Ronald Uviedo Traded

Bryan Morris made his home debut Sunday and got lit up; more on that sometime tomorrow. Jared Hughes shut down New Britain for another Curve win last night; I doubt I'll ever get to doing a recap of that one. Sorry.

But the important news from yesterday is that the Pirates traded Curve reliever Ronald Uviedo to the Blue Jays for 26 year old starting pitcher Dana Eveland. Eveland has already bounced through several organizations; once upon a time he was a good prospect, but that was years ago, and now he is what he is: a replacement-level starter that won't help the Pirates now and won't help them later. I don't understand this trade at all. Uviedo was striking out over a batter an inning in Altoona, and PNC Park would have been gentle to his flyball tendencies. He's unlikely to be a star, sure, but those are the kinds of guys you keep around, because they can turn into useful middle relievers. Which every team needs. Ask the Cubs. Or the Royals. Or about 25 other teams.

'Tis a sad farewell to Uviedo, who was pitching very well for the Curve; between his departure and Danny Moskos' imminent call up to Indianapolis (and possibly Mike Dubee's, too), the Curve bullpen, and with it their pennant hopes, just took a massive decline. By the time the Curve return home next week, it's likely Tony Watson will be the team's ace reliever, and we'll be seeing a lot of Corey Hamman and Dustin Molleken in close games, which likely means an uncomfortable number of close losses.

Of course this this the way it is for minor league teams. The Pirates have to look out for their own interests, and the Curve's roster is subservient to that. It's still hard to see such a crucial part of the pitching staff depart the team. But we still have an excellent team, and more pitching will come from West Virginia and Bradenton. The Uviedo trade is, though, great news for the rest of the Eastern League (and especially great news for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Uviedo's new team.)

From the Pirates' perspective, losing Ronald Uviedo isn't cause for ripping of garments and gnashing of teeth, but it's worrisome because it would seem to highlight a certain inconsistency of plan in the Pirates' front office.

To wit, the only reason to acquire Dana Eveland is to improve your major league rotation (which, sadly, Eveland probably does; the Pirates' ace pitcher remains in Indianapolis until they can be sure he won't be a Super Two.) But the plan, as I understood it, was to accept losing now in the name of winning later. Here they've traded a guy that might help them win later for a guy that, if they're lucky, might help them win two or three games more in 2010 than they otherwise would have. They traded Uviedo for a chance at an upgrade from 65 wins to 68. Frankly, that's doubly dumb because you should want to lose 65 games rather than 68; that can be the difference between Tony Sanchez and Stephen Strasburg.

What's the plan here? Because it looks very much like either the front office or the owner felt desperately pressured to try to improve the 2010 team.

Weather Update

It's three hours to game time as I type this, and the forecast looks nasty: Flash flood watch with 'strong thunderstorms' predicted to roll across the area. It's going to rain off and on, heavily at times, all night, and I will almost certainly get to sit through my first rain delay of the season tonight. I'm confident nine innings will get played, but there is pretty much no hope of fireworks happening. On the plus side, those of us that are there to watch baseball (as opposed to fireworks) will have a pleasantly easy time exiting the park when the game finally ends around 11:00 or 11:30, the 200 of us that remain.

But, I mean, come on. If you've lived in Altoona for a while and didn't expect it to rain on Memorial Day, you are a fool. It's tradition here.

DANGER: Hector Gimenez Imminent!

Strong pitching and power hitting won the day again last night, as the boys took down the Reading Phillies yet again, 5 to 2. Reading scored both their runs in the top of the 1st; Altoona scored all five of their runs in the bottom of the 6th. Six of the seven runs were scored via home runs.

Remember how Miles Durham robbed Dominic Brown of a sure home run Friday night? Brown was not about to let that happen again. He annihilated the first pitch he saw from Curve starter Rudy Owens, blasting a screaming liner a good 370-380 feet over the right field wall. Dwight Howard standing on Yao Ming's shoulders was not about to take that one away from him.

The bad news for Reading: Brown was the third batter of the game, and that would be all their scoring for the night.

An important measure of a pitcher's worth is how hard and how well he battles when he doesn't have his good stuff. Rudy Owens didn't have his good stuff last night, but after escaping a tough first inning--two singles, a walk, and Brown's bomb--Owens shut down the Phillies for the following five. Reading starter Drew Naylor matched him frame for frame though, and Owens left the game after six innings still trailing 2 to 0.

Then, in the bottom of the 6th, Chase d'Arnaud doubled. Matt Hague singled him in. 2 to 1. Then Naylor broke down and walked Jordy Mercer on four bad pitches. Naylor was replaced, as part of a three-position double switch, by reliever B.J. Rosenberg.

Hector Gimenez and Alex Presley took Rosenberg to school.

Gimenez took a ball. A foul. Ball two. Another foul. Another foul. Another foul.

Another foul.

BOOM!

Rosenberg finally put the ball where Gimenez was looking for it, and Gimenez jacked it out toward the roller coaster, a no doubt about it three run bomb that put the Curve in the lead, 4 to 2.

Presley took strike one, and then took two balls. Then a foul. Another foul. Ball three. Another foul.

BOOM!

Presley hit a searing line shot that cleared the right field wall by six inches, long before right fielder Dominic Brown could dream of getting there.

Rosenberg recovered after that, struck out the next three hitters, but the damage was done. And apparently Matt Walbeck has learned his lesson about putting Corey Hamman or Dustin Molleken into a close game; Tony Watson, with the aid of a helpfully hacktastic Reading lineup that made him throw only 30 pitches, pitched the last three innings to record the save.

YOU GUESSED IT - TIDBITS!

Very first batter of the game, Reading center/left fielder Mike Spidale hit a ball deep into the hole, leaving no prayer of getting him in time. Chase d'Arnaud fielded the ball--Spidale was about four steps from first base by this point--turned, and kind of nonchalantly launched the ball into the third row. Matt Hague just stared at it in disgust as it sailed 15, 20 feet over his head. d'Arnaud has been improving rapidly the past few weeks, but there's just no telling what he was thinking on that play. You have to get your head in the game, or you'll just be destined to wear a Royals uniform.

Jordy Mercer had a rough start to his night. He grounded into a double play on a 2-0 count--which is a cardinal sin unto death, just unacceptable--in the 2nd inning. Then in the 4th, Mercer lined into a double play, a freak accident, where he lined the ball right at Reading first baseman Brian Stavisky, leaving Jim Negrych hopeless and dead to rights. Stavisky stood flatfooted where he caught the ball and tagged Negrych out. Mercer bounced back from that to finish his night with a walk and a single.

The only Curve extra-base hit until the 6th inning was provided by Rudy Owens, who was credited with a double when Reading left fielder Kevin Mahar comically misplayed a semi-deep, lazy liner, cutting too sharp an angle on it and then watching it fly over his head. Ah, the fond memories of Jeremy Giambi that evoked.

I never noticed this before last night, for whatever reason, but Curve catcher/powerhouse Hector Giminez does not wear batting gloves. (At least, not when it's warm.) We can only pray he didn't attend the Moises Alou School of Skin Care. (Just Google it if you don't know, but trust me, you're better off not knowing.)

Curve Dispose of Phillies Again

Last night produced more or less the same result as Friday night, only with 100% more bullpen runs allowed: a 7 to 3 victory over the--say it together now--R-Phils!

(Here I'm tempted to rail against the sophomoric first initial-first syllable of last word nickname construction so prevalent in our declining culture, but I'll save it for a rainy day. OK, a particularly rainy day.)

Tim Alderson's renaissance continues. It's not so much that he's pitching much better than he has been; he went 6 innings, struck out 5, walked 3, which is actually a weaker K/BB ratio than he usually puts up. But finally, the balls in play are finding their way into Curve gloves, and he left having allowed only one run and staked to a comfortable lead.

The rehabbing Jack Taschner contributed further to my theory that there's not that much difference between mediocre major league and good AA pitchers, yielding two hits, a walk and a run in one inning of work. Danny Moskos did the same, but all for naught for Reading, as the Curve cruised in winners on the strength of the performances of Chase d'Arnaud (no hits, but 2 walks and 2 runs scored), Hector Gimenez (a two-run bomb in the 7th) and--stop me if you've heard this before--Alex Presley, the 2-for-4 machine that produced yet another 2-for-4 with yet another double.

Tonight the boys take on Reading again, and tomorrow they take on Reading yet again, and our pitchers? Rudy Owens and Bryan Morris. Ladies of Altoona, get your brooms ready!

TIDBIT CORNER

• Jose de los Santos appeared as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning. Jose is an awesome, awesome guy, but I can't help but wonder what had Kris Watts occupied at the time.

• Jordy Mercer didn't play. I wasn't there last night, and I don't know whether it was related at all to the nasty fastball he took off his forearm in the 1st inning of Friday's game. He completed that game, so we presume and hope it was just a scheduled day off. But if so, again, we will forever ponder why de los Santos was sighted with a bat in his hands while Mercer remained on the bench.

• I certainly hope Altoona builds a big lead tonight; it's Corey Hamman's turn to pitch an inning or two, and Mike Dubee and Moskos won't be available unless it's an emergency. Here's hoping for seven innings from you, Rudy.

Curve Dominate. I Like That Word. Dominate.

The smoldering hot Curve celebrated their return home in style with a dominating 7 to 1 victory over the struggling Reading Phillies (or, in the vernacular, 'R-Phils.') Justin Wilson was lights-out, racking up 5 strikeouts against only one walk, allowing two hits and no runs over five innings.

Wilson was pinch hit for in the bottom of the fifth, which was weird because:
(a) Wilson was dominating, had a shutout going and had thrown only 76 pitches;
(b) The game was already well in hand, with the Curve up 7-0; and
(c) The pinch hitter was Shelby Ford, who has been hitting only marginally better than Wilson this year.

True, the bases were loaded, but the score was already 7-0 and there were two outs. Matt Walbeck has a very quick hook with his starters; whether that's his own tendency or dictated to him by the Pirates brass, I don't know, but would guess it's the Pirates' doing. I can't say I'm fond of it. At the very least Wilson could have gone one more inning, two if he has an easy sixth, with no risk to his arm at all.

Justin Wilson pitches for the best team in the Eastern League, has a 2.80 ERA and has struck out 47 men (walking 22) in 45 innings--and last night's win improved him to a 3-4 record. Oh, won-lost records, your fickleness knows no end.

As for the Curve, they're well ahead of the Eastern League pack mostly because of their spectacular starting pitching. Wilson, Rudy Owens, and Jared Hughes have all been superb all year, Tim Alderson's pitched much better than his sky-high ERA suggests, and Bryan Morris just joined the team and picked up where he'd left off in the Sally League (kicking ass). The Huntingdon Administration has seemed methodical about promoting pitchers--item: why exactly in the nine hells is Brad Lincoln still in Indianapolis?--and there are more interesting pitchers in West Virginia yet to come; it's likely the Curve will enjoy tremendous pitching all year, and will, absent injuries, be favorites to win the Eastern League title.

On the offense, the Curve attack was fueled largely by--finally!--their 1-2 hitters, Chase d'Arnaud and Gorkys Hernandez, who went a combined 5-for-8 with 2 walks. d'Arnaud scored two; Hernandez drove in two. Everybody in the lineup except Kris Watts and the pitchers reached base, though Jordy Mercer had to get there the hard way, getting drilled in the forearm by the very wild Phillippe Aumont, who walked two and drilled two in the first inning, and didn't get much better after that.

TIDBITS 'R US

• Some guy whose name I have forgotten came up between innings and set fire to everyone's childhoods with his attempts to sing 'Summer of '69' and 'Bad Moon Rising'. I couldn't help but laugh at watching Rudy Owens stare at him, 'God, I can't wait to get to the major leagues and never have to sit through this ever again' written all over his face. Fun times. Hey, between-innings entertainment ranging from amusing to pointless to painful is part of the minor league experience, right?

That reminds me: The Curve run a pregame show, which they display on the big board, before each game and always have some player or staff member on as a guest. A couple weeks ago Jim Negrych was on there, and was asked what was his goal for the season. Well, every player in the minor leagues has the same goal for every season; you'll be waiting a long time for someone to say, "I hope to stay in Altoona long enough at $20,000 a year to have my number retired here."

Jim Negrych has one of those outspoken, I-don't-really-give-a-crap-what-you-think personalities and flunked out of cliché school, so his response made me laugh out loud for its wonderful honestly: My goal, he said, is to get the hell out of Altoona. Well, he didn't say exactly those words, but that was definitely the message. I wish him every luck in his attempt. His best ticket out probably involves learning to play five positions and hit well enough to be a viable major league bench player in the era of the five man bench.

• Left fielder Alex Presley, continuing to channel his inner Stan Musial, went 2-for-4 with a scorching double, raising his Eastern League leading batting line to .375/.411/.565. I would like to see Presley play more center field and Gorkys Hernandez bumped to right; Presley will never be a plus glove in center, but if he can handle the position at all it massively enhances his prospect status. As for Gorkys, well, his prospect status is fading fast, and anyway he is certainly never going to play center field for the Pirates.

• Chase d'Arnaud, for the record, is looking much better with the bat and the glove of late after a terrible introduction to AA. He's playing with a lot more confidence, which is very encouraging news for Pirates fans; if he maintains his skill base as he moves up, d'Arnaud should be the Pirates' opening day shortstop in 2012, which is when the Pirates are aiming at really starting to compete.

• In the 3rd inning, awesomely named Reading catcher Tuffy Gosewisch ripped a line drive into right; Miles Durham misplayed it, stepping forward, and then had to leap as the ball threatened to sail over his head. He made the catch, the fans applauded, and I got a good chuckle.
  

Sadly, I have to report that Miles Durham is expected to spend the next 10-to-15 years in state prison after his vicious carjacking of Reading superstar Dominic Brown in the sixth inning. Brown hit a beautiful home run off Dustin Molleken in the 6th, a hard 'fliner' (as we at BIS call it) that cleared the (very deep) right field wall by three feet--and then Miles Durham flew into the picture like Michael Jordan and robbed him with a spectacular catch.

The Curve Escaped Altoona, But Remain Cold

The Curve have officially hit their first rough patch of the year. The greatly struggling boys got cut down again by the red-hot Richmond Flying Squirrels, 7 to 1.

The Curve pitching has been in and out of late, but the bats have been silent as so many church mice; the boys have managed all of five runs combined in their last four games. As has been the usual theme of late, Alex Presley is raking (3-for-4 last night with a double; now batting .362) but for the most part the rest of the lineup can't find first base. Shelby Ford had a nice night, splitting time between second base and left field and going 2-for-4 with a triple.

Rudy Owens suffered through the same kind of night Tim Alderson did against the Flying Squirrels Thursday; Owens did not yield a solitary extra-base hit, but did yield seven singles, two walks and a hit batsman. The Richmond batters aren't hitting all that well; they're just hitting seeing-eye grounders and bloop liners that are dropping in. Some of that is on the Curve defense; some of it is just random chance. Owens hung in there and ultimately escaped a 5th inning jam--with the aid of a Flying Squirrel baserunner gunned down at home by Shelby Ford--and set them down in the 6th to finish an acceptable performace of 6 innings, 4 runs (3 earned), 3 strikeouts, 2 walks.

The Curve have picked a bad time to slump; the Flying Squirrels have now opened up a 1.5 game lead on them in the division. It's hard being in a slump, especially at a bad time like this. The boys know they're struggling; they feel extra pressure because the next two games in Richmond feel like must-wins and Richmond is the best team in the Eastern League; and before and after every game they have to answer a hundred questions about why they're struggling and how they can get out of it.

And they will get out of it, and soon. Slumps don't last forever (and neither do hot streaks, of course). The boys will enjoy a big inning or two, or score a come from behind win, and life will continue as normal.

We just hope they start tomorrow.

SEMI-RANDOM TIDBITS

• It's hard to say whether deerfooted Richmond leadoff man Darren Ford was planning it, or just got pissed off when Rudy Owens drilled him leading off the first. But Ford stole second two hitters later, and then, with the same hitter at the plate, jumped a little early and Owens picked him off.

• Curve shortstop Chase d'Arnaud isn't hitting yet, per se, but he's been doing a much better job lately of working the count; he went 0-for-2 tonight, but walked twice and scored the Curve's only run in the top of the first, on Jordy Mercer's single. It says here that if d'Arnaud keeps working the count and waiting for his pitch, the hits will soon come.
  

• Altoona lost a chance to score in the 4th inning when Hector Gimenez was gunned down at home on Shelby Ford's single. The pitcher was next to bat, so you can't really fault Matt Walbeck for sending Gimenez in. The chance Rudy Owens doesn't end the inning is only around 20 percent; so if you think Gimenez's chance of scoring is 25 percent or better, you send him.
  

• Gorkys Hernandez made an error in the 4th inning to allow Erie shortstop Brandon Crawford to move up a base, costing the Curve at least one run. In the top of the 5th, Josh Harrison pinch hit for Hernandez and then stayed in the game at second base, Shelby Ford sliding to left field and Alex Presley over to center. I haven't heard anything about Hernandez being injured; his exit from the game was apparently punitive. We'll keep an eye on what happens. I keep hoping--still am hoping--Hernandez turns things around. His athleticism is obvious, but so far it hasn't translated into results very much, and he may be wearing out the coaching staff's patience.
  

• The Curve bullpen's struggles continue. Tony Watson yielded 2 runs in 1.1 innings of work, and then Corey Hamman relieved him in the 8th and gave up two singles. The good news: Hamman didn't walk anybody. The bad news: He did hit two batters in 0.2 innings. It's fair to say he's fighting to find his control right now.
  

That Was Kind of Embarrassing.

The formerly user-friendly Harrisburg Senators served the Curve up their own butts on a platter today, 7 to 0. We got shut out by a four headed monster of Erik Arnesen, Rafael Martin, Yunior Novoa and Adam Carr, who dominated the Altoona lineup throughout.

Justin Wilson (1-3) looked excellent for most of his start; he ran into trouble in the 4th and 6th, but battled gamely through it, escaping with just one run allowed in six innings of work.

That's when the curious managerial decision happened.

I am a fan of Matt Walbeck's work as manager. He is articulate, smart, and seems to handle the team very well. I have no idea whether the curious management of the 7th inning was Walbeck's own, or if--as does happen sometimes in the minor leagues--it was dictated to him from above that these are the relievers we want you to use tonight, in these innings or in this order.

I am sure what, whoever made this particular decision, he or they had good reasons for it. I'm just not smart enough, I guess, to figure out what they are, because I'm coming up with fistfuls of air in my effort to grasp why Corey Hamman was sent out to start the 7th inning of a one run game.

You'll recall that yesterday's match was rained/snowed out after five innings. Derek Hankins worked all five innings in question; the entire bullpen was rested and ready to go. That includes Danny Moskos, Mike Dubee, Ronald Uviedo--those are some good relief pitchers. And Dubee did, in fact, enter the game after it was well out of hand, later in the 7th, and Moskos in the 9th.

I have talked to numerous Curve fans who have generally the same things to say about Corey Hamman: Corey Hamman sucks, Corey Hamman is awful, Corey Hamman should be driving a truck, and so forth. I always tell them what I tell you now, that I used to talk in terms like that, but no more; because the fact is that Corey Hamman could strike you or I out a hundred times in a row if he was ever called upon to do so. Corey Hamman is better at pitching than 99.99% of the human race. And in all probability he has worked very hard to get to that level, and continues to work very hard to stay there.

The fact does remain that--and he spent last year and the past few weeks establishing that--it doesn't seem like he can get AA hitters out. This is no secret.

It's also no secret that Hamman is 30 years old and is in all probability never going to pitch in the major leagues. If you want him in your AA team's bullpen to fill out the roster, that seems okay--you can send him in for mopup work to save everybody else's arms, when the game's out of hand and/or everyone else is tired. That's fine. No harm there, and you give him a chance to prove he's better than he has been.

What I can't for the life of me understand is why you would send the 30-year-old who hasn't gotten AA hitters out for a few years now into a 1-0 game in the 7th inning, when everyone in your bullpen is rested and ready. Well... I kind of think I might understand. The logic might work something like this:

(1) My available relievers today, unless the starter gets chased in the 3rd inning or the game goes 14 innings, are Hamman, Dubee, and Moskos, in that order. (It's normal for the relievers to know a day in advance when they should expect to be working.)
(2) It's the 7th inning, and I know I'm using those three guys. Therefore, I'll send Hamman out for the 7th, Dubee for the 8th, Moskos for the 9th. That was the plan going in, and I'll stick to it now.

The logic was probably something like that. If it was, I just can't see the wisdom in being that regimented about pitcher usage; I can't see the harm in instead saying, okay, if we're ahead or behind by 3 runs or more, then Hamman pitches; if the game's close, we'll use Dubee and Moskos first, and then maybe Hamman or maybe Uviedo for the 9th or 10th.

That makes a lot more sense to me, because in 1-0 game, you do not want to let Harrisburg pull away in the 7th, demoralizing your team. That's what happened in this case, of course; Hamman couldn't find the strike zone on his warmup pitches today, gave up two walks, a single, two bombs, five runs, and then was replaced by Mike Dubee.

Matt Walbeck is smarter than I am, and the Pirates organization is presumably smarter than I am, and they have good reasons for doing what they did, I'm certain. I'm unable to grasp why Mike Dubee didn't start the 7th inning.

RANDOM TIDBITS

• In the 4th inning, Harrisburg shortstop Danny Espinosa was "picked off and caught stealing" (per the game log) on a very odd play. Justin Wilson threw the ball in the dirt, and Hector Gimenez expertly blocked it; the ball jumped straight up into the air and down into Gimenez's glove. Gimenez looked up and Espinosa was just kind of standing around in no man's land halfway between first and second, wandering over to second at a leisurely pace. It seemed like he assumed when he saw the ball up in the air that it had gone back to the screen; that, or (this is my theory) Espinosa thought the pitch was ball four. It was in fact ball three. Wilson at that particular time had been throwing ball after ball, and Espinosa may have lost count.

• In the 7th inning, near the end of Corey Hamman's inglorious night, he struck out Erik Arnesen on a very wild pitch in the dirt that got past Hector Gimenez. Gimenez practically walked after it, allowing Arnesen to reach first at his leisure. Gimenez had a very unhappy look on his face right then. Unprofessional, perhaps, but Gimenez is a good catcher. It was a bad inning for the Curve all around, one of those innings that everyone suffers through from time to time, when everything just gets away from you.

• Danny Moskos pitched the 9th, simply because he hadn't worked in a while, and was rusty, unable to find the strike zone, and got knocked around a little bit.

• The Curve 1-2-3 hitters (Chase d'Arnaud, Gorkys Hernandez, Jordy Mercer) were an ugly combined 0-11, with one walk. It may be time to move d'Arnaud (.214) and Hernandez (.205), in particular, down the order and take some pressure off them, and perhaps move Josh Harrison, Alex Presley and/or Jim Negrych up to the top.