News is a bit hard to come by in the earliest days of spring training, but Wandy Rodriguez threw what seems like it was a successful bullpen session today and had some encouraging things to say about it. Pirates Prospects has video of Wandy's session and some quotes, so you should head over there to check it out.
With AJ Burnett officially a Phillie, Rodriguez's health is suddenly awfully important to the Pirates. If they can count on Wandy to even make 20 starts and throw 125 innings, those are all innings that don't have to go to an unproven (or worse) quantity. Trying to figure out the nature of his injury last year was a frustrating thing for both the fans and the team, I think; it took from the point of his injury in June until almost the end of the year to diagnose the injury as arthritis, and even that carried a bit of uncertainty with it.
All of that being said, the Pirates seemed relatively upbeat about the athrtitis diagnosis when it came at the end of the year. It meant no surgery and left at least a chance that Rodriguez would be healthy after a winter of rest. We're obviously a long ways away from determining that, but this is a nice first step.
