A Battle of the Bullpens

Hey, the Bucs gave Gorzo a five run lead against Josh Fogg. Didn't help. Gorzelanny had no command, and left in the fourth. He threw 82 pitches, and just 48 were strikes. So much for running the table in September, hehe.

Chris Gomez went yard - don't expect that often - scored twice, and had 2 RBI. Steve Pearce plated a pair, and Nate McLouth scored twice. But the Red's pen effectively shut down the Bucs on the way to an 8-6 victory this afternoon.

Up 6-5 in the eighth, thanks to McLouth's 24th homer, Craig Hansen gave up an infield single on a sac bunt try, two walks, and tossed a wild pitch. He's given up 14 free passes in 10 Pirate innings. TJ Beam came on and hit a batter, gave up a single, and then a sac fly. Reds win.

The Pirates used six pitchers, and five of them had ERAs ranging from 5.06 to 10.45. Hard to hold a team down with arms like that serving up watermelons.

Ah well, maybe another juicy draft is in store for next year. Note to suits: avoid Scott Boras clients.

> The Pirates set a club record with Ross Ohlendorf's start yesterday. He became the 26th pitcher to make an appearance for the Bucs this season. The previous team high (25) was set in 1996 and matched last season.

Of those 26 pitchers, 13 have made at least one start. That's the most starters taking the hill in one season for the Pirates since 1996, when they used 18.

> Jason Starks of ESPN.com writes in his column:

Now that the Pedro Alvarez controversy has raised the issue of MLB improperly extending deadlines, how come nobody has investigated what happened at the trading deadline?

There has been nonstop buzz in the industry for weeks that MLB extended the 4 p.m. ET July 31 trading deadline by as much as a half-hour to accommodate the Red Sox, Pirates and Dodgers in completing the Manny Ramirez/Jason Bay trade. Of course, Scott Boras wouldn't make an issue of that, because he needed to get his esteemed client, Manny, to a new destination.

He also thinks there may be a little future fallout because of the whole Pedro mess:

One subtle ripple effect of the Pedro Alvarez grievance is that it just might lead to a worldwide draft. How do we connect those dots? Try to follow us:

The longtime alibi at MLB for not fixing the draft is that the union would never agree to negotiate, because it claimed the draft wasn't covered by collective bargaining. And why wasn't it covered? Because these weren't major leaguers being drafted.

But now that Scott Boras has pressured the union to file a grievance over MLB's alleged mishandling of this draft in general and Alvarez in particular, MLB might well respond by jumping on this grievance as proof that the union now agrees that the draft falls under its jurisdiction after all.

Whether the union buys it or not, you can bet the next labor discussions (still three years away) will include extensive talk about a formal slotting system, plus a worldwide draft. MLB currently has a committee, led by former Braves GM John Schuerholz, studying all those issues.