A Lovely Sunday

--I opted to watch football over baseball today (at this early juncture of the football season and with a thrashing of a hated rival, hope is still very vibrant for Steelers Nation), but this sports Sunday was just a really, really nice one for me. Allow me to count the ways.

--Freddy Sanchez. He became my favorite Pirate sometime last season (this whole concept of players who actually perform as their talent level dictates they should, and who have real live big league talent, I really do enjoy watching them). Today's almost-an-inside-the-park-grand-slam was just another example of how much fun it can be to follow the Pirates when Freddy's hot. The four RBI's were also a nice touch.

--The Pirates hit the ball against an apparently washed-up veteran pitcher. Compared to the Bucco performance against certain less-than-mediocre pitchers early in the year, such hitting is encouraging, and if not encouraging, at least pleasant to read about/listen to/watch. What could actually and potentially be encouraging more than just the team getting lots of hits is the fact that two of the recent minor league call-ups got hits today, too.

--One of my (many) complaints with Jim Tracy is his "ideal" vision of a lineup--e.g., my leadoff man must fit into this certain mold. See Rotoworld's recent complaint. On many occasions, Tracy's inflexibility and stubbornness (yes, I realize those two words are synonyms, but I think that's just the extreme of how Tracy more often than not is when comprising a lineup) harm the team because he's not willing to make short-term changes that will result in wins. (There are times, too, when being stubborn, e.g., a not-too-outlandish level of patience with a talented player struggling through adjustments or rehab, can be good, but Tracy's stubborn inflexibility doesn't manifest itself in this good way often enough to counter the ways such a trait negatively impacts the team's won/loss record.) That rant about Tracy aside, and despite the Rotoworld complaint I linked to, it was nice to see Morgan make a fantastic catch and get on base. It was a nice part of a nice win, and I'll enjoy it--but I'm not drawing any surefire conclusions one way or another based on a couple of nice plays in a couple of games.

--As nice as this win was, I feel the need to say that I just don't get excited when Matt Morris pitches. Like, at all. I'm glad when he does his "veteran" thing and "gives the chance a team to win the game," as I'm sure Mr. Tracy will later have told any media who weren't covering the first Steelers game in Cleveland. But the bottom line is, watching Morris pitch isn't exciting. At least when I'm watching Gorzelanny, Snell, and Maholm, I tend to get emotional--e.g., excited, agitated, hopeful, depressed, optimistic, pessimistic, irritated, happy, downright joyous--because I remain delusional enough to hope that those players are only beginning to scratch the surface in terms of developing their talent. But watching Matt Morris pitch at this stage of his career? He seems a decent, affable guy who's no longer the pitcher he once was. But for me to get excited about watching a "serviceable" pitcher give up 4 runs in 6 innings in a game my team manages to win due to an outpouring of offense, well, my team is going to need to be in a pennant race before I can ever get "up" for watching a "serviceable" veteran win games.

--Oh, thanks to the Houston Astros being swept, the Pirates, for today, anyhow, are no longer in last place in the NL Central. The Buccos remain one game out of last place and one game out of fourth place in the Comedy Central. At this point in time, I want the three young starting pitchers to pitch quality starts and get run support enough to win some more games. I'd also appreciate if the players could, you know, play in such a way that their actual potential is revealed (for better or worse, though for certain players, for better, in case the new GM decides it's a good idea to sell a player or two "high"). So, I want player performance and player development to go along with winning games. However, I just can't get up for games Tony Armas or Matt Morris are going to start and while I won't object to a good/serviceable start from either of those pitchers, to put it mildly, I'm not necessarily looking for the Pirates to win the games in which those pitchers start. Though I will never root for the Pirates to lose, if they would lose games started by pitchers who I just don't get "up" for, well, I'm delusionally hopeful the new GM might know how to take advantage of a high draft pick. But as for the rest of the games? Yeah. Unequivocally and emotionally, I'll be pulling for the Pirates to win those games.

--The best news of the day is not that the Pirates will not lose 100 games. (Seriously. Wow. What an achievement. The team won't lose 100 games. Can you imagine that being acceptable in certain other MLB markets for several seasons? Right. Didn't think so.)

--No, the best news of the day: The Pirates won, and while winning is always good, this win had impact. This half-line from the AP recap of the game sums it up perfectly: "The Chicago Cubs fell out of first place." How nice is it when winning makes a difference in the standings? Sure, it's only a mostly last place team playing spoiler, but winning is sweeter when your win means a loss for a divisional foe.