by Stephen Zielinski

King Felix Hernandez of the Mariners pitches again tonight (Saturday, August 20, 2005). Don’t miss the spectacle if you can manage it. It’s worth watching.

---

Felix Hernandez. He’s a callow 19 year old rookie. But, he’s not an ordinary rookie. His fastball sits at 97 mph. He supplement’s his fastball with a plus curveball and changeup. He’s also developing a slider which should become yet another plus pitch. (The Mariners told him to shelve the slider while he was in the low minors, for fear that he might injure his arm!) Hernandez was Baseball America’s number two prospect before the season began. Oh, and he throws strikes.

Every so often I’ll write a few pertinent — or useless — comments for the Front Page. It keeps me out of trouble. The sixth installment:

---

Quack Mac

Dejan Kovacevic reported:

Bay is 13 for 13 in stolen bases this season, and his streak of 14 — including one at the end of last season — is the longest active run in the majors. Two weeks ago, McClendon made Bay the only player on the team with a green light to steal when he wishes. Lawton had been the only player with that designation before being traded July 31.

By Stephen Zielinski

In this article I take a critical look at a John Perrotto piece published in the August 8, 2005 Beaver County and Allegheny Times. The title I’ve chosen indicates the subject matter and the mood in which the article was written.

---

John Perrotto has been a reliable reporter. He’s also been a friend of the fans. He has proven his worth over the years. But, he did the fans a disservice in his most recent article on the Pirates, ‘Snell shelled by L.A,’ Beaver County and Allegheny Times, August 8, 2005. I also believe he failed to do a good job as a reporter.

By Stephen Zielinski

Every so often I’ll write a few pertinent — or useless — comments for the Front Page. Doing so keeps me out of trouble. The fifth installment:

---

An ‘easy to get right’ prediction I

Since the Pirates will dump salary at the trading deadline, we who follow the rumor trails have often had an opportunity to read something like the following:

by Wilbur Miller

SOME of the discussions here recently led me to think about the reasons for the Pirates’ plight over the past 13 years. Much of the discussion centers, of course, on bad decisions at the GM level, because as fans that’s what we notice: trades, free agent signings and the like. When you’re a Pirate fan, these moves can take on added significance, because they’ve been so bad most of the time. Most baseball fans probably don’t even know what the Rule 5 draft is, but I’ll bet virtually all more-than-casual Pirate fans do.

By Stephen Zielinski

Taking my cue from Justice Potter Stewart’s famous but ultimately futile effort to denote obscenity in court=us&vol=378&invol=184"> Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964),

It’s time.

By Stephen Zielinski

Everybody has wondered about Mark. Now we know.

---

Dejan Kovacevic has provided us with the final word on this vexing problem. You can find it in the Pirates Notebook for June 29, 2005:

By Stephen Zielinski

Every so often I’ll write a few pertinent — or useless — comments for the Front Page. It keeps me out of trouble. The fourth installment:

---

Let’s drive for 75 in 2005

In his June 2, 2005 ‘Q & A,’ Dejan Kovacevic opined:

As for [trading] Redman, forget it. He is going nowhere. He has another year on his contract at the same salary as his current $4.5 million, and the Pirates are eager to keep him. They view him as a bargain.

And: If the Pirates were to make a trade, then

By Stephen Zielinski

I’ll begin with a bit of hopeful news from the Federales. Paul Meyer reported:

Littlefield indicated yesterday the Pirates have a pool of "four or five" players they're concentrating on as possible first-round picks in the amateur draft June 7. "And we have a couple [others] on the wish list," he said.

One of the players in the "four or five" group is believed to be left-handed pitcher Ricky Romero from top-ranked California-Fullerton.

Romero, a junior, is 11-4 with a 2.57 earned run average this year and has 120 strikeouts in 112 innings.

By Stephen Zielinski

Every so often I’ll write a few pertinent — or useless — comments for the Front Page. It keeps me out of trouble. This is the third of the series:

---

Littlefield sets us straight — sorta...

We recently had the opportunity to read a few incoherent musings originating on Federal Street:

“It’s not a situation where we’re going to just deal for prospects year after year,” Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield says. “We want to win some more games. Yet, at this point, it hasn’t been proven to me that we’ve got a championship club. We’re walking that tightrope.