El Toro Academy

The Post-Gazette has details of the plans and tomorrow's ground-breaking.

Bones predicted the Pirates might find a way to screw this up, and he suggested they might, for example, build the academy on top of cursed ancient burial grounds, Poltergeist-style. Ever since, I've had this recurring nightmare with Spanish-speaking zombies clawing their way, mid-game, out of right field.

I see nothing in the Post-Gazette article to put these fears to rest. Perhaps one of the crack reporters for the PG can look into it. A question like this would get the investigation started: "Excuse me, Mr. Nutting, but have the Pirates taken every due diligence to ensure they are not building this academy on a cursed ancient burial ground?"

AFC & NFC Championship

Pats & Bolts, Giants & Packers.

rest in peace Ernie Holmes

PG obituary here.

Pirates visit middle school

John Perrotto covers the seventh-grade assembly in Beaver Falls.

Frodo to break out

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus likes what he sees in Nate McLouth.

Curiously, the article says nothing about Romulo!.

Ho hum

So there's little to no energy among the fans for expecting change in 2008. There's no enthusiasm and not much optimism.

Why is this? Changing management is a plus, I think everyone regards that as a good sign. The lack of free agent signings probably, in my opinion, has not much to do with it. Unless the Pirates acquire a top player, any free agent will be greeted with suspicion. We have a lot of experience with the bargain bin, and it has not been much good.

I think the reason the fans are so cold on the team is this. The Pirates are returning the same cast of characters. And the bloom is off the rose for these guys.

Running down the roster, mainly I see a collection of disappointments.

Adam LaRoche, for example, was one cause for optimism a year ago. But his 2007 was a total bust. He got it together and salvaged his stats in the second half, but that was too little, too late. You don't get much credit for being a decent player on a team with a horrible record.

Jason Bay was awful in 2007. If we once expected Bay to be good year after year, we got a rude shock in 2007. He could turn it around, but I don't think too many people expect a return to 2006 form.

Jack Wilson, some time ago, showed promise, but he too was a bust in 2007. He's an overpaid mediocrity. The Pirates can't even trade him. Like LaRoche, he came on strong at the end and salvaged his numbers. But again it's like closing the barn door after all the animals have left.

Zach Duke and Paul Maholm are now proven mediocrities.

Ronny Paulino was a ball-dropping slug.

Matt Morris pitched horribly.

Bullington, Burnett, and Van Benschoten continue to contribute nothing. They can't even do work in the bullpen.

Ryan Doumit can't stay healthy.

Freddy Sanchez appears to make no difference in the win column.

Jose Bautista improved but he does not look like he's about to break out and carry the team on his shoulders to 82 wins. It's hard to get excited about his upside.

Chris Duffy was an embarrassment, again.

There's not much in the way of good players on this roster. We had high hopes for some of these guys, and they did not deliver. In some cases, those high hopes may have been unreasonable. I'm not sure why I ever thought, for example, Jack Wilson could become a perennial All Star. But in other cases, those high hopes were reasonable. We may be gullible and generous, but we are not too stupid.

So while there may be good reason to be excited about Gorzelanny, Snell, Capps, Nate McLouth, Nyjer Morgan, Romulo!, Kuwata, Dessens, and Chris Gomez, I'm not feeling it. And don't think too many other fans are.

The bottom line is this: these players cannot win ballgames. So why get excited?

Only the tyranny of habit has me keeping half an eye on this team right now.

Offseason exercises

There are a few things I want to do before the spring training begins. One is the usual playing time estimates, which should be pretty straightfoward given that the roster has not changed so much. This year I'd also like to do some for the pitchers. This will be trickier but I ought to be able to count bodies and compare the roster to previous seasons to come up with an estimate of how many innings the team appears to expect from each arm.

Another thing I'd like to do is delve into the more recent stats. The 2006 and 2007 seasons were so discouraging, I've barely studied the actual numbers from those seasons. And there is a lot more information available to us these days. One set of stuff is this pitch f/x data. This morning I learned from primer that Mike Fast has written a primer for MVN. I also saw that Dan Szymborski published his 2008 ZiPs last October.

Redbeard and Russell

Two items of note in the Post-Gazette today.

One, the Pirates have approached Adam LaRoche about a deal that covers his arbitration years plus one or two more. With all the first-base types on the team, it is interesting that they are ready to sign up LaRoche for awhile. What are they going to do with Pearce? I thought he played well enough to warrant a clear path to 2008 playing time. Maybe no?

It could mean the Pirates regard LaRoche as a fixture, or it could mean that they believe he will be more tradeable if he came with a fixed price tag. I'm not sure what it means. I guess that's what makes it interesting.

In other Dejan Kovacevic news, it looks like Russell will do his managerial duty of furnishing us with amusing quotes. If Mac's were profanity-laden, and Tracy's were nonsensical, Russell's look to be candid, perhaps. We will see.

Goose Gossage as a Pirate

I vividly remember the Pirates losing Goose Gossage, now a Hall of Famer, to the Yankees for something like $2.5 million dollars.

Free agency was something everyone was nervous about; it was a new thing to baseball. Old farts complained that the family-like continuity of ballclubs was destroyed by the way a dozen or more of the games' best players switched uniforms in the offseason.

The story of free agency in late 1977 will sound familiar thirty years later. The Yankees had just lost Mike Torrez, another 1977 free agent, to the Red Sox. The Red Sox gave Torrez a lot of money. The Yankees were pissed. So they went out and grabbed Gossage and paid him even more money. Torrez was a starter and Gossage was a closer. And the Yankees already had Sparky Lyle, who was also good at finishing games.

The next spring, there was a big picture of Gossage for an article on free agency in one of the annual magazines--it may have been Street & Smith's. I dunno for sure--something like that, however. It had this large picture of Gossage, as a Pirate, throwing hard, shot from a batter's point of view. I was a huge fan of those magazines until the internet arrived with Baseball Reference.

I spent a lot of time looking at that picture throughout the 1978 season. I would get the magazine out and consult the rosters when watching baseball on television. I also read and re-read the preseason predictions as I followed the season by reading at least the standings every day in the newspaper. I can still see that picture of Gossage in my memory.

Don't get me wrong: I was not haunted or all broken up about the loss of the Goose. It's just funny how you remember some things so much more vividly than others.

And yes, I was bummed that the Pirates lost Gossage. And maybe all the free-agency grousing had some role in the Pirates' decision to come together as "family."

Prospects earn lousy grades

John Sickels uses the word "horrible" to describe the Pirates' collection of minor-league talent.

No Dave Parkers on that list.

Dave Parker

Rob Biertempfel takes up Dave Parker's case for the Hall in the Trib.

I don't care much for the Hall of Fame talk; there's too much sanctimonious argumentation. It puts me off. And the whole honor is blown out of proportion. It's not the Congressional Medal of Honor. People should not make such a big deal out of it.

If I had a vote, I would vote carefully but quickly. And I would only concern myself with on-field performance. The fact that Parker did some cocaine and broke some laws does not make him so much less a player. The Hall of Fame is full of scumbags. It's for ballplayers, and not only for Sunday School teachers. I am open to the idea that we should embrace the whole diversity of fools, crooks, jackasses, and boy scouts who worked so hard on their playing career. Everybody has their faults and warts; let's not pretend otherwise.

Anyway, (he said, getting off his high horse,) I've been watching the 1979 World Series over the holiday break. I had forgotten what a tremendous player the Pirates had in Dave Parker. The man was a beast. There was nothing he could not do. He played like Superman. It has been a long, long time since I have seen someone play at that level in a Pirates uniform.

You should watch the tapes again if you get the chance. The recent signings of Kuwata and Dessens bring tremendous excitement for the middle winter, but the average Pirate fan may need more than that until Ronny Ballgame opens minicamp.

NFL Wild Card Playoff: Jaguars at Steelers

Game on at 8pm.

Elmer and Masumi

Dejan Kovacevic reports that Elmer Dessens and Masumi Kuwata have agreed to terms.

This should put a stop to all that fretting about the bullpen.

Beer prices even more up

Our ongoing coverage of the 2008 beer-price crisis continues as we are proud to link to this fine work from Jonathan Silver of the PG.

If I am reading that correctly, the price of beer at the upcoming Steelers game will be so high, they cannot print it.

Ronny 1, Veteranosity 0

Morris and Marte have chosen not to attend voluntary minicamp, Dejan Kovacevic reports. Ronny Ballgame, consummate professional, has elected to attend.

Whoopage

The results are in for the 2007 HW NFL Pick 'em Pool. The HW winner went a gaudy Pigskin-best .582 (148-106) against-the-spread and has humbly donated the Grand Prize to second place finisher nancychic (.558).

Beer inflation

The price of beer, like a lot of things, will jump up in 2008. Joe Napsha reported on the impact of the hops crisis on the Straub beer.

These are hard times ahead. This beer price increase, it's gonna suck.

Left tackle

Ouch. Max Starks got a bad owie, Ed Bouchette reports, and is done for the season.

J'ville at Pittsburgh is a pick 'em today, which surprises me. I know the Steelers have not been impressive, and I know the Jags seem to have the Steelers' number, but still I was surprised to the Steelers less than a field-goal favorite.

NFL week 17: Steelers at Ravens

Steelers trail 7-0 early in the first quarter as Batch drives down downfield.

Gimme a P

A number of interesting bits in Dejan Kovacevic's notebook. Half-angry Pirate guy is making fewer appearances in the team literature.

Nate McLouth made the most of his 2007 playing time.

I'm up now watching Game 1 of the 1979 World Series. The Bucs are down 5-1. Ballplayers were all about tight pants, spectacles, and mustaches in 1979. They had some adorable wives. And Dave Parker was the highest-paid player in all baseball.