Duncan is 27 – young enough yes, but not young enough to stick on this team when Ankiel, Rasmus, and Ludwick are in front of him – and I’d argue that Barton would be in front of him on the depth chart as well. Mather can fill the backup 1B role as well.

Rumor has it that the Pirates have interest in both Duncan and Reyes. Could we package them for Marte? Perhaps, but the LHRP market will be flooded with buyers. Maybe set sights a bit lower and try to pull Grabow and Jack Wilson? I wouldn’t be upset with that deal.

Tony has to say that about the bullpen. They are already fighting a fractured confidence, much less to have the manager rag on them. I agree, the offense needs to put up more runs, especially in close and late situations. But to say that tonight’s loss was the offense’s fault is ludicrous.

Tonight’s loss was on the bullpen in more ways than one, they are getting creative with adversely affecting this team. Tony had to leave Lohse in there probably longer than he should have because he has no confidence in his bullpen (not to mention overworked arms). So when he finally did turn to the bullpen, they blew it.

A shocking amount of influence this pen has on this team’s psyche and confidence right now.

I think a big move to get a Sherrill, or a Mahay, or even just an Arthur Rhodes or John Grabow right now would be huge for this team. I will hedge my bets – I don’t want to see any top prospects going – but if the Pirates like Dunc and Reyes, by all means, ship them out.

Finally, why not McClellan at closer (tonight notwithstanding)? Why not Springer? At this point, I almost think roles have to be thrown out the window – just pitch a guy who hasn’t been beaten up lately.

Duncan can also be a suitable backup at 1B to spell Albert once in a while. I really wish they would give him a bit more time off really. Problem of course is that Duncan doesn’t belong in the big leagues right now, so while that seems to be a contradiction, that I say we should keep Duncan, I’m really saying keep him for the future. He is still very young and this could just be a learning curve, and besides, who could you trade him for anyway? Certainly we’d be selling low.

Just listned to Tony’s post game interview after losing the second game in a row to Milw. Of course he has a point about scoring more runs, but come on. If we had someone in the pen who was shutting people down we could have put him in the 7th and saved those last runs. Problem was then we’d be back to Izzy to save the game and that wasn’t going to happen. I’d say we need to sign a closer at this point and put Franklin back to the 8th.