How Many Innings Can The Pirates Get Out Of Their Starters?

RumBunter post, and a pretty good one if I do say so myself. Check it out.

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Tony Sanchez Has/Had A Broken Jaw

Ridiculous news from the Tribune-Review this morning, Pirates prospect Tony Sanchez sustained a broken jaw earlier in the offseason in a "scuffle". There isn't much more information available right now, but it sounds like Sanchez just got in a childish fight and got punched in the jaw. This will be the second time he has broken his jaw, and the first time set him back for quite some time. I can't imagine this is nearly as bad as taking a 90 mile per hour fastball to the face, but it will certainly set Sanchez back, which is not at all what he or the Pirates needed.

The injury may have occurred over three months ago and could very well be a non-factor by the time spring training starts, so you may not have to worry too much, but we won't know until we see him in Bradenton.

This also doesn't help Sanchez's already shaky reputation. He's starting to become a guy that's easy to dislike. Let's hope he cleans up his act and actually turns into something at the major league level, because right now I wouldn't bet on it.

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N.L. Central Top Prospects - Houston Astros

I am slowly going through a series taking a look at the Pirates National League Central competition's farm systems. I've been using the Baseball Prospectus lists. Here's what I've done so far:

• Cincinnati Reds
• Chicago Cubs
• St. Louis Cardinals

Now if you are an Astros fan, or someone who knows a lot about the Astros, you have to humor me. Without looking at the list, I couldn't name you more than two or three Houston prospects. I will do my best to be as broad as possible, but the odds of me writing this whole post without saying something stupid are slim to none. Comment with corrections and opinions, that will help my readers.

So here's the list:

The Worst Month Of The Year

Here's a post I wrote at RumBunter about how much the month of February sucks. Sorry for the negativity.

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Monday 1/30 | News, Notes, and Links

• MLB Network ranked Andrew McCutchen as the third best center fielder in the league last night. That's down two slots from last year when he was at the top of the list.
• Fangraphs has their list of the Pirates top 15 prospects out.
• Rant Sports has a post out comparing Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon
• Other than that stuff, there is really nothing else going on. I have been slacking on the posts the last few days because of lack of time and lack of writing subjects, but every day that passes brings us closer and closer to spring training, and that's very good news.

Opening Day Starter Poll

Earlier this week I wrote this post about who the Pirates should roll out as their Opening Day starter. Now I'm going all poll on it, please vote, you don't even have to be 18 to do so.

Two Crappy Signings

The Pirates and Astros haven't been the most successful baseball teams in recent years, and today we saw a possible reason for that.

Two awful pitchers have found work. First, the Astros signed Zach Duke to a minor league deal. Duke pitched 76.2 innings (9 starts and 12 relief appearances) in 2011 in his first season away from the Pirates organization and posted a 4.93 ERA. Believe it or not, that was an improvement from his last season with the Pirates when he put up a 5.72 ERA in 29 starts.

The Pirates countered the Astros minor league deal with Duke by signing former Orioles pitcher Daniel Cabrera, who hasn't pitched in the big leagues since 2009. He had a career 5.10 ERA in the big leagues and a 4.32 career minor league ERA. He didn't pitch an inning anywhere last year, so this seems like a complete waste of a signing for the Pirates. Again, there's no risk to a signing like this, but there's no way he ever helps the Pirates in any way.

At the end of the day, these two signings are not going to mean anything, but at least they'll have jobs to support their families with, right?

Who Should The Pirates Opening Day Starter Be?

It's incredibly early to write this post, but I kind of just wanted to beat everyone else to the punch.

The Pittsburgh Pirates open up their 2012 season on April 5th at home against the Philadelphia Phillies. That means Roy Halladay. So who will the Pirates roll out against him? There are six options, sort of. In ALPHABETICAL order (for the sake of SUSPENSE), the options are: Erik Bedard, Kevin Correia, Jeff Karstens, Brad Lincoln, James McDonald, and Charlie Morton.

Right off the bat, we can scratch off Morton and Lincoln. Morton isn't going to be healthy enough to pitch in early April, and Lincoln isn't nearly good enough to even be considered (he probably won't even be in the rotation to start the season). That leaves us with four pitchers that you could make an argument for.

Can Nick Evans Help The Pittsburgh Pirates?

Post on RumBunter I wrote about Nick Evans. Hit that up.

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Robbie Grossman: An "Emerging Prospect"

Buster Olney wrote a short column about prospects that have "emerged" through winter ball. The link to that is here, but you have to have an ESPN Insider Account to read it.

Basically, Olney said that scouts were previously concerned with Grossman because he repeated the A ball (Florida State League) level in 2011, which is a red flag for prospects. However, Grossman's continued success in winter ball (hitting .375/.472/.625) has quieted some of the doubters. Olney believes that Grossman will continue to be successful and could find a home in Pittsburgh as soon as next summer.

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Thursday 1/26 | News, Notes, and Links

• The Reds have signed free agent Jeff Francis to a minor league deal, which means my prediction about the Pirates grabbing Francis was wrong. It was surprising that Francis got just a minor league deal, since he is certainly a big-league caliber pitcher. However, the Reds have a ton of depth in terms of starting pitchers, so Francis probably won't be on the Opening Day roster.
• MLB.com released its top 100 prospects for the 2012 season last night. The Pirates had four players on the list: Jameson Taillon (#8), Gerrit Cole (#11), Starling Marte (#40), and Josh Bell (#69). The guys at MLB.com assigned team point values to each slot (100 points for 1, 99 for 2, etc.), and the Pirates came in third after those four totaled their individual points.
• The Red Sox are apparently talking to Edwin Jackson about a possible one-year deal. I'm sure that Jackson wants more than a one-year deal, and the A.L. East is a horrible spot for a short contract like that, since his numbers would almost certainly be inflated. He would be best served signing a short contract in the National League. The Pirates still haven't been rumored to even be thinking about going after him, but it would sure be interesting if they would decide to go for it. With every day that he doesn't sign, I would say the Pirates chances of getting him go up. That said, there is no reason to believe that the Pirates would even consider it, so don't get excited.

Wednesday 1/25 | News, Notes, and Links

• Prince Fielder is officially in the American League, great news for Pirates fans. The Tigers gave him a hefty 9-year, $214 million contract and now the Pirates won't have to be bothered by him anymore. I wrote this post about the move.
• I took a fairly extensive look at Pirates pitcher Chris Leroux at RumBunter yesterday.
• Pat from WHYGAVS has a post up that talks about the Pirates farm system, that post itself links to some good reads, so check that out.
• Here's a somewhat depressing post from sbnation that reminds us of how tough it's going to be for the Pirates to compete in this league, especially over the long haul. If you're just starting your day, I wouldn't read it, it'll get you off on a bad foot.

Detroit Offers Free Buffet; Fielder Is A Tiger

The wait has finally come to an end. Prince Fielder is officially out of the National League Central.

This isn't something we didn't all see coming, but it's nice to see it finally happening. It's also nice to see him go outside the National League entirely. My thought was that the Nationals were going to get him and really turn into a competitor fast. Since Washington has a really tall hill to climb to beat out Philadelphia for their division, they figure to be a serious Wild Card contender the next few years with the young core of Steven Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, Jordan Zimmermann, Michael Morse and now Bryce Harper. That's still going to be a heck of a team, but Fielder would have put them over the top.

Chris Leroux ... And Stuff

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N.L. Central Top Prospects - Chicago Cubs

I'm going around the division looking at each team's top 20 prospects and giving a brief overview of their system. Here's the rest of the posts:

• Cincinnati Reds
• Houston Astros
• St. Louis Cardinals

The Chicago Cubs have been poor for quite some time now, and their farm system doesn't seem to do all that much to make people believe they'll be turning it around any time soon. They forwent possible trades of Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena last year that could have netted them some quality prospects, and they lost both of those players to free agency this offseason. Nice work.

Monday 1/23 | News, Notes, and Links

• If you haven't seen already, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com revealed his top ten first base prospects, and Pirates 2011 draft selection Alex Dickerson is number nine of the list. Definitely good to see a prospect not named Cole, Taillon, Bell, or Heredia getting some recognition.
• Patrick Reddick (the photoshop wonder-kin who made my blog's banner) has an article on how he actually found a way to project the Pirates to win 83 games in 2012. While it may not be the best way to project a team, we'll take any positive news we can get.
• Prince Fielder may be close to finding a new home. First came this article about how the Dodgers might have a shot, but there was also this: some Twitter reports late last night that said Fielder may have reached an agreement with the Nationals (although that's probably not a credible source). It's midnight as I write this, and it's not going to post until the morning, so there's a chance that a deal could have already been announced, so check other sources.
• A blog called 60 Feet 6 Inches has a post about how it still pays to be left handed in which he talks about how ridiculous the Oliver Perez signing seems for the Seattle Mariners. I've always found it intriguing how much more advantageous it is for a pitcher to be left-handed.
• I'm trying to keep count of how many times ESPN shows the David Tyree catch over the next two weeks, so if you see it on, please tweet me and tell me you saw it and what time you did so. Thanks.
• Today is the birthday of one of my best friends, Paul Notarianni. All he wants is some more twitter followers, so hit him up @ThePaulFather and wish a brother a Happy 22nd Birthday.
• There's really not much else to tell here. Yesterday was all about football, but now we have two weeks to wait until the Super Bowl, and if you aren't into the NBA or NHL, this could be a long 14 days for you. Hang in there sports fans. Use this opportunity to work really hard in school or at your job for a few days, that would be kinda cool right?

Winter Blues

I was downtown yesterday and snapped this picture while driving past PNC Park. We're 74 days away from watching live baseball in Pittsburgh again.

A Win-Win For The Pirates: Ryan Braun Has Herpes

Alright, it's not the best Photoshop ever done, but the idea was solid, right?

Anyways, Ryan Braun has been under a ton of duress lately after he tested positively for performance-enhancing drugs. The claim is that he unknowingly got the bad stuff in his system while taking medication to calm a wild case of genital (well they certainly aren't on his face) herpes. So basically we're looking at a win-win situation here. If Braun's appeal doesn't work out, he'll be suspended 50 games and his reputation will be ruined forever, but even if he does win the appeal and avoids the suspension, we'll all know that he has herpes, and the fun is endless from there.

For more information about all of this, check out this RumBunter article.

Stay pure, Pittsburgh!

Saturday 1/21 | News, Notes, and Links

• I will be on TribLive Radio this afternoon from 12:00-1:00 talking Pirates and whole bunch of other useless things with Daniel "D.D." Dudley, so be sure to check that out. Click the link above or download their app from the Apple App Store or Android Market Place to listen in.
• The Outside Corner Blog has a post up about baseball's top 15 prospects. The Pirates have two players on the list, Jameson Taillon at #13 and Gerrit Cole at #10.
• The Astros have signed Chris Snyder to a one-year deal, so you can officially stop associating him with the Pirates.
• Carlos Pena finally found a home, and a familiar one at that. The Tampa Bay Rays have signed him to a one-year deal, just another power bat that the Pirates won't have to see in the division this year.
• Rantsports.com posted an article that echoes what I have been saying for awhile now, that Pedro Alvarez holds the key to the Pirates 2012 success. Again, this isn't anything that you couldn't have read a month ago right here at mceffect.com, but it's still a good read.
• We are officially under the 75 day mark until Opening Day.

Which Andrew McCutchen Will We See In 2012?

Andrew McCutchen is a stud, everybody knows that. He's going to be a star in this league for years to come. However, he's not all that predictable at the plate.

In McCutchen's first season in the major leagues he had 493 plate appearances and hit .286/.365/.471, a very solid line for anybody, much more so for a rookie. In his second year, McCutchen hit an eerily similar .286/.365/.449, another very good season.

However, last year things changed a bit. McCutchen hit .259/.364/.456 in 678 plate appearances. The average was down, the on-base percentage was right on track with his career, but he slugged better and hit for more power.

The reason for that is probably because of his place in the order. We're going to ignore his first half year in the majors for the next two paragraphs.

Astros Sign Chris Snyder, Rays Sign Carlos Pena

Another former Pirate has found a new team, and that is Chris Snyder. The Astros gave Snyder a one-year deal with an option for 2013.

Also, Carlos Pena is officially off the market. He is heading back to Tampa Bay to play his former team once again for $7.25 million. Last season and at the beginning of this offseason, I really wanted the Pirates to sign Pena, but I think it's for the best that they have not done so. It's also interesting to think about what the Pirates would have had to pay to get Pena in Pittsburgh, my guess is more than what the Rays paid.

You can all but write-off the Pirates chances of signing a first baseman this offseason, as Derrek Lee is definitely not returning, and the Pirates have no expressed any interest in other options. I'm not writing off the possibility of the Pirates trading for another high-upside guy like Brandon Allen, but I wouldn't bet on it.

There's going to be a lot more signings in the next few days as the whole arbitration process is winding down.

Derrek Lee Hates The Pittsburgh Pirates

RumBunter post about Derrek Lee and how he would rather retire than play for the Pirates again. WE DON'T WANT YOU ANYWAYS, JERK.

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Ryan Braun Should Decline The MVP Award

via Yahoo! Sports

The MVP award banquet is Saturday night, and Ryan Braun has a decision to make. The recipients of the away are expected to come to a podium, accept the award and make a small speech, but it would seem to be in Braun's best interest to not take the award. Will Braun do this? I doubt it. He still seems to be locked into screaming at everyone that he didn't do anything wrong, so I think he'll just take the award and not mention the steroid accusations while he continues to hope that he somehow magically gets out of this whole mess. It will certainly be interesting to see what Braun does and says Saturday, so keep an eye out for that.

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Thursday 1/19 | News, Notes, and Links

• The arbitration deadline was Tuesday morning, and the Pirates still had two eligible players, Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee, unsigned. That doesn't mean it's too late to sign them however, since arbitration hearings wouldn't be set up until sometime between February 1st and 15th, and the sides are free to negotiate until then. I don't understand the whole "deadline" thing if you can just continue to work out a deal after it has passed, but baseball does a lot of things that don't make a ton of sense. Anyways, Jones and McGehee are both very close to getting the deals they want from the Pirates, so I would imagine that they both get contracts before February and they avoid arbitration. Jones will get somewhere between $2.25 and $2.5 million while McGehee will get somewhere between $2.7 and $2.35 million.
• The Pirates have a rousing list of PNC Park concerts in 2012, including Boyz II Men, Daughtry, STYX, and Lifehouse. SBNation calls them the "The Pittsburgh Pirates of Music".
• The Astros have begun to prepare for their move to the American League by signing Jack Cust, who might not even own a baseball glove. Cust is a designated hitter who used to have big time power but has struggled a lot recently. The Astros will see if they can rejuvenate his power bat and hope he doesn't kill them in the outfield while they patiently await their move to the American League.
• The Nationals are still the favorite to sign Prince Fielder, but I'm curious as to why it's taking him so long to pick a team. I guess he's just enjoying all the freedom to eat whatever he wants at any volume and not have a manager to hold him accountable.
• While we wait for Fielder to stop the gluttony, Carlos Pena and Derrek Lee still remain unsigned. Earlier in the offseason I thought the Pirates were going to seriously go after one of those guys, but now I don't see any chance of that happening.

I'd post more, but I'm already late for Calculus. Peace out Pittsburgh.

Put Your Money On Pirates Prospect Colton Cain

Wrote a piece about Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Colton Cain on RumBunter. It doesn't suck.

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N.L. Central Top Prospects - Cincinnati Reds

I'm launching a pre-season series that is going to take a brief look around the National League Central at each team's top 20 prospects. I'm not going too in depth with any of it, but it'll be good enough to familiarize you with some names that you'll be seeing against the Pirates in coming years. For the Pirates top prospects, you can check my profiles of the top 20 right here.

Here's the rest of the posts I've done for this eeries:

• Chicago Cubs
• Houston Astros
• St. Louis Cardinals

Anyways, we're going to be going off of Baseball Prospectus lists and information. I do not claim to know anything about the farm systems of teams outside of the Pirates, so I'm basically just going to be regurgitation information that the geniuses at BP have come up with.

Oliver Perez and Jason Jaramillo Find New Homes

Two formers Pirates have signed on with new teams today.

Oliver Perez signed a minor-league deal with the Seattle Mariners that included an invitation to spring training. The Mariners are clearly scrambling after trading Michael Pineda to the Yankees for Jesus Montero. Perez has very little chance of seeing any time in the major leagues this year. Last year he pitched 75.2 innings with the AA affiliate of the Washington Senators posting a 3.09 ERA while striking out just 6.9 batters per nine innings. Perez's career is over, but it's good to see one of my former favorite players make some money to support himself with.

Jason Jaramillo has also moved on after being DFA'd by the Pirates this offseason. JJ signed onto a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs. Jaramillo might see some time in the major leagues this year. He'll have to battle it out with Welington Castillo and Steve Clevenger for the job backing up Geovany Soto in Chicago. If you haven't heard of either of those guys, you aren't alone.

Yu Darvish And Why Major League Baseball Is Flawed

RumBunter post. Check it out.

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Brad Lincoln vs. Kevin Correia - POLL

I wrote a post yesterday comparing Brad Lincoln and Kevin Correia, and I came to the point where I said I would rather see Lincoln in the rotation than Correia. Now I want to see what you all think, so vote in this poll:

Pirates Avoid Arbitration With Evan Meek

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The Pirates have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Evan Meek by signing him to a one-year deal worth $875K (with some performance-based incentives). This leaves just Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee for Pirates that are eligible for arbitration.

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Pirates Avoid Arbitration With Jeff Karstens

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The Pirates have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Jeff Karstens by signing him to a one-year deal worth $3.1 million. At this time last year, this would have been baffling, but Karstens put a very strong 2011 season together and earned this money. I'm not going to bet on him replicating that success (or even coming very close to it) in 2012, but the Pirates really didn't have a choice in signing him to this deal.

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Kevin Correia vs. Brad Lincoln

Assuming the Pirates don't make another starting pitcher acquisition before the season starts, it looks like the rotation will look like this:

1. Erik Bedard
2. James McDonald
3. Charlie Morton
4. Jeff Karstens
5. Kevin Correia / Brad Lincoln

Now Morton may miss a start or two, so he will actually be penciled in as the fifth starter at the beginning of the season, and both Correia and Lincoln are likely to make at least one start in April. However, the Pirates have a decision to make when Morton is ready to go again.

They have to choose between starting Correia, who won won 12 games last year and made the all-star team, and Lincoln, who posted a 4.29 ERA and held opposing batters to a .279 batting average against as a starter last year. Let's compare their 2011 seasons more closely:

Pirates 2012 Starters And 2011 Pitch F/X

The Pirates have six pitchers fighting for five starting positions in the 2012 rotation. There's a chance that the Pirates will sign another starter, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I gathered all the 2011 pitch f/x data for these six starters and put them together in tables so we can compare them. I'm not going to write anything more about this, so analyze it and see if you learn anything:

Pirates Avoid Arbitration With Charlie Morton

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The Pirates have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Charlie Morton by signing him to a one-year deal worth $2.45 million. If Morton plays at the level he did for most of last year, he is going to be one of the most underpaid pitchers in the league, which is great news for Pirates management.

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The Forgettable Eric Fryer

Myself and RumBunter have been doing a lot of writing about Pirates catching prospect Tony Sanchez today. I wrote this post about how I thought Sanchez holds one of the five biggest keys to the future success of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The main reason for that is because of the lack of depth the Pirates have at the catching position. After Sanchez, there's really nothing in the system that even resembles a possible big league starter.

However, I want to talk about the guy who is second behind Sanchez, and that is Eric Fryer.

Pirates Prospects And Keys To The Future

RumBunter post about the five Pirates Prospects that hold the biggest keys to the future success of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Check it out:

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Did Joel Hanrahan Get A Good Deal?

The Pirates avoided arbitration with closer Joel Hanrahan earlier today by signing him to a one-year $4.1 million deal. I was curious as to whom that deal favored.

I came across this article from baseball analysts.com that gave math equations to figure out what a player should be paid based on his contract status with his team and his previous season's WAR. This data was based on all the contracts in 2008. It doesn't necessarily take into account the WAR changing year-to-year, which includes up and down seasons, so this is certainly not a perfect way to do this, but it's interesting nonetheless. Here's the equations:

When under team control: Salary = .51 + WAR*.001
When Arb eligible: Salary = 2.26 + WAR*.31
When FA eligible: Salary = 5.53 + WAR*1.23

Since Hanrahan is arbitration eligible, we use the second equation. His WAR last season was 2.9, so let's plug it into the equation.

SALARY = 2.26 + (2.9)*(0.31)
SALARY = $3.16 million

So according to that equation, Hanrahan got more money than he deserved. However, the Pirates wanted to avoid arbitration, so that could explain going a little above what their ideal amount would have been.

Again, this is probably a ridiculous way to look at this, and I am not saying that Hanrahan was definitely overpaid, but it's something to keep in mind and it's a good way to try and think about things like this.

Pirates Avoid Arbitration With Joel Hanrahan

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The Pirates have avoided arbitration with all-star closer Joel Hanrahan by signing him to a one-year deal worth $4.1 million.

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N.L. Central Bill James Projections - Houston Astros

This is the final post of my series where I go through all the National League Central teams and check out their Bill James projections. Here's the links to the rest of the series:

• St. Louis Cardinals
  
• Milwaukee Brewers
  
• Cincinnati Reds
• Chicago Cubs

It's been getting progressively more favorable for the Pirates as have gone on, and now we'll check on the worst team in baseball last year, the Houston Astros. Here's the numbers:

N.L. Central Bill James Projections - Chicago Cubs

We're almost done with the NL Central Bill James comparison series, so check out the other posts with these links:

• St. Louis Cardinals
  
• Milwaukee Brewers
  
• Cincinnati Reds

Now we are onto the Chicago Cubs, who used a hefty payroll to win 71 games last year and finish 5th in the division despite a late surge. Here are their numbers for the upcoming year:

N.L. Central Bill James Projections - Cincinnati Reds

This week I have been going through the Pirates competition in the National League Central and looking at each team's projected lineup and pitching rotation and their 2012 Bill James projections. Next up is the Reds. Here's there stuff:

Mathematically Generated Pirates Lineup

New post by yours truly over at RumBunter. Check her out.

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Pirates Sign Doug Slaten

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The Pirates have signed yet another minor league level pitcher. This time it's 31-year old Doug Slaten. Slaten missed a ton of time in 2011 but posted a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 minor league innings. He also pitched at the major league level for Washington and posted a 4.41 ERA with 7.2 K/9 and 5.0 BB/9 in 16.1 innings. For his major league career, he has a 3.60 ERA in 137.2 innings with 6.8 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9. He isn't a terrible pitcher, but at the age of 31 I doubt he is relevant at all with the Pirates in the future.

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N.L. Central Bill James Projections - Milwaukee Brewers

Late last night I started a post-series of looking at the projected lineups and pitching rotations for the Pirates National League Central division opponents. I've been compiling all the data for the other teams and checking out their players Bill James projections for 2012. The first post was on the St. Louis Cardinals, you can read that here. This one is about the division's second best team last year, the hated Milwaukee Brewers. Here's the data:

N.L. Central Bill James Projections - St. Louis Cardinals

Over the next few days, I am going to be seeing how the Pittsburgh Pirates stack up to the rest of the division by comparing Bill James projections.

For each team, I will look at their 2012 projected Opening Day lineup (which could easily change before the season starts) and each players Bill James projections in certain categories. After that, I average out the projections (which is really an illogical thing to do mathematically because the average of a bunch of averages is not a true average, but it'll work for this study since we're doing it just for comparison reasons) and see how the Pirates stack up against the other squads.

So let's take a look at the Pirates projections first:

Cubs Close To Signing Paul Maholm

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I'm a little late on this, but the Chicago Cubs are close to signing former Pirate pitcher Paul Maholm. The contract details should be released tomorrow, but it looks like Maholm will be back in the National League Central and pitching against the Pirates in 2012.

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Time To Focus

The Steelers lost to the Broncos today, and that means their season is over.

The Penguins are still a topic of interest, but they have a crap ton of injuries and the 2012 future doesn't look bright. Possible catastrophic news of Sidney Crosby's retirement may be on the way (but probably not), and chances are the Penguins don't have a very successful end of the season.

That leaves one major team, and I'm not talking about the Pittsburgh Power.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are the only team that hasn't lost a game yet this year, so let's all get real into them, shall we? Sure, the Pirates are the worst team of the Pittsburgh trifecta by far, but at least their players are healthy and they have a season ahead of them.

Right now there isn't too much going on in Pirate land, obviously, but spring training is fast approaching. Myself and other blogs are working hard to post stuff every day, so there's no excuse for not keeping up to date on your Buccos. Pirates Prospects, Rumbunter, and Bucs Dugout are the best sites to be on this time of year with daily posts and great analysis of everything Pirates, so check them out, daily, hourly, whatever you have to do.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be back before you know it, and you don't have too much else to be interested until then... unless you're one of those people who takes their schoolwork or job seriously.

Ronny Cedeno To Sign With New York Mets

That's right, Ronny Cedeno has found a new home. That home comes with a huge pair of shoes that he is going to have to try and fill after Jose Reyes signed with the Miami Marlins.

Cedeno isn't a sure thing to start at short for the Mets, and he isn't exactly getting a huge contract. It looks for right now like Ronny is going to be staying thirsty to the tune of $1.2 million plus a lot of incentives. His cavalier attitude and constant mind-farts should right in to the Mets current "how could that even happen" situation.

If I were a Mets fan, this wouldn't ease the pain of Reyes leaving one bit. However, they got him cheap and he will play decent defense over there and could give them their money's worth.

Check out what my dude Tom Smith wrote over at RumBunter, it's quality.

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McEffect T-Shirts, Real Life Pictures.

Here are some real life pictures of the shirts I'm selling. I just got them in so if you order one or have ordered one previously, you will have it in the next week. Thanks for putting up with the advertising. The shirts are $15 and you can buy one by clicking here.

The Very Morally Sound Pittsburgh Pirates

News broke today that Starlin Castro has been accused of sexual assault. That made me happy to be a fan and writer for the Pittsburgh Pirates. You know why? Because when was the last time you heard a Pirate player, coach, or anyone affiliated with the team in the news for the wrong reasons?

This post is coming off the top of my head, but I can't think of anything of this sort happening to the Pirates. Sure, Jose Tabata was kind of in the news when his 40+ year old wife was caught kidnapping a baby, but that's not really his fault (although it's pretty strange that he was married to someone more than 20 years older than him). As far as I can remember, the Pittsburgh Pirates have behaved very well in my lifetime.

What you rather have? A team that wins with a couple criminals on it? Or a team that loses 19 straight years and has a bunch of good, law-abiding citizens?

Okay, you'd probably take the good team, but at least we don't have the worst of both worlds here.

I'm just trying to be positive, you know?

Can Garrett Jones Have A Big 2012?

The Pittsburgh Pirates are heading into another season with Garrett Jones being one of the biggest bats in their lineup. While that is largely uninspiring, I think Jones is more valuable to this team than many people give him credit for.

Chances are that Jones spends most of his time in 2012 playing first base. He will be sharing that time with Casey McGehee, at least while the Pirates give Pedro Alvarez another shot at third. I took an in depth look at that platoon a little while ago, and I discovered that a true platoon of Jones and McGehee would actually size up well to what the Pirates would get by paying a lot more for guys like Carlos Pena, Derrek Lee, or Casey Kotchman.

But for now let's take a closer look at Garrett Jones by himself...

Pirates Looking For Utility Infielder?

MLB Trade Rumors came out with this little number today... interesting.

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I'm not reading too much into this. Sure, the Pirates middle-infield backups are pretty poor at this point. Yamaico Navarro, Gustavo Nunez, Anderson Hernandez, Chase d'Arnaud, and Josh Harrison are hardly big league level players. Navarro and d'Arnaud have upside and Harrison played decently well in his time with Pittsburgh last year, but I don't think the team is comfortable with those guys as their main back-ups. If Walker or Barmes were to go down, things would be ugly. The options that post mentions are Orlando Cabrera, Adam Everett, Craig Counsell, Ryan Theriot, Miguel Tejada, and Jack Wilson. The only guys I would take from there over what we already have are Cabrera, Theriot, and Tejada. The Pirates aren't going to pay Tejada what he wants, and that would be just a terrible it, so rule him out as well. I don't see the Pirates getting Cabrera or Theriot either, and like I said, the rest of them really wouldn't help this team.

I don't expect the Pirates to sign another middle infielder, I just see them crossing their fingers that Barmes and Walker stay healthy. I think d'Arnaud and Harrison are good enough options at this point for the Pirates, they really should be focusing their remaining efforts and money on another starting pitcher or a first baseman.

Hate To See You Go, Zambrano

The Chicago Cubs are trading Carlos Zambrano to the Miami Marlins (that still sounds weird) for Chris Volstad. The Cubs are going to pick up all but $2.5 million of Zambrano's salary, which basically cancels out Volstad's salary for the Marlins. I don't understand this move for the Marlins. They are losing the years of control they have over Volstad, a younger pitcher with more upside, for (probably) one year of Zambrano, who has had too many problems to count. The guy probably can't pitch a full season anymore, and chances are he'll just have another blow-up this year that will be a cancer to the team, and the Marlins are all too familiar with those kinds of things already.

Starting Pitchers Still On The Market

The Pirates could be spending some more money on another starting pitcher here in the next few days or weeks, so I wanted to take a look at the remaining free agent pitchers that they could be looking at. Obviously not all of these names even make sense for the Pirates, but it's interesting to see the whole list. Jeff Francis is a popular name, mainly because the Pirates have had interest in him in the past. Also, Edwin Jackson's name has been brought up by a few bloggers, not because of any rumors, but just because he is an intriguing name that is still available. Here's the full list, the number in parentheses is their Bill James 2012 predicted FIP, which is an ERA-like number that discounts everything the pitcher does not control.

Logan Kensing Pitch F/X

Logan Kensing has thrown 1,561 pitches in the major leagues, here's the deets.

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Selection	Strike%
Fastball	92.5	-6.52	10.45	41.7%	65.6%
4-Seam	93.2	-6.24	9.04	26.6%	63.4%
Slider	81.3	4.04	1.39	24.2%	55.6%
Curve	79.0	5.92	-2.79	5.3%	61.4%
Change	85.5	-7.25	5.03	1.6%	56.0%

Pirates Sign Logan Kensing

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The Pirates have made another AAA depth pitching sign, this one is named Logan Kensing. A former 2nd round draft pick, Kensing is 29 years old and has a career 5.81 ERA in 161 innings pitched at the big league level. He has a career 3.59 minor league ERA and will serve as a triple-A starter to begin the 2012 season.

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Jo-Jo Reyes Pitch F/X

Ah... what the hell

Pitch Type	Veloc	H-Break	V-Break	Selection	Strike%
Fastball	90.7	4.33	9.30	23.6%	61.0%
4-Seam	89.6	2.36	9.09	23.6%	62.8%
2-Seam	90.0	8.05	8.34	17.7%	65.5%
Change	82.4	6.38	7.37	10.3%	61.5%
Slider	82.8	-0.92	0.83	8.1%	66.1%
Curve	75.9	-2.96	-4.63	8.1%	59.8%
Sinker	88.6	7.80	8.79	1.8%	56.5%

Pirates Sign Jo-Jo Reyes

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This is old news that is just becoming official, but the Pirates have signed Jo-Jo Reyes to a minor league deal. Reyes is not a good baseball player, and this move will almost surely prove irrelevant, but I'll probably write more about this later.

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2012 Pittsburgh Pirates Unfamiliar Faces

Another Jon Anderson original RumBunter post. Check her out. I did that crappy photoshop all by myself, my mom is so proud.

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Red Sox Sign Pedro Ciriaco

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The Red Sox have reportedly reached an agreement with former Pirates infielder Pedro Ciriaco.

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What's Wrong With The Playoffs?

The NFL playoffs are upon us and your hometown Pittsburgh Steelers are once again on a Super Bowl hunt. The team brought home 12 wins this year, but that was not enough to win the division since the Baltimore Ravens have the same record and beat the Steelers both times this year. So now, while the Ravens get the two seed and a week off, the Steelers have to travel to Denver to play the 8-8 division winning Broncos.

Andrew McCutchen Career Triple-Slash Lines By Month

I got bored today. That's never a good thing for people who hate baseball and math.

Anyways, what I did was compiled Andrew McCutchen's batting average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP), slugging percentage (SLG), and on-base plus slugging (OPS) numbers and organized them by the month of the year. I discounted his first half season in the major leagues in 2009, so this is just data from the last two seasons. These graphs will show you how McCutchen has progressed (and regressed) in all these categories as the season went on by month. You can't get too much out of two years of data, but see if you can draw any meaningful conclusions, I couldn't. Click the jump to see the graphs.

New Year, Same Pirates?

Happy New Year to everybody out there. Despite the flawed logic of New Years Resolutions, now is as good a time as any to make some changes in your life to benefit yourself. If you're asking me what the best resolution is, I'd say it would be to buy one of my shirts and wear it every day. Click over there on the right to follow through on that one. Anyways, 2012 is going to be a huge year for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team has been rebuilding for a few years now, and we got a small taste of what some of these young guys can do last year. However, I think it's about time for the Pirates to give us more than just a small taste, I think we have all been patient enough to expect something big soon.