Dejan returns

Two good pieces from Kovacevic today. In the jobs open essay, he runs down the jobs that are, uh, open. Pretty self-explanatory I think. Note this:

First baseman Graham Koonce, the top power-hitter in Class AAA two years ago while in the Oakland system, is hitting .385 with two home runs in 13 at-bats. His best chance of making the Pirates is for management to buck recent tradition and go with an 11-man pitching staff to keep 14 position players. That has not been ruled out and might even be the preferred path.

I'm all in favor of going with an eleven-man staff. We have some rubber-armed relievers and no one that needs babying -- except maybe the old man Mesa. I don't like seeing him on back-to-back days. With all the off days in April, I'd rather carry an extra bat and Mac can go crazy shuffle boogie on the Brewers and Cubs. If he substitutes enough, we can destroy their pitching staffs.

The other fine offering from Dejan Kovacevic was his notebook. He tells us how the pitch Ryan greased down the middle for a Gabe Gross home run, was a split-finger fastball, the same one he's working to develop this spring and, if I remember right, was throwing also in winter ball.

What I want to know is, does Ryan have a rubber arm? Can he be an eleventh-pitcher innings-eater? If so, that would be pretty valuable.