JvB: Throwing on a Toasted Arm

Bucco Blog told our readers to add JvB to their red flag notebook after he threw 35 pitches in his last inning of work which was a career high for him. True to form, JvB hit the mound Wednesday and his control was so poor he walked 26% of the batters he faced.

In the fourth inning, Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit was so frustrated with home plate umpire Greg Gibson, he didn't even move his mitt on a 92 mph heater that was thrown, and hit, Gibson square in the mask for ball four to Alfredo Amezaga. Needless to say, the next four pitches were all called balls by Gibson and the third batter of the inning walked.

JvB did not return to pitch the 5th after throwing 28 pitches in the 4th and 81 pitches overall. He has two more scheduled starts before the All-Star Game - against the Brewers and Cubs - both at PNC. I doubt he will be removed from the rotation unless he injured himself in Wednesday's outing, but don't expect to see quality starts from him until after he rests his arm over the break.

The Pirates scored two runs in the 3rd when Duffy walked and Bautista homered, one in the 4th when Nady homered, and two in the 5th when Bautista walked, Sanchez singled with Bautista going to second, LaRoche then singled home Bautista and Sanchez went to third, and Bay hit a sac fly to score Sanchez.

The Marlins had tied the game in the 8th inning off our bullpen and in the 10th Nady and Doumit went yard back-to-back to put the Pirates up by two and we would go on to win just the second game out of the last seven. It would be the first time this year the Pirates hit four home runs in one game.

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Nady just passed Bay in number of home runs this year? Yup - that has to help Littlefield's cause some since giving away Perez for him.

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Hey - let's take MLB's most hittable pitcher and put him on the mound in a day game in Miami! What a novel idea, especially since it is also a getaway day. I'm sure the players appreciate that.

But hold on, there is some hope. There is a tropical wave off Florida that is expected to drench the state Thursday so there is an 80% chance this game will not be played anyway.

Whew.

If that happens, will Tracy move the starters back a day? I would assume so.

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I've been asked a lot the last week what has happened to the Pirates lately? The fans seem to want to look at May 30th as the key turn-down date.

From the 30th thru June 26th we went 9-16, fell from second in the division to fifth, Paulino, Doumit, Bay, and LaRoche have a combined .638 OPS, and the team has averaged just 3.2 runs per game while allowing 5.3 runs - a 52 run deficit.

So what happened on the 30th the fans are looking at?

That was the magical day ex-Pirate prospect Chris Young tossed a four-hit shutout at us at PNC and Jonah Bayliss threw sixteen pitches issuing two walks and a grand slam blowing open the game. The very next day the Pirates were winning 2-0 into the 9th when Torres blew a save and Sharpless later threw ten pitches giving the Padres two runs to win.

Those were two humbling back-to-back losses, to be sure. Since then, Torres was removed as the closer, the bullpen has accumulated more frequent flyer miles in the last month than in the last five years combined, and everyone is blaming everyone else for the woes.

But May 30th wasn't the day the Pirates died, May 19th was as we have only won 38% of our games since the day Sanchez couldn't turn one double play.

Yet it's been amplified since May 30th with all the angry fans, players calling out each other, the GM telling the media it's the player fault for poor performances, and so on and so forth.

Ian Snell said the other day this team is significantly better than they have been playing. I suppose that could be said about every team. After all, baseball is a game of luck and the teams that make the fewest errors, and/or are better at capitalizing on opposing team errors or miscues, typically win a lot more games.

Nothing the Pirates have up their sleeve is going to change the winning percentage of this team. We need at least another half-run per game of offense, significantly better bullpen depth, and, as Snell said, the heart to win from the top down.

Until that happens, look for us to continue wining about 42% of our games overall.

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Did the Royals just sweep the Angels? Rea-lly.

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Bixler, Bullington, and DeCaster have been selected to play in the AAA All-Star Game this year. Congrats to them, although I have to wonder if Bullington will be/should be making the trip.

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