The Beat Goes On: Storylines & Notes

The season's over, but Bucco baseball goes on...

• Four offseason storylines to watch: AJ - will he stay or will he go? The answer will affect how the Pirates look at both the FA and trade markets, as will storyline #2 regarding Wandy Rodrigiez's health. Will Marlon Byrd return? The Bucs will make a run, but we think he'll be looking for two or three years, and with Gregory Polanco on the 2015 horizon, that could be a deal buster. And will Clint Barmes come back at a utility player's salary? There really is no ready defensive replacement for him in the organization, but he could be looking for a starting gig.
• MLB Trade Rumors Steve Adams posts his free-agent facedown between Hiroki Kuroda and AJ Burnett.
• The Pirates starting playoff outfield of Cutch (8.2), Starling Marte (4.6) and Marlon Byrd (4.2) finished third, seventh, and ninth respectively among MLB outfielders in WAR.
• Tom Smith at Rumbunter has a couple of notes on young Pirate pitchers. First he notes that Keith Law of ESPN doesn't like Jamison's Taillon's fastball or change up, and later in the post says the Pirates didn't pull a Stephen Strasburg on Gerrit Cole this year because they emphasize limiting stressful innings of 30+ pitches rather than total innings pitched.
• Dave Cameron of Fangraphs doesn't think the Bucs are going away. He likes the offensive potential, but looks for regression from the Shark Tank.
• Jason St. Angelo of the Huffington Post has feel-good vids of 12 memorable moments of the past season.
• In Pittsburgh, Wednesday's NLDS Game Five pulled in a 31.1 rating, the second best on record behind last week's Wild Card game against the Reds.
• Before It's News wonders if Josh Johnson is this year's Francisco Liriano.
• Jason Grilli likes Pearl Jam and the Bucs; he combinesdboth at Consol last night, with a little speech and a little rock star air guitar. (an ear caution - Jason is due to pony up a donation into the Shark Tank swear jar):