News and Notes

The Pirates have put up a report about the state of the Venezulena and Dominican Summer Leagues. The VSL team almost won a title, but fell short. It is hard to get too excited about some of these guys until they have seen action in America where the talent level of the competition is easier to evaluate, but some of these guys will be doing just that. The two that I had heard good things about prior to this report were Jonathon Barrios, who had a disappointing season statistically, and Jorge Bishop, who looks good. The Pirates are still really thin in the middle infield all throughout their organization. Thus, these leagues might produce a future middle infielder for the Pirates.

Also it appears that Jeff Karstens and Justin Thomas cleared waivers. Thus, one would think that they will be in Pittsburgh's system this upcoming year. This makes a bullpen lefty available for the Pirates in Thomas and keeps a promsing player like Karstens around.