On the Beat: Picking t... (06/28)
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July 5, 2012 On the BeatRaising the Jolly RogerThe Pirates have been down this road before. In fact, it was just a year ago. The Pirates were one of the best stories in baseball approaching the All-Star break in 2011. They were in contention in the National League Central and even sported a winning record, something they have not achieved since 1992. The Pirates are again contending in the early days of July and once again threatening to finally end a streak of 19 consecutive losing seasons, the longest such skid in the history of major North American professional sports. In fact, the Pirates took over sole possession of first place on Wednesday when they raised their record to 45-36 and moved to nine games over .500, their highest point above breakeven since the final day of the 1992 regular season. Last year, the Pirates led the division on July 25 before completely collapsing. They lost 12 of their 13 games to fall to 10 games back on August 7. No team in major-league history had gone from first place to a double-digit deficit in a shorter period of time. The Pirates went on to finish 72-90. Thus, it is easy to be skeptical about the Pirates' chances of reaching the postseason this year, or even breaking .500. Manager Clint Hurdle thinks it is a fair question and doesn't hide from it. "Honestly, who knows what's going to happen at this point of the season?" Hurdle said. "We've still got half the season left. What I do know is we have a group of men who are working very hard and playing well. I believe they learned from last season. Our motto since the first day of spring training has been "finish"—finish each at-bat, finish each pitch, just finish everything we do." The Pirates seemingly have the pitching and defense to finish off a run to the playoffs, as they are fourth in the major leagues in runs allowed at 3.75 a game. The starting rotation includes four pitchers with FIPs under 4.00—Jeff Karstens (2.95), James McDonald (3.21), A.J. Burnett (3.60) and Erik Bedard (3.89). The offense, though it has perked up in the last month, is a different story; the Pirates are 23rd among the 30 major-league clubs in scoring with a 3.95 runs a game average. Center fielder Andrew McCutchen is spearheading the attack with a .356 TAv.
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Fantasy Beat: Is Elliot Johnson for Real?
Surprise Me!
Passing on Johnny Cueto due to a perceived grudge is one thing. But passing on Zack Greinke and stating that the reason is that he is scheduled to pitch Sunday WHEN THE BREWERS MADE SPECIAL PLANS TO MOVE HIM TO SATURDAY INSTEAD AND IT WAS WELL KNOWN AND DONE WELL IN ADVANCE is inexcusable. If you're going to make up a reason, make up one that's at least believable. It's not like LaRussa is a real busy guy right now. He had time to figure out who was pitching Sunday and who wasn't.
Yes he's busy. He owns several cars that need to be driven while intoxicated.
Ouch.
Tasteless, with just a hint of funny.
Does do a perfect job, though, of conveying how you really feel about TLR.
amazin's a Mets fan. While Tony La Russa was hitting the pitcher 8th and doing other things to try to gain an edge, Bobby Bonilla was playing cards in the Mets clubhouse.
But at least I wasn't driving drunk.
La Russa has said - and MLB confirmed - that the info he was given listed Greinke as a Sunday starter, and TLR said that's why he was reluctant to take him. Perhaps that's not a good reason to deny the guy a slot, or perhaps it's not even true (and MLB was just covering La Russa's ass), but at the very least we can say this situation is more complicated than Mr. Timber makes it seem.