Pirates 6, Brewers 5: Bucs Take 2 Of 3 In A Fashion So Unorthodox, It Burnt Down Three Orthodox Churches

You know it’s an exciting game when the Fangraphs Win Probability Graph looks like the electric gremlin from Gremlins 2

Here’s the Fangraph of how topical that Gremlins 2 reference was:

There was a lot of crazy crap in this game and this series — Andy LaRoche’s sudden explosion, D.J. Carrasco’s rubber-armed dominance, Andrew McCutchen continuing to stave off his sophomore slump, Ryan Doumit going from doing nothing to doing everything, and the Pirates still having a serviceable record despite by far the worst run differential in the majors — I could go on, but I’ll save my all-out 2010 Bucco analysis for another day (when the NHL Playoffs aren’t in full swing).

But perhaps no single aspect of today’s game was stranger than this sequence, during which, according to ESPN Gameday, Jim Edmonds walked, stole second, then tried to score on a double, got thrown out at home, then advanced to third:

That’s how crazy this series was.

Bob Smizik Isn’t Buying This Whole “Competent Pirates Front Office” Crap

I don’t wish to nitpick one particular paragraph or choice of words, but the PG’s Bob Smizik has more or less repeated the following consciously-skeptical sentiment towards the new Pirates management for a year now:

I like the new management team of Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington. But they’ve done nothing of consequence to date. Dave Littlefield looked pretty good, too, after one year on the job.

Nothing of consequence? Drafting Pedro Alvarez second overall and paying him the largest signing bonus in team history, just two years after Littlefield deliberately avoided drafting Matt Wieters, the widely agreed-upon best prospect available in their slot, because he was also a Scott Boras client? (Although Littlefield claimed it was a baseball decision, which if true would indicate an even more alarming out-of-touchness concerning his ability to evaluate talent). Not consequential.

Trading Jason Bay and Xavier Nady during extremely productive seasons, absorbing the criticism invited by such a move, and in the process netting the prospect-barren Pirates arguably their best pitching prospect (Bryan Morris) and second-best outfield prospect (Jose Tabata) in their organization, plus a recent five-star prospect in Andy LaRoche, an ok cheap lefty power-potential bat in Brandon Moss, and about nineteen other fringe major league starting pitchers in the hopes that one might end up being decent (read: better than Phil Dumatrait and Jason Davis). Also not consequential.

Shelling out for the most expensive draft in the history of the franchise? Acknowledging the existence of Latin America? Not trading for Matt Morris a single time in their year and a half on the job? None of these things qualify as “consequential?”

I suppose if Smizik is taking the hard-line reporter interpretation of “consequential” as “galldarnit, the only thing’at really matters’n baseball is doubleyas and elllls!!” then yes, Coonnelly and Huntington have failed to turn the abortion of a franchise they inherited into a winning ballclub in one offseason, and until they do we should continue comparing them to Dave Littlefield despite every aspect of their approach to their jobs screaming evidence to the contrary.

Also, Barack Obama hasn’t ended the War in Iraq yet, and until he makes it happen, we cannot interpret anything his says, believes, or does as evidence that he is in any way an improvement over George Bush. It’s called healthy skepticism, people.