I've been at PNC Park for some crazy moments. I was there for the infamous Rob Mackowiak home runs during a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs. I was there to see Brian Giles make the catch of the decade over the left field fence. None of those compared to what I experienced at PNC last night against the Cubs. There was the patented wild inning by Jose Veras where a lead...

I haven't been to PNC Park since August 7 of last year. That was the night that Pedro Alvarez hit his dramatic walkoff homer against the Rockies to cap an unlikely 10-inning win. Even in the euphoria surrounding that unlikely win, the Pirates were headed towards an ugly, ugly finish to the 2010 season and everyone in the park that night knew it. Eleven months later, I'm heading...

May 28, 2004. The Pittsburgh Pirates were hosting the Chicago Cubs in a day-night doubleheader. Kip Wells took the hill for the Pirates, opposite Matt Clement for the Cubs in game 1.Both pitchers put up 0's through the first innings before the Cubs got a run in the 4th on a Corey Patterson RBI single. The Pirates answered with 3-spot in the 5th, as Randall Simon scored on a wild...

I can't fathom anyone else getting this completely worked up about their team picking up their 39th win one week into the month of August.

"I," she told him, "Can believe anything. You have no idea what I can believe." "Really?" "I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not ..." -Neil Gaiman, American Gods If there's one question that I've been asked more than any...

WHAT'S THE NEWSThe retread purge is on!Rob Mackowiak and George Lombard have been released. Both were on the DL for like, ever. Well Lombard was, Mackowiak wasn't. But they both have been on the DL.With the trio in the outfield, Stephen Head and Wes Hodges back, and Jordan Brown, no need for either of them.The Indians did sign a few people, one is going to be filling some...

HEY IT'S MONDAY AND I'M TYPING CAPS LOCKNo really.It was a long weekend, and if you followed redonkulous action on twitter, or what little action I was able to provide, I thank you.There was about three messages I texted that didn't actually go up and one that went up that was sent before everything else, that actually went up last. Go figure.I'll repeat myself, I...

2007 W-L:89-74 2007 Pythag W-L:89-74 2007 Payroll:~58 mil 2008 Payroll:~65 mil Coming:Jeff DaVanon, Robert Fick,Tadahito Iguchi, Mark Prior, Randy Wolf Going: Geoff Blum, Milton Bradley, Doug Brocail, Mike Cameron, Jack Cassel, Morgan Ensberg, Marcus Giles, Ryan Ketchner, Jason Lane, Rob Mackowiak, B...

Dirtlocker points for: Josh Bard, Josh Barfield, Michael Barrett, Heath Bell, Geoff Blum, Milton Bradley, Russell Branyan, Mike Cameron, Brady Clark, Jose Cruz, Jim Edmonds, Morgan Ensberg, Marcus Giles, Brian Giles, Adrian Gonzalez, Khalil Greene, Scott Hairston, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Rob Mackowiak, Mi...

Dirtlocker points for: Brian Anderson, Orlando Cabrera, Alex Cintron, Joe Crede, Octavio Dotel, Darin Erstad, Josh Fields, Bobby Jenks, Scott Linebrink, Kenny Lofton, Rob Mackowiak, Brandon McCarthy, Jerry Owens, Pablo Ozuna, Juan Pierre, Scott Podsednik, Carlos Quentin, Aaron Rowand, Nick Swisher, ...

The Buffalo Bison's are reporting that Rob Mackowiak was released to make room for Brandon Knight who was re-assigned to AAA. A few years ago I thought Mackowiak would be a good signing as a AAAA super utility player who could be called up to play any position in a pinch but the team has better versions this year in Cory Sullivan and Bobby Kielty.The Buffalo Bisons, Triple-A...

Jonathon Niese pitched a beauty tonight for Buffalo according to the teams site. The Buffalo Bisons, Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, defeated the Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), 6-0, on Wednesday afternoon from Jupiter, FL. The Bisons will conclude their spring exhibition schedule on Tuesday against Memphis at Port St. Lucie, FL. LHP Jonathon Niese combined with three relievers...

At the Winter Meetings a lot of changes were made to almost every MLB team. The White Sox were no different. Although it would seem that we have the perfect team and didn't need to make any changes, we were looking for an enhancement at infielder and got it in Rob Mackowiak formerly of the Pirates. D...

Dirtlocker points for: Lance Broadway, Joe Crede, Josh Fields, Gio Gonzalez, Francisco Liriano, Rob Mackowiak, Jerry Owens, Carlos Quentin, Nate Robertson, C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana, Ryan Sweeney, Nick Swisher, Dontrelle Willis, Joe Torre It's hard to make a complete assessment of today's ...

No real surprises here, but it does seem early to be sending this many players to the minor league side especially with the players in the WBC.The four who were sent down are Rob Mackowiak, Eddie Kunz, Valerio De Los Santos and Josh Thole. I said all along Rob Mackowiak would be in Buffalo hoping for a call-up. The guy is extremely versatile but other then a few years in Pittsburgh...

Adam Rubin reported on his blog that the Mets have trimmed four players from the roster immediately after last nights 16-8 loss to the Marlins. Rob Mackowiak, Eddie Kunz, Valerio de los Santos and Josh Thole were each sent to minor league camp. Yesterday I wrote that Eddie Kunz had no shot and would close for Buffalo, I think all of us Mets fans could have predicted that. But I was...

We're now at the part of the summer when baseball roster moves become incredibly complicated and NBA personnel moves are incredibly underwhelming. We're past the non-waiver deadline in America's pastime and now all the big names in hoops have already signed. So why are we doing a rumors post? Hey, it's a slow morning and there's some interesting stuff going on...

It's so hard to make sense of the latest Mets wins and losses because most of the roster is off to the However, there are still jobs to be won and Today the Mets split a pair of games, they had a  8-3 loss to the Nationals and then beat the University of Michigan 18-7. ...

With two spots up for grabs on the bench, there are at least six players in the running for those positions. The front runners appear to be Marlon Anderson and Jeremy Reed, however; those two have some very stiff competition from Bobby Kielty, Cory Sullivan, Rob Mackowiak, Angel Pagan and yes ...

Johan Santana cleared another major hurdle after throwing a 36 pitch simulated game this morning at Tradition Santana threw a variety of pitches under the watchful eyes of the media, pitching coach Dan Warthen, Omar Minaya and even Fred Nick Evans, Rob Mackowiak, Rene Rivera ...

From time to time, Charlie, the author of Bucs Dugout, and I discuss the Pirates. With the season coming up, it seemed like the best time to resume the dialogue. Today, we talk about the bench decisions the Pirates face coming into 2009.WHYGAVS: If we assume there are four bench spots for ...

There are so many Mets players at the WBC, that there isn't much going on in camp. But one of the only interesting things happening is the competition for the fourth outfield position. As I see it there are three outfielders fighting for one spot ( sorry Rob Mackowiak enjoy Buffalo). All are ...

There appear to be two separate competitions going on in regard to the bench. Fernando Tatis, Alex Cora and Ramon Castro seem to be locks.The first battle seems to be, between Marlon Anderson and Bobby Keilty for the pinch hitter, veteran leader. Anderson is a great clubhouse presence and has ...

Over the next few weeks many players will battle it out in Port St. Lucie to try to win a spot on the New York Mets? bench. For the next few days we will look at some of those competing for the spot and analyze their chances at winning the job. The first player we will profile is a former top Minnesota Twins prospect, Bobby Kielty. Kielty, who was signed by the Twins in 1999, began...

We'll finish up our initial thoughts on the 2009 Mets -- which was supposed to be a brief overview but somehow grew into War and Peace -- with a look at the bench today and conclude with a final summation The consensus seems to be that the Mets are likely to carry 12 pitchers, which ...