Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Pirate Pre Game

-- James McDonald goes against Kevin Correia tomorrow. It's been a serendipitous transition, with his first two Pirate starts coming against familiar NL West foes.

-- Andy LaRoche gets the start at first tonight, his second ever at the gateway sack and first since 2008. And oddly enough, that was against the Padres, too. We thought LaRoche would step in as the new Bobby Crosby. Garrett Jones got the night off against lefty Wade LeBlanc.

We wonder when the last time - if ever - the Pirates have had brothers (you do remember Adam, hey?) both play first base for them?

-- Jeff Karstens is a San Diego area native, and has 100 or so family and friends coming to Petco Park to watch him work.

-- Although batting just .240, Pedro ranks third among all NL hitters in homers since he hit his first long fly on July 3rd. His ten are behind only Adam Dunn's 13 and Carlos Gonzalez's 12.

-- Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk has a down and dirty report on Joe Kerrigan and why JR may have wanted him out. Make sure to click on the links in his story.

-- RHP Steve Jackson cleared waivers and is back at Indy.

-- The Pirates sent C Luke Carlin, 29, to the Tribe, where he'll report to AAA Columbus. Carlin was signed after a couple of good seasons in the PCL, but hit .239 at Indy. With JJ and Erik Kratz back in AAA, he quickly became a third wheel.

Carlin, BTW, is the PTBNL who completes the June deal that brought Brian Bixler back ever-so-briefly to the Bucco system.

-- Here's Jim Callis' of Baseball America and his view on how much the Pirates will spend on the 2010 draft:
"The Pirates lead all clubs in 2008-09 draft expenditures ($18.7 million), and No. 2 overall choice Jameson Taillon may cost $5 million or more. Second-rounder Stetson Allie, who rivaled Taillon as having the best arm in the entire draft, won't come cheaply either. If Pittsburgh can land both of them, and a few expensive later-round picks (sixth-rounder Jason Hursh, 10th-rounder Zach Weiss and 15th-rounder Drew Maggi are the best candidates), they could near $10 million."

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