Ex-Pirates In The LCS: Results

Congrats to the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants for winning their leagues and for making my (revised) predictions come true. As such, I’ll stick with my World Series prediction from last round: Tigers over Giants.

Pennant Winners

Giants
Ryan Vogelsong 2 G, 14.0 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 13 K.
Javier Lopez 3 G, 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K.
Xavier Nady DNP

Tigers
Octavio Dotel 2 G, 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
Don Kelly 1 G, 0 for 0, 1 R.

Eliminated Teams

Cardinals
None

Yankees
None

Division Series Results

Well, I went 0-4 in my picks for the division series. Now there are no underdogs left. In fact, the last three World Series winners are still alive, which means the only team left that is worth cheering for is the Tigers, who haven’t won since 1984.

New picks, guaranteed to be no less accurate than before:
LCS: Tigers over Yankees, Giants over Cardinals
WS: Tigers over Giants

Division Series Winners

Giants
Ryan Vogelsong 1 G, 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.
Javier Lopez 2 G, 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.
Xavier Nady 4 G, 0 for 5, 1 BB, 3 K.

Cardinals
None

Yankees
None

Tigers
Octavio Dotel 2 G, 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.
Don Kelly 1 G, 0 for 0, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 SF.

Eliminated Teams

Nationals
Adam LaRoche 5 G, 3 for 17, 2 RBI, 4 R, 4 BB, 3 K, 2 HR.
Sean Burnett 2 G, 1.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
Mike Gonzalez 1 G, 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
Tom Gorzelanny 1 G, 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.

Reds
Ryan Ludwick 5 G, 6 for 18, 4 RBI, 4 R, 4 BB, 5 K.
Bronson Arroyo 1 G, 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.
Xavier Paul 3 G, 1 for 3, 1 R, 1 K.

Orioles
Nate McLouth 5 G, 7 for 22, 3 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR.

Athletics
Brandon Moss 5 G, 2 for 15, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HBP.

Ex-Pirates in the Playoffs

Greetings. I’m back and will resume posting. The Pirates’ season went down in flames but there’s still a month of exciting baseball left to watch. For those of you who are interested, here’s a list of ex-Pirates who’s teams are playing in the postseason. I’ll update the stats after each round.

Braves (Lost the Wild Card game)
Eric Hinske DNP
Paul Maholm (not active for wild card game)
Lyle Overbay DNP
David Ross 3 for 4, 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 HR

Cardinals
None

Orioles
Nate McLouth 1 for 4, 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB, SF

Rangers (Lost the Wild Card game)
None

Division Winners

Nationals
Adam LaRoche
Sean Burnett
Mike Gonzalez
Tom Gorzelanny

Reds
Ryan Ludwick
Bronson Arroyo
Xavier Paul

Giants
Ryan Vogelsong
Javier Lopez
Xavier Nady

Yankees
None

Athletics
Brandon Moss

Tigers
Octavio Dotel
Don Kelly

My picks for this postseason:
Nats over Cards, Reds over Giants, Orioles over Yankees, A’s over Tigers
Reds over Nats, A’s over O’s
A’s over Reds

Series Preview: The Tigers

Current record: 18-20, 3rd place in NL Central, 4.0 games back

Up Next: Detroit Tigers, 18-20, 2nd place in AL Central, 4.0 games back

Season Series: 0-0, First time playing.

Notes: The Pirates head to Detroit for the start of Interleague play. Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Austin Jackson lead an offense that has scored 167 runs in 38 games, 4.39 per game. Fortunately, the pitching and defense has yielded 4.66 r/g. Curious to see who’ll be DHing for the Pirates this weekend.

Familiar Faces: Jim Leyland, Octavio Dotel and Don Kelly.

Probable Pitchers
Friday: RH Charlie Morton (2-3, 33.1 IP, 20 K, 4.05 ERA, 1.44 WHIP)
vs. Rh Justin Verlander (4-1, 58.1 IP, 56 K, 2.47 ERA, 0.87 WHIP)

Morton’s mechanical adjustments were very effective in his last start. Just when you thought the Pirates had already faced every good pitcher in the league, they face last year’s AL Cy Young award winner and MVP.

Saturday: RH A.J. Burnett (1-2, 31.2 IP, 31 K, 5.12 ERA, 1.26 WHIP)
vs. LH Drew Smyly (1-0, 39.0 IP, 32 K, 2.31 ERA, 1.10 WHIP)

Burnett’s been amazing, save the one awful start. Smyly is the Tigers’ hot young rookie.

Sunday: RH Kevin Correia (1-4, 40.0 IP, 14 K, 4.50 ERA, 1.33 WHIP)
vs. RH Max Scherzer (2-3, 41.2 IP, 48 K, 6.26 ERA, 1.73 WHIP)

Really hoping that Brad Lincoln gets this start instead of Correia. If not, then you have to imagine that Kevin will be on a very short leash. Even with nothing else going his way Scherzer still strikes out a bunch of guys. He’s the kind of pitcher that always
seems to right himself against the Bucs.

No lineups yet.

4:58 Update: Lineups:
Josh Harrison DH
Neil Walker 2B
Andrew McCutchen CF
Pedro Alvarez 3B
Garrett Jones RF
Casey McGehee 1B
Nate McLouth LF
Clint Barmes SS
Michael McKenry C

Tigers
Don Kelly CF
Andy Dirks LF
Miguel Cabrera 3B
Prince Fielder 1B
Delmon Young DH
Alex Avila C
Brennan Boesch RF
Jhonny Peralta SS
Ryan Raburn 2B

Ex-Pirates in the 2011 Playoffs (plus programming note)

Here are the ex-Pirates whose teams made the postseason:

Rangers: Mike Gonzalez
Tigers: Don Kelly
Rays: None
Yankees: None

Diamondbacks: Lyle Overbay
Brewers: Nyjer Morgan
Cardinals: Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes*
Phillies:  None

*Rhodes was officially a Pirate for two weeks but never played for the team.

The above list is just from my perusal of the rosters. If I missed someone let me know.

Upcoming: I hope you all enjoy the postseason and off season. Due to a change in work schedule and getting final wedding preparations in order, the blog is going on a temporary and non-binding hiatus. I’ve got one more trade tree mostly in the can and I’ll post that when I can but it won’t be tomorrow. You can still find me on twitter sometimes and if something really big happens I may pop back in. Thanks to all of you who have read my work up to this point. I hope to return sooner rather than later.

Cheers,
David

Bucs’ Trades = Win

Interesting deals by the Pirates at Saturday’s trading deadline. Gone are:

Bobby Crosby, SS (to Diamondbacks) .224/.301/.295
Ryan Church, OF (to Diamondbacks) .182/.240/.312
DJ Carrasco, P (to Diamondbacks) 3.88 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 7.3 K/9
Octavio Dotel, P (to Dodgers) 4.28 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 10.8 K/9
$500,000 cash (to Dodgers)
Javier Lopez, P (to Giants) 2.79 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 5.1 K/9

The pitchers will be missed. All were effective and part of a strong bullpen. Crosby and Church were ineffective to put it nicely. The thing that all of these players have in common is that none of them were part of the long term plan and all are (or should be) easily replaceable for next season. In return the Pirates received:

Chris Snyder, C (from Diamondbacks) .231/.352/.426
Pedro Ciriaco, SS (from Diamondbacks) (AAA) .259/.278/.392
$3,000,000 cash (from Diamondbacks)
James McDonald, P (from Dodgers) (AAA) 4.41 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 8.1 K/9
Andrew Lambo, OF (from Dodgers) (AA) .271/.325/.420
John Bowker, OF (from Giants) (AAA) .310/.388/.594
Joseph Martinez, P (from Giants) (AAA) 3.32 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 7.2 K/9

That’s a Ryan Doumit clone with better D, 2 rotation candidates, one OF who could come up now, one young OF who projects very well, a toolsy SS prospect, AND a wad of dough. If there’s anything not to like here I can’t see it. For more analysis and detailed breakdown on the young guys check the blogroll to the left. There have been several good articles written since Saturday.