The Pirates have placed starting 1B Adam LaRoche on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right ribcage. This will hurt the Pirates in more ways than one as LaRoche was starting to get really hot with the bat. Also, even though you don’t hear LaRoche’s name come up much in trade rumors the Pirates probably had some offers on the table for him. LaRoche has played in 98 games for the Pirates this season and he is 93 for 351 (.265 avg, .813 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 15 homers and 52 RBIs. LaRoche will be replaced at 1B by Doug Mientkiewicz. Mientkiewicz is another player that probably would have generated some interest at the trade deadline and the Pirates might still elect to move him even with LaRoche injured. He has played in 81 games for the Pirates this season and he is 52 for 183 (.284 avg, .760 OPS) with 26 runs scored, 1 homer and 20 RBIs. The Pirates have recalled shortstop Brian Bixler to replace LaRoche on the active roster. Bixler looked really overmatched in his earlier trip to Pittsburgh. Bixler has played in 34 games for the Pirates this season and he is 14 for 80 (.175 avg, .441 OPS) with 12 runs scored and 2 RBIs.

At some point the Pirates are going to have to quit crying poor and try to put a legit baseball team into the beautiful new stadium they call home. The team owner appears to have rejected a trade with the Braves that would have netted them four prospects including two that were major league ready. Still, Jason Bay has been the face of the franchise for a while now and the people of Pittsburgh deserve to see some major league players when they come out to the ballpark. Bay has played in 103 games this season for the Pirates and he is 108 for 380 (.284 avg, .907 OPS) with 69 runs scored, 22 homers, 61 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. Bay is a player to build around not a player to give up on.

The Pirates have recalled 28-year old righty starting pitcher Jason Davis from AAA. He will take the place of John Van Benschoten who has been dispatched to the minors. Davis is a big guy at 6′6″, 225 pounds and he throws hard. He pitched in 21 games (20 starts) in AAA ball this season and he was 6-9 with a 4.41 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Those numbers don’t look to good but he can’t be any worse than some of the garbage that the Pirates have had start some games for them in 2008. Davis has pitched in 130 games (52 starts) in his major league career and he is 20-22 with 1 save, a 4.78 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. All I can say about John Van Benschoten’s performace both this year and in his major league career is that I hope he has good post-playing day plans set up for his future. If he ever pitches again for the Pirates it will show that things have gone very badly for the organization. Van Benschoten pitched in 9 games (5 starts) for the Pirates this season and he was 1-3 with a 10.48 ERA and a 2.55 WHIP. His career numbers are almost as awful as he was this season which is pretty darn amazing. Van Benschoten has now pitched in 26 games (19 starts) in his major league career and he is 2-13 with a 9.20 ERA and a 2.14 WHIP. He has allowed a whopping 125 hits while walking 68 batters in only 90 career innings in the big leagues! To make room on the roster for Jason Davis the Pirates have designated Luis Munoz for assignment. He got to wear a Pirates’ uniform this season but they never let him pitch in a game…..and for good reason. Munoz pitched in 20 games (19 starts) in AA+AAA ball this season and he was 4-7 with a 6.03 ERA and a 1.61 WHIP. Heck, the Pirates should have just brought up all three of the guys that they got from the Yankees and thrown them in the fire from day #1.

The Pirates will be in full dumping mode until the trade deadline next week. Players that could be on the move are Jack Wilson. Doug Mietkiewicz, Luis Rivas, Chris Gomez, Ronny Paulino, Jason Michaels, Ian Snell and John Grabow. This has got to be depressing to the fan base of the Pirates especially with training camp starting for the Steelers as the Pirates won’t be getting much attention the rest of the season. It’s even possible that Jason Bay and Adam LaRoche could be moved if the Pirates like an offer they get for them. Hopefully the Pirates will do better in future trades than what they got for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte.

29-year old lefty reliever John Grabow appears to be the next pitcher in line to close for the Pirates after the departure of Damaso Marte. Grabow has pitched in 46 games (0 starts) for the Pirates this season and he is 5-2 with a 3.02 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP. Grabow might be able to do a decent job for the Pirates as the closer but his name has been coming up in a lot of trade rumors so it’s up in the air as to whether he’ll even be in Pittsburgh after next week.