In what can only be described as a complete shock, there are reports that the Pirates would be looking to trade Matt Morris (when I say it’s a complete shock, I mean that with 100% sarcasm). It looks like the Cards are interested in him but we would have to pay part of his contract for 2008. That can’t be too much of a surprise since the Bucs were the only team were that offered to take Morris and 100% of his contract.
Maybe we can package Wilson and Morris to the Cards..
MLB Trade Rumors has a link to an article in a St Louis paper that indicates the Cardinals might be interested in trading for Jack Wilson to replace the soon to be departing (I guess) David Eckstein.
I wonder who we could get in this potential exchange?
As I mentioned in a post or two yesterday, the Bucs officially announced their new Hitting Coach, Don Long, late of the Phillies minor league system. Here is a bit of Long’s hitting philosophy:
“The thing I’m interested in is connecting with each player and not just go with a blanket technique,” Long said. “That’s a little bit cliched, I know, but you really have to get to know the player. You have to get them to trust what you’re telling them.”
OK, know your player’s weaknesses and strengths and then coach accordingly. Sounds good so far.
“The type of hitter we’re going to try to create is an aggressive but under control hitter,” he (Long) said. “When he steps up to home plate, he’s ready to hit every pitch until his eyes tell him no. He has to see the ball and recognize where it’s going before he actually goes after it. . . . A lot of people are promoting walks in the game, and I believe this philosophy leads to that.”
Interesting since this is a very aggressive hitting team made up of a lot of free swingers. They drew the fewest number of walks last year and I don’t know if things can change all that much with just a new hitting coach. It’s always been my theory that the hitting coach doesn’t really make that big of a difference because the players just go according to their natural tendencies.
I would love to be proven wrong with this theory and I hope that Long can do just that.
The news article from pirates.com. Not a lot of new information in the article though. This does lead me to a question that I have, but I don’t know the answer. Is Russell being able to hire his “own” people or is he just providing some input here and there?
It looks like Don Long will be the new hitting coach for the Pirates. Long has worked with Russell the past two years while they were both with the Phillies organization.
Hello folks. Welcome to another blog about everyone’s favorite loosing team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. A little background about myself and why I decided to blog about the Pirates. Being born and bread in Pittsburgh I had no choice but to be a fan of all the Pittsburgh teams. I had been through some good times with the Bucs and now have gone through lots of bad years.In spite of these down years, and especially with emerging from the dark ages that were the Littlefield era (or error) I think that management is at least saying the right things. Of course there is a huge difference between saying and doing the right things but at least there is a plan in place where there did not seem to be one before. I hope to inject some reason to all the doom and gloom that is out there in Pirate land. Does this mean that I’ll be always positive? No. However, I’ll try and look at things from a rational perspective.I’m not a statistician nor am I a (supposed) former player (the last tim I played organized ball was in Squirrel Hill Little League) with supposed inside information. What I’ll try to bring to the table is thoughtful opinion and analysis of things. Since 98% of what I write will be opinion, I’d love to hear what you have to say as well.
