Profound Thoughts*

In no particular order, here are some profound thoughts on the first three games of the Pirates-Rockies series. Some random profound thoughts on other parts of Bucco baseball are probably going to be included, too.

--Mashing the baseball is fun. With the caveat that it is fun when my team mashes the baseball. Tonight's 11-2 victory was fun (any time the center fielder gets 2 home runs in a game, that's more than fun, it borders on hilarious). Yesterday's mauling at the hands of the Rockies was just not at all fun.
Profound Thought: Mashing good. When my team mashes.

--With the Pittsburgh offense outscoring every other team in the majors in August (I know, I don't believe it, either, but I have read this in various places, and the Internet can't be wrong, can it?), when the team gets adequate to decent starting pitching, more often than not, they're going to win the game. And when Tony Armas pitches or one of the other Bucco pitchers masquerades as Armas, well, there will rarely if ever be enough mashing to compensate for that.
Profound Thought: Scoring more runs than an opponent is an effective way to win baseball games. Having a starting pitcher who regularly gives up less than 3 runs while going six or seven innings is also an important component for any baseball team that hopes to win games.

--Freddy Sanchez made an error tonight--he bobbled a ball that he should have caught. And, due to the mashing that had already occurred, I found myself in giggling hysterics over Sanchez's error. As another fan pointed out, such an error was a "Little League" play. Well, of course, and what compounded my hysteria was the local TV broadcasting team then telling me that Sanchez had only made 6 errors thus far this season and that his then .991 fielding percentage was tops for NL 2nd basemen. (And, of course, the Bucco announcers would never lie to me. Right?) In any case, that moment seemed the appropriate time not to sing the praises of Freddy (who I still adore) but, you know, to make some sarcastic comment about a catch a little leaguer could and should have made.
Profound Thought: When my team is seriously outscoring the opposition and when a particular player is going 4 for 5 on the night while almost hitting for the cycle, I tend to be able to laugh about little league level errors committed on an infrequent basis by said player. If said player made the same error in a tight game while also not hitting or scoring, growling anger and hand-wringing (yes, seriously, remember that I am a fan of the pathetic Pirates) would have replaced hysterical giggles.

--Speaking of the local broadcasting team, Greg Brown and John Wehner make me yearn for the Pittsburgh pro hockey announcing team of Bob Errey and Paul Steigerwald. If you've ever scanned my hockey blog, you know I have almost as much fun mocking the announcers as I do analyzing sports(okay, "analyzing" is a bit of a generous stretch, which should probably be replaced by "blogging intermittently yet incessantly"). In any case, Brown and Wehner get on my nerves. Like, a lot. Like, more than Bob Errey, for all his quirks, ever did. At least Errey, when a player, even a good one, blew an assignment, called a spade a spade. Brown and Wehner cheerlead, and granted, I understand wanting to be optimistic about a team you have to watch for 162 games (or less in Wehner's case), but still and all--it's okay to say that the All-Star second baseman has to make that catch he didn't make. It would be even better to point out that mashing the ball is an August anomaly--an enjoyable exercise, no doubt, but hardly one that can be consistently maintained. And yes, I realize from whom these announcers get their paychecks, but honestly--how about a little dose of reality? (I know better than to expect tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, but oh how I wish...and digress.)
Profound Thought: I do not like to listen to John Wehner and Greg Brown announce games. I usually enjoy Bob Walk's insights, but for the most part, John Wehner and Greg Brown, together, make me waste precious blog space complaining about announcers who annoy me. (Note the semantics--I didn't call the announcers annoying; I just said they personally annoy me. Aren't I a sweet, sweet soul?)

--Two last bits about the announcers (I know, I'm sorry, you don't have to keep reading now, not that I have many readers anyhow, but still and all, continuing, finally). John Wehner talked about how nice it must have been for Jim Tracy just to sit back and enjoy a game that he didn't really have to worry about possibly losing. Regardless of Mr. Tracy's ineptitude, his job title remains manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mr. Tracy's job is to MANAGE the team. And if Mr. Wehner wants the manager to enjoy an off day, I suggest that Wehner work on persuading Tracy to do something to get himself tossed from a game and do something so terrible he'd get suspended by MLB. But since I doubt Tracy will ever order Ian Snell to give into the voices/demons that tell him to hit batters Snell once thought were stealing signs from him, Mr. Wehner and I will just have to deal with the fact that Tracy is still the manager of the Pirates and that means he should MANAGE the team and you know, just do his job.

The last bit about the announcers is more about "analysis." On the post game show (yes, I watched, because that is my sad summer life right now, and the Pirates winning, however occasionally and for however much I know it can never last, does usually give me the nice, temporal feeling of happiness that comes when the nearly impossible occurs), John Wehner said that starting pitcher Gorzo "didn't have his best stuff and still did pretty good." Great. I suppose the analysis comes in "not having his best stuff" and I suppose the 2 runs over six innings, only 1 earned, was "pretty good."

Profound Thought: Analysis of the minutia of MLB games, especially 1 side blowouts, is for the most part a complete joke. Starting pitching horrific=loss. More than half the line up hitting home runs=offensive output good enough to win when going up against horrific starting pitching.

Final Profound Thought: Of course, I, the blogger who proffers profound thoughts on the pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates for free, have no room to talk about the silliness of post-game analysis by sports reporters or complain about announcers who are actually paid a pretty penny to share their analysis with me.

Segue from Profound Thoughts to "Perchance to Dream": I want two sarcastic announcers behind the broadcasting booth for at least one Bucco game this year. I want two seriously sarcastic souls--who I'd like to be fans of the team, too--to offer their running commentary throughout a game. Somehow I think it might prove to be entertaining. But, then, of course, what room would be there be for sarcastic bloggers?

*For the sarcasm-impaired, the title of this post is not to be taken seriously. Having listen to certain "baseball people" this season, far too often, e.g., managers and broadcasters, I think there are many "baseball people" who are sarcasm-impaired, so the asterisk is for you. Not that you're reading, but still.**