http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/college/pitt/s_746288.html

Just a little footnote on at the bottom of the page, in an article about Archie Manning teaching Tino Sunseri how to survive as a college quarterback (throw it to Baldwin....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

Banks will have to sit out this season (since he still attends classes).  Does this year seem to be bringing in a lot more transfers than usual?  At least, I've never seen this much press about players transferring here.

Anyway, according to Scout.com, Banks was a three star prospect out of Montour High School.  That's about as much internet research as my job will allow.

It is a melancholy object to those who browse through this great web-log, when they see the Fan Posts, the Fan Shots, even the front page, crowded with posters of a recent join date, authoring three, four, or six 'Let's make a trade' articles, all poorly written and importuning every general manager for an A+ prospect.  These posters, instead of being able to reason that we have pieces to give in good standing, are forced to make up offers of such filler as Paul Maholm and Lyle Overbay, who when they get traded will regress back to their old ways, or just retire from the game of baseball altogether.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of trade topics made at the whim of these posters is in the present deplorable state of the web-log a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a quick, bandwidth-saving, simple method of making these posters and their offending posts sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the userbase as to have his thumbnail replace the little red skull and crossbones flag decorating the upper left hand corner of this site

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the trade-posts of professed users; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of posts which are created of users in effect as little able to back them up with facts as I am able to fit into a pair of ladies undergarments after Pizza Tuesday.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for the past couple of weeks upon this important subject, and maturely weighted the several ideas for a counter-post, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation.  It is true, a trade-post proposed my be supported by other users of similar ilk with little more than a few recommendations, at most not above the value of 2s...which the creator may certainly beg for, and it is at this point in time that I propose to proved for them in such a manner as instead of clogging our Fan Posts section from other useful posts involving the true goings-on of the team at this moment, they shall on the contrary contribute to the overall quality of these boards visited by many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent Charlie from having to delete these offending trade posts voluntarily, and that horrid practice of Charlie wasting said poster's five minutes it took to create said post, alas! too frequent over the last couple of weeks!

the number of posters in the blog being usually reckoned, I dunno, a couple dozen, of these I calculate there may be about three or four whose posts involve making deals with other teams; from which number I subtract about two who is able to maintain logic and reason within a trade post, although I apprehend that two is a lofty estimation given the landfill-esque stench emanating from my monitor -- a singular object not even made for the spreading of scent, mind you -- and there remains about three offending posters.  I again subtract another one for those posters who immediately delete their post after a thorough tongue-lashing by the regular posters here.  There remains about two posters who write these offending posts and leave them up here to pollute the harddrive.  The question is, how this number shall be dealt with, which seems quite impossible given the public nature of this message board -- we can neither ban them due to lack of an obvious breaking of the rules, and even if they do, at around an account age of six months old, they have learned the subtle ways to break the law of the board and will still exist to post more trade topics.

I am assured by our veteran posters, that a boy or girl with less than 100 posts to his credit is no salable commodity himself, Lyle Overbay-ean, if you will; and even when they reach this post count they will have not yet yielded a useful trade proposal.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own trade idea, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing blogger in the Pittsburgh area, that a young healthy poster, recently unbanned by the Pittsburgh native's own blog, a most thought-provoking, content-ridden, and intelligent commenter, whether discussing the front office, trades, current baseball projection or his ideas on the economy of baseball; and I make no doubt that he will equally fit in at the next Bucs Dugout gatherring.

I do therefore humble offer it to public consideration that of the two or three posters already computed, we trade all of these offenders themselves to the aforementioned Pittsburgh blogger for his prized poster himself, named NuttingHostage.

I grant this poster will be somewhat familiar due to him leaving us but not over a year ago, but as most trades will happen, one can return to an organization of which he has left.

I have already computed the charge of having NuttingHostage around to be about ten dollars a month (I propose we also upgrade to pay-site only, but that is another topic entirely).  Those who are more thrifty may take it upon themselves to learn the art of computer hacking to bypass the pay-wall if they so wish.

A very worthy poster, a true lover of the Pirates and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme.  Ron Cook (through the scape of a dream) suggested that he be promoted to the role of Editor, joining Vlad as one who can promote topics of his pleasing to the front page as well as write to it on his own whim.  All of this for two or three young posters who contribute only bottom-feeding trade conversation and ideas.

I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of trade topics (the whole point of this trade topic, I must add), which which we are weekly overrun, being the principal traders of the baseball world over the past three years.

Secondly, the posters whom were the focus of the trade will value their new blog, as the subject matter over there most likely suites their style

Thirdly, Whereas having to read trade ideas from these young posters can indeed be a waste of blog-browsing time, the boards useful-content-per-second-spent-reading will be thereby increased fifty thousand units per annum -- the knowledge will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture (which is what we'll tell others when they ask how we obtained such a great poster).

Many other advantages might be enumerated.  For instance, a larger rate of more knowledgeable new posters will join our fine community.  I won't dive into any of the other advantages (believe me, thought, there are many).

I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of trade-topic posters will be thereby much lessened on the weblog.  This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote the necessary work (as I hate trade topics and everything involved with them), having no other motive than getting rid of bad filler content on those fan posts over there.  I have no trade topics of my own excepting this one, and cannot bring up offers of my own head for such a fine poster of Pirates yore, which I do regret painfully.

Reader ryebr3ad comments:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6008394

Honestly, I'm not too upset about this deal.  I was a ringer for Bradley, since it seemed like better football people than myself were up on him, but I feel Graham would make a good addition all the same.

Perhaps Austin can become defensive coordinator and Rich Rod offensive coordinator, meaning all of the decisions go to those two and Graham can be a figure-head.  Yeah, that won't happen.  And I do hate Rich Rod.

Recently, I wrote about accountability - specifically, the apparent lack of it - and how management doesn't deserve all the blame it gets for the way it handles its players.

One of the scenarios I mentioned involved Neil Walker being 'mishandled' by Neal Huntington. I didn't dive too much into it earlier, but I want to devote a little more time to the claim that this can somehow be held against Huntington. The x-factor here was the presence of Pedro Alvarez.

Conventional wisdom states that super-prospects should never be blocked by players in the major leagues. Call it the 'Talent Theorem'. Buster Posey comes to mind here, since he found time to play at first base while Aubrey Huff moved to right field. A corollary to the Talent Theorem: Super-prospects should never be blocked, period.

Neil Walker used to play third base. Pedro Alvarez, a super-prospect in the Pirates organization, also played third base. Pedro Alvarez was about to enter AAA. Neil Walker was about to enter his second year in AAA. One was emerging as a potential star, while the other was losing his prospect status.

Referring back to the Talent Theorem, two possible scenarios arose: keep Walker as a third baseman only but relegate him to the bench where he had no chance of breaking out, or play him everywhere on the field so he could still play every day and also learn new positions on the fly. Huntington ultimately decided on the latter.

Due to still receiving everyday playing time and a new approach at the plate, Walker finally broke out, and due to circumstances beyond his control, he became the starting second baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, if he hadn't moved to the role of super-utilityman and stayed at third base, he would not have started receiving regular playing time until the day Alvarez was called up. Second base would still have been a glaring hole, Walker might not have had the success he had to begin the season, and there would have been one more question to answer going into the 2011 season.

Alvarez did what he normally does: start out slow, get hot as the season went on, and just plain mash the ball by the end of the year, making him a player to watch for the 2011 season.

This apparent 'poor recognition of talent' by Huntington caused Neil Walker to turn into a starting second baseman, as opposed to staying a AAA third baseman.

If this is what people consider to be a mistake, I'll be happy to see what happens if Charlie Morton finally does break out next year:

"How dare Huntington demote Morton to AAA last year. He should recognize talent when he sees it!"

"Accountability" -- the big buzzword thrown around by the masses with regard to the Pirates all of last season, no? Sure, accountability is an important part of any successful organization; if you are unsuccessful at your job, it must not go ignored. I generally agree with this notion, as does anyone else with a lick of business sense.

The Pittsburgh media as well as many fans seem to have this idea that accountability does not exist within the Pirates organization. I must say that this statement makes me laugh -- not only because it's a false claim, but because of the hypocrisy also spouted forth by those who used that statement the most.

Two of the more negative things I have seen used against current management lately are the Jose Bautista situation and how Neil Walker was handled before his call-up.  As Pirates fans who know how to read, I'm sure everyone here is aware of the season Bautista had : 50+ HRs, seven kittens rescued from burning buildings and a congressional medal of honor. Oh, and the Pirates used to have him under contract, and he was their starting third baseman for a few years before the acquisition of Andy LaRoche. When Bautista was traded, not one hair was dropped into the proverbial Pirates fan soup bowl. Of course, that all changed once he started to produce.

'The Pirates gave up on him too early!  The talent should have been recognized!'
'They traded Bautista for squat!  Huntington is terrible!'

Now, lets take a look at Bautista's statistics before the Pirates let him go:

Obviously, he wasn't very good while in Pittsburgh. In his age 25 season, he had a WAR of -1.4. He cost the team a win. He didn't look like someone who could cut the mustard. The next year he improved, but only enough to become a replacement lever player. Again, he was not really worthy of a starting third base job considering, among other things, his age of 26 years old.

He was traded next year for scrap, and rightfully so. He didn't do his job well, and was let go from the team.  Accountability at its finest, just like the doctor ordered. But, with the benefit of hindsight, it can now be used against the team as a lapse of judgment. Accountability was used to make a decision, so how could it also be the wrong move?

Hypocrisy reared its head again much more recently, with regard to the Walker situation at the beginning of the year. Someone I am acquainted with mentioned that Huntington was a fool for the way Walker was handled this year, being treated as a utility player until he started the year hot. This left me blindsided, as a few other people agreed with him.

Walker's career OBP in the minors is .320. That's below average in the majors - in the minors, it's quite concerning.  Accountability was used again, and Walker was demoted from his role as a potential starter to potential super-utility man. Of course, it's all a moot point - Akinori Iwamura busted, Walker hit well, and he is now the Pirates' starting second baseman for, let's say, the next couple of years (this depends on his defense either improving or regressing, obviously).

So Walker was held accountable, he proved himself again, was reintroduced to being a starter full-time, and ran with the role. And yet the Pirates made a mistake somehow - even though Walker is still with the team, which means the effects of the supposed mistake are negligible.

Some Pirates fans just live to complain. Accountability exists in this organization. Just remember to bring that up to the next person who mentions Bautista as he or she boos Andy LaRoche for being a replacement level player for the Pirates.

Hello.  I am a Pirates fan at heart, but gathered an interest to learn about the 29 other teams in the majors.  Could fans here possibly tell me a bit about the Indians, such as: current top prospects and up-and-comers; the current major league team; the goals of the team for the near future and whatnot.

Thanks for the info.  Come summer I'll be job hunting, so I'll be using this venture to keep myself interested :)

Greetings!

As summer quickly approaches, I learned that I know nothing about other baseball teams outside of my Pittsburgh Pirates, therefore I decided to nullify that ignorance.  Could folks here compile, say, a good history about the White Sox, as well as profiles on current players, current top prospects, and team goals for the present and near future?  This is strictly knowledge based, and will be used only for my enjoyment.

If anyone is interested, I can discuss Pirates baseball as well since I consider it my specialty. :)

Anyway, thanks for the information.  I shall be doing this with every other team's SB Nation board, starting here.

So, I was able to attend the game tonight; it was sort of a last minute decision to make it to the field since the weather was terrible.  I finally convinced my girlfriend to make the trip down at around 6:15, so we practically ran to the bus from Oakland.

On our way across Clemente bridge, we encountered people selling tickets for a dollar a piece.  I only had a dollar on me, and my girlfriend had 51 cents.  The women were nice enough to accept our money for two tickets.  I was extremely excited, however the seats were in section 308.  This gave us a good view of the entire game, and the seating under the small roof area kept us dry while we waited for the storm to end.

Anyway, on our way up to find our seats, these fellows in Pens jerseys were walking around the park saying "The Pirates suck!  Let's go Pens."  It took all of my restraint to keep from coming to blows.  I thought they were going to sit next to us since they were following us to the seats, but they made a turn near section 320.  I (and my girlfriend) breathed a sigh of relief -- no threat for me to get kicked out of the game!

At our seats, the closest people to us were two gentlemen: one refused to stand for the Star Spangled Banner; one didn't know who Andrew McCutchen was, but still decided to comment on the state of the roster (I'll let the reader guess the gist of his opinions)

"I hope they can score one run before I leave", says the ignorant gentlemen.  After they scored two in the first inning, the two guys left.

The atmosphere in the stadium was rather bleak.  No one seemed to care.  I made a bit of a fool of myself, which I tend to do at Pirate games.  Since I was the only one in the section, my voice carried well.  I guess I made a few folks laugh, but I really had to hold back from the swears.

After the game, and crossing the Clemente Bridge still high on the adrenaline from the bullpen blow-up as well as the game winning single, my spirits quickly dampened when a group of people behind started discussing the pay roll.  I rolled my eyes, hopped on the bus, and quickly decided that until this team starts winning, every game in the future will be like this; however, add about 5,000 more people considering it WAS rainy and there was a Penguins game going on.

Summary: I love you all.  You give me faith in all Pirate fans.

The more I look at Zach Duke's stats, the more I'm convinced this season is a statistical anomaly.  Ever since his terrible 2007 year, he has been steadily improving his statistics.  I'll post some of his translated statistics, going chronologically from left to right.

ERA.: 5.80, 4.81, 3.90

H/9: 13.6, 10.9, 9.8

K/9: 3.1, 3.4, 3.8

BB/9: 1.5, 1.7, 1.8

The biggest jump in statistics is his H/9 and ERA, going from a terrible 5.80 and 13.6 to 3.90, 9.8.  This might seem like Zach is bettering himself, but we all know the crazy deal about hits; who knows if they are due to a bad defense or bad pitching? 

We can also see that Zach's delta numbers for this year are all in the negative.  He is letting up less hits and less runs than his statistics say he should.  However, I feel it is worth pointing out that he rarely has a positive DR.  That's right, even in a year with an ERA of 5.80, he still should have given up more runs.

From the looks of it, Zach is consistently lucky, and luck is nothing one should ever take to the bank.  If Zach somehow repeats this year next year, would it be wise to trade him?  This is a big question I've had for a while.  Luck has always been on Zach's side even when terrible, but if he still progresses next year despite what luck has to say about it, could it just be said that Zach transcends the boundaries of modern statistics?