Breathe in. Can you feel it? In one week, real live baseball will be here. We're going to be getting answers to all of our Pirate questions in seven short days, whether we like them or not. To kick your week off, here are two season preview posts I wrote at other sites: 

I did a fantasy-type preview for Razzball, which is honestly always one of my favorite Q&As to do every spring. 

I also did C70's "Playing Pepper" preview, which is a little more straight-forward and a little more doomy-and-gloomy. 

Season Preview Week at WHYGAVS starts in earnest at some point in the next 12 hours, just as soon as I remember what I was doing in lab before I left and find some time to write about the abject and horrific disaster that the Pirates' pitching staff is going to be this season. 

Two good bits of reading for this afternoon, should you be in want of such a thing. 

First up is DK’s piece for the Trib comparing the Pirates’ expenditures and incomes with the Brewers’ expenditures and incomes. While pretty much everyone everywhere else freaked out on Nutting when the Pirates’ records got released last year, DK was pretty even-headed and he was the only one, so far as I remember, that had an accountant actually, y’know, look at the books and try to parse the meaning out, so his take here is particularly interesting, I think. 

Just for fun, I also loved this Beyond the Boxscore piece about platoon defenders in-game to go with hitters’ strengths and weaknesses. Why do we keep Pedro Alvarez at third base and Neil Walker at second when a strong right-handed pull hitter is at the plate when Walker’s got a very strong defensive reputation as a third baseman? Not that anything’s ever going to happen along these lines, but it’s interesting to at least think about. 

I wish I had time for more, but I do have two links that I think everyone would be interested in this morning.

First up, Charlie Morton made his debut with Indianapolis last night. He tossed seven scoreless innings, striking out seven with just one walk and four hits. Either Ohlendorf, Karstens, or Snell is about to pitch themselves out of a rotation spot.

Kiley McDaniel, who’s covering Latin America, had this to say yesterday (subscription):

The Pirates have been said to think, like many talent evaluators, that Sano is the best Latin prospect in years; this is why it’s no secret that nearly every Latin insider thinks Pittsburgh will end up with Sano.

He uses the rest of the piece to break down the piece from the PG about the bonus money Sano may get and if you’ve got time and a BP subscription, it’s worth a read.