Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

Quick roster update at the PG today. I'm incredibly rushed for time right now, but the bullpen is set with Jonah Bayliss, John Wasdin, and Juan Perez joining Torres, Capps, Marte, and Chacon. Meanwhile on the actual roster side of things, Jose K(!) and and Luis Matos were sent packing leaving McLouth, Cota, Kelly, Eldred, Doumit, and Castillo to fight over the five spots on the bench. Then I read something that made me choke: The only certainty of the group was that Kelly, a Mt. Lebanon and Point Park College, will make the team. Assuming Cota makes the team (and I think he will), Don Kelly will be taking a roster spot from Nate McLouth, Brad Eldred, Ryan Doumit, or Jose Castillo. Kill me. Seriously, if there's anyone out there that believes the Pirates can compete this year, how can you honestly think a roster that opens the year up with John Wasdin and Don Kelly on it will manage to not lose 90 games?

Tony Armas Jr. had another solid outing against the Blue Jays today, giving up 2 runs in five innings, though he did walk three batters. Still, it was against mostly Blue Jay starters, so I'd say that it's a pretty solid effort for a fifth starter. Brad Eldred provided all of the offense with a three run homer, his first since early in the month. The box score says Brian Bixler played. That's weird. I thought he got cut.

So... that Matsuzaka guy... pretty impressive . Gorzy started for us and from the boxscore he seems like he was pretty good through four before losing it in the fifth. Then again, five walks in less than five innings is never, ever good. Anyone that saw the game care to comment on Gorzo? Season Preview Part 8 will be up tonight. For reals.

Buried under a fluffy story about Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching at McKechnie in Paul Meyer's notebook today is this: Paul Maholm, who was to start the game at McKechnie Field, instead pitched in a minor-league game at the Pirates' minor-league complex. Sean Burnett started against the Tigers, primarily because the coaching staff wanted to evaluate him more closely. I dunno if I'm buying that. As azibuck notes in the comments below, Maholm has only pitched 7 and 2/3 innings this spring and that's worrisome. Also worrisome is this note, also in the bottom of the notebook: Freddy Sanchez, continuing his rehab from a sprained right knee, took at-bats in a minor-league game for the first time. "I'm hoping to get as many at-bats as I can," he said before leaving for the minor-league complex. "I need these." Sanchez still hasn't been cleared to run or play in the field. Sanchez's "minor" knee injury was 16 days ago.

You guys are already all over it in the comments, but it certainly seemed like Paul Maholm was slated to start a spring training game today and ended up not taking the mound. Sean Burnett pitched rather ably in his absence, but it's a rather strange thing since none of the game recaps mention anything about it at all. Perhaps I'm misremembering that Maholm was scheduled to start today, but since a couple people have already pointed it out in the comments, I don't think so. I'll have more when I figure it out.

I don't know if the sports photo editor or whoever does the pictures for the Pirates articles has a sense of humor, but I have to assume that he or she does. In today's Pirate Notebook , Paul Meyer (could you tell Paul Meyer was back?) writes about Jack Wilson's day in the field yesterday with typically glowing intangible descriptions: Wilson had eight assists, most of them of the highlight reel variety, in the six innings he played in the Pirates' 13-1 win against Cincinnati in the first half of a day/night doubleheader against the Reds, who won the second game, 3-2, in Sarasota. Of course since very few people saw the game, we'll just have to take Paulie's word for it. But that's not what amuses me. What amuses me is the picture right next to the article of Jack "batting." It looks like he's about to get hit in the face with the pitch. Flowing subjective praise, poor objective results. Jack Wilson in a nutshell.

In a game that was a pretty decent match-up of potential starting lineups, both Ian Snell and Zach Duke had good outings against the Red Sox today. Duke pitched four innings and only allowed 2 runs on 3 hits, while Snell went for 3 hitless innings later in the game with 4 K's and only one walk. It's nice to see Duke pitch well this spring after a tough spring last year that he kind of carried into the season. On the downside, Brad Eldred whiffed four times against a Boston Red Sox pitching staff that was decidedly not as "opening day-esque" as the lineups in this one were. The Bucs did win 3-2, buoyed by a go-ahead Neil Walker homer in the seventh. You can find the boxscore here .

Tony Armas Jr. continued in his quest to make me sound like a blathering idiot (admittedly, not all that hard to do) by turning in his third solid outing of the spring, today going 4 strong innings against the Indians in which he only allowed one hit, a home run to Ryan Garko. If there's only one rotation spot open this spring, I've got to think Armas has it pretty much locked up at this point, though I suppose there's still a lot that can happen. The Buccos won today 6-1 against the Tribe and you can see the full box score here .

I think it's a fair question after yesterday's outing. Both he and the team have said his elbow is not an issue (remember he went on the DL with some stiffness or something at the end of the year last year, then the team strangely brought him back for a start or two in September) this year, but Jim Sullivan is hearing whispers that say otherwise in Bradenton. I haven't heard anything from either of the papers or the Pirates yet, but my ears are open. Combine those whispers with his performance so far this spring and yeah, I'm a little nervous about Gorzo in 2007. He got rocked in the first inning yesterday , though he did throw much better in his second two innings. There's no report on his velocity in the PG, but needless to say I'm just a little on edge about Gorzelanny at the moment, especially with the quiet and slow way that Paul Maholm is being brought along this spring.

Most of you are discussing this already in the comments, but better to post it late than never: the Pirates have released Jody Gerut today and announced they'll give Brad Eldred a shot in the outfield. As bad as the 2006 trading deadline was, Jody Gerut is pretty much Dave Littlefield's ineptitude in a nutshell. At the 2005 deadline, Matt Lawton was by far the biggest name available. Despite his lunacy in the field, he was hitting .274/.380/.433 at the time of his trade from the Buccos. All Dave Littlefield could get in return was an outfielder that was well-known to be damaged goods. Gerut played in four (4!) games for us before deciding his knee hurt and that he was going to sit out until 2006. Then in 2006 he decided he'd rather suit up for Hitler than a team with Dave Littlefield at the helm. Now he's gone. Just another stellar Pittsburgh Pirate career. As for Eldred in the outfield, well, I'm happy that the Pirates are thinking a little outside the box on the ...

The Pirates actually won a spring training game today, beating the Twins 5-2 . Tony Armas Jr. and Marty McLeary each threw three solid innings and gave up a run apiece and the stars at the plate were not people that will particularly impact the Pirates this season with Mike Ryan homering and driving in three runs and Don Kelly and Mike Edwards picking up the other ribbies. Jason Bay was 0-for-3, but it was his first appearance of the spring. I'd hope we can keep the "Bayrod" comments to a minimum (kidding, guys). And now that we've got a win, I can go back to paying attention to these games at my own leisure.

I generally don't like Spring Training, if you haven't guessed that yet. It's long and the only things I ever read are "depends on the severity" and "twinge in the elbow" and things of that nature. Management rarely lets spring performances change their minds in any real manner, so the whole month just kind of feels like a waste. But there's one thing that could keep me going: the thought of Brad Eldred playing outfield . Now that I would pay to see. I can't imagine that the organization that despised Craig Wilson's outfield play will let it happen, but a man can dream. Today: Tony Armas Jr. takes the mound again and the Bucs again look for their first win of the spring. And judging from the line-up, Jason Bay will take his first cuts in a game as DH today, which is good news. I know these games don't count, but can we win one or two, please? It would really make everyone feel better about this whole thing.

The Bucs made their first cuts today , though no one surprising has been sent down. John Van Benschoten, Brian Bullington and Yoslan Herrera are probably the biggest names on the list, but due to injuries or general inexperience, everyone expected these guys to start in the minors anyways. Meanwhile, Freddy Sanchez left today's exhibition game with a knee injury that doesn't appear to be severe. And yeah, I'm shamelessly using this as a reminder to check out the stuff going on at the MLB FanHouse, both my stuff and the stuff the other writers are doing over there.

One of the fun parts of spring is trying to guess who the last couple roster spots will go to. Every year a couple guys really shine in Bradenton and give the Pirates no choice but to bring them along for the ride, even when no one saw it coming. Last year it was Nate McLouth. This year, Brad Eldred is shaping up to be that guy. So let's break down the roster as it looks right now and try to figure out who's definitely coming north, who should be coming north, and who actually will be making the trek to PNC. Definitely in: Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Jose Bautista, Jose Castillo, Chris Duffy, Ronny Paulino, Adam LaRoche, Xavier Nady (we'll assume he's healthy enough by the end of March given his fairly quick return), Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Salomon Torres, John Grabow, Damaso Marte, Matt Capps, Tony Armas Jr. That's eighteen guys right there, leaving seven roster spots, probably three for the bullpen and four for the field (as...

Let's catch up on some of the recent news out of Florida and what it means for the Pirates. The most important thing that we got to hear today was that both Xavier Nady and Jose Castillo are going to be OK. Nady's intestinal thingy was just a virus and Castillo's foot is fine. The most amusing part of the Nady injury storyline? The Cincy Post Reds' beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans somehow misinterpreted Nady's injury as "testicular" and not "intestinal." Oops. Meanwhile, Masumi Kuwata passed Physical Challenge #1 today by pitching a perfect inning in the Bucs' 10-4 loss to the Reds . Yo Herrera got shelled in his first outing against real batters, giving up four earned runs (and five total) over two innings. This is why it's a good reason to not get excited about much that happens this spring.

Remember when Brad Eldred played in 55 games and crushed 12 homers in 208 PAs? It was only 2005, but I recall that it was a pretty good time (though there was that whole .279 OBP to consider to go with those homers). Anyways Breldred homered for the second day in a row, this time off of Mike Mussina. The Pirates still lost and Jose Castillo went down with a foot injury that needs to be x-rayed tomorrow. The good news from the article is that Xavier Nady is back in camp and working out and seems pretty optimistic that whatever's wrong with him isn't Crohn's disease. At this point in the year, that's the most important thing to come out of today.

Writing about baseball games is why I started this blog. Being a science major and all, I can crunch numbers pretty well and being a smartass and all, I can synthesize news reports and make snarky comments about them. But the real reason I write this blog is to talk about baseball that is played on the field. That means that today is a good day: the Pirates and Braves are on ESPN. I'm not going to liveblog it because it's an exhibition game. There's only so much of it that I care about. What follows is kind of a stream of consciousness of the things that I cared about during the game. John Kruk thinks we have a legitimate shot at the division. Steve Phillips is also here. Seriously, how do I not have their jobs by now? John Smoltz vs. Chris Duffy. I take Smoltz every time. Don Kelly, aka Neil Walker's brother-in-law, can't be over 13 years old. Somehow Ian Snell still looks like a badass in those stupid spring uniforms and caps. I think Ian Snell might be my favorit...

Although I have no way of knowing the exact demographics of my readership here, I've got a sneaking suspicion that there are a large number of people like myself that are reading this blog. That is lazy college students with nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon than sit around their apartment and watch TV. If you do happen to fall into that category, or really any category that lets you have access to a television this afternoon, then I just want to remind you that the Pirates and Braves will be on ESPN at 1 today. My cynical nature prevents me from getting too pumped up about spring training games, but, um, I've already got the DVR set so I don't miss any of it while I'm at class (lay off, I've got a quiz). Anyways, I'll weigh back in later with some first hand observations and you can use this thread as a kind of game thread while the game is going on.

The Bucs and Reds played a game at McKechnie today with the wind blowing out and the Reds won 9-7 . Here are the highlights for the Pirates: Andrew McCutchen lead off the game with a home run. Seriously, the dude better stop or Littlefield will just start him in Pittsburgh and ruin his career now. Luis Matos hit two homers. Damn, damn, damn. He's probably got a locker in Pittsburgh with his name on it already. Or it's one game, whatever. Duke and Gorzo seem to have pitched OK if their line is an indicator. That's it for the highlights. Sully got roughed up for a four run inning and Josh Hamilton made his triumphant return to civilization . Not like any of this matters, DL will use the next month's results to justify what he wants justified and ignore anything he doesn't like.

So as we've all repeatedly noted, we know practically nothing about Yoslan Herrera except that despite all of the rave reviews we've heard about him, he seems unlikely to start the year above Altoona because of legitimate concerns about his durability. But now we know something else, he's intimidating as hell on the mound . I mean look at that picture. Do you want to bat against that guy? I don't. Also, the Pirates and Reds are kicking off the non-manatee related exhibition games this afternoon and the game is probably on the radio, assuming you get whatever radio station they're moved to right now (I would find out, but I'm going to be running fluorescence titrations all afternoon so it's pretty inconsequential to me because no one I work with is a Pirate fan).