Be Like Tike

Friday, August 3rd, 2007 by Adam Wagner

What the Cardinals Made Obvious

The Pirates emerged victorious from Thursday’s game with the St. Louis Cardinals, winning their first series since July 8. The five-series-long losing streak came to a sudden end yesterday as Jose Castillo made a rare contribution with a pinch-hit eleventh inning single to lead the Pirates to the 5-4 victory. It is nice for the Pirates to win a series, but does it really mean anything? Probably not. It just makes it more fun to be at the stadium. Sometimes. More notes after the jump:

Ronny Paulino’s laziness cost the Pirates a win. It is unacceptable for a player to loaf in the manner that Paulino has recently especially when the margin of error is as low as it is for this team. Paulino should have had a ticket to Indianapolis left in his locker Tuesday night or at least spent a couple of days riding the pine.
With that said, it seems as if either the fans’ or Jim Tracy’s disapproval have lit a small fire under Paulino, as he has hit home runs in two consecutive games now (the grand slam Wednesday and the sixth-inning solo shot Thursday). It’s highly unlikely that he can be the .310 hitter of last year, but he’s nowhere near as bad as he has shown to this point this season. Of course, he still bunted into a double play Thursday.
Paul Maholm is the ace of the Pirates staff right now and it’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s bad because it means that Snell and Gorzo (who is hurt, so it’s probably not fair to take that shot at him) are flat-out not performing right now, but it’s good because it means that one of the young pitchers is turning into a consistent option, which this team desperately needs right now. Maholm’s ERA has been on a steady drop from the 5.82 mark it was at after his May 20 start against Arizona to the 4.50 point that it’s at right now. He has also gone at least six innings in his last nine starts and given up three or fewer earned runs seven of those nine times. Consistency. It’s a nice trait for a team to have.
Tony Armas’ win Wednesday night was a long time coming. Ten months to be exact.
If Armas’ start can be taken as an indication of Colborn’s skill as a pitching coach, we can assume that he has the ability to rebuild veterans (Armas and Chacon) and ruin young starters (Duke, JVB, possibly overworking Gorzo). That’s not something that a team like the Pirates can afford to have occur to its most valuable assets.
Jason Bay’s double Wednesday night was his first since June 26. So not only has he been sapped of home run power, but he hasn’t even come close. At all. As if we all needed statistical proof of that.
Freddy Sanchez looked very good at secondbase Wednesday. That is one of the first times in a while that I can justifiably say that and it’s good to see that Freddy is beginning to develop sort of a comfort level at his “new” position (yes, I know he played it in the minors and that he’s been there all year . . . he’s just looked terribly uncomfortable).
The Pirates should try to trade for Chris Duncan. Anyone who hits a vendor’s tray with a bat is cool by me, especially when said vendor is known to stand directly in the line of site and scream when action is occurring.
Shane Youman has the ability to walk as many hitters as he strikes out as he has kept the two numbers within one of each other in each of his starts this season. It is also interesting that Tracy only gave him 88 pitches through five innings in today’s start.
Jose Bautista returned to the lineup and I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing. On one hand, Bautista probably has the most untapped potential of any position player outside of maybe Castillo on the roster. On the other hand, it would have been very cool to see them put Xavier Nady at 3B and I’m still amazed that they didn’t try it while Bautista was out. At least the return of Bautista means no more appearances for Matt Kata.
When the Cardinals leave 11 men on base, Tony La Russa says, “We just lost a game we should have won.” When the Pirates leave 11 men on base, Jim Tracy makes excuses, talks about how much better the team will be, and pontificates on wasted opportunities.
Jose Castillo? Clutch? Um, does anyone else remember a game against the Reds in, I believe, the summer of 2004 when Randall Simon ~~hit~~ golfed a homerun in the the top of the 9th to win the game 1-0? People tried calling him clutch, too.
Masumi Kuwata walked two batters in an inning of work. He’s not the type of pitcher that should pitch to more than one batter simply because his stuff is so bad that hitters will eventually just wait for a fat pitch or let him walk them.
Steve Pearce is continuing to be successful at AAA. Let’s keep Jeff Manto away from this guy, please.
John Van Benschoten had a solid start immediately after leaving Pittsburgh and Jim Colborn, giving up four hits over six scoreless innings. He still struggled with control, however, as he only struck out three while walking four. I don’t think that the ability to work out of jams as soon as he escaped Colborn is a coincidence, as JVB is definitely a Russian roulette sort of pitcher who just happened to be firing the wrong chamber during his time in Pittsburgh but was immediately able to pull the proper chamber as soon as he returned to Indianapolis.
Optimism can be allowed, as winning cures all; but remember, this is still the third or fourth worst team in baseball. They were just able to beat a very beleaguered Cardinals club that they should be able to beat routinely. This is still the Nutting/Littlefield Pirates.