Results tagged ‘ nationals ’
Winter meetings updates/rumors/signings: Day one
I will continue to update this post throughout the day on any rumors and signings that happen during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida.
*5:10 PM-
Ken Rosenthal tweeted this: Pirates looking at free-agent RHP Kevin Correia, among others.
Correia went 10-10 with a 5.40 ERA in 28 games (26 starts) with the San Diego Padres. In eight seasons (combined with the San Francisco Giants and Padres) he has a record of 36-43 with a 4.57 ERA. Correia,30, averages 6.6 strike outs per nine innings.
*4:30 PM-
Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington when asked about reports that teams have asked about Andrew McCutchen: “I wouldn’t always believe what you read.”
*4:22 PM-
General Manager Neal Huntington says Ryan Doumit is Pirates starting right fielder for 2011 “as we sit right now”. He also would do some catching.
*3:55 PM-
According to Dejan Kovcevic of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, the Pirates are “deeply interested” in right hand pitcher Jeremy Accardo.
Accardo, who turns 29 on December 18th, appeared in five games (6.2 innings) with the Toronto Blue Jays during April 2010. He allowed six runs on 12 hits with three strike outs and three walks. Accardo was non-tendered by the Jays on December 3rd and was due to make $1.08 million.
In 41 games with the Blue Jay’s Triple-A team, Accardo went 2-2 with a 3.64 ERA and had 24 saves. In 42 innings pitched he allowed just one home run, walked 14 and struck out two.
*3:08 PM-
According to Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston, A couple of teams have approached the Pirates about Andrew McCutchen (not the Red Sox) Bucs would have to be “overwhelmed” in order to trade the center fielder.
*2:01 PM-
Agent for Scott Olsen told MLB Trade Rumors that “nothing is done yet” on one-year deal with the Pirates.
*1:45 PM-
According to Jen Langosch of MLB.com, The Pirates have tentatively agreed to a one-year contract with Scott Olsen. The deal is pending a physical (which would happen later this week) and is incentive-laden.
Olsen, 26, became a free-agent in November after being out righted off the Washington Nationals roster.
In 17 games (15 starts) with the Nats in 2010, he went 4-8 with a 5.56 ERA.
Olsen is coming off two injury plagued seasons with Washington. In his previous three seasons with the Florida Marlins he had at least 31 starts and pitched at least 176.2 innings.
His career stats (six seasons) is 37-49 with a 4.85 ERA in 130 games (127 starts).
An official announcement could come by Friday.
*1:03 PM-
According to Jen Langosch of MLB.com, the Pirates have shown interest in Kenshin Kawakami. The Braves right hander is set to make $6.667 million in 2011, but Atlanta are interested in parting ways with the starter, covering most of the salary. It’s possible the Bucs could pay $1-2 million and not have to trade any player in the deal.
Kawakami, 35, went 1-10 with a 5.15 ERA in 18 games (16 starts) with the Braves in 2010.
The Pirates are also rumored to be eyeing shortstop (he can also play second and third base) Brendan Ryan of the Cardinals. Ryan hit .223 with two homers and 36 RBI in 139 games.
*12:17 PM-
The Pirates talks with starting pitcher Brandon Webb have gone cold according to sources. The Bucs have not contacted Webb since November 22nd. Justin Duchscherer, Jeff Francis and Scott Olsen are still on the Pirates radar.
The Pirates are willing to trade Evan Meek or Joel Hanrahan for a “significant offer” but they are not shopping them around.
*11:40 AM-
According to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, an informed source told him the Pirates “would love” to trade Ryan Doumit.
Walker named to Rookie All-Star team
Pirates second baseman Neil Walker was named to the Topp’s Major League Rookie All-star Team.
It is the second straight year a Bucs player has been named to the starting roster. (Andrew McCutchen was chosen in 2009)
Walker is the 17th Pirates player to earn a spot on the team since 1959 when Topp’s starting handing out the award.
In 110 games with the Bucs, Walker hit .296 with 12 homers, 29 doubles, 66 RBIs and 57 runs scored.
The complete roster for the Topp’s Major league Rookie All-Star team is: 1B Gaby Sanchez, 3B Danny Valencia, SS Starlin Castro, OF Austin Jackson, OF Mike Stanton, OF Jason Heyward, C Buster Posey, RHP Stephen Strasburg, LHP Jaime Garcia and RP Neftali Perez.
Brandon Webb also on Pirates radar
The Pirates are also reportably after starting pitcher Brandon Webb. The right-hander has spent all seven major league seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is 87-62 with a 3.27 ERA, averages 7.3 strike outs per nine innings. Webb also averages around 200 innings pitched each season.
Webb missed the entire 2010 season and only logged four innings in 2009 due to right shoulder bursitis and had surgery by Dr. Keith Meister of the Rangers on August 3, 2009.
Webb was drafted in the eighth round of the 2000 draft. He won the Cy Young award in 2006 and is a three-time all star and led the National League in wins in both 2006 and 2008.
Webb is known for his sinker and according to Sports Illustrated: “Webb said he probably uses it at least 80 percent of the time, and it used to be closer to 90 percent”
Webb also throws a change that clocks in the mid-80′s as well as a curve in the low 70′s.
Baseball writer at MLBFanhouse.com’s Ed Price tweeted this: #Pirates GM Huntington said “We’ve got some flexibility and are kicking some tires.” Possible high-upside fit is RHP Brandon Webb.
Baseball writer for ESPN.com and Baseball America’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted this:
Teams with an interest in Brandon Webb: Dodgers, Pirates, Twins and Rangers. And don’t rule out Nationals, Reds & Cardinals
Jorge De La Rosa Pirates top target
The Pirates main focus this off season is pitching and their top target? Left-handed pitcher Jorge de la Rosa.
De La Rosa, 29, went 8-7 with a 4.22 ERA in 20 starts for the Colorado Rockies during the 2010 season.
The Pirates will have to fight for the lefty as The Rockies, Washington Nationals, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee Brewers are reportably interested in him as well.
In six seasons pitching in the National League, De La Rosa is 38-31 with a 4.80 ERA. He does average 8.7 strike outs per nine innings but the downside is his innings pitched per year. In 2009 De la rosa threw 185 innings but his second highest is just 130.
He will also come with a hefty price tag. De La Rosa has said he wants at least a four-year contract at 11 million per year.
According to Troy Kenck of the Denver Post:
“Teams are expected to begin meeting with De La Rosa’s reps today. Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Rockies, Yankees among those with interest.”
Hurdle to be interviewed by Bucs
Multiple sources are reporting that Rangers hitting coach Clint Hurdle has been cleared to interview with the Pirates for the managerial position.
The Bucs have not interviewed any new candidates since October 14th (Tosca).
Hurdle was unable to interview for the position during the Rangers run for the World Series.
Of the seven candidates interviewed only three have not been ruled out. Jeff Banister, Carlos Tosca and Bo Porter —who was hired as the Nationals third base coach.
Hanrahan glad to be a reliever now
Joel Hanrahan has been nasty in 2010 for the Pirates. He boasts a 3.72 ERA with six saves. The most dominating stat, however, is his 96 strikeouts in 67.2 innings pitched.
I sometimes forget that Hanrahan hasn’t always been a reliever. Before he was called up to the majors he was almost exclusively a starter. In 189 appearances in the minors, 182 of them were starts. Compiling a 67-49 records over eight seasons with the Nationals’ minor league teams he is glad he is a reliever now.
“As a starter sometimes I would try to sink the ball and I would try to throw change-ups, sliders, and fastballs –and just really try to mix it up,” Hanrahan said. “Sometimes I’d be thinking about a guy’s next at bat when he came up instead of worrying about the next pitch. I was really playing the game out too far in my head.”
“And a lot of times if I got a first pitch strike I was going to go for the strikeout, and as a starter that gets you in trouble. You do that and you throw a lot of pitches. The manager hated me because I threw a hundred pitches in five innings every time. I might go out there and give up two hits and no runs but still throw a hundred pitches in five innings, and so he had to go to the bullpen. I wasn’t pitch efficient.”
“As a reliever, I just go out there and I’m like, ‘Alright, you’ve got three outs to get and you’re probably done. Let’s go out there with everything you’ve got, leave it all out there today, and you’ve got 23 hours to be back and ready to pitch.’ That’s what I like.”
Hanrahan is sitting on 96 strikeouts this season –his career high is 93– third most in the National League behind Carlos Marmol (134) and Tyler Clippard (108). He has only walked 25 batters in his 67.2 innings pitched this year. Hanrahan hits 95-98 MPH regularly on the gun and it has been reported that he hit 99 on several occasions this season.
I’d say being a reliever is working out pretty well for him.
“I’ve always been a guy that has pretty good strikeout numbers, even in the minor leagues,” Hanrahan said. “I don’t get too many double play balls. I don’t have a sinker and I don’t get a lot of ground balls. So I find myself in situations where I need to get a strikeout and fortunately I’ve been able to get them.”
“You know how they say hitters get the home runs, and chicks dig the home runs? Well, I like the strikeouts. I figure if guys aren’t putting the ball in play you have a better chance. You never know what can happen when the ball gets put in play. That attitude can get me in trouble sometimes, but especially if I have two outs I’m going to try and strike him out for that third out. I really enjoy strikeouts.”
I think that if Hanrahan continues to put up the numbers he has, “Chick dig the strikeouts” shirts will be the new rage.
Bucs will better prepare pitching staff for 2011
One of the biggest problems the Pirates have had this season has been the inconsistency of starting pitching. The pitching staff ranks last in the majors with a 5.08 ERA.
The starters combined have only 28 wins. To put this into perspective, CC Sabathia of the Yankees has 20 wins alone. The nationals — who have the National League’s second lowest — has 12 more wins then the Bucs.
If that isn’t enough, opponents are batting a shocking .301 against the staff.
Manager John Russell believes the problem is not a result from lack of talent. He said he and management will examine how the off-season, as well as Spring Training regimens could be changed to have the pitchers better prepared for the 2011 season.
“If you look at our record, probably not,” Russell said, when asked if the pitchers were prepared going into and coming out of Spring Training. “I can’t really say for sure that everybody seemed to be on the same track ready to go through the season. We didn’t pitch well.
“There’s probably a number of things. Is it Spring Training? Is it last off-season? Was it just bad performance? We’ll have to take all that into account. I don’t know if you can put your finger on one specific thing. It wasn’t good.”
Russell also said that off-season conditioning needs to be better addressed for 2011. They will also make changes as to when the Pitchers start throwing their side sessions before camp.
“We’ll make sure they’re ready,” he said. “The off-season is going to be a big time for all of our pitchers. They need to come into Spring Training kind of on a mission. What we went through this year, we’re not going to go through next year. Guys need to be ready. They need to be ready to compete. They need to be physically ready to take the next step.”
He also went on to say that no starting job was guaranteed for next season.
Morton’s “unlucky start” showed improvement
Although Charlie Morton got his 11th loss against the Nationals on Sunday, for once it was not his fault. The team committed three errors and six of the eight runs that the Nats scored were un-earned. Morton’s line was a lot worse than how he performed. Through 3.2 innings, six runs and eight hits were charged to Charlie. He is now 1-11 with a 9.66 ERA.
Now I’m not saying he had a ”great outing” but there is definitly some improvement from him. Morton threw mostly fastballs (57 of 76).
Pre-game Notes: Braves @ Pirates 9/6 1:35
- The Braves are 5-1 against the Pirates this season.
- The Pirates have hit 14 home runs in their past 10 games.
- Jose Tabata was hit in the hand by a fastball from Jason Marquis during Sunday’s game against the Nationals. The ball grazed Tabata’s thumb but during the game it looked more serious than that. He fell to the ground and took a few minutes to get up and make his way to first-base.
“It’s OK,” Tabata said, adding that he doesn’t expect to miss any games.
Monday’s Pitching Matchup:
Tommy Hanson 9-10, 3.60 ERA
VS
Brian Burres 2-3, 6.31 ERA
Hanson has allowed one earned run or fewer in six of his past eight starts. Against the Mets on the 1st he was dominant allowing just one hit, no runs, through seven innings, walked one and struck out three.
Burres is taking Jeff Karstens start in the rotation (shoulder sorness). This is Brian’s first start for the Pirates since May 29th. Since he was re-called late August.he has pitched primarily fromt he ‘pen.
Braves Lineup:
Omar Infante 4
Jason Heyward 9
Martin Prado 5
Derrek Lee 3
Matt Diaz 7
Alex Gonzalez 6
David Ross 2
Nate McLouth 8
Tommy Hanson 1
Pirates Lineup:
Andrew McCutchen 8
Jose Tabata 7
Neil Walker 4
Garrett Jones 3
Pedro Alvarez 5
Ryan Doumit 2
Delwyn Young 9
Ronny Cedeno 6
Brian Burres 1
The August leaders are in…
And for the first time this season i made it in the top 50.
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who reads my blog. It really means a lot. I enjoy doing this and I hope you guys enjoy reading it.
And secondly, congrats to all the winners. I noticed a lot of the blogs are women which is really awesome.
Here is the list of all the winners.
And lastly, thanks to Mark who runs the mlblogs. My photo was part of the panel showing the winners. (Top left, next to Pirates MLB.com Reporter, Jenifer Langosch)
Kristy Robinson
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