As we all now know, that scoundrel Ryan Braun found a way to convince an independent arbitrator essentially that the appropriate agreed upon procedures were not followed. The big question I have to ask, is why weren't they followed and what are the repercussions should others need to pass a surprise blind drug test.

Braun's argument was that he had never been named prior as a user or suspected rumor, never showed symptoms of use, that no one in the history of baseball had ever shown such high rates of testosterone before, and most importantly, that the proper protocol was not followed in taking the sample. The first three points mean nothing without the fourth, but let's go ahead and knock those out like the Zack Duke hanging curve balls that they are. Braun had never been named as a user, because he was probably smart enough to use a trusted confidant to acquire said substances or because he went himself. Just because no one has ratted him out doesn't mean he's not guilty. While Braun and his attorney would have you believe he has never shown symptoms of use, I would say that a .130 point increase in one's OPS driven primarily by slugging numbers (at least Bonds walked) and an MVP award coming off a year with decreased power numbers is a sign. Finally while no-one has every tested shown testosterone results as high in baseball doesn't mean that these results aren't in line with past results from bicyclists and olympic athletes that have failed.

Now for the troubling part. What convinced Shyam Das to overturn the suspension was that the testing policy requires the sample taker to deliver the sample directly to FedEx as quickly as is possible. Because the sample was taken on a Saturday, after an October 1 playoff game no less, it was not able to be taken to Fedex. To get more specific. After a three hour and forty three minute game, an hour of post game interviews, Braun finally would've been available for the drug test. The game started at 2:07 Est. I would estimate that the earliest he could've been tested was at around 7PM. So the tester took the sample home and stored it in a re-fridgerator. The sample has a certified seal that was not tampered with in any way, and there is no correlation to chilling a sample and testosterone increasing. That being said it was determined that appropriate procedure was not followed and therefore the suspension was overturned.

My biggest question is why did this happen on a Saturday? Why did the tester wait until after the game? Did Braun violate the protocol? I find it very hard to believe that the sample couldn't have been taken before the game when the sample could have been sent timely to FedEx. So now my question is what is the policy if a player delays providing the sample. Now that players know that they can just delay the sample until a time in which fedex won't be open to beat the system, there is nothing to prevent wide-spread rampant cheating. By the time the results were out, Braun had ample time to cleanse his system and pass a re-test. Given the circumstances, this sets a terrible terrible precedent. I look forward to watching the MLB find a way to get this upheld.

Hope. Yes, it springs eternal, even for Pirates fans. I sit here unable to sleep because I suddenly find myself extremely excited for the possibility of Pitchers and Catchers being just days away. Why am I excited for Pirate baseball to get back underway in spite of the streak and last year post Jerry Meals debacle? Well that's easy. I really believe this year is year is going to be year one of the return to baseball relevancy.

First let's go through why the Pirates were competitive for the majority of last season. They had "great" pitching and while they struck out constantly, they got timely hitting and ran aggressively. But was the pitching really great? The bullpen was amazing, as NH once again put together an amazing pen with a great unheralded offseason acquisition in Jose Veras (remember that time he struck out Big Papi in the rain?) and with the decision to keep Chris Leroux at the expense of Bob Smizik's favorite KC Royal. But as great as the pen was, the starters weren't exact;y worldbeaters. What they did do well was not walk the opposing team (other than Jmac) and let the opposition put the ball in play for an absolutely ridiculously rangy defense. The outfield defense was anchored by. an outfield featuring at times either Alex Presley or Jose Tabata in Left, Cutch in center, Those guys covered so much ground that it wasn't until the Philadelphia road series that we noticed that A)we had a right fielder and B)they both sucked. At the peak of our tenure in first place, the infield defense of J-hay, Cedeno (who until he was injured was having a career year defensively) Walker and Overbay made up for their lack of fielding skill by gobbling up ground ball after ground ball and turning timely DP after timely DP to get out of jams.

Unfortunately, we swapped out Overbay for Derrek Lee, Harrison for an out of shape Alvarez and Cedeno regressed. Tabata got hurt, then Pressley followed, and when both returned, for some reason they played right while the slow and nonathletic one know as Ryan Ludwick played the far more (at least from a range perspective) position of left. The defense went to hell as while Overbay was in the midst of a bad statistical defensive season, he inspired confidence and composure in the rest of the infield as they truely believe he could dig any ball in the dirt or pick any offline throws. Combine that with switching the light hitting McKenry for Doumit led to the squad being victimized by base stealers and poorly called games. Suddenly the pitching regressed and while the offense was better with Doumit, Ludwick and Lee in the lineup, the team fell as they played away from the formula that led to their early success.We all then were treated to watching a Cardinals team that we were clearly better than at times last season win the World series again while we were left shaking our heads at the biggest missed opportunity in years due to an exceptionally weak NL Central.

So what does any of this have to do with 2012? Well good news, the Pirates may not have been able to get any free agents to take their money (#EjaxtoPGH.... really a 1 year deal with the Nationals) They were able to replace shoulder injury Paul Maholm with a better pitcher who has shoulder issues in Bedard, and they picked up a slew of Raphael Belliard types on the waiver wire, rule 5 and through free agency. Barmes, Navorro and co should lead to someone emerging capable of playing like Cedeno did last year (solid D and an occasional timely 2 out nobody on double driving in 0 runs so the pitcher can then strike out to end the inning. Derrek Lee and Overbay may be gone, McGeehee, Hague and Jones should be able to lead to some form of a an above average firstbaseman. A projected outfield defense of Jose Tabata, Cutch and Pressley will cover more ground than (insert random metaphor about covering ground well. All of this leads me to believe that fly ball pitchers like Bedard, JK, Correia and even maybe Burnett if the Yankee ever agree to a deal, could have career years.

Then, the cherry on top, Andrew McCutchen keeps getting better every single year. Jose Tabata is going to hit better than last year if healthy. Pedro Alvarez is apparently in shape and SHOULD be better than last year. Nate McLouth is there to ensure the outifeld D and offense doesnt fall off if one of those speedy guys goes down. Neil Walker is blossoming into a leader and for wahtever reason he always comes through with runners in scoring position. Couple all of that with the fact that the Cardinals and Brewers just got the Barry Bonds treatment from Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder, respectively. Oh and of course there's Ryan Braun's steroid suspension (obviously he just made the mistake of hanging around TCU football players). So with the Cards down, the Brewers down, the Astros sending out an independent league team and the Cubs rebuilding that leaves us and the Reds. Now I realize the Reds have added Matt Latos and Ryan Madson. That being said we pretty much handled them all season long last year and I see no reason that can't continue.

To bring it all home... improved and consistent defense makes pitching better. Speed makes hitting better. Our division is a joke. This is our year.

A month or so ago, 8thLight wrote a Fanpost on Pitt basketball's impending irrelevance. This time, VoteforPedro goes the other way and discusses the newfound relevance of the program. To write your own Fanpost, use the link over the right and we may publish it on the front page featured section.

What a difference a few weeks makes eh? To quote Jon Hey, the announcer for NBA JAM, Pitt was heating up and is now on officially on fire. The Panthers, at 15-9 (4-7) should be entering a top 60 RPI for the first time in weeks and with a very very favorable remaining schedule, South Oakland's finest may not be done with 20 win seasons featuring 10 Big East wins after all. With 7 games remaining in conference and the big east tournament looming in the distance, it seems almost a given that the panthers can pull it off.

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As you may or may not have heard, the Pittsburgh Pirates have yet to make the playoffs let alone have a winning season since 1992. That's right the Pirates, as most of you I'm sure will be shocked to find out, haven't been over 500 since the cost of gas went over a dollar. That just seems silly. Upon learning this mind-numbing information, I decided to do a bit of research. What could have caused this?

Well most of the information I found tended to point to mismanagement, greedy owners, noncompetitive collective bargaining agreements. This all seemed reasonable, but then I realized that such a streak was unmatched and clearly something else had to be at work. Then it hit me, the Pirates haven't had a winning season since Barry Bonds left. Similar streaks of futility have been linked to curses, the cubs haven't won a world series since they refused admission to a goat, and the Red Sox didn't win a world series after selling Babe Ruth to their rivals.

Now realizing that we are in fact victims of the curse of Barry Bonds, I figured I should look into exactly what happened. It seems that Barry guaranteed that if he didnt get a multi year contract for 25 million by the end of 1991, he was gone regardless of how much the Pirates offered at the end of 1992. The Pirates made no such offer and instead lowballed him in arbitration for the second year in a row. Sure enough, the Pirates then realized he was going to leave and even considered trading him to the Dodgers for John Wetteland and 3rd baseman Jeff Hamilton. The Pirates decided to keep him though, knowing full well he wouldn't resign. They made the playoffs, Sid Bream was safe, and the season ended. Then the Pirates due to sheer idiocracy, declined to offer arbitration despite an agreement being reached before the deadline for arbitration. The Pirates appealed but lost and as such didn't even get the two draft picks they should've easily gotten.

While our reaction as fans was preditctable, and justified, it was due to the way the whole saga was reported to us. We were told that he was greedy and left for more money. This is untrue as Bonds would've taken 18 mill less to stay a Pirate had we offered it to him before the end of 1991. We were told Bonds hated the city of Pittsburgh. This is untrue as Bonds really did seem to miss Pittsburgh. We also at least initially wrongly assumed that we would need him as we had 3 can't miss prospects coming up in Kevin Young (top prospect in baseball), Al Martin (minor league player of the year in 1992) and Orlando Merced. Well, we all know how that turned out.

The first sign of the curse occurred when Bonds hit an easy ground out to firstbaseman Kevin Young who then flipped the ball to Randy Tomlin. Tomlin dropped that ball and it's been all downhill since. Since then the Pirates have fallen victim to strange occurrences one after the other. Top pitching prospects needed Tommy John surgery, the team almost moved because it was so broke, can't miss prospects became Chad Hermansen, Derek Bell refused to compete for a starting outfield job. The team should've broken the streak during that last season in 3 rivers, but Kendall blew his ankle out and the squad fell apart from there. Yep, the team is clearly cursed. While it's probably true that other factors are at work, like the team not taking more advantage of spending on the draft, the team ignoring latin america for a while and the unbalanced revenue in baseball, you would think that somehow they would've lucked into one season at 500.

So what to do from here? Obviously we need to break the curse. First, of all I think Bond's number 24 jersey should be retired. He's the only two time MVP in team history and is one of the greatest players ever to wear a Pirate uniform. If you think that's asking too much, I understand the sentiment given he was only a Pirate for 7 seasons, but I still think he's worthy of the honor. As a no-brainer, the team should at the very very least invite him to spring training to be a hitting instructor to work with Pedro Alvarez . He's not going to make Pedro worse, and could probably help the kid. Barry struggled mightily early on and could pass things along. Barry has mentioned he wants to coach, but no one will touch him. Finally, we as fans need to let go, forgive and forget. Did it hurt when Barry left? YES. Is he entirely to blame? No. Should he have thrown out Sid Bream? probably. Let's leave the past in the past and end this curse.

Sup gents? Well it's been a busy week, but I felt the need to make another weak contribution to my favorite website. So I think it's fairly obvious to all that this team needs some pieces to compete at the major league level. The way I see it, we are losing not Paul Maholm, Brandon Wood, Ryan Doumit, Chris Snyder, Derrek Lee, Ronny Cedeno, Steve Pearce,  but we are losing what they gave the team during the 2011 season in addition to April Charlie Morton and 1st half Kevin Correia. Maholm was a solid number 2 starter wins and losses aside, Correia a solid number 3 for half a season and Morty was an ace in April. Snyder and Doumit combined were a solid offensive catcher and a halfway decent backstop. Brandon Wood brought plus defense at 3rd and was an average bat. Derrek Lee was a solid middle of the order hitter. Ronny Cedeno was a top 10 defensive shortstop and an average bat. Steve Pearce just sucked, although he was hitting the cover off the ball before succombing to injury, and could play first and 3rd.

To sum it up, we need a number 2 starter, solid defensive 3rd baseman with decent bat, solid catcher, top 10 defensive shortstop who can hit a little, a number 3 pitcher for half a season, an ace for a month just to be as competitive as we were last year. The Barajas signing scratches the catcher off the list, every other need is still open. After this awful realization, I did the only sane and rational thing and started by looking at the major league free agent list. Nothing on there that could fill those needs that we are apparently interested in. Ok, so maybe the minor league FA list. Nope. Well ok, so maybe we can make a trade or something. So I decided to compile this list of dumpster diving FA targets, because I like the fact that we actually have what looks like a real top 10 prospect list for the first time I can remember and I want it to stay that way.

So I went team by team based on who might be interested in our extra outfield prospects or pitching prospects. You can look forward to reading what they might be interested in, and what we might be interested in.

Angels  - They have Mike Trout, and a bunch of old dudes in the outfield. I would think they'd be interested in a corner outfielder. As far as guys who might look interesting in a Pirates uniform, Kendry Morales or Mark Trumbo, Andrew Romine and Hank Conger. Last season after May, Morales got hurt again. Trumbo filled in with a 768 OPS, but could improve on that. Andrew Romine is a switch  hitter, showed improved defense in the minors in 2010 and 2011 and won't play over Aybar or Kendrick. Hank Conger is a switch hitter who is solid defensively, and has offensive potential that has not yet appeared on the big league level. I'd say, Morales pending phsyical and Andrew Romine. Trumbo isn't necessarily better than Hague and Conger might cost too much. From what I've heard, they've asked about Garret Jones a bunch of times. Perhaps we can work something out

Braves - They have Jason Heyward in the outfield and Bourne in center and but in the other corner they have Prado who they are trying to trade and Hinske in left or right. What might we want? How about some starting pitching help. Arodys Vizcaino, Randall Delgado, Brandon Beachy and Mike Minor specifically. Their rotation for next year would be Hanson, Jurjeins, Hudson pencilled in and then some combination of Delgado, Beachy, Minor, Julio Tehran and Arodys Vizcaino. Only two of those guys make the rotation and maybe one is back up. Obviously, we aren't getting Tehran. So that leaves the four I've mentioned, who have all had some success at the major league level. I think something could be worked out there for sure.

Dodgers - They have holes all over the field and they could use relief pitching help since Brockton appears to be breaking down and Kuo is a bit loopy. What might we be interested in? How about Scott Van Slyke? Yes, Andy's kid. He's an outfielder/1st Baseman and he had a breakout 2011 year. He was just added to their 40 man, so they believe he would be selected rule 5, but that doesn't mean he can't necessarily be had.

Nationals - They also need outfielders, and pitching of all forms. We might be interested in Jesus Flores and Ian Desmond.

Ok running out of steam. Let me know what other shiny treasures I might be missing.

While most people out there are drooling at those exciting free agent possibilities, yawn, I have been worried for some time now about who we may lose in the rule 5 draft at the expense of picking up a stud infielder like Clint Barmes to play Shortstop for a month prior to losing his job to Chase d'Arnaud or Pedro Ciriaco. So after patiently awaiting an article on the subject from pirates prospects for 2 months, I decided enough was enough and figured I'd take a stab at it.

To start, let's use the Pirates Prospects current projected 40-man roster and work from there. They are projecting five open spots (for protecting rule 5 elgibles) with 3 fringe non tender candidates. I agree with the concept that the additional 3 at the bottom will not be with the team, or 3 similar guys will not make it. Additionally, they currently have Garret Jones being tendered and no Derrek Lee or other 1B, so let's call it 8 with 1 reliever 1 starter and 1 catcher being dropped from the current 40 man. That leaves 8 spots to protect or to sign free agents or draft a rule 5 guy or to grab a random stiff off of waivers.

Next, I generated a list of rule 5 eligibles using these two previous postings:
Tim Alderson, Calvin Anderson, Ramon Cabrera, Fraylin Campos, Michael Colla, Tyler Cox, Emmanuel De Leon, Jeremy Farrell, Zachary Foster, Matt Hague, Andrew Lambo, Quincy Latimore, Brian Leach, Brett Lorin, Starling Marte, Jordy Mercer, Diego Moreno, Rogelio Noris, Rudy Owens, Aaron Pribanic, Jhonatan Ramos, David Rubinstein, Hunter Strickland, Cole White, Justin Wilson, Eric Avila, Brian Bocock, Jesus Brito, Brad Chalk, Michael Crotta, Michael Dubee, Miles Durham, Brian Friday, Noah Krol, Mike Loree, Jairo Marquez, Matt McSwain, Miguel Mendez, Eliecer Navarro, Anthony Norman, Josh Rodriguez, Yunesky Sanchez, Brett Sinkbeil, Wyatt Toregas, Andy Vasquez, Kris Watts, Duke Welker

 Then I ranked the top 8 in order of preference:

Starling Marte, Rudy Owens, Andrew Lambo, Justin Wilson, Jordy Mercer, Matt Hague, Aaron Pribanic, Brian Leach.

That leaves us with a ton of talent unprotected in the rule 5 draft. Here's hoping we don't bring in some stiff, and that we use a mix of these rule 5 guys to pick up some talent in a trade. I would prefer that route over signing Cliff Barmes, aka trading a prospect for a journeyman.

A reader chimes in on the Pitt-Penn State fiasco (write your own Fanpost over to the section on the right)

I guess the best place to start is at Three Rivers stadium, September 16, 2000. It was the fall of my senior year in high school. I had decided to go to Pitt over Penn State and I was not going to miss the last meeting of the two. Pitt had an exciting young team, featuring Antonio Bryant, John Turman, Kevan Barlow and hard hitting safety Ramon Walker. We took out Penn State who was on there way down, but still as a future Panther, I was confused as to why such a storied rivalry was coming to an end. Depending on who you ask, Penn State demanded a 2 for 1 swap, or Joe Pa was still salty about the eastern 8, regardless it was clear in my mind that it was PSU's fault. From that day forward I hated, absolutely HATED Joe Paterno and Penn State from depriving me of the chance to be part of one of the countries most storied rivalries. Just a few seasons later, the first exodus to the ACC occurred and Pitt football became destined for meaninglessness.

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Being forced to watch a Brewers Cardinals NLCS is almost as bad as seeing Jerry Meals behind the plate in an extra inning game. Being forced to watch a Brewers Cardinals NLCS is even worse when you realize that while it will be fun watching one of those teams lose, it doesnt get better with the possibility of watching one of our hated rivals play either a team from Dallas or Detroit. Seriously think about that, either we get stuck dealing with the thought that either Cowboys fans, Red Wings fans, Prince & Braun or Tony Larussa being happy. Well at least we can still read about our team right? Hey maybe Robbie Grossman hit another home run in the AFL right? Oh right, our management team (which for the record I still believe in) doesn't ever talk to the media unless it's to either pat themselves on the back or to reveal to the rest of the league that the potential trade piece they have is completely worthless. Yep, the Pirates have no interest in keeping Paul Maholm, which means that no GM in their right mind will send us even Bobby Hill in exchange for us excercising that option. Oh yeah, and Charlie Morton just had the same hip surgery as my Grandfather (thank god I just wrote a post about his offseason being a key to the Pirates having a good winter).

But before you go down ere to pants n'at to git yourself a nice fancy new belt to hang yourself with, here are some of the potential headlines and a blurb summary of what the article is about, that you could be reading over the next year. Take a look after the jump. (writer's note: this is an attempt to state things that could happen, not a utopian return to the 70s, but stuff that might actually make Bucs fans a little happier).

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Hey fellow Pirates fans. How've you been? Tonight, for those of you who may or may not know is Kol Nidre, the first night of Yom Kippur. For all actual Jews, Ryan Braun excluded since he isn't even Jewish given that his Mom wasn't and that he's playing tonight on the holiest night of the year, tonight marks the beginning of a day of great reflection. We spend the next 24 hours from sundown to sundown, looking at what went right and what went wrong. So I decided that prior to that self-reflection, I'd do a little Pirates-Reflection.

This past season was the best we've enjoyed since 1997. The squad was capable of beating any team in the league, anywhere until the end of July. Sure, the wheels fell off as the injuries decimated our lineup, trade aquisitions, hurt our defense and in turn our pitching, but the truth is that when healthy we all felt confident in our boys before every game. Well unfortunately though the collapse did occur and we still are picking in the top 10 yet again next June. So the first question is, what went right?

When you look at our season up to the Phillies series, we won based on pitching and defense. Since our starting pitching was based primarily on pitch to contact guys, we can directly correlate their success to a tiny hint of luck but mostly improved defense. So why did the defense improve? Well in the outfield, we stopped playing Cutch shallow and sure enough he covered more ground since he goes forward better than backwards. When at full strength, an outfield of Tabata, Cutch and Presley covered a ton of ground, and Presley and Tabata proved to have strong enough arms to keep runners honest. The team played around 500 ball until Pedro Alvarez got hurt, when our infield defense of Lyle Overbay, Neil Walker, Ronnie Cedeno and Pedro proved to be very good. When Pedro went down, Josh Harrison and Brandon Wood brought better gloves to the position and the team improved significantly in the win-loss column. As for the pitching, Karstens didn't walk people (seriously almost as many homers as walks), and for the most part got guys to put the ball in play on pitches he wanted them to hit, Maholm had his best year in ages, James McDonald overcame a slow start due to a spring training injury to become an at times dominant pitcher and Kevin Correia appeared to have his success based primarily on luck as his peripheral stats didn't match up to his early success. The big key though was Charlie Morton's new arm slot and sinker. For the first time in a long time, the Pirates had what looked like an ace. What went wrong? Well the Pirates just didn't hit well. Low team OPS, high strikeouts doomed the team in games where their starter let them down.

Ok, so now what do we need to do to make that next step and win our division? Well here's a list of what we need to do:

Step 1, Don't mess with the outfield in free agency, an outfield of Presley, Tabata and McCutchen will hit more than enough, but more importantly, it will give us one of the best defensive outfields in baseball. Furthermore, a bench of Xavier Paul or Gorkys Hernandez will ensure we have more speedy depth that can defend.

Step 2, Improve our defense at firstbase again and sign or trade for the best defensive firstbaseman NH can find. This is of the utmost importance. When we DFA'd Overbay, our infield defense just wasn't the same. Having Overbay there to dig bad throws and guard the lines changed hitters approaches against us and gave our other infielders confidence to throw balls they may have held in previous years.

Step 3, Send Pedro Alvarez's to San Diego for the offseason. What? Trade Alvarez to San Diego? Hell no... You don't trade your best power hitter just because he over rotates his front shoulder leaving himself prone to pitches away and sapping his power. You send him to San Diego to go seek out Tony Gwynn for a little bit of offseason work. Ryan Howard did this back before his MVP season. Apparently Gwynn helped him with waiting on pitches a slight bit longer and trusting your hands to do the rest. Getting Alvarez to stand up on the plate and work with a legend such as Tony Gwynn, is exactly what the doctor ordered, but more on this in the final step.

Step 4, As mentioned earlier, Charlie Morton showed to be an apt pupil and picked up a great sinker from Crotta and the arm action to may it magic from Ray Searage. One thing he couldn't do is get lefties out... at all. So if Pedro needs to see a hitting instructor, why not Charlie? My thought is to go out and steal Ace Adams, the best cut fastball teacher in all the land, from the Cardinals. Ace taught the cutter to Mike Adams, Cliff Lee and many others. With a cutter in his repetoire, Charlie would have the tools of an ace and could begin his acent to dominance. Oh which reminds me, before we teach him a cutter, let's buy a couple of those free agency years eh?

Step 5, Go nuts on minor league free agents in the pen. Jose Veras was a beast last year. Our pen was great and to ensure it stays great, we need to keep adding random bodies in the hope that we continue to catch lightning in a bottle.

Final step, Ok so what else did I forget to mention... Hmmm why did we start losing in the first place anyway? Oh riiiight, that Barry Lamar Bonds fellow left and we've been cursed ever since to lose more games than we win. Barry has always been a polarizing force to baseball fans everywhere outside of San Francisco, and he has been mostly hated in PGH since he left. I think it's about time we forgive the big guy and start remembering him in the same way we remember Stargell, Clemente, Kiner, the Waner Bros, Dave Parker, Honus Wagner and Brian Giles, as one of the greatest players ever to don the uniform of the Pittsburgh Pirates. For whatever reason, Barry hasn't been given the chance to be a special instructor in Spring Training by his beloved Giants (speaking of teams who can't hit a lick). Lets reverse the curse and bring back Barry Bonds as a special instructor to work with Pedro Alvarez, Garret Jones and Alex Presley on hitting (we'll make sure he doesn't work on throwing from the outfield, lol) and maybe have a Barry Bonds throwback jersey giveaway day and honor the guy for his great achievements pre-roids as a bucco. Curse would be reversed, and with Pujols and Fielder maybe leaving for a different division, we just might win the Central next year.

Anyways, enjoy your Jewish high holiday gentlemen.

So it's 2AM here in Philly and I am confused as to whether to be sad, angry or excited for what's to come. This time last week I was busy punching a whole in the wall cursing Jerry Meals. Since then we are a mindblowing 1-5 as the entire rotation has now lost a game. After witnessing the weekend series in Person I will say that I saw the Pirates make mistakes in the field (Valdez Ks but reaches on a wild pitch, then they score on a booted throw by Walker and open up the floodgates), and mismanagement of the 8th inning finally come back to bite us in the ass (really Clint, pitching to a redhot Ibanez instead of going to Watson). Then Monday, we outhit the Cubs, but do to a misplayed ball by Ronny (is he really healthy?) they got that three run inning. Today, I leave my house to get dinner with the bucs up 2-1. I check my phone once during dinner... 5-2, I check it again, 8-2... I swear not to look at it agin, d'oh 10-2.

Basically I think our biggest issue right now is that in spite of having great starting pitching, and a good bullpen, we lack 2 key components that you would like to see in any true contender. True contenders have an Ace who is capable of stopping a run like this, and for the other nights they have guys who can pitch the 7th, 8th and 9th and can shorten a game. I think our lineup is good, but not hitting timely, our bullpen can't handle the 8th and our defense has gone from outstanding to good. I think our starters have as such gone from gangbusters to inconsistent with the lack of range in left since Tabata and Pressley were hurt, and with the rotation of shortstops and thirdbasemen. I think Neil Walker needs a couple days off in the field (not at the plate).

While I don't think we are done (Thanks St. Louis), I think we NEED Charlie Morton to step up and be our ace from this day forward. While watching Charlie get knocked around on Friday, I noticed that he remained poised despite his worst outing of the year occuring in front of basically his entire family. I also noticed that after giving up the 8th run, Charlie still was going to pitch until he threw at least 100 pitches. That's at least leadership. That shows me Charlie has changed from the scared pitcher we saw last year. I had the chance to meet him Friday as the last thing I wanted to see after a Pirates defeat was a fireworks display (too many bad memories). Charlie was standing there looking sad with 40 of his family members who had driven up from Delaware. He was proud to give the team the innings they needed and promised that he would tear up the Cubs tomorrow. Here's hoping the fire in his eyes wasn't the reflection of fireworks off in the distance, we absolutely NEED this one.

During my daily reading of Piratesprospects.com, I noticed the Pirates signed 1B Dennis Hurtarte. The linked article includes a couple of BP videos and a video of him fielding. The one thing I noticed is that inspite of being just 18, the kid is built like a mac truck, and his swing (BP only granted) mirrors that of a young Albert Pujols. I will follow this kid with great interest. The other things I took away from this is that this is the Pirates first signing of a player from Guatamala (3rd ever player signed from that country in MLB History) and that his agent has close ties with other organizations (the Mariners, Braves and Mets) but Rene Gayo and NH were able to get it done.

On the nationality front, you have to love that we are out there looking everywhere for talent. The fact that we have signed the first ever South African, Lithuanian, Indian, etc. is great. While none may pan out, you can't win without taking shots.

On the signing a player who's agent typically funnels players to other teams, this makes me feel especially good after the Sano fiasco. It's good to see them developing relationships with additional agents out there (I do wonder if this is a Buscon or a proper agent) and steering a kid away from his agents previous comfort zone.

As we all know, there are holes on this team offensively, while the strengths are usually pitching and defense. So the idea would be to replace a guy with someone of equal defensive ability while improving offense. We could use help at C,1B, SS, 3B, and RF Since so many teams are technically still in contention, let's first start with a list of teams that are considered to be out. While these teams are still in a position of strength as 73% of teams may still be considering making an acquisition.

The Sellers:

Florida Marlins Prime Target: Omar Infante, SS. Infante played great at short for the Braves last year. He's middling a bit this year for the fish and would be a slight improvement over Cedeno offensively. Also of interest: John Buck, C Buck is better than McKenry, Torreaga and Brown. I wouldn't overpay for him though.

Houston Astros Prime Target: Hunter Pence, RF. Pence is a luxury the Lastros(I'm originally from Houston, and that's what they were know as when their outfield had Eric Anthony, Gerald Young and other scrubs you've never heard of)  can ill afford. He is their only big trade chip, and Ed Wade is their GM. IMHO, this will take 2 minor leaguers and 2 major league ready guys(when Ed Wade was GM of the Phillies it took Vincente Padilla, Travis Lee, Nelson Figueroa and Omar Daal). So for the low low price of say, Diaz, Josh Harrison, Brad Lincoln and Diego Moreno, we may be able to snag Pence. Also of interest: no one, they are really really really bad.

Chicago Cubs Prime Target: Aramis Ramirez. Would A-ram waive his no trade clause to come back to the Burgh? let's assume yes. No clue what the Cubs would want, or what the market is for A-ram. I don't know if he is a good fit for this team as my last memories of him in a bucco (other than home runs) was him making errors and jogging to first at a rate that made Paulino look like Carl Lewis. Also of interest: Koyie Hill, C. Hill can catch and like Buck, he is better than what we have

Los Angeles Dodgers Prime Target: James Loney. Loney is a more athletic version of Overbay. He has shown the ability to hit for a high average in the past, and he likely can be acquired for cash and marginal talent. Also of interest: Matt Kemp. I doubt that he is on the market. But depending on what occurs with the Dodger being taken over, we may be able to acquire him for below market value. When you get a chance to acquire someone who can potentially a top 5 RF for below market value (even if it's still high), you do it. The defensive range that would be showcased of an OF with Tabata, Cutch and Kemp from Left to Right would be absurd.

San Diego Padres Prime Target: Jason Bartlett, SS. It seems like the Pirates have been trying to acquire either him or JJ Hardy for a long time. Well here's their chance. Also of interest: Ryan Ludwick, RF. Ludwick can rake, and plays an ok RF. He'd be a good rental.

Baltimore Orioles Prime Target: Nick Markakis. Markakis is hot currently, but he is currently overpaid as .298 hitters with limited pop do not deserve 10 mill+ (see Kendall, Jason). He won't be had cheaply if the bucs don't want to pay that salary, but is worthy of consideration. Baltimore has Chris Jakubauskas in their rotation, so it is possible that Pressley and Maholm would make sense from a need/$s perspective. Also of interest: Derrek Lee, 1B. Lee is a one year guy, who could obtain you type A or B compensation. Assuming you give up equal or less value than that, he may be worth picking up.

Minnesota Twins Prime Target: Delmon Young. A quick glance at the Twinkees top 10 prospects shows that they are loaded at outfield in the minors. He won't come cheap, but he could potentially be had depending on what they decide to do. Also of interest: Michael Cuddyer, 1B. Cuddyer is a solid hitting vet. He is also collecting a big paycheck and like Lee would return type A/B compensation potentially upon leaving. worth getting if on the cheap.

Kansas City Royals Prime Target: I don't really like the Royals as trading partners. I fail to identify a singl person who can jump in and help us. What I do see however is that they may be interested in officially acquiring the rights to Nate Adcock given that his ERA is above .500 and they are pitching him once every other week. What exactly is that worth to them? Maybe his rights and someone could get us a rental of Wilson Betemit or Alex Gordon or that Kila K fellow or hell even Frenchy. Since Adcock is getting mashed and they supposedly have the best farm system in baseball, we should be able to eiter re-acquire him or get a player that is about to lose their job to a top prospect.

Chicago White Sox Prime Target: I can't really come up with one that fits. Teahan sucks, Pierre wouldn't fit and Dunn can't field anywhere. Oh well.

Oakland Athletics Prime Target: David DeJesus, RF. DeJesus has been a bust in Oakland, and is on a one year deal. He is left handed, has range and hit over 300 2 out of the previous 3 seasons. He, unlike Willingham and Crisp would actually potentially bring back more compensation from type A/B because of that. He could likely be had for an .OBP machine and a MLB level replacement (Diaz and Evan Chambers). If that's the price, it's a deal worth making. Also of interest: Willingham, LF/RF. Willingham can hit for power. Unfortunately there are more teams interested in him and he looks like a guy someone will overpay for.

Almost Sellers:

Toronto Blue Jays Prime Targets: Kyle Drabek, SP, and Travis Snider, RF. The Jays need a reliever and a starter in the bigs. We may actually have enough of that. They don't actually have someone who fits that is currently on their 25 man, but on the 40, they have Travis Snider, and Kyle Drabek. It would likely cost too much to acquire both of these two, but I would love to see us buy low on either. If we could somehow get Snider for a minor league catcher and then get him to swing in front of a mirror...

Los Angeles Angels Prime Target: Russell Branyan 1B/3B/bad OF/DH. If the price is right, he'd be an ok addition given how his bat could play in PNC. I wouldn't give much for him though. Also of interest: everyone else looks pretty old at our need positions.

Washington Nationals Prime Target: Pudge. He's past his prime, and supposedly overpriced as far as return value. If they change their mind, he'd be good in the clubhouse and would be a sligth improvement on McKenry et, all. also of interest: Matt Stairs, DH/PH. I would love to see Stairs hang out in Indy and get the call for DH duties. I wouldn't trade much of anything for him.

Wrapping it all up.

I'd like to see us get Pence, Kemp, Markakis or Young, and either Bartlett, Cuddyer, Infante, Lee or Loney. Then wrap it up with signing Bengie Molina. I think we could do it without raiding the system, and we could also clear up the rule five issues. I believe the resulting lineup after such a trade:

LF Tabata

CF Cutch

RF Kemp/Pence/Markakis/Young

2B Walker

1B Cuddyer/Jones/Loney/Lee

3B Wood/Harrison (until Pedro comes back unless u trade one of em)

SS Cedeno/Bartlett/Infante

C Molina/McKenry

SP Correia/Maholm/Morton/Karstens/Lincoln/McDonald

Bullpen: Hanrahan/Resop/Veras/McCutchen/Watson/Moskos/Wood

Would that be worth giving up Locke, Wilson, Pribanic, Lambo, Hague, Chambers, and maybe Gorkys for? I think so, considering what we may lose for nothing, with a compensatory pick coming back for a Lee or a cuddyer, Inante or Bartlett. Thoughts?

Hello all. What a horrible horrible weekend. I mean, I know Houston is pretty terrible, but I really felt this team was turning a corner. Now that we have been brought back to reality a bit, I think it's safe to say that this team needs an injection of talent in some way. Maybe that means you call up Alex Pressley rather than carry a frontier league player *cough Pedro Ciraco Cough*, maybe it means you want to try to trade Diego Moreno, Jordy Mercer and Aaron Pribanic for a rightfielder, catcher or firstbaseman with an albatross of a contract, and maybe you blow it up (not completely and trade Maholm for a few of prospects you won't have to add to the 40 man roster. Regardless, something has to give.

Now I realize we haven't been in "contention" or this close to 500 this late in the game for a while, so some of you are just a bit rusty as far as what we should be trying to add to our squad. This is leading to posts saying we should trade Pedro Alvarez (NO NO NO NO) or that Andrew McCutchen wouldn't bring a return of Jesus Montero (not even going to dignify that with a response). I guess what I'm saying is that in spite of all of that I feel like we have some pretty knowledgable people here and that anybody who checks in on any Pirates blog regularly is clearly not lacking in loyalty or fandom given the teams recent history.

So this post is home to your chance to make up a deal. If you are joking, let people know. If you are serious, state so. I'll go first:

1. Joke trade: Clint Hurdle to the Marlins for Catcher John Buck and RHP Chris Volstad. Reasoning: The Marlins need a manager and the Pirates are no strangers to catcher for manager trades (see Sanguillen for Tanner). The Pirates need to have at least one major league catcher on their squad and may as well deal their best trade chip to get one. Since Buck isn't "equal" value, the Pirates will likely insist upon receiving that which they covet second most, the tallest RHP in the Marlins entire organization.

2. The more "Realistic" proposal: Diego Moreno, Aaron Pribanic, Jordy Mercer for Carlos Beltran. Beltran is getting paid a ton of money to play RF, but is unlikely to return next season. Beltran would immediately be the bucs starting rightfielder and 5 hitter adding pop from both sides of the plate. The three "prospects" I have chosen to be included are all exposed to rule 5 next season and potentially could be gone for 50K. I don't necessarily think we need to trade these 3, but I tried to pick 3 middle of the pack guys from the Piratesprospects rule 5 update post from last week. I figure you can trade 3 of those and then make a complimentary deal that makes room in the rotation for Brad Lincoln and replace those 3 with 3 prospects that will not be rule 5 eligible.

Ok your turn. Have fun with this

Have you heard the news? The Pirates are above 500 and are playing good ball. Moreover they currently sit 3 games behind the Brewers (if only we could win at Miller Park). The team is doing it with  Long time Pirates fans can attest that it's been a long time since we had something to be excited about in June.

According to a very informative website I recently discover called wikipedia the summer solstice occurs on Tuesday the 21st. So if the Pirates can win one more game before then, we'll be at or above .500 in the summer for the first time since I could drive a car (I'm 28 now). The last time the bucs were at .500 this late in the season, Tom Murphy was mayor, Luke Ravenstahl wasn't old enough to drink and Heinz Field wasn't yet built for him to drunkenly brake into.

We've been through a lot since then and I figured I'd start this sentimental post so we can all get a chance to mention things that have happened since then. So let's get all of this out of our systems and try to get used to watching winning baseball. The team of 99 couldn't overcome a major injury to Kendall, or having a rotation that at times included Chris Peters, Pete Schourek and Jose Silva. The current incarnation has been playing great defense, pitching well, winning on the road and hitting in the games in which the pitching isn't as sharp as it should be.

What were you doing when the Pirates were last at/above 500 in the summer of 99?

UPDATE: Tim at Pirates Propects has a fun list of things he's done since 99..