January Update

It's been a bit of a whirlwind offseason, as Neal's been stocking the talent pool for 2010 and beyond. From where this team was when I started this endeavor in April of '08 to where it is now in January of '10 is pretty astounding. I don't have the same gut wrenching feelings as the lifelong diehards would when they see a former rookie of the year like Jason, a dirtdog like Nate, a batting champion like Freddy or a stalwart like Jack dismissed so casually in their view. So in my eyes, the purge of the last 2 years just looks like a good business model for building a team from the ground up essentially. And this offseason has been a continuation of the previous years good work. On the pitching side, gone for good are the bullpen arms of Bootcheck, Chavez, Dumatrait, Capps, and probably Jackson. Most likely not making the team out of Bradenton are Hacker, Vasquez and Karstens, but Yates might be back in the mid summer. A lot of turnover I know, but Neal is going to have a good bullpen once all these names get sorted out. Hanrahan, Meek and Veal are virtual locks. The major league contracts of Donnelly, Jakubauskas, and Lopez should make it. Then a couple of the minor league contract wildcards of Ledezma, Cotts, Bass and Carrasco will be in. A much improved bullpen for sure. If Hanrahan (or maybe Meek) can settle in at closer, look out. The rotation hinges on several achievable if's. If Maholm can pitch like '08. If Duke can earn his big raise. If Ohlendorf is for real. If Morton puts it together. If all these things happen, the Pirates are a much improved team without question. The 5 spot is just that. A spot. Every fifth day, you should expect to try and win 10-9. No big deal. Hart, McCutchen or darkhorse Carrasco will do fine in that role. Sounds promising ... The lineup is looking much stronger as well. Church replaces Moss. Iwamura replaces Young. Crosby and Cedeno fight it out for the starting job, hitting 8th. Clement gets his shot at first base, but has a short leash with Jones and Church available most every day. Assuming Milledge and McCutchen continue to mature together both at the plate and in the outfield, Jones can at least play to 80% of last year's level, Doumit can stay moderately healthy and Laroche can prove late last season wasn't a fluke, then this lineup could at least be league average. More reasons for optimism ... And then there's the pretty likely chances at seeing both Lincoln and Alvarez this summer in the bigs. I still think Tabata stays down another year, to try and try to develop more power, but he could arrive too. Maybe (probably) I'm just drinking the koolaid, but I like the direction right now. It's not unrealistic to think that this team could improve by at least 10 games in '10. If everything clicks (because the glass should always be half full in baseball), then 20. 20 in '10, contend in '11. Hmm, I like the sound of that ...