A reader sent me a message this morning noting that he thought that the Gorzelanny trade doesn’t get nearly enough credit as Huntington’s worst deal while the local media obsesses over trades that weren’t nearly as bad. Honestly, that would be true no matter what Gorzelanny does on the mound for the Cubs as the two guys the Pirates got in return have already suffered serious, career-altering shoulder injuries. That being said, Gorzo has rubbed the Pirates’ noses in it a bit with his performance this year.
He’s striking out more than a batter an inning with a reasonable walk rate (around 4.0 per nine), and a high pop-up rate has helped him keep the ball in the park more than normal this year. Looking at his FanGraphs page, his fastball seems to be right back where it was in 2007 before all his struggles with the Pirates and his slider may be a touch better this year. Given the schlubs the Pirates have paraded out to the mound this year, it’s pretty much undeniable that Gorzo would be useful in this team’s rotation.
He starts against the Pirates at Wrigley this afternoon at 2:20, while Brad Lincoln makes his fifth start in search of a win or a decent start or really, anything positive after a rough start to his career. But he’s facing Gorzo and Gorzo’s a lefty and the Pirates really just don’t do lefties, so unless he’s got a shutout in him, he’s probably going to be winless in his sixth start, too.
Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Ryan Doumit’s home run made him the only offensive player to earn positive points last night, but no one picked him or Brendan Donnelly to be the game’s Clemente (one person did lose points with him as the Cangelosi, though). In fact, the only points earned at all from last night’s game were by Matt W., for nailing Cedeno as the Cangelosi, and UtesFan89, for his incredibly prescient prediction of Andrew McCutchen as Cangelosi, based on Cutch’s poor career numbers against Ted Lilly. Ronny Cedeno was the first place Cangelosi for the night.
Standings:
- Don_Madden: 45
- Carnegie Chip: 28
- dafletch: 23
- North Shore Ryan, brian2: 22
- Woodward: 21
- ndbrian, J. Latrobe: 20
- pdiddy0020: 16
- hisjazziness , Garrett122: 15
- Wizard of Woz, whygavs: 14
- hwtrine68: 13
- Mornacale:12
- michaelbro8: 11
- UtesFan89: 9
- apk: 8
- bwzimmerman, dboz: 7
- TuckerD13, edgeman2k, Nate, TheHulk: 6
- WallyR, Cecilio_Guante: 5
- Dave Mesing: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat, appeal2smail : 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando, hilltoppeer: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate, Neopold, IndianaJohns04, wk kortas, jac8, Mr. Ando, DoctorGeeves, CoryR, Polish Prodigy , cocktailsfor2, azibuck , PHook4000, Chrissy Wolbert, matt w: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow, , Fielding Yost, TAmy: -1
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