Oh Adam...

While I noted that I am planning to blog as a theological discipline, I also noted that I plan to blog about Pirates baseball. Interestingly enough, today presented itself as an excellent day to blog about Pirates baseball, as I was able to listen to the game AND hear Neil Huntington talk about the LaRoche trade. In that vain, a few thoughts...

1. When I first read about the trade, I thought that the headline said the Pirates traded ANDY LaRoche, not ADAM LaRoche. This made me very upset, as I thought that they traded away a young player who was integral in last year's Bay deal, but once I realized that we were trading away this brother, I felt much better.

While I have always had hope for Adam LaRoche and the short right field fence, I have always been disappointed. He's never seemed to live up to the billing that's been presented. He came to Pittsburgh after a season in ATL where he hit 32 HR, and he's never been able to get it back together. His stats show him to be a lousy first half hitter, and by the time the second half rolls around the Pirates are out of it, so no one has ever noticed that LaRoche has always hit well in the second half, with his July-September BA hovering around .300 and his HR totals increasing throughout the season.

I hope that LaRoche does well in Boston. For what I hear, he's always been the consummate professional, and he's always hit well in the clutch, so he should be a benefit to the Sox in late innings of close games. I hold no ill will towards the Pirates for trading LaRoche...after all, you won't win in the postseason if he's the best player on your team. I'm suprised in the semi-prospects they received in return, but anything back is better than nothing at all. While Diaz and Strickland seem like marginal prospects, they don't hurt anything, that's for sure.

What really threw me off guard, though, is the fact that Steven Pearce will be getting the call-up rather than Lastings Milledge. Milledge has hit .400 in 10 games at Indianapolis, and while I don't have any probem with K-Machine Pearce, I really thought that Lastings would switch into a corner outfield positions, allowing the hot bat of Garrett Jones sneak into the line-up at first. We'll see how much longer Lastings lasts at Indy.

As for the game, it was an exciting game to listen to, with a lot of back and forth action, culminating in Brandon Moss' HR to center field. I appreciated listening to the game and enjoyed the walk-off in the ninth. The Bucs have been playing better of late, and hopefully they'll keep it up!!