Yes, the Pirates are bad, but poor ownership and 15 years of idiocy of GMs have a way of doing that. The team has been blown up, and every trace of Dave Littlefield is gone.

Neil Huntington and Frank Coonnely are pros, and will do everything they can to make the franchise reasonable by 2011. If not, Ogden Nutting (the owner) will be forced by the fans and the city to sell the team in shame if they don’t get better, likely to Mark Cuban, who grew up in suburban Pittsburgh and has tried to buy them several times already.

By the time SJ44′s nephew is ready for the bigs, the team should be competitive and he will be their first string catcher. Given that the Pirates are in the NL Central, it shouldn’t take too much to get competitive.

In terms of tonight, the area for 10 blocks around the convention center (about 5 blocks from PNC Park) is closed off by the Secret Service for the G20, so it’s hard to get to the game. Plus, from the upper deck you could get off a shot at the convention center, so my guess is that the Secret Service is nervous.

These are the reasons the upper deck is closed. So Lohud bloggers, chill out on Pittsburgh.

The game Saturday night is close to sold out, by the way.

your ‘jokes’ have gone from semi-charming to just plain not funny since you announced your move to the dark side.

I remember when I was in college, when I came home for breaks I used to drag all my textbooks home with me (and then never opened them, but different story). I can’t believe how much easier it would have been if I had a Kindle then. I really do want one. That may be a Christmas time gift to me

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Now THAT sounds like plan!

This probably isn’t much of a problem for the Yankees.

But it just gave some insight into some of the variables that go into the construct of the schedules.

Erica -

You sound just like me, with regard to returning books to the library. I’m just not good at that! (I may be wanted in the State of New Jersey for an album I took out 25 years ago!) I also saw some people using the Kindle (or Sony?) while on the airplane this past week. It looked so convenient.

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I won’t tell the library cops! LOL

I remember when I was in college, when I came home for breaks I used to drag all my textbooks home with me (and then never opened them, but different story). I can’t believe how much easier it would have been if I had a Kindle then. I really do want one. That may be a Christmas time gift to me

I will check out the Sony, but I’d heard very good things about the Kindle and I liked that it was associated with Amazon.com, which is one of my sources for books.

Erica -

You sound just like me, with regard to returning books to the library. I’m just not good at that! (I may be wanted in the State of New Jersey for an album I took out 25 years ago!) I also saw some people using the Kindle (or Sony?) while on the airplane this past week. It looked so convenient.

He sat at 97-98 consistently in his starts in the minors in 2007.

One particular start I saw in Jupiter, FL, he was hitting 100 on the gun in the 8th inning.

His fastball in 2007 was consistently sitting 96-98.

His slider was also more consistent in the strikezone.

Now, he sits 91-92 and he has trouble throwing the slider for strikes. Or, more accurately make it look like a strike leaving his hand.

That’s why hitters have adjusted and lay off the pitch. Especially late in counts.