Pittsburgh Pirates - A new beginning...

[moore4807]

We pull into St. Louis for a three game series against the Cardinals and even though its a jinx we are tied in the standings for 2nd place at 43-49.

[moore4807]

The loss streak is now three... When the opposition scores in 6 of the eight innings they bat, you usually aren't gonna have a good game

None of our pitchers got away unmarked, Jameson Taillon was the worst, he obviously hasn't shaken off the rust from the long layoff yet.

On a good note 3B Brian W Anderson had himself a 3-4 hitting day, scoring three runs and scoring two himself. He still needs to get hits consistently before we stop worrying about his BA.

Lets turn this page and see what tomorrow brings...

[moore4807]

AAA Indianapolis Indians SP Rookie Davis has signed a minor league contract extension.

In MLB news;
Arizona Diamondbacks SP Luke Weaver is the latest participant on Heartbreak Hill. Yes his season is now over, courtesy of a torn flexor tendon in his throwing arm. Team doctors are saying six to seven months before he can return at the soonest.

Cleveland Indians P Carlos Carrasco reinjured his strained shoulder in practice, and his doctors have now added three weeks to his recovery schedule for Carrasco's efforts.

[moore4807]

This game makes the coaching staff look like IDIOTS... not so sure I disagree either.

SP Chris Archer does his part 5 innings of ONE HIT shutout ball.
RP John Axford does his too 2 innings of one run ball. (he should have been pulled in the beginning of the 8th after pitching 2 full innings..)
RF Melky Cabrera drops an easy 8th inning ending out in RF for an error before Goldschmidt bats.
RP Archie Bradley?? serves up a 4 bags of tatertot goodness to feared hitter 1B Paul Goldschmidt... for a grand salami no less, and turns a our win into a loss with one swing of the bat. But are the Cardinals done? Noooo. just tack on an insurance run in the inning after Bradley leaves for Rich Rodriguez.

The substitution pitching changes make no sense to me, again. Pulling Archer is fine, but I thought a bit early at 77 pitches. Axford gets you two innings and he's NOT a long reliever. You have TWO set-up guys and a closer to get six outs for the win. so you stay with middle relievers? I know every situation is different, and I'm NOT a manager. but I'm gonna have a talk with the coaches and Manager and try to get us on the same pages here.

It's another lost opportunity to gain some ground on our competition, and we fumble it like a football on the 5 yard line and watch it get returned 95 yards into our end zone. A big Charlie Brown Arrrggh!!! here!!

[moore4807]

Loss Streak is Five... We lead and we lose, We trail and we lose, we have found ways to lose like late inning grand slams, we found ways like first inning 2 run HR's, I'm not sure but I think the only way we haven't lost yet is to balk in the winning run, but give this team time enough...

My talk with the coaching staff and Manager seems to have gone nowhere. It wasn't the bullpens fault this time, but the strange thing is Axford pitched two innings yesterday, WHY in God's name is he in there today with other rested relievers available? Even the closer can pitch the eighth here.

We got swept out of St.Louis, lets head back home and see what the next series brings.

[moore4807]

we get a laugher of a trade offer from GM Rick Hahn of the Chicago(A) White Sox. We are not trading SP Joe Musgrove despite his poor W/L record for another reliever! Rejected!

In MLB news Two top pitching names go on the shelf

Cleveland Indians SP Corey Kluber had to leave the game against the Tigers with back spasms, Indians officials are estimating two months as a guess, for Kluber to return.

Washington Nationals Ace pitcher Max Scherzer will miss 4-5 weeks with a forearm strain according to team officials. There was no word on who will replace Scherzer in the rotation.

[moore4807]

Our three game series at home with Philadelphia starts tonight. We catch one break with Phillies RP Tommy Hunter is done for the season and again this season in MLB, its a torn flexor tendon shelving the pitcher.

In other MLB news the Minnesota Twins have finally found a home for SP Michael Pineda, in San Diego. In return for P Pineda the Padres are sending 1B Eric Hosmer to the Twins. According to sources part of 1B Hosmer's contract is being paid by the Padres.

Finally another trade offer, This time GM Jerry DiPoto from Seattle is looking to move 27 y/o RHP Brandon Brennan to us for 2B Kevin Kramer. That will need some looking over as I don't see a ready replacement for Kramer in our farm system. perhaps we will shake the Mariners tree and see what comes down for us!

[moore4807]

What do you say when there is no spark? no adrenaline inducing plays? when the other team is hitting the ball, running the bases, scoring the runs?

You could fire the manager, but Clint Hurdle isn't the problem I feel, he's been there through this mess of a season, he's giving the players hell and putting out the best team he has, which also makes it some of my fault.

SP Joe Musgrove is just terrible right now, he's giving up hit after hit, run after run, and we seem to be forever playing from behind. expect him to see a stint in the minors soon.

In other news I think Seattle GM Jerry DiPoto might be on to me and my ways I tried looking for other players he might want for P Brennan besides 2B Kramer, but he was having none of it. He ONLY wants Kramer and he isn't letting me even ask about other prospects on his team. So I promptly rejected his offer.

[moore4807]

GM Moore didn't take long to think about SP Joe Musgrove's performance since the All Star break to make his decision. Musgrove was sent to the minors to get his pitching game rejuvenated, and SP/RP Framber Valdez was called up in his place. Mgr. Hurdle slotted current swingman P Dario Agrazal to the 5th spot in the rotation and moved everyone up to fill in Musgrove's spot. Lets see if this sparks the team into action.

In MLB news;

Three pitchers plans for the season are derailed with season ending injuries, details are below.

[moore4807]

The BNN headline says it all: Phillies destroy Pirates 8-0

Can you imagine just one week ago we were 3.5 games out of first place? THIS team? I don't know how the manager is coping, I'm not - I want to blow up this team and start over, but its way too late for that.

RP John Axford gamely went out to pitch while mildly injured and got hurt again. I am really starting to wonder about my new pitching coach and his tactics. I am going to have another meeting with the coaches and manager to see if we can't get this losing streak stopped and turned around.

I'm also tired of seeing SP Bumgarner getting paid big bucks and performing to the tune of 2-7 with a 5.02 ERA and BabIP of over .300. Lets see if shopping him will find a taker - I can get this kind of performance out of a minimum salary guy too!

I put the BNN newspaper article on the players corkboard after ripping down all the "feel good" stuff from last couple weeks. Several players watch me but no comments are heard. I then go into Mgr. Hurdles office and slam the door, he looks up and comments "You had enough too?"

[moore4807]

It didn't take long for GM Moore to find a taker for SP Bumgarner and his multimillion dollar contract. His old team! The San Francisco Giants agreed to two minor league players for Bumgarner, so we have an approximate savings of $4M for the rest of the season. Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs made offers but it was the Giants offer that made the most sense for us.

While I considered bringing up SP Brubaker, he had just pitched and RP Tommy Burrows has been performing well enough to be mentioned in out scouts reports, so RP Burrows comes up and is immediately slotted into a set up spot by the pitching coach and manager.

[moore4807]

We have a problem Houston... My game suddenly flashed an error message and closed out before I could do anything. the resulting opening of the game takes me back to the Friday opening night of the Phillies, I forgot to save every day.

I will sim these two games and now the trades and roster moves are all screwed up... grrr

[moore4807]

well instead of losing - the sim actually has the Pirates win AND P Joe Musgrove is P.O.T.G.!!! aww man I hate this, it feels like I'm cheating!

I honestly had no plans for this to happen, I'm playing early in the morning and simply forgot to save the game, NOW I'm going to go into my setting and save EVERY day, like I should have done.. but didn't.

[moore4807]

So the loss streak is over in the RE-deux world, the game saves are now daily, Sorry Hard Drive capacity

in other MLB news two of the previous pitchers still got injured. Baltimore's Chris Lee and Yankees Adam Ottavino are both out for the season.

In place of the STL pitcher getting injured, the game instead made a trade!
Tampa Bay and Milwaukee traded players, see below for details

[moore4807]

Ok this sucks IRL. The Pirates won again, which feels like I'm cheating the game. Box score is included below. and since both pitchers did well these past two games - then nothing is happening that you read... Forget sending Musgrove down, No trade of Bumgarner. I should be happy the Pirates won, but it bothers me more that the injuries stuff still happens - but I cannot reclaim my games lost. Ahhh well, least I got the saves moved to daily

In MLB news LAA 2nd baseman had a 5-6 batting day but his team lost to the Mariners.

Also P Mikolas from STL showed up on the injury sheet again, He is gone for the season too.
Details are below.

[moore4807]

ok in my last comment on this, the "alternate reality" fictional world we live in here.. The Pirates have swept the Phillies at home...

More to come later today - the week in review, last weeks stats and the standings...

[moore4807]

OOTP21 has been purchased! I'm keeping the thread here for the Pirates season, but I was told that the glitch like I described to them, is not occurring in OOTP21. So the graphics may look a little different though.

[moore4807]

well...wow...sigh... OOTP2. They weren't kidding when they said the graphics would look different! I thought they meant like the old font script vs new style, but the whole view looks.... cartoonish? My initial reaction is I'm not really a fan, but I just downloaded it this morning and have been busy all day, so this is my first chance to sit down and kick the tires.

First does anyone know any way to bring back the "old" style screens? I have to look in the forums to see if I can find anything, but I'm also quite willing to use your knowledge to get a step ahead too

I'm throwing the Team Screen, the League screen and the Batting and Pitching for the active roster for last week, for your perusal.

Let me know what you think..

[moore4807]

We have a VERY important 4 game series with the St.Louis Cardinals, if we have hope of ever catching them after last weeks sweep, now would be a good time to do it.

The power rankings are out and our Pirates are moving on up to 16th place, a welcome sight!

In MLB news

Oakland pitcher Joakim Soria is exchanging his uniform from Oakland to Colorado for two minor league players.

Colorado is in the news again as SP Antonio Senzatela is the latest reported season ending injury. A UCL is the cause and he will not be back before the end of the season per team doctors.

** Even though I bought OOTP21 - my skills set isn't good enough anymore to figure out how to add the Classic skin to the existing imported OOTP20 game - I tried to D/L it and it says I succeeded, however I can't get the classic skin to appear as the game skin. I looked in OOTP21's help file and found changing skins is apparently a listed item in the help list... but you will find nothing is there if you click on it.

So until I figure it out I'm sticking with OOTP20 for the season.

[moore4807]

One won out of four, its a good start by SP Chris Archer and plenty of help from the Pittsburgh bats to secure the win.

P Chris Archer again is held to 75 pitches and there is no explanation from Manager Hurdle or complaint from Archer either. I'm wondering if its the Manager/Pitching coach preserving him, or is there something going on that the Manager isn't telling me. OR maybe I'm just a little paranoid from reading about all the season ending injuries