Hello,
Yesterday I posed the question wondering if the Pittsburgh Pirates can make the playoffs. After thinking about it for awhile, I'm now realizing why can't they make the playoffs? Yes, I know they are young and inexperienced. Yes, I know before this season they had a culture of losing. A culture isn't just thrown off in one half season. However the Pirates play in the very mediocre, being generous here, NL Central. Four teams in that division are very similar. Any of those four teams could win this division, in fact any of them could finish anywhere from 1st to 4th. So with all that, yes the Pirates can make the playoffs. While that is possible, it might be a bit unrealistic at this point. However I'd be very disappointed if they don't finish above .500.
It's hard to believe that a team that has had such historic players as Barry Bonds (although they may not claim him with his postseason struggles when he was in Pittsburgh), Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, The Candy Man and Kent Tekulve, faded away so much. Deserving a sentence of his own, the great Roberto Clemente. I'll let other people figure out why the Pirates went into such an extended drought. After 18 consecutive losing seasons the Pirates are on their way back to at least relevance.
They have a solid core in pitching and hitting. They have up and coming hitter Andrew McCutcheon. He's only 24 and possibly the best offensive prospect on this team. They also have Matt Diaz, Neil Walker, Lyle Overbay and Garret Jones. They have solid starting pitching in Kevin Correia, Charlie Morton and Jeff Karstens. They also have the All-Star closer Joel Hanrahan.
Again all of today's songs are brought to you by iTunes 10.3.1. Thanks iTunes for letting me have music I've bought and then lost, back. Now Apple the next thing that needs to be worked on for future releases of iTunes is a feature that will balance out the volume for all songs. In other words all songs will play at the same volume. Thanks Steve and everyone else.
Let's start off with Madonna. BTW: she started working on her next CD today. Do you care? I can't believe this song wasn't on my iTunes:
The Pirates are now 44-41 after winning 9 of 13 games. Pittsburgh moved 3 games above .500 this late in the season for the first time in 12 years. The city of Pittsburgh is embracing these young, over achieving Pirates. The Pirates had their fourth consecutive sellout. "Rookie Alex Presley had 3 of the 14 Pirates hits. Chase d'Arnaud, Garrett Jones, Neil Walker and Lyle Overbay each had two hits for Pittsburgh". It was good to see someone else besides Andrew McCutchen have the big hit. Although McCutchen did have a hit and drove in his 46th run of the season. (Thanks to cnnsi.com)
Pittsburgh is 3rd place in the NL Central and trails first place St. Louis by 1.5 games. The Cardinals haven't been playing well of late but they should be getting Albert Pujols back today. The Pirates are a half game behind second place Milwaukee, the same team that have 3 players selected to start in the All-Star Game. The Pirates do need to add at least one more bat to their lineup for the stretch run. Although their pitching has been better than expected, it still seems a little shaky. I'd like to see them add another solid starting pitcher before the July 31st trade deadline. (Just say no to Carlos Zambrano.)
Of course the Pittsburgh brain trust, no longer an oxymoron, needs to decide which direction they want to go in. Trying to win now is one option, of course the other option is to continue to build this team without any major trades. With the current talent on the roster, do they have enough to make a deep run into the playoffs in a couple of years? Thankfully there's someone smarter than me to answer that question. (As always, thanks to ESPN for the stats.)
As for my other teams it's good to see Atlanta and Boston also doing well.
As for the Dodgers, Cubs and John Lackey maybe a visit with "Mack The Knife" would be in order:
However one Red Sox player not doing well is John Lackey. He leads the league in pitching futility, he had another miserable outing yesterday. Pitching at Fenway, against the Blue Jays, he gave up 7 runs in 3 innings. He's pitching so badly now I'd be happy with just a mediocre performance from him. It's time for Boston to give up on Lackey. I'd love to see Boston promote one of their pitchers from Triple A ball and see if he can grow into a solid MLB starting pitcher. I know Lackey is on the hook for 15.5 million dollars this year, but when does Boston cut their losses? As I'm hoping with Daisuke Matsuzaka, I'd like neither pitcher ever to pitch for the Red Sox again.
However for two of my teams it's time for them to pull the plug on their seasons. The talent thin Dodgers need to start preparing for the post-McCourt era. This Dodgers team has just too little talent to achieve any kind of postseason glory. They won't even get anywhere near the postseason. LA is 37-49 and last in a not very strong NL West division. Hopefully McCourt will sale the Dodgers soon, whether on his own or with MLB's assistance. I'm hoping the next Dodgers owners have deep pockets and not a married couple. The signing of Juan Uribe is just not the type of free agent acquisition that launches a team into the playoffs. In fact, I have no idea why they signed him anyway.
The Cubs need to start building for next year... again. The Cubs also need to pull the plug on this season. The Cubs are only 35-51 and going nowhere. They seem to be a team full of chemistry misfits and too many expensive players well past their prime. It was good the Cubs spent a lot of money a few years ago to give this team a chance at glory. However they need to sign better players next time.
I also wonder did the Dodgers and Cubs make the right selection in their managers? Of course with all the issues the Dodgers and Cubs have, how much can you blame their lack of success on the managers?
On Day 112 of the NFL Lockout unfortunately it seems the NFL and the NFLPA are starting to reach agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). It sounds like for the next couple of days the lawyers for both sides are getting together working on the language for a projected new CBA. Although I'm a huge NFL fan, I'm saddened by this development. Both the players and owners have taken the fans for granted for so long. Both sides need a large dose of humility. I was hoping a several month lockout, with part of the season missed, would help with that. Also both sides have assured the people behind the Hall of Fame game that it's expected to be played as scheduled on August 7th.
Other notable NFL dates, obviously based on an actual agreement being reached: On July 23 training camps will start. The first game will be on September 8th. Then the first full Sunday of games will be on September 11th. Yes, that being the 10 year anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It's hard to believe it has been 10 years already.
Although I'm not a big Yankees fan, I respect Derek Jeter. He returned from an injury yesterday with an 0-4 performance. Those kind of games even happen to the great players. Anyway right now Derek Jeter is sitting at 2,994 hits. With only 6 more hits he will be the first Yankee to have 3,000 career hits. The question is when, not if, he'll reach that milestone.
Other great songs from iTunes 10.3.1:
The Zombies "Time of the Season":
From the amazing film "Rainman", the Belle Stars "Iko,Iko":
From the very good movie "Inside Man", "Chaiyya Chaiyya":
Big Audio Dynamite's "Rush":
The great Brad Paisley, and his hilarious "Ticks":
David Bowie "Suffragette City":
A great song, but terrible lip synching. Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together":
themusicaddict
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