Ron Cook wrote a column today about the Pirates plan to build for the future by drafting.

Marc-Andre Fleury + Evgeni Malkin + Sidney Crosby + Jordan Staal = Stanley Cup.

Andrew McCutchen + Brad Lincoln + Pedro Alvarez + Jameson Taillon = ?????

A winning season?

Maybe more?

We can dream, right?

The Penguins proved the plan can work. Be bad for a long time. Accumulate high draft choices. Make smart selections. Have a little luck. (It's hard to imagine any team in any sport at any time being luckier than the Penguins when the Crosby ping-pong ball bounced their way). Coach 'em up. Reap the rewards.

If the Penguins can do it, so can the Pirates.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10159/1063987-63.stm#ixzz0qHzKkKbl

He still appears a little dubious and rightly points out the danger of injury to pitchers but this is a still a surprising step.

I'm just so proud of little Ronnie right now.

So I flipped back after the game and I only caught the end of his interview but he made a comment that I found strange (the following is my paraphrase of it):

"I'm here learning until they want me to start producing" and then he shrugged and said "until then though I'm learning"

I missed the question so I may have taken this completely out of context but I found it to be a strange comment.  Did anyone else see this?  Or does anyone know what he's talking about?

I'm not Billy Wagner and I definitely don't have a problem with the way Milledge plays the game, I just found this comment to be very odd.

I have no idea how many of you get the MLB Network but on Saturday (March 7th) at 6 PM Eastern the Pirates are being featured on the "30 Clubs In 30 Days" show:

"An In-Depth Look at the 2009 Team Featuring Player, Coach and GM Interviews; Expert Analysis on Personnel and Other Decisions for the Upcoming Regular Season"

I've seen a couple of the episodes for other teams and they've been pretty alright.  I'm sure this segment will tell hardcore Pirates fans nothing new but there might be some cool clips or interviews.  Also this program tends to be repeated ad nauseam on the MLB Network the following days so I'm sure you will have other opportunities to see it if you miss the initial showing.

The 2009 schedule just came out:

http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=pit&m=4&y=2009

Open with a four game series in St. Louis while the home opener is against the Astros.

Play in Chicago for 6 games in late May.  Indians come to PNC Park in late June which will hopefully get some good attention and maybe spark some emotions.

No tough period really sticks out to me, seems to be a pretty even schedule overall but still can't really tell until the other teams start playing.

Any thoughts?

Here is an article from Fox Sports:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8079238/Struggling-Morris-let-go-as-Pirates-shuffle-rotation?MSNHPHMA

What can I say except that I'm very, very happy and I'm sure you are too.  Phil Dumatrait will be taking over his spot in the starting rotation and JVB will be moving into the bullpen.  I don't Dumatrait is the answer to anything and I'm not sure he will be significantly more successful than Morris but it's the message that I like.