Rainy Day Notes & News...

It's not looking so hot for the guys to get in a game tonight, although the club is crossing its fingers that it gets it in (they're hoping for a 9PM or so start). If they can't, both teams are off tomorrow, so an early afternoon makeup will likely be in the cards. But baseball news always happens, no matter the weather:

• Grinder games are the norm for both Pittsburgh and Oakland. The Pirates have eight wins this season when scoring two or fewer runs, tied for the MLB lead  - with the Athletics. 
• Starling Marte has 27 stolen bases, the most for a Pirate before the All-Star break since Tony Womack had 31 in 1998 when he swiped 58 sacks.
• Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune Review reports that the Bucs are mulling whether to send Cole to Triple-A Indy during All-Star break to make a start and avoid 10-day layoff. It's not quite cut-and dried; if they want to monitor his innings, he'd probably be better served to throw a bullpen or sim game rather than a real one. Super Two status might also be rearing its ugly head, as he's probably, but not for sure, going to be short of the estimated time needed to start his clock; a 10-day trip to Indy would neatly tie that up that loose end while also keeping his routine intact. 
• Russell Martin so far this year - .242/.345/.403 8 HR, 31 RBI 21 CS
  Rod Barajas all of last year - .206/.283/.343 11 HR 32 RBI 6 CS
• The Pirates won't see Matt Harvey this weekend as advertised. The Mets are skipping his scheduled Saturday outing in hopes that he'll start in the All-Star game instead.
• Dayn Perry in CBS' Eye For Baseball blog picks his All-NL Central team. He likes Starling Marte in LF, Pedro at third, and has Carlos Gomez nosing out Cutch and Shin-Soo Choo in center. Of his four pitchers, three are Bucs - Jeff Locke, Jason Grilli and Mark Melancon.
• Chris Cwik of Fangraphs ranks the NL pitchers by performance tier, and doesn't show any love to the Pirate staff.
• Commissioner Bud Selig's office is expected to suspend Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez, along with as many as 20 players, sometime after next week's All-Star break for their roles in the Biogenesis case, according to ESPN's "Outside the Lines." PED suspensions can be, in this situation, either 50 or 100 games. One thing is sure: There's gonna be a lot of wealthy lawyers if that happens.