Pittsburgh Pirates

By Brian Couple of quick hits, now that it’s officially the offseason: The Pirates removed three players from the 40-man roster: Virgil Vasquez, Eric Hacker, and Steve Lerud. Vasquez, of course, pitched horribly in the second half as an emergency starter/bullpen guy with the Bucs. Hacker was dec...

By Charlie At 27, Virgil Vasquez is little more than a vaguely convenient guy to have on your AAA roster--homers ate him alive in his 14 appearances with the Pirates this year, just like they did in his major league debut in 2007. There's no real reason to think that will change.

By Dejan Kovacevic Wilson recently was named the top defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball this past season by the Fielding Bible, a statistics-based publication headed by Bill James. He batted .255 with five home runs and 39 RBIs, missing much of his two months with the Mariners to injury.

By chrisiu10 Daniel McCutchen:  Impressed a little bit at the end of the year in his September Callup.  I like him more as a long relief type but I don't think the Pirates Management see it that way.  Will be in spring training vying for the fifth starter job with Veal, Hacker, Karstens,Hart  and whoever el...

By Dejan Kovacevic gt;Ronny Cedeno is no lock to be the Pirates' shortstop, even though he very much is the default choice at the moment. The team will look at other options there. gt;Jack Wilson will be available, and he would be amenable to returning to Pittsburgh. The Pirates are equally open to discussing su...

The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded right-handed reliever Jesse Chavez to the Tampa Bay Rays.  In return, the Pirates are getting second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

By Phil Hoops Just when things appeared to be turning around for the better, Putz's season took an alarming turn in only two appearances. Both were against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were by no means a powerful team. Read more New York Mets news on BleacherReport.com

By Charlie In 2001 the Phillies got Floyd, later sent to the White Sox in the Jim Thome trade, and Howard. That was all. Again, the Pirates had a much more robust draft, grabbing a number of moderately useful players in Zach Duke, Chris Shelton, Jeff Keppinger, Chris Duffy, Jonathan Albaladejo and Raja...

The president of the Class A Florida State League said a plan for the Pirates to plant a minor league team in Bradenton in 2010 is practically a done deal.

The Pirates will become the sole owners of their Class A club when they purchase the Sarasota franchise from the Cincinnati Reds and relocate it to Bradenton, Fla.

The Pittsburgh Pirates requested outright waivers on pitcher Tyler Yates on Monday.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have named Ray Searage pitching coach after two seasons in the same position with Triple-A affiliate Indianapolis.

By Charlie 19 days ago: Pittsburgh Pirates' Lastings Milledge (85) leaps into the arms of teammate Zach Duke, left, after hitting a base clearing, three-run walk-off double off Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton in the ninth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. T...

By chrisiu10 The draft this year has really helped Neal Huntington’s cause.  Tony Sanchez was projected as a good hitting catcher on the fast track to the big leagues.  Now Huntington took a lot of heat for drafting Sanchez so high, but I think a lot that was unwarranted.  In his first 3 months of profession...

By Charlie 3 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates' Andrew McCutchen follows through on his double against the Florida Marlins in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Miami, Friday, July 3, 2009. Pirates' Jason Jaramillo scored on the double and the Pirates won 7-4. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

By Charlie 4 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Delwyn Young hurdles Chicago Cubs' Milton Bradley while turning the double play on Cubs' Derrek Lee at first during the third inning of a baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Wednesday, May 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

By Charlie More photos » by John Heller - AP 5 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit fields a ground ball to force out Atlanta Braves' Brian McCann in the second inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday, April 17, 2009. (AP Photo/John Heller)

By Charlie 1. Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Altoona. Grade: A-. Previous ranking: 1. If there's anything to worry about here, it's that Alvarez won't hit for a high average in the majors; he batted only .259 in 54 at bats for the USA's World Cup team. He did, however, slug .574, and he's only just now finishing his first pr...

Ryan Doumit went 4 for 4 with four RBI on Wednesday night, powering the Pirates past the Chicago Cubs, 8-2.

Related articles from Bucs Dugout, Kansas City Star, KDKA and more.

By Dejan Kovacevic Neal Huntington said yesterday that Capps will be the closer next spring. gt;Notebook: Why is Frank Coonelly the only one vocally upset by the season? Huntington addresses the question. Also, Pedro Alvarez and Brad Lincoln win gold medals.

By Dejan Kovacevic gt;Game story: Pirates 3, Dodgers 1. From Jeff Karstens to Matt Capps, the bullpen was terrific. The players also had some unusual motivation. Box score gt;Audio: Karstens. gt;Opponent: The Dodgers, by the Los Angeles Times' Dylan Hernandez.

By Dejan Kovacevic In the game story, you will find rather strong language from Frank Coonelly about the performance of some players, as well as how the team might respond to those players' performance this winter. gt;Next: The Dodgers, by the Los Angeles Times' Dylan Hernandez.

By Dejan Kovacevic gt;Pittsburgh stuff: Finally, all the Pittsburgh entries into one online volume. gt;Brian Sabean, the Giants' general manager, gets quite defensive about the Freddy Sanchez trade. Sure sounds like his club option will not be picked up.

By Charlie By the way, this post is dedicated to Neil Walker, who earlier this year complained that players like him and the great Brian Bixler were getting the shaft while players acquired by Neal Huntington coasted through. Walker didn't use the word "scholarship," but that's the concept he was i...

Andre Ethier hit a tiebreaking homer, Manny Ramirez had an early RBI double and the Los Angeles Dodgers opened their penultimate regular-season homestand with a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.

Related articles from Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, KDKA, Scout.com > PiratesDugout.com and more.

One night after finally ending his 33-game home run drought, Lance Berkman and the Houston Astros will try to extend the Pittsburgh Pirates' 11-game road losing streak in the opener of a three-game series at Minute Maid Park.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed the following five players, selected in this year's First-Year Player Draft.   Jose Hernandez - 23rd round - OF from the University of Texas/San Antonio Hit .360 (76-for-211) with 25 doubles, 17 home runs and 61 RBI in 55 games as a senior this year…Led t...

By Charlie Then, down the road, knowing the history of (Pirates General Manager) Neal Huntington and (Pirates Director of Player Development) Kyle Stark and the player development people they have in place now, there would be a lot of good things to come on the horizon. When we signed with the Pirate...

By Dejan Kovacevic gt;Today's Sports poll question asks if you want Karstens out of the rotation. gt;Chris Duffy will come to town with a smile. gt;Another old friend, Damaso Marte, goes on the DL. Seems there might be a reason why he has not thrown as hard as he did while in Pittsburgh.

By Dejan Kovacevic In that context, then, it is absolutely zero surprise that a) Ryan Doumit asked the Pirates if he could rehabilitate in Pittsburgh and b) that management easily agreed. gt;Bob Smizik wants to see the Pirates follow Florida's model. gt;USA Today praises the Pirates' rotation.

By Dejan Kovacevic He could have complained about home plate umpire Randy Marsh's refusal to give him an outside strike the whole inning, but declined. gt;Xavier Nady is headed for the DL and Tommy John gt;Pirates Charities begins awarding its "Fields of Dreams."

AP PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Pirates plan to honor three slain city police officers at the team's home opener Monday against the Houston Astros. The Pirates will observe a moment of silence and taps will be played before the game to honor officers ...

By Pat(noreply@blogger.com) All told, the Pirates' team OPS+ in 1998 was 84. To give those of you who might not be as sabermetrically inclined an idea of what an OPS+ of 84 is like, Ronny Paulino's OPS+ in his massively disappointing 2007 was 83. The way Ronny Paulino performed relative to the National League in 2007 is how...

By Pat(noreply@blogger.com) The Road to 17 is a longer-form look at each losing season that the Pirates have had since their last playoff appearance in 1992. The object is not to wallow in the misery of the Pirates, but instead remember just what it is that makes us Pirate fans in the first place. Every team has their great m...

By Jeff Gordon “The Pirates are committed to creatively adding talent to our organization,” general manager Neal Huntington said Monday. “By adding these two young men, the Pirates are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market. We are intrigu...

By Dejan Kovacevic By Dejan Kovacevic | 12:45 a.m. Monday Pirates 6, Padres 1: In addition to stuff about the Adam LaRoche and Steve Pearce home runs, some of the athletes and John Russell talked about how their season changed so dramatically on July 31. Video: Dunlap the detective tracks down Alvarez.

By Dejan Kovacevic Notebook: Free agency? Who said anything about free agency? Neal Huntington did. ... Also, Ronny Paulino sounds like a man who would rather be playing elsewhere. The Beaver County Times' John Perrotto puts the Pirates on "academic probation."

By Dejan Kovacevic MILWAUKEE -- This city's metropolitan area is two-thirds the size of Pittsburgh, in terms of population, but here it is all energized about Major League Baseball in late September. Moving on, Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein analyzes the Alvarez matter further, but this, too, re...

By Dejan Kovacevic By Dejan Kovacevic | 11:20 a.m. Wednesday Greg Billman of New Philadelphia, Ohio Q: How come John Russell doesn't stick up for his players more? There have been some awful calls against the Pirates the past month -- the one at first Tuesday takes the cake -- and he doesn't move.

By Dejan Kovacevic Dodgers 8, Pirates 2: Ross Ohlendorf hovers around 91 mph, and his breaking pitches land at about 50 feet. A sign he is tired? John Russell thinks so. Just about the only highlight came when Adam LaRoche hit one of those Kevin Young-esque home runs that mean absolutely nothing.

By Dejan Kovacevic Other Pirates players said that, if Sabathia had tried to make the play with his glove rather than the bare hand, he might have had LaRoche. Pirates manager John Russell, asked if he thought the play should be ruled an error, flatly replied, "No."

By Matt Bandi On Friday night, as Pirates fans awaited word on No. 1 draft choice Pedro Alvarez, DeMaro tried on another hat: Reporter. Jim Callis of “Baseball America” is perhaps the leading authority in the country on the draft. He was on ESPN after midnight saying there was no word on Alvarez.

By Charlie The Pirates could be a contender in '09--if they keep all the hitters who have been so productive for them this season, and those hitters continue to be good, and some of their pitchers rebound, and they make some shrewd moves to shore up the pitching staff. But then Jason Bay and Xavier Nady...

By Pirate Blues Hopefully Freddy Sanchez is healthy this year or Jason Bay picks up his game because the lack of OBP from the #3 hitter last year killed us. Since the National League Central Division teams have pretty much set their rotations for 2008 other than a late big deal or two, I thought it was time to t...

By Matt Bandi Overall, the Pirates outfield simply looked bad in 2007. Balls were not caught, throws were feeble, and the players occasionally looked lost while roaming the grass. Jason Bay, an above average leftfielder when he joined the team, has seen his skills decline to the point that he is an occas...

By supernaturalfic@gmail.com Summary/ A/N: More from the Pirate!Dean verse, now with killer robots. Just an average day in the life of the Flying Dutchman's two newest crewmembers, which is to say, not at all. Goes with the CoTFD curse as Bootstrap described it, and not as the writers have explained it. Also, I intend to X-...

The Pittsburgh Pirates, stuck in a 15th consecutive losing season, don't sell out PNC Park that often. On one of the few nights they will, some fans don't plan to stick around long.

By Chris Beaumont Sheer entertainment. If nothing else, the movie is insanely entertaining, even at a near three-hour running time. It is addictively entertaining to the very end. This is a series that was large in scope and very ambitious in what it was trying to do, but on top of that, the creative team made su...

By Tall Writer Batten down your hatches for swashbuckling mayhem in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, a film that delivers everything an audience expects with a few surprises. Filmmakers present plenty of treasure for the audiences with some minor lulls (like characters choosing up sides) on...

I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan to the Pirates of the Caribbean films. I really enjoyed the first one, but I felt the strong fan following that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow garnered caused the second film to become more Whacky Jack and Friends than the epic pirate saga I was expectin...