Charlie,

I respect your blog and your knowledge of baseball, but please, the begininning of the season when there's still hope is the best time of the year for me; don't ruin it.  I'm addicted to this site, it's one of the few sites I check daily, so seriously, join in on the fun, and let's try to stay positive in the first month before we're 13 games back at the beginning of June.  For example, Doumit looks jacked, and if he was a better fielder/thrower, that could be really good.  He knocked that ball out of the park off Hughes without getting great contact, clearly the guy has some strength.  Mclouth is a good all around player, Freddy looks good in the field, Rivas has been hitting well, and Doumatrait has had great stuff recently.  Seriously, let's stay positive, I know it's your blog, but I implore you, please give me some hope rather than a steady flow of cynical pessimism.

Sincerely,

Lifetime Buccos fan from Fox Chapel

People take this whole steroids things too seriously.  They talk about the integrity of the game and how it's not fair to the legends of the game and the records.  I think there is something they're forgetting: baseball is entertainment, it's the equivalent of a circus, a movie, or pro wrestling (ok, maybe not pro wrestling because that's just simply degenerate).  My point being, despite my love for the game, it's still just a game.  I love seeing guys blast 500 ft homeruns and I even love it more when I see a pitcher hit the high nineties after pitching 7 innings, it's fun to watch.  If they want to sacrifice their bodies and the size of their testicles for my entertainment, that's fine with me, the joke is on them.  They're basically a freak show but just with multi-million dollar contracts.  And if young kids do steroids because pro baseball players are, those kids will hopefully be eliminated through natural selection because that's pathetic.  Ultimately though, I love baseball, I would sacrifice my left nut to see the Pirates win a world series, but I don't care who does steroids in baseball.

Alright, tonight was a must win for the Yankees, and despite a classic outting by Andy Pettite, they totally choked.  A-rod wasn't even looking when he swung, apparently he realized that these at-bats actually meant something and then proceeded to shit his pants, and the other players, especially washed-up Johnny Damon, looked like they didn't deserve the uniform they were wearing.  The only player who did look great was Melky Cabrera, maybe all you haters out there who hated on my previous diary on why we should trade for Cabrera can now shut the hell up.  Anyways, the reason I would want them to win is so I don't have to hear about what they're doing, how many times Steinbrenner scratched his ass, and whether or not Torre is going to get canned every time I turn on ESPN.  If they lose, it will seriously totally sap the MLB headlines for the entire offseason, and I'm sick of it.  So for my sanity's sake, please Yankees and A-rod, take the dildo out of your mouths and start earning your stripes, because I don't want to have to hear about you everyday in the offseason.

And yes, I promise you they'll cover them less if they win.

Baseball guys talk about stats all the time, but one thing I think these "stat guys" tend to overlook is the attitude with which players play.  Nyjer Morgan plays with the same enthusiasm that the 12 year olds show in the LLWS.  Maybe if he eventually makes big league money that will change, but right now the guy (I think he's 27) is showing great excitement and that translates into big plays.  He's about the only guy out there on the team to be happy wearing a Pirates jersey, and that says something about his character.  So quit talking about how this guy played in rookie ball or the time he had a low OBP 10 years ago, the kid can play, and he loves doing it.  That will translate into more wins than anything else.

If the front office and Jim Tracy were not so caught up in the intangibles (i.e. Freddy was the batting champ last year, if Laroche doesn't start Littlefield looks like the idiot he is) then the right people might be starting and we probably wouldn't be 9 games back.  Having Castillo start for Freddy at 2nd saves at least one run a game due to Castillo's vastly superior fielding.  And to further support this claim, Freddy can't hit shit right now anyways.  He's not slapping the ball like he did last year and he definitely has the fielding range of a third baseman at best.  Barely anything gets past Castillo and even if he doesn't hit, at least he saves a couple runs.  It's known Jack and Jose don't get along, for example when Jack and Freddy turn a play Jack goes for the immediate ass grab but if Jose bails him out with an amazing catch and put out, Jack doesn't even acknowledge his presence.  This doesn't matter, Castillo deserves second base on fielding alone.

Littlefield should have dealt Gonzalez for the Yankee's Melky Cabrera.  For one thing, his fielding is a whole lot better than Nady's, and he has a lot more upside as a hitter.  The Yankees had/have a lot of trouble with their bullpen outside of the sandman, therefore they could've used a stud like Gonzo for a setup guy, or as the heir apparent to sandman.  And I'm sure no one would mind not having Laroche who is currently batting a solid .098 around and big country in his place.  Damn, I wish we had a better front office.  I know middle schoolers who could probably analyze talent better.