Time to worry about .500 again

I like what the Pirates did at the trade deadline. Derrick Lee and Ryan Ludwig are both upgrades. The problem is two fold. One is that the injuries are just catching up to the Pirates. Catcher, Third base, and corner outfield spots have been ruined by injuries creating four holes in the line up. When Presley went down after Tabata went down, it was too much. McCutchen and Walker both hit little funks at that time and that was it. Add in one screw job by the umps and the Pirates are back at .500.

The other big thing is that they had other holes that were not showing up. I am not talking about every one saying the pitchers will come back to earth. I do think Morton and Karstens are going to be fine the rest of the way. So will Malholm, although I would not have minded trading him. However, I think Correia was gassed about the All-Star break. No, I am talking about Ronny Cedano the walking hole in the line up. His defense had been better, and his offense had been around .250, which meant he was not the biggest problem on the team. Still, we need an upgrade at short. Cedano is injury prone. He often quits in the middle of games and will not hustle. He also still is a bad hitter and a bad defender. His inability to turn a clean double play probably cost the PIrates the game Malholm pitched against the Cubs.

One can hope that with Doumit coming back tonight and Alvarez hitting better than when he got hurt, we can expect to see a turn around in the outcomes soon. Morton has a big game tonight. He was beat down like old Morton last time out. However, that was against the Phils. This is the Cubs. He has to keep the Pirates in the game, who are scoring runs on the Cubs. They just need the defense and pitching to not put them in an early hole. The Brewers beat down the Cardinals, and the Reds are only a game behind us, so this is a must win tonight.