AGRI Biz

The Pittsburgh Pirates are 2-11 so far this year in Interleague play against the Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Sox, the Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Indians, and the Oakland As. The only bright spot was the 2-1 series against the comparably bad Cleveland Indians. Even if they split the next two games with the As (which is expecting a lot), they would be 3-12 against the American League. Worse, Neil Walker ...

Jose Bautista, a gem? With his .222 batting average? This is just another case where a player's "headline" number is rather misleading. It's true that Bautista has "only" 52 hits in 234 at bats. But 18 of those, or more than one-third of the total, are home runs. Another 15 have gone for two or three bases. Meaning that when he does hit, it's usually not a single. Bautista does get on first ...

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a great farm team, with the likes of Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln, and Pedro Alvarez. As recently as early last year, that even included Andrew McCutchen. Not to mention, Garret Jones. Now, with the exception of Alvarez, they've been called-up to fill some fairly big holes. Alvarez's arrival is anticipated as soon as he's ready McCutchen replaced Nate McLouth, who was traded for pitching talent, and ...

I can't say I approve of the Pirates's draft strategy. But at least they are consistent. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Jameson Taillon, the top-ranked high school pitcher, in the first round. Then, unexpectedly, Stetson Allie, the second-ranked high school pitcher in the second round after no other team took him in the first. That is, after Bryce Harper was taken by the Washington Nationals with the first overall pick. The keys here are "high ...

Besides Paul Maholm, Zach Duke is the longest serving Pirate. And he is still hard to typecast. On a good night, he is capable of beating a Cy Young award winner like the New York Mets' Johan Santana, or the Phillies Roy Halladay. On a bad day, he can be truly awful. An example of this was Duke's last outing against Cincinnati. He gave up five runs, two of them homers, ...

Last year, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded away Tom Gorzelanny, then later signed Brian Burres as compensation. Friday night's game was the first test of the direct impact of the two moves. So how did the Pirates do? Not so well. Burres pitched four innings, one less than Gorzelanny. And he gave up six runs, one more than Tom Gorzelanny. Clearly, the Pirates had given up something with this sequence of events. But ...

That's not a question one normally asks about the Pittsburgh Pirates. And they made what was a bad situation even worse last year when they traded current star Tom Gorzelanny for rookie Kevin Hart and a raw fielding prospect (netting the two relievers against each other). But in the recent bind, caused by the collapse of Charlie Morton and Dan McCutchen, not one, but two unlikely pitchers came to the rescue: Jeff ...

Jeff Karstens started his career as a Pittsburgh Pirate with six innings of shutout ball and a 3-0 victory against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field in August 2008. Last night, he did much of the same with a two-run 6.2 inning quality start against Milwaukee that ended in a 7-3 Pirates victory. In Miller Park. Both of these represented major breakthrough wins for Pittsburgh. The Pirates had a losing streak of ...

Watching former Pirate Tom Gorzelanny pitch for the Chicago Cubs the other night against the New York Mets was heartbreaking. And that was in spite of the fact that he lost (two of the four runs scored against him in 5.2 innings were unearned). Gorzelanny is a pitcher in the Ross Ohlendorf-mold: cerebral and skillful, but more prone than the average Pirate to injury. "Overwork" in 2007, his second year, clearly ...

That's what the Pirates might be doing. But they aren't. Only a few pieces ago, I opined that Dan McCutchen, the Pirates' latest fifth starter, could enjoy accelerated promotion because of injury, failure or trade, of higher ranking pitchers. He in fact, did, as a result of Ross Ohlendorf's injury. Having been moved into Ohlendorf's spot, he is now effectively "second" starter, even though he isn't yet of that quality. But he is ...