Where have you gone, Andy Van Slyke?

Let's starting the off-season off with a poll. How did the Pirates fare this year in relation to your pre-season expectations? Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but if you remember my piece in The Hardball Times Season Preview, I wrote this back in December (it was published in March): Barring a late fire sale before the season, the 2008 Pirates will be a lot like the 2007 Pirates: flashes of potential and some exciting baseball eventually outweighed by their lack of talent and a final result of 67-72 wins. So, I'm picking the third result. Keep your preseason expectations in mind, not what you expected in early June or anything like that.

The new poll question is "Now that the signing deadline has passed, what do you think of the draft?" Vote in the sidebar, talk in the comments, if you like. Neal Huntington's grades from the trade deadline are: A- 20% (114 votes) B- 56% (308) C- 12% (71) D- 3% (20) F- 6% (35) Even Jerry Crasnick knows that WHYGAVS readers like the trades.

New poll, regarding the whole deadline (both trades, plus all the trades Huntington didn't make), is up on the right. Nady poll results are as follows: Like: 21% Meh: 13% Depends on Tabata: 37% Hate: 27% Not nearly as negative as I expected, given the initial. And I like that trade more now that I'm more confident that Huntington knows what he's doing.

It's looking more and more like Nady and Marte to the Yankees for Tabata, Coke, Ohlendorf, and George Kontos. The conversation on this trade begins and ends with Tabata, who might be a super star and might not ever make it to the majors. More later. MORE: Here's the deal; this is Nady and Marte for Tabata's upside. Ohlendorf is a warm body to fill the roster out with, Coke probably isn't much more than that and neither is Kontos. ( ETA: I'm selling Kontos short here. He's got good strikeout numbers and is age appropriate in AA at 23. He might turn out to be a decent starter.) This is a trade for Tabata. The thing is, it's really hard to project Tabata. His minor league numbers are awful, but they're also practically meaningless because he's extremely young. Prospect guys like John Sickels LOVE Tabata , but he really hasn't done much and he's suffered a wrist injury this year that seems to be pretty serious. He's a huge talent, but he'...

There's a new poll in the sidebar dealing with the trade deadline. It's a bit labyrinthine and SAT-like, but I'm curious where people are really at on this trade deadline stuff. You know the drill, vote on the right, talk in the comments.

We've already talked a lot about the draft, but there's a few more links and opinions I'd like to give before we move on to business as usual. In his draft round-up, Dejan confirmed the injury to Scheppers as a slightly damaged labrum rather than a stress fracture in his shoulder. It seems like the team's plan is to see how the shoulder looks as the August 15th signing deadline approaches, then make a decision on what to do from there. As it's been noted by just about everyone everywhere, Scheppers is pretty much the antithesis of a Littlefield pick. He's a top-10 talent if he's healthy and he's a top-ten talent, but labrum damage can be really serious stuff. The question is whether it's a risk worth taking. Given the high potential involved, it certainly seems like it is, with the caveat that we don't know a lot about the injury. Wilbur Miller has a write-up on every single draft pick the Pirates made . If you want to know about the draft, you ...

Last week's poll may have been the closest in WHYGAVS history. The question of whether or not the Pirates will lose 100 games this year split you guys right down the middle with "Yes" getting 141 votes and "No"getting 142. That means that if you voted for "no", you made the difference. That's freaking democracy in action. I voted for no. I feel special. I also might change my vote in about two more turns of the rotation if we can't get our act together. The new poll is the obvious one, who do you want to see in Matt Morris's place in the rotation? Vote in the sidebar, talk in the comments.

New poll, being taken at this point try and measure just how badly this streak has people bummed out. The question: will the Pirates lose 100 games this year? Results of the early season surprise poll: Nate McLouth, 48% Doumit starting, 26% Yates bringing the heat, 11% Rivas sucking, 6% Gorzo's bad start, 4% Bay's semi-bounceback, 3% As usual, vote in the sidebar, talk in the comments.

Remember when I used to make have a poll every week? Yeah, it's been like a month, but I'm bringing it back today. Today's question deals with the biggest surprises through 12 games for the 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates. Vote in the sidebar and defend your point in the comments.

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.

Last week's results are in and a pretty overwhelming 76% of WHYGAVS readers have no idea how to spell Mientkiewicz. This dude is the blogger's nightmare. This week's question is about our new newest acquisition: How will the Byung-Hyun Kim experiment work out? As always, you've got a week to vote and feel free to talk it out in the comments.

The new poll is of the utmost importance at this time of year: Can you spell Mientkiewicz? Last week's results indicate that Freddy Sanchez's new contract went over well, with 162 votes in favor of it and 36 votes opposed. The percentages once again failed to add up to 100. I don't know why this keeps happening.

The numbers on the Freddy Sanchez extension are out. Two years with a vesting third option based on plate appearances (which is not really unusual) and/or all-star appearances and up to $18.9 million. It's not a bank-breaker, but I think this is a lateral move at best for the Pirates and could end up being a bad one if Freddy declines quickly. But you know what I think ... what do you think? Freddy's the topic of the new sidebar poll. Last week's results: Start Steve Pearce in Pittsburgh- 80% (128 votes) State Steve Peace in Indy- 19% (31 votes) The underpants gnomes - 1%

We'll springboard from the recent hot button issue in the comments right into this week's poll: Where should Steven Pearce begin 2008? As always, the poll's in the sidebar, so make sure you vote by next Friday. Last week's question was Will the Pirates make a significant roster move before the season starts? and the results were pretty one-sided: Yes- 15% (27 votes) No- 84% (148 votes) I don't know where the other one percent went. To Ron Paul, maybe.

Last week's poll: Evaulate Neal Huntington Green and clueless- 5% (12 votes) Has a plan, but handcuffed by Littlefield's mess- 50% (108 votes) Wearing a Dave Littlefield suit- 11% (25 votes) Undecided- 32% (votes) This week's question: Will the Pirates make a significant roster change before the season starts? It seems unlikely, but the LaRoche trade went down almost exactly a year ago (I remember because it happened the day before my birthday, which happens to be today) and I think Huntington's going to keep one eye towards making a move all year long. As usual, the poll is in the sidebar and the comments are open for discussion.

Blogger has added a new "poll" functionality. It doesn't look as nice as the ones I used to run through Pollhost, but it's a lot easier for me to do it this way. I'll see if I can't monkey around with it and get it to look prettier. Until then, it's in the sidebar so vote, vote, vote! Drop me a line in the comments and let me know what you think of the new poll style.

Despite winning 21 of 22 games, there are lots of people that don't give the Rockies much of a chance in the World Series for various reasons (long layoff, Red Sox are too good, inferior league, flash in the pan, etc.). Are the naysayers crazy? Do the Rockies have a chance? I'm only leaving this poll up until the series starts (I swear!), so vote quick and defend your vote in the comments.

Playoffs start today with a TBS triple-header, Phillies and Rockies at 3, Angels and Red Sox at 6:30, and Cubs and D'Backs at 10:00. To say I'm excited is an understatement. If you're looking for a comprehensive list of ex-Pirates in the playoffs, Bugs and Cranks has it . Anyways, there's a new playoff poll over on the right, so pick your World Series winner now, tell us why in the comments, and crow about it in three weeks when you're right. The results of the Neal Huntington poll can be found here . I would call the results "guardedly optimistic" because that sounds a lot better than "confused as hell as to who the guy is."

Keeping the WHYGAVS poll fresh and relevant for over... 1 week now!!! The results of the Frank Coonelly poll can be seen here. Only six votes out of 263 gave him an outright thumbs down, which I think is an impressive total. Of course 135 of the same 263 (51%) are postponing their verdict until later. You're on notice, Frank. We're watching you.

Holy cow, the WHYGAVS poll is back! And on top of that, it's going to stay back for a while, because the off-season is the best time of year to do these things. The first question is about Frank Coonelly. What do you think thus far? Vote in the sidebar, talk in the comments.