Game 103: Nationals at Pirates

The battle for laughingstock of the National League continues.

Stammen and Vasquez at 7.

Game 102: Nationals at Pirates

Lannan and Ohlendorf at seven.

First-row fans can welcome Lastings Milledge with a big high five.

New guys

Here's the list of people acquired by trade in the last year.

... 6pm updated to include the latest Grabow/Gorzelanny trade.

RHP Daniel McCutchen (Marte/Nady trade)
OF Jose Tabata (Marte/Nady trade)
RHP Jeff Karstens (Marte/Nady trade)
RHP Ross Ohlendorf (Marte/Nady trade)
RHP Bryan Morris (Bay trade)
3B Andy LaRoche (Bay trade)
RHP Craig Hansen (Bay trade)
OF Brandon Moss (Bay trade)
C Jason Jaramillo (Ballgame trade)
CF Gorkys Hernandez (McLouth trade)
RHP Charlie Morton (McLouth trade)
LHP Jeffrey Locke (McLouth trade)
OF Lastings Milledge (Morgan/Burnett trade)
RHP Joel Hanrahan (Morgan/Burnett trade)
SS Argenis Diaz (Deerhunter trade)
RHP Hunter Strickland (Deerhunter trade)
1B/C Jeff Clement (Wilson trade)
IF Ronny Cedeno (Wilson trade)
RHP Aaron Pribanic (Wilson trade)
RHP Brett Lorin (Wilson trade)
RHP Nathan Adcock (Wilson trade)
RHP Tim Alderson (Sanchez trade)
RHP Kevin Hart (Grabow/Gorzelanny trade)
RHP Jose Ascanio (Grabow/Gorzelanny trade)
3B Josh Harrison (Grabow/Gorzelanny trade)

Here are the Coonelly/Huntington draft classes.

The 2009 class might still be a work-in-progress. There are a number of unsigned draftees with college plans and large above-slot signing bonus demands.

C Tony Sanchez (2009 draft)
RHP Victor Black (2009 draft)
RHP Brooks Pounders (2009 draft)
CF Evan Chambers (2009 draft)
LHP Nate Baker (2009 draft)
RHP Trent Stevenson (2009 draft)
2B Brock Holt (2009 draft)
1B Aaron Baker (2009 draft)
SS Walker Gourley (2009 draft)
RHP Ryan Beckman (2009 draft)
RHP Phillip Irwin (2009 draft)
OF Jose Hernandez (2009 draft)
RHP Jason Erickson (2009 draft)
SS Ty Summerlin (2009 draft)
OF Pat Irvine (2009 draft)
LHP Zach Fuesser (2009 draft)
RHP Marc Baca (2009 draft)
RHP Teddy Fallon (2009 draft)

3B Pedro Alvarez (2008 draft)
SS Jordy Mercer (2008 draft)
SS Chase D’Arnaud (2008 draft)
LHP Justin Wilson (2008 draft)
CF Robert Grossman (2008 draft)
SS Benjamin Gonzalez (2008 draft)
3B Jeremy Farrell (2008 draft)
3B Matthew Hague (2008 draft)
CF David Rubinstein (2008 draft)
1B Calvin Anderson (2008 draft)
RHP Michael Colla (2008 draft)
LHP Christopher Aure (2008 draft)
CF Wesley Freeman (2008 draft)
SS Jarek Cunningham (2008 draft)
RHP Quinton Miller (2008 draft)
RHP Brent Klinger (2008 draft)
RHP Brian Leach (2008 draft)
CF Edwin Roman (2008 draft)
CF Kyle Saukko (2008 draft)
C Mark Carver (2008 draft)
3B Matthew Payne (2008 draft)
LHP Tyler Cox (2008 draft)
OF Kyle Morgan (2008 draft)
RHP Alan Knotts (2008 draft)
RHP Albert Fagan (2008 draft)
C Chris Simmons (2008 draft)
LHP Mike Williams (2008 draft)
RHP Allen Ponder (2008 draft)
RHP Owen Brolsma (2008 draft)
RHP Zachary Foster (2008 draft)
OF Craig Parry (2008 draft)

(Thanks to WTM for the draft information.)

Giants win baseball game

Game over. Freddy Sanchez trade watch back on.

Duke and Grabow polished up their trade value this afternoon. Capps, not so much.

Pirates do not play until 7pm on Friday, which is July 31.

... Kovacevic tweets Freddy told to stay at the ballpark.

... Tim Alderson for Freddy. Guy is really young and pitches.

... Curious that some Giants fans would be sick about this. The Giants are 9 games over .500, and a pitching prospect is a pitching prospect. Charlie's right to say the majority of these guys do not pan out. But the Pirates were trading Sanchez, did not want him for 2010, and they have to take what they can get for him. It's not exactly a free market out there with only a few teams interested in dealing for the players the team wants to trade.

Also, I like the idea of overloading the minors with talent. Let these young players compete with each other and learn from one another. The team cannot have too many pitching prospects and in a real way, the addition of every one increases the chances that the team develops useful starters out of the minor-league system.

Keep improving your odds, and you will come out ahead. So Young Alderson does not need to be a #3 starter for the Pirates for this strategy to pay off. And if he does not work out and others do, it's not fair to say the Pirates got nothing from the deal. Because they did get something: they get another chance to employ a strategy that is more likely to succeed the more times it is employed.

Game 101: Pirates at Giants

Duke and Cain at 3:45 eastern.

Pirates are 43-57 on the season. 17-38 on the road.

... Pirates trade Jack Wilson and Ian Snell to Seattle for Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno, Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin, Nathan Adcock.

... first impression: No Romulo! reunion for Snell at Scranton Wilkes-Barres. Jeff Clement is a catcher?? Ronny Cedeno is not like 37 years old? Obviously it's going to take some time to make sense of this.

Mahalo Snell, we were entertained.

Game 100: Pirates at Giants

West-coast trip continues with Morton and Zito at ten.

Game 99: Pirates at Giants

Way later tonight, Maholm and Lincecum.

Game 98: Pirates at Diamondbacks

Vasquez and Scherzer at four.

Some people could pay more attention. That essay starts OK, but ends with a silly question.