Happy New Years!!  Maybe I should have waited to post updated charts, but as everyone has noted, its a slow time for Bucs fans.  If you’re new here and don’t know what info is in each column, click on my screen name and search for the earlier versions, which include the explanations.  Factual information was harvested from the Pirates’ website (http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com), http://www.baseball-reference.com, Cot’s Baseball Contracts (http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com), and Pirates Prospects, http://www.piratesprospects.com, which is a gold mine.  And, no I am not blue-booking any of it.  That would make this waaaaaay too much like work.

My info on projected replacements and when they’ll make the Majors is direct from the top-secret computer drives of Nutting, Hurdle, and others within the Bucs organization.  It was gathered using a computer virus developed by the same people who created Stuxnet.  They needed to practice and figured no one would care if the Pittsburgh Pirates’ computers were hacked.  Okay, so really, my SWAG – if you have to ask, you’re too young to be reading this post – is based on the keen insights found on this blog, WTM’s Player Profiles, and for the first time ever, Pirates Prospects.  Then I destroy all that intelligent commentary and analysis by thunking about it myself.  Since, there are many more analytical individuals who post at BucsDugout, I’ll keep my comments brief.      

Footnotes:

1) In working through this update, it appears that we still have depth problems at 1B (or 3B if Pedro moves) and corner outfielder in future seasons.  If current players (i.e., Tabata, Pedro) stay healthy and are not traded, we’re good.  But if the unexpected happens, we have a huge sucking chest wound at worst and a gap at best.  Perhaps that’s why we’re still holding onto now-fading prospects like Bowker and Pearce. 

2) Oh, I’m going to the special hell....  And why does everyone thinks his middle initial is “F”? 

3) Alvarez signed an ML-contract an added to the 40-man roster in 2008.  In 2009 and 2010, he played in the minors, using two option years.  We have a team option for 2013 and 2014; the best theory I’ve heard is that this is to protect the team against changes in the CBA.  I’m calling it here first.  If the time required for Super-2 arbitration eligibility continues to drop, the Pirates will exercise Alvarez’s 3rd option in 2011 or 2012 to ensure he is not arbitration eligible in 2013.  They would do that because Pedro can apparently void the 2013 team option if he is arbitration-eligible.  Of course, all of this assumes we don’t trade Alvarez for Lars....

4)  Yeah, yeah, we still have to draft him and sign him in a timely fashion while out-witting Scott Bore-us.  I’m projecting an extra pre-arb year because I think that his ML call-up will be timed to maximize the number of seasons under Pirates’ control.

5) To clarify my classification of when someone becomes a free agent, this shows the season when the player is no longer under the Pirates’ control.  For example, Ryan Doumit will have over 6 years service time at the beginning of the 2012 season.  I don’t list him as a free agent until 2014 because the Pirates have team options, however unlikely they are to be exercised, for 2012 and 2013.