Tigers at Pirates

Another game today at 1.

As you probably know by now, the Pirates made some moves to clarify the bullpen situation. As usual, Dejan Kovacevic and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are the best places to get the lowdown. Jaret Wright and Byung-Hyun Kim are gone; Doug Mientkiewicz makes the team, as expected. Management did the right thing with Kim, for sure, so let's give credit, it's due. (Hands over some credit.)

They also get credit for picking up Yates at the annual end-of-March reliever fire sale. This required patience and faith; I think the previous GM would have acquired more "sure things" at high off-season prices when it became clear to many that the Pirates did not have a lot, on paper, for the bullpen. (Hands over some more credit.)

This leaves some uncertainty in the bullpen. As DK writes:

Removing Kim and Wright leaves six relievers - Franquelis Osoria, Sean Burnett, Phil Dumatrait, Evan Meek, Masumi Kuwata and Hector Carrasco -- for three openings. Huntington said he plans to make final decisions in that regard in the next two days.

If Osoria's a lock, as we've been hearing, it's five guys for two spots. Kuwata and Carrasco, I'd cut right away. Dumatrait and Meek I'd want to keep, so my decision would be to buy Burnett a fancy new suitcase and a fancy new cell phone. I'd tell him to keep the phone on and the suitcase packed, and I'd put him on the bus to Indiana. He goes down because he can, and he'll be back all quick like because teams always need good arms.