-The writer of the Rockies blog Bad Altitude is fascinated with bad teams, so he actually writes about the Pirates once in a while. Here he is on the Royals and Bucs:
...I think the Rockies as presently operated compare favorably to the Kansas City and Pittsburgh franchises. First, they're not spending tens of millions of dollars on replacement-level veterans who won't improve them any, and second, they play in a division lacking any obviously superior clubs. But there are many similarities.
Go read the rest.
-Here's a chat with Jason Bay.
-Weirdly, the Pirates managed to trade two Ivy Leaguers for Matt Herges: Princeton product Chris Young, and Jon Searles, who went to Penn between rookie ball seasons.
-Josh Fogg will decide on a team soon.
-The Pirates signed Yurendell DeCaster to a one-year deal for the league minimum.