Boxscore

The Pirates took no time at all jumping to a lead against one of baseball’s worst teams. I know! I thought the Pirates would be one of those too, but they’ve won 10 more games than the Padres.

Pittsburgh also took the time to show off their players who are leading the trade rumors. Both Jason Bay and Xavier Nady homered, contributing 1/3 of the Pirates’ run total. Sure, it was only against the Padres, but don’t let that dissuade you, potential suitors. These players could totally hit homers against good teams to lead you to the playoffs.

Totally.

The Pirates also got a good outing from Yoslan Herrera, who pitched 6 shutout innings, with 4 strikeouts. That effort halved Herrera’s ERA. That’s right. Before the game, his ERA was 19.50 and now stands at 9.75. Sigh. Poor Pirates.

Boxscore

This week on the podcast, the CTS and I take the day off work to visit Victory Field where the Indianapolis Indians took on the Charlotte Knights for a business person’s special. The background noise is all AAA ball, but the subject matter is all NLC.

In addition to a minor sunburn, our seats on the third-base side gave us a great view of the Indians pitchers warming up in the bullpen.

I imagine the CTS took this photo in direct response to me giving him a hard time about taking pictures of the Reds cheerleaders at the last game we went to.

He’s safe!

You can’t beat the up-close experience of a minor league ball park.

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Boxscore

Adam LaRoche knocked in a pair of runs with a double to give the Pirates an early 3-run lead last night, but it wasn’t enough.

Paul Maholm could not hold the lead. Although perfect through the first 3 innings, things derailed quickly, and he ended up leaving the game after pitching 6 innings and allowing 5 runs on 8 hits.

So the Pirates, like the Reds, started the second half of 2008 like they have spent the vast majority of the last two decades: losing. However, I actually have a more positive feeling about the future of the Pirates than the Reds. I mean, the Pirates don’t have Dusty Baker.

So the All Star break is over as of today. I, for one, enjoyed it. It’s always nice to pause and take a breath in the middle of a marathon. Get some water or Gatorade to drink, too, to replenish the fluids. Did you see that Powerade now has a zero calorie energy drink? It’s a little light, but not bad. I think it’s about time that the energy drinks got on the same caloric level as water.

But I digress.

The unofficial second half of the season starts today, and the Central’s looking much better than anyone predicted. The Cubs, Brewers, and Cardinals are all solid and looking to improve, while the Reds show promising talent but disastrously inept management. The Astros have fallen and the Pirates have a chance to improve.

So what do the bloggers of these teams think? Let’s find out.

Houston Astros

• The Crawfish Boxes sets some modest goals for the rest of the Astros season. Strangely, no choking of any kind is mentioned. Perhaps that should be the goal for the Cubs.
• Meanwhile, the Astrocast seems to be coming to grips with the teams’ suckage.

Milwaukee Brewers

• Milwaukee’s actually in a good spot for the second half, having replaced their worst starter with a recent Cy Young award winner. Still, Brew Crew Ball examines the team and thinks that there is room for improvement at second base. After his 3-error performance in the All Star game, my vote would be for Dan Uggla. Now there’s a winner!

St. Louis Cardinals

• There’s a lengthy post at Viva El Birdos (Wordy? Viva El Birdos?! Never!) arguing that the team should sign Barry Bonds to help the offense. That certainly wouldn’t bring back all the steroid-type allegations the team has faced over the past year. And we’ve seen how Rick Ankiel handles pressure.

Chicago Cubs

• After having 8 players be named All Stars, I don’t see a whole lot of trade rumors for the Cubs. Goat Riders writer Colin crunches some numbers and determines how awesome he thinks the Cubs players are. It’s nice that Cubs fans will always have that excellent first half to look back on.
• View From the Bleachers makes some fearless predictions about the Central race in the second half of the season. Strangely, he has the Cardinals choking and not the Cubs. I really can’t think of any better way to celebrate 100 years than that.

Pittsburgh Pirates

• The poor, lowly Pirates. They have a new GM this season, but so far he hasn’t done much noteworthy other than release Matt Morris. On the plus side, he’s not been fleeced in trades like his predecessor, but then he hasn’t really made any trades. Bucs Dugout picked up a quote from Huntington that indicates that might change soon.
• Pittsburgh Lumber Company looks at whether Jack Wilson should be traded. The answer is yes, yes, a million times yes.
• And Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke? presents some dream trades for the Pirates this year. Is there a more optimistic lot than Pirates fans? I want to see the team succeed, but after so many years of incompetent losing, I would find it hard to see a silver lining.

Cincinnati Reds

• The Reds are kind of in limbo. Everyone knows they should fire Dusty Baker if they want to actually capitalize on their talented youngsters, but there’s not much talk about it. It’s probably too depressing. The owner has hitched himself to Baker for several years, after all. Things could be turning around, though, assuming the Reds play basketball in the second half.
• And beat writer John Fay suggests the Reds should use a six-man rotation. Hey, if it’s a gimmick that sells tickets, I say go for it.

Boxscore

The Cardinals out-slugged the Pirates in the rubber match of their final series before the All Star break. The win gave St. Louis the series win, as well, in a three-game set that saw the teams combine for 46 runs. Pitching wasn’t a strong suit for either team.

Joel Pineiro was roughed up for the Cardinals yesterday, but his offense bailed him out. Not so lucky for Pittsburgh was Ian Snell, who was great until the 4-run fourth inning.

Xavier Nady and Jason Bay both continued to hit well, keeping their trade-deadline value up. Perhaps they were auditioning for their future team, as Bay has started being linked with the Cardinals in trade rumors. The Pirates better hope that’s not another Aramis Ramirez situation, should it happen.

St. Louis picked up a game on the losing Cubs to finish the traditional first half of the season 4.5 games back. Pittsburgh stumbles into the break in 5th place, but only a half game ahead of the last-place Astros.