Saturday Updates...

Saturday Update...

• Baseball Prospectus, based on PECOTA ratings, project the Pirates to have 78 wins in 2014.
• Matthew Pouliat of Hardball Talk projects the Bucco bullpen as #10 in the NL by ERA. He writes "The Pirates’ ranking here is getting dragged down by Jeanmar Gomez and Vin Mazzaro, who are both projected to throw more innings than the top guys in their pen. They’ll be higher in the subjective rankings." And they are; he rates them #8 overall in effectiveness.
• MLB.com's Tracy Ringolsby has a piece on Clint Hurdle and expectations. 
• Pittsburgh signed C Omir Santos, who has played parts of five MLB seasons with the Orioles, Mets, Tigers and Indians with a .248 lifetime average. It's a minor league deal with an invite to camp.
• Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com selected Gregory Polanco and Jameson Taillon to the All-NL Prospect dream team.
• The "Million Dollar Arm," Rinku Singh, tells MLB.com's Barry Bloom that he still has MLB aspirations. 
• The Pirates traded OF Quincy Latimore to the Cleveland Indians  for Jeanmar Gomez last year after originally signing him out of high school as a fourth-rounder in 2007. Guess what - they just picked him back up after the Tribe let him go.
• Ex Bucs: Paul Maholm is reported to have taken a pre-signing physical for the Dodgers. Evan Meek signed a minor league deal with the Orioles, as has Brian Bixler with the Phillies.
• Almost time: Pirate pitchers and catchers report on February 12th and the full squad on February 17th, with drills beginning the next day.