Rebuilding Like You Read About | Pittsburgh Pirates

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:32 pm

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National League All-Stars @ American League All-Stars

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Safeco Field -- The American League all-stars were able to come through after losing last year. Anibal Sanchez got the nod for the NL while James Shields went for the AL. The Pirates righty Sanchez was the biggest story though. He gave up a 2-run homerun to Paul Konerko in the 2ND inning but he'll most be remembered for his K's. He put himself in the record books, he struck out 7 hitters to make him the single all-star game strikeout record as he excited a Seattle crowd in Washington. The NL got on the board in the 5th inning with an RBI single by Alex Rios but a 3-run homerun in the 6th inning by former Mariner Alex Rodriguez made it 5-1 AL. But coming off the bench, Prince Fielder gave the AL some hope in the 7th inning with a pinch hit 2-run homerun off of Jeremy Accardo to make it 5-3. But the AL would hold on for the win and give the American League Champion of 2012 home field advantage in the world series. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees won the all-star game MVP, his 3-run homerun was the difference in a 5-3 win.

3 - 5

WP: Shields | LP: Sanchez | SV: Balfour
HR: Rodriguez Konerko Fielder

Fielder: 1-1, 2-R HR
Rios: 1-3, RBI
Braun: 1-1
Hardy: 2-2
Beltran: 1-3, 2B
McCutchen: 0-1
Sanchez: 3 IP, 7 K, 2 R (L)

Rodriguez: 1-4, 3-R HR
Konerko: 2-3, 2-R HR
Mauer: 2-2, 2B
Sizemore: 1-2, 2B
Tejeda: 1-3
Shields: 3 IP, 3 K, 0 R (W)

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 4:35 pm

Pirates Sell Hansen and Wise to Cubs for Cash
The Pirates sent RHP's Craig Hansen and RHP Matt Wise to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for 5,000 points. With the Pirates in a struggle to stay out of the red, they sent two players over for money. Hansen was acquired as part of the Jason Bay deal and Matt Wise was acquired for Alfredo Amezaga. Both have spent a lot of time in AAA and weren't expected to do much except be a September call-up.

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:37 pm

Atlanta Braves(46-49)

Pittsburgh Pirates(56-39)

Pirates Explode In The 1st to beat Braves

July 19 -- Coming off of an all-star break, the Pirates jumped all over all-star Jair Jurrjens in the 1st inning to take control of the game and win. In the 1st inning, Doumit, Ikari and Jones all drove in runs to make it 3-0 and the 5-run 1st inning finally ended after a 2-run homerun by Ramon Vazquez to put the Braves in a huge hole. But Atlanta chipped away. Matt Diaz had an RBI double in the 5th inning and came around to score on a run-scoring single by Chipper Jones and then Yunel Escobar singled to right to make it 5-3 in the 6th inning. But behind Paul Maholm's quality start, the Bucs held on as Huston Street got his 30th save of the season making it 4 straight years for the Pirates having a closer with 30+ saves.

3 - 5

WP: Maholm (7-6) | LP: Jurrjens (8-5) | SV: Street (30)
HR: Vazquez(2)

Jones: 2-4, RBI
Escobar: 2-4, RBI
Diaz: 1-4, RBI 2B
Prado: 2-5
Jurrjens: 6 2/3 IP, 8 K, 5 R (L)

Vazquez: 1-3, 2-R HR
Young: 2-4, 2B
Doumit: 1-3, RBI
Jones: 1-4, RBI
Maholm: 7 IP, 6 K, 3 R (W)

Longball714 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:51 pm

30 saves on July 19th? Huston Street could make a run at K-Rod's record! Impressive! And overrated! :mrgreen:

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:31 pm

Pittsburgh Pirates(58-43)

Cincinnati Reds(50-51)

Werth and Maholm Help End Month On Strong Note

July 25 -- The Pirates have had a rough go of it after the all-star break and have gone 2-4 but prevented a sweep to the Reds in Cincy. Matt Fulmer made a spot start for the Reds today to get a few innings in and he has done well for the Reds this season(2.52 ERA). The Pirates scored once in the 5th inning with an RBI by A-Cab and they got 2 more runs in the 6th inning to go ahead 3-0. But maybe the highlight of the night came in the 8th inning with back-to-back homeruns by Jayson Werth and Garrett Jones to go ahead 5-1, which would be all that would be needed for Maholm who picks up his 2ND win after the all-star game.

5 - 2

WP: Maholm (8-6) | LP: Burton (0-2) | SV: Street (31)
HR: Bruce(22) Jones(25) Werth(21)

Ikari: 2-4, RBI Double
Carroll: 2-4, 2 2B
Werth: 1-3, HR
Jones: 1-4, HR
Cabrera: 2-4, RBI
Maholm: 7 IP, 6 K, 1 R (W)

Bruce: 1-4, HR
Balentien: 1-4, RBI
Taveras: 1-3, 2B
Votto: 2-4
Fullmer: 4 IP, 3 K, 0 R

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:34 pm

Chicago Cubs(53-49)

Pittsburgh Pirates(59-43)

Cubs Pitching Dominates In First Matchup Of Season

July 27 -- The Pirates and Cubs clashed off today for the first time in '12 and the Cubs reduced their deficit in the Central to 5 games after shutting out the Pirates at home. Southpaws Duke and Lilly faced off today but the Cubs got on top of Duke in the 5th inning when Ted Lilly chipped in with an RBI single and then Aaron Miles drove in another to make it 2-0. Chicago in the past few seasons haven't started Alfonso Soriano and now he's been starting with them releasing Reed Johnson and he homered in the 6th inning to make it 3-0. But that would be all the scoring in the game as Lilly went 7 shutout innings, only a few days ago Craig Hansen was a Pirate but he threw a 1-2-3 8th for the Cubs today and closer Aaron Heilman(2.72 ERA) closed it out for his 28th save of the season.

3 - 0

WP: Lilly (7-7) | LP: Duke (10-5) | SV: Heilman (28)
HR: Soriano(9)

Soriano: 2-4, RBI
Miles: 1-4, RBI
Baker: 1-3, 2B
Lilly: 7 IP, 8 K, 0 R (W)

McCutchen: 2-4, 2B
Doumit: 3-3, 2B
Jones: 1-4
Duke: 6 2/3 IP, 7 K, 3 R (L)

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:47 pm

Pirates Ship Cook to Texas For Blackburn and Prospect
July 28 -- The Pirates have made a surprising trade and have sent RHP Aaron Cook and RHP Virgil Vazquez to the Texas Rangers for former draft picks LHP Rich Blackburn and RHP Michael McConnell. The Pirates were very happy to pull this trade off as they got rid of the big contract of Aaron Cook's at 10,120 and got rid of his 5.81 ERA and 7-9 record, but he will still be remembered for what he did from '10-'11 as a big part of their playoff runs, Vazquez was just considered another key in the trade. The Rangers gave up McConnell, 25 years old(D control, C stamina, 90 MPH, FRK 3, SLD 1, CRV 1, Walk), he had a 10.1 ERA in very limited time and may get a chance in a year or two. But the Pirates got what they really wanted in Rich Blackburn. He's a 27 year old lefty out of Boston College and has 8 starts(12 games) with a 4.71 ERA. He was a great pick by the Rangers a few years ago(C control, B stamina, 95 MPH, KNCB 3, SLD 4, FRK 3) and he will be called up to be in the starting rotation and take up Cook's spot.

Longball714 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:35 pm

Wow, that was a very nice trade. I like it a lot. Exactly the type of trade the Pirates would make.

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:52 pm

Pittsburgh Pirates(61-45)

Florida Marlins(63-47)

McCutchen Comes Through To Cap 9th Inning Rally

July 31 -- The Pirates visited the MLB best Marlins in Miami for the first time this season, and it's not typo, the Florida Marlins have the best record in the major leagues. Rich Blackburn made his Pirates debut today and it was a good one, he gave up 1 run in 6 innings an the offense gave him help when up 1-0 in the 5th, Jeff Clement hit an opposite field 2-run shot and Rocco Baldelli homered in the 6th to make it 4-1. But Heath Bell would struggle for really the first time with the Pirates and he was beat around. In the 7th inning he gave up a 3-run homerun by homerun Carlos Delgado to tie the game and Hermida made it back-to-back with his 25th homerun to make 5-4 and show us the high powered offense the Marlins possess. But the Pirates got to Matt Lindstrom in the 9th(2.12 ERA,15 SV). With 0 outs, Ramon Vazquez blooped a fair ball down the left field line to tie the game at 5-5 and Andrew McCutchen had the big blow with a 1-out RBI single to give the Pirates the 6-5 win to seal up July.

6 - 5

WP: Beimel (3-1) | LP: Lindstrom (1-1) | SV: Street (33)
HR: Delgado(38) Hermida(25) Clement(3) Baldelli(7)

McCutchen: 2-5, 2 RBI, 2B
Vazquez: 4-4, RBI
Baldelli: 2-4, HR
R.Blackburn: 6 IP, 5 K, 1 R

Delgado: 1-4, 3-R HR
Hermida: 2-4, HR
Maybin: 1-4, RBI
Garland: 7 IP, 8 K, 4 R

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:14 pm

Pirates July In Review

The Pirates have cruised along this season and went 14-11 in July while taking a 7 game lead over the Brewers and an 8 game lead over the Cubs. The Pirates had a tough time scoring runs this month scoring about 40 less than in usual months but yet no team in the NL Central could take advantage of that and its to the point where the Brewers look like they have the only chance because the Brewers play at least 10 more against the Pirates with the last 4 games against the Pirates this season. The Pirates pitching was good once again but they got rid Aaron Cook who had struggled the most this season and they welcomed Rich Blackburn who is an up and coming 27 year old lefty. Duke and Lohse both have 10 wins to lead the team even though Maholm and Sanchez have done the best ERA-wise, Maholm's is 3.87 and Sanchez has a 2.36 ERA but is only 7-4. The offense did have some bright spots though. Cabrera has risen his average .70 points since coming to Pittsburgh, Werth and Jones are having 20+ homerun season and are on pace to both hit 30 homeruns, Doumit is hitting .300 with 12 homeruns, McCutchen is having another great year but the 2nd basemen position is still a problem while Ikari has not shown much power this year despite the raised average. In August the Pirates will see a few teams for the first time such as the Mets, Phillies, Giants and Nationals while they also travel to Colorado for the first time this season.

Pittsburgh Pirates : 62-45

Milwaukee Brewers : 55-52

Chicago Cubs : 54-53

Cincinatti Reds : 52-55

St Louis Cardinals : 51-55

Houston Astros : 40-67

Major League Baseball Division Leaders

AL Wild Card

NL Wild Card

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:30 pm

Pittsburgh Pirates(64-46)

Colorado Rockies(61-49)

Homeruns Play Huge Role As Rockies Win Slugfest

August 4 -- The Rockies were able to come away in the high-powered scoring game where the Rockies scored 9 of 10 runs on homeruns. The Rockies started off hot with a 3-run homerun in the 1st inning by Alex Rios but the Pirates would score 3 in the 2nd inning and then a 2-run homerun by Jayson Werth in the 4th made it 5-3. But Shane Victorino had probably the biggest hit of the game, a grand slam homerun to make it 7-5 Rockies in the 4th inning. Ryan Doumit would cut it to a 1-run game with an RBI single in the 5th inning but Tulowitzki would make the lead larger in the 7th inning with a 2-run shot and it was 9-6. But the Asrubal Cabrera hit a 2-run double in the 8th inning to make it a 1-run game and with the tying run on 2nd base, Manny Corpas got out of the 8th inning still leading. A wild pitch would score a key run in the 8th inning and make it 10-8 while Manny Corpas got the 5 out save for his first save of the season.

8 - 10

WP: Francis (9-7) | LP: Maholm (8-7) | SV: Corpas (1)
HR: Victorino(13) Rios(27) Tulowitzki(15) Werth(27)

Werth: 2-5, HR
McCutchen: 1-4, 3 RBI
Doumit: 2-4, RBI, 3 R
Cabrera: 1-4, 2-R Double
Maholm: 4 2/3 IP, 6 K, 7 R (L)

Victorino: 1-5, Grand Slam
Rios: 2-4, 3-R HR
Tulowitzki: 2-4, 2-R HR
Torrealba: 3-4
Francis: 5 IP, 0 K, 5 R (L)

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:34 pm

Philadelphia Phillies(54-59)

Pittsburgh Pirates(66-47)

Duke Strikes Out Career High 14 In Dominating Effort

August 9 -- The Pirates have swept an offensively struggling Phillies ball club under Zach Duke's most dominating effort of the season. Despite adding Carlos Beltran in the offseason, the Phillis offense has struggled due to the losses of Victorino, Feliz, Werth and Rollins in the last few years. Duke struck out 14 today for a personal career high while going 8 shutout innings against an offense that has 5 starts that are lefty which definitely helped Duke's performance when in other years he'd have to face righties Feliz, Rollins(switch), Victorino(switch), Ruiz and Jayson Werth. The Pirates scored 4 runs to help him, two on a homerun by Garrett Jones in the 1st and two more on RBI singles by McCutchen and Cabrera.

0 - 4

WP: Duke (12-5) | LP: Kendrick (7-10)
HR: Jones(27)

Utley: 1-3
Beltran: 1-4, 2B
Kester: 1-3
Kendrick: 4 2/3 IP, 4 K, 4 R (L)

Jones: 3-4, 2-R HR
McCutchen: 2-5, RBI
Werth: 1-4, 2B
Cabrera: 1-4, RBI
Duke: 8 IP, 14 K, 0 R (W)

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:59 pm

San Fransisco Giants(62-52)

Pittsburgh Pirates(67-47)

Jonathan Sanchez comes through for Giants in potential Postseason matchup

August 10 -- If the season was to end today, in the postseason the NL Central leading Pirates would be taking on the NL Wild Card leading Giants and in the 1st matchup of the season Jonathan Sanchez pretty much shut down the Pirates bats at home. Pablo Sandoval hit a solo homerun in the 1st inning off of Sanchez, Werth tied it with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half thats all the Pirates could get. Molina singled in two runs in the 3rd inning and Aaron Rowand singled in the 8th inning to make it 4-1 for Jonathon Sanchez who looked like Anibal Sanchez tonight going 7 2/3 innings of 1-run ball and striking out 8 to beat the Pirates at PNC Park.

4 - 1

WP: Sanchez (8-5) | LP: (10-3) | SV: Wilson (18)
HR: Sandoval(20)

Sandoval: 1-4, HR
Rowand: 2-4, RBI
Molina: 1-4, 2-R Single
Sanchez: 7 2/3 IP, 8 K, 0 R (W)

McCutchen: 1-4, SB
Werth: 0-3, Sac Fly
Lohse: 7 IP, 3 K, 3 R (L)

jacobye46 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:01 pm

Philadelphia Phillies(56-61)

Pittsburgh Pirates(68-49)

Hart Delivers In Spot Start While Street Holds On To Win

August 13 -- Without a rested enough starter, the Pirates decided to start Kevin Hart against the Phillies and it worked as he went 6 shutout innings striking out a season high 8 hitters. The Pirates scoring started in the 1st inning by former Phillie Jayson Werth who homered for the 30th time this season. Baldelli drove in a 5th inning run and the Pirates scored 2 in the 7th with a homerun by Jones and another RBI by Baldelli to make it 4-0. But the big man Ryan Howard tagged Carmen Pignatiello(who has not been effective at all this season,10.3 ERA in limited time), with a towering opposite field 2-run homerun to make it 4-2 in the 7th. The Pirates felt comfortable as they led 5-2 going to the 9th inning and having Huston Street on the mound who has gotten his ERA to 3.53. But the Phillies were on the attack against Street, Snelling singled to begin the bottom of the 9th and then Utley doubled to set up 2nd and 3rd for Howard who was intentionally walked to get to powerful Gregg Dobbs. But Dobb popped up for the 1st out, then Ibanez hit a sacrifice fly and Street would have no problem getting Bruntlett out for the 3rd out of the game giving the Pirates a chance to exhale and giving another win after getting 8 of them from being in the bullpen.

5 - 3

WP: Hart (9-5) | LP: Hamels (5-9) | SV: Street (35)
HR: Jones(28) Werth(30) Howard(26)

Baldelli: 2-5, 2 RBI
Werth: 2-5, HR
Jones: 1-5, HR
Doumit: 2-4
Hart: 6 IP, 8 K, 0 R (W)

Howard: 1-2, 2-R HR
Utley: 2-4, 2 Doubles
Snelling: 2-4, 2B
Hamels: 6 IP, 9 K, 2 R (1 ER) (L)

PowerPro Jr · **Posted:** Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:26 pm

I would like to be Blackburn's agent. Also, all my current clients would like to know their current stats.

Power Pros Forum

Rebuilding Like You Read About | Pittsburgh Pirates

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