North Shore Notes
View From The Crow's Nest
By Jim Lachimia

o    Pirates' GM Dave Littlefield is man enough to admit he's made some mistakes, but he took to his own defense on a recent edition of his weekly radio show, pointing out that he did acquire one prospect that went on to win rookie of the year (Jason Bay) and another that won a batting title (Freddy Sanchez).

o    Defending Dave Part II: Oliver Perez is having a nice year with the Mets, but before you go lamenting the fact that Littlefield traded him, consider the contributions of player the Pirates got in return. That would be Xavier Nady, an everyday outfielder who had offensive numbers very, similar to Jason Bay's through the end of June.

o    Former Pirate Dick Groat, the N.L. MVP and batting champ in 1960, recently provided this food for thought: "Guys like me talk about this a lot because we're old, but if you put all the current major league players in a pool and drafted out 16 teams like there were when we were playing (instead of 30 now), just think about how much you'd see the quality of the talent go up."

o    More evidence the complete game is a thing of the past: Ian Snell of the Pirates, a brilliant young pitcher and a 14-game winner last year, registered his first complete game in his 52nd major league start - when he beat Texas, 8-1, on June 13 this year.

o    Cubs Manager Lou Piniella has to be out of his mind if he thinks his now-famous tirade directed at umpire Mark Wegner early last month was justified. Even if the ump blew the call-which he didn't, by the way-that level of anger and those types of shenanigans are uncalled for and completely unprofessional.

o    Two things I know for sure: 1) Oprah Winfrey will put herself on the cover of the next O Magazine. 2) With the Yankees hovering around the .500-mark three months into the season, George Steinbrenner is fixing to fire GM Brian Cashman any day now.

o    Maybe Minnesota's gifted first baseman Justin Morneau should take the field wearing football equipment. Already this season, the 2006 A.L. MVP has suffered a broken nose (fielding an errant throw) and a bruised lung (collision with the catcher) in separate incidents.

o    Five terrific A.L. players that people in N.L. cities probably don't know enough about: pitcher Danny Haren (Oakland), second baseman Brian Roberts (Baltimore), and outfielders Grady Sizemore (Cleveland), Curtis Granderson (Detroit) and Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay).