Mini-Camp

The week-long Bucco mini-camp in Bradenton, the first get-together for the Clint Hurdle Buccos, just ended. Players that showed up for the voluntary get-together were:

Attending from 40-man roster: IF Pedro Ciriaco, RHP Mike Crotta, OF Matt Diaz, RHP Joel Hanrahan, RHP Kevin Hart, OF Gorkys Hernandez, OF Garrett Jones, RHP Jeff Karstens, C Jason Jaramillo, RHP Brad Lincoln, LHP Jeff Locke, OF Andrew McCutchen, RHP Daniel McCutchen, RHP James McDonald, RHP Kyle McPherson, RHP Evan Meek, RHP Bryan Morris, RHP Charlie Morton, LHP Dan Moskos, RHP Ross Ohlendorf, 1B Lyle Overbay, 1B Steve Pearce, OF Alex Presley, RHP Chris Resop, IF Josh Rodriguez, OF Jose Tabata, LHP Aaron Thompson, 2B Neil Walker, and LHP Tony Watson.

Notably missing: 3B Pedro Alvarez (getting married, guess that's worth a pass), OF John Bowker, SS Ronny Cedeno, RHP Kevin Correia, C/OF Ryan Doumit, LHP Paul Maholm, LHP Scott Olsen and C Chris Snyder.

Can't explain the absences, other than to emphasize that work-outs are voluntary. Still, you think the guys would like to eyeball Hurdle and the new staff, and those on thin ice roster-wise would like to make a good impression. Oh well, go figure.

Attending non-roster camp invitees: C Dusty Brown, LHP Brian Burres, 1B/3B Josh Fields, RHP Fernando Nieve, C Tony Sanchez, LHP Justin Thomas, RHP Cesar Valdez, LHP Donnie Veal and IF/OF Corey Wimberly.

Notable minor league attendees: Jameson Taillon, Stetson Allie and Luis Heredia. (We don't have much of a handle on all the the minor-leaguers in camp, so that's the reason why we're lacking a no-show list for non-roster guys.)

Not much of consequence happened. The Pirates have had a change of focus, and now use the camp to assess physical conditioning, plant a couple of mental seeds, and have a team kumbaya.

We also found out that the players call Hurdle "Hurd," and that he has as many baseball cliches as Aesop had tales. He's gregarious and hands-on, so that will be a change from the JR days.

Tyler Yates and Kevin Hart threw a few fastballs off a mound for their first action since surgery last year. McCutch and Garrett Jones showed up late, but show up they did, and that effort is worth an "attaboy."

Best of all, there were no leaked "fat boy" stories, just notes that Tabata is bigger and Jones is smaller, so we can assume everyone is in reasonable shape for a change.

Management still hasn't decided on who is gonna close, but plan to have the answer before camp. Oddest competition we've even seen, but the FO does work in mysterious ways.

Everyone survived the encounter, and the Bucs are off on their annual PR campaign, the Pirate Caravan capped by Pirate Fest.