Hey, I posted a much more impassioned and detailed version of this story two hours ago.

But anyway, this just reminds us of the situation the Pirates are in. If Jeff Karstens and Ross Ohlendorf both enter the major league rotation immediately they will almost surely improve the team.

Van Benschoten's epic failure and Franquelis Osoria's two straight innings giving up leadoff homers (including Nick Hundley's first career HR) were almost balanced out by TJ Beam's four innings of nearly perfect relief (1 hit, 0 runs, 0 walks, 32 pitches, 26 strikes).

Also interesting was that in the fifth inning John Russell put pinch-hitters in for the #1, #2, and #4 hitters, leading to five different fielders at new positions in the top of the sixth. He must have been really mad. And then those three guys (Michaels, Gomez and Bautista) contributed most of the offense that brought the Pirates back from 9-1 down to a mere 9-6 loss.

All this pinch-hitting took place in a game where Pirates relief pitchers hit for themselves three times. This led to the incident in which Franquelis Osoria botched a bunt attempt, which would have led to a double play except that Nick Hundley hit the umpire with his attempted throw to second base. Both runners were safe.

Well, hopefully they'll go the Ankiel route with him. I think we've established Van Benschoten isn't a big league pitcher.

Damn shame too...he was an amazing ballplayer in college.

Yes, the guy who now stands as the worst starting pitcher of all time with at least 15 starts led NCAA Division I in hitting home runsm the year before the Pirates drafted him 8th overall.

Hey, I posted a much more impassioned and detailed version of this story two hours ago.

Sorry. I don't "see" submitted articles, just my own, when I venture into the deep, dark bowels of BTF (located next to the boiler room, BTW) to post things.

Well, this is probably better for the Newsblog, being more objective than my submission, which included the sentences "This guy sucks beyond belief. Get him the heck out of here."

Yes, the guy who now stands as the worst starting pitcher of all time with at least 15 starts led the NCAA Division I in home runs the year before the Pirates drafted him 8th overall.

Yeah, but you know, sometimes those NCAA homerun leaders pan out, sometimes they don't.

NOW, Pirate fans will, years down the road, be able to regale their grandchildren with stories of when they saw the worst pitcher who ever lived take the hill. Can't put a price on memories like that, really.

NOW, Pirate fans will, years down the road, be able to regale their grandchildren with stories of when they saw the worst pitcher who ever lived take the hill. Can't put a price on memories like that, really.

This is very true. After first intending to go to tomorrow's showdown of aces, we instead decided to go to tonight's game without checking to see who the pitchers were. As soon as I saw VBS's name in the lineup, I instantly turned to my friend and said "This guy really sucks. You have probably never seen anyone pitch a game worse than this guy will pitch tonight." And after four batters, it was 3-0 and the boos had begun.

Although I've only been to 15 Pirates games over the last 5 years, three of them were among VBS's 19 career starts, explaining my personal interest in this story.

sometimes those NCAA homerun leaders pan out, sometimes they don't.

Looking at the list at Wikipedia, I'm actually really surprised at how often they do pan out. McGwire, Drew, Glaus, Berkman. Heck, Kevin Mench and Pete Incaviglia would be more useful than the pitcher version of JVB. Maybe even Brandon Larson or Joe Dillon. Maybe.

Pirate fans will, years down the road, be able to regale their grandchildren with stories of when they saw the worst pitcher who ever lived take the hill.

Really, all Pirate fans will have to do to get their grandchildren to feel sorry for them is to tell them they were a Pirate fan at the turn of the century.

I'm already preparing my speech about growing up an Indians fan in the 70s and 80s.

I'm already preparing my speech about growing up an Indians fan in the 70s and 80s.

You better write a book about that before Joe Posnanski gets to it first.

Yes, the guy who now stands as the worst starting pitcher of all time with at least 15 starts led NCAA Division I in hitting home runsm the year before the Pirates drafted him 8th overall.

I was going to ask if this was the guy who they decided to make a pitcher after drafting him. Another excellent move by the Pirates.

Just out of curiosity, what does Van Benschoten throw?

Just out of curiosity, what does Van Benschoten throw?

Two-pitch pitcher, I believe. The "hard-linedrive ball" and then the "gopherball".

No, he also has the "walk on four pitches ball".

He had a curve that curved reliably and a fastball with movement in the mid-90s. Other pitches were always a work in progress, and I never saw the stadium scoreboard gun say anything above 91mph tonight.

I was curious about the details too, and found this site about Pirates pitchers, which looks like a great reference with a lot more details; I'd never seen this site before.

During his first three years [2001-2003], he drew rave reviews that invariably focused on his effortless delivery and "mound presence" rather than on his stuff or command, which struck me as a warning sign.

Sixty-one pitches, 33 strikes.

If the Pirates are going to start dumping guys who aren't throwing strikes, they're gonna need a whole new pitching staff.

Before this game, VB had a better K/BB ratio (19/16!!) than Gorzelanny, Dumatrait, Yates, Burnett, Beam, Meek, Salas and Barthmeier. The team K/BB is just 1.49 (better than it was I think).

If the Pirates are going to start dumping guys who aren't throwing strikes, they're gonna need a whole new pitching staff.

Either way, they do need a whole new pitching staff.

Either way, they do need a whole new pitching staff.

I'd say they clearly need a new pitching coach. This doesn't happen by accident. This is a reasonably talented group of pitchers (i.e. they stink but there's no reason for it to be historically bad) and the only explanation I can see is that nobody is teaching them (stressing to them, whatever) the importance of throwing strikes, keeping the ball down, etc. Or at least not teaching them how to do it.

And they're getting hurt.

The team WHIP is 1.6 -- that's bad Jose Lima territory.

You're right, I take that back.

Snell was good last year. Gorzelanny was good last year. Duke was good two years ago. Now they're all terrible. Maholm is good this year, and next year he'll be terrible. Not all of this is their fault.