Pirates Sign 16-Year-Old SS Dilson Herrera, Beat Cardinals Again

Continuing a recent and welcome trend, the Buccos signed another talented international amateur today: SS Dilson Herrera, a 16-year-old from Colombia. Sorry, that's the best I could do for a picture. It looks like it was clipped out of his high school yearbook and glued crookedly onto my screen.

28 Million Prorated Reasons to Hate the Yankees

Well, so much for the Pirates taking advantage of a Yankee front office desperate for pitching. On Sunday, the Bronx Bombers reached into the vault and handed Roger Clemens a prorated contract valued at a whopping $28 million. He is finally reunited with hetero life partner and Grimsley File Comrade Andy Pettitte.

In typical Yankee fashion, even the announcement was dramatic, as Clemens spoke on the Yankee Stadium video monitor during the 7th-inning stretch. This is just another example of the fact that the Pirates are not playing in the same league as the Yankees. Could you ever imagine the Pirates signing any pitcher even worthy of interrupting the game? No, unless you would have preempted the pierogi race to have a video message from Tony Armas.

Speaking of the Pirates, they were outscored 22-7 by the Brewers this weekend. Hey, at least they were able to score that late touchdown and get on the board. It was an ugly series that exposed the gap between the two teams for those who previously had illusions of contention for the Pirates.

Matt Capps had the class act move of the weekend when he threw at Prince Fielder after a J.J. Hardy home run on Saturday night. Thankfully, the Pirates were spared from a bench-clearing brawl, because the way they've been going as of late, they would have lost that, too. Visions of the 262-pound Fielder with Jack Wilson in a headlock are not pretty. Seriously, are the Pirates not the least intimidating team of all time? Who's their most passionate, fiery player? Ian Snell?

Ironic that I mention Snell, as he takes the hill tonight at Chicago against the pus-throwing Ted Lilly. You might remember that the Pirates touched up Lilly for four runs in 5 1/3 innings last Tuesday. When the Pirates are getting almost a run an inning on you, that's got to be a pitcher's professional low point. Maybe the Buccos can improve upon that 3.12 runs-per-game mark that ranks them in the bottom three of the league tonight. That may or may not happen, but there's one thing I can promise: the game won't be interrupted in the 7th inning for a free agent signing.