Poppin' the blog

A quick foreward before starting my blogging life:
I'm 23 years old & Pittsburgh through and through. I was born here, grew up here, went to school here & plan to live here the rest of my life. I love everything about this town, well, maybe not everything - but most things, especially it's sports teams. I've played baseball since I could grip a ball & have been obsessing over it since. The Pirates, however, have done nothing but torture me since I was 9. More on them later. I also was enamored with the Penguins & hockey, only to have them go through a similar dryspell to the Bucs. That's over now. I shouldn't have to say anything about Steeler, excuse me, Stiller football - I did mention I was from Pittsburgh. I'm a Pitt guy as well, but have been teased by both football & basketball teams in recent memory. But, like I said, I love sports. And that's where I'll go from here.

Mariners 7
Pirates 0.
Honestly, who didn't see this one coming? As soon as I saw Jeff Weaver and his massive ERA were taking the mound Wednesday night, I just KNEW the Bucs were going to get blanked. Being that this game took place on the Left coast and my 6 month old TV is on the fritz, I didn't see any of it firsthand (luckily).
-Freddy Sanchez at least had 2 hits in this one to raise his season average to .302, unfortunately his OPS still is a meager .714, but at least it's on the rise as well (increased 24 points in the past 14 days/10 games). The big difference is the doubles - Freddy was a doubles machine last year (53), approaching the Pirate club record for doubles in a season held by Paul Waner (63). In 2006, Freddy averaged about a double every 11 ABs, while in '07 he's at a 2B per 18 at bats.
-Paul Mahom continues to rack up the losses. In all honesty, he's not a terrible 4/5 starter, but I really thought the ceiling was higher for this guy. The scary part about his stats, along with Zach Duke, is the Opponent's BA & WHIP. Opposing teams are hitting .289 against Maholm, which is actually better (marginally) than his '06 numbers (.295), while his WHIP is considerably better - 0.2 runners/IP better than '06. Basically, what I'm saying is that Zach Duke & Paul Maholm would throw back to back no-hitters against the Bucs.

Altoona Curve 3, Erie Seawolves 4
Altoona Curve 4, Erie Seawolves 1
Todd Redmond made his AA debut, and pitched well: 5 IP, 4H, 1ER, 1BB, 2K. Redmond's an intriguing guy, yet another soft-tosser in the Bucco organization, but the guy at least has decent K/BB ratios throughout the minors, unlike some other people...
Andrew McCutcheon struggled in the double header, going 0-8. ugh. Still, he's 20 in AA and could outplay Chris Duffy in his sleep.
Steve Pearce went 2-7 with a 3-run HR. His AA stats now read .313/.385/.579. Wow. Say it with me: "He's a Pirate power hitting prospect...?" I'd like to see the Curve get him some time in the OF to see how versatile he is in the field. I've heard good things about his D, but I'd like to have options if Adam LaRoche gets off his schneid and turns into a building block for the big club.
(Pine Richland's) Neil Walker went 1-7 and is hitting .314/.371/.541.
Adam Boeve hit a HR and went 2-6 with a HR. Adam, I hope you enjoy Altoona, you're the new Adam Hyzdu.

Pitt Panther gets "Queer Eye for the Mascot" make-over.

Let's just say that as an alum, I'm not too happy with the new logo. Maybe it'll grow on me. But I know that if a panther that looked like that attacked me, I wouldn't be afraid to do this.