THE BULLPEN

Mrs. Black-N-Gold has been patiently waiting for Santa to deliver presents to your Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason. Unfortunately, it looks like owner "Bottom Dollar" Bob Nutting is playing the role of Scrooge. While the division-winning St Louie Cardinals have worked to improve their already powerful roster this offseason, Pirates GM Neal Huntington looks like he's done absolutely nothing to make the Pirates better. If anything, his questionable moves have made them worse. First, the Bucs traded for a light-hitting, back-up catcher Chris Stewart. Wouldn't Tony Sanchez be better served under the apprenticeship of Russell Martin this season, instead of toiling away in the minors? This is the final year of Frenchy's contract. Wouldn't you want Sanchez to be ready to take over in 2015? Well, NH did sign a free agent starting pitcher, Edinson Volquez. It turns out he has an ERA over 5 and gave up the most runs in the NL last season. Is that really a bargain at 1 year, $5 million? I know A.J. Burnett has been leaving the Bucs hanging on his decision to pitch or retire, but weren't there any other options available? Neal did manage to re-sign a member of the Pirates team that made it to the postseason last year. Unfortunately, it was no-hitting shortstop Clint Barmes at 1 year for $2 million. Barmes finished 259th out of a possible 260 in OPS last year (players with at least 600 ABs). And let us not forget that Huntington seems intent to go with a rightfield platoon of Jose Tabata/Travis Snider. It also looks like Gaby Sanchez will be the Pirates everday first baseman. The righthanded hitting Gaby Sanchez that can't hit righthanders. To make matters worse, the Pirates recently signed a bunch of nobody players to minor league deals and invited 5 of them to spring training. There's a reason no one heard of these players before, Neal. They can't play. On top of all this, at the recent Piratesfest, president Frank Coonelly went on record as saying the Pirates are in the upper-half of the league as far as revenue from their television deal. Meanwhile, media outlets have been busy disproving that statement about said television contract, which runs through 2019. Unless Nutting, Coonelly, and Huntington get their acts together and find a way to actually improve this team, I say lumps of coal all around for the 3 of them this Christmas. Let's Go Bucs!!!