Winter League Update
northsidenotch.com 11 days ago — One thing that I must bring up is the pitching of Donald Veal. The guy has been an absolute freak of nature so far in the Arizona Fall League and is putting up numbers like he never has before. He leads the AFL in ERA with a 0.54 mark and is 3-0 in 5 starts that cover 16.2 innings. And remember ...

Winter Leagues: Week 1 Roundup
northsidenotch.com 10/20/2009 — A few highlights:Jose Tabata is off to a nice start in the prospect-heavy Arizona Fall League posting a line of .364/.500/.455 in his first week with Scottsdale. He even registered a hit against #1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg.Also, the Pirates' trio of pitchers in Arizona (Danny Moskos, ...

News and Notes
raisethejollyroger.com 12 days ago — This is kind of weird… according to Rob Biertempfel’s Twitter , the Pirates and Phillies will wrap up Spring Training with games on April 2 and 3. In Philly. Opening up the season at home is enough of a risk to freeze, but I guess that will serve as a bit of a transition from the ...

News and Notes
raisethejollyroger.com 10/15/2009 — Not a whole lot going on… The Pirates had higher TV ratings than 11 other MLB teams in 2009, including both LCS participants from Los Angeles. [ Ratings on FSN were up almost 20% this year ]. Why? Who the heck knows, but it sure does give us yet another reason to wonder why they ...

Neil Walker Off to a Quick Start in Venezuela; Arizona Fall League Throws Out First Pitch Today
rumbunter.com 10/12/2009 — Pittsburgh Pirates 3B Neil Walker has quickly shown he didn’t come all the way to Venezuela to look at the scenery. Walker has at least one hit in the first three games since play began on Friday. Walker has four hits in eleven at bats, a walk and an RBI. Three of Walker’s hits ...

Pirates of the Desert
hyzduhq.blogspot.com 10/15/2009 — This week the Arizona Fall League started play and there a few interesting Pirates to be on the watch for in the desert. Among them are Danny Moskos, Tony Watson, Donnie Veal, and Jose Tabata. Tabata may be very interesting to see how he performs against some of the top competition in the minor ...

Veal and Tabata Dominate the Desert
rumbunter.com 21 days ago — Donnie Veal continues to show why he will win a spot in the Pirates starting rotation in 2010. Another strong start from the lefthander yesterday with four innings pitched and only two hits allowed. Veal struckout five batters to lower his ERA to .71 Jose Tabata continues to scorch AFL pitching ...

Morning links: Manage your expectations
community.post-gazette.com 17 days ago — By Dejan Kovacevic | 12:40 a.m. Wednesday Chuck Finder had to take a couple days off, and I agreed to cover for him in the unlikely event that anything happened. Oh, well. I do have a few other points I want to make, culled from conversations I ...

McCutchen Slighted, Veal Effective Again
rumbunter.com 26 days ago — Andrew McCutchen won another Rookie of the Year Award today. You know that. You read it here first. McCutchen often writes a Biblical verse under his autograph. The one above is from Luke 14:11. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So ...

Three Pirates to go up against Stephen Strasburg
raisethejollyroger.com 10/16/2009 — As if there wasn’t enough to watch tonight with both playoff series in action and Pitt-Rutgers at 8, three Bucs prospects will battle the phenom this evening in an epic Arizona Fall League showdown. The Phoenix Desert Dogs host the Scottsdale Scorpions at 6:35 MST. The Scorpions feature ...

Sanchez's San Francisco Signing Shows Pirates What Might Have Been — Bleacher Report - MLB 20 days ago
Freddy Sanchez is a good "sport." The Pittsburgh Pirates' management is not. Sanchez re-signed with the San Francisco Giants at a total of $12 million for two years, or $6 million per. This compares to the $10 million that FanGraphs values him at ...

Gametracker: Starters struggling early — NY Post: Sports 20 days ago
The Yankees scored two runs in the first off of Phillies starter Joe Blanton. But Chase Utley got to CC Sabathia again with an RBI double that cut the Yankees lead to 2-1. ...

Gametracker: Tied heading to the ninth — NY Post: Sports 20 days ago
A solo home run by Chase Utley in the seventh inning cut the Yankees lead to 4-3 and sent CC Sabathia to the showers. The following inning, Pedro Feliz took Joba Chamberlain yard to even things up. They are headed to the ninth in Philadelphia. ...

Phils' Utley continues to feast off CC — Major League Baseball News 20 days ago
Chase Utley can only hope that he'll have yet another opportunity to frustrate CC Sabathia before this year's World Series concludes. But if the Phillies are going to create this opportunity, they will likely need their All-Star second baseman to ...

TYING REGGIE JACKSON / Utley homers way into history book — SFGate: Top Sports Stories 20 days ago
With one swing, Chase Utley went from being an interesting World Series footnote to the reason the Phillies are going back to New York. With another swing later in Game 5, Utley made history. His two home runs helped the Phillies pull out an 8-6 win ...