With Spring Training just a couple of weeks away I'm wondering if anybody has heard anything about the plans for pre- and post-game shows and hosts on the new flagship (93.7 The Fan).

I'm not optimistic, but I'm hoping BD regular David Todd makes the jump. I'd be okay with Rocco DeMarro as well. I also wouldn't be shocked to see a blogger have a regular roll in the show. However, I've heard nothing and would appreciate any updates yinz can provide. I'll be severly disappointed if any of the regular hosts on the KDKA formats are simply told to run a Pirates-centric talk show after games instead of something in the mode of what Rocco & DT provided in recent years at ClearChannel.

Good day.

(sorry if this is in appropriate use of a FanPost but I couldn't figure out how to make the FanShot work).

Several thoughts I wanted to air as we approach the first deadline in roughly forever with the Bucs being relevant:

1. I'm presuming that the Bucs will not be able to acquire "piece" that figures to be a cornerstone for several years.  As such, we either need a rental player that we acquire as a salary dump or to focus on bolstering the back ups with a John Vander Wal, Lloyd McClendon type player as well as veteran bullpen arm to ease the transition to Hanrahan (Veras has his off days and D. McCutchen is shaky).

2.  Two weeks ago I was strongly favoring dealing Maholm and would have seriously considered dealing Hanrahan for the right return.  Now I'm not sure that you can deal either.  It's one thing to not add significant outside pieces but another to subtract and I'm doubting that the appropriate trade return is out there for either of those guys.  Without Hanrahan this team is probably under .500. You can't trade Hanrahan without getting a major league ready cornerstone piece + prospect.  You can't trade Maholm without getting a near-term cornerstone piece. I'm doubting either player (especially Maholm) would bring such a return.

3.  The people calling the radio shows suggesting that we package Cedeno, Wood & Diaz for Hunter Pence are morons.

4.  The name I hear mentioned most frequently as a realistic trade target is Carlos Pena of the Cubs.  No thank you. 

5.  To re-state the obvious, unless we are getting a real piece for the future (not just a rental) it would be a mistake for the Bucs to give up any significant prospect.

6.  The guys like Presley and Harrison who have contributed to the major league team despite mediocre prospect rankings speaks well to the depth of the farm system.  We still do not have a lot of elite talent, but the improvement in depth and overall quality that has been the focus for 3+ years is finally paying dividends.  One need not be an elite prospect to contribute at the major league level.

As much fun as the Bucs current run is, I do not consider them a serious pennant contender.  Thus, the team needs maintain focus on building (without scuttling the present hope).

Good day.

Weather permitting, a week from this very moment we will be in the earliest moments of the 2011 season.  As such, I thought it appropriate to start a post where people can post any predictions they want to make, aside from the patently obvious.

I'll start:

1. The back end of the bullpen will be a massive disappointment.

2. ClearChannel (including 104.7 FM) and the Pirates will part ways with the Pirates games ending up on 93.7 The Fan (CBS) starting in 2012.  This will be a very welcome move.

3.  Garrett Jones will prove to be a legitimately worthwhile player in a platoon role.

Good day.

I long ago stopped giving any credence to what Bob Smizik thinks about baseball beyond the desire to have a window to the thought process of the unsophisticated and/or stupid segment of the Pirate fanbase.  With that caveat, I think it is worth noting that Smizik posted a late night blog entry (http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports/bob-smiziks-blog/27820-time-to-investigate-the-pirates) opining that a government entity now needs to investigate the Pirates.

Now you know. Prepare yourself for another onslaught of flying feces.

What it is worth - which ain't much - Smizik's clarion call is motivated by the recent famous quotes of Coonelly and Huntington.  It isn't worth much more, but I've made clear my opinion that Coonelly's word choice was sloppy but the message was reasonable and nothing new; while I think Huntington's comments were much more significant and some combination of scary and/or dumb.

However, I wonder if last night's televised Grapefruit League loss wasn't actually the tipping point for Smizik (which would be pathetic and hilarious if true).

Good day.

This per multiple Twitter reports, including that of Colin Dunlap.

Edited to include this link: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/11042/1124762-100.stm

Sad day.


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that the Bucs are about to spend money for the sake of spending money despite their insisting that they will not.  I haven't had a chance to read the recent posts so apologies if this is duplicitous, but I thought it might be therapeautic to start a list of things that we do not want to see.

1. Derek Lee.  Of the FA first basemen, Carlos Pena is easily the most attractive, and I'm not sure how I would feel if we signed him.

Your turn...

(Good day).

I was of the understanding that 2010 was the last season of the contract the Pirates signed with ClearChannel to carry the radio broadcasts of the game.  I now suspect that I am wrong about this as I have heard nothing.  However, I was of the strong suspicion that ClearChannel wasn't going to be overly motivated to keep the broadcasting rights and that The Fan (the new CBS radio station in town) would make a serious push.

Anybody able to shed any light on this?

Good day.

I'm assuming that JR is going to be fired in the very near future.  While I think that too much is usually made of a manager's contribution to a team, I think the manager should be fired in this case because the team failed to show upward mobility.

To me, the more interesting question is what the team should to with NH.  All of the recent talk about trading prospects for major league players has me concerned; I think it is too early to do that.  As frustrating as it is to be patient at this point, you generally only should trade prospects to round out/suplement a competitive major league club.  This club is clearly not there yet (perhaps a year from now we will be).  Making such trades at this point would seem to un-do much of the appropriate vigilence and patience since FC & NH took over and began to build the franchise from the ground up.  Instead, this team needs to be supplemented intelligently free agents even if it costs a lot of money (a pipe dream for several reasons, I know).  Nobody - including me - wants to be patient, but trading a guy like Marte at this point for anything less than a very good, established player or a big league-ready prospect of equal pedigree would be a mistake.

I generally like the job NH has done and I wholeheartedly support the process they have been utilizing.  But I'm worried that the pressure to win now could lead to a regrettable change of course (somewhat like what happened following the 1997 season).  If I recall correctly, NH has but one year remaining on his contract.  Might some of the pressure to win be eased (thus decreasing the liklihood of an illadvised and calamatous change of course) by extending NH now, even in the face of the festering, unpolished turd that was the almost completed 2010 season?  If not, should NH be let go now to avoid the above scenario?

Just thinking aloud here.

Good day.

Per Colin Dunlap at the PG.

In the future, whenever NH says that a prospect is weeks away, it means that it is immiment but he is sick of answering questions about it (as was the case with LIncoln).

FSN post-game still doesn't have the story and are talking about how it needs to happen soon.

If this is true, tomorrow will be my first game of the year and first I've paid for since the staged walk out.

Good day.

Huntington just made an interesting comment.  Greg Brown essentially stated his understanding that after Harper the Bucs are considering Machado, Taillon and Pomeranz.  In response, Hunting said that they have narrowed the choice to Machado, Taillon and a "college arm." In other words, he acknowledged Machado and Taillon but suggested that Pomeranz is no longer in the discussion.

The guess here is that Sale is the mysterious college arm.  Continuing to speculate, I'm betting they like Sale a lot, figure he'd be easier and cheaper to sign than the two high schoolers, and would thus allow the Bucs to mimmick last year's strategy.

I have nothing against Taillon, but I've been saying for weeks that I like Machado because he has less inherent risk than taking a high school arm that high and he too offers elite potential at a premium position.  I've also said that I'd be good with Sale.  Considering also that NH again noted on his radio show the dubious track record of high school pitchers, I'm more optimistic than I have been for a few days that Machado or Sale will be the pick.

Good day.

Not that this team is going to do anything of significance in terms of raw baseball standings anyway, but somebody needs to please tell FSN to resist the urge to show the wild card standings during the next few (like, between now and August) games. 

Last year that the Pirates got off to a surprisingly mediocre (which is to say "great" by Pirate standards) start and FSN had the gumption to show a graphic of the playoff standings - this in APRIL!  While there may not be a scientific causal link, the Bucs then proceeded to summarily wet the bed for the next few weeks.  That was not the first instance in recent years of a brief, repeated & embarassingly premature reference to the standings shortly preceeding a classic, catastrophic 2 wins in 13 games swoon.  So, here is hoping that the broadcasters can resist the urge to refer to the "second place Pirates", the "wild card leading Bucs", and breathlessly updating us on how the Cardinals are doing.

As for sweeping the Reds, yesterday deserves something of an asterisk since Gomes butchered the 3 run "double" off JJ's bat.  That said, I'll happily take it.  I don't know that I've said this before, but I've felt for years that one of the first steps this team needs to make in turning things around is beating the teams that really are not that much better then them (Reds, Astros) consistently - and this could be a nice first step.

Good day.

Nobody asked me and I don't pretend anybody cares especially or that any of the below are unique, but since we now have the first day of the season, I want to get a few things off my chest.

1.  I'm angry about the media decrying the woeful season ahead as if there is a strong correlation between the relativehealth of the franchise and the lack of proven big league talent.  It is so much better in every way to have Jeff Clement starting at first base than 2002 Kevin Young (or whichever of the myriad of equivalents you want to cite).

2.  If a reasonable amount of reasonable expectations are met offensively for 2010, the lineup could actually look decent with the addition of one killer power bat.  Knowing further that Pedro is on the come with that phenom potential not only makes the 2010 season exciting, but highlights the complete lack of perspective being offered by the talk radio & editorializing "experts" (Cook & Smizik being chief among them).

3.  The first couple weeks of baseball season are always maddening for Pirate fans given the multiple (usually 4) week day games and off days as all teams host home openers.  This makes is difficult for the working man to see/hear the games during the brief stretch of season in which a Pirate fan traditionally has the most optimism and thus interest in the games.  This year is even worse because there is a west coast swing immediately after the 3 game opening series at home.

4.  Count me among those thinking that the Bucs should take a high ceiling (preferably college) hitter with the No. 2 overall pick in the June draft.  Unless there is a phenom, get your pitching with the same strategy employed in 2009.

5.  My gut instinct is that Clement will be a disappointment with the bat.  While I don't really care about Olendorf's spring numbers, I also suspect his nice run the last half of last year is unlikely to be duplicated.  I have serious concerns about whether Milledge will prove to be more than a 4th outfielder.  On the other hand, I am optimistic about Garrett the Carrot and Andy LaRoche this year, as well as Meek and Hanrahan (though I have serious concerns about Hanrahan's health).

6.  I have not yet officially lifted my boycott of the Bucs and thus will not be at today's game.  However, I am seriously thinking about lifting my boycott and, regardless, will greatly miss being at today's game as the whether figures to be fabulous and we aren't facing Kershaw.

7.  Baseball games are taking way, way too long to play. In addition to the crippling economic inequities, the game itself has to speed up. Barring injury, there should be a limit on the number of intra-inning pitching changes and more restrictions governing meetings at the mound.

8.  Spring training was interminable this year.  Welcome real baseball.

Good day.

Smizik's latest post - which I hereby pledge not to respond to on his blog and suggest yinz do the same - is here.  He argues that the prospective 2010 Pirates lineup is possibly the worst in 55 years.

I only read the thing once and could barely keep breakfast down, so I don't intent to read it again.  With that disclaimer, the problem is that Smizik did not define what he meant by worst.  I think that he meant worst in terms of lack of proven decent big leaguers.  Without dissecting the last half-century of Pirate lineups, that seems a plausible argument, which is to say I have no problem with the 2010 Bucs being in the discussion.

If I read it correctly, Smizik is not being directly critical of the Pirates as much as he is commenting on the lacking major league track record of the everyday eight.  The problem is that "worst" connotes a negative, which is unfortunate because there is not necessarily a correlation between the level of MLB establishment of the lineup and the competitive state of the franchise.  

Per his routine, Smizik makes zero mention of the fact that young, pedigreed prospects with favorable contract scenarios (meaning years of control much more so than cost) are slated to start at 4 of the 8 positions, with there being reasonable hope for RF, decent veterans at 2B & C, and a passable option at SS - and with high caliber prospects pushing at every position except short.  I am more pleased with this everyday 8 than any other that we have trotted out since at least 2000, and probably since 1992.  Since there is no reasonable doubt that the Pirates are in a much better position now than they have been for at least the last 17 years, Smizik is either:

          a. Taking another cheap shot at the Pirates current front office and their strategy;

          b. Ignorant;

          c. Failing to communicate is point well (that is, it is a poorly written piece); or

          d. Some combination of the above.

The thought here is that it is a combination of A & B.

Good day.

The Pirate's President picked up the phone to call 93.7 The Fan this afternoon to explain yesterday's comments to players wherein he used the word "dynasty" to describe his expectations for the current talent base's future with the franchise.  I was admittedly distracted during the lengthy interview, but to my ears he Coonelly stated the obvious: that he was not predicting a dynasty for the Pirates.

The interview is well worth a listen.  Here is the link.

Bob Smizik is good at reporting on sports media and he has posted some juicy tidbits on his blog at the Post Gazette website in the past 24 hours.  The CBS owned sports station that is set to take over 93.7 (B94) in Pittsburgh in mid-February is looking to have a largely competent line up featuring the potential to speak somewhat rationally on the Pirates. 

The big news is that Joe Starkey has been swipped from his weekend gig at ESPN radio in Pittsburgh and at the Trib.  While at ESPN, Starkey had notable worthwhile baseball conversations with Keith Law.  Obviously Law will not be available to him any more, but competent baseball talk seems a realistic possibility.  Starkey and an unknown co-host will apparently host the afternoon drive-time show.  The hope here is that somehow Randy Baumann, formerly of the 'DVE Morning Show, is the co-host.  John Steigerwald might be good too, though he is fairly blinded with anger towards all things baseball.

Paul Alexander and Jon Burton will apparently host a morning show.  The thought here is that Burton is likely to be quite good, though I thought poorly of Alexander (who is much better on TV) when he had a show on KDKA-AM years ago (when KDKA-AM had the Bucs). 

This is my first fan post and I'm not sure how to link, but here is my attempt to link to Smizik's blog: http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/bobsmizik/default.aspx

Good day.