was at the plate with the bases loaded. Result? Fly out to center field. That's why he's The New Guy. Following the typical Pirates way, we will collect three hits for the rest of the night.

Opening Day at America's Most Beloved Ball Park

That's what they call Fenway anyway... I personally think its overated, but maybe I'm just spoiled. I wouldn't mind a new ball park with roomy seats and without obstructed view. I'd also like a bigger capacity so they didn't rob you with ticket prices, but that's just me. The Red Sox could easily fill a 40,000-50,000 seat place every night. They're at 35,000 and in order to stay competitive they charge you $100 to sit in Left Field seats that anywhere else would be $7-$10. Yeah, I know its the Green Monster. But still, that means the seats are even further away than the $7 ones elsewhere. But, enough complaining for now...

As a result of the 2PM start and my 2:30 class, I missed the first five innings of the game. When I walked in, it was 13-1 and Beckett was on the mound in the sixth. He was blowing guys away too. All in all, he went 7 innings allowing one run and most importantly, I don't think he walked anyone. He also had a stretch where he retired 15 batters in a row or something. I'm pretty sure that streak ended only cause he came out. All in all an excellent start. It was pointed out that the Mariners are rusty cause they haven't played in about 6 days due to snow and stuff in Cleveland, but whatever. A win is a win, and the fact Beckett didn't walk anyone is extremely encouraging.

Oh yeah...Donnally got ejected. Basically, he and Jose Guillen had a verba confrontation after Donnelly struck Guillen out in the 8th. The benches and the bullpens cleared, but at first only Guillen was tossed...until the Donnelly drilled the next guy in the butt with a fastball. Red Sox Hall of Famer (which is different than MLB Hall of Famer-the Red Sox have their own Hall of Fame) Jerry Remy, a former second baseman and the current color commentater, said that the two must have a history of other incidents cause nothing happened to spark the incident. Announcer Don Orsillo then replied "According to records, that's the first time the two have faced each other in a major league baseball game, but they were teammates in Anaheim." It was pretty funny. One of my friends pointed out that was when Guillen got suspended for the postseason for saying and/or doing something stupid by the team...we couldn't remember what. Brilliant move, cause Guillen was awesome that year and the Red Sox ended up sweeping Anahiem on their way to a World Series Title. I wonder if Donnelly's still mad about that?

Bah!!!!

At least Chase hit a home run.

Red Sox on Easter

Well, Schilling looked pretty good today. We also had a family gathering, and just about everyone in my family hates Schilling. They say he talks too much. Yet for some reason they all loved Pedro, who hasn't shut up since the 1997 season. They don't admit it, but they all hate Schilling because he publicly supported George W. Bush in the last election. They loved him during the 2004 season before the Bush statement. Both before and after, he was calling up radio talk shows, posting on blogs and writing on a Red Sox fan web ring called "The Sons of Sam Horn." For some reason, it didn't bother anyone before. Anyway, the tradition is to root for Schilling to give up seven runs in the first, be pulled after 2/3 of an inning and then have the team come back and win. All cause he's a Republican. As if he's the only one in the bunch of multi-millionaires that are the Boston Red Sox... Honestly, who cares about something as irrelevant as politics when it comes to baseball?

Anyway, Ortiz broke out of his slump, hitting a homer in the first. Then the Rangers got the run back in the bottom half of the inning and my living room erupted with applause. Every fly ball the Rangers hit you heard a yell "GET OUT!!" It's kind of despicable. I tried to reason with them. Schilling gave up his body for this team in 2004. He could have shut it down and we'd all be moaning about 89 years or whatever now. The general response was "If you think that was actually blood, you're stupid." Whatever. Schilling was strong through seven innings, and Ortiz added another homer, this one a two run blast, to make it 3-1.

Pineiro came out in the eight inning and decided to suck. He got no one out and left the bases loaded before giving way to Javier Lopez. Lopez got the guy he faced to line out to first, but Youkilis dropped the ball. He recovered in time to pick it up and throw to second to record one out. One run scored. Then Tito stopped messing around and brought in Papelbon. Jonathan was dominant. He blew Michael Young away and got Teixeira to pop out to Lowell. Then in the ninth he got Sammy to pop out before blowing away both Blalock and Wilkerson.

Another plot is developing quickly in Boston. The Sox have no one to bridge the gap between the starter and Papelbon. When Lestor comes back to the rotation will Tavarez be that guy? Probably not. Maybe Manny DelCarmen and/or Craig Hanson will come up from AAA Pawtucket and provide the Fenway Faithful with the setup man the team need. Maybe. Right now, the best bet is Mike Timlin when he comes off the 15 day DL. Granted, he's old. Hopefully he has enough gas left in the tank for this year. Otherwise, it'll be a long summer.

Pirates on Easter

Well, the family gathering was fun today. Most of us guys sat around and watched the Pirates/Masters. Only about four of us are actual informed baseball fans, but everyone had some comments to make.

The Pirates salvaged a win out of the series to finish up a 4-2 road trip. I would have been elated with 2-4. Freddy Sanchez returned triumphantly, going 2-4. We had our best possible hitting line up today (although it's a terrible fielding line up). Duffy was out of CF, Nady got moved to CF, and Eldred started in RF. Neither man is fit to be playing those positions. But they both had a couple hits, so what the heck.

Tomorrow is opening day at PNC Park! The Cards looked pretty good today so it should be a tough test. Although the pitching matchup (Looper vs. Snell) favors us, and so will the home crowd. Too bad Albert Pujols doesn't favor us. Neither does The New Guy, who went 0-5 today.

Sammy! Sammy!

John, I don't know how you expected to win that game, going up against the unstoppable force that is SLAMMIN Sammy Sosa. You should have marked up the loss beforehand and not even bothered paying attention.

I used to despise Sammy Sosa, as a Cub, but now he's okay.

--Joe

Once through the rotation...

On this very blog, I said the Red Sox rotation was the big question mark. So far, not that good. Schilling looked like a man who sold his body for a ring. Beckett got a win but struggled big time with control. Diasuke did pretty well. Wakefield pitched a Pedro Martinez-like gem and lost. He was hung out to dry by his offense. And on automatic win day, Tavarez did his best Jon Lestor impersonation. It was looking pretty good, as he got out of a bases loaded, nobody out jam in the second without surrendering a run. In the third, the Rangers again loaded the bases after scoring two runs on a J.D. Drew Error. This time, Texas capitalized on the opportunity, plating two more, making the score 4-2 Texas, and they never looked back. All and all, this scares me.

The other concern I had was the catchers offensive spot. So far, Boston Backstops are 2-18 at the plate. Sucks.

Ortiz is also off to a slow start, and Coco Crisp still sucks and doesn't have an injury excuse anymore. The one good thing is it's early yet. Other good things include Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew. Both have been really good at the plate so far.

I'll reevaluate where we are once again next time through the rotation.

Tim Wakefield is a former Pirate...

...and our starter today, Tony Armas, Jr., is the son of a former Red Sox player.

I think attending a really cold baseball game would be fun.

Well, the Pirates are no longer on pace to win 162 games, with their loss to the Reds last night. Maholm wasn't too good. Meanwhile, I'm listening to today's game right now and although we had a good first hitting inning with Duffy leading off with a double and then scoring off The New Guy's double, and then The New Guy eventually reaching home, the reds made it a new game with a quick two-run homer by their second batter.

The Pirate's main problem is leadoff. If Duffy can come through and have a good OBP, we can be okay. Our second biggest problem is DEPTH. We have none. If everyone is healthy, and fresh, here is our lineup:

CF Chris Duffy
SS Jack Wilson
2B Freddy Sanchez
1B The New Guy
LF Jason Bay
C Ronny Paulino
RF Xavier Nady
3B Jose Bautista

You may have never heard of almost anyone on that list, but let me assure you that that's a pretty good lineup, especially in combination with our young but talented pitching staff.

Now, right now Sanchez is hurting. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow. So for the first four games, underachiever Jose Castillo started in his place, hitting something like 1 for 12 with a couple errors. The Pirates have lost patience with Castillo, who will probably be back with AAA Indy tomorrow. So starting today instead we have Don Kelly, who will be making his second career Major League at-bat.

But of course everybody else has played four straight days, and not everybody plays 140 games a year. So instead of Paulino catching, we have the amazing Humberto Cota. Yes, that means we have DON KELLY HITTING SEVENTH. This is not good. After Nady at #5, we have no realy hope for the last for spots in the lineup (and that's counting on Nady to have a career year). Besides Brad Eldred, who doesn't really play anything in the field (marginal first base skills?) our best backup is Nate McClouth. Yeah. We REALLY need Freddy to come back tomorrow.

Ok, the first inning just ended and we are down 3-2. Armas Jr. allowed four runs and a walk. Blech. Hopefully Armas can give us SOMETHING this year in the five spot.

I'll end this post when Superstar Don Kelly's at-bat is over, leading off the second... Groundout for SuperStar Don Kelly in his second ML at-bat. Hoo boy, it's going to be a long day.