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It's the circle of baseball life: the Pittsburgh Pirates get a good pitching prospect, he has a great year, and then he disappears from the face of the planet, sometimes never to be seen again and sometimes reemerging with someone else. It's happened with Jason Schmidt, Kris Benson, Kip Wells, and Oliver Perez. This year the two new candidates are Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny. Snell just spent some time on the disabled list and maybe that will help him get back on track. Gorzo hasn't been so lucky.

All year, Pirate fans have speculated that there's something wrong with Gorzelanny's arm. Unfortunately, he just keeps taking the mound and getting shelled time after time. With the impending returns of Snell and Phil Dumatrait from the DL, the Pirates are finally taking action with Gorzelanny: he's being sent to AAA Indianapolis to iron out all of the issues he's had this year.

The final straw was apparently the Independence Day beating he absorbed at the hands of the Brewers yesterday, giving up 11 hits and seven earned runs (8 total) in four and two-thirds innings. It's definitely time for the Pirates to do something with Gorzelanny, even if I get the feeling that they have about the idea of what's wrong as you or I do.