Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

Yes, I see that Ryan Doumit is starting tonight. Yes, Snell is on the mound. Yes, I am strongly pessimistic about this team's chances to do anything worthwhile in the 2008 season. And yes, I am freaking psyched that the Pirates and baseball are back. I will be liveblogging tonight and I'm going to try the very rare double liveblog, as I'll be blogging the whole thing here and at least part of it at FanHouse. This thread is the liveblog thread, which means it's also the first gamethread of the year. The winter's over, people. It doesn't get much better than today. To make this easy on me, we're going top down, so new stuff is on the bottom. And yes, I changed my mind on this like three times. Pre-game: The first three innings at FanHouse will be here . I'm splitting the post up with a (gasp) Braves' fan. I'm not sure who gets the last three innings yet. It may be decided by who's ahead. If you are unfamiliar with how things are done here, it...

Being the fan of a bad baseball team is a very strange thing. 2008 may very well be the most important season in recent memory for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the team that will take the field night in and night out. That Pirate team that will take the field every night will not be a pretty bad one. In 2007, the Pirates added Adam LaRoche to a 67-win team and got a 68-win team. This year, the Pirates have added even less to that 68-win team and accordingly, shouldn't expect much more of an improvement. Some may say that a portion of the roster underachieved last year, but it can just as easily be argued that a similar sized portion overachieved. That's the basic facts of baseball: those things tend to balance each other out. If you're counting on guys to reach a level beyond what's generally expected of them to win, you're not taking into consideration the guys that will drop off. Normally I'd end my season preview post with ...

Let's start this one at the beginning. Since it's the day before the season starts, the PG is launching all kinds of articles off like crazy about the baseball season. The one that you HAVE to read is Dejan's piece about the new management team's blueprint. It's articles like this one that make you appreciate just what a good beat writer he is. Anyways, the whole thing starts out based on the premise that the Pirates are contending in late May (I have NO idea where I've heard something like that before). In that unlikely scenario, how does it effect the blueprint that Coonelly and Huntington have laid down for the future of this club? That question just provides the framework for DK to dig into what these guys are really trying to accomplish and how they're going about doing it. There are two key quotes in this article along those lines. One of them isn't even from someone in the Pirates' organization: "We don't want to sit in the middle, g...

You know what's mildly concerning to me? When a pitcher misses a spring training start with the same injury that caused him to pitch poorly at the end of the previous season. I'm talking, of course, about Paul Maholm being scratched from his start today with a stiff lower back . Maholm says it's not serious and Neal Huntington says he would make his start if it was the regular season, but Maholm's back bothered him last September and it's still bothering him. I consider that to be a pretty ominous sign for a team that has no reasonable replacement for him in the entire organization. If someone goes on the DL, the likely replacements are John Van Benschoten, Bryan Bullington, Phil Dumatrait, or Ty Taubenheim. That's terrifying.

According to the Post-Gazette, it looks like Sean Burnett is going to be the Pirates' final cut this spring in favor of Evan Meek or Phil Dumatrait, leaving the pen to be Meek, Dumatrait, Grabow, Osoria, Yates, Marte, and Capps. The decision was made because Burnett can go to the minors and Dumatrait and Meek can't, due to being either out of options or a rule 5 pick. For that reason, it really is the right move. Burnett and Dumatrait are similar pitchers and since Meek has the highest upside of the three, he's certainly worth taking a longer look at. When it comes down to making the decision, you have to factor in that Burnett can be called up in a month if someone gets hurt or traded and Dumatrait simply can't. That said, I still think it sucks that Burnett's getting the shaft here. You really can't ask for a guy to do more to try and make the team than Burnett has this year between taking on a new role and pitching lights out all spring. That means that for t...

There's a ton of stuff I've been meaning to share, so let's get it all out of the way. Actually, the list itself isn't that big, I just have a lot of things to say about a couple of then. This Jose Canseco/A-Rod saga is amazing. Not for the fact that A-Rod used steroids, but just for the giant trainwreck it's become. If you haven't been following, Deadspin has the hilariously awful excerpt from his book dealing with A-Rod, we laughed about it a lot at FanHouse , and then Pat Jordan showed up on Deadspin to tell everyone what a f*&$ing scumbag Canseco is . I've been kind of captivated by this whole thing, but completely for the wrong reasons. Mostly, I think I'm just amazed that we live in a world where something like Jose Canseco is actually allowed to happen. A site called "Baseball Intellect" has an interesting look at Jason Bay's 2006 swing compared to his 2007 swing. I am no hitting coach, but it look to me like his 2006 swing is ...

I honestly think the Pirates have no chance to contend or even finish .500 this year, but the truth is that there must be some sequence of events, no matter how improbable, that can take place that would bring home an NL Central pennant for the Bucs in 2008. It's probably just because I've watched too much LOST lately, but I'm going to write a series of flash-forwards dealing with the one alternate dimension in a million in which the Pirates win the NL Central in 2008. Someone hit the gas on the infinite improbability drive ... Holy cow, I wanted to be done with these by the opener. Time to hit the gas. On July 1st, at the halfway point of the season, the Pirates are 41-40. If you've missed the earlier editions and are just starting now, check out April , May , and June . July 6th- Prince Fielder hits three homers off of Matt Morris, the third of which lands in the Allegheny may have punched a hole in the far wall of Miller Park's roof. The Brewers beat the Pirates...

The PG is reporting that Masumi Kuwata told the Pirates yesterday that since it's clear he won't be making the team this year, he's going to retire and head back to Japan. Neal Huntington apparently offered him a chance to pitch one final time today and take a coaching job with the club, but Kuwata declined both offers. He clearly didn't have much left in the tank, but it's hard not to respect a guy that knows when that's the case. He came over here to try and pitch in the majors, got his shot and couldn't hack it, and knew it was time to hang the spikes up. Honestly, it was kind of fun having him on the team in New York last year and hey, it's not like he was the worst reliever on the team. Happy trails, Masumi.

The 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates as they will appear in Atlanta on March 31st are quickly taking shape. The PG details a bunch of moves made today that go a long ways towards clearing things up. The most interesting ones are in the bullpen, where the BK Kim experiment ends before it can even start (if you recall the WHYGAVS Poll on this subject, I think this qualifies as "abject failure," though he didn't ruin any real games for us), Jaret Wright is asked to clean out his locker, Juan Perez and his gimpy elbow are sent packing, and Neal Huntington makes his second trade by acquiring Tyler Yates from the Braves for Todd Redmond. That trade is certainly an interesting move, and it indicates that Huntington is as concerned about the bullpen as I am. Yates isn't a bad reliever, but I wouldn't qualify him as a good one, either. He does a good job against righties and will probably ably fill the Salomon Torres role that was vacated when Sully was traded to Milwaukee this wi...

I honestly think the Pirates have no chance to contend or even finish .500 this year, but the truth is that there must be some sequence of events, no matter how improbable, that can take place that would bring home an NL Central pennant for the Bucs in 2008. It's probably just because I've watched too much LOST lately, but I'm going to write a series of flash-forwards dealing with the one alternate dimension in a million in which the Pirates win the NL Central in 2008. Someone hit the gas on the infinite improbability drive ... After a scorching 17-10 May (which followed a 13-14 April ), the Pirates find themselves at 30-24, a mere game behind the first place Cubs. On to June ... June 6th- Brandon Webb no-hits the Pirates, giving them their second loss in a row and dropping them to 33-27 and giving the D'Backs a scorching 39-21 record. WHYGAVS: You know, it was bound to happen. The Pirates have lost an unfathomable number of games in the past 15 seasons, mostly with em...

To a casual observer, the Pirates' naming Nate McLouth as the starting center fielder today probably seemed like something of a foregone conclusion. Maybe it was, but the Pirates were publicly insisting otherwise as recently as about a week ago, claiming that Morgan and McLouth were "neck and neck." We've rehashed the pros and cons of the two a million times here and it generally tends to get ugly, for whatever reason, so I'll just say that I'm happy for McLouth to get his shot at the revolving door position that is center field for the Pirates. He certainly brings a little more patience and a little more power to the position that's generally been manned by the Jermaine Allensworth clones since 1996 (save stints by Brian Giles, Kenny Lofton, and Jason Bay in center) and it's time to try something a little different. Beyond that, I'm really happy to see them keep Morgan with the big club. I don't see what AAA has to offer him since he's al...

Let's see here. The Bucs made four more cuts today , sending Kevin Thompson, Elmer Dessens, Casey Fossum, and Jonah Bayliss by the wayside. Dessens, Fossum, and Bayliss were about the bottom of the barrel for bullpen candidates, so we don't really learn a lot by them getting cut. Thompson getting cut means Nyjer Morgan is probably going to make the roster, even if he doesn't start because every team needs two guys that can man center field. Bayliss was also DFA'd to make room for Luis Rivas on the 40-man roster, which just about makes it a slam dunk that he's going to be the starting second baseman, as I don't think Freddy's going to be ready to play the field by next Monday, no matter what James Andrews says.

I admire Paul Meyer DK for doing his best to make it sound like Matt Morris wasn't totally awful in giving up eight runs in his 5 and 2/3 innings yesterday. Still, a bunt single, a misplayed grounder, and a wind-aided homer only accounts for three of eight runs. Russell was enthused by how Morris threw, so I guess it's wrong of me to dismiss some spring results and harp on others, but dammit, I'm a blogger! The scarier thing to me is the bullpen this year . So we've got Capps closing, which is solid. We've got Marte setting up, which should go OK even if pitting him against righties regularly is kind of scary. We've got Grabow in there which is, well, it is what it is. Then we've got (presumably) four slots to be filled by Phil Dumatrait, Sean Burnett, Franquellis Osoria, Evan Meek, and Byung-Hyun Kim. Beyond them, we could go to Masumi Kuwata, Hector Carrasco, Jaret Wright, or Casey Fossum. Except for the two guys at the back end (I'm talking Capps and...

For the first time in recent history, James Andrews gave the Pirates good news by confirming the training staff's diagnosis that Freddy Sanchez's shoulder problem is just inflammation around the rotator cuff, meaning that he'll probably be ready for Opening Day. At least that's what the article says, but the statement that Freddy might stay behind in Bradenton to take extra BP kind of says differently. But we should at least be happy he's not badly hurt. In completely unrelated news, the Pirates' website has been completely redesigned and currently features NO PLAYERS on the header. How will we ever be able to confirm swirling rumors about one of a select few players on the team? Or is Neal Huntington just about to trade everyone?

Another awesome picture from Peter Diana at the PG shows the LaRoches spending some quality time together on Easter weekend. There's just a bit of familial resemblance there.

Lets' juxtapose some statements from today's paper together. First there's this : There seems at least the possibility that Freddy Sanchez will not be ready to play when the Pirates open the season March 31 in Atlanta. OK... then this: "I was hoping this day would be easier," he said. "Even if it felt just a little better, it would be a different story. It just doesn't feel right. It's frustrating. I'm very concerned now." Might be out for opening day? Might?!? Because next is this: "Obviously I'm getting concerned. I'm to the point where I just want this thing to go away. It's not cooperating." That sounds like he's willing to do whatever it takes to make his shoulder better. Including more surgery? Because we also have this : Pirate second baseman Freddy Sanchez, bothered by pain in his right shoulder, will be examined by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., Monday. Sanchez will fly to Birmingham tomorrow and ret...

One of the more interesting storylines to me this spring has been Sean Burnett's success as a short reliever. There is certainly ample evidence that guys that have had their arms ravaged by injury really benefit from a move out of the rotation and into the 'pen, as the short workload allows them to focus on one inning and get out of the game, rather than try and preserve their arm over the course of a start. That being said, I'm not totally sold on Burnett out of the pen. Today's the longest story we've gotten on him this spring and there's no real details about how his pitches look. He looked awesome last spring in mostly short work, then flamed out in the rotation in AAA and if my memory serves, could only muster around 85 on his fastball. In general, the guys that really have success in a switch like this are power pitchers; Gagne, Smoltz, etc. and they generally were at least decent starters at some point in their career and I don't know if Burnett'...

I'm hoping that the problem here is Paul Meyer mis-interpreting things but I don't get that impression. His article today starts like this : Pirates management and staff often have cited this statistic this spring: 11-59. That was the Pirates' record last season when they scored three or fewer runs in a game. [...] Last season, one more run meant a great deal. The Pirates were 57-35 when they scored four runs or more in a game. Perhaps Sunday evening, as general manager Neal Huntington, manager John Russell and assorted coaches and minor-league staff met to decide on Monday's roster cuts, the group hit on an idea that could produce that much-needed extra run. Nate McLouth and Nyjer Morgan, who all spring have competed for the starting center field job, could make the team's 25-man opening day roster and, on occasions, play in the same game. The implication here is that playing Nate McLouth and Nyjer Morgan together will help the Pirates score more runs. Right, ...

As you've probably noticed, I don't spend a ton of time on numbers from spring training unless they're something that really jumps out at me (good or bad). It's mostly just because you can't tell much from them. Remember last spring when Sean Burnett was practically unhittable and Tom Gorzelanny was awful and people were clamoring for Burnett to start the year in Pittsburgh? Yeah, that actually happened. Still, right around this time, things start to jump out at me. So here's what I've recently noticed that I think is worthwhile: Holy crap, Freddy Sanchez is just taking the field tonight? I've said it before, but his health really does concern me. He's only played one year since he's come to Pittsburgh in which injuries haven't been any concern at all. He is hitting well as DH this spring, so I suppose this is nothing to panic over ... yet. If the calendar never moved past March 30th, Sean Burnett might have finally righted his career. He was...

It is clear to me from the comments that are being left that I've done a very poor job of illustrating why I think demoting Steve Pearce is a very bad idea for the Pirates. It's probably my own fault because school has been rather hectic lately and I have less and less time to sit down and properly write out posts on these things. Regardless, let's break things down a little better here. The first and most important point that I think people are missing is this one: I don't think Steve Pearce is some kind of slam dunk 30 homer breakout star for the Pirates this year. I don't know that he'd be that much better than Xavier Nady over the course of 2008. I've seen far too many Pirate prospects get to the majors and fizzle to put too much hope on Pearce becoming more than an average first baseman/corner outfielder. At the same time, I realize that Xavier Nady is an average outfielder. When this whole debate started, I purposely overstated his flaws to compensate ...

Sometimes I can't help but read an article full of quotes from someone and assume that there's just a little more to what they said. Take today's story about the most recent cuts , chock full of Neal Huntington quotes. His quotes are below, well, except for the bold parts. That's just where I assume the conversation went. "If anything happens to Jason or Xavier, we'd like to have Steve be the guy to come up and get those at-bats," Huntington said. "He could probably be a serviceable player for us right now. But we don't want him to be a good major-league player. We want him to be a great major-league player. Honestly, is anyone buying this? Because I'm trying really hard to justify this here. The boss says cutting Nady is a waste of money, so I'm stuck trying to trade him. Dave Littlefield really gave up Oliver Perez for this guy?" "[Bullington]'s a true professional," Huntington said. "We've talked to him abo...

If anyone is busy not getting drunk for St. Patty's Day or rejoicing that How I Met Your Mother is returning to ring in the end of the writer's strike, I'll be making a guest appearance to talk about the NL Central on the Treehouse Fort podcast tonight at 7:30 and you should be able to listen live at this link show's over now, but the archive is still at that link).

This has been hashed and rehashed here, so I'm not going to drag it out, but Steve Pearce and a bunch of other people that I care less about were all sent to minor-league camp today . In order of my general preference, here's how I would've liked to see the Pearce situation play itself out: Pearce stays with the Pirates, mashes, replaces Thor in the WHYGAVS mythology. Pearce goes to the minors, mashes, and forces Huntington's hand on Xavier Nady (unless he hits 10 homers in April, we're not getting anything for him). Pearce sits on the bench in Pittsburgh and pinch hits, never getting a chance to be a regular until he's 27 or so. That being said, if Pearce doesn't get around 300 plate appearances in Pittsburgh this year, I'm still going to be fairly upset.

Quick debriefing: I'm honestly kind of bored by the way I kicked off my last season preview, what with the mostly already answered questions and the like. I'll still hit the big questions before the season starts, but I really feel like doing something different. I honestly think the Pirates have no chance to contend or even finish .500 this year, but the truth is that there must be some sequence of events, no matter how improbable, that can take place that would bring home an NL Central pennant for the Bucs in 2008. It's probably just because I've watched too much LOST lately, but I'm going to write a series of flash-forwards dealing with the one alternate dimension in a million in which the Pirates win the NL Central in 2008. Someone hit the gas on the infinite improbability drive ... Remember, the Buccos finished April 13-14, 4 games behind the division leading Cubs. May 1st- The Bucs end their six game slide by winning their first game in the Nationals' new...

Good news out of Bradenton today, the PG is reporting that the Pirates have locked Ian Snell in to a long-term deal that they've been discussing since the beginning of spring. The details are a little sketchy, but it seems like a solid contract to me. Starting this year, he's getting $8 million over the next three seasons with the Pirates holding options for 2011 and 2012, which clock around $8 million per year. This strikes me as pretty much the exact kind of deal that the Pirates should be giving to Snell, so I've gotta say I'm impressed with Huntington for nailing this down and of course, happy for Snell who's certainly one of my favorite Pirates.

At first glance, Ian Snell and Phil Dumatrait seem to have nothing in common. Except they are teammates and somehow friends. "It just kind of happened," Dumatrait said. "He's just one of those guys you get along with, you know." Snell, about to begin his third full season in the rotation, is from Delaware. Dumatrait, who hopes to begin his first season with the Pirates, is from California. Snell is a right-handed pitcher, Dumatrait is a left-hander. I could give you a million guesses as to who wrote that as a lead in to an article today , but you'd only need one. I mean, is it seriously surprising that players from different backgrounds are friends in an international sport like baseball? Did anyone else get all shocked an offended when they read the first paragraph/sentence thingy, simply assuming that Meyer was referring to the fact that Snell is black and Dumatrait is white? Does anyone else kind of feel like that was implied by the introduction, ...

Honestly, like 90% of Pirate news today has been Billy Crystal related. Sad, really. Did anything else happen yesterday?

I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, but I had to note that not only did Paul Maholm pitch very well today, he did manage to strike out Billy Crystal and preserve the last remaining shred of dignity for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I saw the at-bat on Sportscenter and it seemed to me like Maholm played it right, give Crystal a change to hit the ball, don't actually let him hit it, and smile after the game when he makes jokes about young you are. Anyways, I know some people have a problem with teams' doing stuff like this in spring training, but I really don't. Some day, Paul Maholm is going to be able to tell his kids he struck out Billy Crystal, and then ensure them that it was a bigger deal when he did it after they have no idea who Billy Crystal is. But really, these games don't count for anything and stuff like this is what separates them from the regular season. Crystal taking a few futile hacks at Maholm's pitches is a lot more in the spirit of spring tr...

Today, Billy Crystal takes the field against the Pirates. Paul Maholm gets the start, though I don't know if he'll be the one that gets to pitch to Crystal. Never has so much dignity been at stake in a Pirates' game.

It's not fair to talk about Andrew McCutchen and not Neil Walker, especially because Walker suddenly seems fairly relevant to the Pirates in a more immediate sense. He's killing the ball this spring (5-for-16 with three of those five hits doubles) and seems to be improving his defense. Kevin Goldstein even thinks he might be ready for mid-season (BP subscription required). Walker had a pretty strong year in AA last year, though he faltered at the end. I saw him play after his call-up to Indy and thought he looked pretty comfortable at third, despite all the errors he had been making. Accordingly, I'm not really surprised to hear he's adapting well to the position. After all of the strife that went into that position change for Walker, third base is actually a pretty serious position of need for the Buccos right now, as I don't see Jose Bautista ever advancing beyond a utility type player that's over-matched as an every day guy. I do think Walker should head to ...

You know what's a pretty bad sign? When I see the headline, "Prospects trying to make a name for themselves," and I have to stop and think who "prospects" might be referring to before I read the article. As it turns out, the article is about what you'd expect after the only off-day of the spring; it's fluff about every minor leaguer who's not on the casual fan's radar. I'm not going to talk about them, because they make me sad. Instead, I'm going to spend some time talking about our prospect. You know the one. McCutchen. Honestly, I'm mildly terrified that putting McCutchen in AAA this year is going to ruin him, or at least set him back a year. I know that I'm the same guy that wants Steve Pearce fast-tracked (or, semi-fast tracked since DL started him slowly, but you get the point) to the majors this year and maybe my thinking Cutch isn't ready for AAA is inconsistent with that, but let's call it a gut feeling based on t...

Billy Crystal has signed a gimmicky one-day contract to play for the Yankees on Thursday. The Yankees are, of course, playing the Pirates that day. Believe me when I tell you that this can only end terribly for us. Perhaps we can counter by giving Michael Keaton a uniform. Of course, he could probably start at third for us, so maybe we should spare ourselves the embarrassment.

It seems like everyone has their eyes on two position battles this spring: catcher and center field. The main fight is in center field between Nate McLouth and Nyjer Morgan, where one of the two of them will certainly end up as the starting center fielder for the Pirates in 2008. The catcher fight is secondary and kind of two-tiered. The first question is whether or not the Pirates think of Ryan Doumit as a catcher or a swiss army knife and accordingly, whether Raul Chavez or Michel Hernandez will make the roster in addition to Doumit. The second question is whether or not Doumit could actually start over Paulino. The thing is, I'm not really sure why there's a position battle at either of these places. I mean, what can we learn about McLouth, Paulino, Doumit, or Morgan from spring training this year? Definitely not much. We know McLouth has some pop, the ability to get on base, and great baserunning skill, though he likely won't be a terribly productive starter over a full...

The first round of cuts not involving extraneous catchers for early throwing sessions or people that have angered The Neal with their poor conditioning. According to the PG, Danny Moskos goes and he's certainly not alone . Also sent to minor league camp are right-handed pitchers Jimmy Barthmaier, Ronald Belisario, Oliva Astacio, Romulo Sanchez, Adam Bernero, Yoslan Herrera, Jesse Chavez and Luis Munoz, left-hander Dave Davidson, catcher Miguel Perez and infielder Jose Macias. No surprises, or people that will be terribly missed, there. I suppose Chavez and Romulo! may have had an outside chance at making the pen, but it was a pretty longshot for both of them.

This week's poll deals with Zach Duke's outlook for 2008. I am not optimistic, but I'm curious how optimistic you guys are. Talk it up in the comments. Last week's results: How will Byung-Hyun Kim pitch in 2008? OK- 66% (137 total votes) Failure- 16% (35 votes) Abject failure- 16% (34 votes) "Abject failure" has filed papers for a recount, as 2% of the vote has been lost to the GoogleTubes.

Apparently, speculating about the Mets being interested in Nady was a step in the right direction as the Mets inquired about acquiring Weapon X within the past few days . The PG says there's no interest on the Pirates' part to get a deal done right now, but I'm willing to bet that changes if Pearce keeps wrecking the Grapefruit League. Maholm and Morris both got beaten up pretty good today . When I do things like the preview for the Hardball Times book (which is now shipping, hint hint) or Red Hot Mama's podcast , I generally cite the rotation as the team's strong point. When you really think about it, that's a terrifying thing for this team's prospects. If you were hoping to get tickets to the home opener or Yankees series ... uhhh ... you're already too late . Hyzdu HQ takes a look back on Baseball America's 2005 lineup projection for 2008. Check it out. You may or may not have heard about this big basketball game going on 'round my part of t...

Steven Pearce is mauling this spring and you've gotta figure Neal Huntington is placing calls all around to try and find a home for Xavier Nady by March 31st. Moises Alou injured his groin this week and he's probably going to be out close to two months. R otoworld thinks the Mets will look outside the organization to fill the hole in left (unsaid: because they stupidly traded Lastings Milledge away for peanuts). I think that sounds like a nice place for Xavier Nady. I mean, he won't bring Oliver Perez back in a trade or anything, but just opening up a spot for Pearce would be good enough for me. Actually, if Huntington really wants to earn points, he'll just trade away everyone Littlefield acquired. I know it's pretty much the whole team, but hey, something's gotta be done.

You probably saw that Josh Sharpless and Carlos Maldanado got cut from camp yesterday. If you thought seemed strange to see ONLY those two guys gone and no one else when those two seemed like they were going to have a shot at making the team, well, it was strange. Apparently Huntington was not pleased with the physical shape they were in when they got to camp: The Pirates reassigned reliever Josh Sharpless and catcher Carlos Maldonado to minor-league camp, and did so with a purpose: Management clearly was irked with both for having failed to follow prescribed offseason conditioning programs. "Those who have done everything they needed to do are still here," general manager Neal Huntington said. "Those who didn't have been weeded out." Of course, I don't know how cutting Sharpless and Maldanado is really going to make a point, but good for the Pirates on this one. I also thought it was interesting to see the Bucs are limiting ticket sales for the Yankees s...

There was actually a lot of interesting things that happened in today's spring game . First up, Steve Pearce hit his third homer of the spring in the first inning today. He's only got 18 at-bats, which makes the three homers kind of impressive, though it's hard to tell how impressive because the wind is always a factor in these spring games. Still, it's gonna be awfully hard for Neal Huntington to keep him in AAA if he keeps up any pace resembling this one. The other piece of note from the game today was Zach Duke's three scoreless innings. They came in innings 3-5, so it's hard to know who he faced at the plate, exactly, but three one-hit innings with two strikeouts would be a big deal against a Little League team after his first outing this spring. Since Phil Dumatrait and Jaret Wright are being mentioned as possible fifth starters if it isn't Duke, I hope Duke gets himself together. This is from yesterday, but the Bucs are working on a long-term deal with...

To this point in his tenure, the Pirate employee that Frank Coonelly most reminds me of (in a purely superficial manner) is Dave Littlefield. They're both brash, smooth talking guys that could sell you volcano insurance, if they so desired. Because of just about everyone's description of Coonelly as really, really freaking smart (I'm paraphrasing), I was willing to let that go in the hopes that he knew what he was doing and had a plan to turn the Pirates around. He's said all the right things and he's got a pretty intimate knowledge of how baseball works given his job as labor counsel. I'm now seriously worried, because Charlie has dug up this quote : "We'll pay attention to the slot, but we'll take the best available player that we believe we have a chance to sign," Coonelly said. "If we think a player's value is over the slot, we'd certainly consider it." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! That modifier, "that we believe we ha...

Sorry about the sudden dearth of posts. I'm still here and paying attention, so don't you worry about that. Today we've got some new conclusions to jump (or not to jump) to. Zach Duke will never throw a pitch past anyone ever again. Jason Bay has completely forgotten how to catch flyballs and will never be good again. Andrew McCutchen's hat looks really funny Personally, I'm jumping on the first one and while I'm mildly disturbed by the second one, I'm not jumping yet since Dejan defended him in today's Q&A . And that third one's not really a question; he's just wearing a funny looking cap.