In the grand scheme of the season, games in the first week mean no more or less than games in June or August or September. One game is one game is one game. You don’t need to look any further than the huge crowd at PNC last night to know that that’s not exactly true for the Pirates. It’s true that last night was “Buck Night” and that cheap tickets and food lured a big portion of the crowd to the park, but I don’t think the count stretches over 30,000 without Monday’s win. I wrote on Sunday night that I think this team is different regardless of what their final record is due to the circumstances and what the future holds for them; this is their chance to start to prove it to Pittsburgh.
Today is the season’s first “business man’s special,” so the 12:35 start will likely keep PNC from being packed to the gills again. That doesn’t mean that a sweep wouldn’t be a huge boost for everyone, from the players to the fans. Paul Maholm’s the guy to watch in this one because of the way the bullpen’s been overworked in the first two games. They’ve thrown nine innings in the first two games and Evan Meek, DJ Carrasco, Brendan Donnelly, and Octavio Dotel have all worked both games. The Pirates need seven innings from Maholm tonight, just like they need to cash in on some of their base runners.
They’re understandably giving a few guys the day off today (Ryan Church in for Jeff Clement, Delwyn Young in for Milledge to face the righty Billingsley, and Crosby at short for Cedeno) but that’s probably more a function of Church, Crosby, and Young all needing to get at-bats than anyone being “benched” or “tired” this early in the season. That’s one of the things you have to do when you have a decent bench (but seriously, let’s not shelf Lastings Milledge too often). Let’s get out the brooms.
The Cangelosi/Clemente update is below the fold.
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 through two games and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Yesterday was not a good day for our Clemente or Cangelosiers but it was a nice indication of why I think this should be a lot of fun. Ronny Cedeno was the “Cangelosi” pick of four readers (brian2, UtesFan89, ndbrian, and bwzimmerman) and was lingering around the bottom of the WPA pile until his walkoff hit, which gave him the best score of the game and gave four naysayers get a negative point. No one had Cedeno in the “Clemente” position. The other “Clementes” for the game were Dotel and Donnelly, who had identical .136 WPAs for throwing a scoreless late inning. Neither of them appeared on any ballots.
The goats last night were Jeff Clement and Akinori Iwamura, who were both hitless. Woodward and LRNeub both nailed Clement as last night’s goat, so they’re both +2. Daved992 had Clement as his Clemente, so he’s docked a point for that but he makes it up with his pick of Aki as Cangelosi. Only he and TomKaikis pick up the point there.
Follow all that? No? Here are the updated standings:
- Woodward, TomKaikis – 3
- PatrickHealy, Wizard of Woz, LRNeub – 2
- brian2, UtesFan89 – 1
- Everyone else – 0
- WHYGAVS (me), ndbrian, bwzimmerman – (-1)
Remember, today’s game starts at 12:35, so have your picks in by then.
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