News that everyone already knows about

Couple stories from the Pirates today, one that's been talked about all day long already and one that probably doesn't need to be talked about at all.

The Pirates cut Andrew Lambo this morning, which means he'll start the year in AAA Indianapolis, where he spent the majority of last year and frankly tore up the level. Lambo had a dismal spring and clearly wasn't very confident at the plate, so they're sending him to Indy to relax him a bit and try to get him back in some kind of groove at the plate.

Is that a good idea? I don't think so. At this point the idea to go into spring training with him as their starting first baseman for Opening Day seems silly, because now it looks like Lambo has failed at something instead of just missing an opportunity. I'm sure that's not going to be very good for his confidence, but we'll see how he bounces back in his first few weeks back in the minor leagues. That means that Travis Ishikawa will make the starts at first for the Pirates against right handed pitching. There's no reason to be remotely excited about that, because Ishikawa is as mediocre as you'll find. He's a journeyman that's had very little success in the major leagues. He's never had a season with more than 9 home runs, and he's only appeared in 100 games in a season on two occasions. He's not a big league player, but that can work out when you're in an organization that doesn't have a big league first baseman.

This was a lose-lose situation, but I was hoping the Pirates would have gone for the mediocre player that actually has some upside. Neither of them are going to hit, but I'd think you want the guy who's young enough to still legitimately have hopes to make it as a big leaguer someday. I'm sure the Pirates will be quick to bring Lambo up if he seems to be clicking in AAA again, but for how he's looked so far this year, I'm not keeping my hopes up very high.

The other piece of news is that the Pirates signed Vance Worley, seemingly for some AAA pitching depth. They are a bit short on options in terms of starting pitchers (at least for this year as most of the legitimate prospects are a bit far away from the bigs), and Worley has had success at the big league level. It's a harmless move, they didn't lose anything to get him, and he could come in handy if they go through some injury issues like they did last year. Worley was rough last year with the Twins in his 48.2 innings. He posted a 7.21 ERA and spent the rest of the year in the minors. 2011 was Worley's big season with the Phillies when he posted a 3.01 ERA in 25 starts. We've seen pitchers really improve by coming to the National League from the American League, and the Pirates system has had a recent trend of turning pitchers around for the better - so you can't dislike this move.

Neither of these stories are going to have much of an effect on the season this year, but it's a freakin' blog and you're still reading this post anyways so screw it.

Back later with some real stuff.