The Bucs have to have some positives after spending all this time in Florida.   The Bucs are closing out the 2010 Grapefruit League on the road. Today a nice outing by Charlie Morton would be a huge sigh of relief for stressed Pirate fans.   Check out who is hot in this quick post today.  Let’s keep it rolling Bucs. 
Andrew McCutchen has hit safely in nine of his last ten.  He is hitting .348 this spring.
New number nine hitter Ronny Cedeno has reached base safely in eight of his last nine games.
Jeff Clement has come alive.  He is 9-for-24 in his last eight games and [...]

Brandon Moss has been designated for assignment today by the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The team will have ten days to release, trade or waive him. Moss didn’t get it done this spring putting up a .171/.081/.081 line with 10 strikeouts in 37 at-bats.  He had three hits.
The move allowed the Pirates to place RHP  Hayden Penn on the roster.  In 30 Major League appearances (15 starts), Penn has an 8.89 ERA. He struck out 53 and walked 54 in 80 total innings. He went 2-4 with a 4.11 ERA in 70 innings in AAA last year.
The first thing that came to mind [...]

Andrew McCutchen often writes a Biblical verse under his autograph. The one below is from Luke 14:11. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. 
So while McCutchen stays humble, I am going to get behind the pulpit and do some exalting for him.  (Pass the offering plate)

For Pittsburgh Steelers fans, the season begins today.   The Pittsburgh Steelers start OTA’s and Steeler Coach Mike Tomlin expects to see Ben Roethlisberger.  Call me nuts, but I would have loved to not hear Tomlin say the phrase ’expects to see.’ 
How about this comment?  ”Ben will be here Monday.”  
No questions.  No legal strategy.  No excuses. 
We talked about this extensively and came up with ten very selfish reasons why Big Ben needs to be playing football Monday:
10.  Winners win. Remember the 35-0 rout (at halftime) of the Ravens in front of the legendary Steelers (minus Lambert) reunion night? Ben is the best money time QB in [...]

Zach Duke sparkled today against the Astros.  He allowed just two hits.  The first was a T.J. Steele bat blisttering infield single and the other was a two-out Geoff Blum single that sent Duke to the showers just missing getting seven innings in for the day.  Nevertheless, the five and a half ERA falls to 3.00 after allowing zero runs in Kissimmee.
Duke walked a batter and struck out two.  Duke forced 11 groundball outs versus seven fly ball outs.  He also helped himself with two doubles in two at bats under the overcast skies of Grapefruit League Florida baseball. 
In last season form [...]

Cruising through the best posts of the day and found this one by  Larry Granillo.  We were surprised to see Steve Blass at the top of the list of worst opening day starters based on WAR totals from the past 50 years.  Blass (-5.8 WAR) is the worst by a long shot. (Terry Mullholland ‘95 Giants;  -3.4WAR) 
But you know what, if the Pirates ace didn’t lose his ability to throw strikes, do you think he would have been able to become such a stud golfer?  He scored two aces  at the Greensburg Country Club in the same round.  Screw this pitching crap.  Hell, [...]

Andrew McCutchen, Lastings Milledge and Garrett Jones are featured in the new Buccos commercials.  The campaign themes highlight McCutchen in  ‘Anticipation,’ and Lastings Milledge in ‘Anticipation’  Jones is shown in this  ‘Hard Work’ segment
‘Let’s Do This’ is my favorite team commercial from Ken Brown’s MediaSwitchBoard page.  We like the Cutch Anticipation piece (linked above) as the overall winner.
 Mondesi has a funny caption contest you should click over and check out.  The winner gets a collectible Clemente 3000 hit picture.  Mondesi’s House already has numerous hilarious comments for the Pirates punching bag of a campaign theme- ”It’s Time” which is in the 2010 mix.

My favorite line in the 1990 Pittsburgh Pirates theme song: ‘Remember the heartbreak, remember the tears, getting it all together takes so many years….’ ahh, yes it does Ernie. 
The 1990 theme song was sung by Ernie Pontieri of The Letterman, whose childhood idol was Roberto Clemente.  The song was written by the ‘prophetic’ Frank and Ray Falotico of Ellwood City.   The 1989 Bucs were fifth in the division with a 74-88 record, but the 1990 team behind ‘You Gotta Believe’ made it to the NLCS. 
Enjoy the behind the scenes video with some classic staches, then the official video starts at 4:48 [...]

The Pirates aren’t piling up many wins in the Grapefruit League this season.  In fact, most of the team stats have the Bucs near the bottom.  Sure we could focus on that, but I just spent three days in our nations capital, I have heard enough bad news this week.  So let’s drink some kool aid.
Andrew McCutchen has hit safely in six of his last seven games.
Lastings Milledge has reached base safely in 10 of his last 12 games.
Delwyn Young had two more RBI yesterday and came in to play third base.
Ronny Cedeno has a seven game hitting streak and [...]

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be on television, in high definition, a minimum of 150 times in 2010.  FSN and the Bucs announced a long term deal today.  A couple of things:
What a great move. 
Mario and Ron Burkle had to have wind of this a number of months ago.  I certainly believe they had some different plans in mind.
I don’t see specifically, just how many years the  ’ long term’  deal actually consists of in the article, but have heard rumors that it’s numerous years.  I will dig into that information.
Is FSN banking on the Pirates prospects making some noise?  It sure does seem that [...]