Notes: Frank Coonelly discusses Giancarlo Stanton

A few notes, some of them from PirateFest this afternoon:

-P- This recounting from Frank Coonelly of a recent conversation with Jeffrey Loria and David Samson, true or not, seems sure to make some people angry.

“They thought [the Giancarlo Stanton contract] was a great deal,” Coonelly said. “I just couldn't get my head around the $325 million. They said to me, ‘You don't understand. (Stanton) has an out clause after six years. Those first six years are only going to cost $107 million. After that, he'll leave and play for somebody else. So, it's not really $325 million.'"

-P- From the same link, the reason Radhames Liz's deal is for only one year and $1 million, and not the previously reported two years and $3 million, is that the Pirates found something they didn't like about Liz's physical.

-P- Clint Hurdle says the Pirates plan to have Pedro Alvarez play regularly against lefties, which suggests that they won't be pursuing a Gaby Sanchez type. Of course, Neal Huntington also said today that Tony Sanchez could win a big-league bench job as a C/1B, and if so, he could well take at bats from Alvarez against lefties.

-P- Charlie Morton thinks he'll be able to return for Opening Day:

"If you need a reference for timetable for me, I would just look at my left hip, because I had the exact same thing done on my left hip," Morton said Friday at a Pirates winter caravan event with children from the Mount Arafat Community Activity Center.

After having the same surgery — with the same surgeon — on his left hip Oct. 10, 2011, Morton missed only one start in 2012 and pitched his first game April 14. He had the procedure Sept. 26 this year.

-P- Josh Lindblom may be close to a deal with the Lotte Giants in Korea, which could be one explanation for why the Pirates desginated him for assignment so soon after claiming him.