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Graphical Player 2009

By Matt Bandi | December 2, 2008 | Pittsburgh Lumber Co.

GP09 - John Burnson

Please allow me to make a quick plug today. Whether you are a fantasy baseball GM, a general fan of the game or some combination of the two, I encourage you to consider purchasing Graphical Player 2009. This helpful reference was released yesterday, and is focused on visual player profiles. Historical statistics and 2009 forecasts for over 900 players are presented in graphical form. The book also includes additional information, such as brief notes for each player. I had the opportunity to provide the comments for players in the Pirate organization. Many thanks to John Burnson and his associates for all of their hard work on this book. Take a look and see if GP09 interests you....

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Pirates Pull Off Sick Indian Burn

By Nicolas A. Lewis | December 2, 2008 | Pirate Revolution

Masumi Kuwata - Angel_Blue/Flickr.com

Last week, Neal Huntington (heretofore known to Pirate Revolution regulars as "Che") made what has to be considered a pretty bold move. He made his first two signings of the 2009 preseason in the form of Indian wunderkinds Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. The two young phenoms were part of a "Million Dollar Arm" contest in their home country of India, a contest open to 16- to 21-year-old males to see who could throw the hardest while also throwing strikes. Singh won the contest and Patel placed second, earning them both a trip to the U.S. to work with a nationally renowned pitching coach, and then a Major League contract with your very own Pirates. The first and obvious positive from this situation is what it says about Huntington and his staff. The signing of two young and very raw pitchers is exactly the kind of very high-risk, high-reward...

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Links: December 1, 2008

By Cory Humes | December 1, 2008 | Pirate Revolution

David Golebiewski (formerly of MVN's Pittsburgh Lumber Co.) put two Pirates under the microscope at RotoGraphs, FanGraphs.com's fantasy baseball wing:When Healthy, Doumit DominatesGorzelanny's Gruesome SeasonAt Baseball Analysts, Marc Hulet follows up on his review of pitchers available in the Rule 5 draft with a look at the top hitters exposed. Jamie Romak is named as a risk-reward outfielder, and several candidates the Pirates' blogosphere mentioned as potential selections are revisited.Baseball America's John Manuel ranked the top 20 prospects playing in Hawaii Winter Baseball. The Pirates' Kyle Bloom came in at No. 19. Bloom "was among the oldest U.S. players in HWB" and is exposed to next week's Rule 5 draft. Kyle Drabek, son of former Pirate ace Doug Drabek, was ranked as the fifth best prospect. Additional scouting reports are available behind the subscription wall, too.Earlier at Pirate Revolution:Huntington Should Shop for Rule 5 Bargains....

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Huntington Should Shop for Rule 5 Bargains

By Cory Humes | December 1, 2008 | Pirate Revolution

Kei Igawa - Larry Coor/Flickr.com

Che Huntington has proven interested in (and capable of evaluating) bargain-priced talent. Last winter, his first on the job, Huntington added to the Pirates' depth chart Phil Dumatrait, a former No. 1 draft pick of the Boston Red Sox off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds; Jimmy Barthmaier, a top prospect in the Houston Astros' system waived after a dysmal season; and Evan Meek, a young reliever with "stuff" exposed to the Rule 5 draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.Dumatrait, a left-handed starting pitcher, finished 2008 with a 5.26 ERA in 78.2 innings (21 games, 11 starts). He threw especially well in the early going, posting a 3.92 ERA in 10 April contests while pitching in long relief and a 3.27 ERA in six May starts. Dumatrait's stats ballooned in June and July but could have been negatively affected by injury, as he was shut down mid-season with bursitis in his...

Read more | 5 Comments | Tags: A's, Indians, MLB, Pirates, Rays, Tigers, Yankees

Welcome to Pirate Revolution

By Pirate Revolution | December 1, 2008 | Pirate Revolution

Cory Humes (A New Pirates Generation and Pittsburgh Lumber Co.), Nicolas A. Lewis ("82") and Alan Smodic (Bucco Wire) blogged about the Littlefield-era Pittsburgh Pirates teams before those efforts gave way to less painful endeavors.We're back at it in time for the second year of Neal Huntington's term as general manager. We believe that better days lie ahead, and we're prepared to chronicle the team's journey back to playing meaningful baseball games. Pirate Revolution is a blog affiliated with Most Valuable Network. Be sure to check out Pittsburgh Lumber Co. and Sandlot Swashbucklers, two more Pirates blogs posting on MVN. Learn more about Pirate Revolution's authors at our Revolutionaries page.Read our Manifesto that contains not only the blog's vision, but also brief background information on MVN that will help you make the most of Pirate Revolution's features....

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Some Hitting, Some Bunting

By Nancy | December 1, 2008 | Sandlot Swashbucklers

Sunday's winter league games, and Pirates' farmhands and friendsDominican League:Leones del Escogido 4, Tigres del Licey 1Licey was held to only 5 hits, and their only run was a homer by Indy-area native DH Jake Fox (Cubs). C Ronny Paulino went 0-for-2. He walked to lead off the 2nd inning, and went to second base on LF Timo Perez's (Tigers/Mud Hens) single, but the inning ended with a double play. Gigantes del Cibao 10, Aguilas Cibaenas 8Juan Perez faced one batter and got one out to end the 7th inning for Cibao. Franquelis Osoria pitched to two batters for Los Aguilas, giving up a walk and an RBI single in the top of the 9th, though that run was just for insurance. Venezuelan League:Leones del Caracas 5, Navegantes de Magallanes 43B Jesus Guzman's (A's) walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the 10th gave the win to Caracas. C Carlos Maldonado...

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Can They Play?

By Nancy | November 30, 2008 | Sandlot Swashbucklers

Thinking about players, or potential players who come from places outside the US -- Mpho Gift Ngoepe from South Africa, and Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel from India -- today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the first installment of Dejan Kovacevic's report from the Pirates' Domincan Academy. At the end, Pirates' Latin American Scouting Director Rene Gayo talks about some of the reasons that players who sign don't make it to the big leagues -- not just because they find they can't hit the curve ball, or can't throw the change-up well enough. Everything Gayo says about the Dominican prospects is of course true of prospects from anywhere.The question comes up: is it for real? Are the Pirates looking at Indian players or South African players in a serious search for talent -- or is it a gimmick? I think it's real -- that the Pirates (or other teams) do seriously hope...

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Singh and Patel Radio Interview; Caribbean Pitching

By Nancy | November 29, 2008 | Sandlot Swashbucklers

Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel talk about coming to the US and signing with the Pirates at:blogtalk radio.Turn up your volume and listen carefully. Their English isn't bad, but their accents are still difficult if you aren't used to hearing it. The people doing the interviewing didn't understand all they were saying either. JB Bernstein says that there was a third pitcher who was also very good, but he had more trouble getting a passport, so he'll come next year. Both Singh and Patel were training as javelin throwers at a local sports academy, but would have joined the army if they had not won this contest, as a way to earn money (military service is not mandatory in India). They had no experience (Dinesh), or the barest experience (Rinku), playing cricket in India. Dinesh's favorite American foods are pizza and pecan pie. Rinku likes to cook, especially banana pancakes,...

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In search of Dodgers fans (a case for Joe Beimel?)

By Alan Smodic | November 19, 2008 | MVN Outsider

Joe Beimel shows off his tattoo - Malingering/flickr.com

...because I need your help on this one. I, like mostly anyone else who will be reading this, go through the news each day and like to sort through the "hot stove" reports that every media outlet has. Today, I ran across this little bit that caught me by surprise. It's a report written by Jason Beck, who covers the Detroit Tigers at MLB.com. In it, the agent for left-handed reliever Joe Beimel claims that at least six different teams have interest in the journeyman pitcher. "Across the board, things are starting to pick up some," agent Joe Sroba said Wednesday. "That's to be expected [after the signings]."Sroba estimated that at least a half-dozen teams have had talks with him on Beimel, including the Tigers. He would not confirm whether he has received an offer from any, nor would he speculate whether Beimel could sign soon. Still, it was clear...Read more

Read more | 5 Comments | Tags: Detroit Tigers, Joe Beimel, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB, Pittsburgh Pirates

Do the Lightning Have a Clue?

By Nicolas A. Lewis | November 16, 2008 | MVN Outsider

The Tampa Bay Lightning fired head coach Barry Melrose over the weekend after the team got off to a 5-7-4 start. Ideally, the gist of the move is to stop the bleeding before the season gets too far along and there's no time to turn it around, but I'm here to tell you that it was a meaningless move. THis team is dead in the water less than a quarter of the way into the season. This was a very strange offseason for Tampa Bay. For a long time, their team was Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, and 18-20 completely expendable and replaceable scrubs. Add in a complete lack of a dependable goaltender, and you have a team that struggled out of the gate last season as well, going 5-8-1 through their first 14 games. They went on to not see .500 after December 11th in a mess...Read more

Read more | 1 Comment | Tags: Barry Melrose, Martin St. Louis, NHL, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vincent Lecavalier

Looking back on 2008 -- Pittsburgh Pirates

By Alan Smodic | November 1, 2008 | MVN Outsider

This is the first in a series of looking back on all MLB teams and their respective 2008 seasons. In this series, I will be reaching outside of MVN's network of coverage to provide a different view from a blogger of that team. First up is Charlie, who covers the Pittsburgh Pirates at Bucs Dugout.Alan: As a pretty educated follower of the Buccos, what were the realistic expectations for the 2008 season? Were you one of the optimistic bunch thinking .500 could be reached or did you keep the bar lowered?Charlie: I wrote in March that they might well win 67 games, and that's exactly what happened. That didn't take any real clairvoyance on my part; the Pirates have now won 67 or 68 games in each of the past four seasons.Alan: What went wrong, right for the Pirates in either meeting or falling short of any particular person's expectations?Charlie:...Read more

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