Pirates Journal

The Pirates solidified their bullpen today when they re-signed Damasco Marte to a two year, $4.7 million deal.  Normally this would be a lot for a middle reliever but this year, getting anyone for less then $3 million a year is a bargain.

The Pirates picked up Marte in a trade with the White Sox last season and while he lost seven games, he struck out 63 batters in 58 1/3 innings.  Your classic power pitcher, Marte is the guy you want to have out there when you need a strikeout.  On top of all that, he’s left handed.  And he also has experience closing for what that’s worth.

So this is hardly going to put the Pirates over the top, but it’s a good quality signing.

It’s hard to believe that Pirates actually have a shot at winning a post season award but to get on the “This Year in Baseball” ballot doesn’t take too much.  Salomon Torres is going up against the likes of Joel Zumaya and Adam Wainwright for Setup Man of the Year while Mike Gonzalez has to best NL Cy Young runner up Trevor Hoffman as Closer of the Year.  You can vote for your favorites through December 8th.

Ed Eagle is taking a glass half full approach in this column about the Pirates.  While I agree the team has some things to be happy about, I don’t see them making a big splash in free agency nor do I see them snapping their losing streak.  At least not this year.

And here’s a solid column on how all of the Pirates prospects are doing in winter ball.  Jose Castillo has been playing well as has speedster Nyjer Morgan.

MLB.com beat writer Ed Eagle answered his mail yesterday about the Pirates. He touches on everything from the Pirates budget to the return of Aramis Ramirez and Shawn Chacon.  Good stuff as always.

Hi, my name is Mark Walker and I’ll be covering the Pittsburgh Pirates for the Baseball Historians network of sites.  I’ve been a life long Pirates fan and I’m fortunate to remember when times were better for Pirates fans.  I was eight years old when the Pirates last won a World Series (hard to believe it’s been almost 30 years) and while I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I remember cheering along with my dad as guys like Dave Parker, Willie Stargell and Bill Madlock led the Pirates to the promised land.

Things haven’t gone quite as well for Pirates fans lately. Since winning three straight division titles in the early 1990s, we’ve seen fourteen consecutive losing seasons.  Even worse, Pirates fans don’t have anyone to root for. Anytime a player develops, he’s gone in a deadline deal to save money.  We can only hope Jason Bay is still around when he’s eligible for free agency.  Fortunately, we might be getting a little addition by subtraction because I’m hoping we see new owners here soon.

What is this website going to be about?  First off, I’ll be following the present day Pirates.  The secondary goal is to provide readers with a little history lesson on a truly great franchise.  The Pirates have had one of the greatest players in all of baseball play for the team and they’ve had five World Series wins and nine pennants.  So when things are light on news (the hotstove doesn’t usually provide hot news for the Pirates), I’ll be taking a year by year look at the greatest shortstop to ever step on a baseball field.  Honus Wagner was picked by Bill James in his Historical Baseball Abstract as the second best player of all time next to only Babe Ruth.  Barry Bonds may have slipped in there somewhere but there’s no shame in being third.  Regardless, we’ll look at Wagner and maybe go back to the turn of the 20th century and take a look at some of the original Pirates teams.

So stop by from time to time and hopefully you’ll find something worth reading.  As always, if you like what you see (or don’t like what you see), leave a comment.  I don’t shy from constructive criticism.