The prospect stuff is taking on a life of its own and may end up with its own heading at the top of the page. Just sayin’. Here are some links for today:

Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times counts down the ten greatest moments in recent Pirate history. Besides the ommission of the Mackowiak double-header, it’s a good list.

The Lynchburg Hillcats are in the Carolina League finals and up 1-0 on Salem in the best-of-five series. Tim at BuccoFans, who lives in the Lynchburg area, is absolutely killing it with his coverage of this. He’s got a bunch of interviews with the players (Tony Sanchez and Rudy Owens are the two most recent) has been at several of their playoff games to get some video coverage, so head over to his site and just click around for a bit.

This is interesting. When the Pirates were selling the farm two months ago, Doug Mientkiewicz was popping off on his Twitter feed about how Pirate fans “deserved better.” He also engaged Brian, the author of Raise the Jolly Roger, in a discussion about the trades. And what does he tell the Post-Gazette today? That the Pirates have a plan and that the fans should give this front office a chance. Now maybe one thing has little to do with the other, or maybe PIRATE BLOGGERS WILL SOMEDAY CONQUER THE WORLD!!! Personally, I’m rooting for the second one.

Every once in a while, I find a blog that I really like and I completely forget about it or I forget to share the link here and when I remember that I’ve forgotten, I feel quite bad about it. Cardboard Gods is one of those blogs, where you can literally spend hours lost in posts. The reason I’ve suddenly remembered to share it is the current top post there is an awesome piece about Andy Van Slyke and the Pirates that links back here and showed up in my referrals. Josh says some very kind words about this blog and I thank him for that, but that isn’t why I’m linking. Paragraphs like this are:

If you say Pittsburgh Pirates to me I think of a raucous party, Sister Sledge blaring, free-swinging sluggers Al-Olivering line-drive doubles into the gap and speedsters Omar-Morenoing around third and sliding into home safely in a cloud of glittering, vaguely illicit dust, the giddy treble of the disco in the Pirates’ fearsome game supported by the rock-solid morally upright thumping bass of slugging elder statesman Roberto Clemente on one end of the decade and slugging elder statesman Willie Stargell on the other.

Awesome stuff.

DK believes a salary cap is coming. I am bit skeptical. Prez at FanHouse is skeptical of John Henry’s motives behind asking for a cap.

Sean’s Ramblings has started a Pittsburgh Sports Blog tournament. There are some awesome blogs that he’s put into the tournament that you might not know about and should check out. And Sean put a lot of work into making something fun to kick around during the down time before March Madness and the baseball season. And yes, I’m a #3 seed, so vote for me and feed my constant need for internet-based validation.

If you haven’t read all the details yet, Frank Coonelly was apparently quite determined not to go to arbitration with Nate McLouth.

Not baseball related, but I’ve looked all over the place and I’m fairly certain that this isn’t an Onion article.

I wrote a piece for FanHouse about Jose Canseco’s role in the steroid era.

The Rafael Furcal deal isn’t done yet. Does anyone remember a time when so many rumors of “done” deals came out, only to be completely wrong? This signing, the Jermaine Dye trade, and the Jack Wilson trade make three in the past two weeks.

Regardless of how the Furcal sweepstakes pan out, Dejan reports it’s looking less likely that Jack Wilson will be traded.

Chris Bootcheck is now a Pirate. And we just got rid of John Van Benschoten! Joe Kerrigan’s list of “projects” this spring is going to be incredibly long (Bootcheck’s stats here). Bones shares some fun information about Bootcheck. UPDATE: The PG is now saying that no deal is in place with Bootcheck. Personally, I just like typing “Bootcheck.”

Winter ball stats update!

• Jose Tabata is hitting well enough in Venezuela, but with precious little power (just seven of his 36 hits are for extra bases).
• Robinzon Diaz has an OPS of below .500 for two teams in the Dominican.

That’s all, for now.