FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Is the sky blue and the grass green where you live, too? Want to do a TD on the sun rising in the East tomorrow morning?

yeah sure CCC cuz i think it rises in the West

wow,great arguement big,but ill see if he can defend himself...

Pirates? Not making playoffs? *ptsh*, that would never happen.

LOL, wow...Bigd sure got you on that one.

billy, go back to school. you got owned.

This may be the homer in me talking but I think the Buccos have a legit wildcard shot.

For once out offense is putting up staggering number. Our problem thus far this year has been starting pitching. I think that, given time, the pitching will fall back into place and become a darkhorse staff of the MLB. Gorzelanny, in my opinion, isn't neccesarily pitching BAD, he just lost some control on his pitches. The velocity is still up and right now he is just having some mechanical problems that will most likely in time resolve themselves.Snell is pitching decent and with the runs PIttsburgh is producing he can be a big asset of out team. I never really liked SNell but I will say that he has some great stuff. The biggest problem with Snell though is that he lets his emotions contol his game. If he gets mad, look out. There goes his contol and its basically at that point turned into a homerun derby. If Snell can keep pitching at this average pace and Gorzo start to step up and get his control down then the Pirates have 2 solid guys capable of 15 wins. Duke got off to a little bit of a rocky start but is settling in nicely. A 4.04 ERA leads the SP on Pitt and all we need is our pitchers to have an ERA of mid 4. The offense will cover them easily on most days. What we can't be having is our pitchers giving up 6 runs a start or anything to that extent. As for Maholme and Dumatriat that isn't a bad closing to a decent rotation. Watch out for Shane Youman. He never really excelled last year as I would have hoped but he spent some time in the minors to settle himself and he will most likely be a 6th starter if we have an injury or a late game scratch. Marte in the 8th and Capps in the 9th is just shutdown.Say what you want about Martes higher than average ERA but he hasn't blown a hold all year and thats what REALLY counts. And Capps, well he is 100% in save oppurtunities.

Our offense is really clicking right now. McLouth is playing out of his mind. 11 homers and 33 RBIs from your leadoff man. Thats insane., Plus hes above .300 so he is an early MVP cantidate. Then we got the X man batting .320 with 5 homers and 34 RBIs. Hell, even Bay is doing good this year. 8 homeruns and 17 RBIs. Finding a way to produce runs. 84 RBIs and 24 homeruns from your outfielders is incredible at this point of the season. Our infields hurtin a bit but theres a lotta potential. At third, we have.... a joke! I really hate Bautista. What does management see in him? He sucks with the glove bats under .230 consistently and isn't a power threat at all. Sanchez is struggling a bit now batting .250 but still for having only 1 HR having 21 RBIs means hes getting the job done. Plus, hes so good he is officially (on MLB.com) starting at both SS and 2B. Now, of course Gomez plays short but i found it funny. Gomez is a good hitter batting .288 and even though he doesn't have power potential hes a good role player. LaRoche is batting under .200 again, but he does this literally EVERY year. Hes about to explode, watch for it. Paulino behind the plate needs to change. Bring in Doumit.

Owned