I'm cautiously optimistic about the coming season.

All the regular guys seem to be hitting. Burnett & Bedard seem like good additions to the rotation. Meek seems to be coming around.

The Burnett face bunting thing was a scare but he seems to be recovering well and should be ready early in the season.

I'm thinking (hoping) that McCutcheon, Tabata and Presley will all have exception seasons and that McCutcheon and Tabata will be in the running for the All-Star game.

The only worry is that Alvarez won't do anything. McGee should pick up that slack if he falters. Then there is the worry about what to do with Alvarez. Should he go to the minors, should he just be let go? If he is let go, does he become another Bautista?

Beat'em Bucs

Puerto Rico

My wife and I spent a week in Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago and while there we were able to attend a ball game in Caguas.

The home team Criollos de Caguas played the Indios de Mayaguez and lost the game 7-4. Since we were in Caguas, we were rooting for the home team but I was quietly pleased that Pirate prospect Justin Thomas came in the game and pitched very well.

The game was an experience. Though the stadium wasn't as big as a major league park like PNC and there were some empty seats, that was the loudest game I have ever attended.

Both the home and visiting team had bands, fans not paid, with trumpets, trombones, and several kinds of drums. I liked the band thing.

Unfortunately there were many many airhorns in the crowd.  It wasn't as bad as the World Cup in South Africa with the vuvuzuelas where the sound was constant. The air horns were blown in reaction to things happening on the field however it didn't have to a major event in the game. It was loud.

Ken

Why

This blog will be my discussion mostly of the Pittsburgh Pirates with occasional forays off into baseball in general and who knows where if I get really distracted.

Ken