6/15/10: Emmanuel Sanders signs a three year contract
Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, the Pittsburgh Steelers third round pick has agreed to a three year contract. Sanders made the announcement on twitter Monday evening. Sanders, a 5-foot-11, 180 pound slot receiver was extremely productive for June Jones at SMU last season. He had 98 catches for 1,339 yards and 7 touchdowns. Sanders also returned 20 punts for 275 yards and one touchdown. After an up and down first couple weeks of OTA’s, Sanders came on strong in the final 4-to-5 practices showing the potential to be a verticle deep threat in his rookie season. Sanders ran mostly with the 2nd and 3rd team in OTA’s.
6/13/10: Pirates lose 8th in a row
The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped their 8th game in a row on Sunday afternoon, falling a season-high 17 games (23-40) under .500. The Pirates wasted a strong start from Jeff Karstens who went 7 innings, allowing two runs on 6 hits.
6/11/10: Pirates drop 6th in a row
Detroit 6 – Pittsburgh 2 The Pittsburgh Pirates (23-38) dropped their 6th game in a row, losing to the Detroit Tigers 6-2 on Friday night. The hitting and pitching woes continue for the Pirates who are now a season worst 15 games under .500 and 9-23 on the road. Pirates starter Ross Ohlendorf (0-4, 4.95 ERA) continues his struggles. Ohlendorf allowed six runs (all with two outs) on 10 hits in six innings of work. Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 3rd on a Andrew McCutchen double to deep left, scoring Aki Iwamura but Detroit would end up scoring 6 unanswered runs to take a commanding 6-1 lead in the bottom of the 6th. The Tigers
6/10/10: Pirates lose 5th in a row; fall to Nationals 4-2
Washington 4 – Pittsburgh 2 The Washington Nationals completed a three game sweep, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Thursday night. The loss was the Pirates 5th in a row and the Pirates fell to 9-22 on the road. Optimism has been brewing of late with the callup of Neil Walker, Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata but that hasn’t led to more competitive baseball as the Pirates are now 14 games under .500. At the 60 game mark, the Pirates (23-37) are 5 games worst than they were last year after 60 games. Pittsburgh’s lack of run support on a nightly basis and lack power remains a major problem throughout the organization. In the Nationals three game sweep of Pittsburgh,
6/10/10: USC hit hard with sanctions; Receives two year ban, more punishments
6/9/10: Pirates lose to Nationals 7-5 in Brad Lincoln’s debut
Washington 7 – Pittsburgh 5 The Pittsburgh Pirates (23-36) dropped their fourth game in a row, losing to the Washington Nationals 7-5 on Wednesday night. The Pirates fell to 9-21 on the road and are currently last in the NL Central. Tonight marked another step towards the youth movement as top pitching prospect Brad Lincoln and top outfield prospect Jose Tabata each made their MLB debuts. On Brad Lincoln: In his debut, Lincoln went 6 innings, allowing 7 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks and struck out 3. Lincoln did some good things but also made some mistakes. His fastball was consistently in the low-to-mid 90’s and his curve ball had a lot of movement. Lincoln began to work in his