Gerut of the 1000 OPS

Rotoworld is is telling me that Jody Gerut has a 1000 OPS in winter ball. And Cesar Izturis is a free agent. And Jose Castillo is a big, powerful-looking big man.

Coonelly has eyes that open

Dom Cosentino profiles Philly guy Frank Coonelly for one of the Philadelphia newspapers contributing to the phillyburbs website.

Besides the fact that Coonelly has eyes that mainly stay open, and not closed, the article contains other interesting news such as:

Coonelly said he had been approached with other opportunities by other teams in the past, eventually taking himself out of consideration. He decided to join the Pirates now, he said, because Nutting has been working to get the organization's financial house in order in recent years — the key element to begin re-building the Pirates in the model of the Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, three playoff teams whose payrolls are similar to a small market like Pittsburgh's.

“It can be done,” Coonelly said. “We can't afford the most expensive free-agent pitcher on the market, but we can succeed by taking that money and putting it into scouting and development.”

How will the Pirates spend "that money" on scouting and development? It appears to me that they are starting from scratch, so I am interested to see how this will happen.

Huntington hires special assistant

The AP reports that Huntington has hired Larry Corrigan away from the Twins. His strengths are talent evaluation and player development.

I'm scratching my head over this one. Why would the Pirates need help in these departments? I guess Bob Nutting is made of money these days.

NFL week 10: Browns at Steelers

The Steelers don't give a flying you-know-what about the Browns, especially Kellen Winslow the soldier.