Results tagged ‘ Nate McLouth ’

The “Mc” Effect, McLouth vs. McCutchen

On June 3rd the Pirates made a trade with the Atlanta Braves that sent away All-Star and Gold Glover Nate McLouth. This trade cleared the way for Andrew McCutchen. Since the trade, there have been around 40 games for each player (42 for Cutch, 38 for Clouth). So let’s go back and review the time since June 3rd and see how this has been working out for both teams. 

Andrew McCutchen, The Pirate: 

Cutch has burst onto the major league scene, attracting nation wide attention. He’s a 5-tool player and quickly turning into one of the league’s most dynamic center fielders. His defense is fantastic and he has shown great signs at the plate. The best part of his game is his speed, he might be the fastest guy in baseball (alright, that’s probably a stretch with guys like Carl Crawford, Michael Bourn, and Willie Taveras in the league, but I can dream).

Nate McLouth, The Brave:

McLouth was the Braves plan to make a run for the playoffs. They felt they needed a player like him on their roster to really put them over the top and compete with the Mets and Phillies. He’s played 38 games with the Braves, and is having a similar season with them as he did with us, hitting for low average with decent power numbers and solid defense. Nate certainly isn’t as great as he was last year at this time, but he is definitely helping the Braves out.

Here are the numbers for each player SINCE June 3rd (courtesy of baseball-reference.com):
McLouthstats.png
McCutch stats.png
Looking at the numbers, McCutchen has been a much better player than McLouth. He is hitting 38 points higher in average, with 8 more RBI. Granted he has 20 more at bats. Surprisingly, McCutchen only has 2 fewer homers since McLouth in that time, and he has a higher slugging percentage and OPS. Cutch has stolen 4 more bases than McLouth, which certainly isn’t a surprise. McLouth even got thrown out trying to steal, which rarely happens with him. Cutch is still a perfect 9/9 in steal attempts.

Now let’s take a look at the “clutch” stats, which measures how well the players perform in crucial situations. 

McCutchen: with RISP – .387


McLouth (on season, not since trade): with RISP – .317 

Pay no attention to the highlighting there, it doesn’t mean anything significant. There isn’t too much interesting data here, but you can see Cutch has batted 35 points higher in “late and close” games. McCutchen has been getting hits in big situations. Nate McLouth has been okay in clutch situations, but he fails to compare to McCutchen. 
As far as fielding goes, it’s probably too small of a sample size to tell anything. McCutchen has a fielding percentage of .981 with 2 errors and 3 assists. If you are a Pirate fan and watch the games, you know that there have been times that McCutchen looked kind of shy out there. It’s rare for a rookie to have a lot of confidence out there in center and go out and try to make great catches, and McCutchen definitely held back a couple times this year. You can tell his confidence is growing out there and we are going to start seeing him making some great plays in the gaps. He has already made numerous catches on balls over his head. The guy’s speed in centerfield is second to none, he can get to balls that only a handful of guys in the league can get to. As for McLouth, he’s made 1 errors with the Braves and has a fieldingi percentage of .989 with 1 assist. Again, it’s too small of a sample size to really determine the sabermetrics and all that jazz, but there is no doubt that McCutchen is the better centerfielder. 
A couple more interesting things show up when you check out the ratio batting stats:

The top is McCutchen, bottom McLouth:


Didn’t line up for well, but still works. You’ll see that McLouth’s power bat has been slightly better, with over 1% different in the ratio. However, McLouth has been striking out more than McCutchen, although it’s pretty close. McLouth has been more patient at the plate, drawing more walks. Neither of their extra base hit percentages are very impressive, McLouth is a small .8% higher than McCutchen. Even though McCutchen has more RBI’s then McLouth, Nate’s AB/RBI ratio is 2.4 points better. They both hit more fly balls than groundballs, which probably isn’t a good thing for a player like McCutchen who relies on speed.

As for their teams, the Braves have gone 19-19 in games McLouth has played for them. The Pirates are 18-24 with McCutchen in the lineup.

But that’s all I got for now. All-in-all, I’d say it’s obvious that the Pirates have not been missing Nate McLouth at all. Andrew McCutchen has been a better all-around player and is only going to get better, MUCH better.

Trip, Trip, Triple

Well I haven’t posted in a couple days because my internet has been down. The Comcast guy came yesterday to “fix” it, but he failed to do so. I have it working right now however, who knows that’ll last, so I’d better do this quick. 

The Pirates lost a heartbreaking 15 inning game last night. I left for a softball game at 9:00 thinking I had no chance of seeing the end of the game, but I arrived home at 11:30 to watch the last full inning. I was excited to be able to watch some of it, but I was very disappointed when all I got to see was a loss. The Braves played an ugly game, the Pirates played a beautiful one, but in the end the Braves came out on top. That’s just how baseball works sometimes, one team can make all the mistakes in the world and still beat a team that was flawless. It just came down to the Pirates leaving more men on base. They left 10 on in the extra innings and went the last 7 innings without scoring a run. The bullpen did an amazing job, it was a shame that we couldn’t get them a win. You could say all the same about the Braves though, their bullpen combined for those 7 shutout innings and did enough to give their team the victory. It ended on a bases loaded 1 out groundball to Jack Wilson, who made a fantastic play to backhand it and throw it towards the plate, but the throw was just offline and forced Jason Jamarillo’s foot off the plate on the stretch.

Jeff Francoeur really wanted to get thrown out too, because he succeeded to run about 75% down the line, looking back at the ball the whole time. What an idiot play, it ticks me off that the final run was scored on stupid baserunning by a player who should know better. 
I’m sick of seeing big leaguers look at the ball when they run. What do they teach you in little league? When the ball is hit and you have to get to a base, put your head down and run as hard as you can. You looking at the ball isn’t going to affect the outcome, getting to the base quicker is. 
Anyways, there are a couple of positives that came out of last night. The bullpen had their best outing of the year, nearly picking up Zach Duke after he allowed 5 runs in 5 innings pitched. The bullpen combined for 9 shutout innings before Jeff Karstens, our fifth starter, gave up the one run in the 15th. I don’t think this will change Karstens scheduled Wednesday start, but it would be exciting to see a spot start from Charlie Morton, or even a Paul Maholm start a day early. My goal for this roadtrip was to win 3 or 4 games. So far we’re 1-3 with 3 more games to play. It would be fantastic to see the bucs take these next 3 games from the Braves, but the Pirates really don’t play well on the road, so I’ll be happy with 2 wins. 
A little bit of irony hit the Pirates as well last night as Nate McLouth had 3 hits, including a towering 5th inning blast to dead center field which gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. That lead would then grow to 5-1 after Brian McCann hit one of the longest home runs we’ve seen this season off of a meatball served up by Zach Duke. McLouth had a great game and I’m sure he enjoyed helping beat the bucs. I’m sure we’re still his 2nd favorite team though. 
The real story yesterday came off the bat of Andrew McCutchen, who is playing better than anyone expected. He had 4 hits, 2 triples, and was a home run shy of the cycle. He has now raised his batting average to .400, with 5 runs and 5 RBI in 5 games. He’s been doing everything for the Pirates. Andrew has stepped right into his role as a spark for the offense causing some excitement at the plate, on the bases, and in centerfield. We haven’t seen any dazzling plays out in centerfield yet, but we soon will. Andrew has to be full of confidence after his hot start, and to say I’m excited to watch him the rest of this season would be an understatement. You can read more about Andrew’s great start over at The Pittsburgh Peas blog. 
Anyways, it’s a new story tonight, and the Pirates look to give their bullpen a well deserved rest as they send bulldog Ross Ohlendorf to the mound to face Braves’ ace Derek Lowe. 

McCutchen, Pirates Get Hampt-on’d… Again

Well I just made a post last weekend about the Pirates getting beaten by Mike Hampton; I wasn’t expecting to have to make the same post a week later. Mike Hampton pitched another gem against the buccos tonight, going 7 innings surrendering only 1 earned run on 5 hits. Fantastic work from Hampton. This is just one of those things in baseball that you can’t explain, Hampton hasn’t pitched well against anybody but the Pirates this year, which makes no sense at all. Today, my favorite player Andrew McCutchen went 0-4. In his first at bat, he smoked a ball to third base but was robbed by a diving Geoff Blum. He was also robbed of a hit by the speedy Michael Bourn in the 6th innings. It was a softly hit liner into centerfield that would’ve dropped if Bourn didn’t get such a good jump on the ball. Any other centerfielder probably doesn’t reach that ball either way, but Bourn is just that quick. McCutchen very easily could’ve been 2-4 again today, but it just didn’t go his way. It really didn’t matter in the end, because no one on the team hit today and the pitching got roughed up for 9 runs. 4 of those came on a Carlos Lee grand slam that capped off a 7 run 6th inning for the Astros.

It was just another lackluster road performance for the Pirates. These guys look like a completely different team on the road than they do at home. Oh well, all the experts say to be a good team you have to play .500 ball on the road and then be well above that at home. The Pirates have played great at home this year, with a record of 15-11. Jeff Karstens had a nice start to the game, pitching pretty well in the first 5 innings, but then got into some trouble in the 6th and just couldn’t get the outs he needed. All-in-all, Karstens has been a pretty decent pitcher in that 5 spot.

Now, for our daily look in at the newest Atlanta Brave, Nate McLouth. Nate made his debut for the Braves tonight and really didn’t do anything to impress, granted it was against Yovani Gallardo.



How weird does that look? Nate went 0-4 today, but put the ball in play all 4 times. I’m really pulling for Nate to do well in Atlanta, I’d love to see him happy there, but at the same time you almost don’t want him to do well just to make people more happy with the trade. I don’t know, whatever happens happens and I guess it’s a win-win situation. I’m fine with anything happening as long as McCutchen produces up here in the majors. As long as the guy can get on base he’s going to be an impact player.

So there you have it, let’s hope for better luck tomorrow as the Pirates send ace Paul Maholm to the bump to face fellow ace Roy Oswalt. That should be a great game, and I’d expect the Pirates to hit the ball well, as they have been doing against the better pitchers in the league this year. LET’S GO BUCS!

The Andrew McCutchen Era, Game 1

It couldn’t have been a much better day at the ballpark for me today. I got up excited for the game. I then took a shower and went to my closet to grab my Nate McLouth shirt. I went downstairs, grabbed some tape and a sharpie, and made this : 

Of course, everyone there loved it. I got countless laughs and compliments on it. Anyways, I went down near the bullpen with it and tried to get Andrew to sign it. He was standing outside the dugout talking to his family so I ran over there to try and get him, but by the time I got over there he had returned back to the dugout. I ran over near the dugout and held it up, Nyjer Morgan saw it and laughed. Then McCutchen looked near me, but then looked away. I’m not sure if he saw it or not. I am pretty sure he caught a glimpse of it when running out of the dugout to stretch out and I think he was going to come back and sign it, but then the security guard kicked us out, which frustrated me. Anyways, I returned to my seat (in right center field) to watch the game. We went nuts when McCutchen ran out, everyone in our section was loving him. He didn’t get much action defensively today, only recording one put out, but he looked dang good out there. Anyways, Ross got out of the inning with a 0 on the scoreboard and the Pirates went in to hit. Andrew was penciled into the leadoff spot today.

First At Bat: McCutchen fell quickly to 0-2 against Mike Pelfrey. He then took a couple of balls and lined a low fastball up the middle for his first big league hit in his first big league at bat. A loud roar from the crowd ensued. Here are some images of his first at bat (from MLB.TV, I left my camera at home on accident).





The Pirates would bat around and score 4 runs in the first inning. However, Ross struggled and gave up 3 runs the next half inning, making it a time game.

Second At Bat: McCutchen then stepped in to lead off the top of the 2nd. He worked the count to 2-2 and then got a fastball belt high on the inner half of the plate that he drove to right center field. The ball was given a long ride, but fell into the glove of Carlos Beltran just short of the warning track. It was nothing but a routine fly ball in the end, but it really had everyone in the stadium holding their breath. The next inning was quiet, and McCutchen’s third at bat would lead off the 4th inning.

Third At Bat: Andrew led off the inning the way you love to see any lead off hitter start it off, with a walk. The walk was on 4 pitches. Andrew would come around to score and the Pirates put 4 more on the board in the inning, and Andrew would lead off the 5th inning as well.

Fourth At Bat: This at bat really made me happy. It turned out to be a groundout to shorstop, but Andrew’s hustle put a smile on my face. As soon as the ball came off his bat, Andrew buried his head and ran as hard as he could to first. He was out by a half step, and really took Alex Cora by surprise.

You just don’t see major leaguers hustle like that anymore, and I hope that’s something we get used to seeing from McCutchen. That alone will make him a fan favorite.

Fifth At Bat: Andrew’s fifth at bat of the day was his first one with runners on base. Jason Jamarillo started the inning by grounding out, and then Ramon Vasquez singled and stole second. Hinske then popped out, and Andrew came to the plate with a runner on second and 2 out. Andrew fell behind 0-2 in the count quickly but took an 0-2 splitter left up in the zone and drove it into right field for his first big league RBI.



It was a beautiful piece of hitting and good enough to earn him a 1.000 RISP for his career so far. I think I was cheering louder than anyone else in the park after that hit, I was expecting a much louder ovation but it just didn’t happen, so I might’ve made a fool out of myself. Right after he got the hit, he went ahead and stole second without a throw. He got a great jump and really showed off his speed, the catcher never had a chance. We’ll bee seeing a whole lot of that in his career, this guy is going to be a phenomenal base stealer.

McCutchen finished his day up with his sole put-out in the 8th inning on a fly ball hit by Omir Santos

The Pirates won the game 11-6, Steven Jackson got his first career win as Ross Ohlendorf didn’t pitch the required 5 innings to earn the victory. Despite all the hupla about Andrew McCutchen, today’s best players were Jason Jamarillo and Ramon Vasquez, who combined to go 6/8 with a run and 5 RBI. The Pirates did a great job today to ease the tension left after the McLouth trade. McLouth will be in the starting lineup for the Braves tonight and I will definitely be watching his performance tonight. We’re all cheering for you Nate!

The Pirates improved to 25-28 and are playing great baseball right now, they’ve won 3 in a row and just swept the New York Mets. It’s safe to say I’m really excited for our series with Houston this weekend. Tomorrow we face our killer, Mike Hampton, but something tells me this time is going to be different. Let’s Go Bucs!!

Back On Track… ?

Ah yes, my pre-game feelings were right on. The Pirates finally ended their 8-game losing streak with an impressive 7-1 victory over the Cardinals. I feel like I should make a long post reflecting on this game’s happenings. However, no one really wants to read all that, plus I didn’t even watch the game because I was playing softball. We did win our game, in case you were wondering, we 15-runned our opponent and I made my first web-gem of the year at second base on a screaming grounder up the middle. It felt good. haha. Anyways, let’s get to some Pirates baseball information: 

  1. Zach Duke : 8 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 5 K, 1 BB – Duke was phenomenal again. He’s really good in PNC Park. Duke did just what we needed him too. The only run he surrendered was a first inning home run to Albert Pujols, which wasn’t even his fault, because it’s Albert Pujols. I honestly don’t even get upset when watching a Pujols bomb, which happens so often against the Pirates. I’ve just accepted that this guy is the best hitter of my lifetime and he’s going to hit a lot of home runs. I’m a big fan of his so whatever he does is fine with me. The important thing is to get everyone else in that lineup out, which Duke did tonight. Of course the early injury to Ryan Ludwick helped Duke’s cause as well. Anyway, great work from Duke getting us off the schneid. 
  2. Brandon Moss : 3/4, 2 R, 2 RBI – Brandon Moss finally looked like a major league hitter. He ripped a single in the second and finally hit his first long ball of the year in the 5th. Let’s just hope this is a boost of confidence and this kind of night becomes a very familiar thing. That would be a huge boost to the team. Also, let me say one thing. After that home run, I got a couple texts from friends saying “look at your boy Moss” or something of that sort. Let me say this, Brandon Moss is NOT my boy. I have stuck up for him all through April just because of his youth and upside, but I’m not going to lie that faith had been wavering him. After one game I’m not going to change my wavering view of him or say that he is ready to break out, because he probably isn’t. One thing I’m not going to do is start bragging about my patience with him and say it paid off, because I was about to give up on him and hey, it’s only one game. This is ridiculous, let’s move on.
  3. Matt Capps : Well Zach Duke couldn’t finish the game and stopped after 8 innings, and that gave the Pirates a chance to see Matt Capps for the first time in over a week. He showed mixed signs. He gave up a hit and 2 walks and actually loaded the bases with nobody out, but then put it together and struck out 2 batters and got a flyout to end the game. His control was off, but he was throwing good pitches that resulted in a lot of swing and misses. The control issues were probably expected because he had been down for a while, and it’s really good to see him getting hitters off balance and vulnerable at the plate. That’s the Capps we need to see for the rest of this year, enough of the wildness and straight fastballs over the heart of the plate. 
Nothing really left to say about this game but RAISE THE JOLLY ROGER. 
Tomorrow is game 2 of this homestand, the Pirates send Ross Ohlendorf to the mound who has been excellent this year. I am a huge supporter of Ross and I love watching him on the mound. He’s been getting a ton of ground balls and really keeping the ball down in the zone. That’s what we need, he’s been going past any expectations any Pirate fan had for him this year. Let’s hope he keeps it up tomorrow as his counterpart is Joel Pineiro. Pineiro has a 3.66 ERA and a record of 4-2. He has been great at times this year, but he is still vulnerable and I think the Pirates can beat him. He actually has gotten progressively worse this season, winning his first four starts and losing his last 2. He’s not a strikeout pitcher, amassing only 13 in his 6 starts. This all looks like good news for the Pirates, let’s hope we can touch him up and really start to get hot as a team so we can run off some wins and get our respectable record back. Now let’s take a quick look into how some of the Pirates have faired in their careers against Pineiro: 
Freddy Sanchez:1/8, 2 BB, .300 OBP, .125 SLG
Nate McLouth: 3/7 – 1 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB, .462 OBP, 1.000 SLG
Adam LaRoche : 2/7, 1 RBI, 0 BB
Brandon Moss: 0/1
Jack Wilson: 4/9, 4 singles
So there you have it. Expect a home run from Nate and a couple of singles from Jack. Let’s go ahead and make some predictions:
Ross Ohlendorf: 6.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 2 K
Nate McLouth, 2/4, 1B, HR, 2 RBI
Nyjer Morgan, 1/3, 2 BB, 2 SB, R
Jack Wilson, 3/4, 3 1B, RBI
Pirates win 6-5
What a long post that was.  Good night baseball fans!

Frying The Fish

A terribly ugly night in Pittsburgh has never brought more smiles to baseball fans than it did last night. Ross Ohlendorf toed the rubber after having a pretty bad start last Wednesday, and he was incredible. He went 7 innings and struck out 5, all while not surrendering a single run. The Pirates notched their league leading 4th shutout of the year, and (thanks to a bunch of rainouts) made the lead on ESPN’s bottomline. Feels great. However, the pattern this year is that the Pirates follow up a game like this with a terrible one. If this continues, Jeff Karstens will get hit early and often, be taken out after 4 innings or so, and the Pirates will collect less than 5 hits. It’s ridiculous how this has been happening this year, but let’s hope we can end the streak and win again today. The matchup is Jeff Karstens vs. Anibal Sanchez.


Matchup.png

So that’s not looking good for us, but who knows maybe Karstens will go out and impress tonight, it wouldn’t be the first time this year! I would love the Pirates to get a win tonight and clinch a series win against baseball’s best record. If they could sweep the Marlins… well I’ll just keep my mouth shut. 
In other news, Ryan Doumit will not be playing again tonight due to a wrist injury. Jason Jamarillo has done an excellent job in the 2 games he’s played, picking up 3 hits and gunning out Hanley Ramirez trying to steal 2nd last night. That’s good to see, although there really is no replacement for Ryan Doumit’s bat in that lineup. Let’s hope he gets back quickly. Anyways, I’m thinking about heading to the game tonight just because I won’t be able to watch it on TV because of the dang Penguins game. Sorry fellow Pittsburgh fans, but I really want them to lose… 
Anyways, let’s get to some pictures from last night’s action and then I’ll start my anti-rain dance, of course a rainout could be good for us, because maybe they’d skip over Karstens again. Let’s go bucs! 


Big Ross Ohlendorf Doing Work!

The swing…

The ball heading to the river

.500 again

There was a great baseball game played tonight in Pittsburgh, and for the first time since Monday, it was played by the home team! Paul Maholm took the mound to get the team off of the schneid, and he did it in sparkling fashion. It was a pitchers duel that Maholm came out on top of. 

FIRST OFF, I’d just like to say how amazing our new Friday jerseys are. I mean dang, those things are incredible. I’m going to love watching Friday night baseball in Pittsburgh this summer, I might have to go buy me one of those. 
Maholm went 7 innings giving up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts all while not giving up a run. He had a solid 1-2-3 first inning, but then got himself in some trouble in the 2nd. He loaded the bases with a walk and a pair of base hits, but then got one hitter to pop into a “fielders choice”, which was actually a rather odd play, and then got Jordan Schafer to ground back to him to start the inning ending 1-2-3 double play. After that it was smoother sailing, and Maholm cruised through 5 more innings of shut out ball. The Bucs scraped out a run in the bottom of the 2nd thanks to a Brandon Moss triple and an Andy LaRoche groundout RBI. Andy played a heck of a game, he’s finally getting some confidence, and that confidence should take off after tonight’s game. He played great in the field and had a couple of great at bats. I’m watching the game archive back now because I couldn’t watch it on TV because of the Penguins game (which made me very angry), and I just realized that Jordan Schafer made an absolutely terrible play to let Moss reach 3rd, but Kelly Johnson made a great play to rob Andy LaRoche of a hit. 
The story ended with a couple of the club’s young stars. Nate McLouth POUNDED a home run to right field to put the bucs up 3-0. After that John Grabow and Matt Capps pitched 2 perfect innings and the Pirates were back at 5-5! 
It feels really good to know that the Pirates are going to have a really great chance to win every 5th day, we haven’t had that kind of feeling in awhile. Also, Zach Duke is starting to look like he could give us that feeling twice every 5 days. This could be a much less frustrating season… of course I say that having only seen Jeff Karstens pitch once. Ian Snell showed signs that he might not be absolutely putrid in his last start, but we’ll get a better feel for him tomorrow. The Braves are loaded with left handed bats, so it’s not a good match up for the Pirates tomorrow afternoon. Let’s just pray that the offense shows up tomorrow. 

11 Days Away

Alright we are now only 11 days away from opening night, when the Philadelphia Phillies begin their quest to defend their championship against the Atlanta Braves. As we approach the final week of spring training, the every day big league hitters are really starting to gear up and really start swinging the bats. I’m looking forward to looking around the league to see what happens in this last week of spring training, but I am even more looking forward to the end of spring training. It’s been going on forever, let’s get to the regular season already! Anyways, let’s get to some Pirates news.

The Pirates defeated the Atlanta Braves 5-2 last night. The big story here was Ross Ohlendorf. Ross pitched 6 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and striking out 3. His spring ERA is now down to 0.59, making him a lock for a spot in the starting rotation (at least he’s a lock in my book). He has looked terrific, being efficient and location all of his pitches extremely well. I’d love to see him in the 4th spot in the rotation, preceded by Maholm, Snell, and Duke, and followed by Karstens. The Pirates offense was provided by Craig Monroe, Nate McLouth, and Ryan Doumit. Let’s take a closer look at these three hitters, shall we??

  • Craig Monroe

    Craig Monroe has been stellar for his new team this spring. He’s hitting .302 with 12 RBI and 6 runs. Monroe is a lifetime .253 hitter, which is obviously not too good. He has had three 20+ home run seasons, but that’s in his past. Monroe is going to be nothing more than a pinch hitter and a situational player. I don’t know who will have the advantage between Monroe and Hinske. They will be two great players coming off the bench. Personally, I like Eric Hinske better, just because of his defense. Hinske, by the way, is a career .254 hitter. He had 24 homers in his first season, and hit 20 again last season. His defense is definitely superior to that of Monroe, but the way Monroe has looked this spring, I don’t see how you could look him over that quickly. It’s a good problem to have. If the Pirates do indeed record their 17th consecutive losing season, it won’t be the fault of the outfield.

  • Nate McLouth

    Nate McLouth, pretty much the single reason to watch the Pirates last year, had success out of nowhere. No one expected him to do that. The only reason he even became an every day player was because of his awesome performance in spring training last year. He is mimicking that success again this spring. He’s hitting .325 with 3 home runs and 8 RBI. The average is good to see. McLouth hit .276 last year. Don’t expect a .300 season from McLouth. I’m a little weary of his power numbers as well, I don’t see him hitting 26 homers again this year. If he stays healthy all year, he’ll probably eclipse 20. I would also say he’s not going to repeat his RBI number again (94). Hitting in the 3 hole, it’s a guaranteed minimum 75, with potential to get to 100. I’m thinking somewhere in the mid to high 80′s. With hitters Nyjer Morgan and Freddy Sanchez hitting in front of him, I’m not seeing many runners to be on base for Nate (at least until Andrew McCutchen starts leading off for the Pirates). Nate could very well make his 2nd consecutive all-star appearance, just because the rest of the club is so mediocre.

  • Ryan Doumit

    Ryan Doumit is one of the pillars that is holding the future together for the Pirates. He’s been showing good signs this spring as well. He is hitting .295 with 2 home runs and a .477 slugging percentage. Doumit is a rare catcher. He hit .318 last year, and it’s pretty rare to see a catcher hit that far above .300. His career average is .278. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Doumit’s average take a step backwards this year, but I definitely can see his power numbers rising. He hit a career high 15 homers last year. I expect Ryan to raise that number into the 20′s this year. This guy has great potential, and hitting in the clean up spot could warrant a legitimate chance to get to 100 RBI. Although his 69 ribs last year suggest otherwise. Maybe I’m expecting too much out of him, but I see Doumit as our best offensive player, so he’d better perform.

The Pirates play another night game tonight against the Rays at 7. Jeff Karstens will take the mound to try and boost his chances at making the rotation. We should be hearing word from manager John Russell soon about who the rotation will be. This is definitely a big start for Karstens. He hasn’t been great this spring, but has shown good signs and had some ups, enough to put him ahead of Virgil Vasquez, atleast. Personally, I’m rooting for Karstens. Let’s Go Bucs.


p.s. I upgraded my t-shirt collection yesterday by purchasing a Jason Bay shirt. That makes 13 shirts and 11 teams represented.
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