Bolts, Colts, or Fins

The Steelers will host one of those teams in the late game on January 11.

NFL week 17

Can't sleep with all the excitement about Kansas City at Cincinnati. Holy barnburner. What a slate of games

Rocco

Dejan Kovacevic reports the Pirates are looking at Rocco Baldelli. Gimpy guys can be a great bargain.

NFL week 16

Clutchy Big Ben vs. Kerry Freaking Collins.

R.I.P. Dock Ellis

Pour some out for Dock Ellis - gone, but never forgotten.

Wake me up when the winning starts

Dejan Kovacevic reports the Pirates have hired a new radio voice, Tim Neverett.

This is big news for those of us who listen to a lot of games.

A little research shows that Neverett is well qualified for the job. He wrote this, for example, about the Rockies in May 2008:

The Rockies might just add to the suffering with their terrible start and shambles of a pitching staff. The injury to Troy Tulowitzki doesn’t matter, honestly, because he was not even hitting the weight of a high school sophomore when he went on the disabled list. Jeff Francis went zero for April in wins and started the month of May the same way. Brad Hawpe is primed to hit only six home runs this season with his one long ball a month pace and the additions of De La Rosa, Quintinilla and Hererra are starting to bring back memories of three and four seasons ago when the Rockies ran out “Todd and the Triple A Team”.

The same editorial concludes:

Settle in, relax, take your time. This summer is going to be a long one for Colorado Sports Fans. Wake me up when the winning starts, OK?

I doubt he'll catch as many zzz's as he'd like this coming summer, but it does look like he's ready to step in and explain the Pirates to us. Congratulations, Tim -- we will listen.

Free agents vs. prospects

The Bucco blogosphere has suddenly been festooned with much excellent interesting commentary on a Q+A question about free agents vs. prospects in the current market, and whether the Bay trade was wise. For the record, Rowdy and I both liked the Bay trade at the time.

Andy LaRoche has 164 ABs as a Pirate. Sure, those haven't been pretty, but give him a chance at least.

Bootcheck

Reliever Chris Bootcheck has agreed to terms, Dejan reports. Bootcheck missed most of the 2006 season after injuring his hammy while running from the bullpen to the mound during an Angels brawl. This reminds me of Bucdaddy's question of why, during a bench-clearing brawl, do the bullpens both sprint in from the OF to join the donnybrook, instead of just sprinting towards each other (and saving their hammys)?

UPDATE: No deal yet.

Power pitchers

Dejan wonders how many projects Kerrigan can take on, and what the evidence for turning wild power arms into success stories is. Perhaps in Neal's defense, strikeout rate is a better predictor of future strikeout rate than walk rate to future walk rate, according to this THT piece. As far as specific examples, Ollie comes to mind. His strikeout rate has remained consistent, but walk rate varied wildly.

In other news, Rinku checks his closets for Najeh, and finds nothing.

Reinventing the Wiggy wheel

The Bucs have expressed interest in Wiggy, the P-G reports. Wiggy's breakout 2008 will probably guarantee greener pastures. But if not, management might wish to consider the reverse Wiggy wheel.

NFL week 15

Steelers at Ravens with a lot of marbles in the pot.

I've been watching the Ravens with a lot of respect this season. They have been better than most have noticed. I felt nervous about this game early in the week, but today I don't think that's the case. I'm expecting a good game from the Steelers.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what percentage of tickets were consumed by the Steeler Nation. I get a kick out of that every week.

One man, one mound, one ball

Hot Stove update from Dejan brings news that Kerrigan will pick up some of Ronny's slack, calling games from the dugout and catching when needed. In other news, JR says Nate will lead off, Gorzo is in shape, and Kuwata still wears his Bucs jersey.

All hail Bob Smizik

We raise our glass to Bob Smizik, who after a long, illustrious, cantankerous career, is retiring. The loss of Ronny Ballgame has led many to drastic measures, and we completely understand.

Rule 5

Starting today, Donald Veal and Andres Santos will attempt to fill the void left by Ronny Franchise. The P-G reports Ramon Vazquez will be signed soon. Vazquez's fourth most comparable batter is Ed Ott. Veal will be entertaining. Neal should hire Kerrigan some Special Assistants.

Farewell Ronny Ballgame

Ronny traded to the Phils for Jason Jamarillo, the P-G reports.

I've seen them; kids, men, women, worshippers all, hoping to get his name on a torn, dirty piece of paper, or hoping for a grunt of recognition when they said, 'Hi-ya, Ronny.' He never let them down; not once. He was the greatest crowd pleaser of them all.

Winter Meetings

The Marlins want Ronny but are underestimating his worth, Dejan reports from Las Vegas.

Cowboys Steelers

Should be a good one.

Endearingly ridiculous

Bruce Reed, Pirate blog connoisseur and former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration, writes a fantastic piece on Rinku and Dinesh for Slate.

Meanwhile our new friends appear on CNN and have Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone is just stuffing their heads.

Waiting for the trade

Both the Dodgers and Tigers are in the mix for Jack Wilson, and Jack is willing to renegotiate his contract for the Dodgers, the P-G reports.

Tracy flashback

A search for a suitable Jack Wilson tribute video on youtube instead turns up one of Tracy's attempts at the longest sentence ever, from the glory days of the DL firing (fast forward to one minute for Tracy and Jack on DL's pink slip). Tracy:

You know I have a job to do here and I can honestly tell you that up to this point I can hold my head very high knowing the fact that where I felt like we were when we began on opening day of 2006 and where we're at right now, this is heading in the direction that a guy, as the manager of this club, would want to see it go.

Jack not traded yet

Dejan reports that Coonelly denies the report that Jack Wilson has been traded to the Tigers.

Gayo

Dejan thinks he failed to put Rene Gayo into words in Part 3 of his Dominican series. The walking contradiction of Rene Gayo could be simplified into Tracyese: Rene is a big, powerful-looking, big man. Who breaks into tears upon remembering giving away an extra 10K of Mr. Nutting's money.

In other news, Rinku and Dinesh don't yet break the top 5 international Bucco prospects, and Ed Eagle catches up with Dave Parker, who makes his case for the Hall-of-Fame.

NFL week 13

Hellified ball at Foxborough starting soon.

All hail Sadid

Part one of Dejan's Caribbean story (with movie) features Rene Gayo at work signing 18-year-old Sadid Frias for seven times what Rinku and Dinesh got. The story mentions the Pirates used DNA and bone tests to nullify the contract of one of last year's Dominican signees, "Joldi Sierra", who was lying about his name and age. All hail honest young Sadid Frias, and the tripling of Rene Gayo's budget!

Pushing Paulino

Dejan returns with a Hot Stove update. Jack, Grabow, and Ronny are for sale. Neal is "kicking the tires on every 4-A starter out there." The Astros recently expressed interest in JVB as a hitter, but he wants to keep pitching.

Rinkumania

Brilliant move by Neal, making history with signing Rinku and Dinesh. Now Neal needs to seal the deal, for the betterment of humanity, and make the continuation of The Million Dollar Arm Blog a condition in the contract.

Dinesh on Barry:

Mr. Bonds sir has the finest house anyone could ever imagine. He has many animals that he has hunted and preserved to display. He has his own real movie theater. he also has many cars and a gym just like the one at USC. He even has a mirror that turns into a TV! GAZAB!

Rinku on pork ribs, cops, and healthcare:

Back at home; we had Marty sir and his wife over for dinner. Just like we promised. You’ll know the menu by now. We don’t want to risk making anything but pork ribs. However, I’m not gonna ever handle pork ribs after today. I cut couple of my fingers trying to slice it before serving. Marty sir called the cops. They need to be informed about the smallest incident here. Poor Marty sir came under suspicion initially when the cops got in. They left us with a hospital address once they were satisfied nothing untoward had happened.

I wish I hadn’t gone for any treatment though. I reeled at the bill they produced for some simple bandaging and a tetanus shot. 300 bucks! It’s whooping. They took me to the emergency room for such a clear-cut case (pun intended). I didn’t get any meds and neither did they do anything to ease the pain. To put salt to injury, we had a stack of forms to sign as a procedure. Deepesh sir and I went into hysterics and laughed our guts out. It was crazy. Back home in India, we would’ve gotten treated just fine for a mere twenty rupees. Healthcare here is indecently expensive. I hope I don’t make another visit to a hospital here for whatever reasons.

Walkoff Walk has been following our two new heroes for awhile.

Are you not entertained?

Bucs sign two Indians

Bucs sign two young Indian pitchers, winners of the "Million Dollar Arm" contest, reports the P-G. The two have their own blog (link via Deadspin). Welcome aboard, Rinku and Dinesh!

Hot stove

The Tigers are still looking at Jack Wilson, reports the Detroit Free Press. Matt Capps is potentially available, says ESPN. No word yet on possible McLouth and Freddy suitors, perhaps because Neal has been overwhelmed by near-ubiquitous interest in Ronny Ballgame.

40-Man

Set for the Rule V draft. Bucs protect Lerud and Uviedo over Romak and Bloom. Bloom has been on fire in Hawaii, but career-wise, is no stranger to the base-on-balls. Romak has an Eldredesque K-rate and has not yet established himself at AA. Assuming Jason Davis does not belong on the 40-man, it seems the Bucs have room for Eduardo Morlan or another Rule V pick.

In other news, we raise our glass and wish the best of luck to JVB, who will be playing for another team next year. All hail JVB!

NFL week 12

Starts tomorrow.

Bengals at Steelers, 8pm.

Daytime high in the mid 30s, cloudy, some wind, good chance of snow. Should be fun.

NFL week 11

Chargers at Steelers underway. Ben only sacked once in the first four minutes.

Free agents

Given this free agent list, which cheap free agents should Neal pursue for a RH power hitter, a veteran starter, and a bullpen guy? I'll start with: Milton Bradley (OPS+ of 153 and 163 the last two years), Josh Fogg, and Julian Tavarez. The 2009 Bucs should not enter the record books without a fight, and a Bradley/Tavarez ticket would fight this fight, with or without Dirty Doug.

Week 10 NFL

... Steelers host the Colts on Sunday at four. The way the Steelers defense has been playing, I almost pity the Colts' offense.

Election Day

Get your vote on.

Week 9 MNF

Steelers (5-2) at Redskins (6-2).

Halloween

hooooo ooooooo ooooooo

/ghost

2008 World Series

Are you watching this?

Joe Kerrigan

New pitching coach announced today. Kerrigan will try to clean up Jeff Dr. James Andrews' mess.

NFL week 7

The Steelers play the Bengals in Cincinnati. Not sure what the Bengals will do to the field this year to try to gain a small advantage -- maybe a ton of sand, or maybe they leave the sprinklers on all night -- but they will probably do some kind of low-class chiseler move since they usually do.

The Bengals are 0-6. Teams that have not yet won a game at home can be dangerous at home, since there is an extra ton of pressure to win for the season ticket holders. And I have friends who worry that the Steelers (at least under Cowher) had/have a tendency to play down to bad teams on the road. I don't remember this happening so much, I say in response, with division games. If they were at Kansas City, I would be more worried.

Anything can happen of course. We all know that. But this one is not making me nervous a few hours before kickoff.

It looks like Casey Hampton, Willie Parker, and Marvel Smith will not play. Hampton might be the most underrated Steeler as the DT in the 3-4. But Chris Hoke is even more underrated as his backup, so the defense should be OK. Moore should start for Parker, who kept missing practice last week with the knee injury, and the Undertaker will start for Smith. Rookie wideout Limas Sweed should make his debut today. All in all, I don't think all this player news amounts to much beyond the fact that such key injuries expose the Steelers. If Hoke is healthy, they will be fine if Hampton sits; but if both those guys are too hurt to play ... etc. etc.

Finally, let's cheer sludgeworm for his 61-27 record against the spread this season. He is blowing away the rest of our pool. All hail sludge!

On bye

No game this week for the Steelers. The Ravens are in Indiana, the Bengals are at the Meadowlands, and the Browns will host the Giants tomorrow night on Monday Night Football.

Bay vs. Manny

Decent chance we'll see this in the World Series.

Trading McLouth

Are we going to be reading about such things all winter long?

NFL week 5

Ever stay up really, really late on Saturday just so you could roll out of bed, Sunday, just in time for the 1pm kickoffs?

Lanny retires

News here at the Post-Gazette.

Steelers maimed

The Steelers are dealing with a lot of injuries.

Can they make Polamalu a two-way player? I'd like to see him run the draw. Or get some time on the offensive line.

Pedro goes yard

The P-G's Colin Dunlap was there for Pedro Alvarez's first Bucco dinger:

The power everyone spoke of perked up, when Alvarez hit a prodigious, no-doubter over the fence in right-center that travelled onto the property of an adjacent golf course.

Dejan's analysis and grades are in. Ronny Ballgame fails and will "surely will be shopped in offseason to teams that see more." Overall, the grades seem fair. If I had to bicker, Duke's C- seems too generous for his league-worst .304 BAA. J-Mike's Clutch doesn't outweigh his .228/.300/.382 line for a B-, and no way Nyjer's 91 OPS+ and striking out 20% of the time is satisfactory for a starting OF.

NFL week 4: Ravens at Steelers

Roethlisberger and Flacco run for their lives as the Rashard Mendenhall Era begins.

Game 162: Pirates at Padres

More Beer and Far More Beer at four.

Game 161: Pirates at Padres

Beer and More Beer at ten.

Game 160: Pirates at Padres

Snell and Beer tonight.

Game 159: Pirates at Brewers

Duke and Gallardo. Game on.

Duke going for win number 6.

Game 158: Pirates at Brewers

Maholm and Sabathia at eight.

Maholm is going for his twentieth fifteenth twelfth tenth win.

In other news, the Lions fired Dave Littlefield Matt Millen.

Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirate

MLB and the union have settled their grievance. Pedro Alvarez is in Pittsburgh and his signing will be announced at a press conference shortly, Dejan reports. Welcome aboard, Pedro.

Game 157: Pirates at Brewers

Karstens vs. Bush at eight. The Brewers trail the Mets by one game in the wild card race, and have won nine in a row against the Bucs.

Meanwhile, testimony has been halted in the union's grievance hearing as the Bucs and Pedro work on finalizing a contract.

Alvarez and Bucs agree to new contract

Pedro and the PBC have agreed to a four-year, major league contract worth a guaranteed $6,355,000, reports the P-G's Dejan Kovacevic. Supposedly the contract will be signed pending a physical, which could happen as early as this week, and the contract would quash the pending grievance. All hail El Matatan!

NFL week 3: Steelers at Eagles

Game at four. Steelers should beware the staph infection if they get some scrapes in this one.

Game 156: Astros at Pirates

Oswalt and Ohlendorf at 1:30.

Game 155: Astros at Pirates

Jimmy Barthmaier and Scuffy Moehler open for Lynyrd Freakin' Skynyrd. Game at seven.

Game 154: Astros at Pirates

Snell and Wolf at seven open for Zambelli fireworks. Among qualifying NL starters, Snell is dead last in ERA (5.69), WHIP (1.83!), and BAA (.313). Must protect manhood.

Game 153: Dodgers at Pirates

Maholm vs. Kershaw. Bucs trail 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth.

Game 152: Dodgers at Pirates

Chad Billingsley and the Dodgers will play baseball at PNC tonight at seven. Zach Duke and the Bucs will try not to embarrass themselves again.

Game 151: Dodgers at Pirates

Karstens vs. Lowe at seven. Pup Night! Last chance this year to bring your dog to the park.

Game 150: Dodgers at Pirates

Ohlendorf vs. Kuroda at seven. Cutch and Neil Walker will be in the dugout, absorbing the teachings of Ronny Ballgame.

NFL week 2: Steelers at Browns

Game at eight.

Game 149: Cardinals at Pirates

Thompson and Davis at one-thirty.

The Pirates ride this two-game winning streak to 62-86. If the season ended today, I believe they would have the fourth overall pick in the draft. Only Washington (56), San Diego (57), and Seattle (57) have fewer wins.

Game 148: Cardinals at Pirates

Snell and Wainwright. Bucs down 1-0 in the top of the first.

Game 147: Cardinals at Pirates

The Pirates are still looking for win number "far more" tonight as the Cardinals send Pineiro to the mound to compete with Maholm.

Game is scheduled for seven, but the weather is not looking cooperative.

Game 146: Pirates at Astros

Zach Duke and your hapless Pirates against Roy Oswalt at 8.

Game 145: Pirates at Astros

The Pirates will attempt, once again, to stop the streaking Astros.

Gorzelanny and Moehler at eight.

Game 144: Pirates at Astros

Ohlendorf and Wolf at eight.

Game 143: Pirates at Astros

Snell and Arias at eight.

Astros are 76-67 and six games out in the wild card race. They trail Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

This is the kind of series the Pirates lose big time. Every September they lay down for teams like this. So if this year is like last year, the year before, etc., then the Pirates get swept.

NFL week 1: Texans at Steelers

Here we go with the football season.

Game 142: Pirates at Giants

Karstens, Sanchez, and that 82nd loss on the line at four.

Game 141: Pirates at Giants

Maholm and Cain at nine.

Game 140: Pirates at Giants

Duke and Correia at ten.

Game 139: Pirates at Reds

Gorzelanny and Fogg at 12:30 this afternoon.

Game 138: Pirates at Reds

Ohlendorf and Volquez at seven.

Game 137: Pirates at Reds

Snell and Harang at 7.

The Pirates are 22 games under .500.

The NFL season begins this this week, so it's time for the pick 'em pool. If you signed up for the Honest Wagner Pick 'em Pool last year, you are still in the pool once you remember your login and account password. The password for the pool is 51yardparker. Go to Pigskin.com to revive or make your account.

And if you have some time to kill, the youtubes are full of little Steeler movies. There are not so many 2008 Pirates highlights.

Labor Day

I don't get Labor Day. To celebrate labor, no one goes to work?

The Pirates have the day off.

Game 136: Brewers at Pirates

Sabathia and Karstens at one-thirty.

Game 135: Brewers at Pirates

Suppan and Maholm at seven.

Game 134: Brewers at Pirates

Bush and Gorzelanny at seven.

Richie Zisk bobbleheads tonight.

Game 140: Bats at Indians

No game for the Pirates today, but the last-place Indians host the first-place Bats at seven. It's family night.

Family night means four box seats, four hot dogs, four sodas, and four Indians Hats will cost you $52. Funny, I don't see anything about four beers.

Who do they think they are kidding?

There might be an audio feed here.

Pedro Alvarez

I have not yet read all the Pedro Alvarez stuff -- just the postings on the PG blog, including the statements from the Pirates. My first impression is that there must be more to the story.

Game 133: Cubs at Pirates

Marquis and Duke at twelve-thirty.

Pretty good chance of rain, so this one might go on as long as last night's game.

Game 132: Cubs at Pirates

Zambrano and Snell at seven. Pirates are 57-74, and they are tied for fifth in the NL Central.

Game 131: Cubs at Pirates

Lilly and Karstens at seven.

Game 130: Pirates at Brewers

Maholm and Sabathia at two.

Steelers begin the season two weeks from today with a home opener against Houston.

Game 129: Pirates at Brewers

Tom Gorzelanny and Jeff Suppan.

Game 128: Pirates at Brewers

Zach Duke and Dave Bush tonight at 8.

Update: Pearce sent down to make way for Dirty Doug, who returns tonight. Gorzo will start tomorrow.

Off day

No game today.

Game 127: Pirates at Cardinals

Davis and Wellemeyer at 8.

Pirates are 57-69, twelve games under .500 and 20.5 games out of first place.

Game 126: Pirates at Cardinals

Snell and Looper at eight.

Game 125: Mets at Pirates

Maine and Maholm in a day game starting at twelve-thirty.

Game 124: Mets at Pirates

Santana and Karstens in an hour.

Game 123: Mets at Pirates

Pedro Martinez, Zach Duke, another Skyblast.

Dejan Kovacevic's coverage of the draft signing deadline makes Coonelly, Huntington, and Nutting look real good. Here's hoping these guys produce for the Pirates.

Game 122: Mets at Pirates

Pelfrey, Davis, another Skyblast.

Game 121: Reds at Pirates

Tonight we have Cueto and Snell, the LaRoche brothers, Zambelli fireworks, and REO Speedwagon.

This one will sell out or come close. Game starts at 7.

Game 120: Reds at Pirates

Josh Fogg returns to face his 7.98 ERA. Paul Maholm will also pitch.

Game 119: Reds at Pirates

Jeff Karstens makes his home debut against Edinson Volquez at seven. C'mon, shutout.

Game 118: Pirates at Mets

Duke and Martinez at one, weather permitting.

Game 117: Pirates at Phillies

Davis and Moyer at 1:30.

Bucs are 3-5 on this weird 10-game road trip.

Game 116: Pirates at Phillies

Snell and Myers at seven.

Here's that play Moss made last night.

Game 115: Pirates at Phillies

Only eleven more hours before Maholm vs. Blanton.

Day off

No game today.

One for the drinking room

Here's a picture for you to hang on your wall. All hail Jeff Karstens!

. . . Dejan Kovacevic has an early summary of his big game here.

Game 114: Pirates at D'backs

Karstens and Randy Johnson at 3:30pm eastern.

Game 113: Pirates at D'backs

Duke and Webb at 9:40.

I will be watching Dejan Kovacevic's PBC blog for any news about Andy LaRoche's bandaged right hand.

Game 112: Pirates at D'backs

Herrera and Haren at 9:40pm our time.

Game 111: Pirates at Cubs

Snell and Zambrano at two.

Game 110: Pirates at Cubs

Maholm and Lilly in one hour.

Game 109: Pirates at Cubs

Jeff Karstens will make his debut this afternoon at Wrigley. Jason Marquis will start for the Cubs. Game on at 2.

So ... guess today's lineup. I'm not sure I'd start all those new guys in a day game after moving at the trade deadline, but maybe John Russell will.

Bay traded

Kovacevic, from his blog, which still is hard to load:

UPDATE 4:56 p.m.: No updates for a while. I am heading to the ballpark for Neal Huntington's gathering. Look up something about these four players on your own, and place them in the comments. Already have three texts from people with other teams saying, essentially, "Wow," at the Pirates' return. And in a positive way. I have no opinion. The only one of these prospects I know is LaRoche's brother. Hansen throws 97 mph. I hear the ESPN guys gushing about it hear in the background, too.

He asks that you post whatever info/dirt you have on these guys in the comments over there.

. . . (earlier) . . .

By Dejan Kovacevic | 4:30 p.m. Thursday

The Pirates traded All-Star left fielder Jason Bay to the Boston Red Sox as part of a three-team deal in their only move before Major League Baseball's 4 p.m. deadline.

Boston sent outfielder Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the deal. The Pirates will receive Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, Andy LaRoche and Avery Morris.

Video here: Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, Andy Laroche, and Avery Morris, who is a little younger than I expected.

. . . more news from DK:

The Pirates will receive third baseman Andy LaRoche - Adam's brother - outfielder Brandon Moss, and right-handed pitchers Craig Hansen and Bryan Morris. LaRoche, Moss and Hansen will join the Pirates' 25-man roster for the game tomorrow in Chicago. Morris will be assigned to Class A Hickory.

Three of these guys will be in Chicago tomorrow. Brandon Moss is a 1B/OF and could start in left. Hansen is this relief pitcher, I guess. Avery Bryan Morris (no relation to Matt, Bones tells me) must be this low-A starter.

Afternoon of July 31st

Trade deadline in 90 minutes.

Here are some links to jam on:

Dejan Kovacevic's PBC Blog. Kovacevic, the beat writer for the Post-Gazette, has much better access and information than most. Unfortunately, the Post-Gazette was not prepared to handle a high level of traffic this afternoon, so it often stalls out and does not load right now.

Jim Furtado's last-minute trade news thread. Baseball Primer is a gang forum with hundreds of outstanding posters who are fans of all the big-league teams. If someone delivers a scoop on the ratio or on TV, a Primate will probably share this here. You will also get a mixture of mainly amusing and very good analysis from a group of people who are, on the whole, unusually well-informed.

Ken Rosenthal's blog for Fox Sports always delivers some inside dope.

Jayson Stark reports trade deadline news here for ESPN.

Will Carroll might have news on the Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered blog.

A Pirates-fan-only version of Primer is the OnlyBucs.org forum. Look for the most recent posts in the "OnlyBucs Fan Forum" -- the threads are sorted by most recent post, which you will see if you peruse the right column of the fan forum's home page.

You might also check the comments to this post, if haloscan holds up and can deliver them on this, a very busy day (I imagine) for haloscan-powered blogs.

Enjoy the day. I expect little to no trading to happen this afternoon, so I will kick back, put my boots on the table, savor a beer or two, and listen to the bugs hum.

No game tonight. Karstens will get a chance to go all Drabek on the Cubs tomorrow at two.

Trade time

Ground is shaking.

. . . Peter Gammons says you can go to bed.

. . . good morning. Jayson Stark says Manny deal is 50-50.

Game 108: Rockies at Pirates

Cook for the hapless Rockies. Duke for the Pirates. Game starts at seven.

Dejan Kovacevic is providing frequent updates on his new blog. There is no better source for bloggy information.

the 30th

Good game last night.

Today is a trade rumor day. All kinds of trades may or may not happen today or tomorrow.

Game 107: Rockies at Pirates

Rusch and Herrera at seven. Throw the sinker, Yoslan.

Game 106: Rockies at Pirates

Your 2007 NL Champions, who have won 9 of 10 and just swept the Reds, will scrounge up a starter to face Ian Snell tonight. The Rockies are ten games under .500; the Pirates are nine games under .500.

Beer

DFH 60 min for me. This is a beer that you really must pour out into a pint glass to drink. I tried to drink one straight from the bottle and did not like it. There seems to be a syrupy thing straight from the bottle that I don't taste from a frosty pint glass. Am I nuts or what.

I've had enough of these Pirates for the weekend. What are you drinking?

Game 105: Padres at Pirates

Jake Peavy and Paul Maholm at 1:30.

As you wait for the game, read Wilbur. He's persuasive.

Game 104: Padres at Pirates

Banks and JVB.

Nady and Marte for Tabata, Ohlendorf, Karstens, and D. McCutchen

I read some of the trade comments left by people on the other blogs. First off, people pay way too much attention to the pissy comments made by television broadcasters and rival GMs. You will grow gray and die before these people talk about Pittsburgh in a way that's fair and not infuriating. The Pirates should be run to win games and not to please the media or impress the scouts and GMs who work for other teams.

So throw out all the complaints that reference a rival's or a media personality's snap opinion. Evaluate the trade for yourself.

Here's what I say. I'm not a fan of trading excellent everyday players for long-shot prospects. In theory I think it's not sound. In practice it can work. It depends on the players, and it depends on the prospects.

Xavier Nady is a 120-game-per-year player. He's already played 90 games this year. He might go on to set a career high in games played; maybe he'll play 150 this year and set a new career high in at-bats (468 is his current career high). Guys like this tend to be underrated, but I don't think Pirate fans are reacting to the trade like this is the case. He's not the equivalent of Jason Bay or Jack Wilson in the playing time department. For the sake of argument, let's not regard Bay and Wilson as every-game players any more. Still, the difference between a 125-game player and a 140-game player is large: it's two weeks starting a replacement player.

Nady also has a career OPS under 800. He's 29 and he's having a career year. To put his career in perspective, his most comparable batters are Pedro Munoz, Shane Spencer, Herb Perry, Don Lenhardt, Dick Kokos, Harry Anderson, and Jim Greengrass.

He's been a great player this year and, by all reports, an even better clubhouse personality. I don't see him as someone who has a career that suggests he would also be a great player for us in 2009 and 2010. He's the kind of player you trade high.

Damaso Marte? He's a relief pitcher.

I like the prospects the Pirates got for these guys. I think they got a good haul. I also think the team has an unusual and urgent need for starting pitchers. I don't think the trade makes the 2009 Pirates significantly worse, and I think that even the 2008 Pirates might not be so worse off as people are talking.

Sure, Nady was one of our best hitters, but the shape and nature of his relatively long career suggest that he was likely to cool off or get hit by a pitch and miss a month.

Marte was our best relief pitcher, but where's there is opportunity, some kind of breakout usually follows. There's a good chance that someone will pitch as well in the vacancy created by Marte. And relief pitchers are not the most dependable variety of ballplayers.

... update ... the change of players does not alter my perception of the trade. Three minor-league starters with some promise plus Tabata for Nady and Marte is a good return. I'm not persuaded by overconfident prospect forecasting, so comments like "middle-relief fodder" or "#4 starter" don't carry a lot of weight with me. Such comments might depress my expectations, as they should, but there are no guarantees. Given the chance, some players will grow and outperform expectations. Others will wilt and fail.

And duh, the Pirates could use middle relievers and #4 starters, so the minor-league pitchers fill an obvious need.

So, for sure, the trade is not killing the Pirates this year or next.

And as always, more comments in the comments ...

Game 103: Padres at Pirates

Baek and Duke, starting about now.

... sounds like Marte and Nady to New York-A for half a AA team.

... Bones & Rowdy give the trade two thumbs up.

High draft picks are for Losers

The off-day Dejan Kovacevic describe the Alvarez situation in this report of his phone call with Scott Boras, a burly dude who wears black turtlenecks and expensive watches.

Boras argues that Alvarez is a can't-miss player, an elite prospect. He compares him to the best players he has represented out of the draft. (I wouldn't make comparison to J.D. Drew, if I were Boras, given the way he bungled the Philadelphia negotiations, but whatever.) Boras argues that the Pirates need to pay Alvarez a lot of money because it's a good investment for the Pirates. The Pirates, obviously, are balking at the high asking price. And they are of a mind to offer less each week that goes by without seeing Alvarez in the minor leagues getting ready for next year.

The Pirates got themselves into this situation by Losing. Littlefield avoided players like Alvarez in the draft, a plan with predictable bad results. One, the Pirates have not produced so many good players with their high draft picks, and a winning team team needs good players. So, two, the Pirates have been perpetual Losers. And three, the fans of the Pirates caught on to this cheap philosophy and have wisely demanded better from the new leadership.

Boras must know the pressure that the Pirates are under to pay what he wants for Alvarez. Here the new leadership pays a price for the incompetence of the old leadership. They are over a barrel. They have to sign this guy. They could not sign him, but this would surely perpetuate losing much more than the opportunity cost associated with overpaying for Alvarez.

The way to get out of this situation is not get into it. The truth of the matter is this. The Pirates do not want high draft picks. High draft picks are for Losers. Literally -- you have to lose a lot of games to get a draft pick capable of claiming a player like Pedro Alvarez. You lose that many games, get that high a draft pick, and then you pay the Loser's Fine to the Bad Man in the Black Turtleneck.

The Pirates need good players to stop Losing. So, obviously the way to solve the problem begins with getting the good player. Once they get the player, the next step is equally obvious: stop being such Losers. That's the only way to avoid getting into this situation again.

Game 102: Padres at Pirates

Friars come to town to match Clay Hensley up against Yoslan Herrera. Game on at 7.

Alumni autographs day. Former Bucs Grant Jackson, Barry Jones and John Smiley will sign autographs on the Riverwalk from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Bones and I met John Smiley in his rookie season. He was amused.

Game 101: Pirates at Astros

One more game on fantasy island before the Pirates come home to face the Randy Wolf-less Padres. It's a day game. Snell and Moehler will start.

Game 100: Pirates at Astros

Maholm and Cassel at 8.

I happily slept through last night's adventure. Today I was going to pack up & send in the win meter for repairs, but it looks like it buzzed to life while I was sleeping. FWIW it's humming pleasantly, perhaps because Maholm is the scheduled starter.

Game 99: Pirates at Astros

It will be JVB and Runelvys at eight.

Game 98: Pirates at Rockies

This again. Duke and Cook at 3.

Game 97: Pirates at Rockies

In what's likely to be a low-scoring game, Yoslan Herrera starts tonight against Jorge de la Rosa.

Game 96: Pirates at Rockies

Snell and Rusch at 9.

Game 95: Pirates at Rockies

Pirates have been much more entertaining than in previous years, and they come out of the All-Star break six games under at 44-50.

There may or may not be a whole lot of talk about trading players soon. The place to get prospects, I think, is the draft. I have not done any scientific studies of the question, but I doubt any of those fabled winning small-market franchises were built on trading very good players for lottery tickets. More likely they drafted well year after year.

As far as I know, too, the Pirates are under no great need to trim salary.

And it also does not look to me like the Pirates have a lot of top minor-league talent that's blocked. Is it so urgent that Pearce graduate? If so, he's about the only one.

The team surely needs more reliable starters. So does most every other team in the league. The Pirates will have to grow their own. It's hard to see how trading Xavier Nady would solve the problems with the rotation.

Tonight it's Maholm and Jimenez in mountain time at like 9 o'clock.

Off day

Nate did pretty good last night. All hail Nate!

Week-long road trip starts tomorrow in Colorado.

All-Star Game

Tonight at 8. Nate McLouth to win it at the end.

At the break

Pirates are 44-50.

Home Run Derby tonight.

Your lying eyes might say otherwise, but the guy on the mound will not be Tom Gorzelanny.

Game 94: Cardinals at Pirates

Pineiro and Snell. This afternoon.

Happy Slovak day.

Game 93: Cardinals at Pirates

Yoslan Herrera makes his major league debut vs. Todd Wellemeyer at seven.

Game 92: Cardinals at Pirates

Zambelli Fireworks!

But, you have to sit through a baseball game.

Kyle Lohse and Zach Duke at seven.

Game 91: Yankees at Pirates

The teams will try to make up that postponed game from last month.

Paul Maholm and Ed Asner at seven.

Game 90: Astros at Pirates

Scuffy Moehler and John Van Benschoten at 7.

Game 89: Astros at Pirates

Backe and Snell at 7. Snell, like Dumatrait yesterday, comes off some extra rest.

Game 88: Astros at Pirates

Runelvys Hernandez and Phil "Kama Sutrait" Dumatrait at 7. Dumatrait returns from the rest that he needed to recover from the strain of so many difficult positions.

And, the Brewers kick off the silly season by making a big trade.

Game 87: Pirates at Brewers

Duke and Suppan at 2.

Game 86: Pirates at Brewers

Maholm and Bush at 7.

Game 85: Pirates at Brewers

Tom Gorzelanny and Ben Sheets this afternoon.

Pirates are 40-44 but only 15-25 on the road this year.

Also curious in the standings right now: The Rockies are 35-51. We had a pretty interesting debate the other night about whether this Pirates team is underachieving or overachieving. Opinions were split down the middle.

I've always thought that it should be "not hard" to finish at .500, and that a .500 season should not be regarded -- all by itself -- as evidence that a .550 season was the inevitable next step. A .500 breakout could be followed by a .450 slump. It also seems to me that I can look around the league every year and see a bunch of .500 teams that are pretty sorry. Are they lucky or are they overachieving? Or, are the 67-win teams underachieving?

The recent history of the Rockies tells a story. I'm not sure what is that story, but it seems somewhat relevant. Colorado win totals from 2001-2008: 73, 74, 74, 68, 67, 76, 90. Hmmmmmmmm.

Off day

No game today. An orthopedic surgeon and a physical therapist offer their comments on internal rotation deficit. Meanwhile, Dejan discusses Capps, bunting, and stadium etiquette in today's Q+A.

Game 84: Pirates at Reds

John Van Benschoten and Daryl Thompson soon enough.

Matt Capps out for July and August and I guess, September as well. I'm not a medical professional, and I don't understand his injury, but as a fan I know that when they say "eight weeks" it usually means "rest of the season and maybe some of next season too."

Insert expletives here.

Game 83: Pirates at Reds

Zach Duke takes on Edinson Volquez tonight at seven. Six games under and back in the basement, the integrity of the travesty appears safe. For now.

Game 82: Pirates at Reds

Paul Maholm vs. the Harangutan starting soon. Paul Meyer notes that for the first time in 52 years, the Bucs' pitcher is not batting ninth.

Game 81: Rays at Pirates

Gorzelanny vs. Sonnanstine starting now. Bucs are on pace for 77 wins.

Game 80: Rays at Pirates

Edwin Jackson and Ty Taubenheim tonight.

Mid-season editorial

As they approach the mid-point in the season, the big story is the ineffectiveness of most of the pitching staff.

The Pirates are rolling with a few flat tires in the starting rotation, and the failures of the starters have taken a toll on the bullpen. Opponents are averaging about 8 runs per game over the last week or so.

Edwin Jackson will start against Ty Taubenheim, who has been called up to make a start for the Pirates tonight. Denny Bautista, who was acquired in a low-risk trade to provide some relief for the overworked mop-up crew, has gone on the DL. T.J. "Steely Mc" Beam and John Van Benschoten have been recalled to eat innings, if they can. Dejan Kovacevic reports for the Post-Gazette that the indestructible-looking "Franky Six Fingers" Osoria could also be headed to the DL. Kovacevic also reports that Cuban defector Yoslan Herrara could be called up to start next week. Rotoworld reports the Bucs just picked up Ryan Drese. I guess we'll see him on the big club pretty soon.

The Bucs are 37-42 and seven games back in the race for the wild card. Another loss tonight and they'll fall to that depressing depth, six games under. One measure published by Baseball Prospectus suggests the Pirates have a 1 in 200 chance of making the postseason.

Pirate fans may be asking themselves if they think the team should gun for a .500 season, thus breaking that depressing run of non-winning seasons, or if they should make roster moves and trades that sacrifice the present somewhat for the future. I see the distinction as a false one. On one hand, .500 is not satisfying. If they finish the year at .500, I expect most Pirate fans will feel silly for thinking it was going to feel like a big accomplishment. It won't land the Pirates in the playoffs. On the other hand, I'm deeply skeptical of plans that see much beyond next year. In most cases, I think the best decision for next year is also the best decision for the rest of this season. And plans for two years down are fool's gold. Of course the team should stockpile all the best young talent they can; what I object to, and scoff at, to some extent, are the kind of plans that spell out who is our CF, who is our ace pitcher, who is our clean-up hitter, etc., in years as far away as 2010 and 2011. If the team stockpiles all the depth and promise it can in the minor leagues, it's wise to believe that players will appear as needed. What's not wise is pretending you know exactly which prospects will pan out, or which veterans will pull up gimpy and ineffective.

So it's six of one, half dozen of the other. The Pirates need to make roster moves and trades that will make them a better team right now and for next year. .500 can't be a goal, and liquidating the roster talent in the belief that there will be, at some later date, stunningly effective ways to spend that saved salary, can't be the plan.

Game 80: Rays at Pirates

Jimmy Barthmaier vs. Scott Kazmir at seven. Rays are a half game out of first. Barthmaier, who broke out in Indy, makes his major league debut.

Game 79: Yankees at Pirates

Maholm, Mussina, and maybe 38,000 fans at seven.

Game 78: Yankees at Pirates

Zach Duke and Joba Chamberlain at seven. The Bucs are 7.5 games back in the wild card race.

Game 77: Yankees at Pirates

Beauty vs. the Beast at seven.

The starting pitchers will be Darrell Rasner and Tom Gorzelanny.

Snell's elbow

Ian Snell will have an arthrogram tomorrow due to right elbow irritation that flared up today, reports the P-G. Snell also had this to say:

"I never give up. I don't care if people boo me, tell me I [stink], whatever. You're not going to take my manhood from me or my competitiveness from me. Nobody will ever do that! Ever! Until the day I die, then you take it from me."

Game 76: Blue Jays at Pirates

Ian Snell vs. Dustin McGowan at 1:35 PM EDT.

Rotation anchor Phil Dumatrait has been placed on the DL with a left shoulder injury. T.J. "Steely Mc" Beam has been recalled from Indy, where he was dominant. Dejan has the scoop and also suggests that Marte might not be traded. Meanwhile, Paul Meyer reminisces over the 1960 World Series.

Game 75: Blue Jays at Pirates

Paul Maholm vs. former Rays' batboy Jesse Litsch starting soon. Nady's not on the DL, as Salas was sent down. Dirty Doug gets the start in RF.

Game 74: Blue Jays at Pirates

Duke vs. Halladay at seven. The Post-Gazette reports that Nyjer Morgan (.559 OPS at Indy) has been called up, presumably because Nady (.886 OPS) is going on the DL. Win meter: broken.

Game 73: Pirates at White Sox

Dumatrait vs. Floyd at two. Breakout vs. Even Bigger Breakout. Fourth place vs. first place. 7 runs vs. 24 runs. Pistol-whippee vs. pistol-whipper. Beer vs. beer. Jolly Roger: proudly unfurled vs. shamefully concealed.

Game 72: Pirates at White Sox

Gorzelanny vs. Buehrle at eight. Despite yesterday's pistol-whipping, Bay's stomach virus, and Gorzo's 35K:46BB ratio, victory is imminent as Iowa Pirate braves floods and a beating to fly the Jolly Roger.

Game 71: Pirates at White Sox

Ian Snell vs. Javier Vazquez at eight as interleague play continues. Although Nady is out with the acromioclavicular joint* sprain and Vazquez has eaten more innings than the entire Bucs rotation, Snell is coming off two decent starts and ALR is hypnotically descending from the treestand, so victory is imminent (if J-Mike wills it to be so).

* the acromioclavicular joint, or AC joint, is the connection between the clavicle and scapula.

Off day

Nady vs. MRI at eight.

Game 70: Pirates at Orioles

Maholm and Cabrera in half an hour.

Game 69: Pirates at Orioles

Zach Duke vs. Radhames Liz at seven. According to BA, Liz has freakishly long arms - standing up straight his fingers stretch to below his knees. Also freaky is that his scapula makes an audible clicking noise every time he throws a pitch.

Game 68: Pirates at Orioles

Dumatrait and Burres at seven. Only one team will emerge at .500. Regardless of .500 being just mediocre and nothing to be content with, tonight's game is a big freakin' deal.

First, as Dejan points out, a win "would mark the latest in a season the Pirates have been .500 since Sept. 1, 1999." Is it Freakshow II? Are you not entertained?

Second, Dumatrait's first pitch will be the first Bucco pitch in Baltimore since Teke's on Oct. 17, 1979.

Game 67: Nationals at Pirates

Gorzelanny and Bergmann in half an hour. ALR gets the day off. Dirty Doug at first and Gomez at third.

Game 66: Nationals at Pirates

Snell and Lannan starts at seven.

Game 65: Nationals at Pirates

Maholm and Redding at seven. Bucs are two games under .500 but only a half game out of the basement.

Game 64: D-Backs at Pirates

Zuke vs. the Unit. Game on.

Wilbur on draft

Wilbur Miller's profiles of the 2008 draft class are up. All hail WTM for surviving this torturous exercise during the DL/Creech era, and maintaining his invaluable site.

In other post-draft linkage, scout.com gives the Bucs the second highest draft grade in MLB: "Beyond just the elite talent at the front of the class, the depth that Pittsburgh added really is remarkable".

Game 63: D-Backs at Pirates

Staff ace Phil "Kamasutrait" Dumatrait and Doug Davis, just started.

Game 62: D-Backs at Pirates

Whatever is inhabiting the recesses of Tom Gorzelanny's mind takes on Dan Haren tonight at seven. Gorzo can't keep up his 1.87 WHIP and 28 K to 40 BB act for much longer.

Game 61: D-Backs at Pirates

Snell and Webb at seven. Ronny calls the game remotely from Indy.

Day two of the draft continues. None of JR's kids taken yet.

Game 60: Astros at Pirates

Maholm vs. Backe starts now. An angry Wiggy stands between the Bucs and a trip out of the basement.

Draft thread

C'mon, lucky seven. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Game 59: Astros at Pirates

Duke and Oswalt at seven.

Red Wings at Penguins at eight.

Game 58: Astros at Pirates

Wandy Rodriguez and Phil Dumatrait tonight at seven.

If I had to pick one game to go see the Pirates, I'd look for a game where they are facing Wandy Rodriguez. I don't much of anything about Wandy, but the way the Pirates bat him around, when his name is drawn as the match-up, I'm always surprised to see he's still in the league.

The weather could be better for this one.

In other news, Bo Diddley died. The ipod shuffled through "Dearest Darling" about two hours before I heard the news. That would be freaky except that I listen to Bo Diddley all the freakin' time. The man was pretty good.

And, oh yeah, last night there was a hockey game. It was pretty good.

Game 57: Pirates at Cardinals

Tom Gorzelanny and Adam Wainwright at eight.

Game 56: Pirates at Cardinals

Ian Snell and Braden Looper at two.

It's June. Now is when bad starts become bad first halves.

Game 55: Pirates at Cardinals

Maholm, Parisi, seven eastern time.

Game 54: Pirates at Cardinals

Duke and Wellemeyer at eight.

Game 53: Pirates at Reds

Dumatrait and Harang starting pretty soon.

Game 52: Pirates at Reds

Tom Gorzelanny and Bronson Arroyo at seven.

Game 51: Pirates at Reds

Snell and Cueto at seven tonight.

Pirates are 24-26, five and a half back of first.

The YTD stats are somewhat comical. Not in a good way. Bay is back with a 950 OPS. McLouth, a guy we called "Frodo" when he came up with Duffy ("Sam"), wants to be an All-Star with a 1025 OPS. He is proving something this season, but I'm pretty skeptical he'll keep that Vlad Guerrero-like pace all year long. Nady (900 OPS) and Doumit (950 OPS) have been solid. Cue the Benny Hill music for the rest of the numbers: Paulino (500), LaRoche (700), Sanchez (600), Bixler (440).

The only starting pitcher who has been league-average has been Dumatrait.

The bullpen has been great.

More than half that offense will be better, but that does not mean they will be good. Of the four sluggers, only Bay I think is likely to maintain that pace in something like everyday play. Doumit and Nady could too. Whatever happens, I don't expect the offense to dramatically improve.

The bullpen could stay the same. The starters should improve. The substitution of Dumatrait for Morris, alone, might be enough to pace the team to 26 wins in the next 50 games. Heck, if they can manage 24 of 50 with these numbers, I guess I expect -- assuming no major subtraction of players through trade or injury (big assumption) -- that this team will still be around .500 at the 100-game mark.

And this is falling in line with expectations I've had for a long time. When the Pirates finally finish a season at .500, we will be underwhelmed, on the whole, with both the record and the general range of individual performances. .500 is mediocre.

That said, we will enjoy all the victories. It is cool to watch, listen, or attend a game and see it end with a victory. I don't get tired of that.

Off day

The Pirates are not playing this Memorial Day, for some reason. Tomorrow they will start a stretch of twenty games in twenty days.

Game 50: Cubs at Pirates

Lilly and Maholm this afternoon.

Game 49: Cubs at Pirates

Marquis and Dumatrait this evening.

Game 48: Cubs at Pirates

Zambrano and Duke. Pirates have to do better than 1-8 against the division's frontrunner.

Game 47: Brewers at Pirates

Dave Bush and Tom Gorzelanny in half an hour.

Bucs in a bit of tailspin here. How low will they go before they get within a series of .500 again?

Game 46: Brewers at Pirates

Ben Sheets and Ian Snell in about an hour.

What are your expectations for Snell going forward? I see him settling down and clubbing the crap out of the league through the end of the summer. I'm not sure when he'll start all this though. Maybe tonight?

Game 45: Brewers at Pirates

At seven, Manny Parra and Paul Maholm at PNC Park.

Off day

Sober up.

Game 44: Pirates at Cubs

Phil Dumatrait and Jason Marquis at two.

Flyers at Penguins at three.

Game 43: Pirates at Cubs

Zach Duke and Carlos Zambrano this afternoon.

Game 42: Pirates at Cubs

The Pirates draw Chicago for six of the next nine games. The Bucs are 0-for-6 against the Cubs this year, so now would be a good time to figure them out.

Today they will play the second of four consecutive day games. The starting pitchers will be Tom Gorzelanny and Sean Gallagher.

Game 41: Pirates at Cardinals

Ian Snell and Joel Pineiro at one.

Game 40: Pirates at Cardinals

Pirates are 19-20. Tonight it's Paul Maholm and RHP Todd Wellemeyer.

The Pirates will call on Ronny Ballgame to step up and do some of the things Ryan Doumit was doing.

Game 39: Pirates at Cardinals

The Pirates move to the central time zone for some games. Tonight at eight, Phil Dumatrait and Kyle Lohse.

Games 37 and 38: Braves at Pirates

These guys will play two today, weather permitting. The scheduled starters are Jair Jurrjens and Zach Duke at 12:30, then Tim Hudson and JVB.

Game 37: Braves at Pirates

Jair Jurrjens and Zach Duke at one-thirty. Jurrjens made the Pirates look bad in the first week of the season.

The Bucs have run their record to 17-19. Five in a row is sweet, but 17-19 is worse than mediocre. One day a winning streak will end with the Pirates above .500.

Game 36: Braves at Pirates

Four in a row improves the current high moment to .457, or 16-19. This is a 74-win pace.

Tom Gorzelanny and Chuck James tonight at seven.

Game 35: Braves at Pirates

Ian Snell and Tom Glavine tonight at seven.

The sweep of the Giants was sweet, especially since they come away with their ace to open the next series. That's how you want it done. On the other hand, you'd like to be better than four games under .500. Any season will have its ups and downs, and winning three straight to attain .441 is not much of an up. Here's hoping Snell can keep the Pirates on a roll tonight.

In other news, Nyjer Morgan has been demoted. And the Pirates made a pretty good low-risk pick-up in acquiring Jason Michaels from the Indians.

Game 34: Giants at Pirates

Matt Cain and Paul Maholm just after noon.

The weather could be better for this one.

Game 33: Giants at Pirates

Zito and Dumatrait at seven.

I thought they moved Zito to the bullpen, but the Pirates' website has him listed as tonight's starter.

Game 32: Giants at Pirates

Jonathan Sanchez and Zach Duke at seven.

The big, powerful-looking big man returns and everyone will surely make little mental comparing notes between him and Bautista.

Off day

The Pirates are flying to San Francisco.

... (later) Now they are flying back to Pittsburgh. Funny idea, that, flying all day for no reason.

Game 31: Pirates at Nats

Ian Snell and Tim Redding at one-thirty.

These two pitchers are defying expectations. Snell should be getting better results with his stuff. Redding has been winning more games than his peripherals suggest he should.

In other news, Sean Burnett got the call, and the Pirates designated Evan Meek, the Post-Gazette reports.

The Pirates are six games under at 12-18.

Game 30: Pirates at Nats

Paul Maholm and Matt Chico starting soon. The Post Gazette reports the Pirates will wear the Grays uniforms this afternoon.

Game 29: Pirates at Nats

Phil Dumatrait and John Lannan.

Time to get beer. Must ... steer clear ... of Baltika 9.

Game 28: Pirates at Nats

Zach Duke and Odalis Perez at seven.

Pirates are 11-16, sharing last place with the Reds at six games out of first. And they continue to lead the NL in runs allowed by a wide margin (Pirates 160 in 27 games, Reds 139 in 29 games).

Game 27: Pirates 13, Mets 1

Cool box score on this one.

Game 26: Pirates at Mets

Rather than start a new thread, I'll just change the date on this old one.

Snell and Santana tonight at seven.

Pirates are 10-15 and own last place. They've allowed 154 runs, far more than any other NL team.

Steelers got a bunch of good players in the draft, and now they scour the remainder for defensive ends, as Ed Bouchette describes day two.

Game 25: Phillies at Pirates

Brett Myers and Paul Maholm at one-thirty.

More NFL draft thread

Steelers are picking more guys. I like the Bruce Davis pick a lot.

Pirates release Matt Morris

Paul Meyer has the word at the Post-Gazette.

It's sad that Morris can't pitch effectively. He can't. We've seen conclusive demonstrations of this.

The money owed him is staggering, but it's better to pay him not to pitch. This way he only hurts the team once. And the money is a sunk cost. It may still be flowing out the safe, but it's already gone. It's spent. There's no getting it back. Learn from the mistake and move on.

I still like the idea of acquiring top-quality veteran players for a year or two at the end of their big contracts. There are values to be had there. This only makes sense, however, if you are getting what you paid for: a top-quality player.

Here, as elsewhere, the success of the team depends on its ability to evaluate talent at every level of play and in every organization. The more you know, the better value you will get for your payroll dollars. The Matt Morris acquisition was an enormous mistake in the talent evaluation department.

NFL draft thread

Steelers picking guys today. Ed Bouchette guesses Kentwan Balmer of North Carolina.

Game 24: Phillies at Pirates

Kyle Kendrick and Matt Morris tonight at seven.

Game 23: Phillies at Pirates

Adam Eaton and Zach Duke at seven.

Game 22: Cardinals at Pirates

Pineiro and Gorzelanny at seven.

Pirates riding a two-game win streak to lift themselves to three games under .500.

Game 21: Cardinals at Pirates

Todd Wellemeyer and Ian Snell.

Pujols owns Snell, sad to say, so maybe they don't pitch to him tonight.

Game 20: Marlins at Pirates

April is the cruelest month.

Paul Maholm and Ricky Nolasco tonight at seven.

Game 19: Marlins at Pirates

Enough of the Cubs for now. At seven it's Matt Morris and Mark Hendrickson.

There has been a pattern with the starts of Morris lately. All eyes on the fourth inning. Can he make two trips through the Marlins' lineup?

Game 18: Pirates at Cubs

Zach Duke, Ryan Dempster, two o'clock.

Game 17: Pirates at Cubs

This road trip is not going so well. The Pirates need a win soon. Today at one it's Tom Gorzelanny and Jason Marquis.

Game 16: Pirates at Cubs

Ian Snell and Rich Hill for a 2:20pm scheduled start.

The weather forecast looks good enough for Iowa Pirate, who is making the trip to see this one.

One time I went to Wrigley for a 2pm game, and it rained, and there was a six-hour rain delay. That's a long time to eat hot dogs, drink beer, and explore the corners of the stadium with a roof. You can't leave the stadium and return on your torn ticket, so there were not many people left when they started the game around eight.

Off day

Nothing doin'.

Game 15: Pirates at Dodgers

The Pirates will try to walk off the Los Angeles at ten.

Paul Maholm and Brad Penny square off.

Patience

Dejan Kovacevic writes how the Pirates think they can walk off the Island of Misfit Ballplayers.

Game 14: Pirates at Dodgers

Matt Morris and Hong-Chih Kuo at ten o'clock.

Pirates have opened the season as a .500 team. They are 7-6, 3-3 at home, 4-3 on the road, and they've scored the same number (69) as they have allowed (69).

Sure, it's early. We all know that. But the April games count. All this is for real.

Game 13: Pirates at Dodgers

The Pirates are on the West Coast for a three-game series with the Dodgers. It's Zach Duke and Hiroki Kuroda tonight at 10.

After LA, they fly to Chicago to play the Cubs before coming home for an unusual three-team, seven-game homestand.

All hail the sweep

The Pirates just swept the Reds to climb back to .500.

No snark intended here - this is a pretty good achievement for this team. Even that year they fought back to 30-30, they were ripped and blown out for most of early April.

So all hail that. Raise your Dogfish Head or whatever you drink for sports-related celebrations.

Jason Bay looked strong this series. Here's a photo for the drinking-room wall. The wind was blowing in something fierce when he knocked that out and scored the game's only run.

Jason Bay has played in 11 of the team's 12 games. He's 11-for-39 with a double, three home runs, and 11 walks.

.282 / .440 / .538 ... welcome back, Jason Bay

Game 12: Reds at Pirates

Good game last night. It makes a big difference when they win.

This afternoon, it's Johnny Cueto and Tom Gorzelanny. Cueto has been the phenom. Should be interesting. The game is scheduled to start at 1:30.

Game 11: Reds at Pirates

Bronson Arroyo and Ian Snell at seven.

Game 10: Reds at Pirates

Tonight at seven, Edinson Volquez and Paul Maholm.

The Bucs have lost three in a row to fall to 3-6. Three of nine is how you get to be 30-60 at the All-Star Break. If the players are going to be better than that, the team needs to start winning some series.

Game 9: Cubs at Pirates

Matt Morris and Rich Hill at seven.

Game 8: Cubs at Pirates

Duke and Dempster at seven.

Yesterday's thread

Monday's game was pretty surreal, but the loss was hardly crushing. Any time a team comes back from 7-0, it's hard to say they should have won the game. Dejan Kovacevic describes the game, and Dan Majors reports on the all-important cost of concessions for the Post-Gazette.

Game 7: Cubs at Pirates

Ted Lilly and Tom Gorzelanny in the home opener today at one.

Game 6: Pirates at Marlins

Ian Snell and 22-year-old Rick VandenHurk just after one today.

If the Bucs can get their shit together and win this one, they finish the road trip at 3-3, which would be pretty impressive, all things considered.

Game 5: Pirates at Marlins

Paul Maholm and Mark Hendrickson at seven.

Game 4: Pirates at Marlins

Matt Morris and Scott Olsen at seven, in what could be another epic battle of the bullpens.

Game 3: Pirates at Braves

Zach Duke and Mike Hampton at seven.

Game 2: Pirates at Braves

Gorzelanny and Jurrgens at seven.

Undefeated

Pirates have the day off. They can bask in the glory of 1-0.

Game 1: Pirates at Braves

Snell and Glavine at 7.

HW Readers' Poll 2008

Only three more days, so last chance for season predictions. If you have a minute, please humor us in the comments:

1. How many games will the Pirates win in 2008?
2. Will the Pirates finish in last place? If not, who will?
3. 2008 whipping boy?
Any other predictions?

I'll start.
1. 66
2. We will.
3. Although my gut says Matt Morri$, it doesn't seem like he qualifies as a "boy", so I'll go with team player/enigma Ronny Ballgame.

Last year, I aced this thing. I predicted 67 wins (bested by seaks, who nailed 68), another basement victory, and that DL and Creech would be fired. This last prediction sparked the Great DL Debate of 2007, which ended with a pink slip for DL and six beers for me. I can't imagine a better outcome than that from these predictions. Not unless I predicted they'd play well and they did, which I won't predict because I don't see it. We will lose. A lot. Again. Same old reason : not enough talent, offense, pitching, and depth. Some will find that too negative, but it's just my honest prediction. It will take years for Coonington's hazmat crew to clean up the mess they waded into.

As for other predictions, Wiggy is back in the division. I see Wiggy bowling over a Bucco, either injuring Doumit or sliding untouched while Ronny drops the ball. Maybe both.

Pirates at Twins

Game at 1.

Pirates at Yankees

Tom Gorzelanny pitches today at 1pm.

Dejan Kovacevic foresees Sean Burnett hanging back. I disagree with the idea that the cut is "unkind," as the PG headline writer suggests. We all know that Spring Training stats do not mean much, and we also all know that the Pirates are going to use a whole bunch of pitchers this year, as they do every year; Burnett will get his chance soon enough.

Plus, as Kovacevic reports, Burnett and his wife are having a baby this week. It's not a good, but a great idea to leave him off the 25-man roster for another week or two or three. Congratulations, Sean Burnett.

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.

Twins at Pirates

Ian Snell makes his last spring start this afternoon.

The Pirates should also cut some guys and not cut some other guys.

Pirates at Rays

Matt Morris will stand up straight at 1pm today.

Dejan Kovacevic returns to the PG with this bullpen analysis. I'd a thought the Pirates would keep Dumatrait in a starting role, but it appears he must be kept on the roster or the Pirates lose him.

So the story today is the Pirates are looking at Capps (CL), Marte (LHP), Grabow (LHP), most likely Burnett, who has had a great spring (LHP), Osoria (RHP), Dumatrait (LHP), five starters, and then one more guy. Kovacevic thinks Kim (RHP) or Meek (RHP).

Burnett has been tougher on righties than lefties, as Kovacevic explains, so he could be counted in the RHP column.

If the choice is Kim or Meek, no doubt I'd take Meek. Kim has not been good, and he's not likely to be good in April. There's no point in looking beyond that point when considering not-looking-good veteran relievers. If the Pirates let him go, someone will likely grab him, and on the other hand, guys like this are often made available. There must be a few veteran relievers as good as Kim, and now on other teams, who are likely to get cut soon and made available to the Pirates.

Guys like Meek, on the other hand, are harder to come by. I would carry him and keep him so long as he pitched well, as he's doing now. If he becomes a mess, you give him back.

Finally, there should be a chance the Pirates start the year with only four starters. With all the rainouts and days off the team usually sees in April, it's possible the Pirates won't need a fifth starter for weeks. (EDIT: But not likely. As azibuck comments, unless a game is cancelled in Atlanta or Florida in week one, they will need a fifth starter on Sunday, April 6.) So the team could carry Meek and Kim. It's always possible that one of the other relievers will need some time on the DL, so if the team gives up one of those guys to carry a starter they don't use, that's somewhat unfortunate.

Rays and Yankees

The Pirates play the Rays today and the Yankees tomorrow.

In other news, Freddy Sanchez looks to be slow healing again, as Jenifer Langosch reports he was in more pain after playing.

And Paul Meyer gathers quotes about Evan Meek. It does not sound like he will be setting up for Matt Capps in 2008; my guess is we'll see Hector Carrasco doing the Jose Mesa in some of those eighth innings.

Reds at Pirates

Game at 1.

Pirates at Phillies

Grapefruit league game at 1.

We'll probably see some of those right-handed relievers.

Right-handed bullpen

So I guess the Pirates carry 12 pitchers, including one closer and five starters, with two left-handed setup guys, two right-handed setup guys, and two swingmen and/or mop-up guys in the bullpen. They may not need a fifth starter until mid-April, so they could start the season with an extra mop-up guy or a three-man right-handed setup team.

On the left-handed side, I expect Grabow and Marte, and Burnett (or Fossum) as a swingman.

On the right-handed side, I count eight guys for, at most, four jobs: Carrasco, Dessens, Kim, Kuwata, Meek, Osoria, and Wright. I have no idea how this will turn out. Osoria and Meek have achieved good results this spring, and they are young; Carrasco has pitched better than I expected, but he is an old man at 37. Dessens got a late start, and he looks more like a swingman or spot starter than a setup person. With Burnett doing well, it does not seem urgent to have him on the roster in early April. Kim and Kuwata have not pitched so well, and they seem to be competing for "guy with funky style" job -- if there is one of those. Jaret Wright has pitched five spring innings without a strikeout, and like Fossum, he does not look like someone to press into a setup job. Kim may also be someone to steer toward a AAA starting job or a swingman role. The Pirates have no shortage of these swingman/mop-up/seventh starter guys.

Did I forget anybody?

It looks to me, after half an hour's thought, that some two of Meek, Osoria, and Carrasco will get right-handed setup jobs. It also looks possible that all three could make the roster for Opening Day.

And all three have been pitching every third day, so maybe we'll see Osoria and Meek as the second and third pitchers in the next game.

Yankees at Pirates

Matt Morris will show good posture tonight.

Adam Sandler will DH and lead off for the Yankees.

Slot-busting

Getting the car repaired this morning, I read in a recent Sports Illustrated - can't find the text online - a piece by Jon Heyman about the Tiger's "slot-busting" draft strategy. Basically, they gamed the league's prohibition on paying "over slot" to scoop up the best talent in the draft. It cost more, but it's still cheaper than signing free agents. The example touted was Rick Porcello. (Biography, recent news.)

Obviously, this is what the Pirates have to do to compete. They can't afford top talent on the free agent market. They can't win championships without top talent. The only strategy that might bring top talent to this team will focus on the draft. There are other things that can be done. They can make smart trades, and they can be the team that best educates its young players. But the draft has to be the heart of it all. They have to get the best players available in every round.

And that means they will have to pay "above slot." Given Coonelly's job before he joined the Pirates, this issue has been, for me, one of the bigger tests for him. None of us believe Littlefield truly rated Moskos above Wieters in pure baseball terms. It appears that he picked Moskos to prove that he can eat shit and like it. It was a suck up move. "Oh yes, Boss, don't worry, there will be no conflict; we will not rock the boat; I don't know why the other 29 teams rate Wieters higher than Moskos; we don't; thank goodness we will avoid the dilemma that would be how to sign Wieters."

All that said, Moskos is also great, and he doesn't need to keep hearing it from the fans that he's not Wieters. But it's plain as the nose on your face that the Pirates need offense, and that they did not need another relief-pitching or even starting-pitching prospect with that pick.

Coonelly and Huntington are doing pretty well, I think, so far. The big test is not going to be the April win-loss record but what they do in the draft. Do they put the team first, or do they put the league first?

The team could also take a lesson from the Steelers: you want to be the team that young players most admire for draft prowess. Getting drafted by the Pirates should be a distinction, and not a curse or insult. Ask Danny Moskos. Since they are not winning games at the big-league level, all the Pirates can do to remedy their loathsome reputation with young players is pay them better than other teams -- and become known as the team that stops at nothing to get the best young players. Then Pittsburgh may not be the place to win a championship next year, but it would be one of the best places to go right out of the draft.

If not hiring players represented by Scott Boras is somehow good for the Pirates, then I would love to hear what Pirate-first arguments support that position.

Pirates at Reds

Game at 1. Paul Maholm and Freddy Sanchez will start.

Blue Jays at Pirates

For St. Patrick's Day, the Pirates will wear green capes in today's 1pm game.

Snell paid

Congratulations to the guy. I'm glad he'll be here for awhile. Here's hoping he keeps pitching so well for all them years.

Paul Meyer reports for the Post-Gazette that he'll make $8M and a lot more if the Pirates pick up the 2011 and 2012 option years. I think this is a good deal for both sides. It's not too often where it seems that both the player and the team are doing the smart thing at the same time.

Raise your Dogfish Head to the pride of Delaware. All hail Ian Snell!

Red Sox at Pirates

Tom Gorzelanny will start for the good guys.

Pirates at Blue Jays

Ian Snell will throw hard and not show weird stuff at one.

Reds, Pirates, Twins

Split-squad games around 1.

Pirates at Yankees

Billy Crystal will play today for the Yankees. Game at 1:15pm.

Pirates at Blue Jays

1 o'clock Grapefruit league game.

Thoughts on Snell and Pearce

No Grapefruit league game today, it looks to me, from the MLB.com scoreboard.

Dejan Kovacevic Paul Meyer reported some news for the Post-Gazette. The roster cuts are non-surprising.

The same synopsis mentions that Snell was renewed (made 408K last year, probably renewed at what, 450K?). It also notes that the Pirates have offered him a long-term deal. Why Snell would play for 400-450K now and decline a long term deal, which surely would run in the millions, is beyond me. Agents and players have much greater risk tolerance for this sort of thing than I would. The idea that Snell would make more money by living year to year strikes me as foolhardy. If you have a chance to get a big paycheck, take it. The odds that a player will stay healthy through his arbitration years for an even bigger contract are longer than most would think.

I also think it might be in the Pirates' best interest for Snell not to sign a long-term deal. Guys have a tendency to get fat once they are set for life. That's only an added risk and it surely outweighs the risks involved only with him not signing the deal, e.g., the risk that Snell would destroy himself by, say, hiding an injury in the hopes of finishing the season with a great many innings and a stronger arbitration case.

I can imagine there's all kinds of back-and-forth and poker playing and whatnot between the team and Ian Snell, but if I'm Snell I take their best long-term offer before the season starts. And then I get to work adjusting my life to such a higher salary. It won't be so easy to stay sharp mentally.

One more thing: I'd want to get paid in euros.

In other news, Pearce was told to learn the outfield. Adam LaRoche is a "fixture," as Kovacevic writes, and that makes a lot of sense. With Bay perpetually gimpy and non-healing the last year or two, and with Nady likely to command some value in trade, anyone who wants to see Pearce in the big leagues should be nodding their head about this decision. It also further guarantees that Pearce will not make the team out of spring training (barring injury). You can't learn a new position as a pinch-hitter starting twice a week.

Phillies at Pirates

Ian Snell will pitch at 1pm.

And there will be a lot of roster cuts today.

Reds and Pirates

Home and away today: two split-squad games, at one and seven pm, at Ed Smith Stadium and later at McKechnie Field.

Blue Jays at Pirates

Game on. Tommy G. pitching.

Now batting fifth

Repoz of BBTF fame found this gem in a Coonelly chat at MLB.com:

signdante: How many home runs will the "change in atmosphere" hit this season? And will it be suitable protection for Jason Bay in the middle of the lineup?

Coonelly: signdante, I detect some sarcasm in your question. My guess is that "the change in atmosphere" will not hit any home runs this year. We are hoping, however, that Adam LaRoche, Xavier Nady and others will provide Jason with some protection this year. The change in atmosphere, which you apparently mock, will be seen by all of our fans who enjoy baseball at PNC Park, and I believe will contribute to far greater success in 2008 and beyond.

More and more I am looking forward to this season. Also I hope the climate change brings sunnier, warmer April weather.

Josh Wilson can slide

He flashes impressive technique for Peter Diana, PG photographer. In Kovacevic's attached report, he runs down how the roster is shaking out.

Tigers at Pirates

Game at one.

Pirates at Red Sox

Preview the World Series at 1.

Pirates at Phillies

Scrimmage at one.

Rays at Pirates, and thoughts on Pearce

Another grapefruit battle today at 1.

Dejan Kovacevic's report on Steve Pearce had me doing some math in my head. Pearce appears to be blocked behind LaRoche and Nady, but the 1B and RF positions will demand about 1400 plate appeances' worth of playing time. Nady has averaged 500 PA the last two years; LaRoche, 600. Assuming they turn in average years, they leave 300 PA open for Pearce. The DH in interleage adds another 40. Jason Bay will not play for all 700 PA occupied by the left-fielder; assuming Nady and not Morgan/McLouth covers left in his absence, especially on the road, then another 50, at least, will fall to the available best-hitting 1B/RF. And every year the best bats on the bench collect about 200 PA pinch-hitting, though I would not expect Pearce to see much of this action given the plan to keep wherever (AAA or MLB) he can play full time.

To come to the point, even if Bay, Nady, and LaRoche avoid extensive down-time to a serious injury, there's still an easy 350-400 PA for Pearce to do something, some time, of significance. This is a healthy chunk of action for a young guy.

So he has a clear opportunity in 2008, without a trade or injury. He has to stay healthy. If he starts the season at Indy, he has to believe that "any day now" he could be flying to join the team to play full time. He has to keep his bags packed, and he to avoid the kind of mental funk that would discourage the Pirates from calling on him at any one particular moment. He can't sulk at Indy and open the year with 30 strikeouts in 95 at-bats.

If any player blocks him, I think it would be Doug Mientkiewicz. If management falls in love with the guy, they might hesitate to recall Pearce if LaRoche or Nady suffer some kind of 15-day boo-boo. 15 days of full-time play is about 50 PA or 15% - a big chunk - of Pearce's easy 350. This is a scenario that I would very much expect from the old regime. Whether or not the new bosses will make similar decisions, we can only guess.

I understand that the Pirates are not going to recall and demote Pearce seven times over the course of the season, and I know that the scenario I just described is highly hypothetical and not at all likely to happen just as I describe. But experience anticipating playing time has taught me that this kind of math makes decent predictions and establishes reasonable expectations.

Pirates at Reds

Grapefruit league action today at 1.

Phillies at Pirates

More grapefruit today at 1.

Play ball

Game on. The Phillies just touched Bullington for five in the third.

RIP Myron Cope

Sad day.

Hmm-ha.

Last week of February

This baseball should get more interesting soon.

Pirates will face off against the dread Lancers on Wednesday. I'm not sure if they are playing the team in the top picture or the team in the bottom picture. We'll know soon enough.

Then they will play the Phillies on Thursday.

True Piracy

Dejan Kovacevic describes the awesome speechifying of Steve Blass.

Byung-Hyun Kim

The Pirates continue their quest for that diversity of pitching styles and arm slot by signing Kim. Here's the PG report.

He used to be a great sleeper. Literally--when he was a rookie, he slept all the time.

Pirates 1, Braves 0

Adam LaRoche puts one on the scoreboard.

First full squad workout today. That and other synapses in Dejan Kovacevic's paper there I just linked.

Doumit

Dejan Kovacevic notes he continues to wear the tools of ignorance.

Good talker

Dejan Kovacevic reports that Mientkiewicz is a good talker.

The report also notes that he named his son Steel--after John Russell's son.

Steel is pretty cool name.

That's a shot of instant badass for any little boy.

Hope

John Perrotto finds hope.

We will evaluate

In this Dejan Kovacevic building blocks column, Neal Huntington explains how he is a sober, reasonable person. Not a lot to get out of this except, I guess, that the new bosses talk a good game, at the very least.

There was a time when I thought Littlefield would work out and we know how that ended.

Somewhere in there he talks about the analogy of the duck. What does that mean? At first I thought he was referencing the blind men and the elephant, where each mistakes the one part visible to him as the whole. But I thought about "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." In that context he appears to be saying, "if we look like a team that did nothing . . . "

I am also glad to learn that the new GM sleeps well at night. Sleep is really important, and I have a hard time respecting people who brag about how little sleep they get as though it's evidence they work really hard and are good at their jobs.

Top ten things

Dejan Kovacevic makes a list.

I'll add this: odds are, someone will get maimed, pull up lame, sleep on his shoulder wrong, blow out an elbow, or do something to embarrass himself and the team. Expecting this will not make it happen, so it's not like I'm jinxing anyone.

The Bucs look one way on paper right now, but I think we can guess that some weird things will happen before the end of March.

What's your guess?

Reds sign Craig Wilson

Your pepsi is safe.

Bartolo

Dejan Kovacevic reports the Pirates are looking at damaged-goods Bartolo Colon.

This part caught my eye:

"For two innings, he looked great," one scout said yesterday from the Dominican. "There wasn't much after that, but you're still talking about Bartolo Colon here. This is someone who knows how to pitch."

Two great innings? OK.

It sounds to me like Colon could take care of the 7th and 8th innings for some team. If we didn't have a ton of guys on the list for bullpen tryouts, I'd think the Pirates might be wise to ride in there and sign Bartolo. (Or can we say ... Bartolo!)

Burnett clears waivers

PG reports.

Pirates sign Freddy

Dejan Kovacevic had details.

I have Sean Burnett pencilled in for a few try-outs in the set-up role, so here's hoping he clears waivers.

Super Bowl whatever

It's hard for me to get excited about this one. And no, I don't like commercials. That's about the lamest reason, in my opinion, for watching the Super Bowl.

So I may sit this one out. If we turn on the television, I know Rowdy Jr., who's now all of three, would much rather watch reruns of Batman Beyond. Or maybe I'll put on Game 7 of the 1979 World Series.

Whatever you do, enjoy the day.

Top prospects

Keith Law ranks one Pirate player in the top 75 prospects. Walker and Lincoln are thrown in at the end, and both have pessimistic short descriptions.

Stargell stories

Last Monday, David Mooney wrote up some Stargell stories after covering the Pirates' fantasy camp for the Brandenton Herald.

More games on the TV

The Tribune-Review reports that Fox Sports Network Pittsburgh will televise 125 regular-season games this year.

Bullpen theory

In today's Q & A Dejan Kovacevic summarizes what he hears from the new management on assembling a bullpen.

Huntington has told me time and again that all the studies he has seen or performed himself show that there is "no magic formula" in trying to predict the performance of relievers from one year to the next. Moreover, he will add, no one can really figure out why, even with all the modern advances in baseball methodology, from analytical to statistically to medical.

...

At the same time, their approach to this was not a simple throw-it-against-the-wall variety. The pitchers they signed, they think, offer different styles, different arm slots and more power than the Pirates have had in the past, and they are hoping - yes, hoping - that a handful of them pan out with some help from the new coaching staff.

I advocated the throw-it-against-the-wall approach, but I did so knowing that I'm not someone who's qualified to run a baseball team. I admire the get-one-of-each and throw-them-against-the-wall approach of the professionals.

My hunch is that, if everyone expects the bullpen to be really truly awful, they will turn out OK. As Huntington says, nobody knows, so this hunch is pretty worthless.

Catchers

Johnny Estrada expressed reluctance to sign with Pittsburgh, Dejan Kovacevic reports.

I also would not want to compete for playing time with Ronny Paulino.

The psyche is a delicate flower

In today's Q&A, Dejan Kovacevic writes about the uncertain bullpen. Here he describes part of the risk involved:

There might be only three holes, actually, if Franquelis Osoria lives up to the team's expectations this spring, but three is still an awful lot. It is a risk not only for the Pirates' ability to be competitive in 2008 but also, and more important, to damaging the psyches of its many young starters. What will happen if Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke repeatedly watching seventh-inning leads vanish?

What will happen? The Pirates will lose a bunch of games.

And I disagree with the idea that the team has to do something to stave off a potential threat to the potentially delicate psyches of young starters. First of all, if the psyche of a young starter is that fragile, he's not going to make it no matter what you do with the bullpen.

Second, I think this kind of thinking establishes bad expectations for the starters. Their job is to pitch as well as they can. There should not be this idea floating around that it's expected that any one of these guys will not pitch well if the bullpen blew a lead for him after his last turn. The failures of one set of players can never be something that is commonly identified as a worthy or even likely excuse for failure by another set of players. The quality of the bullpen has no effect on the quality of the start, and we should not talk like it does.

There is, however, one way that a weak bullpen threatens the starters. If the manager is reluctant to remove someone because he has little faith in the setup options, then there may be a risk to the health of the starter. But this is easily avoided with reasonably strict adherence to pitch counts or some other, smarter pre-established workload expectation.

And I've seen a lot of mediocre to bad pitchers who can put up good statistics - be effective - for months at a time. It's not that hard. Get the defense ready, throw the ball where they can't hit it too hard, try to get three outs. Even a mediocre lefty can be pretty tough on some good hitters.

The bullpen is not going to be terribly good, but I don't see how this is a grave problem for the starters or the closer provided that the manager is not allowed to slag all the decent arms to accomplish immediate short-term goals.

We will cohere

More building blocks from Dejan Kovacevic at the Post-Gazette.

Part of the new plan: every summer the Pirates will send six pitchers to Dr. James Andrews.

Careless

Dejan Kovacevic reports that the current Pirates don't care much about the future of the organization.

Hey, I think we already knew that.

He wonders how this will affect their play. Again, I think we already know the answer to this question.

I've done it my whole life and believe I will do it again

Dejan Kovacevic reports the grilling fans laid on management. Frank Coonelly comes across like a real badass.

I have not complained about these guys not spending money so far. I want to believe these guys. I have some confidence in them. It should not be that hard. But I am concerned that all this talk about saving the money for later is just bull.

We'll see.

New guys

Looking at the 40-man roster and the list of NRIs, I see a bunch of names that aren't so familiar with the Pirate uniform:

Olivo Astacio
Jimmy Barthmaier
Ronald Belisario
Phil Dumatrait
Kevin Thompson
T.J. Beam
Adam Bernero
Hector Carrasco
Elmer Dessens
Casey Fossum
Mike Thompson
Jaret Wright
Raul Chavez
Michel Hernandez
Miguel Perez
Jorge Velandia
Jose Macias

Odds are that some of these people will get some PT this year. Which one(s) do you think will perform well enough, or be in the right place at the right time enough, to get some big-league playing time?

How to spend money wisely

Dejan Kovacevic links today to his older story about Mickey White.

If it only takes $0.25M to sign the likes of Ian Snell and Nate McLouth at the end of the draft -- that was fifth-round pick money for 20-something rounders -- obviously that's a place where the Pirates could gain an advantage on the higher-payroll teams. When you consider that a "proven veteran" costs about $8.0M per year to contribute mediocrity and stifle the promotions of younger players promising a potentially greater upside, it makes no sense NOT to spend like a drunken sailor on draft day.

The Pirates have been taking one for the team on draft day for most of our recent memory. They've been suckers, holding down costs for the Yankees and Red Sox.

The draft is one place where we can really see the team's true priorities.

New scouting director

Dejan Kovacevic writes a lot about Greg Smith, the Pirates' new scouting director, and what all he says about what all to do with what all the picks the Pirates are going to have.

Sounds good to me, but I think I will reserve judgment until I see some results. Also I'm curious how WTM would translate all that scouting drafting talk.