It's always tough to lose a game and have an inside-the-park home run hit against you, but this one was more of an accident of fate than any terrible mistake made by the Pirates. Seth Smith's homer was more like a garden-variety double, with Nate McLouth well positioned to handle it. The problem was that the ball took an incredibly weird bounce off the bottom of the wall and went skittering across center field. By the time the Pirates were able to get the ball in from the outfield, Smith had scored easily. 

The bad stuff that cost the Pirates the game happened earlier. The Rockies stole three bases. On one of those, Ryan Doumit's throw and Freddy Sanchez's tag were in time and the runner was plainly out but was called safe anyway. On the other two, Doumit just didn't make very good throws. And so we had Willy Taveras scoring the post-millennial version of a Rickey Run--he walked, stole second (that was the one where he should have been the third out), stole third and scampered home when Doumit's throw wound up in the outfield.

And before that, Ian Snell allowed two runs in the first inning, following a pattern that has become all too familiar to Pirates fans. Snell has actually been better about that than some Pirates' starters, but there's still a problem--including the two runs today, he now has 13 first inning runs allowed in 19 starts.

A couple notes from around the league:

-P- An interesting note in the Post-Gazette:

Fox Sports reported yesterday that the Pirates scouted a minor league game involving David Price, the pitcher who was the No. 1 overall draft pick last year by Tampa Bay. Price is not available, but others on Class AA Montgomery might be. The Rays are one of three teams known to be deeply interested in outfielder Xavier Nady, along with the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, and the Rays are deeper in prospects than the other two.

The idea that Price isn't available is consistent with other things I've read, but if the Pirates weren't scouting Price, then who were they scouting? The Biscuits' best prospects besides Price (Jeremy Hellickson, James Houser and the injured Jacob McGee) are all starting pitchers who obviously didn't pitch the same day Price did, and literally none of the Biscuits' position players are good prospects. If the FOX Sports report (which you can read here) is accurate, then my guess--and it's just a guess--is that the Pirates were scouting the young Cuban reliever Eduardo Morlan, who the Rays acquired from the Twins in the Delmon Young deal last offseason. Or maybe another reliever, Ryan Reid. Those are the only names that really make sense to me. Morlan's velocity is way down from last year, when he looked like a high-i mpact reliever. Reid's a short righty who's never been regarded as much of a prospect before. I don't really know what the Pirates are looking for down there. I wouldn't want either of those guys as the centerpiece of a deal.

-P- Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus discusses the possibility that the Pirates will trade Jason Bay to the Braves, perhaps for one of these Dan Haren-style grab-bag deals, in this case headlined by outfielder Brandon Jones and pitcher Tommy Hanson. I'm not impressed. Jones, as Sheehan notes, is a low-upside guy, and with Andrew McCutchen coming through the system, the Bucs don't have any particular need for a low-upside replacement for Bay. I'd like to have a hulking youngster like Hanson in the Pirates' system, but the Bucs would need to do a lot better than just him, so if he's coming over with Jones, the Pirates would need to get at least one other really good prospect too.

-P- Erik Bedard probably won't pitch again until after the deadline, rendering unlikely the already-pathetic possibility that the Mariners could flip him to a contender for way less than they paid for him. At 37-58, the M's are the worst team in the American League. I feel pretty good about my assessment of their offseason. Of course, I've completely missed on the White Sox so far. 

-P- Via Primer, I had no idea about Royals closer Joakim Soria's awesome nickname, which is "The Mexicutioner." I bet the honchos at the WWE are kicking themselves for not having thought up that character first. By the way, you may not have noticed, but Soria is pretty amazing. He's no Josh Hamilton, but he's still one of the best Rule 5 picks of recent years. 

Ian Snell vs. Glendon Rusch, 9:05. Here's the box.

Paul Maholm vs. Ubaldo Jimenez, 9:05. Xavier Nady, whose wife is giving birth, is out until Saturday.

Here's the box.

The A's have traded Joe Blanton to the Phillies for three minor leaguers: second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer. I like Cardenas a lot--he's young for the Florida State League but has been very good there, and he's a former first round pick. But the Athletics' apparent decision to blow up their team seems like an odd one, since they're pretty much one Vladimir Guerrero back tweak from making their way back to the playoffs. Baseball Prospectus gives them about a 40% chance of making it. Outman and Spencer aren't particularly interesting, and none of the three players the A's got should be much help this year. 

The more I think about this, though, the more I like it from Oakland's perspective, and it reminds me of something I've been talking about the past couple of days. A season in which you unexpectedly contend can cause you big problems if you take your eye off the ball. Maybe Billy Beane looks at this team and thinks that Justin Duchscherer and Greg Smith and Dana Eveland are pitching over their heads (even accounting for the solid defense behind them, they're not this good), and thinks that if he doesn't keep trading for players who might help him in 2011 or 2012 he might regret it once he gets there. And maybe if he keeps Rich Harden and Blanton and then Harden gets hurt, he won't have much of a team in 2009. And maybe Blanton's a good trade candidate anyway because Oakland's good defense makes him look better than he is, and it shouldn't be hard to find a replacement who can post a similar ERA with that defense.

What Beane is doing flaunts conventional wisdom in a big way, and I still don't think he got enough for Harden, but his patience may well pay big dividends in the end. If the A's finish this year way out of it and then Cardenas blossoms into a star--and both outcomes are possible--then Beane looks like a genius yet again.

I really dislike articles like this:

However, there is a different feeling around the Pirates this season. That sense of hopelessness that surrounded the Pirates for most of the 2007 season, when they finished 68-94 is gone.

“I think anyone who has been around our ballclub knows it’s different,” said center fielder Nate McLouth, who represented the Pirates at Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in New York. “We’re playing with a lot more confidence. We step on the field believing we’re going to win every night.

Well whoopiteedoo! I'm sure Perrotto is just reporting on what he sees, but the article is called "Turning Point?"

No. No, it isn't a "turning point." When the "turning point" finally comes, it won't have anything to do with a "feeling." Pirates writers publish articles about how much better the team's attitude is every time a new manager rolls into town, and nothing ever changes. Look:

Sports Illustrated, Spring 2001:

If you go by last year's public comments, the Pirates' clubhouse was full of finger-pointing with a laissez-faire manner. McClendon has vowed that the 2001 Pirates will adapt a can-do attitude and play hard every day.

The Post-Gazette, January 16, 2006:

...Tracy helped to keep the general mood incessantly upbeat, from roaring approval or cracking jokes to the unusual drill conducted Saturday in which he swatted liners and grounders at pitchers with their backs to a fence less than 50 feet away. It was a test of their reflexes that had the group chattering and laughing throughout...

The Pirates' annual minicamp that ended yesterday, Tracy's first on-field experience as the team's manager, left no doubt as to who will call the shots. And the passion with which he will insist that his teachings be taken seriously...

From bunting drills to nearly every aspect of the five days of workouts spread across the Pirate City complex, even those involving injured players, it all appeared to operate with the efficiency of the German train system.

Alles einsteigen! Der Zug nach Ninetyfivelossesstadt is leaving the station!

The Trib, April 6, 2006:

The record may be the same after three games (0-3 last year, 0-3 this year), but these are not the same old Pirates.

"Carelessness is not tolerated here any more," Jim Tracy said prior to Wednesday night's 3-2 loss at Miller Park.

This was more a State of the Union, as opposed to a challenge to a specific individual or an indictment of a previous regime.

Turns out they were the same old Pirates. Oops!

Pirates.com, May 26, 2008:

"It's definitely a lot different around here," McLouth said of the change of culture. "We've had a couple key injuries already. That's not an excuse, but that's something we've had to deal with. We're still in an OK position. I think when those two guys [Wilson and Doumit] come back, we're going to be even better...

"That's been the difference, that never-say-die attitude," Zach Duke said. "It's nice to have around here. The sky's the limit. We just have to decide if we're willing to pay the price to be as good as we can be."

I don't mean to bash writers who are just reporting what they see, and I do suspect that things probably do seem better in the first few months after a manager is hired. I'm sure even the Plymouth Prowler seemed pretty cool for a few months when it came out in '97. And then the people who bought it realized it stunk, and then they probably went out and got a Pontiac Aztek.

The problem is that changes in attitude, however real, don't last if you don't win, and you don't win if you don't have talent. Maybe John Russell will stand the test of time. Who knows. But in the meantime, Paul McKenna couldn't inspire the attitude adjustment necessary to help this team turn a corner.

-P- Marino Salas is back, taking the roster spot formerly occupied by Romulo Sanchez. Someone once said that you have to go to Colorado with the players you have, not the players you want. At least I think that's the quote. Anyway, Salas isn't an inspiring choice, because there really aren't inspiring choices, at least not internally; instead, he's just the next guy on the list. He hasn't pitched very well in the minors since last time he was with the Pirates, and he wasn't so hot with the Pirates, either, so...

-P- Dejan Kovacevic has a new blog. 

-P- The Yankees have reached an agreement with Richie Sexson, who could be very useful in a more limited role. He's a terrible starting first baseman at this point--he doesn't field as well as he once did, and he hasn't hit righties at all this year--but he can help in an Eduardo Perez sort of role, coming off the bench every couple days against a lefty reliever.

-P- The Diamondbacks just made a move for a relatively similar player, Tony Clark, by trading a minor league pitcher to get him from the Padres. It's hard to know what to make of Clark; his stats are all over the map the last few years. He hit 17 homers in 221 at bats in 2007, but this year he has only one. Still, for the D'Backs, who have a floundering offense and no right-handed power threat on their bench, he seems like a good addition.

Thanks to Bucdaddy for catching this:

"We don't have the depth to get to the next step with the group we have right now," general manager Neal Huntington said. "How do we get that depth? We either trade prospects to get major league-caliber depth or we trade major leaguers to get the prospect depth necessary to take the next step."

Unless that step leads off a cliff, I bet Huntington wants to take it.

Brad Lincoln has moved up to Lynchburg. It'll be interesting to see how this goes. He showed great control at Hickory, with only six walks in 62 innings, but little else--his 46 strikeouts are a bit less than you'd hope for, and his eight homers a bit more. He also got hit hard in three of his last four starts. I'm glad the Pirates moved him up, but the timing is odd, and it may take a while to master the level. 

In other minor league news, Andrew McCutchen went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs in the AAA All-Star Game today. 

Pat and I discuss the trades we'd want to make.

Bob Smizik:

Why not offer Nady a long-term deal now?

For the same reason it was dumb to give a long-term deal to Kevin Young.

Next!

Why not show the fans of Pittsburgh there is a commitment to keeping good players?

Because they already did that with the Jason Kendall contract, and all that got them was Jonah Bayliss, six more losing seasons, and tendinitis from writing zeroes on checks.

Next!

So why gamble on unproven starting pitching, which is all the Pirates are likely to obtain, and disrupt the one proven aspect of the team: its offense?

Because if you're rebuilding and you don't trade your good veteran players, you get nothing for them.

I've been trying to avoid these editorials recently, going so far as to avoid reading them, but I couldn't help myself this time. I don't know what the excuse for them is. One need not advocate making all the mistakes the Pirates have made over and over again to write an interesting column.

I mean... wow:

The notion that prized prospect Andrew McCutcheon [SIC!] will make the departure of Nady bearable doesn't make a lot of sense. McCutcheon [SIC!] is going to be a good player, probably better than Nady, but it's doubtful he'll reach his peak in 2009 or even 2010. In Barry Bonds' first four seasons, his batting averages were .223, .261, .283 and .248.

I'll be kind and ignore the question of how likely it is that someone who doesn't know how to spell a player's name has any clue how good he's going to be. Still: what kind of argument is that? Bonds was a well above average hitter in three of the years Smizik mentions, and then he finished in the top two in MVP balloting in each of the next three seasons with the Pirates. Would he have been able to do that if the Pirates had gone with Joe Orsulak instead and had Bonds spend four years in Class AAA?

What difference does it make if McCutchen doesn't reach his peak next year? If McCutchen is ready next year, and he could well be, then of course he'll make the loss of Nady bearable, because playing in the majors will help him get better, and because we'll be able to watch a player who may honestly play a role on the next good Pirates team. Contrary to what Kevin McClatchy may have believed, most fans don't mind watching genuinely good youngsters, and playing them and taking some lumps is ultimately the best course to eventually getting better. Maybe McClatchy just read too many Bob Smizik columns.

I'm just amazed by the absences of logic and perspective here.