Pirate Potpourri

• Dejan Kovacevic of the Trib reports that Pirate president Frank Coonelly was busted for a DUI in late December by the Ross Township police. Coonelly mans up to his mistake in the article.
• Rob Beirtempfel of the Trib talked to Neal Huntington about the catcher merry-go-round, and the GM told him "In a perfect world, you’ve got four guys who you’re comfortable bringing to the big league level...We got Rod Barajas, (with) Michael McKenry and Jose Morales (who) will split time (as the backup). We retained Eric Fryer...We’ll continue to explore if there’s something else out there.” The Bucs almost signed Chris Gimenez last week before he opted for the Rays, according to MLB.com's Bill Chastain.
• Speaking of catchers, Barajas told Bill Brink of the Post Gazette that Curt Schilling was his model in working with pitchers.
• Dave Laurila of Fangraphs interviewed Bucco scouting director Greg Smith to get the dope on the last two drafts and his thoughts on Josh Bell, Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Stetson Allie and Luis Heredia, along with the CBA and Latino scouting. It's a pretty nice, in-depth article.
• Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus lists the top minor league rotations built around current prospects. He has the Pirates in the Top Five, with the Pittsburgh staff consisting of Cole, Taillon, Heredia, Kyle McPherson and Colton Cain.
• Also in Fangraphs, Mark Anderson compares Cole and Taillon.  He thinks Cole has fringe #1 potential while Taillon is a "comfortable" #2 arm. Anderson likes both guys' heater and curve; he's not so impressed by the rest of the arsenal yet.
• Jim Callis of Baseball America on Josh Bell: "He's a very good prospect, but I think his $5 million signing bonus clouds the fact that had he been considered signable, he would have gone in the 11-20th range of the 2011 draft. He wasn't an elite prospect in that regard. I think he'll hit for considerable power and average and wind up in right field." He also discusses Cole, Heredia and Robbie Grossman.
• Kristy Robinson of Pirates Prospects is in camp and keeping busy. She has already filed stories on Evan Meek, Jeff Locke, Mike McKenry, Casey McGehee, Nate McLouth and Charlie Morton as they look ahead to the 2012 campaign.
• Charlie Wilmoth of Bucs Dugout goes over the Pirates 2012 draft budget under the new CBA. The cap is at $8.6M this year, and effectively eliminates the Josh Bell/Stetson Allie second round signings and the late round overslot deals with high school players. There will be more changes. Bud Selig told Josh Leventhal of Baseball America that a world-wide draft "is inevitable."