Luis Rivas has made the team:

Rivas is just awful and I don't want him in the starting lineup, period. He was kind of the Twins' equivalent of Jose Castillo - he showed some potential very early in his career, then spent years disappointing everyone. His statistics in Class AAA in 2006 and 2007 suggest he hasn't learned anything and may in fact have gotten worse. Let's hope Sanchez gets better very soon.

The cuts are unsurprising. When Dessens was signed to a minor league deal, there was some speculation that he had a good shot at making the team, but we've heard little about him since then. Fossum and Bayliss were unlikely to make the team in any case, and Bayliss' move off the 40-man roster was probably overdue.

The Thompson cut suggests that both Nate McLouth and Nyjer Morgan are going to make the team, which the Pirates had been hinting would happen. In a scenario where the lefty McLouth won the starting job, Thompson might have been useful as a right-handed bench bat, and if I were GM, I probably would've sent Morgan to the minors and kept Thompson. But it's not a big deal and I'm mostly just as happy to keep Morgan, as long as he doesn't start.

There are several good things from off the beaten path to read today, so away we go:

-P- I've never heard of the author of this piece about the ten best things about being a Pirates fan, but he obviously is a fan of the team - this is dead-on. An excerpt:

-P- Vlad has a really good article about former Pirate prospect Alex Ramirez.

-P- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an article about the Pirates' streak of losing seasons. Expect to see lots, lots, lots more of these as the season progresses, unless the Bucs miraculously pull off a .500 season.

Until now, I'd thought that was kind of a Zen question, really, like "What did your face look like before your ancestors were born?" or something. Sadly, it isn't - the Giants "addressed" their middle infield problems today by claiming Jose Castillo from the Marlins. Ponder that, grasshopper.

8-0. You know, I look at Sean Burnett's performance this Spring and wonder whether it's the result of voodoo, or bribery, or an elaborate joke being played on the Bucs by other teams, or just more anecdotal evidence in support of the maxim that Spring Training stats don't matter, but regardless, he's been a great story. So far, Burnett has struck out eight batters in ten innings, walked only two, and allowed one run. There wasn't much reason to think he could be effective against Class AAA hitters, much less major leaguers, even before his 184 arm surgeries,  and his last two seasons were terrible. I'm about 98% sure he'd get shelled if allowed to pitch out of the Pirates' pen in the regular season. But part of me is rooting for him to make it anyway.

Tucked away in this article is a bit of news that's actually pretty significant. The Pirates cut catchers Michel Hernandez and Raul Chavez, which by my count means there are only two catchers left in camp: Ronny Paulino and Ryan Doumit. This means that the Pirates won't be carrying a no-hit backup catcher, and can use their bench spots to carry guys who can hit a bit. It also suggests that they're relatively comfortable with Doumit behind the plate, which could mean that Doumit has the inside track on the starting job. In any case, the starting catching job and the backup catcher job will be occupied by those two, which is great news since, barring injury, we won't have to see another 150 plate appearances by the equivalent of Keith Osik or Humberto Cota.

The Tigers and Miguel Cabrera have reportedly agreed on an eight-year, $153.3 million contract.

Cabrera's obviously a great player, but it can be tough to put these huge contracts into context. Only three contracts in MLB history have been bigger than this one. Alex Rodriguez's went from being a boondoggle to, ultimately, being such a good deal for the Yankees that Rodriguez opted out of it; Derek Jeter's hasn't been a problem, but it might seem to be if he played for a poorer team; and Manny Ramirez's was so bad that the Red Sox once put him on waivers and no one claimed him. Other contracts within the general vicinity of this one, money-wise, include Todd Helton (good player, bad contract), Alfonso Soriano (the contract isn't a problem so far, but it could well become one), Vernon Wells (bad contract so far), Barry Zito (very bad contract so far) and Jason Giambi (bad contract).

There are a number of extenuating circumstances here for the Tigers, both good and bad. On one hand, Cabrera is younger (he'll be 25 in April) than any of the other players who signed those huge deals, and is clearly a better player than some of them; on the other, he had two more years before he became eligible for free agency. On the first hand, market for free agents may be even crazier now than in the early '00s heyday when many of those big contracts were signed. On the other, though, Cabrera has weight and conditioning issues and is a bad defender. It seems very likely that he'll continue to be great for the first few years of the contract, but the last few years of it would concern me a lot if I were a Detroit fan.

This isn't good. Sanchez is visiting Dr. Andrews to have his shoulder examined; it sounds possible he may have to have another surgery. Other than that, I have no idea what this means, except that we may well be getting a premature introduction to Brian Bixler. (UPDATE: Although Bixler's already been sent to minor league camp. Luis Rivas is another possibility, and a horrible one.)

First, my apologies for the more sporadic updates; I'm in Morgantown working on some music and traveling around to play some shows. (If you're curious, my band FOX Japan will be in Pittsburgh at The Shadow Lounge this Thursday and at 123 Pleasant St. in Morgantown this Friday.)

Second, I have some big site news: SB Nation's sites are currently migrating to a much cooler platform, and my site should move on March 26. In addition to a much better design, there will be all kinds of new features involving comments and diaries, and eventually there will also be stats and all kinds of other good stuff. So don't be surprised if you come to the site on Tuesday and it looks pretty different.

It's a quiet day, Pirates-wise; Sports Illustrated is looking ahead to the point in the near future when Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and Jack Wilson will likely be traded. Freddy Sanchez is still having problems with his shoulder and may open the season on the DL. And John Russell likes the way Ryan Doumit is "handling pitchers." If that doesn't spell doom for Ronny Paulino, I don't know what does.