Day 8 of Pirates spring training: news and notes

• Scott Olsen is showing promising sings on his left hamstring strain. He threw long toss on Monday and didn’t have any discomfort during the session.

“We’re still working through Scott on a daily basis, and we’ll let you know in a couple days where he is,” general manager Neal Huntington said, when asked about how Olsen is progressing.

Olsen’s injury impacts Charlie Morton, who is now the favored fifth starter. Manager Clint Hurdle discussed Morton briefly on Monday.

“I don’t think there is any doubt he has learned some things. He’s another guy who has taken ownership of poor performance. He knows what he’s capable of. What I’m encouraged by in what I’ve seen from Charlie is he’s honestly self-evaluating. He has visited the places where he could maybe have done better in some situations. From here on in, it’s taking the actions.”

• The Pirates will be facing Ryan Depster on opening day against the Chicago. The Cubs announced on Monday that he would get the starting nod.
• Ex-Bucco Dick Groat will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Pirates owner Bob Nutting addressed the media on Monday. Here are a few things he said. You can read the full story here.

On the message he gave to the team: “The real message this year was that there is a change in level of expectations. It’s critically important that they understand, and we all understand, that 2011 is not going to be a year where small bits of incremental progress are adequate. I reminded them that the goal of the organization has been, since the day I got started, to build an organization that can compete and win a championship. Until we can win a National League Championship, we’re not going to be satisfied with incremental progress. It’s critically important that they understand that up front, that they understand I have faith in them. The level of expectation is very high.”

On initial observations from Spring Training: “There is no question that what you do see is a commitment to each other and the energy and enthusiasm and the belief that Clint and the rest of the team … combining to give every opportunity to these kids not only to perform up to their level, which we arguably did not do last year, but to exceed an achieve something great.”

On if he feels the outlook is better this year than when he’s addressed the team at Spring Training in the past: “I’m extremely enthusiastic about 2011. I really believe we significantly underperformed last year. And we know that. We’ve turned the page and it doesn’t do any good to go back and beat ourselves on that. But we’ve addressed the issues that most held us back and are ready to move forward, I think, in a much better position.”

• Pitchers will resume throwing live batting practice sessions on Tuesday (Group 1) and Wednesday (Group 2) after having Monday off from throwing.
• All of the position players worked on relay throws and cut offs on Monday.
• The players and coaches attended a Major League Baseball Umpires Meeting following the day’s workouts.
• The catchers had to deal with strong winds during the pop up drills on Monday. All seven of the catchers participated and despite mother nature, not many balls dropped. Minor League manager Tom Prince was pleased with the results.

Where is it? Jason Jaramillo does popup drills on windy day @ Pirates ST camp (photo via @RobBiertempfel)

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