Poor Daniel McCutchen. He was teasingly moved up and handed the ball for a major league start on a day that was known to be a likely rain out. You say that was probably a front office PR move to appease the fans? I see he’s now scheduled to pitch in a minor league game while Hart throws on the major league side. LOL.. maybe you’re right.
The Gorzelanny/Grabow trade will always be the equivalent of the Aramis Ramirez giveaway in my book. I realize some scouts think Hart has a big arm but I’m of the opinion his arm was toasted after 2006/2007 and he will never recover, meaning we gave away Gorzy and Grabow for next to nothing.
For right now, Neal Huntington can’t do anything except run him out there every five days hoping for a miracle, so I don’t expect to see McCutchen in Pittsburgh except in the bullpen unless a starter gets hurt. On the days his arm cooperates and he gets a good feel for the ball, he’ll probably do well. On the rest of the days he won’t know where the heck the ball is going. Don’t be too surprised if you see Hart hit the DL this year with a crispy shoulder or elbow.. been there, done that.. this is Pittsburgh.
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I’ve often wondered how much impact fan participation and noise has on wins for the home club during a year. For instance, if you take a projected 90 loss team on paper like the Pirates and then fill the stands every home game with 36,000 happy fans screaming their heads off, is it possible to walk away with five more wins? Or is it better for a ’stinky’ projected team to not have anyone in the home stands?
Consider this.. when we played on the road the last three years and the opposing team drew less than 20,000 fans, our record was 17-16 (.515). If they drew more than 20,000 we were 64-145 (.306), and as a subset if they drew 45,000 or more, we went 6-19 (.240) which is far, far below what you would expect a replacement level team to win.
Now consider this - when we packed PNC with 36,000 fans or more, our record shot up to 9-10 (.474) playing most of the same teams we played in away parks who creamed us (.240) while drawing 45,000 or more. Or how about this – when 24,000 or more fans filled PNC, our record last three is 37-74 (.500). Below 24,000 we went 79-89 (.470) and, sit down for this one, when 10,000 fans or less paid, we went 17-9 (.654.. mostly April and early May games as you might expect).
So our perfect combination would be to face teams on the road who draw 20,000 or less and then come home and play in an empty park and, theoretically, we should end up playing in October. Sound about right? Well, not so fast because of all the small sample sizes, the obvious reasons for some of the smaller attendances, and consideration for our median roster age and experience level over the last three years.
But I can’t help wondering if we packed PNC for the entire year, game after game, what would happen and how much influence 5,000 more traveling Pirates fans would have on away games?
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The new site is going to be called New Bucs Prospects instead of New Bucs Insider and it is almost finished. One correspondent is already posting content, one of the scouts will be down evaluating players this week and will then post, and another scout is getting ready for one of the opening series.
Those who pledged should have received an e-mail from me this afternoon (check your spam box too) with instructions on logging in to the members area. Only one e-mail came back as undeliverable so far and that user’s e-mail begins with hiteyk so if that happens to be you, send me an e-mail at jake [at] newbucs [dot] com telling me the e-mail you used at PayPal and how much you donated, and I’ll get you set up.
I expect the site to go live by the end of the month.
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That’s what I get for going to church and coming home to find out I forgot about the early Sunday fantasy draft and my team was auto-selected in the B&G2 league:
Round Player
1 Chase Utley (2B, U, PHI)
2 Andre Ethier (OF, U, LAD)
3 Ichiro Suzuki (OF, U, SEA)
4 Adam Dunn (1B, OF, U, WSH)
5 Manny Ramirez (OF, U, LAD)
6 Billy Butler (1B, U, KC)
7 Jason Bartlett (SS, U, TB)
8 Adrian Beltre (3B, U, BOS)
9 Seattle Mariners (P, SEA)
10 Ryan Doumit (C, U, PIT)
11 Martin Prado (1B, 2B, 3B, U, ATL)
12 Alexei Ramirez (SS, U, CWS)
13 Paul Konerko (1B, U, CWS)
14 Dexter Fowler (OF, U, COL)
15 J.D. Drew (OF, U, BOS)
16 Colby Rasmus (OF, U, STL)
Funny seeing Doumit sitting around so late.. and what the dickens am I going to do with the Mariners staff all year? Ughh… with my luck, Lee gets shelved.
I wonder if I get any points for being struck out? Man, this team would rake huh? Well if what they say is true – age before beauty – maybe I’ll have a prayer!
Original Story:
http://newbucs.com/2010/03/21/less-th...
