I think that this may be the longest posting hiatus in WHYGAVS history, so let’s run over what’s gone down in the last few days to get caught up. It’s not a whole lot mind you, but definitely a few things at least worth mentioning.
The only thing the Pirates have really done in the last week or so is sign Anderson Hernandez. This really isn’t worth mentioning because Hernandez isn’t that good, except that he’s another ex-Met that really doesn’t seem to be very good that the Pirates have signed this winter and now this number is getting weirdly high.
Jen Langosch is leaving the Pirates’ beat to cover the Cardinals. When she took the Pirates’ job a few years ago, I wasn’t expecting much because the writers who had the job before her amounted to little more than official Dave Littlefield mouthpieces, but I thought that she both did a good job and continuously got better at it. Congrats to her for the new gig. Hopefully her replacement will be able to walk the “official team website” tightrope that MLB.com writers have to walk as well as she did.
Speaking of the Cardinals, they signed Carlos Beltran to a two-year deal shortly before Christmas. Between him and Adam Wainwright’s return, I think it’s officially time for Pirate fans to stop saying that the loss of Pujols opens a door of opportunity for the Pirates, because the Cardinals are going to be very, very good next year.
Based on his conversation with Frank Coonelly at Piratefest, Charlie writes that the new draft rules probably won’t hurt the Pirates quite as much as we think, especially in the immediate future when the club has two or three first round picks.
