Bucs’ Blather

Random mumblings:

• In trying to compare Corey Hart and Stetson Allie ?s minor league stats I discovered how good Hart was. As a 22 year old he reached AAA. In his second season at AAA he hit .314/.380/.551 with 22 HRs, 10 triples and 35 SBs. He was more like Polanco in his approach to the majors than Allie. Allie has a long way to go, by the way. Allie’s K% as a 23 year old at AA was 26.1% while Hart had a K% of 21.7% in AAA as a 23 year-old. But the 20+ HRs and 70+ BBs in the last two years and the plus defense at 1B with the possibility of adding RF (his cannon arm will play there) make me think Allie could be on the 40 man next year.

• Dave Cameron mentioned on his weekly podcast that Cutch was the second player he ?d pick when starting a franchise (after Mike Trout). He also added that Cutch has skills ?that age well ? and he should produce ?3-4+ WAR seasons for the next 10 years ?. McCutchen discussion starts around 17:45 but the whole podcast is excellent.

• In researching defensive starts for the Pirates in the last 20 years, I noticed the 1999 season in which Brian Giles started 108 games in CF while Al Martin started 134 games in LF. How bad was the UZR of that outfield?

• The Red Sox losing their starting catcher Christian Vasquez for the season to an elbow injury reiterates how nice our catching depth is. We have four catchers I ?d be comfortable catching 30+ games. Trivia : If you can name all the 7 catchers that started a game in 2011 you get a free chipped ham sandwich. (Answer Below)

• If you would ask me to speculate on the overall WAR numbers for Pirates OF, I wouldn ?t be surprised if Cutch finishes third in his own OF. I wouldn ?t bet on it, but Polanco and Marte ?s ceilings are very high and I ?m not sure how PNC ?s RF might skew El Coffee ?s defensive numbers, provided he improves his routes.

• With the northeast still being colder in comparison to years past, I ?m wondering if some pitchers are left back in Bradenton for extended spring training.

• Is Andrew Lambo just allergic to Bradenton? He’s making a real good case for Jaff Decker or maybe even an extra reliever ?..maybe that ?s how we keep Stolmy Pimentel?

• Pirates’ leaders in games pitched in the last 20 years:
  • John Grabow 390
  • Salomon Torres 358
  • Scott Sauerbeck 341
  • Mike Williams 306
  • Jason Christiansen 278
  • Matt Capps 271
  • Tony Watson 256

What is interesting is that Watson just hit arbitration for the first time this offseason. Watson was brought up with little fanfare in mid-season 2011, but logged 43 appearances in that ?free ? half season. He then did 68, 67 and 78 games in the next three seasons. Even it if was accidental, Huntington has managed Watson perfectly and could get a couple more very valuable seasons out of him.

Answer from above: Ryan Doumit, Michael McKenry, Chris Snyder, Jason Jamarillo, Dusty Brown, Eric Fryer, Matt Pagnozzi, Wyatt Toregas