- Andrew Marchand of ESPN has four reasons why the Yankees will miss Russell Martin this season.
- Tom Singer of MLB.com has an article on some non-roster camp invitees. One interesting note: "Indications are that Francisco Liriano -- when all the roadblocks to formalizing his signing are cleared -- will wind up coming to camp on a Minor League deal and an invite." It may be that his broken right arm is worse than thought, or just a time-buying work-around thanks to a currently full 40-man roster.
- Grant Brisbee of Sports Nation thinks that the Bucco offseason has been neither over-or-under whelming: "It's been whelming. And that's just fine until the farm gets here."
- Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has his Top 100 Prospects, and the Bucs have four players on the list - RHP Gerritt Cole (#9), RHP Jameson Taillon (#15), IF Alen Hanson (#54) and OF Gregory Polanco (#65).
- John Sickels ranks the farm systems, and the Pirates jumped up from twelfth last year to fifth this season. He likes the Bucs' high upside pitching arms, but takes away points because the high school pitching the Pirates have invested in so heavily in the draft hasn't developed.
- The Bucs signed former Twins 2004 first rounder, sinkerballing RHP Kyle Waldrop, to a minor league deal with a camp invite. The 6'5" hurler has a couple of nice 2012 numbers - he had a 2.53 ERA and got 72% of his outs on the ground in 21 IP with the Twins. But a couple of other stats weren't so hot - he also had a 5.15 FIP and 3.0 K per nine. Waldrop, 27, would have broken camp with Minny last year, but went on the DL on March 31st with a strained elbow and missed a couple of months. He should start at Indy, but has a shot at filling in as a middle reliever sometime during the year.
- Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has his Top Ten First Base Prospects list out, and Alex Dickerson is on the roster for the second season.
- Freddie Garcia signed a minor league deal with the Padres; Jerry Crasnick tweeted that the Bucs were on him, too, but he opted for the coast and a chance to toss in spacious Petco Park.
- He's back...in the division, anyway. Ken Rosenthal tweeted that SS Ronnie Cedeno's new deal with the Cards is official. Terms, according to a source: One year, $1.15M with $850K in performance bonuses.
- RHP Brian Bass, who last appeared in the majors with Pittsburgh in 2010, signed a minor league deal with the Phillies.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Martin, Liriano & Some Minor News
Some Bucco bits to chew on...
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2 comments:
There's no way the Pirates farm system should be ranked #5. While the farm is definitely improved, and that's a credit to the current regime to be sure, nevertheless they outspent the universe under the previous CBA and still have merely a better than average system. That's not nearly enough improvement relative to the enormous resources expended, and that's all there is to it. Is it better, yes, of course. Is it what it should be? No.
Most farms are evaluated on their elite talent, Will, and that's how Pittsburgh got their rating. You're right in that there is a talent gap and they need to do a better job with position players and evaluating HS kids; so far they're heavy on Rene Gayo guys. That 2009 draft slowed the pipeline.
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