Kamis, 05 April 2012

It's 82 or bust for Bucs

By Joe Starkey, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Thursday, April 5, 2012

In this image made with a fisheye lens, members of the media line the dugout area and watch as the Pittsburgh Pirates have a practice session at PNC Park, Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in preparation for Thursday's opening day baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Pittsburgh. (AP)

Clint Hurdle, the second-year manager, insists his team is "better" than it was last season in all facets offense, defense, starting pitching, bullpen and bench.

Neal Huntington, the fifth-year general manager, says the club is ready to make "another big step."

Bob Nutting, the sixth-year principal owner, speaks of a different "expectation level."

What's it all mean in terms of won-loss record for the 2012 Pirates?

Well, nobody wants to get that specific. Which is just as well. The last time a Pirates official pegged a win total, it was then-owner Kevin McClatchy predicting 90 wins in 2000.

He was only 21 off.

Certainly, nobody wants to mention the magic number, even if we all know what it is.

Eighty-two.

That's right, 82 wins. A 10-game improvement on last season.

A complicated sabermetrics calculation tells me 82 is one more than 81 a nice number upon which much of the fan base is fixated. After all, an 81-81 record would snap their team's pesky 19-year losing skid.

Problem is, it would not prevent the streak of non-winning seasons from reaching 20. Eighty-one wins would therefore be annoying, confusing and highly inconvenient.

It's 82 or bust.

Nobody's saying 82 wins should be a stated goal at Pirates headquarters. That would be embarrassing. But the rest of us know the importance of 82 and until the Pirates post a winning season, that 500-pound gorilla will have a prominent place in their clubhouse.

Is this the year?

I doubt it. But a bad division and better arms give the Pirates hope. There is always hope, especially on Opening Day.

I asked MLB analyst Eric Byrnes to put a percentage on the Pirates winning the NL Central. He did not hesitate.

"None. Zero. Zilch," he said.

Really, no chance? Byrnes amended the figure to 4 percent, which sounds about right. His analysis was spot-on.

"This isn't a bad team," he said. "I don't think it's a team that will lose 100 games. But this isn't a good team. They have a bunch of middle-of-the-road guys."

Good thing the Pirates don't listen to voices outside of their clubhouse especially the sabermetrics crowd. Consider ESPN's "fantasy projection" for new shortstop Clint Barmes:

Barmes is one of the worst regulars in baseball ... his .297 on-base percentage the past six seasons combined is ninth-worst among players with 2,000-plus plate appearances.

Casey McGehee?

Coming off one of the worst seasons of any regular his .223 batting average was fourth-worst and .626 OPS third-worst among qualified hitters.

Geez. How about Pedro Alvarez?

Among players who saw at least 200 curveballs and sliders combined last season, his .072 batting average against them was a major-league worst.

Alvarez hit .072 on breaking balls? Good thing he went to winter ball to work on that. Oh wait ...

The division has gotten worse, no doubt, but I'm guessing you wouldn't mind a middle of the order featuring Ryan "Real Story" Braun, Aramis Ramirez and Corey Hart. That's Milwaukee's. Or maybe a 2-3-4-5 combo of Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman and David Freese, like they have in St. Louis.

How about a rotation that kicks off with Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos (Cincinnati), or maybe Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum (Milwaukee)?

Circle those games against the rebuilding Cubs and pitiful Astros all you like, just know this: Somebody's circling the Pirates, too.

Injuries obviously could be an equalizer. Alvarez could be one, too and I'm expecting Andrew McCutchen to leap toward MVP-like numbers but the biggest key, as always, is starting pitching.

Incredible pitching is why the Pirates were in first place in late July. Horrific pitching is why they crumbled.

Erik Bedard, A.J. Burnett and Charlie Morton have top-starter stuff without top-starter resumes. If they stay healthy, and if some combination of Jeff Karstens, Kevin Correia and James McDonald is respectable, all bets are off.

I'm betting on 72-90 again but there's always hope. Especially on Opening Day.

Senin, 02 April 2012

It's Bylsma's move now

By Dejan Kovacevic, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/?_s_icmp=nav_sports
Monday, April 2, 2012


Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, center, talks with Penguins' Steve Sullivan (26) and Sidney Crosby (87) on the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 1, 2012. The Flyers won 6-4. (AP)

Forget the Penguins' total flat-liner of a 6-4 loss to Philadelphia, if you hadn't already by sundown Sunday. The outcome meant little, and the sideshow that followed meant less.

There's no point fretting over blowing home ice for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, not with the Flyers still undefeated at Consol Energy Center. You'd rather see Games 1 and 2 in the Civic Arena rubble than on this side of Centre Avenue.

No point fussing over Peter Laviolette's freak-out, either.

In a final-minute show of what might well have been manufactured rage, Philadelphia's coach reacted to Joe Vitale's textbook hipcheck on Daniel Briere and an ensuing center-ice brawl like a petulant 7-year-old: He smashed a stick, finger-pointed the Penguins' bench and — in a classic case of the pot calling the kettle orange and black — twice described the Penguins' staff as "gutless" for deploying the fourth line late in a lopsided game.

OK, and?

The Flyers behaving boorishly is about as newsworthy as Cup-free summers on the other end of the commonwealth.

No, the most important takeaway here for the home side should have been this hard realization: These fast, furious and more-skilled-than-most-think Flyers are very much a threat to outskate, outsmart and ultimately outlast the Penguins in the first round if Dan Bylsma and his staff don't make major — and yes, gutsy — adjustments.

Here are five:

1. Leave the lines alone

The only line Bylsma left unchanged through this game - and in recent weeks — was Evgeni Malkin, James Neal and Chris Kunitz. There's no reason that shouldn't also be true for Sidney Crosby, who had four wingers in addition to semi-regular linemates Steve Sullivan and Pascal Dupuis in the first period alone.

I raised the issue with Bylsma, and he replied that "there's probably a little bit of a misconception that I mix and match," adding that special teams can force his hand. But he used 13 combinations in the Penguins' previous meeting with the Flyers and 11 in this one.

If Bylsma is going to ream out his players for a lack of cohesiveness, as he did last week at practice, he needs to do his part.

2. Um, Letang on point?

Kris Letang returned from missing three games to injury, but he remained conspicuously missing from the power play, as Bylsma stuck with his talented by terribly non-functional five-forward formation.

If that seems nuts, consider that Bylsma afterward vowed to continue the five-forward plan "into the playoffs," while getting "Kris into the mix."

If that's not a bluff, it borders on madness.

3. Malkin up front

On one power play Sunday, the NHL's leading scorer touched the puck exactly twice. Both times, he was 100-plus feet from the net, lugging the puck to the red line to let others do the offensive work.

To whom should Laviolette send the thank-you card if this persists into playoffs?

Malkin on the half-wall brought a 26 percent success rate. This isn't complex.

4. Stop the stretch

The Flyers, like most opponents during this 2-4 funk, stretched out the Penguins in the neutral zone by sending a forward behind the defense. That forced one defenseman to backpedal early — looked like Zbynek Michalek got started an hour before faceoff — leaving the middle of the ice open for an easy breakout and, all too often, an odd-man break.

Max Talbot, formerly of the Penguins, acknowledged the Flyers picked up the flaw in video study: "You look at things."

There isn't an easy answer. If Bylsma brings a forward back into the neutral zone, that takes away the Penguins' natural aggressiveness.

The best remedy is the one Bylsma has been advocating: Stop recklessly forfeiting possession when deep in the attacking zone.

That was Michalek's response, too: "We all just need to manage the puck better."

5. Adjust, adjust, adjust

Bylsma and his staff deserve all the praise sent their way over the years, but no one can charge them with being adept at changing on the fly. That's been obvious in failures to adjust to disciplined opponents such as the New Jersey Devils, and it was most glaring in the first-round loss last season to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Anyone remember the Statue of Liberty power play?

That's the one where the participants barely budged from their perimeter positions, the Lightning stood in the box and wiggled their sticks and, before long, the Penguins were hitting the links.

Time to get moving.

Highlights: Flyers 6, Penguins 4

Senin, 26 Maret 2012

Fond memories: Fisher, retired voice of Penn State, goes back a long way with Pirates

He met Honus Wagner and saw Babe Ruth hit his last home runs

By Lou Prato
The Altoona Mirror
http://www.altoonamirror.com/
March 18, 2012

Fran Fisher, Penn State football's radio announcer, gazes at Beaver Stadium from the Press Box. (Collegian Photo / Timothy Gyves)


STATE COLLEGE - Two of the most memorable days in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field were on October 13, 1960 when Bill Mazeroski hit his dramatic game-winning home run in the ninth inning of the 1960 World Series and on May 25, 1935 when the legendary Babe Ruth hit the last three home runs of his career.

There is at least one dedicated Pirate fan in the region who not only witnessed those immortal home runs in the now extinct Oakland ballpark, but he also met the equally legendary Honus Wagner during Pirate batting practice when Wagner was an honorary coach around 1930.

The fan may not be as famous as those three Hall of Famers, but he is also well known in his own right. After all, Fran Fisher was "The Voice of Penn State football" for nearly 40 years.

"I was raised as a Pirate fan by my dad," Fisher, now 88, said as he gears up for another Pirates' season. "My father, Homer, was a devout Pirate fan, and the company he worked for was a box holder at Forbes Field, and he used to take me to games. I met Honus Wagner, and it came about in an unusual way."

The Fisher family then lived in Dormont, and Homer Fisher had became a friend of pitcher Wilbur Cooper, the best Pirate pitcher of his era (1912-1926) and a teammate of Wagner's until Wagner's retirement in 1917.

Homer was a pioneer in the building and constructing of the Memorial Park concept - cemeteries without tombstones - and as sales manager of a local company, he hired Cooper to sell cemetery plots after Cooper retired.

Cooper, who is still the Pirates' winningest pitcher in history with a 216-178 record, invited Homer and his young son to watch a Pirate batting practice.

"I think I was around 6 or 7," Fisher said, "and Wilbur Cooper suggested to my father that since I had become such a fan, it might be enjoyable to me and my father if he would take me to the Pirate dugout before the game to watch batting practice and maybe get some autographs. Wilbur arranged that, and we went to a game and sat right next to the water cooler, as Wilbur had suggested, because when the players finished batting practice, they always wanted a drink of water.

"We got there very early and prior to the start of batting practice, this old, bowlegged guy comes waddling over to the dugout and tousled my head like a guy would do with a youngster. When he walked away, my dad said, 'Do you know who that is?' and I said no, and he told me it was Honus Wagner.

"He was an honorary coach then ... as a PR thing. I've read recently that the Pirates hired him as an official coach in 1933, and reportedly he helped players with their batting and fielding, pitched a little batting practice and did some other little things. But was really still there for public relations, and he did that until he died [in 1955]."

In 1935, Fran Fisher had another brush with greatness. Homer and his son were sitting a couple of rows behind the Pirates' dugout along the first-base line for the final game of a three-game series against the Boston Braves. Along with most of the 10,000 other fans that Saturday afternoon, the Fishers were there to see Babe Ruth, who had been traded by the New York Yankees to the Braves in February. By that time, the Fisher family had moved to Greensburg, where Homer had created and owned the new Westmoreland County Memorial Park.

Everyone in baseball, including the fans, knew the great home run king was close to the end of his playing career. His skills had deteriorated, and he could hardly do anything but hit and trot slowly around the field.

Ruth was batting just .157 in 20 games, and had hit just his third home run of the season in the Braves' previous game at Chicago when Boston opened a three-game series with the Pirates on May 23. The Braves were in last place with an 8-18 record and the Pirates in fifth at 16-17. Forbes Field could seat up to 41,000, but attendance at each of the three games was estimated at about 10,000.

Fisher was 12 at the time, and he witnessed history.

"I remember he hit one into the lower deck, dropped it right over the right field screen, hit the second one into the second deck, and then hit his third one over the roof and clear out of the ball park, the first of only four guys in history to hit one clear out of Forbes Field," Fisher said with excitement still in his voice after what he had witnessed 77 years ago. "Those were his final home runs - 712, 713 and 714. He played just five games after that until he retired completely."

Read More: http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/559107/Fond-memories--Fisher--retired-voice-of-Penn-State--goes-back-a-long-way-with-Pirates.html?nav=751

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http://www.collegian.psu.edu:8080/archive/1997/10/10-09-97tdc/10-09-97d03-006.htm