I haven't posted in awhile, but I think I saw someone ask on either here or on OBN whether you would take Machado over the 1st overall at this point, with Rendon and Cole both having down years statistically.  Even though this is a pointless exercise, I thought it might be fun, just to gauge how we are feeling about our predicament.

Actually, given Pomeranz's great numbers so far this year (1.5 K/IP), would he also be in the conversation for you?

As we all know, RF and 1b have performed at a consistently terrible level for the Pirates this year, but we still have lots of (now a little less) interesting fringy players to sort out.  In addition, this is probably the most likely area where the FO will go albatross-hunting to appease the fanbase, with the possible exception of starting pitcher.  So how would you handle these positions in 2011, and how do you see it working out?

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Like the title says, you simply have to respond to each question with either true or false, depending on your judgment...or elaborate, if you want to.

1)  Zack Duke will be a Pirate next season.

2)  Ryan Doumit will be a Pirate next season

3)  Russell will try either a Jones/Pearce or Bowker/Milledge platoon at some point next season.

4)  Ronny Cedeno will be the Pirates starting shortstop next season.

5)  Charlie Morton will be in the Pirates' starting rotation one year from today.

6)  Brad Lincoln will be in the Pirates' starting rotation one year from today.

7)  Any pitcher at Altoona will be in the Pirates' starting rotation one year from today.

8)  Assuming the Pirates sign both Taillon and Allie, Allie becomes the Pirates' second best prospect.

9)  Assuming 8 is true, Bryan Morris is still the Pirates' second best prospect.

10)  Assuming 8 is true, Tony Sanchez is still the Pirates' second best prospect.

11)  Evan Chambers is a better prospect than Robbie Grossman.

12)  Justin Wilson is a better prospect than Jeff Locke.

13)  The Pirates have anyone in their minor league system, at the moment, capable of hitting 25+ homers/season in the bigs.

The Pirates seem to be in an interesting situation heading into next year- it looks like the lineup they are developing will, at least, have a solid 1-5 in Tabata, Cutch, Walker, Jones (who they should platoon with Pearce...), and Alvarez.  Snyder looks like a decent catcher, Doumit and his attitude will be gone.  Milledge (who, again, should platoon with Bowker) and Cedeno are below-average, but they're not Chris Stynes either.  The only bad part of this group is that there is very little behind them, in case one falters...while there are some intriguing hitting prospects who should be at AAA next year (Lambo, D'Arnaud, Harrison, Hague, Hernandez, Presley?), none strikes me as a possible impact player, at least next year.  Lambo has the highest upside, but he still strikes me as very much a developmental player.  I also like Hague, particularly that his plate discipline (and I know this is discussed ad naseum here) sets him up well to not be overwhelmed by ML pitching.  Anyway, they also have two horses in Meek/Hanrahan, which the entire bullpen can revolve around.  Hopefully Moskos rebounds from his terrible AAA start and gives them a third shutdown guy.

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Hello all.  I have been lurking this place for awhile, seems like an excellent forum (better than OBN, and obviously way better than the PBC Blog, pirates message board, etc.).  So I figured I'd start posting here.  I would like to start by asking anybody if they can answer these questions I have about certain Pirates prospects, and the system in general.

1)  Does everyone here consider Matt Hague a legitimate prospect?  To me, he's one of the best pure hitters in the system, although it is a little bit of a black mark on him that he doesn't hit for much power as a first baseman.  But still, when our best option going forward is Steve Pearce, it's pretty obvious that the guy doesn't need to be Prince Fielder to be legitimate.  From what I can tell, Hague's high OBP and low strikeout rate indicate that he could be a guy who puts up .350 OBPs (or higher) in the majors, and I have always considered OBP more important than slugging.

2)  Has anyone watched Evan Chambers hit?  Cause like a lot of WV Power players, he is kind of interesting, but seems flawed.  He seems to strike out a ton, but his walk rate is equally absurd.  I am wondering if his huge walk rate indicates that he just takes a LOT of pitches, meaning that he works himself into a lot of 3-ball counts AND 2-strike counts.  Cause if that's true, that could easily justify his high K rate and really establish him as a guy to watch going forward, in my view.

3)  Tim Alderson has been statistically pretty good for awhile now.  I'm wondering, first, (and I think this has been discussed before) what his velocity is at?  Secondly, I'm wondering what the timeline is as far as regaining velocity and mechanics changes...should Alderson been throwing in the low 90s again by now, or is it normal that he sits at 86?  Either way, people who write him off are idiots- velocity dip or not, he's holding his own in AA at 21, 2 years below an "age-appropriate" level.

4)  Is it just me, or have these last two drafts (along with the performance of the system this year) shifted the Pirates balance of power between hitting and pitching hugely in favor of the latter?  It seems like about 15 of our top 20 prospects by next year will be pitchers...is everyone cool with this discrepancy?  Alex Presley alone can't make up for the failures of D'Arnaud/Grossman or the injury to Marte, which should basically stop his development for over a year...

Are the Latin American hitters good enough to bring the level of hitting prospects up in this system?