Thursday, September 10, 2009

Friday This 'n' That...

-- BTW, the Streak might not be the only downer this season. The Pirates are 16 losses away from 100 with 24 games to go, so that mark is well within reach, as kinda an exclamation point to the season. The 2001 team was the only one during the 17 year futility span to drop 100 games.

-- Dejan Kovacevic of the Post Gazette selected his final 2009 Top Ten Prospects list, headed, of course, by Pedro and Jose.

-- Pirate prospects participating in the Fall Instructional League: Tim Alderson, Bryan Morris, Danny Moskos, Rudy Owens, Donnie Veal, Shelby Ford, Jarek Cunningham, Chase d'Arnaud, Brian Friday, Jordy Mercer, Gorkys Hernandez, Starling Marte and Jose Tabata, who will report for duty on September 21st.

Moskos, Veal, d'Arnaud, Friday, and Tabata will then move on to the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League.

Pedro Alvarez, Mpho Ngoepe, Dinesh Patel, Rinku Singh, Tony Sanchez, Brooks Pounders, and Zach Von Rosenberg will attend the later sessions, beginning September 29th. Overall, 105 young 'uns will take part in the post-season program.

-- Lynchburg evened their playoff series at a game apiece against Wilmington last night with a 1-0 win. LHP Rudy Owens kept on truckin', going 6 scoreless innings while scattering four hits, striking out six, and walking one.

RHP Ron Uviedo earned the save; we notice that he's out of the rotation and back finishing games, although that may be because R.J. Rodriguez, who was the Hillcats' regular closer this season, is pitching for Puerto Rico in the World Cup.

-- Brad Lincoln had a strong outing for the US World Cup team, going five innings and yielding a run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. It was to no avail, however, as the gringo bullpen blew up in a 13-9 loss to Venezuela. Hey, he might as well get used to it now.

-- Remember Tanner Scheppers, who the Pirates drafted last year but didn't sign? Well, Texas drafted him in 2009 in the #44 spot, and guess what? He hasn't signed with them, either. He has until next June's draft to ink a deal, since he pitched indy ball last year, or he becomes eligible for the rookie lotto again.

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