Sanserino just posted the news to the PBC blog (reprinted here for those of you who don't pay for PG+):

INDIANAPOLIS – Pirates outfielder Alex Presley and infielder Chase d’Arnaud are being activated from the disabled list and will rejoin the team Thursday in St. Louis.
The team will likely announce the move Thursday, once both players arrive in St. Louis. The team will then announce a corresponding move to make room on the 25-man roster.
Presley and d’Arnaud were taken out of the Class AAA Indianapolis starting lineup two hours before first pitch tonight. They will fly to St. Louis on Thursday morning.

I'm stoked. I'm sure this will end the latest chapter in the Pedro Ciriaco saga, and I guess this means Aaron Thompson goes back to Indy as well. Not that I really think he should stay up, but it's an unceremonious demotion after a helluva start today. That's baseball. I can't wait to see Presley back in our lineup tomorrow night.

Reading Bill Brink's chat from today, I thought this might be the most relevant Q+A of the whole session:

Chris: Imagine the Internet existing in the 1960s and a young Willie Stargell being taken to task becasue he struck out all the time and looks overweight. Alvarez bashing is so premature and absurd, isn't it?

Bill Brink: At this point, a little premature. He did face Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Jair Jurrjens in his first week back. He even took Lee deep. He told me last night he's readying himself to hit earlier in the at-bat and having more success with the first two pitches. By doing that, he avoids the breaking stuff in the dirt or the high-inside fastball for strike three.

I'm hoping to see more multi-hit nights like Pedro had last night now that we're through what's likely the most difficult part of the schedule of the whole season.

How bout that? Some positive press for two of my favorite Pirates! Scott Miller on CBSSports.com compiled a 25-and-under All-Star team and tagged Neil Walker as the best young 2B in the NL! He also named Andrew McCutchen the second best young OF, of course behind Jason Heyward.

Though he can't resist inserting the required "The Pirates are bad" one-liner, he has this to say about Neil:

Second base: Neil Walker, Pirates.

Best thing Pittsburgh did this season, and there hasn't been much, is bounce Akinori Iwamura off the club and make way for Walker. He didn't arrive with the name recognition of Pirates prospects Pedro Alvarez or Jose Tabata, but Walker is reaching base and making plays.

He follows with this high praise for Cutch (and redeems himself for the earlier shot by actually suggesting that people root for the Pirates):

Outfield: Andrew McCutchen, Pirates.

McCutchen simply is one of the most exciting players in the game -- it's worth it pulling for the Pirates to improve if only so we can see more of him on television.

Though we have seen Cutch garner this sort of praise already, I was very pleasantly surprised to see Neil getting some accolades. It is nice to be noticed for the few good things this Bucco team has going.

Read the full article here: NL 25-and-under All-Stars

Are you freaking kidding me? Lastings Milledge goes 2-3 with a walk and an RBI last night to raise his average to .266 (which isn't great, but it's not terrible, either). He has 12 hits in his last 35 ABs (a .343 avg, which is great). Ryan Church, who has been utterly atrocious, with 2 hits in his last 35 ABs (that's a .057 avg since May 23rd) pinch hit strikes out to end the game last night on a pitch that bounced three feet IN FRONT of the plate! So JR decides it would be a good time to bench Blastings and throw Church back in the lineup??

Listen, if Church's terrible performance is because his wrist is still bothering him, throw him on the damn DL, don't put him in our starting lineup! I'm so sick of these kinds of presposterously idiotic decisions from JR!

RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

Lincoln and Tabata make their home debuts tonight.

Pirates:

1. 1. Jose Tabata, LF
2. 2. Neil Walker, 2B
3. 3. Andrew McCutchen, CF
4. 4. Garrett Jones, 1B
5. 5. Ryan Doumit, C
6. 6. Ryan Church, RF
7. 7. Andy LaRoche, 3B
8. 8. Ronny Cedeno, SS
9. 9. Lincoln, P

White Sox:

1. 1. Juan Pierre, LF
2. 2. Omar Vizquel, 3B
3. 3. Alex Rios, CF
4. 4. Paul Konerko, 1B
5. 5. Mark Kotsay, RF
6. 6. Alexei Ramirez, SS
7. 7. Ramon Castro, C
8. 8. Gordon Beckham, 2B
9. 9. Garcia, P

Overflow Thread

Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs! Let's go Bucs!

Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar are the two Pens who have been named to Team Russia, which looks like it's the team to beat in Vancouver this winter...

Continue reading this post »

Hey fellow Bucs fans:

For a project in our statistics class, a friend of mine (who is a member at Talking Chop) and I decided to determine if laying down a sacrifice bunt really increased your chances of scoring a run. Our results, in my opinion, were pretty interesting...

(Cutch should probably go ahead and bunt anyways - he's fast enough that it doesn't matter!)

Because there are so many different variables to control for, we looked at one specific condition: when there is a man on first with no outs. (This prevents confounding variables, such as having to compare the efficacy of sac bunting with, for example, men on 1st and 2nd with one out and a man on first with no outs). We looked solely at the American League, so as not to have to deal with the pitcher.

We began by going through every game played in the AL last year, and notating every instance where a man reached first with no outs. We then recorded whether or not that man scored, if he was sac'd over to second, and how many total runs were scored in that inning. 4,728 data points (and a big headache) later, we had all of our data. For the record, of the 4,728 times a man reached first with no outs in the AL last year, he was sac'd over to 2nd 193 times.

Chance of the man on first scoring... 

Of the 4,728 times that a man reached first with no outs, he scored 39.36% of the time. We then looked at the effect of the bunt and found out that when the man was not sac'd over, he only scored 39.25% of the time. When he was sac'd to 2nd however, he scored 41.97% of the time. Thus, a sacrifice bunt DOES increase the man on first's chance of scoring. Statistical testing backs up our data to support the conclusion.

Chance of the team scoring...

Although we looked at the chances of the man on first scoring, the team who lays down the bunt is not concerned as much with the man on first scoring, but with anyone scoring. So we next examined the chance that the team scores at all given that they have a man on first with no outs. Essentially, how does the tradeoff of moving a man one base closer, but giving up an out, affect the team's chances of scoring? The chance of scoring at all across the the 4,728 times a man reached first last year was 43.23%. When there was no sac bunt, the chance was 43.24%, and when there was a sac bunt, the chance of a team scoring was 43.01% There is no significant statistical difference between these probabilities. Thus, sacrifice bunt DOES NOT increase a team's chance of scoring a run. The probabilities are virtually identical.

Average runs scored...

Finally, we looked at the average number of runs scored per inning when a man reached first with no outs. Across those 4,728 instances, those teams averaged .9314 runs per inning. When a team sac'd the man over to second, their average runs per inning were .7098.  When a team did NOT sac the man over however, they scored an average of .9409 runs per inning. There is significant statistical evidence to support the finding that sacrifice bunting DECREASES the average number of runs scored per inning.

Putting it all together...

So there you have it. In short, sac bunting in the AL is a bad move. You don't increase your chances of scoring any runs in the inning, but you decrease the average number of runs you will score in the inning.

A few limitations...

Like I said, we had to control across all situations, so we only looked at the AL, and what happens with a man on first and no out. We can't really be sure how these conclusions would hold for other bunting situations, and especially for the NL. This study shows that you should never have position players bunt, but as for the pitcher, it is probably still prudent to have him sacrifice, as most pitchers have such a low batting average. We avoided the NL for precisely this reason - the pitcher and his abnormally low BA would confound the study. But as I said, this should hold for all position players.

Thus, unless your batter is Mr. McCutchen up there and he can leg out a single on a bunt anyways, it turns out that having a position player sac bunt is really a sac of:

The Pirates just sent utilityman Eric Hinske to the Yankees for 2 prospects currently at single-A level. They are: OF/C Eric Fryer of the Tampa Yankees and RHP Casey Erickson of the Charleston RiverDogs.

Taking Hinske's spot on the 25-man roster will be OF/1B Garrett Jones from AAA Indianapolis. He will be in Pittsburgh for tonight's game.

Overall this is a pretty minor trade. The Pirates got rid of an old, mediocre journeyman and receive two prospects and a very promising young callup from the minors. Wouldn't it be great if Jones could have an immediate impact, like Cutch has?