Maholm threw this afternoon....

[Fletch Fletcher]

7 innings picthed, 4 hits, 0 earned runs and another no decision. Damn I wish he played for a decent team. In 13 starts, he only has 6 decisions: 4-2 w/3.61 era.

 

[wbc40]

4-5 homestand since he joined, and now they have a Reds-BoSox-Yankees-BoSox stretch starting tomorrow. I'm sure the Braves will be well under .500 by then and completely out of the hunt. I sure did take that 14 year division title run for granted.

 

[Todd4State]

the Pirates would be decent if they held on to some of their players.

 

[bulldog saints fan]

we have good starting pitching and Soriano and Gonzo have been good in the pen but we need another bat.

It would be nice to get a sweep in Baltimore this weekend because you are right... the schedule is about to get brutal.

 

[TBonewannabe]

He is a great pitcher but you have no chance at the playoffs with Pittsburgh. I was really hoping the Braves would have somehow got him this year before he signed that contract.

 

[Fletch Fletcher]

is it better to be the ace of the Pirates or a 3 or 4 somewhere else

I'd say a 3 or 4 somewhere else. In 8 of his 13 starts he has given up 2 earned runs or less, yet he only has 4 wins. That is a terrible reflection on Pittsburgh's offensive abilities. They have become one of the worst franchises in all of sports.

 

[Bdog9090]

They have become one of the worst franchises in all of sports.

They have a lot of history. They have like 5 World Series titles and like 9 or 10 NL pennants. I don't really understand how they can be so bad year in and year out. Is it bad management? I know they trade every good player they have away.

 

[RebelBruiser]

he'll eventually be packaged and sent to a contender mid-season some year in exchange for a boat load of prospects.

That's just the way the Pirates operate. They wait until the trade deadline when they are officially out of the playoff race, and then they market their top talent to the teams that need it most.

A quality starter that can jump in and be a 1, 2, or 3 for most teams will garner a lot of attention at the trade deadline in one of these coming years, and they'll probably be able to name their price for him with a team that is in desperate need of a starting pitcher.

 

[Fletch Fletcher]

s it bad management?

It's cheap ownership, but I fault the league as much as the cheap owners for allowing this to go on. With revenue-sharing, you don't have to even try to win to make money. Teams like KC and Pittsburgh can just sit around and pick up their revenue check which is the MLB equivalent of welfare. Throw in the fact that no salary cap exists, and you get teams like NY and Boston that spend their asses off buying up all the talent form these cheaper teams, and in turn are forced to pay luxury taxes, which is in turn shared with the smaller revenue teams.

I believe it was KC a few years ago that received something like 33 million from revenue sharing, yet only had a 28 million dollar pay roll. Basically, if they didn't sell a single ticket or a single piece of merchandise, they still made 5 million in profit. Where's the incentive for that owner to try and put a better product on the field????

 

[hullabaloodog]

I'd like to see him go somewhere like Minnesota, Milwaukee, or the LA Angels.