I originally used this space to give everyone a heads-up of Jim Callis's appearance on ESPN Radio.  A few people asked for a recap, so I decided to edit the post and turn this into a recap.  This is purely from memory after the spot.

Thanks to ElDuce for adding a detail I missed.  I also added a detail I originally forgot to include, so thanks to myself.  My memory is so clutch.  I didn't really need to remember everything for the recap in the small-time comment section, but the FanPost body is the big leagues.  Great performance, brain!

1) Callis began by discussing the MLB roster.  He discussed the trades last year. He didn’t comment on whether Huntington did a good job with the trades, but instead said something like, “You can’t expect elite talent for mediocre talent. He got what he could."  

2) He was asked if the Pirates brought Tabata and Lincoln up too early. He said they obviously didn’t bring them up too late, since those guys won’t make the difference between making the playoffs and not. He can’t really say if they came up too early.

2) He talked about Taillon and Allie. He and the other Baseball America guys argued predraft about who had the best stuff. In his opinion, it is really close between Taillon and Allie. Taillon is more polished and has better command, but Callis said it wouldn’t be ridiculous to think Allie could go out there and someday  put up a performance like Strasburg’s last night (!). Allie has ridiculous raw potential.

Jim Callis loves Allie.

3) Will the Bucs sign these two guys? Callis says you don’t take Taillon #2 without knowing you can sign him. It will go down to the wire, but it will get done. He says Taillon is much more polished and has better stuff than Porcello.  He is similar to Beckett.  I believe Callis said to expect somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million.

As far as Allie goes, he will be tougher. If he’d take $2 million, the Bucs will get it done. But Allie may want 4, 5 million. If so, it’s going to be much tougher.  Having the compensation pick in a deep draft next year is a nice consolation prize for the Bucs if Allie doesn't sign.

4) Was it a mistake to go so heavy on pitching? Callis said no. The Bucs took who they thought were the best guys available, and they drafted some very high-ceiling players. Taillon and Allie are two guys who can change your franchise, and the Bucs already have two, young elite hitters (Alvarez and Cutch), so that takes away from the worry

5) Is it risky taking high school players? Callis says this point is completely overblown. Talent is talent. He said Moneyball made people criticize high school picks too much. The book says taking Prince Fielder and Scott Kazmir would be crazy, but look how that worked out. Also, most college guys who come out with elite stuff were drafted as high schoolers but simply failed to reach a deal. Talent is the key.

6) When can we expect to see Taillon and Allie?  Callis said it wouldn't be crazy to see Taillon at age 21.  Allie will probably take more time, because he needs a lot more work on his control.

7) What about Lincoln? Callis liked him in high school and college. He’s a fierce competitor. He can be a good #3.

8) [From ElDuce] He thinks Huntington has done a pretty good job. He really likes that they pour money into the draft as that’s where they’re going to find talent. He said something like “I wish I had a nick for every time someone with another team complains about how Frank Coonelly used to lecture them on draft spending, now he spends more than anyone.”

I know this is the third or fourth FanPost devoted to this topic and I apologize for the clutter.  However, I don't want to screw this up.

I want to be sure I got everyone who said they will be there and included them on a group e-mail.  All of the members listed below should have received an email from me.  If not: Speak up now! Of course, if anyone else wants to come, it's not too late!

As previously mentioned, we are going to be in Section 328 along with several members of Pittsburgh Sports Tavern.  Tickets are $10 each.  Please send the money via PayPal to: Toasty [at] gmail (dot) com. [Update: Schide told me that if you use the "Personal" tab and send the money as a Gift or Payment Owed, PayPal won't take any fee.  PayPal took a little over 50 cents for each transaction so far, which I didn't care about, but if it saves 10 bucks, hey, I'll take it.]

I have the block reserved right now and  I'll probably buy them at the end of the day today. However, I'd like to get some of the money ASAP since I'm not exactly rich, and even $180 makes a big difference.

I have the following people listed as attending and have emailed them.  Again, please email me if I missed you or you did not receive an email from me.  Also, please make sure I got the ticket numbers correct.  I believe only Lighthouse is bringing someone.

Cocktailsfor2 (already has ticket)
Pghfan987 (on its way; PayPal issues)
WTM (paid)
IAPiratesFan (paid)
Kidspud (paid)
Traco Bucco
Winger31 (paid)
JR89
Lighthouse913 +1 (paid)

omar moreno (paid)
Uncle Nate (sending via mail)
GoldNeck + bucdaddy (paid)
Gorilla Killa (paid)
Vlad (paid)
Schide (paid)

[Periodically updating who has paid]

Gene Collier wrote a bad article about the Pirates.  I decided to spend some time needlessly responding to it, Fire Joe Morgan Lite Lite Lite style.

Occasionally in summers past, this column has amused itself (if few others)

Writers should stop anthropomorphizing their columns. I hate when writers say "This space suggested….". Stop it. YOU suggested it.

with an exercise called the Backdraft, whereby rather than suggesting draft picks the Pirates might consider to improve the big league club, I'd backdraft players from the big league club for the same lofty purpose.

Oh. So this column is simply a list of players Collier thinks should be demoted. That idea, by itself, wouldn’t make for a very good column, so it has to be dressed up in a silly concept of a "backdraft," which already exists in the form of DFAs and waivers.

[Also, Collier doesn’t suggest who will replace these guys, but that is in no way important!]

Historians of the Backdraft (me)

My column exists independently of mine own hand!  I AM BUT ITS RECORD KEEPER AND EARTHLY CONDUIT.

remember that it was in the same week that the Pirates drafted Neil Walker six years ago that the first player ever selected in the Backdraft was none other than Randall Simon, not only an abysmal Pirate, but baseball's only known assailant of racing sausages.

It's hard to duplicate that kind of history,

It’s hard to duplicate what kind of history? It’s hard to duplicate the history of drafting Neil Walker and demoting Randall Simon in the same year? It’s hard to duplicate the history of drafting a player and then picking a player currently on the roster who will go on to assault a person dressed up in a sausage costume? What does the drafting of Neil Walker six years ago have to do with any of this? What does this sentence even mean?

Darn it, column! Learn to write intelligible paragraphs!

even with the coincidence of the arrival Tuesday of that same Neil Walker to the major league club for what many hope is an extended and decorated stay. Some would call that irony. They'd be incorrect.

How is it a coincidence? It's a coincidence Walker came up six years after you did the first "Backdraft"? Huh?

Furthermore, WHO WOULD CALL HIS PROMOTION IRONY? I demand names! What would be ironical about a high draft pick reaching the MLB level and succeeding? That doesn’t make any sense. You can’t just choose a word that no thinking person would ever use to describe a situation, then criticize them for using that word to describe the situation.  That’s called a strawman.

There’s absolutely zero connection between Neil Walker, Randall Simon, assaulting sausages, the possibility of Walker being successful, and this column. Did anyone bother to read this column before printing it?

Nevertheless, just looking at the draft board, you don't have to be Mel Kiper to know that this is the strongest Pirates Backdraft ever, what with so many dreadful players at so many positions that the column has been moved to late May.

No, no! The column has moved itself.  It had to move to create a "coincidence"!

Generally I've waited until at least the second week of June until proceeding in the public interest against sub-standard play.

YOU RUINED MY ANNUAL MOCK BACKDRAFT AWARD PICKS POOL! I thought I had another two weeks. I picked Ryan Doumit as my dark horse!

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Reading the WTM essay recently linked by Charlie reminded me of an idea I had during the off-season. 

First, some backstory. I didn't start reading Bucs Dugout or any other Pirates blog until fairly recently.  I was pretty ambivalent about the Pirates during much of the 2000s.  I still loved the Pirates, but they were generally boring to watch and the management's moves largely infuriated me.  I had little hope for the future and the few times I did seek out Pirates commentary just cemented my gloomy outlook.  In short, it depressed me, and I avoided online sites.

That avoidance has created two problems for me.  One, I've missed out on a lot of great commentary and pieces from those days.  Two, it's made me tend to forget that as bad as things sometimes are now, the recent past was a lot worse.  It's easy to forget that, especially for people like me who deliberately avoided thinking deeply about it.

So, the idea I had...dramatically inserted after the jump!

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Dejan hosted a chat today. I've seen comments on here about whether Dejan sticks to his refrain that he doesn't editorialize, so I thought I'd pick out some comments in the chat to illustrate how I think he deviated from that approach today.

Continue reading this post »

In Dejan Kovacevic's July 07 story about Lastings Milledge, Dejan discusses how Milledge has a reputation for rankling veterans in his previous stints.  Dejan dropped this brief anecdote:

The catch, as [Milledge] readily conceded, is that he hardly has been one to subscribe to standard baseball culture, a la Doug Mientkiewicz last summer correcting one of the Pirates' youngsters on how to set down his batting helmet.

I don't recall that incident. Anyone have a link or could give me an explanation? I'd ask on the PBC blog comments but that would require me to (1) subject myself to that cesspool, and (2) risk incurring the wrath of yinzers by implicitly questioning Dirty Doug. Maybe this explains why Doug got into a shouting match with Randy Johnson: Randy probably didn't show proper reverence to the rubber.

I'd really like to know why proper batting helmet placement technique is considered such a vital part of clubhouse chemistry and baseball culture.  I never played baseball beyond Little League--I was terrible--but I've never heard of that. Am I simply ignorant on this point?

Beyond that specific issue, how important is all this stuff? I understand the idea that rookies should know their place and be humble and all that, but this seems silly. Milledge could eat ice cream out of his batting helmet like it was a Dairy Queen sundae for all I care, so long as he hits well. 

If Milledge is blatantly disrespectful to his teammates that's one thing, but most of what I've read seems more like the batting helmet example.  In discussing the Pirates roster Milledge comments, "You're not going to have guys looking down on you because of how many years you have. Everybody's pretty much at that same level, on the same page, and I'm looking forward to it." If I were Milledge, I too would be ticked off if some mediocre veteran looks down on me and tries to assert his dominance clubhouse by telling me I had to follow his ways of doing things.