Official 2012-13 Pirates Off-Season Thread

[FreeCandy44]

So does this game start out strong and then fade around August?
#TruthHurts

[DudeMan2766]

AJ now on twitter. This could be fun. @wudeydo34

[LeopardLetang]

https://twitter.com/Tombote123/status/288879695615909888

[Rocco]

Tim Williams ‏@timwilliamsP2
I used the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates ZiPS projections to estimate an 80-82 finish for the Pirates. I'll show my work in tonight's First Pitch.

80 wins would be a fate worse than death.

[Rocco]

Dejan can stop crying now- the Pirates have brought back Pitching God Karstens on a 1 year deal. I'm not a big fan of Karstens but this isn't a bad idea since the rotation is Wandy (33 years old), Burnett (35 years old), and question mark.

[Troy Loney]

does karstens bring us that 81st win?

[Mr. Colby]

Happy to have Karstens back, but will be less happy if this means the Liriano option is out the window.

[Mr. Colby]

does karstens bring us that 81st win?

Yes. 81 exactly now according to zips

Would the streak be over if 81-81? Or would it just be renamed to 21 year winless streak

[Mr. Colby]

At 2.5 million one would have to think this means Liriano or Marcum are still a possibility

[beerman]

Happy with the Karstens deal, I wanted them to keep him earlier in the offseason.. He isn't great by any means but I think he was worth the $3.8M he was projected to get in arbitration so I think $2.5M is pretty nice. Using the injury excuse on Karstens seemed pretty dumb if they are willing to take chances on two other injury risks in Liriano/Marcum (even if the ceilings on those guys are higher).

I would think that the low cost on Karstens could allow them to bring one of those guys in. At the same time I could also see it as a sign of Liriano's injury being something that they just aren't comfortable with and want no part of combined with Marcum just not wanting to come to Pittsburgh, so they went with Karstens as the fallback. Hoping that isn't the case and the price was just right.

[Rocco]

Since the Pirates got Karstens back on a pay cut from last year, does this mean they maybe made the right decision to not tender him? Still waiting for Dejan to admit as much.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/88441 ... ources-say

The fake-to-3rd-throw-to-1st move that Pirates pitchers love that never ever works will likely become a balk.

[ulf]

I like this move. He's solid for 2.5 mil.

[Mr. Colby]

Yeah I let Dejan hear about it on twitter... even though I wasn't happy about the initial decision either. Turns out that a professional baseball team knows better than I do about professional baseball players

[Kovy27]

Dejan can stop crying now- the Pirates have brought back Pitching God Karstens on a 1 year deal. I'm not a big fan of Karstens but this isn't a bad idea since the rotation is Wandy (33 years old), Burnett (35 years old), and question mark.

He will never stop crying.

[Troy Loney]

Since the Pirates got Karstens back on a pay cut from last year, does this mean they maybe made the right decision to not tender him? Still waiting for Dejan to admit as much.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/88441 ... ources-say

The fake-to-3rd-throw-to-1st move that Pirates pitchers love that never ever works will likely become a balk.

BA's top 10 list for the Pirates is due today. I picture Dejan frantically rewriting his exert all through last night. Now that the Karstens non tender is no longer a point of contention, he's going to go back to the "hoka hey" and cheap ownership.

[Rocco]

http://www.piratesprospects.com/2013/01 ... rates.html

The addition of Karstens puts the Pirates at...81 wins.



The downside is this means the player most likely to determine this season's fate is James McDonald.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

anyone else notice that chaz and the pirates agreed to a deal as well? it was snuck into the PG's column today.

[LeopardLetang]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... ower-arms/

stuff and mechanical evaluations on kingham, holmes and black, three players i'm open to information on while trying to rank in the system. i'm coming up with about exactly 50 interesting prospects in the minors right now - not counting allie

[JS©]

Adam LaRoche has agreed to a 2 yr deal with Nationals. Sorry Rocco

I thought I felt a strong breeze from the East.

[Idoit40fans]

I thought the deal with the Red Sox was done. Glad he's with the Nats, get to watch them pretty much every night.

[pittsports87]

Brad Hawpe is coming to Spring Training non-roster invitee. I like this move, he put up 4 consecutive 20+ home run seasons and hit over .280 in that span of 2006-2009. He sucked in 2010 and 2011 and had Tommy John surgery in 2011. This is a low risk, high reward move by the Pirates but it being the Pirates he will probably go hitless in Spring training and not make the team followed by him signing with some other team and hitting 40 homers and batting .320.

[Troy Loney]

Are you joking? High reward?

[Idoit40fans]

If Hawpe was 6 years younger and had the same past 6 years, sure. As a guy thats somewhere on the wrong side of 30...meh.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

Are you joking? High reward?

at some point hurdle is going to realize that bringing guys in from his rockies glory days will not work more often than not. just ask garret atkins.

[ulf]

Didn't hawpe come to ST last year too?