Aaron Crow was named an all-star relief pitcher, but with zero saves, he is hardly on any fantasy baseball manager's radar.

FANTASY BASEBALL ALL STAR DUDS

Aaron Crow, Relief Pitcher, Royals — Crow is having a nice rookie season with a 2-2 record , 2.13 ERA, and a 1.18 WHIP.  Crow has no saves and 3 blown saves.  Any fantasy baseball manager that has a set up man like Crow on its roster is probably eating some crow right now.  He has relatively no fantasy baseball value.  Despite a nice ERA and solid WHIP, he hasn’t pitched enough innings (42.1) to have much of an impact on your overall team stats in those categories.  Now, I know, somebody needs to make it from Kansas City so why not Alex Gordon (.301/10/47/) instead?

Chipper Jones, Third Base, Braves — I agree that sometimes you select an aging player based on his career stats and for that reason, nobody is more deserving than the Braves’ Chipper Jones.  He has been the Braves third baseman for so long it’s hard to remember who even played the hot corner in Atlanta prior to him.  But, his stats thus far in 2011 are less than spectacular: .259/8/46/1.

Ryan Vogelsong, Starting Pitcher, Giants — Ryan Vogelsong is a classic case of home cooking.  Manager Bruce Bochy picked his own starter who is having a very good year indeed at 2.17 and 1.19.  But, he has only 6 wins and he didn’t play in the league from 2007 through 2010!  Vogelsong will not have a strong second half.  I happen to think you need to have more than 14 good starts in five years to earn a spot on the squad.

FANTASY BASEBALL ALL STAR SNUBS

Andrew McCutcheon, OF, Pirates — Of all of the pundits who critique all star selections, McCutcheon’s name has come up more than anybody else.  The Pirates are the surprise of the 2011 season and have given life back to baseball in Pittsburgh.  McCutcheon is a 5 tool player that the nation should see play.  And, for savvy fantasy baseball owners, McCutcheon was one of the best drafts of the season at .292/13/49/15.  He can do it all and he should be in Phoenix.

CC Sabathia, SP, Yankees — CC Sabathia is actually a guy who said he didn’t want to play in Phoenix, preferring instead to take a quick vacation to The Bahamas.  Why not?  A-Rod and Jete are not playing in the all star game either.  Sabathia’s numbers are simply outstanding: 12 wins/2.90/1.20/117 K’s.  He should be there.

Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves — Craig Kimbrel leads all of MLB in saves with 27, but didn’t make the cut.  Kimbrel has set a record for most saves by a rookie in the first half of the season.  With 2 wins, a 2.40 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, how did Kimbrel get left off of the roster?

Mark Texeira, 1B, Yankees — There are so many good first basemen that it’s easy to see how Tex got missed.  Although his average is a lowly .241, he’s hit 25 dingers with 65 RBI.  That will help your fantasy baseball stats.

Ryan Howard, 1B, Phillies — Albert Pujols isn’t on the team either so it’s not such a snub that Howard is missing from a loaded first base position.  The former MVP, however, has 18 homers to go with 71 RBI.  The RBI total alone should be enough to put him on the team.  Howard’s 71 trails only Prince Fielder at 72 and Adrian Gonzalez at 77.  Not surprisingly, both are first basemen.

Some leagues don’t allow such activity by limiting the number of player adds you can make each week. However, if you can find a loophole in your league settings and add/drop pitchers all season long – you’re going to have a great chance to win the whole thing come September!

For the third consecutive season, we will be tracking two start pitchers to make sure you always win your pitching categories. That way, if you’re cutting Wandy Rodriguez because of his 8.30 ERA over the last month – you can add someone who can help you right away.

Below you will find each projected two start pitcher for fantasy baseball week 14 broken down into four categories – must start, would start, could start, and don’t start.

Must Start:

• Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies
• Mike Pelfrey, New York Mets
• Jeff Niemann, Tampa Bay Rays
• Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels
• CC Sabathia, New York Yankees

Would Start:

• Matt Garza, Tampa Bay Rays
• Jonathan Sanchez, San Francisco Giants
• Derek Lowe, Atlanta Braves
• Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
• Jake Peavy, Chicago White Sox
• C.J. Wilson, Texas Rangers
• Clayton Richard, San Diego Padres
• Carlos Silva, Chicago Cubs
• Trevor Cahill, Oakland Athletics

Could Start:

• Armando Galarraga, Detroit Tigers
• Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox
• Scott Kazmir, Los Angeles Angels
• Gavin Floyd, Chicago White Sox
• John Ely, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Tom Gorzelanny, Chicago Cubs
• Aaron Harang, Cincinnati Reds
• Javier Vazquez, New York Yankees
• Ben Sheets, Oakland Athletics
• Brian Bannister, Kansas City Royals
• Jeff Francis, Colorado Rockies
• Chris Volstad, Florida Marlins
• J.D. Martin, Washington Nationals
• Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies
• Kevin Slowey, Minnesota Twins
• Travis Wood, Cincinnati Reds
• Wandy Rodriguez, Houston Astros
• Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
• Randy Wolf, Milwaukee Brewers
• Barry Enright, Arizona Diamondbacks

Don’t Start:

• Kevin Millwood, Baltimore Orioles
• Aaron Laffey, Cleveland Indians
• Omar Beltre, Texas Rangers
• Nate Robertson, Florida Marlins
• Dave Bush, Milwaukee Brewers
• Dontrelle Willis, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians
• Jeff Suppan, St. Louis Cardinals
• Vicente Padilla, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Jake Arrieta, Baltimore Orioles
• Jesse Litsch, Toronto Blue Jays
• Brad Lincoln, Pittsburgh Pirates
• Ryan Rowland-Smith, Seattle Mariners

Some leagues don’t allow such activity by limiting the number of player adds you can make each week. However, if you can find a loophole in your league settings and add/drop pitchers all season long – you’re going to have a great chance to win the whole thing come September!

For the third consecutive season, we will be tracking two start pitchers to make sure you always win your pitching categories. That way, if Zack Greinke continues to need to carry a 6.59 ERA into the month of July – you’re not screwed.

Below you will find each projected two start pitcher for fantasy baseball week 11 broken down into four categories – must start, would start, could start, and don’t start.

Must Start:

• Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
• Johan Santana, New York Mets
• Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox
• Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies
• C.C. Sabathia, New York Yankees
• David Price, Tampa Bay Rays
• Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins

Would Start:

• Randy Wolf, Milwaukee Brewers
• Joe Saunders, Los Angeles Angels
• Jon Garland, San Diego Padres
• Jonathan Sanchez, San Francisco Giants
• Ian Kennedy, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Trevor Cahill, Oakland Athletics
• Freddy Garcia, Chicago White Sox
• Hideki Kuroda, Los Angeles Dodgers
• C.J. Wilson, Texas Rangers

Could Start:

• Shaun Marcum, Toronto Blue Jays
• Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians
• Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers
• Aaron Harang, Cincinnati Reds
• Aaron Cook, Colorado Rockies
• Carl Pavano, Minnesota Twins

Don’t Start:

• Luke French, Seattle Mariners
• Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles
• Kenshin Kawakami, Atlanta Braves
• Felipe Paulino, Houston Astros
• Kyle Davies, Kansas City Royals
• Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs
• John Lannan, Washington Nationals
• Brad Lincoln, Pittsburgh Pirates

My follower has C.C. Sabathia in stacked pitching rotation that includes Tim Lincecum, King Felix, Dan Haren and Justin Verlander. Like the guy in the ESPN Fantasy Baseball commercial, he must’ve drafted 5 pitchers in a row. To his credit, at least one of them wasn’t Vicente Padilla. Moving on…

He would be receiving Ben Zobrist in a 1-for-1 deal. In Yahoo! fantasy baseball, Zobrist is eligible at 2B, SS, and OF. The follower’s middle infield includes Howie Kendrick and Miguel Tejada with no support. His outfield options are much better with the likes of Manny Ramirez, Carlos Quentin, Johnny Damon, Hunter Pence and Carlos Beltran coming off the DL.

So… should he make the deal?

Before doing research on the details of the trade, my gut instinct told me “no.” Sabathia is an A-line pitcher in fantasy baseball. Typically, when you have pitchers of that caliber on your roster, you don’t trade them. However, in the case of this team, Sabathia may be expendable because this guy has a fantasy baseball “Dream Team rotation.”

On paper, however, Zobrist – while certainly a nice player with attractive multi-position eligibility – just doesn’t add up to Sabathia. The biggest reason the follower should trade for Zobrist is to pick up some much needed help in that otherwise weak middle infield. Kendrick was a nice sleeper draft pick, but Tejada isn’t very likable as the only option at shortstop.

According to Yahoo! preseason ranks, this trade isn’t that bad – Sabathia is no. 41 overall compared to Zobrist at no. 39. Average Draft Position at Mock Draft Central tells a much different story, however. While Sabathia was being selected in mixed 5×5 leagues around pick 27, Zobrist was going as “low” as pick 53.

So, should offensive upgrades in the middle infield allow the follower to trade one of fantasy baseball’s top pitchers?

In our eyes – yes. Assuming the rest of that pitching rotation stays healthy, Sabathia’s numbers will merely add buffer to the expected victories that will already be coming this team’s way in strikeouts, ERA, and wins. So while Sabathia is almost NEVER expendable – this seems to be a situation where he would be.

Plus, Zobrist’s 2o1o CBS Sports projections of a .261 average with 28 home runs, 95 RBI, 94 runs and 16 steals lead us to believe he is a HUGE upgrade over Kendrick and Tejada’s at their positions.

So, @thebrewz23, we say take the deal.

Readers – what do you say? Leave a comment below.

PS – the team at Fantasy Baseball Dugout is available to offer fantasy baseball trade advice all season long. Post a question to BeeZee on Twitter by following him (@jonathanbentz) and asking away. Or, if you prefer to email your trade opportunity to us for analysis, send it to webmaster [at] fantasybaseballdugout [dot] com. We may publish several of these trade questions as the season goes on.

One of the newest and best ways to predict injuries in baseball is to see which players are wearing a new form of injury protection in spring training.  It’s just another reason to watch the spring training games prior to the day of your 2010 fantasy baseball draft.

The new XProTeX batting gloves are making their debuts in spring training 2010 this year.  The batting gloves have a flexible layer of impact absorbing rubber on the back of the glove where a player is most likely to be hit by a fastball.  XProTeX representatives say the gloves reduce the impact of a 100 mph fastball to the equivelant of being hit by a 39 mph fastball.  So, instead of broken bones to the  hand, a player gets a small bruise.

I’ll bet Carlos Pena would have wished he had these batting gloves last  year when he got plunked by CC Sabathia on September 7.  Pena had an

Pena missed the last 4 weeks of the 2009 season, yet still hit 39 homers.

AL-leading 39 homers at the time along with 100 RBIs.  Then, he suffered from two broken fingers thanks to CC.

“Carlos would have hit 45 home runs last year if that glove actually works,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said.

XProTeX is traveling to spring training sites this year with ex-major leaguer Reggie Smith as its spokesperson.  It’s response has been very positive, although some players that may like to wear them already have deals with batting glove companies that may prevent them from wearing the new and safer batting gloves.

What does this mean to fantasy baseball managers?  Well, if you are looking to avoid injuries, give an extra bonus point to those players you see wearing the XProTeX batting gloves during spring training.

Two guys you’ll definitely see wearing them are Giants’ catcher Bengie Molina and Mets’ backstop Omir Santos.  “We should all wear them,” said Molina.  “It would prevent a lot of injuries.”

I’ll bet Chase Utley, Alfonso Soriano, or Pena wish they would have had these when they ended up on the DL after getting hit in the hand or wrist with pitched balls!

So, we thought we’d compare the amount of followers that various MLB stars have.  Now, we realize this may not be as important as the all-star voting, but Twitter is a subtle indication of a player’s popularity.

Be sure to check out our constantly updating list of MLB Players On Twitter.

• Nick Swisher — 165,828
• BarryZito — 15,613
• CC_Sabathia — 13,806
• Curt Schilling (gehrig38) — 7913
• coco_crisp — 4012
• C.J. Wilson (str8edgeracer) — 3799
• davidortiz — 3281
• chaddurbin — 2434
• Jason Veritek (JTek33) — 1669
• Todd Wellemeyer (todalion) — 1416
•  ChrisGetz — 711
• JoakimSoria — 510
• ChienMingWang — 346
• Jim Rice (ask14) — 306
• KrisBenson — 249
• Jason Grilli (JGrilli49) — 40
• BretMayne — 35

There’s something very wrong with Nick Swisher.  As we were writing this article, Swish actually added 2000 more followers.  Yet, Swisher is only following 6 people!  Come on Nick, give us a follow!

Bob Bentz has a case of insomnia and regularly provides useless articles like this one about major league baseball players on Twitter.  Bob Bentz has 273 followers which makes him more popular than Kris Benson.

The league consists of 12 teams and features an AL-only player universe – meaning you will find names and draft positions of some players that might not make any sense for your league.

For those of you who are playing in AL-only leagues this season, publishing these draft results could be a real gift. This was probably the toughest draft I have ever participated in because I had to dig deep into my dungeon of player knowledge to come up with late round draft picks as I did in this draft.

5×5 roto scoring will be used for points with set lineups locked each week on Monday. Every team has one hitter at each field position, one middle infielder, one corner infielder, five outfielders, one DH spot and nine pitcher spots.

The draft consisted of 27 rounds in a snake format, making this the LONGEST and deepest draft I have ever seen.

When you’re in an AL-only league – that isn’t really the best thing!

Since I was the newest member of the league, I was granted the first draft pick. Since Alex Rodriguez is out, I drafted Grady Sizemore no. 1. I’m very high on Sizemore in 2009, and we have him ranked our top outfielder heading into the season.

Miguel Cabrera was the first first baseman drafted at no. 3. AL MVP Dustin Pedroia went no. 4 as the first second baseman off the board. Evan Longoria was the first hot corner at no. 9. C.C. Sabathia capped the end of round 1 as the first pitcher selected.

Josh Hamilton (no. 2), Matt Holliday (5), Mark Teixeira (6), Ian Kinsler (7), B.J. Upton (8), Justin Morneau (10), and Carlos Quentin (11) also went in round one. A-Rod was noticeably missing from round one due to his injury.

Jonathan Papelbon was the first closer off the board with the fourth pick in round two. David Ortiz was the first DH-only player drafted in round three. After going in round two at no. 17 overall in my mixed league draft last week, Derek Jeter was the first shortstop taken – with the third pick in round four! Victor Martinez was the first catcher selected with the last pick in round four.

Things to note from this draft:

• Baltimore top prospect Matt Wieters was the second catcher drafted, eight picks before Joe Mauer, in round five.
• Cy Young winner Cliff Lee was the 9th pitcher off the board, no. 36 overall.
• Immediately following the draft, I traded my third round pick (Jon Lester) for no. 3 pick in round three (Jermaine Dye).
• Chien Ming Wang – the steal of my mixed league draft – was selected with the first pick in round six.
• Brian Buscher – the Minnesota Twins backup third baseman – was Mr. Irrelevent.

The steal of this draft – in my opinion – was Joe Crede, drafted with the sixth pick in round 16 (no. 186 overall). While he has battled injuries the past couple seasons, he produced 5×5 numbers in his last full season (2006) of .283/30/94/76/0. CBS Sports projects him to hit 17 homeruns and bat .256 in only 366 at-bats this year, but if he is healthy, Crede could easily exceed those numbers playing 81 games in the Homerdome in 2009.

The players I drafted in each round are listed below with overall selection number in parentheses. Admittedly, I punted saves during this draft, but hopefully I can stream some saves as closers get injured.

Check out our league’s full draft results at the link at the bottom, courtesy of Scribd.

1. Grady Sizemore (1)
2. Alexei Ramirez (24)
3. Josh Beckett (25)
4. Victor Martinez (48)
5. Jon Lester (49)
6. Mike Aviles (72)
7. David Price (73)
8. Carlos Gomez (96)
9. Gavin Floyd (97)
10. Armando Galarraga (120)
11. Melvin Mora (121)
12. David DeJesus (144)
13. Brandon Inge (145)
14. Mark Teahan (168)
15. Matt Joyce (169)
16. Vicente Padilla (192)
17. Jose Bautista (193)
18. Cesar Izturis (216)
19. Eric Chavez (217)
20. Gio Gonzalez (240)
21. Clayton Richard (241)
22. Andruw Jones (264)
23. Dontrelle Willis (265)
24. Nick Punto (289)
25. John Buck (290)
26. Zach Miner (313)
27. Tyler Walker (314)

2009 Fantasy Sports Invitational Challenge AL-Only Draft Results

Publish at Scribd or explore other fantasy baseball drafts

Cody Ransom is a 33-year-old journeyman with 183 lifetime major league at bats in 166 games played.  You can tell from the at bats to games played ratio that Ransom is known as a better fielder than hitter.  He’ll be in the limelight at the hot corner as the Yankees open the season in new Yankee Stadium in April.

Before now, Ransom was best known for having his uniform number 12 taken away for one day last spring by actor and avid baseball fan Billy Crystal.  Ransom appeared in 33 games for the Yankees last season after spending the first 4 1/2 months with Triple-A Scranton. He hit .302 with four home runs and eight RBI for the Bombers and saw time at all four infield positions.

Ransom was called up to the Yankees for his first Major League action of the ’08 season in mid-August. He homered in both his first and second Yankee at bats against the Royals and Orioles respectively.  Ransom went down in the Yankees’ glorious history when he made the last putout in the history of Yankee Stadium on a slow ground ball hit by Brian Roberts.

Ransom played 114 games for the San Francisco Giants from 2001 through 2004.  He also got a cup of coffee with the Astros in 2007, playing in 19 games.  The Yankees picked up Ransom in fall 2007.

Third base is not as strong of a fantasy baseball position as it has been in the past.  It’s difficult, however, to project much for Ransom given that he’s never really had a bonafide starting spot in his career.  Ransom did hit four homers last year in just 43 at bats, including a two homer game in a driving rain storm (see photo) in late September at Boston.  Besides, when A-Rod returns, you know where Ransom is going to be–on the pine as the reserve infielder along with Angel Berroa.  Therefore, Ransom should be considered a long shot 2009 fantasy baseball sleeper at best.

The 2009 Yankees are built around a strong pitching staff that now includes C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett to go with a healthy Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, and Joba Chamberlain. Cashman and manager Joe Girardi discussed the idea of obtaining a new third baseman but decided Ransom was sufficient, particularly in the field. Cashman contends the team’s payroll is not flexible enough to add a significant player (even the Yankees must be watching their money in this economy).

“We’re going to go with what we have and that is Cody,” said Cashman.

As someone who has played and enjoyed computer-based sim league baseball games such as Out of the Park Baseball and Baseball Mogul, 2K Sports’ MLB Front Office Manager has my name written all over it. I’m the kind of person who spends more time in fantasy drafts and on the trade block than actually playing out my team’s schedule in sports video games. It’s safe to say that I’m solidly a member of Front Office Manager’s target audience.

When I loaded the game for the first time, Billy Beane’s mug greeted me. As respected a GM as there is in baseball, Beane gave MLB Front Office Manager his seal of approval, going so far as to say that “it wouldn’t surprise me if the next generation of baseball general managers grow up playing this game.”

Career Mode
Immediately out to prove that I could one-up the Moneyball genius, I entered the game’s career mode without first reading the game’s instructions. I’m a hardcore baseball fan, so I’m very familiar with the rules governing the business side of the game. How hard could this video game be?

I created my character — a 25-year-old, sharply dressed portly fellow with a background in law — and chose to take a job with my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was greeted with my first e-mails and sent to work in mid-November of 2008.

The first disappointment came when I began searching through the Pirates’ farm system for familiar names. There was no sign of Pedro Alvarez, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata or other prospects. Going a step further, it didn’t even seem as if there were any reasonable facsimiles for those players. My farm system was stocked with anonymous prospects graded vaguely for current talents and future potential on a standard 20-80 scale. My knowledge of the Pirates’ minors was useless.

Discouraged but not defeated, I took a trip to the winter meetings. I had arbitration hearings to hold and trades to make. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attempt some of the moves that Neal Huntington explored in real life. Jack Wilson, for example, has a full no-trade clause in the game that he doesn’t hold in real life. I was stuck paying him for 2009.

Still curious about the game play, I chose to advance the calendar to spring training. When I arrived in Bradenton, Florida, I was shocked to be missing half of the roster that I’d owned two game-months before. I had assumed that players whose rights I controlled (0-3 players with contracts renewing at the major league minimum) would be automatically placed on my team. Not so. The game had expected me to manually offer all of these players their $400,000 contracts that they had no choice but to accept, and they were sent to free agency when I skipped this step.

That’s where my first season ended. I couldn’t believe how in depth the game went: you really are expected to manage every aspect of the franchise’s baseball operations. Set scouting budgets for regions across America and around the world, allot resources for bidding on Japanese free agents, maintain full rosters and rotations from the MLB level all the way down to rookie ball, and more.

I decided to try again, this time taking on a team with a chance at being competitive in 2009. I signed on with the Chicago Cubs and was much more active during the hot stove season. I was able to ink CC Sabathia to a contract similar to the one he signed with the New York Yankees. I traded Geovany Soto for Troy Tulowitzki and acquired young players such as Cameron Maybin, Francisco Liriano and Pablo Sandoval. The game’s AI made sure that I paid a fair price for these up and coming stars, but as I gained experience, I was able to spend points to improve my skills as a negotiator.

After ensuring that my roster was well stocked, I proceeded to simulate a season. At first, I went day by day, actually making the simple in-game decisions myself (hit, bunt, hit and run or steal, and pitch, walk or shift defensive alignment). The Cubs got off to a hot start with me as their skipper, and I was able to track my players’ progress using advanced statistics (OPS+, runs created, etc.).

The day-by-day simming took a significant amount of time, though, and this is a game with an emphasis on management, not coaching or playing. I decided to try simulating chunks of the schedule at a time, but I found that the same team that had been red-hot through April and May turned cold in June and July. Moreover, the AI wasn’t giving my bench players at-bats (even though my depth charts were properly set). It truly seems as if MLB Front Office Manager is a game that you must obsess over in order to succeed.

My Cubs team slumped to the end of the season and missed the playoffs, and I didn’t bother continuing on to the next hot stove. My players were developing at seemingly arbitrary rates (players in their mid-30s would improve, while those in their late 20s could decline), and free agent salaries spiraled out of control. It would take hours to get an understanding of the fictional minor leaguers in the game, and even if that time was spent, a top prospect might not take a realistic path to the majors.

Online Play
I was hoping that MLB Front Office Manager’s online mode would simplify the more tedious sections of the career play, in the process making the game a more enjoyable experience. That wasn’t to be.

Gamers are presented with a number of options that allow leagues to cater to specific desires. Play in a ranked or unranked league, or perform quick searches for leagues looking for more players. Create a standard league, choosing between rotisserie or head-to-head scoring and whether or not users must control their own lineups and minors, or allow the AI to auto-manage those facets of the game.

League managers can choose whether to use standard 5×5 fantasy baseball scoring or substitute in more sophisticated metrics (e.g. OBP instead of AVG). Decide on the number of teams in the league (a minimum of two up to a max of 30), and the advancement time of the game (1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 4 days) after which league members must have their rosters set. You can hold a fantasy draft or start with MLB Front Office Manager’s default rosters.

Still, the online game play suffers the same fate as career mode. Players are asked to do a little too much in order to succeed. 2K Sports wasn’t able to hit the sweet spot in between the management in usual sports games and Billy Beane’s actual job. The game is realistic to a fault — it feels like work, not fun.

All told, I’ll likely give MLB Front Office Manager another shot, learning from my mistakes again. The next version of the game would benefit from a cleaner interface and less intensive task list, but Beane was right. You can gain a great understanding of what’s necessary to run an organization, and a new generation of gamers may grow up idolizing Brian Cashman rather than Alex Rodriguez.

Cory Humes is the content director for MVN and blogs about the Pittsburgh Pirates at piraterevolution.com.