Brad Lincoln

Brad Lincoln was raised in Lake Jackson, Texas, and played baseball & football for Brazoswood High. For a couple of years, anyway. By his junior season, he gave up QB'ing and went full-tilt for baseball. It was a good decision. When his season season ended, Lincoln was named All-District and All-County MVP and an All-State player.

Texas chose Lincoln in the 28th round of the 2003 MLB draft, but he wisely opted to attend the University of Houston, rejecting not only the Rangers but the competing college overtures of Texas A&M, Saint Louis, New Mexico and Texas-Arlington.

He broke out there as a junior when he went 12-2 with a 1.69 ERA, piling up 152 strikeouts in 127-2/3 IPs for the Cougars, launched by a strong 2005 Cape Cod summer league campaign. When he wasn't on the hill, hey, no problemo - he hit .295 with 14 home runs and 53 RBI as a 1B/DH.

Lincoln was honored as the Conference USA Player of the Year, and took home the Dick Howser Trophy (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association top player; Clemson's Kris Benson won it in 1996), the Brooks Wallace Award (College Baseball Foundation's top player) along with the ABCA/Rawlings and Rival.com Player of the Year Awards.

Scouts liked Lincoln a lot as a pitcher, and he sure wasn't one of Dave Littlefield's sign-on-the-cheap selections. He threw in the mid nineties with a hook and a show-me change up. Pittsburgh chose him fourth overall in the first round of the 2006 MLB draft (they took Alex Presley eighth). He signed quickly for $2.75M.

In a show of confidence, Pittsburgh assigned him to Low Class A Hickory after two Rookie League starts rather than to the usual jumping off point, short-season Williamsport. The FO had high hopes of starting his career on the fast track.

But unfortunately, he spent more time in the tub than the track. An oblique strain shut him down after four starts and sixteen frames at Hickory. It would get worse. Lincoln had Tommy John surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews in April, 2007, after complaining of pain in his right arm during spring training and lost the season.

Lincoln returned to the Crawdads in 2008 and was promoted to the High Class A Lynchburg Hillcats at midseason. His stats were workmanlike, with a combined 6-10/4.69 ERA and 1.264 WHIP in 103-2/3 innings. In 2009, he split the year between Altoona and Indy. Lincoln tore up for the Curve, with a 2.28 ERA and 1.080 WHIP, and went 6-2/4.70 with the Tribe in a dozen starts.

The following season, Lincoln got the call for his MLB debut on June 9th vs. Washington, and notched his first MLB win on June 30th against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. He pitched seven innings, striking out six and walking just one as the Pirates won 2-0.

But those type performances were few and far between. Lincoln was sent back to AAA after giving up 5+ runs three times in his final four outings. In eleven big league games (9 starts), he was 1-4/6.66 averaging 4 Ks and 2.5 Ws per game.

Lincoln was having noticable mechanical problems and his speed was down by a couple of ticks. Many felt that he was out of sync because of Joe Kerrigan's excessive tinkering, and the way he handled Lincoln may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for Kerrigan.

Again putting up workmanlike numbers in Indianapolis in 2010 (7-5/4.12 and a 1.138 WHIP in seventeen starts) and having gotten a taste of the show, the 26 year old righty came into camp in 2011 looking for a spot in the rotation. But after taking a liner off the arm, he missed some March turns and lost out to Ohlie and Charlie Morton.

He was sent back to Indy - the Pirates still thought highly enough of him that they wanted him to keep making regular starts - and he was the same ol' Brad, 7-8/4.19 with a 1.218 WHIP.

Lincoln was called up in July for a spot start, and then again in August after injuries began to hound the Pirate staff. He was assigned to the pen, where he wasn't very good (4 appearances, 7.94 ERA), and was shortly back to work as a starter.

He was better than 2010, but still inconsistent and much too prone to nibbling instead of challenging hitters. His velocity was erratic and it seemed to take him an inning or two to settle in, as his 1st & 2nd inning ERAs of 10.12 & 7.04 showed. And there was no Joe Kerrigan to blame this time around. He finished 2-3/4.72 with a 1.469 WHIP, not very solid numbers.

With the addition of AJ Burnett, his slim chances of breaking camp as part of the rotation were pretty much, barring injury, turned to ash. He has an option remaining, and the Bucs will probably exercise it to keep him pitching regularly at Indy.

He may eventually slot into the old Jeff Karstens role of long man/spot starter, although we don't think that will be this spring. But it may be soon. Burnett, Morton, Karstens, and J-Mac all return in 2013, and Jeff Locke may bypass Lincoln as the minor league insurance policy this season. After that, there are a lot of young arms trying to get noticed, so it's hard to say how much longer Lincoln's window will remain open.

He's the top pitcher in the Pirate system right now in terms of MLB readiness. And he'll have to take advantage. The rest of the field is gaining quickly.His challenge is threefold: regain his aggressiveness, his velocity, and hit the street running. If he can do that, he can still be a piece of the Pirate future.

Hanny

As a teen, Des Moines native Joel Hanrahan was a hard throwing righty from Iowa's strong Norwalk High Warriors baseball program. After he graduated, he passed on a scholarship to play for the Nebraska Huskers and went straight into the 2000 MLB draft.

He had pretty good reason to jump into pro ball with both feet. The 18 year old was considered the 70th-best prospect that yearn by Baseball America, and ended up drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 57th player taken overall. He signed for a $615K bonus..

Hanny started off pretty well in the Bleedin' Blue system, landing in AAA Las Vegas toward the end of the 2003 season. But he couldn't break through the AAA wall for LA, hamstrung by a high homer rate and control issues. and yo-yoed from level to level for the next three seasons.

After the 2006 season, Hanrahan exercised his option for minor league free agency, and quickly struck a one year deal with the prospect-hungry Washington Nationals. He started as part of the Nat's AAA Columbus rotation, and Hanny pitched decently, with 5–4/3.70 line.

The Nats called him to the show, and on July 28th, 2007, Hanrahan made his major league debut against the Mets, and finished the year with a line of 5-3/6.00 in eleven starts, but with a WHIP of 1.902 and a 6.7/9 inning walk average. He made the club out of spring training 2008, but Hanny was out of the rotation and now a member of the bullpen.

And a funny thing happened. As a starter, he threw low-90s sinking heater along with a slider and change. After moving to relief, his fastball increased to the mid-to-upper 90s while his slider got a little nastier as his second pitch.

After trading Jon Rauch and Luis Ayala, Hanrahan was next to be the Nat's closer. He was 6-3-9 with a 3.95 ERA, dropping his walk rate to 4.5 and pumping up his K's to 9.9 per nine innings. He won a spot on Team USA during the 2009 World Baseball Classic as an injury replacement in the spring.

But he got lit up as the Nat closer once the season started, with a line of 1-3-5/ 7.71 and 1.96 WHIP, though his punchout rate remained at an excellent 9.6/nine innings and his walks were down to 3.9/nine. He lost the job and on June 30th, the Nats traded Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge to the Pirates for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett in your basic change of scenery deal.

And the flip from the Potomac to the Allegheny had immediate effects, at least on Hanrahan. His numbers as a Bucco read 0-1/1.72 in 33 games, and though his walks rose to over 5 per game, he also recorded 10+ Ks per nine. He even won a game during a nap, when a weather-delayed game he was winning as a Nat was completed later in the season after he had switched uniforms.

Hanrahan worked as the setup man for Octavio Dotel in 2010. He went 4-1-6 with a 3.62 ERA, 100 Ks (in 69-2/3 IPs) and a personal best 72 outings. Heck, he even had a bobblehead night.

It got interesting in the dog days. Dotel went to the Dodgers for J-Mac and Andrew Lambo, so Hanny and Evan Meek both were given the opportunity to compete for the closer's role by JR. Neither guy was brilliant, but Hanny came through in 6-of-10 save opportunities and got a win for one that he let get away.

Rather than go into camp and have the pair duel for the closer's spot, the Pirates made it easy on everyone. In February, Clint Hurdle announced Hanrahan as the 2011 closer for the Pirates, and then everybody knew their role; Hanrahan closed, Meek would set-up, and they could spend the spring preparing for those spots.

Pretty good decision on the FO's part. Hanny's closing pedigree was shaky, but the experience in the role was the tipping point in his favor. He took it from there. He was named the DHL Delivery Man Award winner for reliever of the month in June and selected to the All-Star game in July. He finished with a career high 40 saves and a 1.83 ERA.

The big righty had a sea change on the mound, too. He could still reach back for the strikeout when needed, as he averaged 8K/nine innings, but more often went for the quick out instead of challenging every hitter. His sinker became his bread and butter pitch, with Hanny going to it over 80% of the time, and it led to his first MLB season with 50%+ of his outs recorded on the dirt.

The breakout season earned him a nice payday. He signed a one-year/$4.1M deal with another half mil in bonuses on the table if he finishes 60 games in 2012. This off-season was his second arbitration-eligible year, so Pittsburgh has him under team control through 2013.

If he lasts that long. The Pirates believe that a bullpen can built from scratch and without a great deal of investment (and they're probably right.) We all recall when Matt Capp got too costly for the FO's taste and was just flat out released. That won't happen with Hanny, but he could get expensive enough that this might be his last season in Pittsburgh.

Whether he goes at the deadline or the off season probably depends on how the Pirates are sitting then. The brass would love to be competitive and won't be selling off pieces if they're in a race. But closers are generally overvalued in the MLB marketplace, and if Pittsburgh is floundering in late July, Hanny could be a hot item.

If not, we expect him to be shopped in the off-season, while he still has a year of team control remaining. The 30 year old was eyed by Texas during the winter and several rumors of other possible suitors zapped across the web. It's possible that the FO sees a Pirate window opening and would like to keep him around for that fine day, but we see a truly competitive team being more in the 2014-15 timeframe, and that would make for one costly contract for the Bucs.

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Starling Marte

Say this for Dave Littlefield - he didn't have much of an eye for pitchers, but he could spot a centerfielder. In 2005, he drafted McCutch, and two years later inked a 17 year old Dominican product, Starling Marte, who is now the next big thing in the system. Rene Gayos signed him for $85K, which may work out to be one of the best bargains struck in recent Bucco memory.

In the past three years, Marte has gone through the levels from A ball to Altoona, and hit .300+ at each stop. He's slated to open at Indy this season after winning the Eastern League batting title in 2011 with a .332 average.

Considered by many to be a five tool player blessed with a great baseball physique, he didn't show much long ball bop until last season, when he hit 12 homers for the Curve. And that was just a year after having power-sapping hamate surgery. The other tools were all evident: speed, an arm, a glove and the ability to hit for average.

MLB.com ranked him as its #40 prospect, The Hardball Times as #48,  Baseball Prospectus as #56, John Sickels as #64, Keith Law of ESPN as #73, Baseball America as #73, and The Scouting Book as #80 with a bullet. While not exactly in the can't miss category, those ratings are pretty fair indicators of Marte being on the radar, especially as a AA player.

And other teams know his potential. When the Bucs showed some interest in Met first baseman Ike Davis, the New York brass was reported to ask for Marte as part of the return package. That shut down that avenue in, well, a New York minute. Washington had even less luck; they were told he was unavailable. Now the Pirates claim no one on the roster is untouchable if the price is right, but it would take one heck of a deal to pry Marte loose.

The 23 year old has been in six spring games this year. He's put up a .692 average with a eight-hit streak and a couple of homers in 13 ABs. That showing won't get him a ticket to Pittsburgh yet.

Marte is still raw for all his physical tools. His command of the strike zone needs considerable work, as his Altoona 100K to 22W ratio shows. The more veteran hurlers in AAA will try to exploit his plate aggressiveness, so that will be his first challenge. He has plus speed, but his stolen base success rate last year was a so-so 67%. Marte has to work on combining pitching reads with his pure speed to improve on that phase of the game.

He gets a great jump in the outfield, but sometimes his routes are iffy and he considers every ball catchable, so he needs to polish up his mental game plan in the pasture. Marte has also had some problems this spring in adjusting to the corner outfield, a combination of unfamiliarity with the position and Florida's windy conditions.

While he'll patrol center at Indy, he's ticketed for the vast expanses of PNC Park's left field when he gets his call. It's thought that his physical tools could eventually earn him a spot in center, but Cutch will not go gently into that good night.

When will that call come? It depends on not only Marte's body of work - remember that Alex Presley tore the league up last year and still cooled his heels - but Pirate needs. Major league injuries and performance will factor in one way or another. And based on past roster moves, the FO will not be eager to start his clock ticking a minute sooner than they have to, a low revenue given.

But an outfield of Marte, McCutchen and Jose Tabata has to be a fly ball pitcher's dream come true, especially with the Pirates loading up on power arms in the minors, and that configuration isn't too far in the future.

The good news about Marte is the few chinks in his armor are correctable. He's young, and a bit of baseball maturing as provided at the AAA level should be his ticket. How quickly he achieves that maturity will be the key to his future role as a Pirate.

Camp Report

Ol' GW isn't a big believer in spring performances, especially a week into the games. We do like Clint Hurdle's approach to camp, though.

Like most of the other managers, he's sticking to a "get everyone some innings" approach early on. He's stacking the top of the order with regulars and letting the fringe guys fill in the bottom. It's tough to get a read on the regular season order that way, but that will clear up in a couple of weeks and it does get the everyday players an extra swing or two during the games.

Hurdle continues to work hard on getting his squad aggressive on the bases. That project has been a little on the ugly side so far, but at least he and third base coach Nick Leyva should have an idea of who to wave and who to hold once the games begin to count, and it should get the squad in a first-to-third state of mind.

The club is also pushing versatility. The middle infield candidates are getting looks at both second and short, while guys like Nick Evans and Matt Hague are being introduced to the hot corner. That's in keeping with the team philosophy and gives Hurdle a couple of more options during games.

While the pitching is usually behind the hitting at this point, the Pirates are showing some improvement early on with the lumber. They've gone five straight games with 10+ hits compiling a .313 BA, and Cutch is en fuega, squaring up on everything.

OF prospect Starling Marte has also been swinging a hot stick, putting together an eight hit streak. That's impressive even if grandma is on the hill. His caveat: he looks a little bewildered as a corner outfielder, and top gun or not, the odds of him bumping McCutch out of center, at least in the short term, are shorter than Sarah Palin's chances of being sworn in come January.

Josh Harrison is also off to a hot start, with 4 hits, including 3 doubles, in 7 AB.  Matt Hague doesn't look lost, either, with a .385 average, so he'll probably get a long look from the staff in his first MLB camp. So far, ten Bucs are hitting over .400 in the first week of games, which at least shows they came to camp ready to play.

Forget about a guess on the pitching. In seven games, 28 different guys have thrown and only one (J-Mac) has reached the five inning mark to date. That'll sort itself out shortly. The Bucs have already sent Gerrit Cole packing to minor league camp because of the innings available, and there will be a small posse joining him in the next few days.

The Bucs do have a couple of guys dinged up, always a spring concern. Along with AJ Burnett, the Bucs have a few guys who have limiting injuries - SS Gustav Nunez (ankle - 60 day DL), RHP Logan Kensing (abdominal strain) and C Jose Morales (oblique strain). 2B Neil Walker (back tightness), IF Josh Harrison (elbow bruise) and RHP Daniel Cabrera (forearm tightness) are day-to-day. There haven't been any reports regarding Charlie Morton, who appears to be a couple of weeks behind in his prep work.

Happy Birthday Arky!

Why did Bill James list Arky Vaughan, Bucco infielder from 1932-41, as the second greatest shortstop of all-time in his New Historical Abstract, right behind fellow Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner?

How about a .318 lifetime BA with a .408 OBP and a career OPS of 136? Or 73.5 WAR over those 11 Pirate seasons? Oh, and a bust in Cooperstown.

Well, baseball historian Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times has his tale in the article "100th birthday: Arky Vaughan." Give it a click; Vaughan is one of the greatly under-appreciated guys to ever wear a Pirate uni.

McCutch Makes His Deal

The Pirates and Andrew McCutchen, 25, struck a six-year deal that will carry the All-Star centerfielder through his arbitration and first two free agency years, with an option for 2018 according to Mike Sanserino and Bill Brink of the Post Gazette. All that's left is the physical.

The template for a deal has been out there for a couple of seasons, using Justin Upton and Jay Bruce contracts as models, as they eventually did.

Upton's 2010 contract was signed for 6 years/$51.25M, while Bruce's 2011 deal was inked for 6 years/$51M with a $13M option year. All three players signed after their third year and strong WAR seasons - Uptons' was 4.8 in '09, Bruce's 4.6 in '10, and McCutch's 5.5 in '11. All three players were selected as Top Twelve picks in the 2005 draft.

While there are few details out yet, the basic McCutch agreement covers six years, including this coming one, and is worth $51.5M with a team option for $14.75M in 2018. That breaks down to an average of $8.583M/season. He'll start with $500K this year, plus $1.25M in signing bonus money per the Trib's Rob Biertempfel.

(EDIT: Sanserino tweeted the terms: 2012: $1.25M bonus + $500k 2013: $4.5M 2014: $7.25M 2015: $10M 2016: $13M 2017: $14M 2018: 1M buyout or $14.75M club option.)

The Bucs got a bit of a break, as McCutchen's agent, Steve Hammond, let the Pirates slide on inflation (not the US rate, but its MLB counterpart) and didn't press Cutch's superior consistency (In three seasons, McCutchen has compiled 12.4 WAR. In five, Upton has 11.5 and Bruce, in four years, 6.3). We thought that McCutch would make a case for $55M or better.

Still, the contract is the second biggest in team history, topped on by Jason Kendall's 6 year/$60M deal from 2002.

So both sides should be happy, and the team's best player is locked up for the foreseeable future, with Neil Walker being next in line. We'll say this for the FO - they've made an effort this year to solidify the MLB team, a different and welcome approach. Let's hope the stability pays some dividends in the next season or two.

Rod Barajas

The Bucs seemed set at catcher going into 2011. They had Chris Snyder, Ryan Doumit and Jason Jaramillo returning, with Tony Sanchez ticketed for Indy by mid-season. Well, scratch that bit of Bucco wishful thinking.

Snyder herniated his disc with an awkward early June slide into second, Doumit went down in May with an ankle injury following a collision at the plate, and Jaramillo had elbow and back issues at Indy that sent him to the minor-league DL. Snyder never returned, while Dewey came back in mid-August and JJ in September. Sanchez hit .241 and lost his pop at Altoona after missing much of 2010 with a broken jaw.

The parade began. Dusty Brown, Wyatt Toregas, Eric Fryer, Matt Pagnozzi and Mike McKenry all had a shot. McKenry was the default number one guy, starting 54 games behind the dish, and is is the only player among the eight with a shot at returning in April with the big club. But with a .222/.276/.322 line and OPS of 66, he was hardly the player Pittsburgh wanted to don the tools of ignorance on a regular basis.

The old posse was set loose after the season and found new homes - Snyder with the 'Stros, Doumit with the Twins, and Jaramillo with the Cubbies - and that left the Bucs with one big honkin' hole behind the plate. As they did with Clint Barmes, they identified the guy they had rated at the top of the mid tier FA market, went after him early, overpaid just a bit and landed Rod Barajas.

In early November, Pittsburgh signed the 36 year old Mexican native to a $4M deal with a $3.5M team option in 2013 and no buyout fee. He was the first player that they brought into the fold.

The thirteen year vet has played with Arizona, Texas, Philadelphia, Toronto, the Mets and Dodgers, and comes with a good glove rep that includes being a coach on the field for the staffs he's worked with. Barajas has a lifetime 31% throw 'em out rate, and it was 25% for LA last year after a dismal 15% in 2010.

The big guy also arrives with a less than sterling career line of .238/.284/.412 and an OPS of 80 as a hitter, with a .230/.280/.430 line and 16 HRs in 2011. The 6'2", 250 pound Barajas does have a little pop, smacking double-digit HRs for the past eight seasons, except for 2007 when he was Carlo Ruiz's caddy for the Phils and only got into 48 games.

He's third among MLB catchers in homers since 2009 with 50, and was the first Met to hit a walk-off dinger at Citi Field. The righty is equally effective against pitchers toeing either side of the rubber, having virtually no gap in his career splits at the the plate in average or power.

Barajas isn't going to be trotted out everyday, but he's been able to wiggle the fingers for 100-110 games per year, and we suspect the Pirates will be satisfied to get 110 outings from him; any more would be gravy.

He fits in with the 2012 Pirate philosophy to bring in a little defense first, veteran presence in the form of starters rather than bench guys to help support their clubhouse mentoring roles. He's already begun that process, not only working with the pitchers but picking McKenry's brain for staff tendencies. And make no mistake that's a two-way street. McKenry and the pitchers are learning as much from Barajas as he is from them.

We're not too concerned with his age, as catchers tend to bloom later and last longer than other position players. The only red flag we note is his caught stealing rate, which we'd keep an eye on as an indicator of his continued skill set.

He's not blocking anyone short-term, and has a friendly deal in that the FO can jettison him at no cost if Father Time catches up to him after the year, or keep him around another season to tutor Sanchez if the youngster can put it together enough to arrive by 2013. If Sanchez isn't ready, Barajas serves as his insurance policy.

His signing may also be the beginning of a new phase of Pirate team development.

While the Pirate organization as a low revenue club will always be on the lookout for prospects, this is the first year under the Coonelly/Huntington reign that the team raided the FA & trade markets to reel in veteran players, albeit mid-range, to plug holes and upgrade talent in Barajas, Barmes, Erik Bedard and AJ Burnett. Aki Iwamura and Kevin Correia are the only two examples we can recall from the past to fit that mold.

So we're hoping this is the start of the second era in Pirate baseball, one in which the FO is as committed to improving the big league club as much as upgrading the minor league system.

Spring Has Sprung

• The Bucs lost their spring opener 7-1 to the Blue Jays. Not much to be taken from the game except that it's windy in Florida and that Clint Hurdle is looking at the fringe guys early on, with just four starters in the lineup. The home opener is a rematch tomorrow at McKechnie Field with Erik Bedard getting the ball.
• The news on AJ Burnett post-surgery is that he's expected to miss 8-12 weeks. So until mid-May or beyond, the Pirate staff will be pretty similar to last year's, with Bedard swapped for Paul Maholm and Brad Lincoln looking like the sixth man. It does appear that Charlie Morton is on track to join the rotation out of camp, so that's a plus.
• The Bucs renewed/agreed to contracts with 25 players who have under three years of service time and are on the 40-man roster. They are position players Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Chase d'Arnaud, Matt Hague, Josh Harrison, Jody Mercer, Yamaico Navarro, Gustavo Nunez, Gorkys Hernandez, Starling Marte, Alex Presley and Mike McKenry, in addition to pitchers Jared Hughes, Chris Leroux, Brad Lincoln, Jeff Locke, Daniel McCutchen, James McDonald, Kyle McPherson, Bryan Morris, Daniel Moskos, Rudy Owens, Tony Watson, Duke Welker and Justin Wilson.They did it a week before the March 11th deadline, which probably tells us that extensions for McCutch and The Kid are on the back burner.
• Six Bucco spring games will be broadcast on TV this year. Four will air on Root Sports: Saturday, March 10th vs Minnesota (1:05 PM), Wednesday, March 21st vs Boston (1:05 PM), Saturday, March 24th vs Houston (1:05 PM) and Monday, March 26th vs Baltimore (7:05 PM). The MLB Network will show the other two: Friday, March 9th at Boston (7 PM) and Tuesday, March 27th at Philadelphia (1 PM). Several other games will be available on MLB.TV, on delay from the MLB Network, or on the radio from KDKA-FM 93.7.
• The Bucs open the season at home on Thursday, April 5th against the Phillies.

AJ Out

Welcome back to the NL, AJ. Taking part in some bunting drills yesterday, the Bucs' most recent addition to the starting staff, AJ Burnett, fouled a pitch off his eye. And no, the delivery wasn't from a threatened member of the rotation, but a disinterested pitching machine during a Clint Hurdle bunting competition.

The Pirates just announced that he has an orbital fracture and will have surgery on it tomorrow. They didn't give a time frame for his return to action, deferring until the surgery is done to see how much damage is involved and the effect on his vision.  We won't speculate on his return, although recovery seems to involve at least several weeks if all goes well from the information we've seen.

Not exactly the kind of news we were hoping to hear from camp.

Clint Barmes

Clint Barmes, born in Vincennes, came out of Indiana State University, and was drafted in the tenth round by the Rockies in 2000. The SS came up to the big team in 2003, and yo-yoed back in forth for three seasons with the Rox, putting up some pretty impressive batting numbers as a part-time player.

In fact, in 2005 he was the NL Rookie of the Month for April, and was hitting .329 when he broke his left collarbone in early June while carrying a load of deer meat up his apartment steps. Barmes came back in September, hitting just .216 after the layoff.

In 2006, he was given the everyday job at short, and had one of his worse years at the dish, hitting .220 with a .264 OBP. That opened up competition for the job the following year, and a youngster named Troy Tulowitzki claimed the position. Lotsa luck knocking him out of a job.

He was shuffled to second base in 2008, and after initially losing out to Jayson Nix and then going on the DL, Barmes eventually started for the Rox the next two seasons, hitting a solid .290 in 2008 but slumping to .245 in 2009, though he did have his best season as a slugger, with 23 HR and 76 RBI.

The next year, he flipped between middle infield positions when Tulowitzki was hurt. But his .235/8/50 line didn't cut it, and he lost the second base gig to Eric Young Jr. He was shipped to the Astros for P Felipe Paulino in the off season.

In 2011, Barmes missed several weeks for Houston with a broken left hand, incurred when he was hit by a pitch just as camp was set to break in late March. He went on to play 123 games with a line of .244/12/39 and entered free agency.

He hit the jackpot in Pittsburgh as the perfect storm washed him ashore on the banks of the Allegheny. Clint Hurdle had wearied of Ronny Cedeno's "the lights are on, but nobody's home" act. The timing wasn't great, as shortstop market was pretty weak.

RC's option wasn't exercised, and he signed with the Mets in January for $1M as a back-up infielder. Without a MLB ready SS in the organization, the Bucs, as they did with Rod Barajas in a similar market and situation, identified Barmes quickly (they considered him the top mid-tier FA available, plus Clint Hurdle had coached him) and overpaid to get him in November before the market was picked over.

Barmes earned $3.925M with the Astros, the biggest paycheck of his career. The Pirates inked him for two guaranteed years at $5M and $5.5M. It was the Bucs biggest FA deal in total dollars since they signed 3B Steve Buechele for four years and $11M in the 1991-92 offseason. That's pretty sweet for a guy who was considered a bench infielder by many clubs.

He comes to Pittsburgh with a rep as a good glove guy with a stick that has some pop, but not very strong at getting on base with a .302 career OBP. Barmes leather netted him a 10.8 UZR/150 in 2011 and he had his highest MLB single season WAR of 3.1, mainly due to that solid fielding.

That comes with one caveat: he's only played 1000+ innings at short twice (2006, 2011) in his nine year career, although he's posted strong defensive ratings both seasons. Barmes will be 33 next week, and given his age, his range could decline, although his ability to catch and throw what he can reach shouldn't be affected. And his more consistent technique should help Neil Walker make the turn at second, a work in progress that was hampered by Cedeno's sometimes erratic feeds. So Barmes should be a plus at short.

The hitting could be a different story. There’s a strong chance that his offense could drop off in PNC Park, after stints in hitter friendly Coors Field and Minute Maid Park. He's a fly ball hitter - 47.6% career, and he's only been under that line once since 2005 - and PNC is not kind to guys that put the ball in the air.

His average reflects a lowish .281 Batted Ball in Play for Hits average, which correlates to so many fly balls. Another stat to watch is that even in the friendly confines he's called home, his FB/HR ratio is just 6.8%, well under the league average of 9.1%. His career Isolated Power number is .149, on the lower end of MLB average.

So don't be surprised to see a few Coors Field homers/doubles become cans of corn in front of the Notch. However, Barmes does have a .276 BA at PNC in 99 plate appearances with 4 homers and a .425 slugging %, so perhaps that won't be quite as big a deterrent as the stats would suggest.

The Bucs rolled the dice on signing Barmes, though given the fact that he's a placeholder until until someone in the system - Chase d'Arnaud, Jordy Mercer, Brock Holt, et al -  can step up, it was an understandable risk. With the dearth of quality shortstops both in Pittsburgh and major league ball as a whole, the FO is hoping to get two healthy, steady years out of Barmes.