As the administration of this blog is in FanHuddle’s hands and not my own, I can’t go under the hood to fix the problem and instead have to wait on the development team to do it. If I post less frequently until then, please forgive me, as finding what specific lines of text so offend the FanHuddle servers is a tedious workaround that my schedule doesn’t always allow the time for.

According to the Post-Gazette, pitching prospects Colton Cain, Brett Lorin and Zach Fuesser will miss about half of the 2010 season with injuries.

Cain is one of the best pitching prospects in the system, and it’s a bummer to lose him. Thankfully, he was a high school draftee and is only 19 years old, so this won’t hurt his status too much in the long term.

Lorin was part of the trade that sent Jack Wilson to the Mariners, and he pitched very well in A-ball for both teams, posting combined numbers of an 8-5 record, 2.20 ERA, 1.04 WHIP,and 116 Ks to 35 BBs in 123 innings. He was likely slated to start the year in AA. Losing him for half the season could hurt more, as he was a college draftee and will be 23 years old at the end of the month.

Fuesser was selected in the 34th round by the Pirates last year, and has thrown only 14 innings for the team’s rookie level affiliate. He and I share a birthday, making him exactly one year younger than me. He will be 20 in July.

While I’m upset to see these players gone, in some ways Neal Huntington’s 2009 draft strategy is vindicated here. Many fans wanted to see Huntington draft a college pitcher – most pointing to Aaron Crow – in the first round. However, the team has a bad history of drafting college pitchers in the first round only to have them succumb to injury. Losing these players hurts, but at least we still have pitchers like Zack Von Rosenberg, Zackry Dodson, Jeff Inman and Trent Stevenson.

In my absence, the following things happened:

* Spring training games started. The Pirates got their revenge on the hated Manatees, and then promptly returned to mid-season form. They currently hold a record of 2-4-1 (yes, ties happen in spring training) in Grapefruit League play.

* Kevin Hart, apple of John Russell’s eye, has thrown like garbage thus far. His problems are the same as we saw last season: a complete lack of control and issuing lots of walks. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with pitchers in spring training, as usually they’re working on something that hinders their performance, but I have to imagine that control is at the top of Hart’s “to fix” list. So far, he hasn’t shown any progress.

* Nate McLouth had some trash to talk in regards to his former team. This has predictably caused an uproar in certain sections of the Pirates fanbase.

* Garrett Jones has only one hit and has struck out a lot so far, but he’s only had 11 ABs and his one hit was a 3-run homer, so that’ll surely be forgiven by the fan base for the time being.

* Andy LaRoche also only has one hit, and has also struck out a lot. HIs slash stats are identical to Jones’. His one hit was also a homer. He will not be forgiven by the fan base.

* Tony Sanchez has played in only two games thus far, but has impressed. He’s getting great marks on his defense, and threw out a runner trying to steal.He’s also homered. Consider me encouraged.

* Uber-prospect Pedro Alvarez has hit well so far. No homers, but strangely enough, two triples from a guy not known at all for speed. His bat has been encouraging. However, as with the minor leagues last year, his discipline has not been. Five strikeouts in only 14 at-bats so far – over 1/4 of the time. He’s only walked once. Still encouraged by Alvarez, but his lack of discipline is officially worrisome.

* Rule 5 pick John Raynor has swung the bat well so far, collecting five hits in his 11 ABs, including a double and a triple. Brandon Moss, presumably his main competition for the fifth outfield spot, has yet to collect a hit in10 ABs and has struck out 5 times. The writing is probably on the wall for Moss if this keeps up.

First, Joel Hanrahan’s MRI shows no structural damage in his elbow, which is encouraging news for the team. Hanrahan is expected to be a valuable back-end reliever, so you want to see him back in playing shape as soon as possible.

Lots of rumblings about Tony Sanchez as of late. Firstly, Baseball America has apparently shifted their view of Sanchez’s defense. Based on this podcast (found via Bucs Dugout), they’ve gone from seeing him as a reach to seeing him as one of the better first rounders in the draft. Most of the podcast is about the 2009 draft, and the relevant quote regarding Sanchez is “He’s a guy who rated much higher with scouts than we would’ve thought, maybe, on his defense. We thought his defense was good, but scouts were like no, it’s really good…If this guy hits, they’re going to have one of the best players in the draft, and it’s really hard to find a 70 defense catcher.”

“70 defense” is in regards to the scouting scale, which is 20 to 80. 20 would be the worst, 80 would be the best, and 50 is about average. Based on that, a score of 70 is very good. Baseball America had initially rated his defense as a 60.

Baseball America also interviewed Sanchez in their unfiltered section (no subscription required.) You can find the link here, and it’s worth your time.

There are a few things in there that can be used as jokes against the Pirates, notably Sanchez saying that he “can’t imagine hitting” pitchers like Zach Duke, Virgil Vazquez, et al. Of course, he has to say that. As a catcher, it’s probably not a good idea to say that guys you’ll likely be catching in a few years seem easily hittable. Regardless, hopefully he CAN see how you could hit somebody like that soon.

There’s also the fact that he mentioned doing catching drills with Ryan Doumit and having Erik Kratz working with him in the cages. Considering the reputations of these two catchers, one would expect their roles to be reversed.

Chuck Finder ran a piece in the Post-Gazette about Jose Tabata that’s worth reading. Among the issues addressed are the rumblings about his age, the scandal with his wife last year, and the added muscle mass he put on this year.

Bob Nutting and Frank Coonelly talked about their expectations for the 2010 season. For the most part, it’s standard rah-rah stuff, but Coonelly did use the word “dynasty,” which is sure to be the point of much discussion for the rest of the season.

Firstly, Joel Hanrahan will miss the start of the season due to a flexor-pronator strain. Biertempfel broke this news initially, and Jennifer Langosch followed up on it. Add in Pat’s follow-up at WHYGAVS, and there’s not much I can add but “bummer.”

Biertempfel is also reporting that the inside track as far as competition for the fifth starter’s job is going to Kevin Hart at the moment. John Russell makes it sound in the article like Hart has worked very hard during the offseason. Based on his performance from last year, I certainly hope so. I’ve read a few interviews and pieces regarding Hart, and I love his attitude and approach to the game. However, based on last season Daniel McCutchen is the better pitcher. Hopefully this improvement Hart has made is for real and not just Russel saying things that managers say.

Also mentioned in that piece is Neil Walker working out at second base. I mentioned in a previous post that I thought second would be a good fit for Walker, so I’m about as excited to see him there as I can get for a guy who’s quickly falling off the prospect map. I like Walker’s attitude of trying all the positions, but as I’ve mentioned before, he has to learn to hit AAA pitching before we can expect much from him. His problem is not defense, it’s a complete lack of patience at the plate. I ask the same question here that I’ve asked before: if Walker weren’t from the Pittsburgh area, would anyone still be talking about him as anything other than a failed prospect?

And the last piece of news, it sounds like most Pirates are already in camp. The names listed as not present are big ones, for a few reasons. Andrew McCutchen is the biggest star on the team at the moment, so his not being present will rub some people the wrong way. Lastings Milledge’s absence so far will also grate on some people, as the biggest knock on him coming in was a lack of work ethic. However, it should be noted that both of these players are position players and don’t have to be in camp yet. It’s not like they’re missing their report date.

What does disturb me to see is that Cedeno hasn’t yet reported. He’s a position player as well, but he’s in competition for a starting job this spring. One would think he would want to report to camp early to demonstrate how seriously he takes the competition from free agent signing Bobby Crosby.

Rob Biertempfel tweets that Neil Walker caught a pitching session from Zach Duke today. Walker was a catcher when drafted, and played there for a while in the minor leagues before switching to third base. However, Biertempfel insists in his blog post about the session that this does not mean we should expect to see Walker back behind the plate on a full-time basis.

As for my opinion, I don’t feel that moving back behind the plate is something Walker should do. His offensive numbers may look better there, but he was moved because his defense there was beyond terrible. In addition, having seen Walker play in AAA a number of times, I think he has the range to play second base.

At any rate, until Walker learns how to hit AAA pitching, it doesn’t really matter where he plays: his star will fade no matter what. For the moment, that’s what he should be concentrating on. He hits for decent power in AAA, but he has no plate discipline and doesn’t hit for average. My basic question about Walker is this: if he weren’t a local boy, would we care where he played, or would we only talk about him as another failed prospect drafted by Dave Littlefield?

1. First thing’s first, how many wins are you expecting from the Pirates in 2010?

2. Which prospect do you think can/will make the biggest impact if/when called up in 2010?

3. Which current player on the 25-man roster do you expect to improve the most in 2010?

4. Who do you expect to be the team’s closer at season’s end?

5. Who do you think will be traded by season’s end?

6. Of Baseball America’s top 10 Pirate prospects, who do you think is most likely to break out in 2010?

7. Of Baseball America’s top 10 Pirate prospects, who do you think is most likely to fall completely off the map by the end of 2010?

Until then, let these Pirates related links satiate you.

First, Brian at Raise The Jolly Roger has put together a fantastic Pirates Twitter directory. If you have a Twitter account, you should really take a look at this. It lists the Twitter pages of Pirates players, minor leaguers, beat writers, general information sources (such as the Pirate-specific post on MLB Trade Rumors and Rocco DeMaro, host of Extra Innings) and blogs. Even if  you don’t have a Twitter account, this is worth taking a look at if for no other reason than discovering some good Pirates blogs out there.

Charlie (with assistance from WTM) at Bucs Dugout details some very minor signings the Pirates made.

Pat at WHYGAVS asks an intriguing question: who’s more likely to break out, Lastings Milledge or Andy LaRoche? I voted for LaRoche, due to the way the question was phrased. I find it more likely that LaRoche will exceed the projections due to his late-season power surge and overall strong finish to the 2009 season.

However, I think Milledge is less likely to disappoint. I would be surprised if he didn’t perform up to his projections – which look pretty solid. I’m  even expecting more power from Milledge than the projections are showing. However, the projections really hate Andy LaRoche this year (with good reason, based on his Major League career thus far.) As such, I think it will be easier for him to dramatically out-perform the projections than for Milledge.

The guys at Baseball Professor, a fantasy baseball site, ask who should go first: BJ “Should’ve Been A Pirate” Upton or Andrew McCutchen. Keep in mind that this is for fantasy sports purposes, but it’s a great read whether you play or not.

I tend to agree with Bryan that McCutchen should be off the draft board first. This is partly because of the solid arguments he made, such as McCutchen’s consistency throughout his whole career, partly because I think McCutchen will mature to be a far better player than Upton ever will, partly because I’m a Pirates fan, and partly because I got burned by the “choose experience over a great rookie year” strategy when I chose LaDainian Tomlinson over Adrian Peterson for football with the first overall pick of my 2008 league.

All that said, I wouldn’t touch either of those players until at least the third round. Upton’s inconsistency is worrisome and even if McCutchen repeats last year’s success, he’s still not first round material (yet.)

The only surprising part of this move is that the offer was made in the first place. Nutting has stated repeatedly that the Pirates are not for sale, so that he rejected an unsolicited offer should surprise nobody.

Of course, Lemieux and Burkle say that the offer was solicited. If that’s the case, it would be news to almost everybody. I’m not saying that it’s impossible that Nutting asked for an offer, as it’s entirely possible that Nutting simply doesn’t want the public to know the team is for sale. I find that hard to believe, though.

What this really smells of to me is a PR move by Penguins ownership. The Penguins and especially Lemieux are already wildly popular in Pittsburgh, but the NHL has been struggling since the  lockout. It smells of “we just won a championship, we’ll offer to buy the city’s worst team to make it look like we care very strongly about Pittsburgh.”

If the offer is serious, Penguins ownership seems among the best of choices. While I’m not sure how well their hockey expertise would transfer to baseball, the Penguins themselves were definitely in dire straights (arguably in a worse place than the Pirates) when Lemieux and Burkle took over. Since then, they’ve installed the team’s GM Ray Shero, kept the team in Pittsburgh after it looked like they would have to move, and won a Stanley Cup championship. (Luck was a factor as well – winning the Sidney Crosby lottery certainly didn’t hurt.)

The biggest reason I see this as unlikely is that Nutting very recently became the majority owner of the team. After being a minority owner for a number of years, he bought a controlling stake – more than 2/3 of the ownership – in 2007. I doubt that he’d show that kind of interest if he didn’t want to keep the team.

1. There will be a new statue of Bill Mazeroski outside PNC Park. The pose is set to be him rounding second base after his walk-off homer in the 1960 World Series that won it for the Pirates in game seven. I’m happy for Maz, who has never let his love for the Pirates die.

2. Bob Smizik is a slimy jerk. Following the trend of Bucs Dugout and WHYGAVS, I’ll not do Smizik the courtesy of linking to the article in question.

Usually I ignore what Smizik has to say, and there was nothing special about this article itself that drew me out of the rabbit hole.

However, in the comments section of the blog, Smizik had the audacity to go after a commenter who happened to not agree with him and used things like “logic” and “math” and “the power of observation” to back up his point. All of this is apparently radically new to Smizik, who insinuated that this commenter must work for the Pirates.

The commenter was Mark In Dallas, who comments frequently on the PBC blog and many other Pirates related blogs, and has also commented here. He usually has quite insightful things to say about the Bucs, to the point that I wish he would start a blog himself. For Smizik to insult him like that shows his pea brained lack of professionalism.

3. Recently DFA’d relievers Steven Jackson and Anthony Claggett cleared waivers, and will report to the minor leagues. On one hand, this is good news because it means we get to keep them. On the other hand, it’s a bit surprising that nobody was interested in Jackson. I would have thought a trade could be worked out involving him.

4. It’s ranking time! MLB.com has ranked Pedro Alvarez as the 8th best prospect in baseball, Baseball America ranked the Pirates as the 16th best farm system in baseball, while Keith Law ranks them 18th (subscriber only link.) Meanwhile, Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA system has the Pirates projected to finish 2010 with a record of 70-92.

A few things to note:

First, the prospect rankings are probably about right, which sounds disturbing for most readers. However, one has to consider that the vast majority of the Pirates’ top talent is concentrated in the low minors right now. At the moment, only Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez, Brad Lincoln, Tim Alderson and a few others are at or above the AA level. For the most part, that’s where prospect rankings get the most weight, due to the unpredictable nature of young players at low levels. Next year, the ranking could be a lot higher even if only some of the high upside players in the low minors start to pan out.

Secondly, PECOTA doesn’t take into account things like luck, injury or trades. It’s possible that the Pirates will win less than 70 games in 2010, depending on if someone like Zach Duke or Paul Maholm is traded mid-season or if someone like Ryan Doumit is either traded or can’t stay healthy. It’s also possible for them to win more. PECOTA is a pretty darn accurate projection system, but it should be taken with a grain of salt as it holds all things constant.