Craig Wilson Is A Pirate...Again

Are you kidding me?

Everyone who thought Craig Wilson's time with the Buccos was long gone...you fail.

Only the Pirates would sign a chronically-underachieving strikeout machine after he didn't catch on in New York, Atlanta and Cincinnati. Hell, we could use some depth in the minors...why not take Craig Wilson back? He can hit pinch-hit home runs with the best of 'em!

When we traded Wilson for Shawn Chacon, I had a sneaking feeling that Wilson would be back. He's the type of guy that might attract some attention by hitting 29 homers in a season, but isn't the unbelievable talent that would warrant a long-term deal. So, after pit stops in both the national and American Leagues, Wilson is back home in Pittsburgh.

I think I'd rather have Bonds.

In other Pirates news, Master X was named the NL Player of the Week. It might be a stretch to find a picture of him between two broads.

UPDATE: Maybe not.

Nady Well Enough to DH

Xavier Nady's tight left hammy might be healed enough to let Bucco DH in the upcoming interleague showdown with the Yankees. Jim Tracy isn't even stopping there, and said Nady could even return to the field if he feels well enough, allowing Ryan Doumit to DH.

The Buccos could use Nady's bat, so the upcoming 15-game interleague stretch might be a blessing in disguise (I say this very timidly). The Buccos have never done well in interleague games.

They are 52-84 overall since the leagues began crisscrossing in 1997, and that includes 10 opposition sweeps in 46 series and a 19-46 mark in American League parks.

Nady won't have to rush back from his injury, and a DH role can help his hammy heal. I mean, Doumit's stats as a DH in the last 2 years of interleague play are terrible. 6-33, .182, no homers, 4 RBIs. Nady can DH, instead of possibly re-injuring his hammy in the field, and put a fresh Pirate bat into a foreign position.

But its up to the entire team to turn the horrible interleague record around. The Buccos always seem to be in the same position at this point every year. Somewhere between 5-10 games back of the NL Central leader, with no clear team willing to be the Central frontrunner. Interleague comes along, and the Buccos decide to stink it up...again.

The promises of April seem to turn into the realities of May. June and interleague bring the night terrors that eventually decimate the team. July through September is then soured by the roster expansion, and the experimental 9-man rosters that resemble D-II college teams.

Matt Capps' almost-certain suspension will not help a damn thing. His suspension (from the Prince Fielder incident, now 5 weeks old) will not be overturned, and the team will be without one of its best relievers for 4 games. Capps will pitch against the Yanks, but Salomon Torres will still have to (possibly) close 4 games against either the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners or Los Angeles Angels. Including New York, the Buccos are 9-23 against their upcoming AL opposition.

Gorzo (6-3 2.53 ERA) takes the mound against Andy Pettitte (3-4 2.96 ERA) tonight at Yankee Stadium.

BREAKING NEWS: Nady Leaves Game With Hamstring Injury

The Buccos are currently down 3-1 against the lowly Nats, and Zach Duke is trying to prove that his rookie season was no joke. Unfortunately, X-Man Nady, who opened the season on fire and had a clutch, 4-RBI game last night, left tonight's game clutching his left hammy.

The injury is said to be minor, but the Buccos can ill afford to lose Nady's bat.

Shit, now its 5-1 Nats. Zach Duke is looking more and more like Ollie Perez. Great for one season, then horrible for the next two. We should trade him so he can go be an ace in some major metropolitan area, too.

Apologies Over, Now Back To Blogging

hey hey, the pirates won. i still get excited when the buccos win, mainly because its something i havent seen a whole lot of in my day. by taking the final game of the series with the reds, the buccos avoided being swept, and their record stands at 4-2, which leads the central with the reds. jack wilson homered (see above picture), jason bay homered, and so did big country. i said before, that brad eldred needed to make the pirates opening day roster, instead of starting the season in the minors again. big country proved me right, by homering in his first game this season, and for the first time since 2005. it was eldred's 12 career homer. i saw his 10th career home run, in a game that andy pettitte won in pittsburgh, on september 20, 2005. my buddy evan, who is from boston and looks like joe thornton, as ive pointed out in the past, hung out and talked with pettitte's dad throughout the game. we had seats right behind the astros dugout, and evan, a hardcore pats/bosox fan, kept talking with mr pettitte about boston sports, and mr pettitte kept looking at his friends like, "whos this dude?" dont know why thats important, but it was memorable...and eldred homered.

we are about 50 hours to the drop of the puck in pittsburgh's first playoff game in some time. i cant wait, and im not that worried that the game will be in ottawa. we just won there, so that shouldnt be too much of an obstacle to overcome. scott burnside of espn.com, who has written some pro-penguins pieces in the past, has picked the sens to win in 5 games. boo. he names the lack of experience and the questionable blue line as reasons for his pick. i just think he has the hots for sens coach bryan murray.

zach johnson won the masters. he outlasted tiger, who couldnt seem to hit the right shots. it is impressive, however that tiger played so poorly, yet still put himself in a position to win another green jacket. i was unimpressed by johnson, and i didnt want him to win. he seemed like a tool on the golf course, and he was making me mad by constantly taking the sunglasses off the back of his head in a deliberate fashion, and quickly putting them on his face. it kept distracting me from his putting and short game, which was unbelievable. he laid up on every par 5 the entire weekend, and used short irons to set himself up with makeable puts. pretty smart way to win the masters with the highest score in tournament history (289).

the pirates home opener is currently going on, against the struggling cards. ian "im gonna strike out 11 astros" snell is pitching against braden "im supposed to pitch in the first 5-6 innings?" looper. this will be looper's second start of his career, after spending the past years as a reliever and closer. the cards are up 1-0, and chris duffy has the only pirate hit. UPDATE: jason bay just got pittsburghs second hit, moving adam laroche, who walked, to second. with only 1 out, hopefully x-man nady or paulino will knock in a couple runs. UPDATE: nady hit into an inning-ending double play. that sucks.

more later...

Can You Say, "First Place?"

sorry for the lack of domination the past few days (there, thats my april fools joke, a lack of posts when one would be normally expecting posts) . ive been real busy at school, because i get my b.a. in a little more than a month. oh well, lots to get to today.

last night was sweet. the pirates opened their season with a win. props to the buccos for hanging around during a game in which roy oswalt was pitching some fierce stuff (or the pirates just couldnt hit, a simpler explanation). pittsburgh knew hits were going to be hard to come by, and their patience paid off, when nate mclouth's pinch-hit homer broke the shutout, and xavier nady added to "lights-out lidge's" frustrations (remember when lidge was feared in the league, like before he threw that pitch in the 2005 nlcs to pujols? dude hasnt been the same since, even though he denies the hell out of it). jason bay hit a cool 2 run homer in the 10th, and the pirates prevailed for only the 12th time in 54 games at minute maid park (remember when it was enron field? i do, you stupid astros and your association with a criminal company that bought the naming rights to your ballpark).

pirates are in 1st place in the central! awesome. after 14 shitty seasons, i will take any moral victory. the cards and astros and cubs (good job spending a lot of money, toolbags) are all underneath us. i am imagining an anthropomorphic pirate standing over an anthropomorphic cardinal, anthropomorphic astro (what the hell? this, maybe?) and an anthropomorphic cub, and taking a giant poo on each.

here's a video of three rivers being demolished. i still almost cry when i see this.

levi jones said that joey porter waited for his 6 friends to jump levi, then came and punched mr. jones in the face. i dont care if you are right, levi jones. joey porter is cooler than you.

florida won the national championship. i was cool with chris leak and company pooing on ohio state in the football championship. i love to see ohio state lose. but i really cant stand joakim noah, and now everyone keeps talking about the gators being one of the best teams ever. go away, florida. i liked you better when you couldnt win anything and your fans kept getting pissed. however, i already picked tim tebow as my heisman front runner (hes gonna be nuts).

the pens play tonight. they better win, seeing as how the devils keep winning (and by winning, i mean axing their coach). an overtime loss will get us even atop the atlantic, but still in 5th in the conference due to nj having two more wins than the pens. we really need to get the two points tonight against the sabres, who we beat in a shootout on march 13th. pens dropped to number 7 in the espn power rankings (that doesnt mean anything to me). the game is on versus.

pirates play tonight in houston again. everytime baseball season starts, my mind gets warped and i have to adjust my brain from football/college basketball mindset (playing division opponents 2 times a year, 3 times a year max if you make the tourney) and nhl mindset (5-10 matchups a year against any division foe) to baseball mindset (3 games against a division foe within the first 3 games). here we go, ian snell! who cares if you hate pittsburgh!

i gotta go do some stuff (stuff=look for the mpotd).

ill be back, dont worry!