Pirates Extend Neal Huntington

Sorry about the late analysis of this huge news, but I've been extremely busy over the past day. Anyways, Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington had his contract extended for three years, through 2014, along with a club option that could keep him under contract through 2015. I, as many baseball people would agree, support this move made by Bob Nutting and Frank Coonely. Neal really did deserve the extension because although the Major Leafue team has had a terrible record during his time as GM, he should not be blamed because he took over a team that was washed up and playing poorly along with a minor league system that was in shambles. Through a plethora of moves, Neal has improved the Major Leafue team, although to this point, it's been just a marginal improvement. Most importantly, however, Neal has overhauled the minor league system through trades and drafting, which is the best way for small market teams like Pittaburgh to make a competitive team. During Neal's tenure, the Pirates have spent more Money on the draft than any other team in baseball. Through this, Neal has brought in players such as Pedro Alvarez, Chase D'Arnaud, Victor Black, Tony Sanchez, Zach Von Rosenburg, Nick Kingham, Colton Cain, Jameson Taillon, Stetson Allie, Mel Rojas, Gerrit Cole, Joah Bell and Alex Dickerson, among many others. The Pirates also have invested Heavily in Latin America, where so much baseball talent comes from, during Neal Hintington's tenure as GM, most Notably signing Luis Heredia out of Mexico. I will continue to evaluate Neal Hintington in future posts, but for now I got to run, Go Bucs! Great win tonight over the Cards to put the club at67-80 on the year!

Jeff Locke's Debut Recap

Written By Bloggin Buccos Contributer Michael Mawhinney:

On Saturday, Jeff Locke, a 23 year old left handed pitcher, made his debut in the majors.  He was originally drafted in 2006 by the Atlanta Braves in the 2nd round out of high school.  The Pirates acquired Locke from the Braves in 2009 in the Nate McLouth deal, which also brought us Charlie Morton and prospect Gorkys Hernandez.  

Locke spent the 2010 season between Bradenton (High-A) and Altoona (AA), putting up respectable numbers in both leagues.  Overall, he had a 12-5 record with a 3.56 ERA.  He put up great secondary numbers, with a 139/26 K/BB ratio.  Locke was also part of the Altoona rotation that was filled with prospects, and helped lead the team to the Eastern League Championship.  He started the 2011 campaign in Altoona, and he struggled early in the season.  A big reason for this was his control, as he let up 20 more walks in 19 less innings.  As the year progressed, he began to figure things out finished with a 4.03 ERA in AA before being called up to Indianapolis (AAA) in August.  While in Indy, he had a string of five solid starts, putting up a 2.22 ERA.  These performances led to his September call-up and his major league debut.  Overall, he had a 3.70 ERA with a 139/55 K/BB ratio in the minors.

Jeff Locke’s debut was not spectacular, but that was to be expected.  He wasn’t exactly lights out in the minors this year, so it was unlikely that he was going to have an exceptionally strong start.  His line ended up as 5.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 K, 4 BB.  As you can see, his control was not with him during the start.  He didn’t let up a lot of hits, but many of his outs were hard hit balls to the outfield that stayed up just long enough for our speedy outfielders to catch.  The most likely cause for the hard hit balls was that he was leaving the ball up in the zone too much, where major league hitters will make you pay.  Locke was getting away with this, however, until the 3rd inning where he allowed all of his three runs.  His strikeout pitch also was not working, and the only strikeout came against Anibal Sanchez, the opposing pitcher.  

Although much of his start was mediocre, I did notice some encouraging signs.  First, he was throwing his fastball in the 90-92 MPH range, which is encouraging considering he already has a lot of innings under his belt this year.  Also, he was not afraid to challenge hitters on the inside part of the plate, which is essential if you want to succeed in the majors.  Finally, he displayed a big breaking curve that induced some swings and misses.

Jeff Locke should continue to pitch out of the rotation for the remainder of the season, but since he already pitched over 150 innings in the minors, expect his starts to be limited to four to six innings.  If Locke can regain the control that he had in the 2010 season, he will be able to succeed at the major league level.  He has the upside of solid #3 starter, and could be up with the Pirates full time some time next summer.  With the rotation for next year having as many options as it does, it is very likely that he starts next season back in AAA.

September 11

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against America. Today we should take time to remember all of those people who lost their lives on that day and say a prayer for their families. It was indeed a very fateful day that led to even more lives lost because of the war started as a result of the attacks. That war is still being fought to this day and it appears that there is not much being accomplished for the amount of Money and lives that have been spent as a result of the war.

On this anniversary of that fateful day, there are two sporting events of much importance to fans. Starting at 1:00 PM, the Steelers play the Ravens in Baltimore, and at 1:35 the Pirates take on the Florida Marlins at PNC Park. In other sports news, The Pitt Panthers defeated the Maine Black Bears at Heinz Field by the score of 35-29. As a Pitt fan, I am discouraged by this score because Maine is clearly a far inferior opponent and Pitt should have won by a much larger margin. Tino Sunseri once again played poorly so a true Freshman former walk-on had to play quarterback for the Panthers. Pitt is going to really work through their issues this week in practice before they head off to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes in a very tough road test. The Pirates also played yesterday in a night game against the Marlins. Jeff Locke, who was acquired in the Nate McClouth trade made his major league debut and let up 3 runs in 5 innings.

Pittsburgh Sports Notes: Saturday September 10

Today was the Red, White, and Blue Race at Schenley Park. It was a great race by all and Shady Side did quite well. Next weekend the SSA Cross Country team is off to Altoona for a big race.
As a result of being at the SSA football game last night, in which they lost 30-0 against a very strong Seton La-Salle, led by running back Kevin Hart, I was unable to watch the Pirates play the Marlins. Quite honestly, I was happy I didnt watch because I can picture what happened pretty well. Ross Ohlendorf pitched a terrible game and that gave the Pirates virtually no chance to win. Ross Ohlendorf, with his age and poor performance this year is on the fast track to being non-tendered by the team this offseason. The pirates simply cannot afford to pay him millions of dollars for how poorly he is performing. Ross is a great and intelligent man and his true calling does not appear to be in professional baseball.
The Pitt Panthers (1-0) take on the Maine Black Bears (1-0) at 1:00 today at Heinz Field. This game should be a nice tuneup game to get the team ready for serious competition next weekend. Let's see if Pitt can truly be "High Octane" for the first time this year.
Well, I'm off to work at Shady Side then the big freshman welcoming dance is after that! I'll update the blog again by some point tomorrow at the latest.

Game 1 Preview: Pirates vs Marlins

Pirates (66-77) tonight: Presley 7, Walker 4, McCutchen 8, Lee 3, Doumit 2, Ludwick 9, Harrison 5, Ciriaco 6, Ohlendorf 1

Marlins (63-79) Tonight: Bonifacio SS, Infante 2B, Dobbs 3B, Stanton RF, Morrison LF, Lopez 1B, Petersen CF, Buck C, Nolasco P

The Pirates are coming off a series win at home against the Astros in which the pitching was solid and the offense was poor, as has been the case for most of the season. The pirates were expected to be a great hitting team this year but nearly every hitter has underperformed so far. The Pirates hitting coach is Gregg Ritchie, who was hired this year after spending previous seasons as the minor league hitting coordinator. Of course you cannot blame him alone, as these men are professional hitters, but a fresh face in the hitting coach position may do wonders to help out this offense.
The pitching matchup tonight is Ricky Nolasco (4.39 ERA) vs Ross Ohlendorf (6.35 ERA). Nolasco has been struggling of late, with an ERA of 9.27 in his past 4 starts. The pirates would love to take advantage of this tonight, but with Ciriaco and Harrison in the lineup, I'm not sure how likely that really is.

That's all I have time for today, Go Bucs and Go Shady Side! Let's beat Seton La-Salle tonight!

9/7/11 Game Analysis: Cutch puts da team on his back!

     Tonight really defined to me what it means to be a Pirates fan.  It is September, the Pirates are having another poor season (although respectable by recent standards), they are playing the worst team in baseball, and not to mention I have school tomorrow.  None of that matters to this Pirates fan because no matter what day of the year it is and how bad a day it may have been up until this point, the Pirates found a way to make my day.  It just does not matter to me how insignificant the game may seem, a Pirates win will always be a thing to be  cherished in my heart. 
     This game started out like a lot of other Pirates games.  A soft-tossing lefty was on the mound for the Pirates and pretty much right away began to get shelled, allowing three home runs in 3.2 innings.  The Astros sent out J.A. Happ to pitch and him and his 5.77 ERA mostly shut down the Pirates.  This would have been the case if not for Team MVP Andrew McCutchen.  Andrew hit two home runs off of Happ tonight to bring his season total to 22 on the year, and this makes it quite clear that his shake-weight is the reason for his mysterious power.
     After McCutchen's second home run that tied the game at 4-4, the Pirates offense was stymied until the 8th inning with one out, when in a bizzare series of events, the Pirates managed to score the go ahead run off of Jason Jaramillo's bat  and also run themselves out of the inning all in one play.  It did not matter because Joel Hanrahan came on in the 9th to pitch a perfect inning to record his 36th save of the year.  The win takes the Pirates to 66-77 on the year.

Game Notes:

• Jared Hughes made his Major League debut and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings while just allowing a hit.
• Chris Leroux continued his dominace with 1.2 innings of scoreless ball with two strikeouts
• Alex Presley and Derrek Lee each had two hits apeice tonight

Hero: Andrew McCutchen
Goat: Brian Burres   

First Pitch Thoughts: Pirates vs Astros 9/7/11

Lineup:
1.Presley7
2.Harrison 5
3.McCutchen 8
4.Lee 3
5.Walker 4
6.Ludwick 9
7.Cedeno 6
8.McKenry 2
9.Burress 1

Brian Burress starts tonight against a J.A. Happ who has had poor results so far this year.Pedro Alvarez is on the bench tonight after a poor performance again yesterday. McKenry is starting at Catcher, which is dissapointing because he had been poor for much of the year and Doumit has been great of late. Ryan Ludwick was reinstated from the DL today and is starting in RF. Ludwick will hopefully bring a boost to a struggling Pirates lineup tonight.

Let's Go Bucs!