Ryan Doumit has been activated; Ronny Paulino has been optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis.

"What I can I say?" said Paulino, who hit .310 as a rookie in 2006 but whose defense tailed off last season. "It's an opportunity for me to go there and play every day, work on what they want me to work on and try to come back here as soon as possible."

It's nice to see that Pirates management is backing up their statements on accountability.

Roster moves.   Looks like the 25 man roster is about set.

Continue reading this post »

With Freddy out tonight and Maholm shut down, I started thinking about our injuries this year.

I wonder exactly how many guys have been playing or pitching hurt recently?? In addition to the ones we know about. Let's take a quick (??) look at some of them.

1. Duffy - he'd been hurting since the beginning of LAST season.
   
2. Duke - wonder how long that elbow had been hurting before he shut it down in June?? Not convinced he's healthy yet.
   
3. Torres - elbow problems at least twice.
   
4. Maholm - did his back really ever get better??
   
5. Bay - his 'good' knee is the one that is keeping him out. Has it (or both knees) been hurting all season?? Probably. Maybe his shoulder too??
   
6. Nady - 3 words - post concussion syndrome.
   
7. Snell - how much is his arm really hurting?? and how long has it been bothering him.
   
8. Doumit - stayed healthy for what...3 innings?
   
9. Wilson - ordering him to come back from paternity leave early...with a pulled hamstring??
   
10. Chacon - how long has HIS elbow been hurting??
    
11. Sanchez - obviously wasn't ready in April. The eye problem has been a reoccurring issue since April...now his shoulder is hurting, wonder how his knees are??
    
12. Grabow - needs elbow surgery.

That's basically half of the 25 man roster...and not including Bautista's spiking, which couldn't have been screwed up by the medical staff and manager. And I may be missing a few. Looks like only position players that have been available all year are Nate, RoPaul and LaRoche (yeah, I know he missed a few games).

So...how many of these players were browbeat by the manager (and possibly GM) into playing when not entirely healthy and at risk of additional significant injury?
I am guessing a lot more than one or two of them.

Has this been the mindset of the Pirates organization? If so, no wonder we have so many high draft pitchers get hurt. They've probably been told that they aren't seriously hurt, and to pitch through it. More and more I wonder how long Kip Wells may have had his problem (a clot, if I remember correctly), before it was correctly diagnosed. We know of several misdiagnoses in the minors.

We've gotten rid of the GM. From the looks of things, to save our investments (players), the manager and at least some of the medical support, need to follow Littlefield out the door. I am fairly sure that our new GM will hear this from at least a few players.