Thursday, November 11, 2010

More Roster stuff and Rule 5 possibilities

The Pirates got some great news with Steven Pearce being given an extra year of minor league elligibility. That does open up some real possibilities for the Pirates. If Pearce had been out of options, he would have to be the first baseman or a back up for it. Now the Pirates can use Pearce how ever they want. If he needs to go down for more work in the minors, especially after his injury, he can. This opens the Pirates up a little more to try and find a first baseman on the free agent market as Pearce can start in the minors, freeing up his 25 man roster spot for a free agent.

Also, the Pirates will have to make a decision about who to protect from Rule 5 Draft in Decemeber. The only way to do that is add them to the 40 Man roster. Jennifer Langosh gives a nice run down of who is on the block. I do disagree about one thing. I think Daniel Moskos is a sure fire lock to be added. He is too talented to let his struggle at AAA stop his protection. Another team could swipe him and hide him in the bullpen for a year. I think it also makes Brian Friday assured to be unprotected as well. Langosh thinks he is up for debate. If I am not mistaken he was left unprotected last year and no one took him. He may have a higher stock a little this year, but it is so much easier to hide pitchers than it is position players. The Pirates found this out last year when they failed to keep their Rule 5 pick. But they were able to do that with the two previous Rule 5 pitchers they took (Doumatrait and Veal).

I believe I previously said Sterling Marte was up for Rule 5, but he is not as Pirate Prospects explains how the 2006 signing date has been out there. So, good news for the Pirates because Marte is a must protect, even if hand surgery takes away his power.

By the way, I think that the Pirates could lose a guy this year. It has been a while since a Pirate prospect was taken (lest we forget Jose Bautista was taken in the Rule 5, and we traded to get him back), but Michael Crotta could get snatched. He pitched at the AAA level as was not awful. A bullpen position is not out of the question on some teams. Tony Watson too could get taken. He was very good against lefties. Still, I think the best chance is for Crotta. The question is does anyone want him enough to pay 50,000 and a gamble on someone who may only be a future bullpen guy anyway.

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