-P- Romo Phone Home discusses the recent trade of Dave Williams to the Mets in a new post about sunk costs.
-P- Irate Fans is selling shirts. I've had a peek at their yet-to-be-unveiled website and you're going to want to see it. I'll post a link when its authors tell me it's ready for prime time.
-P- Surely no one is surprised by this, but John VanBenschoten has been shut down. VanBenchoten's descent into irrelevance has been sad to watch.
-P- Here's a long feature on Freddy Sanchez. Dave Littlefield has repeated recently that Joe Randa will start at third when he is healthy. I'm not even sure I can summon the sort of surprise necessary to be outraged at this. It's 100 percent moronic, but it's typical.
-P- Sean Casey starts rehab with Altoona tonight.
-P- Some information about the upcoming draft: here, again, is Baseball America's draft tracker. Most of the top prospects in the draft are pitchers, so the Pirates will probably take one unless Long Beach State third baseman Evan "Don't Call Me Eva" Longoria is available with the fourth pick. Wait Til Next Year has a college draft board here. It tells you most of what you need to know; most of the top talents are college guys this year, and the only high schooler whose name I've seen mentioned in connection with the Pirates is pitcher Kyle Drabek, Doug's son. The Pirates do love their PR opportunities. This is just idle speculation, but I wouldn't be shocked if they took Pepperdine catcher Chad Tracy, Jim's son and not to be confused with the Diamondback, if he's still available in the second round. A few days ago, Alan Mathews of Baseball America thought the Pirates might take Stanford pitcher Greg Reynolds. In this article from yesterday, the Pirates' minor league pitching coordinator guesses the Pirates will pick either Reynolds or Cal pitcher Brandon Morrow.
Lots of people have serious concerns about Reynolds, whose draft stock seems to be based on a few good weeks recently (though he didn't perform well in his last start) and hopes that he gets better as his 6'7" frame matures. However, as others have pointed out, he's not even really striking guys out in college, and he doesn't throw hard, both of which are scary. Also, BA has compared him to Bryan Bullington. On the bright side, he does want to cure AIDS, which is good and stuff.
Drabek is an excellent athlete, but he has reportedly had attitude issues in the past and he's a high school pitcher. In other words, he's extremely risky.