Series Thread: Pirates at Cubs

[element1286]

Pedro is making me reconsider the offense. I was hoping he would continue to make incremental improvements but his body language is different. I don't even care about the stats right now. He looks like he has transferred over to the "confident professional" camp. I used to think of him as belonging to the Walker, Jones group of "occasionally good" but he has been just about McCutchen good so far this year.

I agree about the body language, although I never thought it was bad like some people do, but now it is great. And he really looks good at the plate.

I think it was the 8th inning last night when he was facing the lefty, he took a 1-0 hanging slider, then swung at a 1-1 down in the zone slider he had no chance of hitting. Down 1-2 after not swinging at the good pitch, and whiffing on the pitcher's pitch, Pedro usually strikes out. Last night he laid off three consecutive sliders out of the zone and drew a walk. More ab's like that and I'll be convinced he's changed.

 

[Darkstone42]

Tonight's lineup.

 

[sychmd]

why is walker hitting above ishy.

 

[Darkstone42]

why is walker hitting above ishy.

He has been. Ishikawa's out-hitting Walker a bit right now, but Walker's been fine, and he's been the better hitter for their careers.

 

[Darkstone42]

Not a good night for Pirate pitching, but Snider hitting his first home run, and Pedro continuing to impress with two dingers of his own are encouraging signs for the offense.

 

[Darkstone42]

Oh, and Martin had two dingers, too.

Need to hit those with people on base now!

 

[Burgh Sports Rule]

I know Wandy is getting paid a bunch of cash this yr, so this move most certainly will not happen.

But, I would rather see Cumpton up here in the Bucs rotation over Wandy right now.

I watch Wandy pitch & I am not just basing my feelings on his 1st 2 starts this yr but, I watch Wandy pitch & it seems to me, that he does not have much left. It seems he is getting by with smoke & mirrors & that their is nothing on his ball when he throws it.

Teams are knocking him around regularly.

It is a damn shame to hit 5 HR in a game & lose.

I feel Cumpton has more upside & can pitch just as well or better than Wandy does for us every 5 days right now.

Bring up Cumpton & move Wandy to long relief.

Just my thoughts...

Burgh

 

[Darkstone42]

I know Wandy is getting paid a bunch of cash this yr, so this move most certainly will not happen.

But, I would rather see Cumpton up here in the Bucs rotation over Wandy right now.

I watch Wandy pitch & I am not just basing my feelings on his 1st 2 starts this yr but, I watch Wandy pitch & it seems to me, that he does not have much left. It seems he is getting by with smoke & mirrors & that their is nothing on his ball when he throws it.

Teams are knocking him around regularly.

It is a damn shame to hit 5 HR in a game & lose.

I feel Cumpton has more upside & can pitch just as well or better than Wandy does for us every 5 days right now.

Bring up Cumpton & move Wandy to long relief.

Just my thoughts...

Burgh

Wandy's made a career of smoke and mirrors. We have enough depth to pull the plug if we need to, but for now, I think it's fine letting him try to sort things out. It's not unreasonable to expect him to eat innings and keep us in ballgames most of the year, even if he doesn't shut anyone down completely.

His first start was pretty solid, too. And this one was going fine until Olt's ball just kept carrying. I thought he popped it up off the bat.

 

[Darkstone42]

Cole's overthrowing his fastball some. The movement on it is great, though, and the slider looks good.

 

[Darkstone42]

He survived a couple walks. He'll need to start working in the zone with his fastball, though.

 

[Darkstone42]

A couple very excellent defensive plays kept the Bucs from scoring that inning, but having both Cutch and Pedro strike out with them juiced didn't help.

 

[Darkstone42]

That was a brutal throw by Sanchez. Ugh.

 

[Darkstone42]

Goodness the Cubs are getting good batted ball luck this inning. They haven't even hit a hard foul ball, much less put one in play with any kind of authority, but they bouncers are finding a little bit of room between our defense.

 

[Darkstone42]

My God that was a terrible call. He was out. Sanchez had the ball well before the runner arrived, he was not breaking the rule.

 

[thedddd]

Pedro just crushed that ball.

 

[Darkstone42]

He's been tremendous early in the season. If it wasn't impressive enough that he stayed back on that breaking ball from the lefty specialist, he went ahead and also drilled it way over the center field fence.

This is the Pedro I had been hoping to see since we drafted him.

Snider's shot wasn't unimpressive in its own right, either.

 

[wings-pens2166]

man, Grilli did his best to screw with my BP, but the Bucs get the win....great comeback

 

[dare2be]

10 runs scored in the last 2 games, all on home runs. Wonder when that was last accomplished, if ever.

 

[Burns80y]

bad call

Question on the safe call at the plate. During the replay last night the announcers said it was called obstruction on the field but reading a few articles this morning it said the ump said the it was not obstruction and the runners foot touched the plate before the tag. As it stand the Pirates won the game but isn't that reviewable? The guy was out by 5 feet.

 

[sychmd]

the report i saw:
the umpire (although seemingly shielded as he was standing behind sanchez) believed sanchez was bobbling the ball, therefore blocking the plate while not in full possession. a violation.

seems like that should be reviewable (like football) to see if possession occurred before contact.

on a different note:
alvarez has a higher percentage of HR when 1. a day game and 2. when cole pitches.
yesterday was a day game and cole pitching
so pedro comes thru.
we need to have more day games and get more pitchers named cole and we will have the next babe ruth.