Pittsburgh Pirates

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 Brian WHYGAVS] and [Bucs Dugout], along with [Pittsburgh Lumber Co.] all have excellent posts up countering [Dejan's season ending piece]’s final suggestion to improve the Pirates in 2009: “Spend.” Finally, something a bit more pleasant, [Pedro Alvarez was named the number one prospect in t...

By Charlie 15 days ago: Cincinnati Reds' Scott Rolen, center, is greeted by teammates in the dugout after he scored in the eighth inning of the baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009. Rolen scored twice and drove in three runs as the Reds won 10-4. (AP Photo/...

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) The Hillcats got much better players than expected, minimizing the effect of the Littlefield/Creech team's "miserable scouting." 2) A number of players were better than expected. 3) A number of players experienced improvements throughout the year.

By Brian After that shortstop swap…they got these four guys for Ian Snell…a guy that virtually every person to inhabit PNC Park hated: BuccoFans.comBucs DugoutFake Neal Huntington (read this. Seriously.)North Side NotchThe Mc EffectThoughts From My CouchWHYGAVS Beat writers:

By Brian Catcher: Infield: In the past, Adam LaRoche always stunk early on, then progressively improved. This season he started out better than usual, but hasn’t improved much. This is especially killer for the Pirates because he has absolutely no trade value at the moment.

By Brian Pirates fans might need a couple days off more than the players do right now. But the way the last couple games have gone, a little rest certainly couldn’t hurt the Bucs. Pirates 2, Phillies 5 / [Box] / 2009 Record: 38-50 / Next: Friday, vs. Giants, 7:05

By Brian Mets (38-39) at Pirates (36-42) 12:35–PNC Park, Pittsburgh TV: (New York market only) SNY [Here is the MLB Gameday] ———————————– This is a make-up game for the third of a four game set at PNC Park in early June. The Bucs won the three games that were played, so I suppose you could argue we’re go...

A lot of this hinges on the pick of Tony Sanchez. The first round is the best opportunity to get talent in the Major League draft and with Aaron Crow, Bobby Borchering, Grant Green, and a bevy of talented high school arms on the board, the Pirates went for a kid who wants to be (and probably proje...

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 Vinny Madio The New York Mets had their series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies rained out on Sunday.  That was probably the best news for a team who is win-less in all seven series finales this season.  This also was good news because the bullpen was over worked Saturday due to the erratic pitc...

By Dejan Kovacevic James Tichener of Washington Q: Do you think John Russell would be interested in a history lesson? Sanchez has made very, very clear his wish to stay in Pittsburgh for the long term, but the Pirates sound satisfied to take that through 2010 and see where it leads. No rush there.

Of course, me saying that the Pirates' offense is bad would be like me saying, "It's Easter" or "Tiger Woods drops f-bombs left and right on live TV when he misses putts." It's just re-stating the obvious. Sure, Harang and Carpenter's gems were aided by the Pirates' offense, and you shouldn'...

By Charlie None of this reflects badly upon the Pirates' current management. The issue is simply that these things take time. Depending on how you define "prospect," the average prospect probably spends about three or four years in the minors, so it will take three or four good drafts to really fortif...

By Chuck Finder BRADENTON, Fla. -- Now it's about the wait, and the weight, for Pedro Alvarez. However, general manager Neal Huntington made sure there was a proviso: Be sure to pack and carry with you the conditioning and physical-shape education gleaned here.

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 Paul Meyer Dodgers  Pirates 1:26 p.m. Maholm, who zipped through the first seven Dodgers, has encountered a spot of control trouble. He walked Angel Berroa and Russell Martin in the second inning but ended the inning by getting Andre Ethier to roll to first base. Now he's walked Manny Ramirez to begin th...

By Charlie Anyway, what could you do with him? Send him back to the minors next year? He tears the cover off the ball every time he's down there, so why bother? He'd just hit well and would eventually have to be called back up anyway. The Pirates have few appealing alternatives at third base right now, and...

By Dejan Kovacevic Q: Dejan, to add to your article, the Pirates' losing streak is the same age as the Florida Marlins. The Pirates have not had a winning season during the entire existence of the Marlins. Unbelievable! Meanwhile, the Marlins have won two World Series and have successfully rebuilt multip...

By Charlie Only two of these guys--Pereira and Acevedo--are Latin American signings, so I'm not sure how much Rene Gayo has to do with the talent at Bradenton, most of which was assembled in the draft. Maybe the Pirates are just really excited about those two players.

By Dejan Kovacevic By Dejan Kovacevic | 2:45 a.m. Wednesday So, it means that, even if Pedro Alvarez had signed a major league contract, he would not have had major league service time until he actually was either in a major league uniform or on a major league disabled list.

By Dejan Kovacevic Rob Lah of New York The rotation mix for September is - not necessarily in order -- Paul Maholm, Jeff Karstens, Zach Duke, Ross Ohlendorf, Tom Gorzelanny and Ian Snell, which obviously is one too many. Ohlendorf will pitch. So will Gorzelanny.

By Dejan Kovacevic If the Pirates cannot commit to signing top players through free agency and will not do so in the draft, why on Earth should people in Pittsburgh support this team financially? Chris Lach of Mt. Lebanon 3. Ross Ohlendorf                    8. Brian Bixler

By Charlie P- Ken Rosenthal defends the Bucs: One executive after another has been critical of the Pirates' high asking prices for players such as outfielders Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, shortstop Jack Wilson and left-hander Damaso Marte.

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 Charlie I don't think the Pirates' picks necessarily imply dissatisfaction with their shortstops at the minor league level. There isn't a team out there that's rich with middle infield prospects--the Rays have arguably the top shortstop prospect in baseball in Reid Brignac and just spent the f...

By Jim McLennan Similarly, in the ninth, Snyder led off with his sixth bomb, having flown out deep a couple of times earlier in the game. Bookending this game, our offense was on fire! The seven innings in the middle, however... Not so much. In fact, tumbleweeds pretty much rolled across the scoreboard for Ariz...

By Charlie When the dust clears, what will we have here? McLouth and Nady are pretty plainly playing over their heads. The Pirates will almost certainly make up the difference by getting something from LaRoche, Sanchez and Wilson. Still, it's startling how little all but the top five guys are contri...

By dtoddwin Phil Dumatrait: I have no idea.  I have yet to see him pitch live and he clearly is on the bubble.  The Pirates view him as their long man and spot starter as needed so we really haven't seen him fill that role expect in the extra inning game against the Cubs.  A 26 year old lefty with 11 major league a...

By Randy Linville In five career starts against the Buccos, Hill is 2-1 with a 3.62 ERA. The Pirates on this year’s team have not done much against Hill. Their batting average as a group is .218. Jose Bautista is 0-13 and Jason Bay is 0-11. Only Ronny Paulino (6-13 with a dinger) has done much with Hill.

By Charlie Successes: D.J. Carrasco, Aquilino Lopez, Javier Lopez, Luis Ayala, Michael Neu, Chris Spurling, Matt Ford 2003 2004 2005 Flops: 11 Notes: Fabio Castro pitched 31.7 innings with a 2.27 ERA for the Rangers and Phillies. Victor Santos pitched 115.3 innings with a 5.70 ERA for the Pirates. 

By Charlie Nutting showed slides to illustrate the differences between the Pirates' existing, rented facility and the new one, using photographs of the old and computer models of the new. It's obviously very early, but it sounds like Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly and the Pirates really are taking th...

By Randy Linville Bonifay was the architect of the 1994 draft which has to be among the worst in the history of the draft. Only two players the Pirates chose wound up in the show. One of those players was Brandon Larson, who the Pirates didn’t sign (he was their last pick in the 46th round). The other was Jimmy Ander...

By Pirate Blues John Van Benshoten. Meet Jeff on the right. He and a friend ventured to a Pirates game at Safeco last June and watched the Pirates win the game 5-3, so he said in his email. I assume that was Gorzelanny's game. Keep your pictures coming in for the players. The email link is on the right sidebar.

By Pirate Blues 2008 Top Ten Prospects Honorable Mentions 1 McCutchen Bixler Meek 2 Pearce Corley Molleken 3 Moskos Davidson Redmond 4 Lincoln Delaney Sakamoto 5 Walker Herrera R Sanchez 6 Astacio Keel Valdez 7 Ford 8 Welker 9 Benoit 10 Bresnahan...

By RJ Anderson Travis Blackley LHP Phillies A potential LOOGY candidate, reminds me a bit of what the Phillies tried doing last year - buying Bobby Livingston off of waivers - the move was later disallowed and Livingston would pitch well for the first half.

By Cyndre Because of that genuine love for their player-base and their game, I am confident that FLS will eventually fix the issues that I have with Pirates, but I question whether they can do it before the initial media bump and trial periods will turn off a number of potential subscribers…

By Pirate Blues Dewon Brazelton and Shane Youman dominated the starters in the Pirates farm system last year but unfortunately, Neil Huntington DFA'd Youman and Brazelton was immediately signed by the Cardinals after the season. John Van Benschoten, Byran Bullington, and then Luis Munoz rounded out...

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 Basil Yet, obscured by successive win totals of 75, 53 (strike year), 58 (sorta strike year), 73, 79, 69, 78, 69, 62, 72, 75, 72, 67, and 67, the Pirates franchise has happened upon an anniversary of sorts. It's the ten-year anniversary of the 1997 Pittsburgh Pirates, the last Bucco contender.

By Richard Marcus Like everything else at Perceval Press right now. Land Of The Lost Mammoths and Pirates, Bats, And Dragons are half price until June 17, 2007. They would make great summer reading for people of all ages.

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...

By saigonmain More Nintendo Wii News This is an excerpt from the Review of the Nintendo Wii game Pirates Of The Caribbean by Aussie-Nintendo Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is faithful to the movies it pays homage to, yet although it’s a movie tie-in, it goes thankfully beyond what’s offered by...

By Patricia Chui What It's About: Eric Bana plays Huck, a professional gambler who can't seem to hold onto anything -- love, money or his relationship with his father (Robert Duvall), a legendary poker player. Huck's attempts to get a seat at the World Series of Poker coincide with his meeting a cute, poker...