Batting Third: Tyke Redman
Ummm.... hmm. This is, ummm.....yeah.
Let's take a look at the McLogic that has led us to this point.
"Look, we can sit here and talk about why Tike is not the prototypical No. 3 hitter. But, if you want to talk about legitimate No. 3 hitters, we don't have one. We don't have Jim Edmonds. We make do with what we have, whether that's Tike or Bay or anybody else."
(To paraphrase..."You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had." Nod to Don Rumsfeld.)
So...if you dont have a legitimate #3 hitter, and for the record what the hell is Jason Bay, just throw up your hands and stick anybody there.
(Let me suggest to Bay that he contact an attorney about pursuing a slander suit against McClendon for lumping him in the same category of hitter as Tyke Redman.)
I wonder if the same logic would apply to the bullpen. If you don't have a "legitimate closer" then why not just stick Johnny AAA in that role. Perhaps it also applies to the manager. If you can't afford a "legitimate manager", just stick Lloyd in there.
Just when you think you've heard it all, there's more. From Dejan's article:
Part of McClendon's motivation, as he explained it, is to move high-average players to the top. That would be Lawton (.277 last season), Jack Wilson (.308) and Redman (.280). This way, he added, he could minimize his team's glaring shortage of players with a history of good on-base percentage.
Let's analyze this gem. McClendon recognizes that it is advantageous to put your high OBP guys at the top of the lineup. But when he looks at the roster, he notices there aren't enough of these guys. So instead of making due with what he has, he decides to entirely ignore OBP and build the lineup around another statistic that isn't so cruel to his players. How this minimizes a shortage of high OBP players is left to our imagination.
If you recognize the importance of OBP, doesn't logic dictate that you build the lineup around your best OBP guys, even if your best isn't particularly good? McClendon has forgotten that statistics exist to help you measure performance, not justify decisions.
(Somewhere in here is a great topic for a
Management by Baseball article based on cherry-picking metrics to suit your needs, reality be damned.)
In the final analysis, this decision probably won't have much of a lasting effect anyway. Redman is unlikely to hit well enough to justify batting third no matter what statistic you want to use. Even McLogic is bound to recognize this eventually.
April Fools
As if you didn't know. Hope I got ya.
Rapidly developing story
I don't know if there's smoke where there's fire, but this story is really developing rapidly. If Silver's group's bid to purchase the Pirates is accepted, he has a deal in place with major league baseball to move the team to Portland for the start of the 2007 season.
Don't despair yet...reportedly MLB will only approve this sale if it can find another team willing to relocate to Pittsburgh starting with the 2007 season (most likely Jeff Loria's Marlins), as neither Silver nor MLB is willing to pay the stiff penalty for breaking the lease at PNC Park.
This makes sense on a couple of fronts. Silver is from the Pacific Northwest, so it follows that he has connections that could get a new ballpark in Portland constructed rapidly enough to open in time for the 2007 season. Also, this would satisfy Loria's incessant whining about a new ballpark. It's unclear if the name "Pirates" would remain in Pittsburgh or follow the team to Portland.
McClatchy to sell?
Baseball Monthly is reporting that a group led by Donald Silvers has made a serious offer to buy the Pittsburgh Pirates. According to the source, the Pirates have secretly been for sale since around the time the announcement was made that the 2006 All-Star Game would be played in Pittsburgh. Apparently, Silvers turned his eye towards the Pirates after his bid to purchase the Minnesota Vikings was rejected. Although Silvers is from Seattle, he does have ties to the area as his wife is from Cleveland.
McClatchy must be betting that the value of the franchise will never be higher, with the impending All-Star Game and the young, inexpensive talent the Pirates have accumulated. Plus, he's probably also anxious to dump the team before the next great free agency exodus hits the Bucs, which would undoubtedly destroy whatever goodwill is left from the building of PNC Park and the 2006 All-Star Game.
Williams over Duke/Vogelsong
Dave Williams has been named as the Pirate's 5th starter.
Yes, yes, and yes. Good decision for at least 3 reasons:
#1. I want to find out about Dave Williams as a starter. It's been 2 full years since his major surgery, so if not now, then never.
#2. Zach Duke will now get the work he needs at AAA. With an abundance of spring rainouts and early season off days, I didn't want to see Duke waste service time sitting on the pine or "getting in his work" in a 9-2 blow-out. If Duke is as good as we think he is, he can go dominate AAA for a month or 2, then come on up as soon as someone gets hurt or screws up. It won't be long.
#3. Ryan Vogelsong belongs in the pen, for now. He's struggled mightily in the rotation, but pitched well out of the pen. Let him experience some extended success and work on that split-finger pitch before we throw him into the rotation again.
Lost Pirate of the Week
Let me toss some numbers at you:
Batting Average: .302
HR: 17
RBI: 80
What Pirate player do you think posted those seasonal averages from 1973 - 1976?
Nope, not him.Him neither.Huh-uh.It was Richie Zisk. At the age of 27 in 1976, Richie already had a 100 RBI season, 2 seasons of 20+ HR, and a lifetime average of .299.
Zisk's career as a Pirate ended in December of '76, as he was dealt to the White Sox for Goose Gossage and Terry Forster. This trade made a great deal of sense for the Bucs, as they were without a fireman after the October death of Bob Moose. Additionally, the Bucco outfield was a very crowded house in 1976 with the likes of sluggers Al Oliver, Dave Parker, and Bill Robinson plus up-and-comers like Omar Moreno and Tony Armas.
