Hello all:

While I visit nearly every day, I post pretty intermittently. I'm not adequately up to snuff on SABR to get involved in most conversations, I never played pro ball, etc. I'm just a guy who loves baseball, loves the Pirates, and loves to cause himself agony, if the last 20 years are a trend of any sort.

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"Selig truly can say with pride and substance that the game is more competitive, better played, more stable and consumed by more people in more ways than ever before, certainly since the players association was formed in 1953 and began negotiating CBAs in 1968." Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/tom_verducci/11/22/collective.bargaining.agreement/index.html#ixzz1eY4h97Pd The least honest baseball article I've ever read. How could Verducci expect a Pirates fan (Royals, Astros, Rays, etc) to buy this crap? In so many ways, baseball culture mimics politics, imo. One facet of that is the way the major media publications shill for the institution itself, much the same way as Fox shills for GOP candidates and MSNBC for dems. It's sickening. Thank the stars for blogs - an odd place to suss out objectivitiy, if you ask me (which you didn't). Happy Thanksgiving Bucs Faithful.

According to Troy Renck at the Denver Post, Ian Stewart was nearly traded ... http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_18591556 to an undisclosed NL team but the deal fell through 30 minutes before the deadline.  Speculation here on my part, but, could this have been one of the deals Langosch tweeted about here?  Could NH have been going after Jimenez and Stewart both?  Stewart's admittedly struggled this year but his BABIP is an extremely unlucky .213 and ZIPS and he's still only 26.  Throughout his MiLB career, Stewart's BABIP has hovered around .300 ... he'll k about 25% but his ISO is good for about .200.  If he's able to figure out ML pitching and make the jump (huge caveat), I see him as a .255 .335 .460 type good for around 1.5 WAR.  Not "huge" in his own right but a solid contributor who, along with Jimenez, would have been huge for the club.  Probably wouldn't have gone after Lee in this case.  Either Stewart or Alvarez would have moved to 1st.

 

Just thoughts... I'm bored.  

a trade of Stetson Allie and Tony Sanchez for Matt Kemp?

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and all I want is a Bucs winning streak.

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Sorry if this has been posted... I couldn't find it.  Nice to see the mainstream media write a feel-good fluff piece on our guys, no?  To me, the best quote in the story was FC saying they wouldn't add a piece if it jeopardized the future they've been building.  That's exactly what I would hope to hear from him.  There also seems to be lots of optimism from the FO and the players that we're only seeing the beginning of their possible run.  Here's the story: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/pirates/2011-06-28-pirates-clint-hurdle-winning_n.htm 

Hadn't seen this posted here.  Sort of a silly study when all the ultimately matters is the excitement a team generates heading towards a post-seaons bid... and we all know we've come up short there for nearly two decades.  I thought it was interesting enough to post the story though.  I hope you'll agree...

Fun to see all the big spenders at the bottom of the list.  Also be interested in comparing this list to revenue generation on TV deals, merchandise, and ticket/concessions sales.  Doubt there's anything but negative correlation for the most part.  

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Pirates:

1. Jose Tabata (R) LF
2. Chase d'Arnaud (R) 3B
3. Andrew McCutchen (R) CF
4. Neil Walker (S) 2B
5. Matt Diaz (R) RF
6. Lyle Overbay (L) 1B
7. Ronny Cedeno (R) SS
8. Michael McKenry (R) C
9. Paul Maholm (L) P

Sox:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury (L) CF
2. Dustin Pedroia (R) 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez (L) 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis (R) 3B
5. Darnell McDonald (R) LF
6. Mike Cameron (R) RF
7. Jason Varitek (S) C
8. Marco Scutaro (R) SS
9. Jon Lester (L) P

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Hey Buc Dugout... I'm in the middle of a crazy 16 day road trip and I've had no good way of keeping abreast of PBC action.  Hoping you guys could clue me in on the memes?  Who's playing well, badly?  How've results been?  Any brightspots?

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Here's a fun follow @Bobby_Smizik

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Pirates, Other Teams Pursuing Brandon Wood

via @MLBTradeRumors

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While you never like a loss, here's why I'm glad the game played out the way it did today....

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So hear me out.... I'm sure a few of you saw the story @ MLBTR  Rangers Designate Ramirez & Rapada For Assignment ... the Rangers dumped former uber-prospect C Max Ramirez and LH reliever Clay Rapada to make room on their roster for Brandon Webb and Arthur Rhodes.  How far out would it be in left field for us to offer Ryan Doumit plus about $1.8 mil in salary help for the pair?  We need LH relief and Ramirez could prove a real high upside bridge to Tony Sanchez.  Doumit provides an option for the Rangers who currently list David Murphy at DH, light hitting Craig Gentry at back-up RF, and Moreland/Davis at 1B.  Here's an article discussing Daniel's offseason priorities per the team website ... Ramirez is just 2 years removed from a 19 hr/ 19 double season split amongst AA/AAA where he put up a 1.067 OPS in over 300 PA.    Here's a scouting report on Maximillian circa 2008 http://rangersfarmreport.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/01/prospect_previe_9.html

 

I'm not a trade junkie and I don't know much about the Rangers needs/wants ... just a knee-jerk thought having read the MLBTR article.  

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/11/pirates-designate-duke-laroche-young.html

 

Duke, LaRoche, and Delwyn all designated.  I thought LaRoche was our utility infielder and I figured Duke had at least a fighting chance of being retained if there was any doubt the Bucs wouldn't be able to sign a legitimate SP option.  Guess they're confident they'll get somebody to sign because I doubt NH will lean on Owens, etc for the bulk of next year.  

 

Already, MLBTR readers are speculating on Duke as  a 5th SP option or long-reliever.  Theo Epstein is all over him.  We'll see what happens.  

 

Think the PBCBlog crowd will be happy about this one?  Sale the team...Nutting is cheap.