Before we get into today’s nitty-gritty, let’s take a brief moment to bask in the glow of yesterday’s awesome performances. Currently, my favorite thing about Andrew McCutchen is this: When people ask me what I think his ceiling is (which happens quite a bit), my honest response is, “I don’t know.” He’s shown so much more than I expected on such a regular basis that I’m constantly readjusting my mental projections for him. This is a good thing.
As for Jones, he’s now played 116 games as a Pirate and still has an OPS over .900. In some ways, his early season struggles have actually been heartening for me; he’s still finding ways to be reasonably productive even though he’s not hitting well. If this early season stretch is as bad as it’s going to get for him, he might turn out to be a pretty decent and useful hitter. I have more to say about Jones and I will in the near future, but I just wanted to note that I don’t necessarily think that the way he’s hit in the early part of the season is a sign that he’s not a good hitter.
Anyways, one game is just one game and so it doesn’t mean much if the Pirates go out and lay an egg this afternoon. Paul Maholm looks to straighten himself out of a slump that’s more or less been season-long today. He’s had a few nominally good starts, but his 23/19 K/BB ratio certainly leaves a lot to be desired. His opponent is Ryan Dempster, who made a pretty solid start against the Pirates but got the loss after Maholm turned in one of his better starts of the season.
First pitch is 2:201:20 (oops, hope I didn’t mess anyone up there?) Clemente/Cangelosi update 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.
With Garrett Jones and Andrew McCutchen taking down Clemente honors for their huge afternoons and Brian Burres and Akinori Iwamura taking home Cangleosis, eleven people put up positive points with a whopping five of us taking home three or more, including Don_Madden and ndbrian’s perfect afternoons. That means the standings get another big shakedown near the top. Today:
- Woodward: 19
- Don_Madden: 18
- dafletch: 17
- hisjazziness, Wizard of Woz: 15
- brian2: 14
- hwtrine68: 13
- North Shore Ryan, whygavs: 12
- Garrett122, bwzimmerman: 10
- ndbrian: 9
- UtesFan89, Carnegie Chip: 8
- apk, edgeman2k, pdiddy0020: 7
- Nate, TuckerD13: 6
- J. Latrobe: 5
- dboz, appeal2smail: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat, Garrett122, appeal2smail, michaelbro8, TheHulk: 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando, DerekB: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate, Neopold, IndianaJohns04, wk kortas, jac8, CoryR: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow: -1
- Mornacale: -2
- Cecilio_Guante: -3
- PHook4000: -4
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