ryebr3ad

Seems good -- it's amazing what hitting 92 with a slider will do for someone's career.

Our very own Matt Diaz is referenced, who, based on performance, is probably using an iPad jailbroken to run against Windows 3.1x.

Via Bucsinsider's twitter: #Pirates option INF Josh Harrison to Triple-A...Infielder Chase d'Arnaud is expected to join the big league team on Friday.

What an aggressive push. I hope he's up for the challenge. UPDATE by Charlie: I'm not sure I understand leaving Curry at West Virginia for so long to beat up on the competition there, then having him skip the Florida State League. Also, I don't really agree with Tim's contention that Aaron Baker blocked Curry in Bradenton. Baker isn't much of a prospect, first of all, and if the Pirates thought Curry could handle the pitchers in Bradenton, they easily could have had him and Baker split time at first base and DH. The Pirates aren't usually nearly this aggressive, though, so I assume they had good reasons for doing it this way. UPDATE 11:30 AM by Charlie: Also, Miles Durham, Eric Fryer and Shelby Ford will move up to Indianapolis, while Greg Picart and Travis Scott will head to Altoona. This mostly just looks like fallout from the promotion of Josh Harrison and the likely promotion of Dusty Brown. With the possible exception of Fryer, none of these guys are prospects. UPDATE 5:23 PM by Charlie: Tim responds in the comments. When I talked to Kyle Stark at the start of the year, he mentioned that they wanted to get both players [Curry and Baker] regular playing time at 1B. That’s why Curry started off in low-A, with Baker in high-A. The goal was to get Baker up to AA by the end of the year. Since they wanted both players getting regular time at first base, having both of them on the Bradenton roster wasn’t an option. Also, Baker has been struggling in May (.219/.296/.385), so he doesn’t really look like a guy who is ready to move up to AA. The comment wasn’t really the typical 'this guy is blocked by a better player' comment. It’s more of a 'Curry is blocked because the Pirates want Baker at first base, and Baker is not ready to move up to create space for Curry in high-A.'

From Pirates Prospects. RHP Adolfo Flores RHP Juan Mendoza SS/2B/OF Edgard Munoz OF Anthony Claudi OF Keybel Escobar Mendoza is 25, so I'm curious if he skips the DSL/VSL all together and pitches in State College.

I know the kid (Zac Weiss) through Facebook only: he was one of the folks that enjoyed my libeling of those with low intelligence on the Facebook fan page before I got banned for calling somebody 'an incurable version of stupid', albeit in a more pejorative way. Regardless, it's neat that the kid is getting recognized.

I came across this link while googling Vogelsong and his status as a top prospect -- looks like he was top five on the Giants that featured such studs as Lance Neikro above him. It's kind of old, but still interesting and worth a look.