- Clint Hurdle named Erik Bedard as his opening-day starter against the Phillies on April 5th at PNC Park. Jeff Karstens, James McDonald and Kevin Correia will follow in the rotation, with the fifth spot up in the air, depending on when Charlie Morton (who is starting today) and AJ Burnett return to action.
- Jon Heyman of CBS Sports hears that the Bucs are sniffing around for catching and a lefty reliever. Makes sense. There's not much depth behind Rod Barajas and Mike McKenry, especially as Jose Morales has yet to play with an oblique injury. The pen has been hurting for LHP since John Grabow and Sean Burnett were traded away, and the FO may be keeping an eye on the waiver wires as teams approach cut-down day.
- Don't look now, but Pedro Alvarez has struck out in eight of his past 13 at-bats. He's hitting .133 with 13 whiffs in 30 trips to the plate. That's bad news on a variety of levels. To boot, his knee is aching and he'll be out of action for the weekend.
- AJ Burnett is throwing a simulated game tomorrow, but won't play in any spring exhibition games.
- The Pirates sent 1B Jeff Clement, OF Brandon Boggs and RHPs Tim Wood & Daniel Cabrera to minor league camp, with 14 more cuts to go.
- Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects reports that Pittsburgh signed five Colombian players, and has their scouting reports.
- Forbes Magazine's "Business of Baseball" article ranked MLB teams by value. Pittsburgh was 28th, worth $336M.
"Somehow we have developed this large contingent of know-it-all baseball fans who bay like wounded coyotes at any mention of wins, losses, RBI or batting average. I never know whether I should blame myself for this or not.." (Bill James)
You hate to say Pedro is looking like a bust, but....he's definitely looking like a bust. If he's got a bum knee, that could certainly be contributing to his struggles, but I don't know that it is to blame for everything unless it's a chronic injury that nobody has said anything about before now. In any case I don't see any way they can possibly start him in the big leagues now. Surely he'll go back to Triple A until at least May and maybe June.
ReplyDeleteI think he'll go down, Will. Now I see why the FO wanted to keep him down at Indy last year. In retrospect, they should have (although I was one of those that thought he had nothing left to prove at Indy, mea culpa.)
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