The first week of the baseball season is one of the best times of the year for any baseball fan. First and foremost, the euphoria of watching baseball games that count can not be underestimated. But, in addition to the giddiness that accompanies any new baseball season, there is also a sort of hyperactivity. Fans are so happy to see baseball again that everything gets magnified. Poor performances that would normally get unnoticed in July, are cause for major alarm in April. Conversely, any positive is also overanalyzed to ridiculous extremes. With that climate in mind, it is important for teams with less than stellar prospects to get out of the gate with a few good performances under their belt. If not, a sense of hopelessness can quickly set in. That being said, now that the first week of the 2005 baseball season is officially in the books, you may want to remove any sharp objects from the vicinity of any Pirates fan that you know.

The Bucs' first week exposed many of the darkest fears of even the most faithful of fans. Would the offense be able to score enough runs? Would the team's big two pitchers be effective enough to carry the rotation. Would the team's defensive shortcomings be their undoing? The games of the the season's first week would prey on these fears in the most public of ways.

Still despite rubbing salt in these open wounds, the results of the past week are hardly the end of the world. If these games happened in July, it would've been chalked up as merely a rough week. But since it occurred at the the start of the season it registers as one of the signs of the apocalypse.

It should be no surprise that the Bucs would have trouble scoring runs. It was no secret coming into this season that the lineup was severely lacking in run producers. When you have an offensive like the one the Bucs send out, there will be stretches where runs are tough to come by. Unfortunately for the Bucs, this stretch came at the start of the season. The Bucs' offense is not good by any measure, but it's not as bad as it has shown either. Runs will come. Maybe not enough to produce a winner, but they will come.

On the same note, the big two will also come around. Both Oliver Perez and Kip Wells have scuffled out of the gate, but I chalk up a lot of their troubles to that fact that neither had a complete spring training. If both can remain healthy, I think their final numbers will be more than respectable.

It's also worth pointing out that with all of the accolades that were heaped upon Perez during the off-season, it is easy to forget that he is only 23 years old. He has out-of-this-world ability, but he still has a lot of learning to do before he becomes the next Randy Johnson. He will have his ups and downs. We got a small taste of the downs this week -- the ups will come soon enough.

The disappointment of the season's first week aside, the Bucs will get better. The first week was a cold slap of reality after the lukewarm optimism of spring training. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Like most fans, I would have preferred that the Bucs started the season with a string of victories. It didn't happen. Sometimes, a little jolt of reality can be just the thing to get things started right.

The Pirates have a long road ahead, but the journey has hardly ended before it got started.

<__trans phrase="Posted by"> <__trans phrase="at"> 9:02 PM | <__trans phrase="Permalink"> | <__trans phrase="Comments"> (1)

I am beginning to think that the Bucs have the worst luck of any organization in the major leagues. Yesterday, the wire reports were abuzz with headlines that three Pirates had tested positive for steroids. The news, in of itself, is not too surprising. It seemed inevitable that the steroids scandal would touch the Pirates, but the timing couldn't have been worse. The day before, it was announced that 38 minor leaguers from various organizations had also been suspended.

Thanks to the vagaries of the national news cycles, the news that 3 Pirates tested positive last year got quickly overshadowed the fact that 38 minor leaguers tested positive this spring. This was despite the fact that two of the offending Bucs (Jon Nunnally and Brian Mallette) weren't even with the organization when they tested positive. This was also despite the fact that in the group of 38 announced the day before, the Mariners (8), the Cubs (7), the Angels (5), the Athletics (5), the Rangers (5) and the Padres (4) all had more players suspended than the Pirates. However, because the news of the Pirate suspensions happened a day later, the Pirates got singled out.

In the larger scheme of things, it's not really a big deal. No doubt, more suspensions will come -- likely touching every major league organization. The PR hit was not severe, and will likely not have any long-lasting implications for the team. It was just a minor embarrassment, but unfortunately it was one minor embarrassment in a long line of minor embarrassments. Twelve consecutive losing seasons will do that.

The national media love to typecast, and the Bucs have been typecast as losers. Part of this is justified, but part is because it makes easy copy. Winning will cure all, but the more the minor embarrassments add up, the harder it will be to shake the the image they had been cast.

<__trans phrase="Posted by"> <__trans phrase="at"> 9:53 PM | <__trans phrase="Permalink">

I am always looking for new ways to show my stupidity. In that spirit, I present my foolish predictions for the 2005 season. After the season, I will dig these up and laugh at how wrong I was. Here goes:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Central
Minnesota Twins
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals

West
Seattle Mariners
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Oakland Athletics
Texas Rangers

MVP David Ortiz
Cy Young Johan Santana
Rookie of the Year Jeremy Reed
Manager of the Year Alan Trammel.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

East
Atlanta Braves
Florida Marlins
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Washington Nationals

Central
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers

West
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Ariona Diamondbacks
Los Angeles Dodgers
Colorado Rockies

MVP Albert Pujols
Cy Young Tim Hudson
Rookie of the Year J.J. Hardy
Manager of the Year Bruce Bochy

POSTSEASON

ALDS Twins over Yankees
ALDS Red Sox over Mariners
ALCS Twins over Red Sox

NLDS Marlins over Cardinals
NLDS Braves over Padres
NLCS Marlins over Braves

World Series Marlins over Twins

<__trans phrase="Posted by"> <__trans phrase="at"> 9:17 PM | <__trans phrase="Permalink"> | <__trans phrase="Comments"> (4)

Spring training was fairly uneventful for the Bucs. There were some promising performances from some youngsters (Ryan Doumit, I am looking at you) and some uninspiring performances from some veterans (so long, Mr. Grieve). There were also some bumps and bruises, but for the most part the team managed to reach the end of spring without any major injuries. Just when it looked like the team would start the season without incident, manager Lloyd McClendon had to go and drop a bombshell onto the heads of the Pirate faithful: Tike Redman would likely bat third to start the season.

Like most fans, I had just about finished conditioning myself to the fact that Tike would actually be playing, let alone playing an important role for this team. During the off-season, I had hopes that someone would be brought in that would move Tike to the bench. It didn't happen. To his credit, Tike put forth a decent spring training. He put up a solid spring batting average and was reportedly showing better instincts in the field. The former was probably applicable to the small sample size, while the latter could be chalked up to typical spring optimism. But what the hell, I can play along. But despite these small concessions, the fact of the matter is that nothing happened to make anyone believe that Tike wasn't still Tike.

That's what makes McClendon's announcement about Tike batting third so odd. He never profiled like a guy that could hit third. In fact, he has done nothing to suggest he should be hitting anywhere other than at the bottom of the lineup. In four major league seasons, Tike has a respectable .286 batting average. However his career OBP is a mere .319, indicating that Tike has yet to find a way to get on base other than getting a hit. Worse yet, his career .394 slugging percentage indicates that he is, at best, a punch and judy hitter.

The optimists among us might suggest that perhaps Tike is on the verge of some kind of breakout. He just turned 28 and that is an age that many players blossom. Perhaps, but I am not expecting any kind of career surge from the guy. His career minor league numbers are remarkably similar to what he has produced thus far in the majors (.269 BA, .330 OBP, .374 SLG in 7 minor league seasons). I think that with a lot of players, what you see is what you get, and Tike is one of those players.

For a long time, the organization seemed determined to prove that Tike was a leadoff guy. This was mainly due to the outdated perception that speed was the essential ingredient for a leadoff hitter. McClendon finally seemed to abandon this notion after Tike got off to a horrible start last season. McClendon moved him down in the order and he seemed to produce (relatively speaking). With the acquisition of Matt Lawton, the idea of batting Tike leadoff was a non-issue. But if he doesn't bat leadoff, just where should he bat? He doesn't really fit anywhere in the lineup (one of the reasons I was hoping that he would have been forced to the bench this spring). If he's going to be in there, he should be hitting towards the bottom of it. Unfortunately, the Bucs have a number of guys who fit that bill. In addition to Tike, Ty Wigginton, Benito Santiago and Jose Castillo all have to bat somewhere in the lineup and they all can't bat seventh and eighth.

Putting together the best lineup utilizing the talent the Pirates have available is reminiscent of one of those brain teasers. You know the kind. At face value it seems deceptively simple, but the more you work it, the more maddening it becomes. Apparently, working with this particular brain teaser has knocked a few of McClendon's screws loose. It's the only explanation I can give for even considering batting Redman third. There is just no logic in putting a guy like Redman in the heart of a batting order. The only thing I can figure is that he feared a lineup that would have Ty Wigginton or Benito Santiago batting fifth. I would agree with that fear, but solving it by putting Tike third strikes me as a destructive solution. It's almost like jamming a knitting needle up your nose to stop it from running.

I would be interested to know how many teams have batted a guy with career .713 OPS third for any extended length of time. And if such a case exists, I wonder what that team's record was over that span. I can't imagine it was too good. That's what we are looking at here. Lineups are made to be changed, and it's still possible that the "Great Tike Experiment" will be a short one. I hope so, otherwise it feels like it may be another long season.

<__trans phrase="Posted by"> <__trans phrase="at"> 6:20 PM | <__trans phrase="Permalink">