Roundup: Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Jeff Locke, Jason Grilli

-P- Buster Olney (insider-only) writes about the "dilemma" of how to handle the timing of the promotions Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon. To me, there's not much of a dilemma. The Pirates have established that they prefer to promote prospects deliberately, as they should. Cole will likely come up this summer, when he'll probably both be ready and be helpful. And Taillon, who has very little experience in the upper minors, probably won't come up until next year.

-P- Jeff Locke will pitch Saturday against the Rays, along with Chris Leroux, Duke Welker, Mike Zagurski and Vin Mazarro. James McDonald, Jonathan Sanchez, Jason Grilli, Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, Jared Hughes and Justin Wilson will pitch Sunday in the opener at McKechnie Field against the Braves.

-P- Pat found this Baseball Prospectus writeup on the Pirates from 1996, and ... yikes.

-P- In case you missed it when I tweeted it, this week wasn't the first time Jason Grilli has criticized his team's front office. Also see Jim Leyland's reaction to Grilli's comments about the Tigers, which is hilarious.