Bucco Fever » D.J. Carrasco

Opening Day Thoughts

Sean H. Steimer — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:29:16 +0000

I’m exhausted from a long, satisfying day at the stadium and have to fly to Philly in the morning for work so this is going to be a very quick post about todays game. To save my brain from stressing too much, I’m going with bullet points, that way I don’t have to form paragraphs.

Zach Duke was thoroughly unimpressive, a huge departure from his home opener start last year
Garrett Jones first home run was an absolute bomb. Say what you will about the minor league track record, but his power is for real.
It was really nice to see Doumit hit the home run that sealed it.
In addition to Duke’s struggles, Carrasco also didn’t look good.
All the normal 1 game, small sample size caveats, but the defense was pretty good today, aside from a late inning grounder that I thought Aki could have gotten to.

Also, Brandon Moss cleared waiver’s today and has been out-righted to AAA, which is nice. If he can ever find his stroke at the plate, it would be nice to see that happen in Pittsburgh, rather than say, Texas.

Links: Church, Donnelly, Dotel & Carrasco

Sean H. Steimer — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:40:37 +0000

It almost sounds like the name of a lawfirm, but the Pirates don’t have new lawyers. Rather, those are the names of 4 players whom the Pirates have come to terms with in the last few days. As of this writing, the deals with Dotel and Donnelly aren’t official yet, and won’t be until 40 man roster moves are made to make room. This is only the case for those 2 since Carrasco’s deal is a minor league deal and there was already a 40 man spot available for Church. But expect all 4 of these players to officially be Pirates within the next 72 hours or so.

Rather than give you my analysis of these 4 signings (hint: I like all four) I’ll address them with a host of links from other outlets.

Ryan Church

ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer

RotoGraphs(FanGraphs fantasy site)

Ryan Church on the signing via the PBC Blog

Octavio Dotel

If Dotel is signed(remember, this one isn’t official yet) how long will he hold the closers job?

Someone at FanGraphs looks for ways that signing Dotel could go wrong

D.J. Carrasco

Pat Lackey over at WHYGAVS talks a bit about Carrasco

From when he was non-tendered by the White Sox, The Chicago Tribune called Carrasco the Sox “most versatile pitcher”

Brendan Donnelly

The Official news, from the Pirates website, about the Donnelly signing

The PBC blog (almost exclusively the best source for this type of stuff) has several notes about the Donnelly signing.

Pirates Closer to Signing Free Agent Pitchers

Sean H. Steimer — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:59:26 +0000

Just a quick note that the Pirates are moving closer to deals with 2 free agent pitchers.

Ed Price of AOL Fan House is reporting that the Pirates are the closest among 4 teams to signing D.J. Carrasco. Carrasco was non-tendered in his first year of arbitration eligibility by the White Sox. In 93.1 IP last season he compiled a 3.76 ERA while posting a rather impressive 2.14 K/BB ratio. From the numbers, he appears to be a ground ball pitcher (51.3% career GB%) who relies primarily on his fastball and cutter. If he signs, he would likely fill a role in the 7th or 8th inning as a setup man.

The other news is that the Pirates are much closer to signing free agent closer Octavio Dotel (I touched on him very briefly a few weeks back). The Post-Gazette is reporting they are one of 5 teams in the mix. It would appear that if Dotel is signed it would be to close, despite the fact that he hasn’t done that since 2007. Considering the current options at closer though, Dotel would appear to be as good, if not better, than any of them.