Bucs Dugout: FanShots

Mariners Eyeing Doumit

2009-11-20T15:07:00Z

Mariners Eyeing Doumit

or at least their fans are

Baseball Prospectus: Minor League Free Agents

2009-11-20T00:18:22Z

Baseball Prospectus: Minor League Free Agents

It's subscription-only, unfortunately. This is a nifty writeup of the available minor league free agents. Picking up strikeout-and-walk guy Alexander Smit, formerly of the Reds, and turning him into a full-time reliever seems like the sort of thing Neal Huntington might do.

The minor league free agent list includes a couple of other interesting, and semi-familiar, names. One is Ryan Shealy, the former Rockies minor leaguer who many of us wanted the Bucs to trade for before Adam LaRoche arrived. He missed most of the last season with an injury, but I still hold out hope that there's some hitting ability in there--he has always hit well in Class AAA, and he was awesome in brief duty for the Royals in 2008. The Pirates still need help at the corners, and Shealy has as good a chance as anybody of being next year's Garrett Jones.

Another interesting guy is Ruben Gotay, who was actually in Spring Training with the Pirates earlier this year. It's kind of a shame he didn't stick, because he ended up having an amazing OBP-heavy season for the Diamondbacks' Class AAA affiliate in Reno. He's defensively limited, but he could probably play the Ramon Vazquez role better than Vazquez himself, and the Pirates have a lot of instability in their infield. (Trivia: the Pirates acquired Ruben's uncle, Julio, in 1962 in the trade that sent Dick Groat to the Cardinals.)

Tabata 5-5 w/3 Ribbies - Hitting .390 @ EOS

2009-11-19T22:10:34Z

Tabata 5-5 w/3 Ribbies - Hitting .390 @ EOS

Last game of the Arizona Fall League - Jose Tabata is 5 for 5 (game not over) with a double and 3 rbi's

Bay rejects $60M over 4 years

2009-11-19T19:00:18Z

Bay rejects $60M over 4 years

I am not sure he will get more than $15M per, although I guess he wants more years. My first reaction was, it will never happen. My second reaction is, it probably will, and someone is going to regret it two years down the line.

Fenway Park fits Bay very well, and I m not sure what signing elsewhere is going to do for him. So who do people think is the likeliest to dole out Alfonso Soriano-esque stupid money for Bay for his age-32 season onward?

I have a feeling the RedSox could up their offer, but I don't see them adding more than 1 year. The Cubs? if they can get rid of Bradley's contract? Angels? Yanks? Mets? Braves?

"[Chase D'Arnaud] does everything well enough," said an American League scout. "He doesn’t have a s...

2009-11-18T21:24:39Z

"[Chase D'Arnaud] does everything well enough," said an American League scout. "He doesn’t have a standout tool, but he has some bat speed and he can square it up. He’s got gap power, but he can turn on one and hit it out."
[...]
Added another AL scout: "He has to not get out on his front side so much, but he’s strong for his size. He drifts out on his front side but he has such good hands that he can make up for it."

"AFL Notebook: D’Arnaud Does It All", Baseball America, Ben Badler

Pirates hire Steve Williams as Major League scout

2009-11-18T21:20:29Z

Pirates hire Steve Williams as Major League scout

"Williams, 45, most recently served the Kansas City Royals as their Assistant Director of Scouting, a position he held since August 15, 2006. Prior to joining the Royals, Williams worked for the Detroit Tigers as their Midwest Scouting Supervisor (2000-01) and East Coast Supervisor (2002-06), overseeing a territory from Maine to Puerto Rico.

His scouting career began when he served as an area scout with the Minnesota Twins from 1988 to 1995. Williams also worked for the Toronto Blue Jays as their Midwest Area Scout from 1995-99, covering a seven-state region."

Williams was the scout who originally signed Mike Trombley and Orlando Hudson, among other players. He worked under current Pirates scouting director Greg Smith from 2000-2004, when Smith held that same position with the Tigers, and under current Pirates special assistant Larry Corrigan from 1992-1993, when Corrigan was scouting director for the Twins.

Jim Tracy, Baby! NL Manager of the Year!

2009-11-18T19:11:10Z

Jim Tracy, Baby! NL Manager of the Year!

Also, Mike Scioscia received the AL award.

If the opinions on the ROY were strong, I expect stronger reactions on Tracy's award. Unfortunately, even if what happened with the Rockies was just a case of Tracy taking over when a good team was getting hot, it's hard to argue with that record when the team was (what?) a dozen games below .500 when he took over...

2009 Minor League Six-Year Free Agent Listing

2009-11-17T17:34:46Z

2009 Minor League Six-Year Free Agent Listing

A list of all of this offseason's minor league free agents, for every franchise. We have 28, one of the highest totals in baseball, a reflection of the lack of system depth resulting from Creech's poor drafts. Most notably, our list includes Juan Mateo and Jamie Romak, as well as recent roster denizens Jason Davis, Eric Hacker, Steve Lerud, Ty Taubenheim, and Virgil Vasquez.

Which of our players would you like to bring back? Which of other teams' players would you like to snag?

NL Rookie of the Year: Chris Coghlan

2009-11-16T21:13:26Z

NL Rookie of the Year: Chris Coghlan

McCutchen got a total of 7 votes, 2 first place, 5 second place. Garrett Jones got 2 third place votes. (This is out of a total of 32 ballots.)

UPDATE by Charlie: What a silly pick. Not only is it hard to defend on its merits (Coghlan's defense in left was pretty bad, which makes his offensive performance less interesting), and not only is Coghlan not a very exciting player, but this pick has a great chance of ending up in history's dustbin once the baseball gods realize that Coghlan isn't really a .320 hitter and start making his balls in play disappear into fielders' gloves. It's a real drag that the voters picked him when they could have chosen a player like Tommy Hanson or McCutchen who not only happened to be better than Coghlan but also has a shot at an excellent career. Not that we've come to expect much from the voters.

2010 CHONE Projections

2009-11-15T22:50:50Z

2010 CHONE Projections

Here are the hitters, I imagine the pitchers will be coming soon. At a glance I notice Iwamura is still included as a Ray. Not much to be excited about, but I guess that's to be expected.

2010 UZR Projections

2009-11-14T22:53:22Z

2010 UZR Projections

You can't group by team currently, but a quick glance didn't reveal any particularly noteworthy Pirates. I did notice that Nyjer Morgan is projected to come down quite a bit from his super-human UZR performance in 2009.

Ryan Doumit and the Prospect of "Selling Low"

2009-11-14T21:06:22Z

Ryan Doumit and the Prospect of "Selling Low"

Mariners Sign Jack Wilson

2009-11-13T22:07:02Z

Mariners Sign Jack Wilson

For $5M per for 2 years.

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No. This is awesome.

2009-11-12T19:18:10Z

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No. This is awesome.

Pirates interested in Japanese Reliever Ryota Igarashi

2009-11-12T04:35:54Z

Pirates interested in Japanese Reliever Ryota Igarashi

"In acquiring Iwamura, we opened the door to getting Japanese players. We gave up a middle reliever to get Iwamura, so he [Igarashi] is a player we have interest in."

UPDATE by Charlie: Here are some stats.

Ex-Buc Jose Castillo attacked by motorcycle gang

2009-11-11T22:32:29Z

Ex-Buc Jose Castillo attacked by motorcycle gang

Former MLB player Jose Castillo was attacked by armed men on motorcycles as he left his luxury hotel in a taxi on Tuesday.

"They stopped the car and those accompanying them entered with two guns, and pointed them at me so that I'd give them my gold chain and wedding ring," Castillo said. Castillo, who played in MLB from 2004-08, plays for the Caracas Lions. -Associated Press

Fortunately, he wasn't hurt. It's unfortunate, but if I were a ballplayer from Venezuela, there's no way I'd be willing to live there over the offseason. The risks are just too high these days.

Pirates 2010 ZIPS Projections

2009-11-11T02:47:55Z

Pirates 2010 ZIPS Projections

Somewhat inspiring to me. Thoughts?

High-A Move to Bradenton Official

2009-11-11T00:12:24Z

High-A Move to Bradenton Official

As per the mothership, the Pirates are officially moving their Class A+ team from Lynchburg to Bradenton.

Twenty Managers, Umpires and Executives To be Considered for Hall of Fame Class of 2010 by Veterans Committees

2009-11-10T22:29:46Z

Twenty Managers, Umpires and Executives To be Considered for Hall of Fame Class of 2010 by Veterans Committees

"The 10 managers and umpires eligible for election consideration to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010: managers Charlie Grimm, Whitey Herzog, Davey Johnson, Tom Kelly, Billy Martin, Gene Mauch, Danny Murtaugh and Steve O’Neill; umpires Doug Harvey and Hank O’Day."

Murtaugh was, of course, our manager during the '60 and '71 championship years. Keep your fingers crossed for him.

O'Day also has an interesting Pittsburgh connection, in that he was the umpire during the 1903 World Series, the first of its kind, in which we were defeated by Boston.

Capps Offered for JJ Hardy

2009-11-10T20:00:08Z

Capps Offered for JJ Hardy

"Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette cites "an American League source" that says the Pirates offered Matt Capps to the Brewers in exchange for J.J. Hardy.
With Trevor Hoffman already signed for next season and Mike Cameron about to walk in free agency, the Brewers opted for the Twins offer of Carlos Gomez. Capps struggled in 2009, posting a 5.80 ERA and 1.66 WHIP in 57 appearances, but general manager Neal Huntington has indicated that he plans to tender Capps a contract for 2010." November 10 - 1:00 p.m. ET
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette