Pittsburgh and Cincinnati

The teams from these two Ohio River cities are in the throes of a long dry spell.

Pittsburgh last winning season was 1992 when they last made the playoffs. Cincinnati last had a winning campaign in 2000, Jack McKeon's last year as manager and Ken Griffey Jr's first year with the club.

The Pirates are becoming like a Class AAAA farm team for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Once players like Jason Bay, who went to the Red Sox and Xavier Nady, who now toils for the Yankees, reach their top earning years, they are dealt. The Reds traded Adam Dunn late last year to get Micah Owings and Nick Masset both righthanded pitchers, along with Wilken Castillo.

The Pirates farm system has produced a trio of good young pitchers in Paul Maholm, Zach Duke and Ian Snell. Trading Xavier Nady to the Yankees, gained the other two starters in the Pirates rotation, Jeff Karstens and Ross Ohlendorf.

Maholm was drafted in the first round in 2003.

He was facing Johnny Cueto, who is the only pitcher in the Reds rotation that earned his way through the Reds system. Cueto was not drafted but signed as an undrafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic in in 2004.

Maholm had a great spring training. He allowed just four runs in 23 2/3 innings. The key is that he walked just two batters. That success has carried over into the regular season to date. He pitched 6 2/3 innings at St. Louis, allowing one run and one walk.

Maholm pitched seven innings against the Reds in the 10-2 win on Saturday. He walked two but allowed just one run.

"In spring training, I worked on challenging hitters," Maholm said. "There was never an outing where I would work on my sinker. I used all my pitches and tried to set up hitters. Today, I threw my change up to get ahead. I wanted to get some quick outs and guys made great plays. I knew that if I got in trouble, I could get a double play with the sinker."

Cueto impressed everyone last season out of the gate. He also challenged hitters. The 23-year old didn't walk a batter until he recorded 16 innings. This spring he walked six in 23 innings but four of them were in his last tune up on March 30 against these same Pirates.

On Saturday Cueto lasted six innings in which he struck out nine and walked just one. However he gave up eight hits, including a two-run home run to Nate McClouth in the first and a run scoring double to Jack Wilson. Nyjer Morgan added a triple to score Wilson.

"I tried to be aggressive," Cueto said through translator, Juan Lopez. "The mistakes I made were when I wasn't agressive."

Ramon Hernandez saw the same thing from behind the plate.

"He threw the ball real well but the mistakes he made came with men on base," Hernandez said. "He left a change up, up (to Wilson) for a double but it came with men on base."