Today: Pirates-Rockies, 7-29-08; LaRoche has intercostal strain

Well with Delaney going on 26 in this off season he should be moving up to AAA...

What about that 3rd baseman in Lychburg?  Did he get bumped to Altoona?

16 days left to sign Alvarez

Congrats to BCH/BC alum Jason Delaney.  Who gets called up to Altoona? Sakamoto, Durham, Negrych, Keel ?

Wonder if this might lead to a Romak promotion

@Dejean - Thank you for your coverage.  I've wanted to write in for awhile and just never did.  It's funny - sometimes you post comments from readers saying you're too hard/soft on the Pirates on a particular subject and I was thinking the exact opposite.  Must mean you're doing something right and striking it down the middle.

Not relevant to you, but maybe you could pass along two comments about the blog (which is a great move by the P-G!):

1. The rss button on the right near the top doesn't work, at least not in firefox - it goes to a page that can't be found.

2. It's almost impossible from a usability standpoint to figure out how to comment.  Regular blog readers (like me) likely pull out clumps of hair the first time they want to comment.  There are a lot of easy fixes.  

Keep up the great work.

Maybe LaRoche should stop sassily standing in knee deep water so much.

Way to go Dejan.  Thanks for providing us with all of LaRoche's awesome stats, now that he is injured.  Open wound, meet salt.  ;-)

The chain reaction of one man going on the DL is amazing.  Here's hoping some guys keep there new spots once LaRoche is healthy.

Jamie Romak brings his whopping 35bb/95k ratio up to Altoona.  That's 95k in 290ab, or roughly 1k in every 3ab in High-A.  

Doppler Radar predicting terrible windstorm heading Altoona's way.  What's worse than a tornado.......?  

And James Negrych......

He will bring his 25 errors in 104 games from Lynchburg.

Altoona already has a long and vast tunnel on the way from Pittsburgh, and it runs right between the legs of 3B Jim Negrych.  

Romak and Negrych hadn't been promoted to AA for good reason.

Any chance that intercostal strains can be caused by extended periods of posing in stagnant water?

a .912 ops for romak and a .956 for negrych is plenty enough reason to promote them

At least we know LaRoche is not a Yankee or a Red Sox. Surely they would all be walking on the water.

It was absolutely time to promote Negrych despite any fielding issues.  Defense can be worked on and improved at any level.  Baseball is baseball and how you field your position and the fundamentals are the same at every level.  Hitting is different.  A hitter who has shown that he has mastered a particular level needs to be promoted so as to face a higher quality of pitching.  Keeping him in A ball becasue of fielding issues would have made no sense at all.

As for Romak, you may have a point.  But it seems that now is the time to find out what you have in him.  He actually may do better in that category at Altoona where the pitchers tend to be around the plate more often.  

I don't know James Negrych from Joe Negri, but I do remember being at the park for one of Jack Wilson's early games and watching commit three errors on three consecutive defensive plays. I say give the kid a chance.

Fuzzynutz000 I agree that the .912 and .956 OPS for Negrych and Romak is quite sexy, but the holes in their games will be far more exposed in AA.  

Romak already strikes out more often in A-ball than Adam Dunn does for the Reds.  How much more will he K as he moves up the ladder and faces better pitchers?

And will Negrych have to move to the OF because he is a below-average IF?  Will his lack of power play in LF?  

That move to AA is what separates the prospects from non-prospects.  We shall see.

He probably had three hits in the game as well considering the .370 BA.

I just got up from my nap ... maybe I'll just stay out of this, you guys are on such a roll - both of the comedy ("intercostal strains being caused by extended periods of posing in stagnant water" and "LaRoche as a Yankee or Red Sox walking on water") stripe, and SeanE's rationale for promoting Negrych. I mean, if you can hit, and you've Little League behind you, let the man play! You is preaching to the choir now, SeanE!

Sandlot.  Plenty of guys who turned out to be good fielders had some horrible defensive stats in the minors.  That being said, I have no idea if Negrych has defensive potential or is, like you say, destined for the outfield.  If you can hit .300 with excellent plate discipline, and 50 doubles a year, however, you can pretty much play any position you want.  Your bat will trump any defensive inabilities...anyone remember Richie Hebner at third?  UGH.

"That move to AA is what separates the prospects from non-prospects.  We shall see."

Thats why you promote them!  You wont find anything out if they rot in A ball

Im not trying to be a party-pooper on Negrych and Romak.  It may indeed time to promote them to see what they're made of.  

I think where I'm coming from is to avoid overrating modest prospects in the Pirates organization.   Negrych isn't in the class of, say, Freddy Sanchez as a prospect when he was coming up.  

Would you want Freddy Sanchez in your lineup everyday if he were such a defensive liability at 2B, making an error every 4 games?  Would you want Freddy in LF, with his lack of power and range?

This is why the Tabata trade is so important, because it infuses a high-level prospect into the system.  Tabata is the kind of player you win playoff games with.  Jim Negrych is a poor-man's Warren Morris, a platoon player on a bottom feeder.  

Truly, Romak and Negrych are nothing to get excited about.

Sandlot probably went to WVU and dislikes Negrych just because he went to Pitt. Seriously though, I am curious to see what his range factor is... He might be getting to balls that he has no business getting to and then throwing them away.

It also might have something to do with who is receiving the throws at first. I can't find any of his defensive stats at Pitt to see if this is a new problem or not either

"a poor man's Warren Morris"....that's not poor, that's abject poverty.

Does anyone know if Romak is the type that strikes out because he swings at pitches outside of the zone or because he sits on strikes?  I would imagine that if it is the latter then the improved control of the AA pitchers wouldn't help the situation.  In fact, wouldn't it negate his otherwise impressive walk totals?

Heh, Mr. GrahamKoonce I don't dislike Negrych at all.  

I saw him play in the Cape Cod league a few summers ago and followed him b/c of his connection to Pitt.  He played 2B at the time and has a nice LH bat.  He was obviously a liability at 2B even in the Cape league and had the hands of a clock.

Negrych didn't make it into BAs Pirates top 30 prospects last season, behind the likes of Bixler, JVB, Bullington in their terribly thin system.   Because he has hit well, he probably will crack the top 20 next season, but he still isn't a good player in a playoff caliber lineup, no matter where he plays.  

He'll hit .290 in Altoona, won't have a position he can play everyday, and will make room for one of the several SSs the Pirates drafted this season down the road.  

And hey, I love Negrych and Pitt.  But Im just sayin.....

Dejan, What is the value of batting the pitcher 8th, when you have Luis Rivas and his .273 OBP in the second spot?  I'm OK with the pitcher 8th when it makes sense, but it is starting to feel like a reflexive, non-analytical decision.

KevinCardone, don't blaspheme the great Warren Morris!

His HR in the College World Series is one of the coolest baseball moments ever, and he had a nice rookie year for the Pirates.  

If Jim Negrych could grow up to be Warren Morris, well then we'd have something!

(Sorry for all the !Exclamation points!  Ill stop that now).

From my reading and understanding of the article on Wikipedia, it seems like the intercoastal strain specificaly restricts Adam's swing. Is this a new injury or a nagging injury that possibly has compacted his huge swing into a better compact type swing?

Good to see the promotions of Delaney, Romak, and Negrych.  It's about time to start seeing what these guys can do at a more challenging level, especially in Delaney's case, who is approaching a make-or-break age.

Unfortunate that Larcoche has to go down now.  We waited out his struggles for so long, it would be nice to at least reap the benefits of his yearly hot streak.

Isn't it great that Delaney just got promoted despite hitting .212 in his last 10 with no bombs and two measley doubles? Would've made more sense if this happened earlier in the year when he was killing the ball...

What happened did he have a note in his personal book that if he wants to fit in as a future buc he needs to be less consistent and strike out more?

Yepper, GrahamKoonce, that be what an intercoastal strain is. But he now has an intercostal strain ... which I always thought was akin to UFO sighting. In all seriousness, I hope the big buy gets back in time to keep lighting it up. Time's running out ... it'll be spring again, at which time we'll platoon Pearce and LaRoche - Pearce from April 1-July1 and LaRoche from July 2-September 30. With Adam raking in the playoffs, of course!

Way cool on the third-base running drills, Dejan! And way cool that you're right there monitoring and passing it on for us. What a Guy!

@Sandlot - I'm sure Morris was a fine college player and agree that his rookie year was exciting.  His name (like too many others) just conjures up memories of hope, sweet hope and then failure, bitter failure.....

@Kevin and Kooncy:

True about Morris and high, dashing hopes.

It is better not to get your hopes up on Negrych and Romak b/c they aren't that type of player.  

We pin our hopes on McCutchen, Lincoln, Tabata, Walker, Pearce, New McCutchen, and Pedro Alvarez.  

And all God's bloggers said ... Amen!

Braves traded Mark Teixiera to the Angels for Casey Kotchman and a minor-league pitcher.  

Braves won't be trading for Bay now.  And with Tiexiera gone, it might leave Bay as the last premium bat on the market.

Just an FYI.

Herrera started off better than the last time he started against the Rockies! :)

Lasted into the 3rd inning already with only 4 runs. Improvement is always nice!!

Dejan, does Mclouth have a shot at a Silver Slugger?

I was just looking at my Fantasy team and checking the score of the game and Jose Tabata is listed on the bench. I just wanted to make sure he is not sitting there in Pittsburgh and is indeed in Florida.

Dejan, you mentioned a few days ago that Jack Wilson historically does poor just prior to the deadline because he would prefer to stay in Pittsburgh and trade speculation weighs heavy on his mind.  Is this similar to John Grabow, as well, or is he still just not quite healthy?

I was pleased to see that Jim Negrych was promoted to AA.  He was leading the Carolina League  with a .370 average at the time of his promotion.

I wonder if he would still be eligible to win the Carolina League batting title?