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Dress warmly today, people.
Before we get to the Qs on, I linked to an excellent video compilation by a blogger last week and wanted to throw out three more links to notable Pirates blogs today:
Bucs Dugout (http://bucsdugout.com/)
Honest Wagner (http://honestwagner.blogspot.com/)
Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke? (http://whereisvanslyke.blogspot.com/)
There are others, too - who knows how many? - if you check the links on these sites.
Onward ...
Q: Dejan, I know it's early in the season, but it seems to me, and it seemed so during the spring training games I went to, that Adam LaRoche's bat looks really slow. Am I imagining things? Is there any concern about this?
Kevin Gray of Indianapolis
KOVACEVIC: A National League scout - a guy outside the division - mentioned noticing a slow bat early in spring training, and that made it stand out all the more for me as March wore on. But it also was pretty clear that he was getting more bat speed late in the spring, as well as more contact.
Watching his at-bats early in the season, seems to me that his greatest issue right now is pitch recognition. And that is his feeling, too.
You know, even before that trade was made, I had heard from someone in Atlanta that LaRoche was prone to slumps in which he looked like the worst hitter on the planet. And, when that would happen, Bobby Cox would just keep running him out there until he got locked in.
When will that happen? Well, 3 for 24 with 13 strikeouts makes for a seriously lousy start. And, despite his home run Saturday, there seemed to be few signs yesterday of pitch recognition.
Q: Dejan, are you able to explain why Humberto Cota is on this roster? Are you able to explain why Pirates management chose to have him start a major-league game on Saturday against the Reds instead of Ryan Doumit?
Three-game winning streak or not, this organization is still a joke.
Jerry Yantanko of Shadyside, Pittsburgh
KOVACEVIC: The Pirates can rightly be called a lot of bad things over the past decade and a half, Jerry, but the decision you are describing probably does not compound that.
And that is setting aside that Cota doubled, singled and had an RBI in the game you cite, all after a .375 spring.
This call was all about Doumit.
If you go back to the last day of spring training, when the Pirates still were uncertain of Freddy Sanchez's status, it was clear that Doumit was being set up as the odd man out. And it is all the clearer now that the surprising move to keep Cota despite his .190 average in 2006 had everything to do with getting Doumit back to the minors and catching every day.
Is that terrible?
Depends on your viewpoint, I guess.
Not having Doumit on the major-league bench weakens the bench. He is a switch-hitter with who has a high ratio of extra-base hits among his hits. That is a nice weapon to have, maybe better than any of what is left in his wake.
But I also get what the Pirates are trying to do in sending him down and having him catch everyday.
For one, if Ronny Paulino gets hurt, he might not be ready to fill-in full-time unless he had a lot more reps behind the plate. Remember, Doumit not only missed a lot of time last season to injury, but he also spent the entire winter at first base or right field.
For another, the Pirates are served better in the long term by establishing Doumit as a switch-hitting catcher capable of playing every day. Either they can trade him in a climate where teams are hungry for catching, or they could keep him as insurance for Paulino.
It is that rare forward-thinking decision, the one the Pirates so rightly have been criticized for not making in recent years.
Q: I did not see Nady help Adam Dunn get a home run, but I thought of something. If the ball would have landed in the field of play, would it have been ruled an error? If so, why is it a home run if the ball goes over the fence?
Michael Litzenberger of Reading
KOVACEVIC: Yes, it would have been a clear error if it stayed in, Michael.
And the reason it would have been scored a home run for clearing the fence is, simply, that there are no exceptions to that. A home run is a home run. (Unless, of course, the scoring decision involves an apparent inside-the-park home run.)
Until tomorrow, just a reminder that the Pittsburgh stuff only runs when writing from the road ...
