Capps is Out!!!

Matt Capps and Phil Dumatrait were not offered contracts by the deadline, and are now officially free agents. The Pirates now have an open competition for the closer spot. The Pirates had been saying that Capps was still their man. But apparently that is not the case.

Zack Duke was offered a contract, and so now negotiations to avoid aribitration will begin. I believe that can go until January sometime.

I have to say that overall I don't mind this. It does put us in a little bit of a tight spot, but the bullpen last year was a mess and Capps was not very good and Dumatrait was awful and has been injury prone. The Pirates now officially have no lefty in the pen, but do have Justin Thomas in the minors. It opens up two more spots on the 40 man roster and hopefully the Pirates will be able to sign a bullpen guy. Right now I guess the bullpen has perhaps two spots sewn up. The other five are up in the air. Spring Training could be a lot of fun to watch.

The Cost of Modern Baseball

Ronny Cedano has signed and will not be arbitration eligible now. He will now make 1.125 million for next year. That is a raise from his just under 900,000 for last year, a year in which he hit a combined .208. How does hitting .208 get you a raise? And since when does a career .240 hitter with sub par fielding make a million bucks a year?

You want to know why small market teams have a hard time winning? Look no further than this deal for Cedano, which by the way is not considered unreasonable. It now costs over a million dollars to land a sub-par short stop. Bobby Crosby cost a cool million, and I have to say I think he is a better short stop than Cedano. Neither are world beaters and neither is the ticket to the World Series, but modern baseball is just that expensive. You want someone who will be very average? That will be 1 million dollars.

Anyway, Zack Duke and Matt Capps are still waiting for their contracts. Both had much better seasons than Cedano. I can't wait to see what they cost.

Rule 5 Draft

The Pirates have selected John Raynor, an outfielder from the Marlins. They also picked up a player from Baltimore in the Triple A phase while losing no one.

The selection of Raynor is very interesting in that the bench is now rather crowded. There is no way camp breaks without Raynor on the team. This means there are going to be 5 outfielders on the team with McCutchen, Jones, Milledge, Young (who will not be a back up second baseman, but return to the outfield), and now Raynor. The bench then is full with the signing of Bobby Crosby becoming official and Ramon Vasquez and Jason Jarmillo already on the team. This seems to be what the Pirates are saying is the case, but I am hopeful that it points to moving Jones to firstbase.

There is no way Jeff Clement is going to be ready to play first base out of Spring Training. His defense needs work. And Pierce has shown now that he will be an offensive liability. If Jones is moved to first, then a spot is open on the bench and Raynor becomes the fourth outfield behind Young. Or Raynor stays the fifth as either Brandon Moss makes the team or Jose Tabata makes the team.

Either way you look at it the pick is bad news for Brandon Moss.

Winter Meetings Day 3

All is quite on the Pirate front. And that is good news as the Pirates have not traded catcher Ryan Doumit nor pitchers Zack Duke and Paul Malholm. All are needed in Pittsburgh, and Zack's trade value will probably be higher at the trading deadline when people are looking for left handed pitching.

All that happened today is that the Pirates confirmed they will offer all three of their arbitration eligible players (Duke, Capps, and Cedano) contracts.

Tomorrow is the Rule 5 Draft. Expect news.

Winter Meetings - Bobby Crosby

It appears the Pirates have an agreement in principle with Bobby Crosby. They have been in serious negotiations with the Oakland Short Stop for some time. Adding Crosby would mean a possible starting position for him. It will be between Cedano and Crosby for the starting job. Both options are solid gloves and so-so bats. But overall it is good to have the depth.

It is however, bad news for Brian Bixler fans.

Winter Meetings Day 1

Day One is a positive sign for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not because they did very much, but because it looks like they will.

The Pirates did sign a right handed reliever to a minor league deal. Vinnie Chulk was signed as a minor league free agent. He played in the Indians organization and appeared 8 times with the Clevland Indians out of their bullpen. This did not take up any roster spots and gives them a shot at improving their pen. Competition is the name of the game for the Pirates.

The other good news is that Luis Cruz was claimed off of waivers by the Brewers. This is great news as it opens a spot on the 40 man roster. Cruz was awful for the Pirates and was not even the second shortstop on the roster. The Pirates actuall have two opennings now as Jeff Sues was waived and cleared waivers, so he is still in the organization, meaning he can compete for a roster spot as well.

The other bit of good news is that the Pirates appear to be interested in a short stop on the free agent market. It appears that they tried to sign Adam Everett, but he signed else where. Maybe the Pirates make a run at Bobby Crosby. These things can only be positives for the Pirates.

With two holes on the 40 man roster, I expect the Pirates to fill at least one of them in the Rule 5 Draft, in which they pick second.

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.