P-G: Capps non-tendered

Duke tendered, Dumatrait not.

A statement from Neal Huntington: "We attempted to reach agreement with both Matt and Phil prior to the deadline.  Each player preferred to explore free agency.  We have not closed any doors but will begin immediately to explore other opportunities to improve our bullpen."

What have you all got to say to this: Hanrahan's the closer now?

UPDATE by Charlie: Wow. Dumatrait isn't worth worrying about, but the Capps move is weird. Capps surely wasn't likely to be worth whatever he would have gotten in arbitration, but some team can usually be convinced to overpay for a "closer," even a bad one. Maybe that's changing somewhat, and the salary dump by the Braves of Rafael Soriano, a good closer, may have been an indication that closers are becoming more properly valued.

I didn't see this coming, though, and I'm surprised in the sense that I had hoped the Pirates would get a prospect or two for Capps down the line. They almost certainly would have, too, if he'd bounced back at all, so the Bucs must think that's not going to happen. Like some in the comments, I'm not totally sure what Capps' problems were last year, so I'm not sure what he needs to do to fix them, but Capps is still young and has only had one bad year. Given the room in the Pirates' budget, it's surprising that they weren't willing to take him to arbitration and hope for him to improve. Capps isn't a necessary player for the Bucs right now, or an important part of their future--like I said a couple days ago, closers are a luxury item. But he'd certainly have value in a trade if he pitched well for a couple months. This is a strange non-tender, and I'll be waiting to see what Huntington does in its wake.

Joe Hamrahi at   Baseball Daily Digest has grouped the different Top Rankings for each team to a spreadsheet here in Excel workbook form, with tabs at the bottom for each division, headings for each ranking body (Fangraphs, BP, Hardball Times, etc) and tabs for different Leagues, for instance:

<!-- BODY,DIV,TABLE,THEAD,TBODY,TFOOT,TR,TH,TD,P { font-family:"Arial"; font-size:x-small } -->

Eastern League

1. Pedro Alvarez, 3b, Altoona (Pirates)

2. Madison Bumgarner, lhp, Connecticut (Giants)

3. Kyle Drabek, rhp, Reading (Phillies)

4. Carlos Santana, c, Akron (Indians)

5. Jesus Montero, c, Trenton (Yankees)

6. Domonic Brown, of, Reading (Phillies)

7. Junichi Tazawa, rhp, Portland (Red Sox)

8. Wilson Ramos, c, New Britain (Twins)

9. Michael Taylor, of, Reading (Phillies)

10. Brad Lincoln, rhp, Altoona (Pirates)

11. Hector Rondon, rhp, Akron (Indians)

12. Josh Reddick, of, Portland (Red Sox)

13. Ike Davis, 1b, Binghamton (Mets)

14. Marc Rzepczynski, lhp, New Hampshire (Blue Jays)

15. Jose Tabata, of, Altoona (Pirates)

16. Scott Sizemore, 2b, Erie (Tigers)

17. Jake Arrieta, rhp, Bowie (Orioles)

18. Nick Weglarz, of, Akron (Indians)

19. Zach McAllister, rhp, Trenton (Yankees)

20. Brandon Snyder, 1b, Bowie (Orioles)

Kind of neat to click around & check out.

Not everything in the "League" section is completely updated (it still has Cutch @ Indy), but it does have players ranked in different leagues as they move around, so whereas Pedro is #1 in the Eastern League, it also has him as #3 in the Carolina League, and Tabata #13 in the Int'l League, etc.

Perhaps you all were already aware of these sites, though.

Tabata coming on strong

Chuck Finder's piece in today's PG (which I'm sure all of you read religiously) has some nice things to say about Jose Tabata:

The Pirates continue to position him there not as a possible McCutchen replacement, but rather to improve his defensive skills. In Scottsdale, they asked him to play a shallow center field -- a la McCutchen, who finished fourth in National League rookie of the year voting despite missing the majors' first two months. They wanted to improve Tabata's reads, routes, reactions.

It should be interesting to see how things play out in Spring Training, according to NH, though I think the "development work" remark sounds like another "Wait until the clock is right" to me - not that that's a bad thing:

"He has made quality adjustments to his game, and those adjustments are paying dividends. While we are pleased with his progress, we still feel we have some development work left with Jose. As a result, he is likely to open the season in Triple-A, but, like McCutchen this past spring, the door is not fully closed."

Since there isn't a whole helluva lot else going on....

Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

"...You'll find a story wrapping up the Arizona Fall League on pirates.com shortly, but in addition to that, I wanted to pass along numbers from other winter ball leagues ..."

• Brian Bixler (Mexico): 35 games, .300 BA, 22 R, 5 2B, 5 HR, 12 RBI, 42 SO
• Ronny Cedeno (Venezuela): 18 games, .216 BA, 6 R, 1 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBI
• Argenis Diaz (Venezuela): 34 games, .206 BA, 13 R, 3 2B, 5 RBI
• Gorkys Hernandez (Venezuela): 19 games, .233 BA, 7 R, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 17 SO
• Neil Walker (Venezuela): 34 games, .267 BA, 23 R, 9 2B, 4 HR, 16 RBI
• Ramon Aguero (DR): 10 games, 10 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 11 K
• Jean Machi (Venezuela): 21 games, 11 saves, 25 2/3 IP, 19 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 18 K
• Ronald Uviedo (Venezuela): 9 games, 10 1/3 IP, 12 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 10 K
  

Follow me on Twitter: @LangoschMLB 

Via J. Langosch, Pirates' pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, who is interning with the USDA this off-season has posted his first blog entry about his experience.

... Instead of returning to Austin after the baseball season, I came to Washington, DC to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn about both agriculture and the government while also making a difference.

Interestingly,  the entry does not include any references to Congressional or Senate husbandry.

Perhaps he can get the Pirates some fat subsidies.

I waited on an nice elderly woman. As I was checking her vacuum in for its annual tuneup, I needed to ask her name, as it's not a while-you-wait service. She produced a receipt from a previous transaction, and her last name was Mackowiak. Of course, I asked if she was any relation, and it turned out she is his grandmother.

As it wasn't particularly busy (for the moment), I had the opportunity to chat with her for a few minutes, and told her of being a Pirates' fan, and how cool it was for him (and the Pirates) on that that fateful day in 2004. She lit up with pride for her grandson, and said "He's in Cleveland now," without mentioning (not knowing?) that he'd been released by the Tribe over the summer.

She also mentioned that he "loved coming home to play in Chicago, but really hated playing for Ozzie [Guillen], and that he'd rather play every day in the minors than sit on the bench making millions in the Majors," noting that his age and injuries may make that a probability for the future.She said "He just loves to play ball. He doesn't care where, or for who." I think he may get his wish, and we agreed that he might not play MLB again.

She also promised to have him send me an autographed photo, which I told her I would hang proudly next to Maz, Guy Carbonneau, Ray Nitschke, Patrick McGoohan, Jerry Vale, Orlando Merced & Ed Asner on my wall.

I'll post a pic if'n I get one.

Maybe it's a bit too early, but what do you think about having a BD Gathering for a game (or games) at PNC next season? Would anyone be interested?

Not as a contest (as suggested by patthatt - although I DO rhink that's a good idea!), but a meeting of the faithful?

The 2010 schedule can be found here, among other places.

I'll post a poll, but please also respond in the comments. If we get enough attendees, we'd probably get a group rate (on game tix & rooms, I should think), and maybe we could even get someone to host something - fer chrissakes, if the PBC Blog can get someone from the FO to show up...

a big

"Thank you!"

to Charlie for all the work he does for BD.

.

It ain't always easy, but  he does yeoman's work keeping things up, running, and moving smoothly (as possible).

BD has grown by leaps and bounds this season, with lots of new members and a higher profile. There've been some brouhahas, to be sure, but for the most part, members have kept it at the civil level, even if vehemently disagreeing with each other. It's a refreshing change from the sniping one usually sees in the blogosphere.

We'd all like to see the Pirates do well next season, but even if they don't, I'll be here to read, learn, laugh and enjoy BD. I've also enjoyed corresponding with some of you from BD outside of BD. Cool to make friends that way.

Cheers and thanks again, Charlie,

cocktailsfor2

NH says NO.

I'm sure several of you have seen it already, but our home / road splits reveal some really weird numbers...

The Pirates have also examined run differential numbers, which, too, statistically conclude that though they are scoring fewer runs and allowing more on the road than at home, they are not doing so at such extremes to result in this bad of a road record. Through the team's first 132 games, the Pirates outscored opponents 292-253 (+39 runs) at home. They have been outscored 245-363 (-118) on the road.

Also of note in the article:

Jeff Karstens (lower back strain) and Donnie Veal (sprained left index finger) will both be finishing their rehab assignments early next week and are expected to then immediately join the Pirates. Catcher Robinzon Diaz and shortstop Brian Bixler are the only other Triple-A players expected to get a callup this month.

BIXIE'S COMING BACK  ?!?!?!?