Pirates Trade Brad Lincoln For LF Travis Snider
The Pirates and the Blue Jays have made a trade! The Pirates will receive OF Travis Snider for RHP Brad Lincoln!
I dont know if I like this trade too much. I mean is Snider really the bat we’re going to get for Lincoln who has pitched stiller since being moved into the bullpen. Snider has battled injuries and the most games he has played in a season is 82 (in 2010). Snider’s career batting line is .247/.305/.429 and so far this year it looks like this .235/.270/.559 he also has 3 home rums.
Snider will be in a left field mix that includes Starling Marte, Drew Sutton and Alex Presley. Well we will just have to see how it works out. Snider will play whether its in LF or RF, but he will play! I would like to see Marte get a little bit more time with the big league club but i could also see him getting sent down relativity soon if he keeps swinging the bat the way he does.
Correia Requests Trade
Pirates RHP Kevin Correia lost his starting spot last week when the newly acquired Wandy Rodriguez was traded from the Astros last week has asked for a trade according to Rob Biertempfel of the Trib-Review.
Correia has pitched solid his last several outings. Since June 1st Correia is 7-1 in 46 innings with 29 ER’s and an ERA of 5.67. Which has made his stock go way up! Correia is in his final season of his 2 year $8MM.
For now according to Neal Huntington the plan is for Kevin to work out of the bullpen with some potential spot starts. Huntington did acknowledge that a move to the bullpen could damage Correia’s free agent value this offseason. Neal also said the team is open to trading Correia but only if it helps the Major League team better.
The pirates have put a high price tag on Kevin though according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
hear #pirates have put a high price tag on kevin correia (8-6, 4.24), one of the better pitchers ever bounced to the pen
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 29, 2012
Rob Biertempfel writes that the Pirates are still looking for an upgrade at a corner outfield spot, first base, or shortstop as well as bench help. Correia made his first relief appearance today and allowed four runs on five hits and a walk in just two innings, which certainly doesn’t make him any more attractive to other teams.
Pirates drop game 4 to the Astros 5 to 9.
The Pirates dropped the last game of a four game series to the Houston Astros by a score of 5 to 9.
The scoring went like this!
Astros - J.D. Martinez hit sacrifice fly to right, J. Altuve scored 0-1
Pirates – G. Jones homered to deep right, N. Walker scored 2-1
Astros - J. Schafer homered to deep right, C. Snyder scored 2-3
Astros – S. Moore singled to shallow right, J.D. Martinez scored 2-4
Astros J. Schafer grounded out to second, S. Pearce scored 2-5
Astros - S. Moore singled to shallow center, M. Gonzalez scored 2-6
Pirates - N. Walker doubled to center, J. Harrison scored 3-6
Astros - M. Gonzalez doubled to left, C. Snyder, M. Downs and J. Altuve scored 3-9
Pirates – J. Harrison scored, S. Marte to second on wild pitch 4-9
Pirates – N. Walker hit sacrifice fly to deep left center, S. Marte scored 5-9
James McDonald struggled again today giving up 5 runs on 6 hits with a whopping 7 walks which is a career high for him! He has really struggled since the all-star break having an ERA above 8. He is starting to look like his old self again he seems like he is in a hurry all of the time.
Batting Stats
S. Marte(CF) – 2/5 R
A. Presley(LF) – 1/5 3K’s
N. Walker(2B) – 1/3 R 2RBI’s BB K
G. Jones(RF) – 1/5 R 2RBI’s HR
C. McGehee(1B) – 1/5 2K’s
P. Alvarez(3B) – 2/3 BB K
M. McKenry(C) – 1/3 BB K
J. Mercer(SS) – 0/2
A. McCutchen(PH) – 0/1
K. Correia(RP)
D. Sutton(PH) – 0/1 K
J. Hughes(RP)
J. McDonald(SP) – 0/1 K
J. Harrison(SS) – 2/2 2R’s
Pitching Stats
J. McDonald (L, 10-5) 5.0IP 6H 5R 7BB 5K
K. Correia 2.0IP 5H 4R 1BB 2K
J. Hughes 1..0IP 1H
Sorry about the leave of absence!
Hey guy, sorry about the recant leave of absents I’ve been so caught up in my school work and our baseball season just got over. We lost in the Semi-finals. Oh well we will do better next year. But now I’m in Pittsburgh with my dad so I’ll be blogging a whole lot more and be going to more pirates games!
Right now the bucs are losing 0-5 against the red. I will have a full game analysis after the game!
Gerrit Cole
Clint hurdle say that Gerrit Cole will not make the team out of spring training but will have the chance to pitch during it. Cole will not be left in Pirate City when it becomes the minor league spring training, rather he will go with the team to Bradenton and pitch in some games against big league talent. I am just wondering how long it will be until we see Jameson Taillon. The Pirates had Taillon on a very strict pitch limit. Almost every outing last year was around four innings.
4 Pirates Make Baseball America’s top 100 Prospects
Gerrit Cole – 13
Jameson Taillon – 15
Josh Bell – 60
Starling Marte – 73
Luis Heredia - Honorable Mention
I think this is an okay list I would have liked to have seen some more names up there but it is what it is. I do like what our future pitching staff looks like with the potential one-two punch of Cole and Taillon. That in three to four years could be on of the best in the league. I honestly believe that we could be a contender in the next couple of years and that is something to look forward to that we as Pirates fans, have not really had!!
Always feel free to contact me with comments or future topics.
Thank you for reading!!
Kevin B.
pittsburgh.pirates.blog@gmail.com
“Mac Pack!”
The pirates are going to be adding another “Mac” to there “Pack” that is going to bring the total of “Mac”‘s to seven. We’ve got Andrew McCutchen, Daniel McCutchen, Micheal McKenry, James McDonald, Kyle McPherson and new comers Casey McGehee, and Nate McLouth. There are some good names in there.
Always feel free to contact me with comments or future topics.
Thank you for reading!!
Kevin B.
pittsburgh.pirates.blog@gmail.com
Erik Bedard
Reports out of Pirate City is that Erik Bedard is healthy.
“For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have to spend the offseason rehabbing [from an operation]. So, arm-wise, I’m way ahead of where I’ve lately been at this point,” Bedard said Tuesday morning, shortly prior to demonstrating that during a 35-pitch bullpen session at Pirate City. “I started throwing in December, like I used to [before the injuries]. After the surgeries, I wouldn’t be throwing until mid-January.”
Erik Bedard in his career is 56-50 with an ERA of 3.70 (Best on the Pirates as far as potential starting pitchers) and 926 strikeouts. Bedard bring a solid 4 pitch combination to Pittsburgh, he throws a fastball, cutter, and change-up that all break up and away, and a curve ball that breaks down and in. I think that Erik will be a good number 2 man in the Pirates rotation, that is of course if he can stay healthy.
Always feel free to contact me with comments or future topics.
Thank you for reading!!
Kevin B.
pittsburgh.pirates.blog@gmail.com
Burnett, Morton, Numbers, 6.5 Million, Nunez.
The News For Today:
- A.J. Burnett throws for the first time as a Pirate.
- Charlie Morton is “probably ahead of schedule”
- Number Changes.
- 6.5 Million
- Gustavo Nunez 60-Day DL
- Side Notes
A.J. Burnett
A.J. Burnett threw his first bullpen session today as a Pirate down in Pirates City. It is looking as if A.J. will be the number one in the Pirates rotation. I feel as if he will resurrect his career in Pittsburgh. It has shown that moving from the American League (ei: Javier Vazquez and Matt Garza). A.J. brings 4 pitches to Pittsburgh a 4-Seam fast ball, a Cutter, a sinker and a rarely used change up.
Charlie Morton
Rob Biertempfel tweets that Charlie Morton is ahead of schedule in his recovery from hip surgery that he had in October. It seems as if Charlie will still miss the start of the regular season. But when he comes back I can see him being moved into the starting rotation, especially if one of the starting five are struggling. I think Charlie will be one of the better pitchers on the Pirates roster this season!
Number Changes
Daniel McCutchen will go from number 34 to number 25.
Alex Presley will go from number 44 to number 7.
Jeff Locke will go form number 61 to number 37.
Chase d’Arnaud will go from number 12 to number 3.
Tony Watson will go from number 65 to number 44.
Josh Harrison will go from number 62 to number 5.
6.5 Million
The Pirates get $6,563,500 to spend, the 16th largest amount, according to Jim Callis. This includes the compensation pick for Ryan Doumit. Commissioner Bud Selig isn’t going to allow any more Josh Bell signings ever again, no sir.
Gustavo Nunez to 60-Day DL.
In order to make room on the 40-man roster for A.J. Burnett the Pirates had to move Nunez on to the 60-day DL. I thought that this might happen after we acquired Burnett because Nunez is a rule-5 draft pick we can not move him to the minors but we can put him on the DL because of his lingering right ankle injury. I thought we might get rid of Duke Welker just because he is a 26 year old who has never really pitched well and has not broken past Double-A .
Side Notes
Right-handers Gerrit Cole, Jared Hughes, and lefty Justin Wilson threw bullpen sessions today. Cole attracted huge crowds of fans to watch behind the bullpens.
GM Huntington on drawing more free agents to Pittsburgh:
“I think it just shows that we’re continuing to find ways to be creative, to add value in everything we do, to improve our ball club throughout whatever transaction that might present itself. We don’t want to be the first ones to get waiver claims. It’s not where you want to live. We were able to take advantage of that last year. The opportunity to be creative in trades is also important. We were able to be aggressive early in the free agent market, identified the guys we wanted to get and the guys that wanted to be here. I think slowly we are picking up some traction. I think the street cread has improved in the game. I think most of that comes from the person that plays here…We had a number of players pick up the phone and call guys if there was a connection, share information. So that all works for good.”
Always feel free to contact me with comments or future topics.
Thank you for reading!!
Kevin B.
pittsburgh.pirates.blog@gmail.com
