Sunday, April 6th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Ian Snell is still the Pirates’ stopper
After Paul Maholm and the rest of the Pirates put together a rather shoddy game Saturday night, losing 7-3 to a not very good Marlins team, Ian Snell and a patchwork lineup came back on Sunday to dismantle Florida by a score of 9-2 and salvage the trip. Snell, who last year was the stopper for the Pirates, always seeming to be the pitcher to pull the team out of a tailspin, was dominant on a day when the team desperately needed it, striking out 10 hitters in six innings.
On the radio broadcast, the announcers were very optimistic about Snell, saying that he just looked confident and, even before the start, saying that they thought he would have a good day. That is the intangible value that Snell brings to the Pirates, a confidence in himself that the rest of the team is completely lacking, a belief that he will be the pitcher to turn in that awesome performance and will his team to victory. Granted, that all may be a little bit dramatic, particularly when facing a Florida lineup that features luminaries such as Mike Jacobs (who seemed to be earning the Pirate-killer moniker earlier in this series) and Alfredo Amezaga.
Snell was still throwing the ball 93 mph in the sixth inning, his last, and just seemed so relaxed on the mound that the fact that he was going to turn in a strong start was very evident. Snell was not the interesting part of the Pirates’ lineup today, however, despite his strong performance. That honor almost certainly went to manager John Russell’s interesting lineup decisions. The lineup looked like this:
- Nyjer Morgan – CF
- Luis Rivas – SS
- Nate McLouth-LF
- Ryan Doumit – C
- Xavier Nady – RF
- Doug Mientkiewicz – 1B
- Jose Bautista – 3B
- Chris Gomez – 2B
- Snell – P
The first interesting aspect is that it featured none of the Pirates’ “name” players, with Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez sitting due to injuries and Jason Bay and Adam LaRoche sitting due to awful performances thus far. (If Bay and LaRoche don’t pick it up soon, the Pirates will be forced to find a spot for Steve Pearce just because he can’t possibly be worse than the two supposedly middle of the order hitters.) The patchwork lineup, featuring four players who started the season on the bench performed just fine, though, showing a patience that the normal lineup completely lacks.
Florida starter Rick VandenHurk, for instance, threw 75 pitches in 2.1 innings, as the Pirates’ starters allowed him to work deep into the count on almost every single batter. By constantly challenging him, the Pirates wore him down and were able to have “the big inning” with their four-run third inning. Those innings were very uncommon from the Pirates last year, but it would be good if they became common. (It should be noted that there wasn’t a Bay or a LaRoche in the lineup to kill the inning today.)
Nady stayed hot, belting a home run in the eighth inning and going 2-for-5 on the day. As long as he stays hot, his trade value keeps rising, meaning that the Pirates can get, well, something more than a bunch of the $1-on-Wednesdays-hot-dogs for him.
More importantly, the Pirates seem to have two breakout candidates in CF/LF McLouth and reliever Tyler Yates. McLouth went 3-for-5 from the third spot in the batting order today, raising his average in the six-game-old season to .429. Most importantly, McLouth looked comfortable in that spot and just swung the bat well, not making the lame outs and stupid decisions that plague, well, Bay and LaRoche (that is the third time I have referenced their failure thus far).
Yates looks like he could be the powerful right-handed setup man that the team thought they had in Salomon Torres. Now, there are four legitimately good pitchers in their bullpen (Yates, Matt Capps, Phil Dumatrait and, at least least night, Damaso Marte). If the four of them can be decent, the Pirates could make valiant efforts to hold leads. There, now that I’ve been optimistic for the day, let me throw in a nice dose of reality: Evan Meek does not belong in the major leagues.
There is no question that Meek belongs on a AA or AAA roster somewhere, not in a major league bullpen. The wildness that was his trademark in the minor leagues still plagues him and the Pirates really do not need Meek’s power righty skill set (if you can call it that) anymore as long as Yates is around. They should try to trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for his rights or else just return him to them. He will lose them more games this year, meaning every game he throws in, than he will help them out in. Meek is quickly becoming Evan “White Flag” Meek, which isn’t quite as good as John “White Flag” Wasdin, but is effective nonetheless.
With all of that said, today was a very nice reprieve from losing for the Pirates as the patchwork bench got the job done and left the magic number at 79, raising the team’s record back up to .500 in the process (Okay, that was sort of facetious, but true).
The home opener is tomorrow, so get out to the ballpark early and be some of the first to take advantage of the all you can eat section of the stadium as you watch Tom Gorzelanny face off against Ted Lily and the rest of the Chicago Cubs.
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