With Mike Leake signing a five-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, the mid-tier starting pitching market is dwindling before the eyes of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, it may be time for the club to consider turning back around towards a Plan B of sorts. When the hot stove started heating up a few weeks ago, former Reds starting pitcher Mat Latos was pegged as one of the many "reclamation projects" that interested the Pittsburgh Pirates. The team had a better bead on Latos than most, ... Read More
Can Josh Bell be Pirates answer at first base?
The Pittsburgh Pirates have an abundance of questions at this point in the offseason. One of the biggest questions surrounding the organization revolves around the starting first base position at the major league level. With the departure of Pedro Alvarez, veteran Mike Morse and newly-acquired players Jake Goebbert and Jason Rogers are currently three candidates that could replace "El Toro" in 2016. However, one top prospect, and a possible answer at first base, has yet to arrive in the Steel ... Read More
Pittsburgh Pirates acquire LHP Kyle Lobstein for cash
Today the Pittsburgh Pirates announced via Twitter that they have acquired LHP Kyle Lobstein from the Detroit Tigers for cash considerations. Lobstein is a 26-year old left handed pitcher who has spent parts of the last two seasons with the Tigers. Lobstein has made 17 starts over that time as well as appeared in three games in a relief capacity. He has posted a 5.33 ERA over that span, with a 1.59 strikeout-to-walk ratio. At first glance, Lobstein's performance thus far can be considered ... Read More
Pirates sign 38-year-old Ryan Vogelsong
Today the Pittsburgh Pirates announced the signing of 38-year-old right handed starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong to a one-year deal. The former Bucco, from 2001-2006, has a career ERA of 4.45, 58 wins and 68 losses, in 165 career starts. Terms to this contract have yet to be confirmed. Last season the pitcher made $4 million starting for the San Francisco Giants. Vogelsong was originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the fifth round of the 1998 amateur draft. Debuting at age 23 against ... Read More
Pittsburgh Pirates acquire IF Jason Rogers from Brewers
The Pittsburgh Pirates dealt from a position of strength to fill a position of need in a trade consummated late Thursday night. The team announced the acquisition of Jason Rogers, first baseman with the Milwaukee Brewers, in exchange for outfielder Keon Broxton and starting pitching prospect Trey Supak. Rogers comes to the Pirates having had his first real taste of the majors last season. The 27-year-old appeared in 86 games for Milwaukee last season, collecting 169 plate appearances. In ... Read More
2016 ZiPS Projections see many surprises for Pittsburgh PIrates
Let's get meta for just a quick second. When you start writing about sports, and I'm talking specifically about baseball here, you quickly realize there is always someone smarter than you. One such person is Dan Szymborski, ESPN baseball analyst and creator of a proprietary projection system called 'ZiPS." Hosted over at Fangrahps, ZiPS takes into account many different factors when forecasting future playoff performance. Chief among them is prior performance set against comparable players ... Read More
Pirates set minor league coaching assignments for 2016
The Pittsburgh Pirates finalized coaching assignments for their farm teams for the upcoming 2016 season. Manager Dean Treanor returns for his sixth season at the helm of the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. The Indians are coming off a season in which they lost in the Governors' Cup championship to the Columbus Clippers. Treanor will be joined by Butch Wynegar at pitching coach and Stan Kyles will be directing the hitters for the Indians. Former major league All-Star Joey Cora will be ... Read More
Pittsburgh Pirates could not wait for Charlie Morton to find consistency
Mere moments before the team's annual fan convention was to begin, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded starting pitcher Charlie Morton to the Philadelphia Phillies. Ostensibly, this move was made to release Morton's $8 million salary to pursue other avenues of filling their remaining needs. The move came as a bit of surprise to many. It's fair to look to Morton as one of the pillars of the team's radical change in embracing defensive shifting. Earning the nickname of "Ground Chuck," Morton was ... Read More
Nicasio fits the mold of the Pirates next reclamation project
The Pittsburgh Pirates signing of Juan Nicasio may seem all too familiar to Pirates fans. Nicasio is a hard throwing reliever with a high strikeout rate. He’s had control issues in the past. He was acquired for next to nothing (one year, $3 million deal). Last season Arquimedes Caminero fit that mold. Before Caminero it was Mark Melancon – though Joel Hanrahan was decent return at the time. Before Melancon is was Jason Grilli. If there is one thing general manager Neal Huntington and ... Read More
Pirates trade Morton to Phillies
Charlie Morton will be opening the season on the other side of Pennsylvania as the Pittsburgh Pirates dealt the right-handed pitcher to the Philadelphia Phillies for minor league pitcher David Whitehead. In seven seasons with the Pirates, Morton battled injuries and inconsistency going 41-62 with a 4.39 ERA. The former 95th overall pick in the 2002 Major League Draft by the Atlanta Braves made his professional debut in 2008 for the Braves before coming to Pittsburgh in a trade that sent Nate ... Read More