Baseball Historians

Former Pirates’ third base coach John Russell is expected to be named the next Pirates manager.  Russell lost his job when Lloyd McClendon lost his job a couple of years. ago.  In the meantime, Russell has been the manager for the Phillies’ Triple A affiliate. 
It looks like Russell wasn’t the Pirates first choice.  He was […]

I was in college when the Pirates had their last winning season way back when.  Barry Bonds was in a Pirates uniform and they had just rattled off three straight division titles, only to have their World Series hopes dashed by the Braves.  That was fifteen years ago and since then, the Pirates have suffered […]

The trading deadline is coming up, and while the Pirates got fleeced last year, it’ll be interesting to see what happens this year.  The Pirates have some solid markers, but it looks like the front office is so out of touch with reality that a deal probably won’t get done.  The rumored Jack Wilson for […]

It’s hard not to be too disappointed with the Pirates.  I mean, they’re not awful, and the pitching is coming around.  And despite being eight games below .500, they’re still within reach of the Brewers at nine games back.  I’m not saying they’ll compete for the division, but at this point in most seasons past, […]

The Pirates have won their last two games and three out of their last four to push themselves eight games below .500.  Only in the NL Central would that put a team in contention but the Pirates, despite having another mediocre season, stand just a game and a half back of the second place Cubs […]

It’s been a few weeks but the internet difficulties that the Baseball Historians network have had that prevented me from posting are through.  The end result is, I get to further report on the mediocrity of our Pirates.
Not that there’s nothing to be happy about.  Jason Bay is putting together another nice season and while […]

The Pirates carried their win over the Dodgers in their finale this weekend into a four game winning streak with three straight wins over the Astros.  The Pirates got some top notch pitching in all three games as the Pirates now find themselves at an even 10-10.
On Tuesday, Paul Maholm won his first game in a […]

The Pirates are sliding fast and they needed a win in their series finale with the Dodgers to just avoid a sweep.  Friday’s game was downright ugly.  Tony Armas, Jr. was hammered for eight runs in just 2 2/3 innings and the Pirates picked up just two runs in the 10-2 loss.  Jack Wilson scored […]

The Pirates dropped both games of their two game series with the Brewers and in each of the games, Pirates pitching gave up seven runs.  In the opener, Paul Maholm was hammered and he gave up five runs on ten hits with three strikeouts in six innings.  The loss dropped his record to 0-2 on […]

Huh, maybe that time off did the Pirates some good.  They hit the road and took both games in their series against the Cardinals.  They got some very good pitching and the end result is a .500 record.  They even passed the Cardinals in the process.
Yesterday, it was Ian Snell who threw a good game.  […]

It looks like Barry Bonds will be back after all.  After two homeruns in the Friday opener, the Saturday game was postponed and then so was the entire doubleheader yesterday (which included Saturday’s makeup game).  So the Pirates and Giants got to just play two games and it was an 8-5 beatdown.  The score looks […]

You had to wonder how long this would last and it was the world champs who put finally put the Pirates in their place.  After a 4-2 start, Pittsburgh now sits at 4-5 after three straight losses to the Cardinals.
In all of the games, the pitching was there but the hitting wasn’t in a 2-0 […]

At least the Pirates won heading into today’s home opener.  Freddy Sanchez made his debut and he went two for four with a solo homerun.  Four other Pirates had two hits and Brad Eldred and Jason Bay both went yard in the 6-3 win.  On the mound, Zach Duke was solid and he picked up […]

I’ll have to check and see the last time the Pirates started 3-0 but that’s where they stand right now with another one run win over the Astros.  Jose Bautista had a big game at the plate.  He went three for five and he drove in three of the Pirates five runs and scored another.  […]

This hurts.  The Pirates first round draft pick last year, Brad Lincoln, is going to have elbow surgery which will cause him to miss the entire 2007 season.  All signs pointed to his rehab working but it looks like there was a set back.
And not to knock Lincoln, but the Pirates took him over guys […]

For the second straight game, the Pirates came from behind to beat the Astros and for the second straight game, they won by the score of 3-2.  This time, it wasn’t all homeruns though.  Xavier Nady hit his second homerun in as many days to put the Pirates on the board before the Astros scored […]

This game looked like it was going to be ugly.  Roy Oswalt was cruising along and it looked like a solid start by Zach Duke was going to go to waste.  Then the Pirates found a chink in the armor and Nate McClouth hit a pinch hit solo homerun to make it a 2-1 game.  […]

The Pirates were previewed not once, but twice today.  The Hardball Times and Baseball Prospectus both did their season previews today and as usual, there’s not a whole lot of optimism. 

This is definitely some good news.  Pirates pitching prospect and 2006 first round pick Brad Lincoln was given the green light to begin pitching again.  He’s going to start the season at Class A Hickory once he spends some time at extended spring training.  Hopefully this isn’t a false positive and Lincoln puts together a […]

Here’s another installment of the Pirates round table.  Good stuff as we talk about prospects and some of the offseason moves the Pirates did or did not make.  As usual, opinions are across the board on both subjects but it makes for a well rounded read.

Jim Tracy broke the news today that Jose Bautista will be the team’s starting third baseman.  Freddy Sanchez will then start at second and the odd man out is now Jose Castillo, who will most likely be used as a utility infielder.  Tracy pointed to Bautista’s plate discipline as a reason he nabbed the job […]

I recently took part in the 24th installment of the Pirates roundtable.  The two questions this time around were the Pirates centerfield situation and what to do with pitching prospect Shane Youman (who’s pegged to pitch today against the Tigers). 

In a recent spring training review over at MiLB.com, we find out how Neil Walker’s doing with his transition to third base and we also find out how that Andrew McCutchen is hanging on in camp longer then a lot of people though.  Brad Lincoln is back on a throwing program after a solid MRI […]

I recently took part in the weekly Pirates roundtable over at the Pittsburgh Lumber Company.  Good questions this time around with the topics being who the Pirates could go after in a trade and sign and then the top “baseball” story heading into the 2007 season.  A lot of good input for a variety of […]

The bad news is, Freddy Sanchez had to leave yesterday’s game when he tried to turn a double play and wrenched his knee.  The good news is, the MRI came up fine and instead of something really bad happening, Sanchez will just have to sit out a couple of games.  If the Pirates were smart, […]

The Pirates lost their third straight spring game today in a loss to the Yankees.  Three games and three losses isn’t good, but these are the least important games of the spring so it’s not time to get concerned yet.
Nine different Pirates scattered nine hits in the 4-3 loss.  Brad Eldred hit a solo homerun […]

I recently took part in the Pirates roundtable over at Pittsburgh Lumber Co.  The two topics being discussed were the Pirates’ chances in 2007 and Neil Walker.  Be sure to check it out as you get a wide variety of opinions on the Pirates all in one spot.

Freddy Sanchez was a second baseman for most of his minor league career but his big break came when third base opened up for the Pirates.  Now Sanchez is sandwiched between his primary position and the spot he filled in for in 2006 and as spring training starts, nobody is really sure how Sanchez is […]

The Pirates 2004 first round draft pick, Neil Walker is no longer a catching prospect, he’s a third base prospect.  With Ronny Paulino’s solid season in 2006, Walker is going to have a new avenue to making it to the big leagues.  Of course right now, Freddy Sanchez is in his way but we’ll see […]

The Pirates got some bad news pretty quickly when they found out 2006 first round pick Brad Lincoln will have to sit out for the next 2-4 weeks because of a forearm strain and irritation in his elbow.  Lincoln was picked as the team’s third best prospect and while he was set to start the […]