Jeff Passan writes that he spoke with a long time scout who says the Pirates have the best collection of prospects in baseball and he's "not sure it's close". Mostly it's an article that talks about some of the lower level guys like Glasnow, Kingham, Bell, Polanco and Hanson, while giving a shout out to Cole and Taillon.

This is a link to a cracked.com articled about REAL pirates taking all sorts of people back then because of their pragmatic nature. They wanted to get monies and didn't care how or with who. As long everybody was on board and ready to disregard any moral obligation to get paid. It doesnt matter. Obviously we are post moneyball book and movie wise but when I read this(and take the facts for what they are worth at cracked.com aka who knows but its entertaining and sounds right) I find irony in the parallels Aj Burnett? Gaby Sanchez? Jason Grilli? Melancon? Travis Snider? Liriano? even Barmes. At some point somebody didnt want these dudes for reasons one or some other. but hey........ i like watching them a lot more then those Disney pirates.

that grilli, always crazy.

By David Schoenfield | ESPN.com Contains a shout out to David Todd

by Dave Cameron - May 30, 2013 As I write this, the Pittsburgh Pirates are tied for the second best record in baseball. They also happen to be tied for second place in their own division, because the Cardinals are the only team with a better record while the Reds have matched Pittsburgh’s 33-20 start, making the NL Central the most competitive and most interesting division in the sport right now. The Cardinals are Reds are both excellent teams, and we should expect both to continue to win at a good clip over the rest of the year, but what about the Pirates? Is this another first half mirage that will lead to a second half collapse, or do Pittsburgh fans finally have a contender to root for?

Not everything the Rays have done the last few years has worked out for them. In this case, their first round pick from 2010 was kicked out of a strip club after throwing loose change at a dancer. His tweeting about it probably lead to him being suspended.

This is awesome, but what makes it an auto-link is the potshot at Jason Grilli. How'd that work out for you, Tigers fans?

It might be time for a complete rebuild in KC. But that starts with replacing the GM. I suspect the Royals' ownership will ride this out for a few more months. But, if they are still not competitive in July, Moore needs to be let go prior to the trade deadline, so someone can come in and rebuild without bias.

Checking in on our unsigned 2008 second-rounder, so far this season in 25.1 innings he has given up 14 hits, seven walks, four hit batters, and two home runs, to go with sixteen strikeouts. He has been charged with two earned runs for an 0.71 ERA. That, my friends, is a regression candidate.

Didn't see this mentioned here. The take-away seems to be Cutch isn't quite as good as he seemed to be last year but probably a little better than his (pretty good) start thus far this year. Ks are down but so are walks and balls leaving the yard. We've all seen his bevy of warning-track shots so that's no surprise, right?