Bucs Pound Lowly Reds Third Straight

The Pirates have scored 4 or more runs in 14 May games and won 10 of them. That's the good news. The flip-side is that their opponents have scored 4 or more in 18 and won 13 of them. Thus the Pirates 10-15 record in May.

Over the last three games the Pirates have racked up 40 hits and 33 runs in 28 innings of baseball. To their credit, they have been 'clutch' when they needed to be, patient when they needed to be, and even hit the occasional long ball.

Now, is all this because we are getting on track, because we have played three games at a low humidity, high temperature Great American Park, or a combination of both?

It's neither, you're right.

It's because we are facing significantly inferior pitching who all seem to be taking the mound without any clue what so ever about the batters they are going to face. It's almost like they just don't care.. like they are all hurt or sick. We only wish our bats were this good, our advance scouting so adept, and our game so tight.

The Reds pitching machine has allowed a .412 on base percentage (56 of 136 batters have reached) and that has resulted in a dismal 10.29 ERA in the series. Reds starters alone have allowed a .459 OBP and have a 9.75 ERA over the three games. You can take a little league team and watch them beat the Yankees with those kind of numbers in their basket.

So don't be fooled one bit by all this run scoring.

In fact, the hidden numbers tell us our pen has allowed a ridiculous 8.05 ERA and a .373 OBP too. You aren't going to win many ballgames with a pen throwing that poorly. Our starters have kept us in the games with a 4.74 ERA and .365 OPB - but notice how high the OBP is even with the starters.

Way too high.

You can blame it on Great American Park playing small right now, or you can be realistic and realize our pitching is horrid , especially our pen which is non-existent, and realize the next 35 games has a major spanking in store for us before the break:

23 games at PNC against an average .507 win % team; and
12 games on the road against an average .501 win % team.

35 total games against an average .505 win % team

Oh - I forgot to mention that 6 of the 11 teams we face are all in the top 10 for lowest team ERA in baseball the last 30 days, and only 1 team is in the bottom 10 - Texas.

While I pray our offensive output against the Reds (third poorest team ERA staff last 30 days) translates against some of the best staffs in baseball in the next 35 games, I know better. You should too.

I can only imagine what is going to happen over the next 20 days. The Pirates are setup for a major downturn, the draft is coming where the organization might not take the best player available, and by the break the Pirates could be 14 games out of first in the cellar.

Easily.

What does the organization do then?

Ok - with a little luck and the hope a few teams come to play us unprepared thinking we are an easy kill, we just might win a few more than expected. Might. Maybe.

And pigs fly too.

Sunday's game was another pound fest and not worthy of discussion. Both pitching staffs looked like little league teams. For those batters like Bay that improved their averages because of it, good for them.

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As I speculated yesterday, Brian Rodgers was given a bus ticket to Indy. The Pirates replaced him on the roster with Josh Sharpless.

Man.. talk about trading one garbage pitcher for another.. it's a dysfunctional cycle. First McLeary, then Rogers, now Sharpless.

Josh has been getting creamed in a very poor hitting league this year. His BB/9 is off the charts at 5.49 and his BABiP is well over .300. And the worst part about it is that he has continually tanked since the start of the season.

To give you an idea of what I mean, in his last 5 games Sharpless has faced 43 batters in 10 innings of work, thrown 173 pitches, walked 4, and gave up 6 earned runs. That's a 5.40 ERA in a very, very weak league.

Why not bring up Franquelis Osoria (3.00 ERA last 5 games)? You're right - because that would require the Pirates dropping someone off the 40-man. But with Wasdin on the DL, Osoria could be added so there's really no excuse. And you know what, I wouldn't be disappointed one bit if Wasdin was released anyway.. or Armas.. or..

Geez.. it's amazing how little depth we have considering all the blasted relievers Dave Littlefield has amassed in his trades?

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I was asked by a reader to breakdown Capps stats since the May 6th game when he threw at Fielder's head. Here it is:

April 2 - May 5: 17 games, 1.76 ERA, .204 BAA
May 6 - May 26: 11 games, 5.11 ERA, .286 BAA

But that's not too unusual to see a reliever start off well and then tank a bit as the bats heat up. It's what he does from this point forward that matters, and so far he is off to a rough start:

May 18 - May 26: (last 5 games) 6.00 ERA, .292 BAA.

I can't wait to see how his straight heater fares against the Yankees, Mariners, Angels, Rangers, White Sox, etc.. in the next couple of weeks. I should take bets on how many batters he plunks in frustration. Hmm.. maybe not.. he's one-inch away from being suspended now and only because the Commissioner's Office knows the Pirates are in deep, deep bullpen do-do have they postponed his hearing, I assume. McClatchy is good for something, I guess.

Oh man, and we're only 6 games into a 20 day, 20 game stretch.

I wonder who we have available to pitch in AA? Oh wait, they are on a 1-10 skid.

Wow. It just gets better and better.

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Maybe I shouldn't mention that we face the Padres starting Tuesday for three and they are sending LHP David Wells (4.85 ERA), RHP Chris Young (2.70 ERA), and RHP Greg Maddux (1.63 ERA) to the mound against us. Oh - and Trevor Hoffman now has 14 saves in a bullpen that doesn't even have one pitcher over a 3.50 ERA on their active roster. Not one.

Wow.

Get to know this name: Kevin Kouzmanoff. Don't forget I told you to remember it.

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Remember me pushing Littlefield to go after Casey Kotchman? He was available - for the right price. I can't remember how many people emailed me and told me Kotch was garbage - that LaRoche was the real deal.

Man, is he on fire.