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Heading into the 2008 season, there were reasons to be optimistic that Nate McLouth could provide average offensive production for a centerfielder. His hot finish to 2007 seemed somewhat legitimate, as opposed to many Pirate centerfielders in the decade or so before him. Most projections had him about average, while his teammates [...]

I stumbled upon Chone Smith’s 2009 defensive projections today, so I thought I would take a look at how the Pirates stacked up. Here are the players I tentatively expect to make up the starting lineup, along with each one’s projections. COF stands for “corner outfield,” as there are no separate projections for [...]

The Pirates continued cleaning up the 40-man roster today, removing some additional spare parts. John Van Benschoten and Ronald Belisario were sent to Triple-A Indianapolis in a move that was not surprising by any means. We have all witnessed JVB’s struggles the past few years, as his return from injuries has gone anything [...]

Neal Huntington hired Jim Benedict as a special assistant yesterday. The two men worked together in Cleveland, where Benedict toiled as a scout for the past two seasons. He has also worked with the Yankees, Dodgers, Expos and Rangers over the years. I know very little about him, and some Google searching turned up nothing [...]

We all know that the Pirates’ pitching was terrible in 2008, and many of you may be tired of the topic by now. But if you are interested in another reminder, here it is. R.J. Anderson is doing a project over at Beyond the Box Score in which he is converting FIP into the more [...]

Just a couple of quick notes today.
With the hiring of pitching coach Joe Kerrigan yesterday, the Pirates have only one coaching vacancy remaining. According to the PG, the first base coach will not be Perry Hill in 2009. The distinguished infield instructor was nearly added to the coaching staff before the 2008 season, but [...]

The Pirates hired Joe Kerrigan today to be their new pitching coach. Kerrigan has a solid amount of Major League experience at the position, and he presided over some very good pitching staffs with Boston in 1997-2001. He was the Yankees’ bullpen coach in 2006-2007, and spent the past season doing broadcasting work for the [...]

Welcome to the new MVN. As you can see, the network launched a major redesign last night. I just wanted to point out a few of the more significant changes.
First of all, there are some URL changes. If you use the old URL (mvn.com/mlb-pirates), you will be directed to the brand new [...]

The Pirates received some encouraging news earlier this week. Brandon Moss, who was thought to need microfracture surgery on his left knee, instead underwent arthroscopic surgery. Moss was expected to miss several months after the original procedure, but now should be completely healthy well before the beginning of spring training in February.
This is [...]