OnlyBucs

1. Adam Frazier (L) 2B

2. Melky Cabrera (S) LF

3. Gregory Polanco (L) RF

4. Josh Bell (S) 1B

5. Jung Ho Kang (R) 3B

6. Francisco Cervelli (R) C

7. Bryan Reynolds (S) CF

8. Cole Tucker (S) SS

9. Chris Archer (R) P



Reynolds is back. And Kang over Moran vs a RHP. I guess Moran desperately needs a rest.

I don’t like Tucker hitting eighth. Either lead off or in the second spot. Remember in 1990 Leyland batted Backman first in several games, and Jay Bell was the normal #2 guy. I think Frazier and Tucker could have the same success as those two former Bucs.

2E2223787178707D7A657F480 wrote: I don’t like Tucker hitting eighth. Either lead off or in the second spot.
Agree. Cervelli's not hitting. He should bat 8th. I've said it before but hitting 8th is tough because pitchers try to get that batter out on borderline pitches. They aren't afraid of walking him with the pitcher on deck but they hope he gets himself out on a pitch that's too close to take. That's a spot for a veteran. Not a rookie getting his first taste of MLB pitching.

Story of the Pirates and has been for as long as I can remember...can’t get a clutch hit with RISP.

coming into tonight the Bucs only have out homered the Tigers (18-14)Philadelphia and Texas tied for 16th in majors with 32.



the Bucs are next to last in runs scored with 75 (ahead of Marlins) Tampa and Angels are 16th with 120.



Somehow we need to score about 1.5 more runs per game.



I can believe that a lot of the Bucs are trying to hard and feel a lot of pressure.

Another short night for Archer. 4 innings.



Once again he was hurt badly by not being able to shut innings down with two outs. He can be a pitch away from an easy inning and it suddenly turns into an extended count.



Very frustrating. And maybe it’s that frustration influencing me, but I am having a real problem tolerating Joe Block tonight. He’s starting to make the game hard to keep on.

This offense right now is just not getting it done and has only a scored 11 runs during this current 6 game losing streak, and with the pitching coming back down to earth now that’s just not a good combination for winning games. As for Joe Block VA I agree 100 percent with you Block continues to be insufferable to listen too. I have a hard time finding one thing this guy does well or is good at as far as play by play and just anything else and I honestly can’t think of one. I really don’t know what the Pirates saw in him that made him stand out over the 100’s of other people that tried out for the position when Tim Neverett left. Cause like I said I really have a hard time finding something good to say about Joe Block because there is just nothing there.

I find Joe Block extremely annoying. He ruins games for me. He seems to believe that his job is to fill every second of air time with his voice. I guess he thinks his job is to entertain us rather than simply calling the game so that the game can entertain us. So we get a lot of "Ers" and "Uhs" while he buys time to think of the next thing to say. Even the job of the color commentators is effected. I notice that with Greg Brown, the color commentators often bring up something they noticed and want to talk about. But when paired with Block, they usually just get to respond to whatever he is saying.

In the current 6-game losing streak the Pirates have been outscored 39-11. Averaging 1.8 runs scored in those games and 6.5 runs against. Suddenly, the lack of pitching is as much a problem as the lack of hitting.

I'm feeling really good (and also really depressed) about my 66-96 prediction.