Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

Happy New Years everyone. I'm going out of town for a couple days to celebrate and will be back on Monday.

Joe Randa is over two years older than Jerome Bettis . Think about that.

It's that time of year again, and the guys at ESPN are going crazy with their who deserves to be in the Hall columns. Since this is a Pirate blog, I'll stick to the Pirate candidates. First up is Bert Blyleven . For years lots of people have been making the case for ol' Rik Aalbert Blyleven. Jim Caple does the chore for ESPN this year . The case really makes itself, 287 wins (everyone with more is in the Hall except Tommy John), 60 shutouts, 3,701 strikeouts (behind Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson), and maybe Chris Berman's best nickname ever, Bert "Be home Bly-eleven" (of course, if it encouraged him to keep going with the nicknames, that's negative points). The problem is 250 losses and a 22 year career that helped make those stats look so impressive (though a high loss total and a looooong career didn't count against Nolan Ryan). There's also the nagging feeling that he was never a true ace, as illustrated by Gene Co

One of the things I meant to do last week when I updated the links, but completely spaced on, was putting the site feed on the main page. Thanks to a reminder from Rowdy in the comments, it's now under my e-mail for anyone that's interested.

After I heard Byrnes signed with Arizona yesterday, I started thinking about who else would be available to the Bucs so that they could avoid putting Craig Wilson in right field, something they appear desperate to do. It didn't take long before one named popped into my head, Sammy Sosa. My dad came home from work and told me that Greg Brown was on Paul Alexander's show last night had speculated similarly. He'll be cheap come spring training when no one wants to sign a player widely viewed as a pariah and a fraud. He'll be a big name that our common senseless front office will probably assume will sell tickets, and based on the fact that he's a Latin American baseball player that wears #21, he's probably a big Roberto Clemente fan and might not be averse patrolling his right field grass in Pittsburgh, especially if we're one of the few teams offering him a contract. Of course, he's washed up, he's a fraud, he's been a terrible teammate the last co

So, after my Randa post yesterday, I started seriously wondering if I'm too negative about everything the Pirates do. I mean here I was at like 2 saying signing Randa is a good idea for $1-2 million and then exactly three hours later (look at the timestamps) saying signing him was a waste of money for $4 million. How much is that extra couple million in the baseball world, really? So I wondered, am I too negative? Has thirteen losing years made me so cynical that I can't look at ANYthing the Pirates do and think it's a good move? Well, the truth is I probably am, but even after a more objective look I'm not changing my mind about this. Just a year ago, Kevin McClatchy was chastising other owners for paying ridiculous amounts of money for middling starting pitching. A year later his own ballclub is dishing out somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.25 million for two guys that are a combined 77 years old and don't offer much more than anyone on the roster already did. T

I said in the post directly below that Joe Randa would be a good signing at a reasonable price (>$2 million) to back up Freddy Sanchez. This afternoon we signed him to a one year, $4 million deal to start at third . That's not reasonable, that's not as a backup, and that's not a good idea. Coming off of a .287/.343/.408 year in KC, he signed a one year, $2.15 million deal with the Reds last year. Playing in the launching pad of Great American Ballpark he put up some good .289/.356/.491 numbers in his first 332 ABs. He was traded to San Diego, and the giant recesses of Petco where in his last 223 ABs he went .256/.303/.395. PNC is somewhere in between those two parks, so I would guess his final numbers are a good approximation of what he would've done in a full season in Pittsburgh. The question is, what exactly did Randa do earn a $2.85 million (EDIT: $1.85 million, I'm either an idiot that can't subtract or I just can't type, I'm not sure which) rai

In today's Q&A Dejan mentions that he thinks Corey Koskie or Eric Hinske may be a viable trade solution to the Pirates third base question (since the Jays now have way more third basemen than a baseball team needs). He cites the fact that they are both left handed and both good with the glove as things that might make them attractive to the Pirates. I don't think either of these is much of a solution. Koskie isn't getting any younger (33 next year) and he had quite a down year last year (.249/.337/.398). Add to that the fact that he's owed over $11 million in the next two years and we'd have to trade for him, and I'd vote for staying away. Hinske , on the other hand, has never come close to duplicating his .845 OPS Rookie of the Year 2002 season. He can't be as good with the glove as Dejan suggests because he got moved from third to first last year, and that always happens for a reason. A quick glace at his fielding stats shows that in two of his three

It's December 27th, Troy Glaus has just been traded, and Dave Littlefield is sitting in his office with about $13 million of the $15 million he was told he could spend still unspent. Are the Pirates better than last year at this point? Probably. Maybe. If. Probably because they were pitiful last year and we've jettisoned some deadweight from that team. Maybe if the young pitching can reach it's potential for once. If guys like Sean Casey and Kip Wells can stay healthy and have bounceback years. Will the Pirates compete next year? Maybe, but probably not. If Casey returns to 2004 form AND Bay keeps getting better AND Jack Wilson bounces back AND Zach Duke and Paul Maholm continue as young Tom Glavines AND Oliver Perez turns back into Randy Johnson AND Kip Wells pull his head out of his ass AND the NL Central has a down year, maybe we can compete. When you consider everything Littlefield has done for a net of about $2 million this offseason, it isn't bad. We turned Dave W

I did it, I kept my promise to myself, I stayed away from Pirates news on Christmas eve and Christmas day in order to keep my Christmas from being ruined by Dave Littlefield signing Eric Byrnes. When I opened yesterday's PG, I stuck mostly to coverage of the Steelers 41-0 whomping of the Browns. I haven't even been online since I put that post up on Saturday morning. Still, I'm pleased to see that the only outfielder we signed was Jody Gerut , and to a rather reasonable (if healthy) one year, $875,000 deal with a possible $75,000 in incentives at that. This also means we're down to four arbitration eligible players, Kip, Ollie, Craig, and Vogelsong. Vogelsong himself was the subject of a Christmas day Hot-Stove Report . I was happy to see him left on the roster, as I thought he did good work out of the pen after the break last year and I know he has good stuff (you don't pitch like he did in the spring of '04 without good stuff). We certainly aren't losing a

With Christmas being tomorrow and all, I don't plan on posting much today or tomorrow unless something really big happens (and by that I mean, unless Dave Littlefield finds a catastrophic use for his extra money). Anyways, here's wishing everyone a safe and merry Christmas and I'll be back on Monday.

Juan Encarnacion and Reggie Sanders are both headed to Missouri ( St. Louis and Kansas City , respectively) keeping two more players away from Dave Littlefield's effort to sign players to start that are worse than the players we already have. The bad news is that no one has signed Eric Byrnes yet. Rotoworld seems to think we'd be signing him to start, which is a terrifying thought, and if he's signed Craig Wilson is on his way out. If Byrnes is signed cheaply to backup/compete in right or center I think I could stomach the move. If he's signed and Craig Wilson is traded to make room for him, I think I'll probably go insane. Not that the Pirates haven't driven me to the brink of insanity before, or anything.

As was widely suspected after being mentioned both by Dejan and Perrotto, the Pirates are really, truly, actually interested in Eric Byrnes . I think I might just stay away from my computer until some time Monday so that Dave Littlefield doesn't ruin my Christmas. To re-iterate, when phrases like Byrnes, 29, a right-handed hitter with occasional pop and plenty of fire and "No one plays harder, and he'll prove that again," said Sasson (Byrnes' agent) are used, they're only used because of an absence of actual baseball ability. Let's try this once and for all, ERIC BYRNES IS NOT GOING TO PUT ONE MORE PERSON IN THE SEATS THAN ANYONE YOU ALREADY HAVE ON YOUR TEAM WILL, NOR WILL HE HELP YOU WIN ANY MORE BASEBALL GAMES THAN THEY WILL. STOP WASTING MONEY AND RUINING CHRISTMAS, DAVE LITTLEFIELD.

Today Matt Lawton tells his side of his positive steroid test . According to him, he was playing so poorly and in so much pain at the end of the year that: I just wasn't physically able to do the job. I had never been in the playoff hunt before. So I did something that will always haunt me. He also says he injected shortly before his failed test, which means that if he is to be believed than he wasn't on steroids while in the 'Burgh. Unlike other players that have failed tests, he's actually admitted to using, which I suppose may make his story a bit more believable. Of course, he's still out of work, which means that he had to say SOMEthing, and I do suppose a team is more likely to sign a guy who said he made a once in a lifetime mistake rather than a guy who admits he's a 'roid junkie. Still, I am impressed he actually admitted to using the steroid. At his age with the way he played last year, he could be ending his career by doing so, so whether it's

If you were worried about the starting rotation after Josh Fogg was shown the door yesterday, don't be, says Dave Littlefield . After all, we just picked up Victor Santos, you know, that guy that was 4-13 on the Brewers last year and not only that, he says he'll pretend not to hate Ian Snell for just long enough that Santos can "out perform" him in the spring and win the 5th starters job. And if all else fails, former uberprospect Sean Burnett could be ready for the majors by June. Actually, I really doubt any of those options will be worse than Fogg was last year. It's just that somehow, nothing Dave Littlefield says about anything reassures me. In reality, Dave Williams was the 5th starter that no one had any confidence in last year and he turned out OK in the long run. And it is true Sean Burnett was Zach Duke before Zach Duke made being Zach Duke cool, but we'll have to see what he does in Indy before anyone will have any idea what to expect from him this

Sidney Ponson, fresh out of jail last week for a DWI, signed with the Cardinals today . I love it when teams in our division sign players I can make jokes about, and no one's easier to make fun of then a guy with a Jimmy Anderson physique who was a knighted Aruban citizen until he punched out an Aruban judge in a drunken rage, then came to the States, got another DWI, and now has done time in jail. Merry Christmas to all NL Central fans a couple days early (besides Cardinals fans, of course, but then again there's no rule against making fun of players on your own team).

I did a bunch of updating and tidying up on the sidebar today. I added some posts to the "Start Here" column (you don't need to worry about that if you're a regular). I split all of my links into three categories, from the previous two. Now there's general links, Pirate Blogs and Fansites, and "The Enemy" (aka blogs about other teams). For anyone that's interested, the changes are below. To "General Links" I added Baseball Musings , a great general baseball blog I've been meaning to add for some time now, and Deadspin , which is more or less exactly what it promises to be, "Sports news without access, favor, or discretion." To "Pirate Blogs and Fansites" I added OnlyBucs.net which is a fansite that features fan written columns and a message board and Wilbur T. Miller's Pirate Player Profiles which has just about anything you want to know on any player in the Pirate organization that you can think of. I removed

Good news all around early today, first, Jacque Jones signs with the Cubs , keeping him out of DL's greedy clutches. Then the first dose of sanity in months hits the Pirates front office and Josh Fogg was non-tendered last night . I like Josh Fogg, I think he's a good guy, though it's probably due to the constant grin. Still, he hasn't been good enough to warrant what he was probably going to make in arbitration. According to Rotoworld he was the only non-tender, which means that Vogelsong got a contract in addition to all of the "sure-things" to get an offer (Wells, CWilson, Gerut, Perez). I don't know what's going on with Cota at this point, on Sunday there were seven Pirates listed in the PG as arbitration eligible,but yesterday and today's articles in the PG (which was before the Pirates announcement as to who got contact offers) there were only six listed, with Cota being left out. Either way, he's going to be a Pirate next year and pr

The deadline to offer contracts to arbitration eligible players is tonight at midnight , which means the Bucs have to come to a decision on Oliver Perez, Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, Ryan Vogelsong, Craig Wilson, Humberto Cota, and Jody Gerut. Littlefield has said repeatedly he will offer a contract to all of them, though he said that earlier in the fall, then proceeded cut Ty Wigginton. Charlie has a good post up on this right now and I agree with almost all of it so I'll only give a quick version of my thoughts. Ollie, Kip, Craig, and Gerut should all get offers. Ollie is obvious ( DL is going to Mexico to check on his progess, which has been very good to this point), Tracy and his staff like Kip and want a chance to fix him, which I think we should give them, Craig is valuable either in a right field platoon (as I've suggested ) or to back-up Casey at first ( great post by Rowdy yesterday on Casey's health ) and Gerut will be cheap due to his very injured past and as I

Time for the pitchers. I appreciate everyone's feedback on yesterday's list in the comments. I'll be honest, this one was a little easier to do. I have a gut feeling that everyone might be able to agree on the pitchers a little more, but we'll see. Here goes nothing... Starting Rotation Kip Wells 2005- Kip has fallen a long way from his 2003 breakout season and I do hesitate to put Kip on here because I think he may bounce back, but what he did last summer cannot be ignored. Yeah, he lead the NL in losses (with 18), but he did have Roger Clemens-like run support. I'm looking more at the 5.09 ERA, the 23 gopher balls, the 99 walks in 182 innings, the 1.57(!) WHIP. Just a terrible year, not only for a guy that should've been our #2 starter, but just from a starter in general. Fat Jimmy Anderson 2000-2002- I tried. I tried to narrow it down to Jimmy Anderson's worst year. It just wasn't possible. People talk about Pedro Martinez's first few years in Bos

OK, so at this point I'm getting kind of bored of writing Hot Stove posts and I'm sure everyone is getting tired of reading them. That means that I think it's the perfect time for something I've been thinking about doing since the season ended, namely trying to put together the worst 25 man roster possible of Pittsburgh Pirates from 1993-2005. I mean everyone does the "Best of" thing, everyone knows what kind of Pirates have gone on to succeed after leaving here. The question I had was who's been the absolute worst of the terrible baseball we've been watching for the last 13 years. So I fired up Baseball-Reference and put together a list. Mind you this is only one man's account of the suck-i-tude we've endured. People made the list for lots of things, failure to reach their potential, stupid things they did on the field, or being just flat out terrible. Except for one (very necessary) exception, the people that made the list as starters got s

Found today at Baseball Musings is Humbug Journal's "Player Word Score" tool , which calculates the value of each players' name on a Scrabble board. The Pirate highlights include the lowest score in all of baseball (Ian Snell, 8) and John Van Benschoten, the second highest player without a "z" in his name at 37 (behind the Mariners Kenji Johjima at 42). Mike Gonzalez ties Johnny VB for the Pirates lead at 37, but he has two Z's in his name and that's like cheating. If you have some time to kill today, this thing will certainly help you out.

Reading Dejan's Hot Stove Report today something caught my eye. It wasn't the stuff about Freddy Sanchez (though I forgot how impressive his numbers over the last six weeks of the season were) or any of the actual baseball news. Nope, it was the fact that EIGHT Pirates will get bobblehead days next year, including first timers Zach Duke, Mike Gonzalez, Chris Duffy, and Ryan Doumit. WHAT? I thought a bobblehead commemerated something other than "rookie performances that didn't suck" which is more or less what Duffy and Doumit gave us last year. Hearing that prompted a lively discussion at the lunch table over the missed bobblehead opportunities that Pirates had if their standards were that low. An "Operation Shutdown" bobblehead, its head shakes twice then gets tired and stops. A Pat Meares bobblehead, you touch its head and his hand breaks, then asks you for $13 million. A Mike Fetters bobblehead because hey, it was what he looked like in the m

Pretty slow day for baseball stuff today, but there are a couple links worth sharing. I have some ideas percolating for a post that's a little different from what I usually do, but that probably won't be ready until Monday or so, just make sure you tune in for it. Red Hot Mama has some fake Pirate news that, unfortunately, isn't all that fake . ESPN is really scrounging for stuff to do in the offseason, so they've turned to making fun of reader contributed trades , only to completely miss the mark on some of their comments. When asked about the probability of an Oliver Perez for Hank Blalock Swap, Jayson Stark says: That Pittsburgh deal is a fun one to kick around. But it sure isn't happening. In case no one noticed, Oliver Perez had a 5.85 ERA this season. But the Pirates are marketing him as a No. 1 starter. So this trade breaks down right there. Which would be true, you know, if there weren't several reports that the Rangers had told us Perez was the cost fo

Rowdy has a good post up at HW on Mr. C. Wilson, how he figures into our lineup in 2006, and just what to expect from him. If you have time I'd recommend reading all of it. I agree with Rowdy's feeling that over the last two years, Craig has demonstrated that he's probably not reliable enough to be an every day player. He was scorching hot to open 2004 but he obviously broke down by the end of the year and last year he couldn't stay healthy, though those hand injuries did seem a bit freakish. It would seem that the best current in house option in right is a Jody Gerut/Craig Wilson platoon. In a perfect world, this probably wouldn't be a bad thing. When Craig is hot he kills anything that is white with red stitches and when he's not, he still hits lefties well. Gerut, on the (literally) other hand, crushed righties to the tune of a .924 OPS in 2003 (his only completely healthy year). The problem is that this isn't a perfect world, this is Pittsburgh Pirates

I know this is a day late, but yesterday was kind of hectic. Anyways, Roberto Hernandez was officially signed yesterday and Matt Peterson was DFA'd to make room for him on the roster, meaning that in all likelihood we will have zilch to show for Kris Benson one he's released (other than the absence of Anna Benson which, by most accounts, is probably a good thing). Peterson has been more or less awful since we traded for him, culminating with a regular beating in the AFL. As for Hernandez, well, the best we can hope for is that the change Rick Peterson made in his mechanics last year is for real and he puts up the same numbers he did last year, because we're certainly paying a lot for him. It was comforting to read in yesterday's notebook that he wasn't promised a chance to close, just "meaningful innings." Hopefully we'll have some to offer him.

Dejan looks at the third base picture sans Mueller and comes to more or less the same conclusions I did yesterday. He again drops the tantalizing name of Troy Glaus, but I just can't see that happening right now. The most interesting part of this morning's article, I thought, was the revelation that we never offered Mueller a third year, according both to Mueller's camp and to the Pirates. That's interesting for a couple reasons. First off, it means Littlefield hasn't completely lost his head yet, which is good. Second off, I think it means Mueller never had any intention of signing with us and was simply using the fact we were involved with things to try and pump up the Dodgers bid. Every time we heard something it was from "sources close to Mueller" as in "sources close to Mueller say that he's close to signing and the Pirates three year offer is the current front runner." An article from LA even said the Dodgers were dropping out because

ESPN's Rumor Central (Insider only, sorry) has this to say about the Pirates third base situation: Now that the Pirates have lost out on Bill Mueller, they plan to turn their attention to Joe Randa, ESPN Insider Jerry Crasnick reports. The Pirates view Randa as a reasonably priced, dependable veteran who will help bring some stability to a young lineup. The team would like to play current third baseman Freddy Sanchez in more of a utility role. We can hope that this means that some kind of rationale has taken over in the front office. I'm not sure Randa has more to offer at third than Bautista, but he's a free agent and his price is certainly much more stomachable than the $4.75 million that Greg in the comments placed Bell at . I can understand wanting to give Bautista a full year at AAA, and I'm fairly certain that though the blurb on Insider has Randa lined up to start, Sanchez would take that job from him fairly quickly. You know, because he's better.

Now that Bill Mueller has thankfully decided to avoid Pittsburgh for the next three years, that only leaves us with a few likely options at third base next year. As I see it we can either Get into a bidding war with the Yankees and Indians and sign Nomar for a $12-14 million incentive laden contract over the next two years, then pray that he stays healthy and use Freddy as a utility guy. Sign the Joker for around $1-2 million for next year, let Freddy start at third and see how things go. Freddy can shift around the infield accordingly if someone gets hurt and Randa can play third Let Freddy start at third and have someone from within the organization like Bautista back him up. Trade someone for David Bell, Freddy is the utility guy. Option #1 doesn't seem to likely, only because I'd have thought they would've shown interest in Nomar before now if they really wanted him. It's entirely possible he wants to play either in the AL or for a contender. We don't fit either

Bill Mueller has finally come to a decision, and thankfully he's decided to head back to the West Coast to LA . This was probably foreshadowed last night when the Dodgers traded a guy who can play third base (Antonio Perez) to Oakland. Nothing against Mueller, I'm sure he's a good guy and all, but this is some good news. At his age he simply was not going to be a good fit for the price we were looking to pay him. Of course this opens the door for Littlefield to try and trade for David Bell, which would be a flat out nightmare. Someone needs to smack Littlefield on the head and try and get him to see that if Nomar isn't coming here next year, Freddy Sanchez is going to be our best option.

Bill Mueller will announce his decision between the Pirates, Giants, and Dodgers sometime today, say sources close to him. That means I'll be spending the rest of the day holding my breath that after three years on the East Coast Mueller will decide he'd rather go home than take the contract Littlefield has offered him.

While we were busy negotiating with Bill Mueller and how much to overpay him by, the A's traded for Milton Bradley (as with just about everything else this time of year, via Rotoworld ). According to the article, they are giving up an unnamed top-prospect for him. Would Grabow or Marte have been enough? Looks like they weren't, if that was the offer actually made. Also, on the same Rotoworld page, the reason we haven't heard that the Pirates trying to sign Nomar becomes evident. The Yankees want him to play first base and finally realize Georgie's dream of an infield made up almost entirely of the "Holy Trinity" of shortstops from the late 90s. I'm guessing the Yanks jumping into the bidding is going to pump up Nomar's asking price beyond what an injury prone 30-something utility man should make. Then again, I'm not sure how that concerns a team that has already paid $2.75 million for a year of Roberto Hernandez and is looking more and more like t

This is about the worst news possible (via Rotoworld ). Yeah, that's right, we've asked the Phillies about David Bell. Honestly, I have no idea what's gotten into Littlefield's head at this point. Bell is terrible at this point in his career and he plays for someone else, which means we'd have to give up something to get him. Completely insane. Meanwhile, John Perrotto reports the Pirates are very close to signing Mueller in today's BCT, while over at OnlyBucs.net Wilbur Miller uses the 2006 Bill James handbook to (among other things) give even more reasons why Bill Mueller is a bad idea : James' projections for Freddy Sanchez were very accurate in 2005. For 2006, he projects Sanchez to hit 301/351/411, for a .762 OPS. He projects Mueller to hit 283/365/421, for a .786 OPS. Since Mueller is seven years older than Sanchez, it's reasonable to assume, if you think these projections are realistic, that Sanchez will overtake Mueller in the second or

For the first time in probably over a week, I can't find any new Pirates news/rumors to talk about. That's mostly a good thing, as it means we haven't signed Bill Mueller yet. Anyways, over the next couple weeks (especially after Thursday when my finals are over and done with) I'm going to try and make some changes around the site, changing the featured post list on the right over there, updating the blogroll, maybe playing around with the site template a little bit. Added to the blogroll today are Today's Tidbits , a new Pittsburgh blog that is pretty heavily Pirates-centric, and Red Hot Mama , a Reds blog that had asked me for some opinions on Dave Williams. I had already planned on adding a couple blogs from the other NL Central teams some time over the winter, RHM just gave me a reason to jump start things a bit. Keep your fingers crossed for the "Bill Mueller to SF" headline on ESPN today because it looks like the Dodgers are dropping out , probably d

First we sign Hernandez to the one year $2.75 million deal. Then we offer Bill Mueller 3 years at $4 million each , a deal that will take Mueller through the age of 38 and we will have to give up a draft pick to complete since Mueller was offered arbitration by the Red Sox. And Tracy-ball. Despite all the progress it seemed like we made at the Winter Meetings, I'm getting a sinking feeling in my stomach with three words swimming in my head. Same. Old. Pirates.

We have some interesting stuff in the Post-Gazette today (besides the fact that Sean Casey is a super-fantastic guy who's always wanted to be a Pirate and will probably carry us to 90 wins on his golden smile alone ). Anyways, according to Dejan , we didn't promise Hernandez he could close, but simply offered him more money than anyone else, including the Yankees. That does make me feel a little better, but it's still an awful signing given that he's really old and $2.75 million is a ton of money for a team like the Pirates to spend on a guy his age that has been very Jose Mesa-like in the last half decade minus last year. We also stepped up our quest to get older but not particularly better by offering Bill Mueller a 3 year deal. Let's face it, he might be a little better than Freddy Sanchez right now, but he'll be 38 at the end of this contract. It's a bad idea. In the best news of the day, we're apparently stepping up our pursuit of Milton Bradley by

Rotoworld relays that WFAN in New York is reporting that we've signed Roberto Hernandez to a one year deal. Since Hernandez had two year deals from contenders, Rotoworld figures the only way he takes a one year deal with a non-contender is if we've offered him a chance to close. Seriously, we just closed the door on the Jose Mesa era. I can't believe Littlefield would actually be considering giving Hernandez a shot to close. As a set-up man at a decent price, Hernandez wouldn't be awful. As a closer, he's a giant mistake. He hasn't closed since KC in 2002 and though last year he put up a good year, his numbers were remarkably Mesa-like in the four years prior to that. After three straight days of good moves, this is pretty disappointing.

Littlefield is pretty busy today, as now he's shipped Rob Mackowiak back home to Chicago for Damaso Marte , a former Bucco. I think Marte is probably better than either two names I heard earlier today, Looper and Roberto Hernandez, though I think I recall hearing that he drove the fans in Chicago nuts last year. This means a couple things, I think. Either Littlefield really really likes Freddy Sanchez or he's close to acquiring another third baseman. Just Monday, he was talking about how he liked a platoon of Sanchez and Mackowiak at third base next year, now Mackowiak is gone. Of course he also said Wigginton was one of the guys that would get offered arbitration next year, now he's gone too. Trading for Marte also means that John Grabow will either be non-tendered or traded somewhere, as there simply isn't room for three lefties in the pen with a rotation stacked with lefties. According to Rotoworld , Chad Blackwell finishes off the Mark Redman trade and Clayton Hamil

The Pirates claimed RHP Victor Santos in today's Rule 5 from the Royals and released Wigginton so that Santos could fill the roster spot. I'm not sure if this is the same Victor Santos that pitched for the Brewers the last couple years or not, but it kind of looks like he is (he's listed on ESPN right now as a Royal). No Pirates were chosen, which means Adam Boeve is still ours. Also Jose Mesa signed with the Rockies sometime yesterday after we declined arbitration. Words fail me. I can't imagine Mesa in Colorado. Of course, if we sign Roberto Hernandez I guess it doesn't much matter that we dumped Mesa, because we will have brought him right back.

In case you were getting your hopes up after yesterday's deal for Redman that doubled as a way to make the Casey deal better, Dave Littlefield would like to squash those hopes with the following two sentences : Two relievers in whom the Pirates have shown a strong interest are Braden Looper and Roberto Hernandez, agent Randy Hendricks confirmed last night. and In addition to looking into (Craig) Monroe, the Pirates continue to discuss trading with the Red Sox for Trot Nixon or signing free agent Jacque Jones of the Minnesota Twins. I think I feel a headache coming on. Looper and Hernandez would be black holes that just suck money from the Pirates, and while Monroe and Trot Nixon would be pretty acceptable, Jacque Jones is just about the worst idea I've heard this week this side of JT Snow.

The Pirates' corner of the internet is abuzz with speculation that the PTBL in the Redman deal will be the top pick in tomorrow's Rule 5 Draft (the Royals have the top pick). Rotoworld has a Rule 5 preview and they list the most likely player to be selected as Reds 2B/3B prospect Kevin Howard, who had a pretty good year in AA then lead the AFL in hitting. If not Howard than it will probably be a pitcher. I suppose we'll have to keep an eye on this tomorrow, as will Josh Fogg and Ty Wigginton (one of whom will presumably be dropped off the roster if the Royals are swinging that pick to us, depending on who it is).

The PG says that all of Redman's salary next year will be paid by the Royals . Now we're talking. At this point we've dealt Williams and Redman, who are very similar to each other to Duke and Maholm (though not nearly as good as the younger two) for Casey, a minor league reliever, and a PTBNL at a cost of about $1 million of that supposed $15 million raise in the payroll (assuming Williams makes about $1 million in arbitration next year, Casey costs $7.5 million more, which is down to $5.5 million if the Reds do chip in part of Casey's salary as expected, but without Redman's salary we're only $1 million above where we started). This means one of two things, either Littlefield has something big in mind (fingers crossed for Troy Glaus), Littlefield is going to blow all of that money on overpaying for Nomar, or McClatchy and the Nuttings hope that we get confused in everything and they pocket $15 million. I'm leaning towards scenario three.

Mark Redman was traded to the Kansas City Royals for a minor leaguer Jonah Bayliss and a player to be named. Presumably, after being laughed at for offering Redman for guys like Brad Wilkerson and Trot Nixon, Littlefield screwed his head on straight and got anything he could for Redman. I don't know much about Bayliss, but he's alive and a baseball player, so this is probably a good trade. Now if only that player to be named could be Leo Nunez... UPDATE (3:20PM): I did mean to say that this is really only a good deal if the Royals are paying, which I'm not really sure if they are. Bayliss had some decent minor league numbers last year and would be helpful from the pen, which is more than we can say about Mark Redman. If the Royals are paying most of the $4.5 million (and they actually might be, they're looking to add payroll, too) than this is a great deal because it almost frees up all the money we took on in Casey (assuming Cincy sends us the $2 million).

According to this morning's PG article about the Casey deal the Reds may be swinging us $2 million of his salary. That would be a very very good thing because as you may have noticed, the fact that he's a really nice guy and from Pittsburgh hasn't completely sold me that this is a good trade. It is enough for apparently about 90% of Pirates fans, however, which is a scary thing to me, mainly because it means that Charlie could be right in that the trade was made entirely to placate local fans and put more people in the seats to make the team money, but it won't make us good enough to justify spending this much money again, thus the team makes a big profit. It's also true that Casey may be a nice guy and he may be from Pittsburgh, but that doesn't make him WANT to play baseball here. Just look at this quote from Casey in the above linked article upon hearing he was traded to the Pirates: That stinks. I want to play for the Cincinnati Reds. I don't want to

Looking a little more in to things, Casey did battle a shoulder injury on and off all year from about May on last year, as you can see from this log on KFFL . Seems like the kind of nagging thing that probably messed with his power a little bit and could go a ways towards explaining his 9 home runs and his .423 SLG and makes me feel a little better about this, assuming he's healthy next year.

ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago and ESPN's Jerry Crasnick confirm that Sean Casey will be a Pirate for Dave Williams pending physicals. Let's look at this just a little bit closer, because this thing is a done deal unless some gigantic red flag goes up on Williams shoulder (which I suppose is possible). First off, Sean Casey is overpaid. There's no doubt about it. I do think there is a certain element of this deal that was made to pacify local fans who wanted a Macha or a Howe to manage the team. And Casey does fill a need on the team, someone to play first base until Brad Eldred can do it (if he can). Casey is also probably more likely to sign here after his contract is up than someone like Overbay if Eldred doesn't step up. And yeah, Casey can get to first base, and he does it pretty often. The question is how he will go about getting there. If 2004 Sean Casey comes along, we just made a great deal. If 2002, 2003 or 2005 Casey shows up, I'm not so sure. We should also

The PG reports that the Pirates are close to finishing up a deal that would send Dave Williams to Cincinnati for Sean Casey . I said earlier that Casey is making way more than he's worth and I do still feel that way but I suppose if you take money out of the equation (which is hard to do for the Pirates) it's not a bad trade. Casey's numbers may be down a bit from where they were but he's also going to give Jason Bay a lot more protection than anyone we had last year. It also puts Brad Eldred on direct notice that if he's not going to start putting the bat on the ball he's not going to play in Pittsburgh. Plus, he's not JT Snow, which is absolutely fantastic. I guess the bottom line is that this is a trade that could work out fairly well for the Pirates, despite the large amount of money involved. I'll probably have more about this later when it all gets finalized.

OK, seriously, I can barely keep up with every single name that I've heard tossed around since about midnight last night (I wanted to get a post up before now but things like "sleep" and "class" got in the way). Anyways, I'll try and take a look at the rumors I've heard so far and what I think about them. Sign Olmedo Saenz - This really isn't too terrible of an idea. In about 100 less at-bats he hit as many homers and had as many RBIs as Daryle Ward. As long as we're looking to him as a back-up at first or a platoon with Craig Wilson until Eldred is ready, this wouldn't be a bad move. We just have to keep in mind that he isn't a starter (something we could never figure out with the D-Train). Trade for Milton Bradley (same link as above)- Also a pretty good idea. Bradley has quite a rep as a troublemaker, but I can't imagine a manager like Tracy would OK Littlefield to look for a trade for Bradley if he really thought there was a probl

Sorry everyone, but it seems that from the looks of things Blogger was having some problems from around 6 PM until now, 11:30ish, which kept people from accessing the site. I don't really know what the deal was, but it was nothing that they let anyone know about ahead of time.

According to Buster Olney's blog (ESPN insider only, sorry) the Yankees have entered bidding for Nomar, just about ensuring that he will be paid astronomically this offseason. It think it'd be best if DL got Nomar off the brain before he does something stupid.

Taking a step back from the Hot Stove for a second, John Sickels looks back at the 20 guys he had listed as our preseason Top 20 and how they fared in 2005 . At the top was Zach Duke, who obviously exceeded expectations. As for the rest of the top 20, well it seems like mostly everyone fared just about as expected with some of the bottom guys (Sharpless, Bullington, Paulino) exceeding preseason expectations, leading Sickels to say that he feels that we have some sleepers in the minors and maybe our farm isn't as barren as everyone thinks. I'm not exactly sure why I think you guys care. The SiteMeter went berserk in the 2 hours after I did the Anna Benson post so it's pretty obvious what everyone wants. Maybe I should mention that while looking at the Baseball America Rule 5 list the other day I saw Casey Daigle on the list. Who's Casey Daigle you ask? Why, the one and only Jenny Finch 's husband, if course. Let's see, he's a right handed reliever with som

UPDATE (12/16): Not sure how this happened, but apparently my little blog here has turned up on the first page of Google search results for "Anna Benson" and it's pointing a whole ton of new people to WHYGAVS. Anyways, I'd encourge anyone who's found this blog via that manner to click around and check things out, especially if they happen to be a Pirates fan. Of course, if you don't want to, that's fine too. Just don't expect to find any pictures of Ms. Benson here. Well, this is just fantastic. Anna Benson is now attacking the Mets because she thinks they are trying to trade her husband because she wants to pose in Playboy (something also alleged by Peter Gammons ). Of course Anna is less than pleased by the whole incident. Kris, meanwhile, hasn't commented on the situation, presumably because he's locked in a basement somewhere with testicle clamps on. You know, as much as I make fun of the guy I'm really starting to feel bad for him.

The Winter Meetings in Dallas kick off today (as if you didn't know that already) and let's face it, everyone needs something to think of besides the fact that the Bengals are going to win the AFC North. Dejan obliges with his Winter Meetings preview , which doesn't really tell us a whole lot we didn't know. Of course the subject of third base comes up (painfully pointing out the difference between Jose Hernandez/Chris Stynes/Rob Mackowiak/Ty Wigginton/Freddy Sanchez and Aramis Ramirez. Since third base is more or less a wasteland at free agency this year (Mueller and Randa don't offer more than a Sanchez/Mackowiak rotation at third and I'm guessing the Pirates will have to seriously overpay for Nomar which isn't something I really would agree with) the topic of a trade comes up and a new name emerges in this article, Troy Glaus. Hmmm, now there's an intriguing possibility. Glaus is due $34 million over the next three years but is three years younger th

Lots of stuff going on today. Dejan logs his first Hot Stove Report , which isn't much of a hot stove report at all because it deals mostly with Yurendell DeCaster and the massive strides he's made to earn a spot on the 40-man this year. He also touches on the work Perez will do in the Mexican league this winter (30-35 innings) before the World Baseball Classic (he's pitching for Mexico). It would appear that everyone's injury rehab is going well, Burnett and Van Benschoten may throw at the January mini-camp, Castillo and Duffy should be ready for camp. Of course the injuries that aren't going well, like Bullington's, were failed to be mentioned. There was also this: Reliever Rick White, the lone surprise of the four veterans the Pirates cut loose last month, said he believes he is a few days away from signing with the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. White said Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield's lone offer to return was for the same terms as last

After being ignored by the baseball writers Jason Bay has been honored by his countrymen as the best Canadian player in the bigs , the second straight year he's taken home the Tip O'Neill award. There really wasn't much competition with Gagne injured though. Ryan Dempster finished second. That only puts him seven behind Larry Walker in the all-time standings. "It's obviously nice to be recognized by your country," said Bay. "Most Canadians are very patriotic, and I'm no different." Now that's what I'm talking aboot.

Now even our top non-pitching prospects are finding ways to get hurt.

Today is December 2nd, that means that among other things, we're two full months into the offseason. So how have the Bucs done so far? What should they do in the future? Let's take a look. Things we've done so far Well, first and foremost, we've hired a manager. Of course we can't really judge Tracy until we've seen games played, but there have been both good and bad things said about him. I will say that seeing Ozzie Guillen and Phil Garner manage teams into the World Series made me feel a little better about Tracy. If he can fix the "culture of losing", keep the mood in the clubhouse light, improve communication between the players and the manager's office, and have faith in his players, things will be improved over the McClendon era. His coaching staff has no resemblence to McClendon's (which is a good thing) and only one person is even from the organization, Manto (probably the weakest link). We also got Jason Bay's contract for next y