There's lots of news at the Post-Gazette's blog. Unsurprisingly, Ross Ohlendorf has made the Pirates' rotation. Many projection systems aren't too excited about Ohlendorf's long-term future, but they haven't seen his stuff. Hopefully he becomes more of a pitcher (as opposed to just a thrower) this year, and doesn't wear down over the course of the season.
Also, the Pirates have cut Steve Pearce, Anderson Machado and Robinzon Diaz. I still say Pearce would've been a good addition to the team, but neither his departure nor Machado's are any surprise. Pearce will play first at Indianapolis "with an eye toward seeing if he can handle that role full-time in Pittsburgh," the Post-Gazette reports, which obviously makes no sense given that he could have just been doing that last year, when he played 99 games in the outfield and only 32 at first base. The mothership, on the other hand, describes the reason for the demotion as an absence of consistent playing time at the major league level, which makes even less sense given who's probably going to be starting in the outfield. It seems clear to me that the Pirates can't stand Pearce, which is their prerogative, but it'd be great if they simply explained why instead of making up reasons as they go along.
Diaz's cut means that Jason Jaramillo will be the backup catcher, which is good since he and Diaz are basically the same player, except Jaramillo is a little better at everything.
Andrew McCutchen went 5-for-5 with a homer today.
Finally, Bob Nutting is saying all the right things:
"I really feel like we're just beginning to see the impact of the people we've brought in, with the programs, the process and, above all, the better talent that we now have," Nutting said. "When you look to our long-term future, I'm very excited by it. It's very encouraging."
He spent yesterday at Pirate City meeting with Kyle Stark, his development staff and some scouts, urging them to repeat what he deemed a successful draft last June.
"I told them we can't just do it once. It has to be every June."
That's right. A draft like the one the Pirates had in 2008 needs to happen every year.