Editor's note:
This article was originally published on OBN, Thursday, August 2, 2001

By Benjamin McFerren

Even though we lost last night, I have to say that:

I love the fact that Jason Kendall hit a homer against Jason Schmidt.

It shows that Kendall is not only is one of the most hard working players in the league, but he is also is one of the most astute players in the league.

He knew what Schmidt was bringing all night!

What makes things more interesting are, Schmidt stole the Bucs steal sign on Redman's attempt last night.

I wonder how much Schmidt knew about what Kendall was thinking all night?

By Wilbur Miller

As major league teams move into the late-season playoff drive and the Pirates sink further and further into their accustomed irrelevance, there’s little for Pirate fans to do beyond debating trades and looking toward next year. With that in mind, one matter that’ll get some attention in the off-season is the 40-man roster. The Pirates don’t have much high-end talent, as usual, but they have more depth than in past years. There’ll be fewer placeholders occupying roster spots, so there’ll be some actual competition for spots taking place over the last couple months of the Pirates’ season and the last month of the minor league season.

By Wilbur Miller

I’ve been cynical for years about defense-oriented team-building philosophies. They usually seemed more like an excuse to avoid paying good hitters, or to cling to the deadball-era cliches that appeal so much to some baseball people. Some of this stems from years of the Pirates using supposedly poor defense as a reason to bury players they disliked. Refusing to use Craig Wilson at first due to his glove and then bringing in Randall Simon springs to mind.

By Wilbur Miller

The Pirates’ new low class A affiliate, West Virginia, figures to have mostly the same strengths and weaknesses as Lynchburg in 2009. The infield will boast some promising players as well as some depth, but the outfield will be full of question marks and the pitching could be a serious problem.

By Wilbur Miller

There’s good news and bad news for the Hillcats this year. The bad news is that they’ll probably be hit hard by the miserable scouting done by Dave Littlefield and his band of bozos. The good news is that they’ll probably open the season with Pedro Alvarez on the roster, although hopefully he won’t be there long. The infield should be in good shape, and not just due to Alvarez, but the rest of the team could be a mess.

By Wilbur Miller

Unlike Indianapolis, which will benefit from Neal Huntington’s efforts to increase the upper level depth in the system, Altoona may suffer from the gaping hole in the middle of the farm system left by the poor drafts and non-existent international scouting efforts of Huntington’s predecessor. The Curve will have some interesting hitters, but their pitching could be a problem.

By Wilbur Miller

I thought I’d do the minor league previews a little earlier this year. One reason is that the Pirates have more talent in the system than they’ve had for some time, so there’s some real competition for roster spots in spring training. The battles will mainly be among position players, especially in class A, because except for AAA the pitching in the system remains desperately thin. We'll see in a few weeks how accurate my projections are.

First up, Indianapolis.

By Jim Sullivan

Greetings,

My intent while viewing Minicamp this year was to cover Spring Training from Day One, until I observed that the environment had definitely changed.

Last year there was only one person blogging (me), so I felt that I was offering a unique service.

What has changed this year is that there are at least four professional reporters who have set up their own Blogging Sites to cover Pirate Spring Training, and issue reports during the afternoon.

Here are the results from the OBN voting on the Pirates’ top 30 prospects, with the percentage of the vote each received. Many thanks to Dale Berra’s Stash for conducting the polling.

By Jim Sullivan

Another brisk day in Bradenton, but when compared with what my grandkids are facing at the bus stop in central PA, this is truly a delight.

I arrived fifteen minutes late, and therefore missed the first group of pitchers throwing off the mound, but did get a chance to watch Donnie Veal throw off the mound (will explain later), and for somebody who is supposedly only throwing at 75%, he can really bring it.