On Jan. 25, the day PirateFest opened at David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Bay publicly expressed disappointment that management had not done more -- five waiver claims and a minor free-agent signing -- to bolster a team that went 68-94 last season, saying, "I think that, for a championship-quality team, you need to make more moves. And I'm not talking about the .500 team we can be. I don't think anyone in this room is going to tell you we're a championship-quality team."

Pirates agree to terms with free-agent reliever Kim
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

BRADENTON, Fla. - The Pirates this morning reached agreement on a one-year, $850,000 contract with free-agent pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, pending a physical.

It is a major-league deal, one that could earn Kim an additional $1 million in performance bonuses.

Kim, a 29-year-old sidearm right-hander and native of South Korea, split last season between the Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins, going 10-8 with a 6.08 ERA in 28 appearances, including 22 starts. In 394 Major League Baseball appearances, including 87 starts, he is 54-60 with a 4.42 ERA.

The Pirates' plan is to use Kim exclusively in the bullpen, where his addition will reduce the number of vacancies this spring to three.

A space on the full 40-man roster will have to be cleared for Kim.

Also today, the Pirates had their first full-squad workout under manager John Russell, a three-hour session with a focus on infield drills and live batting practice. Earlier in the morning, general manager Neal Huntington and Russell addressed the players to let them know of their expectations.

"I think we're a complete ball club, and I told the players that," Russell said. "We're not so much the power-hitting team that's going to hit a bunch of home runs, but we can handle the bat, we can pitch, we can play defense. It's a matter of putting it all together. The pieces are here, and I think a lot of the guys are starting to believe that. That's a good first step for us."

Pirates sign Byung-Hyun Kim:

link

It saddens me to say this, but the Pirates are probably the most inept franchise in all of professional sports right now. It's really embarrassing.

BRADENTON, Fla. — Tom Gorzelanny's delayed spring debut was an encouraging one.

Gorzelanny pitched a scoreless inning Sunday in the Pirates' 7-5 loss to the Tampa Rays, four days after being scratched from a start because of shoulder soreness.

"I threw all my pitches and I felt good," said Gorzelanny, who led Pittsburgh's pitchers with 14 wins in 2007. "I threw some breaking balls, not necessarily all of them well, but it was important because they put a certain amount of strain on your arm but I threw them without feeling anything."

I've not been encouraged by his signings this off-season but Neal Huntington's introductory speech had to be promising for Buc fans, right?

"We are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We'll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) , WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), Runs Created, ERC (Component ERA), GB/FB (ground ball to fly ball ratio), K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts to walks ratio), BB%, etc., but we'll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP (value over replacement player), Relative Performance, EqAve (equivalent average), EqOBP (equivalent on base percentage), EqSLG (equivalent slugging percentage), BIP% (balls put into play percentage), wOBA (weighted on base average), Range Factor, PMR (probabilistic model of range) and Zone Rating."

Easily the worst team in baseball this year. Shocked if they don't lose a hundred.

I don't think they are worse than Baltimore. The Pirates pitched well sometimes last year, hit well sometimes last year, but never could do both well at the same time. I expect them to win 70 to 75 games this year, and if things break right, 80 games.

Woohoo, it's April 15th and the Buccos are over .500!!

When's the parade?

Woohoo, it's April 15th and the Buccos are over .500!!

When's the parade?

I don't know if this team can keep this up, but they are a scrapy team. Winning in whatever way possible and definitely not the pretty way. As a Pirate fan though I will take it any way it comes. Go Bucs!

Matt Morris is one of the worst free agent acquisitions the Pirates have ever made and that is saying a lot considering the many mistakes made by Pirate management over the years.

I will be shocked if he records a win this season as a starter. He gets rocked every time he goes out on the mound.

It's even worse than that. They actually gave up 2 players for the privilege of paying this guy $13.5 million.

It has the days of Derek Bell written all over it...

Operation Shutdown?

Matt Morris is one of the worst free agent acquisitions the Pirates have ever made and that is saying a lot considering the many mistakes made by Pirate management over the years.

I will be shocked if he records a win this season as a starter. He gets rocked every time he goes out on the mound.

Quote of the day from the nightly call-in show.

If you want Adam Laroche to start hitting, have Matt Morris pitch to him.

That's awesome.



It's time to blow up this team. Trade away anyone decent that won't be around 3 to 5 years from now. Bay, Sanchez, Nady, Jack Wilson (if anyone will take him), LaRoche after he starts hitting since April is almost over, etc. Keep the pitching, although it's been nothing special. Maybe even deal McClouth since McClutchen should come up eventually.

When Wilson gets back, this lineup will look good.

If the pitching can even be decent, this may be the year we win 81.

This is a very, very big IF and the reason why I see this team finishing the season their usual 20+ games below .500.

They will be better than that unless they have a big talent sell off.

The stats may not reflect it in a huge way, but I've been very impressed with the maturation of Dumatrait this season.

the fact that snell got the win and pitched OK against a bad team should help his confidence a little.