Notes & News

The beat goes on...

• Unsigned arb-eligible players Neil Walker, Pedro, Mark the Shark, Gaby, Vin Mazzaro and Travis Snider will exchange salary figures with the Pirates Friday in the first step to either hashing out a contract or heading to an arb hearing in February.
• Zach Morrison of Rant Sports gives his guess as to how much the Bucs should count on Wandy Rodriguez in 2014. 
• Michael Clair of Yahoo Sports wonders if the Pirate staff can hold it together in 2014 without AJ Burnett. 
• The Pirates invited four minor-leaguers to camp: 1B Matt Hague, C Carlos Paulino, RHP Jameson Taillon and  RHP Zack Thorton.
• Ben Badler of Baseball America tweets that Pirate prospect Austin Meadows is among the players he thinks have a chance for a big time breakout in 2014.
• Not too surprisingly, the MLB Network contest to select the "face of the franchise" ended up with Cutch as the Pirates' poster boy.
• The Pirates have named their 2014 minor league managers and coaches.
• Ex Bucs: C John Buck is close to a deal with the Mariners. 1B Lyle Overbay, who staged a resurrection of sorts with the Yankees last year, is on the radar of The Astros and Brewers. RHP Jesse Chavez signed a $750K deal with Oakland, avoiding arbitration. SS Ronny Cedeno inked a minor-league deal with the Phillies.
• The Pirates play their first 26 games against division foes in 2014.  They don't have a non-Central Division match until April 29th against Baltimore.
• Baseball America's newly released 2014 Prospect Handbook tabbed the Pirates farm system as #1, up from #8 last season.
• Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects has a post examining the "Makers vs the Takers," the large revenue teams exerting their muscle over the smaller revenue clubs. Dejan Kovacevic of the Tribune Review has an article on the subject, too. He makes a case for a salary cap/floor and a 50/50 revenue split between the owners and players.
• You may recall that at the December baseball meetings, MLB proposed expanding replay and eliminating collisions at home. There's been no traction on either yet, as the MLBPA says "wait a sec..."