Thursday, September 6th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Rick Ankiel: Pirate Killer
[Ed. The timing of this article was terrible. It appears that Ankiel (along with Troy Glaus) has been linked to some HGH shipments, although he stopped receiving them before they were officially banned by the MLB.]
The Pirates really don’t need to go up against feel-good stories anymore. Josh Hamilton has already destroyed them this year and I’m pretty sure that Danny Almonte will be making his major league debut against them in 10 years. After Mark Prior pitches a perfect game to beat them on opening day next season. Why can’t the Pirates ever have their own feel good story? Honestly, why couldn’t Brian Bullington or John Van Benschoten come back from their massive arm surgery to have a good game? Oh, that’s right. This is Pittsburgh, not Indianapolis.
Rick Ankiel is undoubtedly the comeback player of the year. Coming back from the type of total breakdown that he had is one of the most impressive feats seen in baseball this decade and deserves to be honored.
It also says something about the Pirates that when other teams call players up they are successful, but when the Pirates call a player up he gives up five runs in three innings (Bullington) or five runs in 1.1 innings (Van Benschoten).
The game isn’t any better if you consider that Steve Pearce went 0-for-4 with four runners left on base.
Positives are hard to find with the Pirates, particularly when they have a shortstop hitting .409 since August 1 who believes that he is on his farewell tour as a Pirate. At least he’s increasing his trade value for the offseason.
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