With the Pirates’ Spring Training underway, it begins yet another baseball season and the hopes of a winning season for the Bucco Faithful. However, with virtually the same roster as the team they finished with last year, there is little hope for a different showing. Pirates’ management has expressed that in order for the team to play well, the younger players such as Andy LaRoche, Brandon Moss and the starting rotation need to show they belong.

Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny are both players coming off a pretty bad year, but the potential they showed in 2007 is what the Pirates hope to see this year. Paul Maholm is coming off a great season which earned him the “ace” title for the Pirates after securing a 3.71 ERA. Paul Maholm has been named the only player in the Pirates’ rotation with a guranteed spot while the other four spots will be duked out between Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, Daniel Mccutchen, and perhaps Phil Dumatrait when he becomes healthy enough.

The Pirates starting lineup for the 2009 season will likely look like this…

• LF Nyjer Morgan
• CF Nate Mclouth
• RF Brandon Moss
• 3B Andy LaRoche
• SS Jack Wilson
• 2B Freddy Sanchez
• 1B Adam LaRoche
• C Ryan Doumit

but depending on the players’ Grapefruit League showings, anything is up for grabs.

Spring Training begins with the biggest additions of Eric Hinske, Ramon Vasquez, Craig Monroe, Donald Veal, and Virgil Vasquez. Donald Veal and Virgil Vasquez will both be competing for a place in the bullpen while Monroe, Hinske, and Vasquez will be fighting for positions on the Pirates’ bench.

The Pirates play the Phillies tomorrow which opens up the Grapefruit League Schedule. The games is set to begin at 1:05 P.M. ET and is a home game at Mckechnie Field. Slated to pitch in the game will be Chris Bootcheck for the first inning and followed by Matt Capps, Donald Veal, Romulo Sanchez, Ronald Uviedo, Juan Mateo, Craig Hansen, Evan Meek and Jesse Chavez. Lefty Jamie Moyer will make the start for the Phillies. Pirate broadcaster Tim Neverett will be on the air for the first time as the Bucco announcer.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were all over the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon as they won 13-1.  A big seven run second inning was all the Pirates needed, but they kept on scoring to make it a old fashioned butt kicking.

Nate McLouth led the Pirates with three RBI as he went 3-4 on the day.  Xavier Nady went 3-3 with three RBI as well.  We can’t forget about Freddy Sanchez who also had three RBI.  Jason Bay, Ryan Doumit, Chris Gomez, and Tom Gorzelanny all had one RBI each.  Now that is what I call production up and down the lineup!

Starting pitcher Gorzelanny threw five innings of one hit ball to pick up the win.  The only reason he only pitched five innings was because he left the game after the fifth inning with some back pain.  Hopefully it isn’t to serious and he can make his next scheduled start.

John Van Benschoten pitched two innings in relief of Gorzelanny and he gave up one hit and one run.  Evan Meek pitched the final two innings in the game without allowing a run to cross the plate.

Pirates Blog

The Pittsburgh Pirates just couldn’t get the home team advantage going for them on Monday as they lost to the Florida Marlins by a score of 10-4.  With Matt Morris struggling to get his season going, the Pirates failed to take home the win and continue to play bad baseball.

Xavier Nady led the Pirates with two RBI in the game.  Ronny Paulino and Matt Morris both managed to pick up a RBI as well during Monday’s game.

Morris was the opening pitcher for the Pirates throwing for four innings and giving up nine hits, eight runs, and walking one in his third loss of the year.  The Pirates brought in Franquelis Osoria, John Grabow, and Evan Meek to pitch the last five innings of the game.  Osoria gave up two earned runs and five hits in his two innings of action.

Tonight the Pittsburgh Pirates will go up against the Florida Marlins one more time before taking on the St. Louis Cardinals starting on Wednesday.

Pirates Blog

Matt Morris once again got hammered and the Pittsburgh Pirates once again lost, this time to the Los Angeles Dodgers by the score of 11-2.  Morris was only able to last 4.2 innings as he gave up seven hits and six earned runs.  As a starting pitcher, you can’t put your team in a big hole like that if you want the team to win.   Hopefully Morris will figure out what is going wrong and fix it before his next start.

Phil Dumatrait pitched 1.1 innings in relief of Morris and gave two hits an two earned runs.  Evan Meek pitched the final two innings and gave up four hits and two earned runs.  I don’t know how long Meek will stay on the Pirates roster, he has sucked it up almost everytime he has been called on.

Freddy Sanchez and Ronny Paulino had an RBI each for the Pirtes.  The entire Pirates offense struggled against the Dodgers pitching staff and could never get anything going.

Pirates Blog

The Pittsburg Pirates lost to the Chicago Cubs once again and this time it was by the score of 7-3.  The Pirates record now stands at 3-6 after being swept by the Cubs in the three game series.

The Pirates did have a 3-1 lead after the first inning, but after that they couldn’t get anything going against the Cubs pitchers.  Freddy Sanchez, Xavier Nady, and Jose Bautista all had one RBI each for the Pirates.

Starting pitcher Matt Morris did pitch seven innings but he allowed 11 hits and seven runs.  Only four of the seven runs were earned however as the two Pirates errors really hurt.  Evan Meek pitched final two innings of the game without allowing a run.

Pirates Blog

You have to give credit to the Pirates who battled back from a 7-0 deficit before losing the game 10-8 to the Chicago Cubs.  The Pirates ran out of pitchers and had to have Evan Meek in the ballgame in the 12th inning, and he pretty much walked in the winning runs.

I’m not going to stress about the 12 inning with Meek in the ballgame, the coaching staff didn’t have any other choices really.  I still like how hard they played and battled today, I think they can learn from this game and become a better team down the road.

The Pirates and Cubs will have an off day tomorrow, and then play on Wednesday night.  We will see how the Pirates respond after tomorrows off day.

Pirates Blog