Jason Parks and Baseball Prospectus released their list of the top 101 prospects in baseball today, and the Pirates placed seven prospects on the list: Jameson Taillon (19), Gregory Polanco (24), Tyler Glasnow (42), Reese McGuire (59), Josh Bell (77), Nick Kingham (80), and Austin Meadows (89). Sky Kalkman's been doing some quick analysis of […]

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick talked to Frank Coonelly about AJ Burnett today and Coonelly said what I think a lot of us have been suspecting for a while; the Pirates don't expect AJ Burnett to return to them in 2014, though it sounds to me like they honestly have no idea exactly what his plans are. […]

The fun part about the annual release of the different pre-season projections is that within a week of the numbers coming out, there are all kinds of interesting articles to read discussing the projections and you can start to get an idea of how the coming season might shake out.  Since the ZiPS projections came […]

Here are the numbers (they're all one-year deals):  Neil Walker – $5.75 million Pedro Alvarez – $4.25 million Mark Melancon – $2.6 million Gaby Sanchez – $2.3 million Vin Mazzaro – $950,000 This is all more or less within the range of expected values, with Walker getting a bit more money than expected and Melancon […]

For years and years, one of my most depressing mid-winter rituals was to get really excited on the day that Dan Szymborski would release the Pirates' ZiPS projections, click the link, and then get really, really sad about the Pirates' prospects for the upcoming season. Today, FanGraphs has this year's ZiPS projections for the Pirates this […]

The Pirates will not go to arbitration with Travis Snider because late last night he signed a one-year deal with the club for $1.2 million. There are still five arbitration eligible players left and they happen to be the five most interestesting Pirates out of the six that filed for arbitration this week, but I suppose […]

Six Pirates (Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker, Gaby Sanchez, Mark Melancon, Vin Mazzaro, and Travis Snider) filed for aribtration last night, which was something that was completely expected but is also what passes for Pirate news in the middle of January. The Pirates tendered all six players with contract offers in December and they haven't agreed […]

This is a day late and I have a little bit more planned for next week along these lines, but Ray Searage told 93.7 yesterday that while he's not completely certain of AJ Burnett's status for 2014, he's preparing for the season as if he's not going to have Burnett available to him. This is […]

The very second that the Pirates were eliminated from the NLDS by the Cardinals this was a true statement about the Pirates' outlook for 2014: If the Pirates are going to be better in 2014 than they were in 2013, it'll be because they get a full season of Gerrit Cole, because of Starling Marte's […]

Pirates announce 4 time changes to 2014 sked to accommodate national TV. First Sunday night ESPN telecast in PNC Park history: May 11 vs.StL — Travis Sawchik (@Sawchik_Trib)

Sorry I've been away from the blog for so long; you don't want to read a list of excuses, so let's just say that I've got a lot on my plate right now and there just isn't much that's happened to the Pirates this winter, as we'll discuss below. Now that spring training is getting […]

Buster Olney with the news:  James Loney is on the verge of an agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays; a multi-year deal. — Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN)

Buster Olney is reporting today that the Pirates will bring Clint Barmes back for $2 million in 2014:  Clint Barmes's contract with Pittsburgh: 1-year deal for $2 million. — Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN)

The Rule 5 draft was this morning and in one of the more surprising and weird Rule 5 picks in a while, they lost left-handed pitcher Wei-Chung Wang to the Brewers. This whole thing is just bizarre, so let's start with the basics: Wang will be 22 in April, he's from Taiwan, and he's pitched […]

If you were wondering who the Pirates' "project" pitcher for 2014 was going to be, wonder no more:  Sources:

With the Charlie Morton news out of the way, there's not much new going on in terms of actual player acquisition for the Pirates today. We learned this morning from Travis Sawchik that

With the Charlie Morton news out of the way, there's not much new going on in terms of actual player acquisition for the Pirates today. We learned this morning from Travis Sawchik that

The Pirates made some news at the winter meetings today by signing Charlie Morton to a three-year contract extension with an option for a fourth year. According to Jeff Passan, who first reported the deal, it's worth $4 million in 2014 and $8 million a year in 2015 and 2016. The option is a team […]

After emerging from my grading cocoon late yesterday afternoon, I was going to sit down and write up a post about everything that transpired from the Pirates' perspective on Tuesday of this year's winter meetings. The thing is, not much has happened yet.  On Wednesday morning, we stand pretty much in the same place that […]