Full disclosure: I picked the Pittsburgh Pirates to finish third, ahead of St. Louis and Chicago, in the National League Central this year. Can’t take it back. It happened.
One week later, I found myself using the quality of the Dodgers’ weekend opponent as some sort of asterisk in a game story after the Bucs were swept out of Dodger Stadium. That’s what happens when you can recite stats like these:
Six games into the season, NL pitchers are hitting .138/.180/.198. The Pirates are hitting .119/.188/.159.
— YCPB (@cantpredictball) April 8, 2013
Adding to the Pirates’ woes: One local paper can’t even spell the name of their star player correctly (h/t @whygavs):
Happy Monday, Mr. McCutcheon. Onto the bullet points:
• The Pirates have one of two major-league regulars still looking for their first hit in Russell Martin (0 for 14). The other? Dodgers third baseman Luis Cruz at 0 for 17 (that stat via Yahoo! Sports).
• “What’s at stake? Ryu bears the future of KBO imports on his (rather substantial) shoulders,” Michael Street writes for BaseballProspectus.com. “If he goes all Dice-K on the Dodgers, it will be a while before we see another KBO pitcher posted to MLB.”
• One more note on Ryu, courtesy of @MyKBO on Twitter: Yesterday, he pitched in front of an announced sellout crowd of 52,053. In 2012, he played in front of an average of 7,758 fans at home in Daejeon.
• Four minor-leaguers were released by the Dodgers this week: LHP Cole St. Clair, C Wilkin Castillo, 3B Joe Becker and OF P.J. Phillips.
• Javy Guerra mentioned to me during spring training that he wouldn’t mind starting again. He got his wish Sunday, allowing one run on one hit (a home run) in four innings for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes against the Iowa Cubs. Guerra also came to the plate in the second inning and drove in Nick Buss with an RBI single. He wrote on his Twitter account that it was his first at-bat since high school.
• If you want New York Yankee tickets, be careful.
• Deerhunter is back. They performed this song, the title track to their album Monomania, on Fallon last week. Punk rock for a new generation?
