Farm Hands

The AAA Indianapolis Indians dropped their 2nd in a row against the Toledo Mud Hens on Friday to start off the season. '04 first rounder Neil Walker went 1-4 with a game tying Solo Home run in the bottom of the 7th, but the bullpen couldn't hold up, giving up 1 run in the top of the 8th and 9th innings. Leadoff man Andrew McCutchen went 2-4 with a double, 1 run scored, and a stolen base. The Indians will take on the Mud Hens tonight in the 3rd of 4 games with Tom Gorzelanny on the mound.

Meanwhile in AA Altoona, the Curve fell, for a third consecutive game, to the Erie SeaWolves 2-0. The Curve outhit the SeaWolves 7 to 3, but went 0-5 with runners in scoring position. Jose Tabata went 1-4 with a double, but left 3 men on base and grounded into a double play. The Curve and SeaWolves at set to square off at 1:05 this afternoon in Erie to wrap up the first series of each team's season.
With a combined record of 0-5 between the Curve and Indians, the Lynchburg Hillcats posted their second consecutive win of the season with a 14-7 victory over the Potomac Nationals. The Hillcats worked over the National pitchers for 17 hits, none of which came from heralded first-round draft pick Pedro Alvarez, who went 0-5. Rough day for Alvarez as he also had 2 fielding errors.

Recap

Pre-season game for the Pirates, and tune-up for the Netherlands for the World Baseball Classic. Most importantly Pedro Alvarez made his first start at 3rd base, and responded by going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts and an error in the field. Jeff Salazar continues to swing one of the hottest bat's in camp by hitting a solo shot to seal the victory in the bottom of the 8th inning. Rule 5 pick Donald Veal struck out the side in the 6th inning, he has showed to date the power arm Coonely has discussed.

A few of the dutch have connection's with the Pirates including once Pirate 1st baseman/Sausage Race Smacker Randall Simon who is 'auditioning for a job', as well as pitching coach Bert Blyleven.


Stats

• Ohlendorf: (W) 2 IP 1 ER 0 K's
  
• Alvarez (0-4) 2 K's
• Garrett Jones (2-4) 3 RBI's
  

Notes

• No major arm trouble for Tabata, just sore and will be held out till the weekend.
• Burnett, Neal Walker, and a few others got raises.
  
• Craig Hansen recieved a raise today, he will be making $825,000 this season.
• Tim Lincecum will be making $650,000
  

Top Prospect in N.L.

-Deerphobia-

From Jim Callis, of Baseball America, Pedro Alvarez is the top prospect in the National Laeague. Although Callis has Rays' lefty David Price and Orioles (should be Buccos) catcher Matt Wieters ahead of him:

I eventually settled on Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez as my No. 3 prospect, making him tops on my NL list.

Although Alvarez came to camp a little out of shape and with many questions to answer for his previous contract dispute, you have to be excited about this.

McLouth Signs

• Buccos signed All-Star McLouth today to avoid arbitration. McLouth signed through 2011 with a club option for 2012
  
• Club Option for 2012 is $10.65 Million
• Incentive Bonuses for the total contract could reach a total of $1.25 mil.

With the signing of Doumit, Maholm and now McLouth, it finally seems as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but at the end of the day does this really make that big of a difference in the short term?. Realistically, there is little if no chance of us winning for the next few years and so the signing of these three players may sound great at first but when Alvarez, Bryan Morris, Brad Lincoln are all in Pittsburgh in about 3 years is the core of our team even going to be signed then? Would we want these three signed then? These are all questions going into these signings but at the time it may look promising.