The Pirates have acquired Cesar Izturis and cash from the Cubs for a player to be named later.  Izturis has played in 65 games for the Cubs this season and he is 47 for 191 (.246 avg, .652 OPS) with 15 runs scored and 8 RBIs.  It’s unknown as to why the Pirates have traded for Izturis as they already have Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo in the middle infield spots.  Another trade could happen before the trade deadline with either Wilson or Castillo leaving Pittsburgh.

The Pirates have placed Jose Bautista will a left hand laceration.  Bautista has played in 85 games this season and he is 81 for 314 (.258 avg, .742 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 7 homers, 33 RBIs and 5 stolen bases.  The Pirates have recalled Don Kelly from the minors to replace Bautista on the roster.  Kelly has played in 25 games this season for the Pirates and he is 4 for 27 (.148 avg, .429 OPS) with 2 runs scored.

The two biggest disappointments on the Pirates pitching staff have been Salomon Torres and Tony Armas.  Salomon Torres was the closer at the start of the season but he lost his job by pitching poorly.  He is 0-3 with 12 saves, a 5.14 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP so far this season.  He likely won’t have another chance as a closer this season unless Mike Capps gets injured.  Tony Armas was given $3 million bucks to be one of the Pirates starting pitchers this season but he pitched so poorly this year that he is now an expensive mop up man.  Armas is 0-3 with a 8.69 ERA and a 2.03 WHIP so far this season.  The Pirates had high expectations for Zach Duke this season and he has pitched horrible before hurting himself.  Duke is 3-7 with a 5.79 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP this season.  He has been throwing batting practice after the game has begun as he has allowed 141 hits in only 93.1 innings this season.

Lefty Tom Gorzelanny and right Ian Snell have given the Pirates two outstanding pitchers at the top of their starting rotation.  Gorzelanny is 9-4 with a 3.10 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP so far this season.  He has outstanding stuff and he will likely have a good second half despite not playing on too good of a baseball team.  Ian Snell has improved by leaps and bounds over his 2006 season.  He really should have a better record than his 7-5 as he has a 2.93 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP so far this season.  He has become a pitcher instead of a thrower and he should continue to have success.  Reliever Mike Capps has taken over as the Pirates closer from Salomon Torres who had a rough first half of the season.  Capps has a good chance to keep the job fulltime as long as he keeps pitching like he did in the first half.  Capps enters the second half of the season with a 4-4 record, 9 saves, a 2.37 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP.  Lefty Damaso Marte has also been outstanding out of the bullpen this season.  He is 0-0 with a 1.71 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP so far this season.  He has only allowed 17 hits while whiffing 30 batters in 26.1 innings this season.

It all starts at the top of the lineup where Chris Duffy and Nate McLouth usually bat.  Duffy is on the DL right now but he hasn’t played well at all this season.  Duffy is hitting .249 with 31 runs scored, 3 homers, 22 RBIs and 13 stolen bases this season.  McLouth has now taken over at the top of the lineup and he has been pretty bad himself.  He is hitting .241 with 18 runs scored, 1 homer, 8 RBIs and 6 stolen bases in 112 atbats.  Both Duffy and McLouth have speed but you can’t steal first base so the Pirates should bat someone that is a better hitter at the top of their lineup.  Adam LaRoche has hit better as of late but his first half numbers are still a little disappointing.  He has a .239 batting average with 39 runs scored, 13 homers and 51 RBIs.  The problem that’s holding his batting average down is his amazingly high number of whiffs this season.  LaRoche has whiffed 82 times already this season.  Look for LaRoche to have a good 2nd half of the season because he’s too good of a hitter to have the problems he had in the first half.  Ronny Paulino has also been a huge bust at the plate coming off an impressive 2006 season.  Paulino is only hitting .234 with 25 runs scored, 5 homers and 24 RBIs.  If Paulino doesn’t get it together soon, Ryan Doumit is going to start stealing atbats from him.