Pittsburgh Lumber Co.

I discussed the payroll a bit in my last post and I just wanted to follow up briefly. My main point was that we should not focus so much on the total payroll, but more on individual expenditures. I have no problem whatsoever with a payroll under $40 million, mainly because there are not many [...]

Dejan posted some of his angrier mail items in yesterday’s Q&A. Most of them look something like this:
Q: IT IS VERY APPARENT THAT THE PIRATE OWNERSHIP IS ONLY PROFIT MOTIVATED. WHEN WILL MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STEP IN AND FORCE THE PIRATE OWNERSHIP TO SELL THE TEAM TO SOMEBODY THAT WILL ATTEMPT TO WIN?
Dejan does a [...]

I understand that Pirate fans are angry and frustrated. It is easy to look at the annual 60-something win total combined with a bottom of the barrel payroll and feel a sense of bitterness. But I don’t really understand some of the reactions to a simple interview with Bob Nutting.
Time for an FJM look at [...]

The Pirates’ bullpen is nearly set, and it seems likely that Javier Lopez will be the only left-handed reliever on the opening day roster. After Neal Huntington’s comments set off a firestorm last season, some fans will surely be upset at the lack of southpaws again this year. But to what degree will [...]

The Pirates’ bench has become very crowded this offseason. Neal Huntington selected John Raynor in the Rule 5 draft, claimed Brandon Jones off waivers, and added Bobby Crosby and Ryan Church through free agency. There are clearly too many players to fit on the roster and a few should expect to find [...]

Neal Huntington has added several quality relievers recently, namely D.J. Carrasco, Brendan Donnelly and Octavio Dotel. In just over a week, the Pirates’ bullpen has gone from empty to somewhat stable. Adding several solid arms to a non-existent bullpen makes it easy to believe that the relief corps will be a strength. [...]

The Pirates have officially announced the signing of Octavio Dotel, as he passed his physical today. It is a one-year deal, with a team option for 2011. That option is a nice little addition to the contract. Anthony Claggett was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Dotel. [...]

First of all, I apologize for the site being down for a few days. As you can see, we were moving to a new layout and, unfortunately, there were some technical issues during that process. AKA, I don’t understand how computers work. If you have been following us via an RSS feed, [...]

I just wanted to let everyone know that Pittsburgh Lumber Co. will be moving to a new server at some point in the next few days. We will have a mostly redesigned layout, so expect to see some changes. I anticipate a fairly seamless transition, with little to no downtime. I could be wrong, though. [...]