OK, we had a terrifc draft/signings. We made trades at the deadlines to beef up our pitching and some position players. Where does that leave us now?

We still have holes at 1st, 2nd, and SS. LaRouche and Freddy  aren't cutting it. LaRouche may just not be good while Freddy maybe hurt. Anyway, we don't have much depth in the minors at these positions.

Shelby Ford for 2B? Maybe, but we won't know for a few years.

At 1B, maybe Pearce if he can start hitting. Otherwise, we have a hole there too.

At SS, nobody even close to being major league ready. Bixler isn't the guy. Maybe some of the others we drafted this year might pan out, but nobody really jumps out as a sure thing. This is a hole.

3B is Alvarez's in a few years. Until then, LaRouche Jr. is in control Unless Walker starts hitting, he is not going anywhere. I'd say 3B is set for now.

Ih the outfiled we have alot of options. I think we are OK there.

At catcher, after Doumit (who is doing great!) we have nothing. Another hole we need to fill.

So holes at 1B and 2B right now. No depth at SS or C. That's 4 of the 8 positions. Neal and company need a few more drafts like they did this year to get these holes filled.

Don't get me wrong. I love what the new management has done. I think the magnItude of the task is becoming obvious.

Now that the prospect signing deadline and the trading deadline has past, I think it will be fun to project the top 10 prospects. Here is mine:

1. Pedro Alverez

2. Andrew McCutchen

3. Jose Tabata

4. Bryan Morris

5. Neil Walker

6. Daniel McCutchen

7. Jamie Romak

8. Brad Lincoln 

9. Robbie Grossman

10.  Shelby Ford

Others Receiving Votes: Jordy Mercer, Justin Wilson, Brian Friday, Daniel Moskos, Dave Davidson, Quinton Miller, Wesley Freeman

Lets see what you think. This is way more fun than usual.

Edit: I would have included ohlendorf, but I thought he had to many MLB IP. I see only has 47 IP, so he is eligible. I would have placed him 8th right in front of Lincoln, and knocking ford out of the top 10.

Does anyone know if any of the Pirates current selections are draft and follow elegible? It could be possible that some of the selections that were made this year have a chance of being signed and the Pirates could get an extended look by having the players return to school or enter junior college.  I don't a great deal about draft and follow however from my understanding it allows the team retain the players' rights until a week before the next draft.

Thanks for reading my post.

Decided to respond to DK's latest Q&A, since his comment seemed a bit silly. This is the letter I sent into him. Hoefupply I be not insane and rambling?

"It is difficult to label any franchise future-minded when it gives a 33-year-old first baseman platoon time at third with someone management was saying had a chance to be part of the future"

Normally, I would agree with you. However, you and I both know a few things here. First of all, it is definitely true that any new management team will eventually try to fill an entire organization with "their people" - from the best player in the majors to the 25th man on the roster in Hickory, and all the office positions to boot. Much can be said for proverbial clean slates, especially a long-failing team like ours.

The Pittsburgh situation is made different by the fact that the previous management filled all of the square and round holes at all of the various organizational levels with pegs that any reasonably educated baseball fan, let alone baseball employees and personnel, knew didn't really belong at that level.

I have followed this team much more closely over the last couple of years than at any other point - partly because I have become a much more educated fan. In the process of watching the team, I know that Jose Bautista was certainly, as you mentioned, miscast as an everyday player, because he simply cannot produce offensively to be considered a regular starter at any position, let alone third base, and is not defensively versatile enough to compensate.

Doug Mientkewicz wasn't brought to this team to play third base. He was brought in as a first baseman. However, the team also played him at third base and in right field, and obviously now feels that he is a more consistent - and versatile - option on offense and defense, while also having the perk of being a very passionate and vocal veteran teammate.

The fact that a 32 year old (Michaels), or a 34 year old (Mientkewicz), or a 35 year old (Chavez), or a 37 year old (Gomez), is situated on the current bench is not in any way a reflection on the new management's ability to be forward thinking, nor is that ability - or lack - reflected in a younger player not being given regular playing time over an older one.

This is simply management doing their best to fill in the cracks, the fringes of the 25 man roster, with the most versatile and inexpensive putty they can find, which just so happens - at the moment - to be low-priced, older free agents instead of any younger talent currently in the organization.

This move with Bautista is probably one that the team should have made sooner (though it was likely delayed by his homerun binge earlier this year) so that they could have him playing second base or center field and increasing his versatility, instead of running out a matt kata/josh wilson organizational filler platoon in Indy.

I have been watching tonight's game on FSN Ohio. The Reds tv announcers (George Grande and Chris Welsh) said that Josh Fogg leads all-time Pirates' starters in wins at PNC Park with 20 total. Is this correct!? ... Zach Duke and a few other pitchers are behind him with 18 wins.

If so, I guess it is just another brutal illustration of how bad the Pirates have been since they moved into PNC Park.

Dan McCutchen can pitch a little bit. His fastball sits at 91-93. He threw 30 pitches those speeds, and 15 of those were 92. He threw 93mph on his 99th pitch before striking out Brock Peterson with an excellent change. He topped out at 95 (once) and threw 94 a handful of times. He got 16 swings and misses and most were on his low-80s change. He also threw a high-70s breaking ball. He threw strikes. I'm not disappointed Dan McCutchen is in the Pirates system. I don't think he's long for AAA, which is good because he's 25. It's not that I think he'll be super good, just that the talent in the org won't hold him back and he has the stuff to get a shot. I think he just needs some more refinement, probably with his fastball location.

He gave up back to back HR to two lefties, Howie Clark and minor league vet Garrett Jones. Fastball to Clark, breaking ball to Jones who destroyed it. After a mound visit, he retired the next three batters. He reminded me of pretty much all the Twins pitchers not named Liriano that have come through Rochester the last few years, Scott Baker in particular. Low 90's fastball, good stuff but nothing that really wows you. Baker got to the majors faster but has been a league average starter most of the time.

Kind of like his stuff and performance, I don't have much else *concrete* to report. He looked good, not great. The change looks like a plus pitch as 13 of the 16 swinging strikes were on the change.

Note: I just went and read WTM's D. McCutchen page for the first time, which basically says more concisely what I just wrote, but I'll leave it anyway. I wanted to know if McCutchen was throwing a curve or slider. Often, depending on where I sit, I'm not sure whether a guy is throwing a curve, slider or change, especially if their breaking stuff doesn't have severe downward movement. But sitting close today I was able to clearly make out the pitch types. Unfortunately, I noticed something else and I don't think it's good, but maybe someone can comment on it.

First of all, on his very first pitch, the guy I thought of was Wade Miller--throwing with a lot of arm, and across his body at that. I predicted surgery for Miller so much it became a running joke between a friend and me. I was finally right, but Miller had a few excellent years before it happened. We can only hope the same, at least, for McCutchen.

Second, I don't know if I can call it a "tell", but I was able to tell what he threw by watching his delivery. The change and fastball looked the same, though I could tell he slowed his arm down a bit. To a batter it may have been imperceptible as I was viewing from behind the dugout and it just may have been more obvious from that angle. But it looked to me like he really cut off his delivery on the curve. He doesn't seem to finish the pitch and stops his arm quickly. I've read that this is very bad for the arm.

This is a comment from another thread, but my thought on Andrew McCutchen is that he's underwhelming. He had a pretty bad game today, 1-4 with a walk. But the outs were two strikeouts and a GIDP with the game on the line. He smoked one ball in the three games I saw. A bullet off the wall in LF, but it bounced right to the LF and Cutch was thrown out at 2nd. He otherwise didn’t hit the ball with authority and had plenty of swings and misses. Six in the three games I saw, and he wasn’t facing any pitcher of note. Even his fielding wasn’t great. Twice he broke back on balls that landed in front of him, though both were day games for what that’s worth, though the sun never seemed to bother him.

For perspective on that headline, you might want to read at least some of this diary I wrote in June of 2006 when Tom Gorzelanny also struck 10 Red Wings.

Basically, he threw harder then, and harder more often.  I found my game chart from that 2006 game, and first of all, he threw 94mph twice even though in that diary I wrote that he topped out at 93.  But here are some contrasts, and you can make up your own mind about their meaning:

Pitches thrown
August 10, 2008 -- 90
June 14, 2006 -- 100

Pitches 90mph or faster:
2008 -- 9, topping out at 92.  90 total pitches thrown.
2006 -- 42, topping out at 94.  100 total pitches thrown.

Pitches 87-89mph
2008 -- 33
2006 -- 17

Pitches 84-86*
2008 -- 16
2006 -- 5

*Today, those were pretty clearly fastballs, 10 coming in the first two innings.  In 2006, 3 of the 5 were breaking balls.  In 2006 he sat at 91-92 and his offspeed stuff was 78-79, he was consistently in these ranges.  In 2008, he was 88-89 with his fastball, 80-82 with his breaking stuff.  In addition to the lost velocity, I don't think the narrowing of the gap between his pitch types is a good thing at all.

Still, the raw numbers would seem to say he was roughly equally dominant in both games.  Similar to the defense discussions going on about Nate McLouth, I have to rely on my eyes.  The gun could have been off either night.  Or it could be a different gun entirely.  In the interest of full disclosure, it only intermittently gave readings in the 8th inning.  But I believe in velocity and from my experience I trust the Frontier Field gun.

All I can say is he wowed me in 2006.  He just pounded fastballs at 92, 92, 92.  Today, 88, 89, and occasionally mixing in some Morrisesque 85's.  Maybe it was the expectation of (hopefully) seeing 2006 form again makes this just slightly disappointing.  Maybe it was the knowledge that he struggled this year, and that Tracy misused him (I hate the term abuse in this context, but feel free to use it), that did bias me as I kept looking at the pitch speeds.  Maybe it was just watching the game because there's also this:

2008 -- 5 hits, 4 OF flyouts.
2006 -- 2 hits, 2 outfield flyouts, one I wrote as "soft liner".

So all I can say is it felt different, and not in a good way.  The Pirates can use a guy who can pitch, but enthusiasm from last year's 14-win season probably ought to be tempered, at least for rest of this season.  I doubt he can rediscover top form this year.  Maybe with another offseason of rest.

I don't want to waste a lot of time on Marino Salas.  He was OK.  Strangely, he threw 93 warming up, but never topped 91 in the game.  And it wasn't a fluke.  When he entered the game and warmed up the first time, I was jacked.  He looked angry and he was bringing it.  Then a batter came up and he really looked like he backed off.  It was weird. After that warmup I was ready to see 95+ and I saw 91.  I should know this about Pirates bullpen guys -- when I expect more, I should expect less.

Finally, the player that has really stood out so far for me is Mr. Excitement.  I noted the other night his miscommunication with Andrew McCutchen (though Cutch was the CF).  He was also picked off that game, badly.  He was doubled off 2B Saturday night.  Today he lost a ball in the sun, I think.  It was a high fly that he was camped under and didn't even touch.  Strangely, this is marked as the 3-run "double on a fly ball to CF Andrew McCutchen" in the game recap.  Trust me, McCutchen was not involved at all in the play, but he picked the ball up so that's how it was scored.  And on a later adventure that Morgan caught, a guy a few rows back said, "That left fielder doesn't know what the hell he's doing."  Day game tomorrow too, Mr. E.

Wonder what John Russell thinks of Pearce's struggles at the plate? (emphasis mine of course):

"He needs to start making adjustments,'' Russell said. "He's always been a very aggressive hitter. [Opposing pitchers are] not giving him a lot of great pitches to hit and he needs to make adjustments to lay off those pitches.

"We've talked to him about that. It's a process. He's a very aggressive hitter. He loves to swing the bat. Sometimes that will hurt you more than help you because you try to do too much.

"He's got to start learning how to manage the strike zone, manage his at-bats, be a little more in control of what he's trying to do.

"You don't want to take away the aggressiveness. You want him to be aggressive but under control - put himself in a better position to be aggressive.

"We're all about aggressiveness. We're all about swinging the bat with a purpose. But it's more a situation of being in a position to be aggressive - to be in a position to see the ball well and put an aggressive swing on it. Right now he's not quite there. He's taking aggressive swings at too many pitches.''

 I guess he want's Pearce to channel his passiveness? Not sure. I don't speak manager-ese.

I watched Ross Ohlendorf lose to the Rochester Red Wings tonight and left intrigued, and hopeful, but not really impressed.  He threw serious gas, and wasn't wild, but he was pretty hittable.  It's esoteric and unprovable, but he looked, well, like he didn't know how to pitch.  Thrower, not a pitcher, that kind of look.

He threw 22 pitches in the first inning, 11 strikes, 11 balls, only one swing and miss.  But he was just getting warmed up.  I missed two of the velocities in the inning, but watching the pitches I can confidently say he didn't throw anything offspeed until the 14th pitch of the inning.  All the fastballs wouldn't be so bad, except he wasn't commanding it, and later showed a pretty good breaking ball, getting a bunch of swings and misses in the 2nd and 3rd innings.  His fastball went from 92 (once) to 96mph.  He gave up a bouncer up the middle for a single, and a sharp grounder to LF for a single.  After picking the runner off 2B, Garrett Jones smoked Ohly's first pitch, a 96mph fastball, toward first.  It broke Mike Cuddyer's foot.

In the 2nd inning Ohlendorf started really letting it fly, but that might not have been so smart.  Again I had him down for only two offspeed pitches out of 21 total.   His fastball went from 93 (once) to 99.  But check this sequence to 22 year-old Trevor Plouffe, the Twins' 1st round pick in 2004:

98 (ball), 96 (strike), 99 (strike), 97 (ball), 94 (foul), 96--double to the gap.  It looked to me like Plouffe had him timed.  He was just behind the next to last pitch, and was pretty clearly sitting dead red on the last, Plouffe drilled it. 

Ohlendorf gave up a single because Nyjer Morgan and Andrew McCutchen didn't communicate and let the ball drop between them when it looked like either could have taken it.  He ended the inning by (finally) throwing an 84mph curve to get Jason Pridie swinging.

Ohlendorf retired the side in the 3rd on 13 pitches, 10 strikes.  Like a message from the baseball Gods, six of the pitches were offspeed, and three of those were swings and misses.  One was a called strike, and the other two were put in play for a soft fly to left and a routine 4-3 grounder.  He dialed the fastball back down to 93-94 most of the inning, only once hitting 96.

In the 4th, he gave up two hits and got two strikeouts.  But again, it was his offspeed stuff that got batters out.  I had him for seven offspeed pitches in the inning, four of them called strikes, and another one swinging for a K.  He clearly can throw it for strikes.  Again, the fastball sat at 93-94 most of the inning, once hitting 97.  But again Plouffe doubled, and again it was drilled like he knew it was coming.  This one was only 93 so he had no trouble catching up to it.  And why wouldn't he?  Plouffe saw 9 pitches his first two AB, all fastballs.

Ohlendorf appeared to be tiring in the 5th, with his fastball sitting 91-92, and he threw mostly breaking balls.  He got into trouble with two singles to lead off the inning, but again was bailed out by bad baseball by the Wings.  By the way, one single was possibly because Mr. Excitement slipped to the ground and had to then let the ball drop in front of him.  It was a liner, but he lost all chance to make the play by spinning his wing tips out of the blocks.  With runners on 1st and 2nd, Serge Santos bunted the first pitch into the air in foul ground on the 3rd base side.  Neil Walker made a spectacular lay-out dive for the putout (seriously great play), and he easily doubled the runner off first who had gone all the way to second for some reason.  Garrett Jones then saw all offspeed--four pitches--but finally figured that out and lined a hard single to right to score a run.  He inexplicably went to 2nd on the throw, which was low and right to the cutoff man who wasn't more than 15 feet from first base.  A brief rundown and suddenly Ohlendorf was out of the inning in 11 pitches.  He really only retired only one batter in the inning.

In the 6th, I... well, look, I was at the game with two eight year-olds and a five year-old, and I needed a beer.  And the only decent beer at Frontier Field is Brooklyn Pennant, but you can only get it at the bar at the end of the LF stands.  We started out completely opposite that and I was lucky to see the inning as I strolled the walkway between the upper and lower stands on the way back to the RF knoll.  He was still throwing 93-94, and the inning ended with a drive to RCF that Matt Kata barely ran down at the wall, hit by, guess who? Trevor Plouffe.

Evan Meek looked pretty good (but...) in the 7th and 8th.  23 of 31 pitches were strikes, and his fastball sat mostly at 93-95 in the 7th, and 94-96 in the 8th, once also hitting 99.  But that was the weird thing about Meek when he was with Pittsburgh -- his fastball varied in speed a lot.  It would be nice if I thought he was doing it intentionally, or was mixing in a cutter, but the complete inconsistency in velocity makes me think he's just got mechanical issues still to work out.  Even here, he threw 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, and 99.  Nine different speeds in 25 fastballs.  And it wasn't something where he was just building up the velocity as he hit six of those speeds in his last 11 pitches.  He threw well though, he was behind only one batter and threw a pretty good breaking ball in the 78-82mph range.  Five of six offspeed pitches were strikes.  The only hit he gave up was a single that Garrett Jones was very late on but grounded it just fair inside 3B.

I'm hoping to go to at least two of the final three games, so I'm reluctant to say any more than this about McCutchen -- he didn't see more than a couple fastballs, and looked bad swinging over breaking balls, twice for Ks.

Walker didn't look lost or anything, but didn't seem very confident either.  Again, I want to get a few more looks.

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to note the Mr. Excitement hit the first pitch of the game just over the rail near the foul pole in RF for his first HR at any level this year. In the Olympic spirit I think it shouldn't count because it was wind-aided.

Tracy insisted on playing Duffy over McClouth not once but twice despite his holdout.  After watching McClouth play this year it is painfully obvious that he was the superior player.  Every ball he hits is hard and I truly believe he is the best hitter on the team and a future all-star, again.

Tracy insisted on playing Paulino and managed to allow him to self-destruct.  What was once a .300 hitter is now struggling in the minors.  What did Tracy do or not do to contribute to his demise?

Tracy/Colburn insisted on altering Duke's motion leading to the destruction of a promising career.  This pitcher has to have had something going for him to excell at every level (including MLB for a time).  Yet, something prodded Tracy to want to change his delivery...why?

I hesitate to blame Tracy for the acquisition of Morris but I have to believe that he had some input into his signing and would love to know the extent of it.

In summary, I believe this man may have been a more destructive force than Littlefield in the long run and it is obvious that the combination of the two of them has set our team back at least 5 years if not more.  Can we shoot Tracy and then send him to the Russian Front?