WHYG Zane Smith

On benching Brendan Ryan: "You know, we stuck with him last year because we felt like we were going to give him every opportunity and quite frankly, we had every opportunity to give him every opportunity. If that makes any sense. I'm saying it without saying it."

It stands for "Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop." Bookmark this -- the Bucs only have two so far (and one of them was a pickoff on a blatant balk, so I'm told), but if we get any baserunners I'm sure we'll rise in the standings.

Come back, John McDonald. All is forgiven. (This is a couple of days old but I hadn't seen it mentioned on Bucs Dugout.)

...along with Kramer Sneed. This surely sets a record for most unlike names in the same trade. No substance to the rumors that Exicardo Cayones' birth certificate says "Token Minor Leaguer."

On that list, besides Jordy Mercer and Gaby Sanchez: Jim Negrych, Brian Bixler, Brandon Wood, Steve Pearce, Yuniesky Betancourt. (The previous sentence fragment was almost certainly unfair to Steve Pearce.)

John Sickels says of the debate over whether Alen Hanson or Gregory Polanco is better, "this is sort of a small-scale Pirates version of Profar vs. Taveras." (Scroll up a tad to see some excellent analysis from McCutchenIsTheTruth.)

John Dreker at Pirates Prospects notes that Inge's and Sanchez's opt-out clauses are part of the new CBA: major-league free agents who sign minor-league contracts are entitled to opt out of their contracts five days before opening day if they don't make the 25-man roster, collect a $100,000 retention bonus if they don't opt out, and opt out again on June 1 if they are still in the minors. So the presence of these clauses in the contracts isn't an indication that the Pirates are semi-guaranteeing Inge and Sanchez roster spots; they had to include them. Brad Hawpe isn't entitled to similar opt-outs because he sucks wasn't on a 40-man roster at the end of last season.

Apparently this was recorded in December as a blast at his Twitter haters, and the appearance of the couplet "You hide behind a mask to facilitate a task" just after Miguel Montero publicly ripped on Bauer is just a coincidence. Still, it's awesome. I've listened to it all the way through twice, which I think is a record.

Ben Badler of Baseball America reports that MLB is investigating the age of Cuban defector Aledmys Diaz (who some hope the Pirates will sign as a shortstop of the next few years). Unlike the typical age investigation, here the question is whether Diaz is younger than he claims, because if he's under 23 he's subject to the Latin American signing caps. But more concerning may be this tidbit at the end: "Age questions and unblocking issues aside, scouting reports on Diaz's talent remain modest. Though Diaz has played shortstop in Cuba, scouts have said he doesn't have the lateral range, quickness or footwork to stay at the position."

An article by Jeff Sullivan points out that, of all the pitchers who've thrown at least 75 innings since PitchF/X became reliable in 2008, Jared Hughes has induced the highest percentage of swings on balls out of the zone. (The article is actually about how Phil Dumatrait was the opposite of that. Relive the horror that was the fifth starter spot in 2008! Read some truly embarrassing praise for him!)

Twins GM seen shaking his fist at the heavens. "Why? Why?"

In a certain monster thread, there was some discussion of the study showing that Pirates pitchers got the least generous strike zone of any pitcher. Sinkerballers are supposed to get squeezed more than other pitchers, so I checked out Michael Crotta's strike zone for his brief ML stint. Looks like he got about half the calls in the bottom quarter of the strike zone, which pretty much put paid to him as an ML pitcher. And then there's Charlie Morton (full stats from last year)... yowza.

According to Tim Williams at Pirates Prospects, the Pirates have agreed to terms with Charlie Morton.

kyuss94 at Crawfish Boxes (the SBNation Astros blog) rounds up some of the Rule 5 draft-eligible prospects. Kyle Kaminska makes an appearance.

Definitive.

A source said Carlos Marmol would've approved the trade to the Cubs, but for some reason or another the deal fell through. In the end the Angels wound up buying out Haren's option, and he became a free agent. #twitterjournalismfail

...though maybe it will be by the time I hit "post." Ken Rosenthal tweets that the deal isn't done yet, that the Angels are talking to other teams, and that the Cubs have asked Marmol if he'd waive his no-trade clause for the Angels; it's not clear if they've got an answer. ...and now he tweets that if Marmol waives the no-trade the deal will go through. Resume scheduled panicking!

...for being bad at throwing out baserunners. Barajas threw out 6 baserunners this year while allowing 93 stolen bases. Since 1960 (as far back as the stats seem to go), no other catcher who has caught 700 innings has thrown out as few baserunners (though Barajas himself pulled it off in 2010, with only 34 SB). The only catcher who ever approached Barajas's awful CS% was Josh Bard in 2007, with 10 CS to 121 SB. Thanks to jrhouse8 for asking the question.

Per Tom Singer at pirates.com, A.J. Burnett will start Thursday's game, keeping him on an every fifth day schedule, while James McDonald gets six days of rest. This strikes me as exactly the right move.

From Chris Blessing at Bullpen Banter. Blessing says that if he did his top 50 prospect list today, Polanco would be on it ahead of Alen Hanson. With video.

You can cross him off the list. Sanchez and Omar Infante fetched Jacob Turner (a top pitching prospect who's been scuffling a bit), two more prospects, and the Tigers' competitive balance pick. In other trade news of little relevance to the Pirates (with apologies to BoroHoss), the Yankees acquired Ichiro Suzuki for two meh-looking pitchers. The deal also apparently included the Mariners' e-mail list, because their season ticket holders were all sent a picture of Brian Cashman ashing a cigar onto Ichiro's cap and laughing.

For those (like me) who've been watching the playoff odds simulators with bated breath, you can stop watching the Baseball Prospectus odds for a while. The numbers are messed up in various ways; some are mentioned in comments, but the most obvious is that all the NL teams put together have something like a 60% chance of getting a wild card. (It should be 200%, since there are two slots.)

Baseball Prospectus's Playoff Odds report, which has been more skeptical of the Bucs than the other projection systems, gives the Pirates a 50.4 percent chance of making the playoffs as of the All-Star break. I'm pretty sure this is the first time the Pirates have broken the 50 percent barrier. Coolstandings, which goes strictly by run differential and strength of schedule, gives the Pirates a 72.4 percent chance of making the playoffs. Go Bucs!