New Year's Notes: Lyons Signs; Cervy Still On Market; Speedos; Pups & Ex Buccos In the News

New Years' first week starting off quietly...

• And a lefty for the bullpen...LHP Tyler Lyons has signed a minor league deal w/NRI as first reported by John Dreker of Pirates Prospects. He has a good resume but a poor 2018 report card in limited action with St. Louis while battling injuries, but bounced back in AAA before declaring for free agency. A healthy Lyons would be a boost to the pen, which was looking for more bridge pieces.
• On again: the Dodgers are still interested in Cervy, per NBC's LA guy, Michael Duarte, if they can't land JT Realmuto as a replacement for Yasmani Grandal.
• Patrick Brennan of Beyond the Box Score has a stat-generated stolen base piece re: speed v success rate. His data rates Starling Marte as an overachiever and Adam Frazier as a slacker. In a related post, MLB Pipeline picks Cole Tucker, who has 82 stolen bases in the past two years, as having the best wheels in the Pirates minors, just a hair quicker than Oneil Cruz. 

Cole gets some more love... (photo via Pittsburgh Pirates)

• Adam Berry of MLB.com has six areas of concern for the Bucs heading into camp, which is just six weeks away. 
• JJ Cooper of Baseball America has a list of all the minor leagues pitchers who hit 100 MPH this year. The Bucs have two - Indy's Jesus Liranzo and Class A's Blake Cederlind.
• Mike Rosenbaum of MLB.com picked the ten prospects who most improved their power swing last year; Kevin Kramer comes in at fourth. Jonathan Mayo lists the NL Central's Top Five pups by team; he rates the Bucs' next-up just behind the Reds.
• The wildcard in the Chris Archer deal, Tyler Glasnow, has been picked as one of five breakout candidates for 2019 by MLB.com's Mike Petriello, who cites improved control, swing-and-miss stuff and an improved slider. As for Austin Meadows, the featured player in the swap, Austin Reimann of Rays Colored Glasses posted a while back that the Tampa Bay right field job is his to lose in 2019.
• If you were on the Tulo train, time to hop off. Jeff Passan of Yahoo!Sports tweeted that "Free agent shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is in agreement on a deal with the New York Yankees pending a physical, league sources tell ESPN."
• You may remember the Michael Saunders era - the one-time All-Star OF'er signed with the Pirates on February 21st last year and was released, at his own request, on the 23rd after Corey Dickerson came to town. He was picked up and released by three other clubs last year between then and June. He's back after signing a minor league deal with the Rox.
• After two years in Japan, former Bucco reliever Arquimedes Caminero has returned stateside and signed a minor league deal with the Mets.
• BTW, we're 40 days away from the pitchers/catchers first workout in Bradenton.