Pirates Journal

John Sickels put out his top twenty Pirates prospects list and like the Kevin Goldstein list, Sickels gives some nice ratings to some Pirates farmhands.  Topping the list is RHP Gerrit Cole again.  This kid is a stud and it’ll be fun to see him move up the chain.  Number two is Jameson Taillon.  Given an A-, Taillon is working on his other pitches as he moves up the ladder but he should also be fun to watch.

Rounding out the top five are Josh Bell (OF), Starling Marte (OF) and Robbie Grossman (OF).  Grossman showed a lot next year but Bell is the best overall talent of the position players.

Kevin Goldstein recently penned his list of the top eleven Pirates prospects and this team definitely has some talent in the pipeline.  He does a star rating and the Pirates have four five star prospects.  Topping the list is right handed pitcher Gerrit Cole.  The team’s first round pick this past year, Cole signed to late to play but he’s described as a typical college power pitcher.  Goldstein projects him to start in the Florida State League but with his college experience, he’ll most likely be on the fast track.

Number two is another picher, Jameson Taillon.  The team’s first round pick in 2010 he had a solid debut at the Single A level.  Next stop is High A but this kid should move up the chain pretty quickly.  Luis Heredia is number three but he’s several years away but he had a nice showing as a 17 year old in the Rookie League.  Josh Bell (OF) and Starling Marte (OF) round out the top with Marte being the closest to making his major league debut.

The Pirates pulled the trigger on a trade as they traded setup man Jose Veras to the Milwaukee Brewers for third baseman Casey McGehee.  After the Brewers picked up Aramis Ramirez, McGehee was expendable and he could be an interesting haul.  He had a career year in 2010 but in 2010 he hit just .223.

Where McGehee plays will depend on how Pedro Alvarez is doing.  He’s been named the starter at third and if he shines, then McGehee will probably play first base or at one of the corner outfield spots.  At one time, he also played second base for the Brewers so he could fill in there as well.

The Pirates got some solid production from Jason Grilli last year after he joined the team mid-stream in 2011 and they resigned him to a one year deal.  He’ll be paid $1.1 million and by the end of the year, he was being used as the team’s set up man.  He struck out 37 in 32 2/3 innings with a 2.48 ERA.

I like the move because it’s low cost and you can’t go wrong with these little one year deals.  There’s a pretty good chance that Grilli reprises his role as the set-up in 2012 with Jose Veras being gone.  Evan Meek is another option but he had a tough time last year.

The Pirates signed Nick Evans to a minor league deal and he’ll get a chance to compete for the first base job come spring training.  Evans was a fifth round pick by the Mets way back in 2004 and he’s been with the Met’s organization ever since until they cut him loose.  He’s pretty much split time between MLB and the minors the past four seasons and in 2011, he got into a career best 59 games.  His numbers aren’t anything to write home about, but then again, he hasn’t gotten much of a chance to play consistently for a big league club.

He did put up solid numbers at Triple A last year so that’s probably why the Pirates are taking a chance on him. He hit .313 with eight home runs in 64 games.  It looks the Pirates are still going to try to fill the hole at first, but if they don’t then Evans is going to be given the chance to be the backup plan.

Here’s the list of the Top Ten Pirates prospects as determined by Baseball America.

1)  Gerrit Cole  RHP
2)  Jameson Taillon  RHP
3)  Josh Bell  OF
4)  Starling Marte  OF
5)  Luis Heredia  RHP
6)  Kyle McPherson  RHP
7)  Tony Sanchez  C
8)  Robbie Grossman
9)  Stetson Allie  RHP
10)  Jeff Locke  LHP

With Ronny Cedeno on his way out, the Pirates had a hold at shortstop.  Now that hole has been filled because the Pirates signed Clint Barmes to a two year deal.  They’ll pay him $5 million in 2012 and $5.5 million in 2013.  They decided not to exercise Cedeno’s $3 million option and with the money they’re given Barmes, they must have thought they got an upgrade.

Barmes was probably the best guy at shortstop after the two blue chips, Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins.    Still, the Pirates may have overpaid on this one.  He has a career .252 batting average although he has shown some pop.  Of course the pop came while with the Colorado Rockies.  Last year he struggled with Houston but his career OPS is just .703.  2010 was a bad year too and you have to go back to the best season of his career, 2009, to get a little optimistic here.

Earlier in the month, we looked at one of the great Pirates wins.  This time, Baseball’s Greatest Games explores one of the Pirates tougher losses.  Yes, there was a time when the Pirates won three straight division titles and their toughest playoff lost was their last playoff game way back in 1992.  That year, the Braves and Pirates squared off in a best of seven series where the Braves jumped out to a 3-1 lead only to have the Pirates storm back and tie it three games to three.  Then in a pivotal game seven, the drama happened.

The Pirates jumped out to an early one nothing lead while Doug Drabek was throwing a gem.  After eight and a half innings, the Pirates had a 2-0 lead before the Braves rallied to win it in the ninth in dramatic fashion.  Definitely one for the ages and while it was tough Pirates loss, it was definitely one of Baseball Greatest Games.

Another year, another losing season for the Pirates.  That’s why I picked up this brand new DVD from A&E’s Baseball’s Greatest Games.  Things weren’t always that bad and in 1960, the Pirates made an impressive run and went head to head against the Bronx Bombers in the World Series.  Despite being outscored 46-17 in the first six games, the Pirates found themselves in a winner take all game seven in Pittsburgh.

Then the craziness began.  The Pirates went up by four early but the Yankees then scored seven unanswered runs.  In the bottom of the eighth, the Pirates took the lead back with five, then gave up two in the ninth as the Yankees tied the game.  Then what was the first walk off home run to end a World Series (at the time, Joe Carter did it later) by Bill Mazerowski happened.

So if you’re sick of watching Pirates reruns in the first half when they were in first place, you should pick this up and pop in the DVD player.  Plus out of all the games, this is the oldest so it’s cool watching something from over 50 years ago.

As fun as the first half of the season was for Pirates fans, the second half has been….not as fun.  With a record of nine games below .500, the Pirates would need an impressive September to finish with a winning for the first time in forever.  On a good note, they’re six losses ahead of the Cubs so their chances of falling further are pretty slim.

Yesterday’s loss was a microcosm of their second half.  They came back from three runs down to take an early lead then were shut down for the final seven innings in a 7-4 loss to the Cardinals.  Jeff Karstens is now at 9-8 and he didn’t finish the fourth.  His solid ERA is still in place but he’s been pitching above his head for quite some time.

Josh Harrison had a pair of hits and he scored a run.  He was the only Pirate with two hits.

Next up is Houston.  Let’s see how the Pirates can do against the worst team in baseball.  Wandy Rodriguez throws for the Astros while Ross Ohlendorf pitches for the Pirates.