Buccos negotiating with Dan Kolb

Hey, it can't hurt.

The Bucs have been talking for a few days with Kolb's agent.

Kolb's a hard throwing righty reliever, previously an All-Star closer with Milwaukee, and recently has bounced between Atlanta and back to the Brewers.

And while his numbers have not been as good as compared to previous years, his signing can do nothing more than fuel more competition with an already good bullpen.

Let's see if Littlefield can actually get Kolb to sign on the dotted line.

Bucs ownership changes; Big Frickin' Deal

I was like most Pirate fans today.

I saw the headline, Nutting To Replace McClatchy As Controlling Owner, and of course, I completely misunderstood what it really meant.

Because, of course, it means absolutely nothing to Pirate fans.

Why would I give a shit if the Nuttings own more of the Pirates than they used to ??

Bob Nutting showed his face today, let's all run out and buy season tickets !!!

McClatchy still runs the day-to-day operations, so what's the difference ??

Will they all of a sudden produce an influx of money ??

No ?? Then it doesn't mean a f#$king thing !!!!

Littlefield hasn't done a damn thing. If fact, if you count the signing of Jose Hernandez for the 37th time, they've gotten worse.

The ownership does some completely cosmetic crap today, thinking that fans will be gullable enough to really think it's going to make any difference.

I'm so tired of this spew coming from this group of malcontents, and I hope everyone else is as well.

I'll tell everyone this right now, if Littlefield does relatively nothing before the season starts, my Pirate coverage will be maybe once a week.

Lots of folks have given some nice compliments in relation to my Pens coverage, and I had intended of doing the same for the Bucs upcoming season, but not the way they're going now. I've got enough gray hairs as it is, I don't need any more.

If they make the trade for LaRoche, or maybe Chad Tracy, I'll reconsider it. But not with the status quo.

I'll resume my Steelers coverage as well. After all, it's time for draft talk for us non-playoff teams, right ??

Bucs Winter Meeting report; Head to The Roundtable

I hate duplicating effort as much as the next guy.

So rather than forcing my brain to regurgitate all of my negative thoughts towards the boneheads known as the Pirates' management, please head on over to the Pittsburgh Pirates Roundtable, a great idea started up by Cory, also the owner of A New Pirates Generation.

So what Cory has done is gather together 14 of the biggest Pirate windbags, er, I mean bloggers, onto one site to get up on our collective soapboxes and discuss the various topics of day concerning the Buccos.

As you can see on the site, so far we've just started up by discussing our expectations heading into the winter meetings, the Pirates' current situation in the NL Central, and what we'd do if we were the GM.

Now that the winter meetings are over (and why did Littlefield even go down there), Cory will have a new series of questions that the group will input our comments on, and I believe Cory will be posting that onto the site on Monday, Dec. 11th.

This should be an excellent forum for those of us interested in the Pirates in the blogosphere, so come on over and join us.

Winter Meetings Update: Might as well go to Epcot, Dave

That's right, fellow Bucco faithful. You ain't missed a damn thing.

[[ By the way, thanks to the Bucco Blog for the pic, couldn't resist. ]]

And judging by the ranting of the thousands of self-appointed experts around the baseball blogosphere, ain't much going to be happening when these guys go back home later this week.

I will admit this right up front, if all of this "no trading" banter that's been reportedly coming out of the Bucs' camp is some type of reverse psychological B.S. and actually leads to a decent trade for the Bucs, I'll be the first one to raise my hand and give all the props in the world to Dave and the boys.

But until that actually happens, just what the hell is their mindset in these negotiations ??

You've been saying for a few months that you covet a power hitting 1B and RF, and a RHP.

OK, how do you expect to get ANYTHING decent if you supposedly WON'T trade any of your four starting pitchers, nor your closer ??

Has Humberto Cota suddenly become a hot trade commodity that we weren't aware of ??

I've really been trying to take all of these rumors and their supposed comments from the GM's with a grain of salt, but the more you hear of the same old song and dance, the more it ticks you off.

So anyway, I've heard about;

• Hawpe for Maholm straight up (as part of a 3 way with the Cubs as well)
• Hawpe for Maholm AND Gorzy (yeah, right)
• LaRoche for Gonzo
• LaRoche for Gonzo and Castillo
• Negotiations with FA Trot Nixon
• Gonzo or Torres to the Sox for ???

Sorry folks, the pessimism just continues for me.

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

Didn't ya just love the 180 degree turn that Michael Strahan did this week ?? First he publically calls out Plaxico Burress (which I totally concurred with, any Steeler fan could've told you that). Then he tries to cover his ass and do what all big-mouth overpaid athletes do, BLAME THE MEDIA !! Yeah, that's it, I'll blame the media, it's all their fault. Give me a frickin' break.

Speaking of things I loved to see, wasn't it lovely seeing USC look past UCLA, thereby ruining their national championship shot. You guys made a helluva run, but perhaps you need to finally get off of your high (Trojan) horse.

Even though I don't agree with it, I'm starting to get a sneaking suspicion that the human voters are going to have Florida play OSU for the championship. The "no rematch" philosophy, plus having a 12-1 SEC Champion play OSU, rather than a runner-up Big 10 team, seems to be will be a common theme.

Baseball's winter meetings begin today in Orlando. Still quite a few marquee free agents out there, but I'll be on the lookout for the trade discussions, and just how ridiculous Dave Littlefield's demands are this time why they won't happen for the Pirates.

Bud Selig's going to retire in 3 years when his contract expires. Doesn't really matter, they'll just select whatever knucklehead that will keep the ridiculous MLB economic environment as is.

Ridiculous signing of the week; Randy Wolf, he of the 69-60 career record, signs with the Dodgers for one year, 8 million clams.

Alex Ovechkin rammed Daniel Briere into the boards face first last night at the Cap Centre/USAir Arena/MCI Center/Verizon Center. He was tossed out with a game misconduct last night. Very interested to see if and how games he'll be suspended. I've read a couple of comparisons on the hit to Brooks Orpik's hit on Erik Cole last year. We'll just see if the NHL has the cojones to suspend one of it's golden boys.

Johnny Vermont (Leclair) is now on re-entry waivers, meaning that any team that claims him now only is on the hook for half of his remaining salary. I've been reading that the Blackhawks may claim him, as well as Dallas. I hope he'll go to a situation that fits him, he's a consummate pro.

Andre Roy was claimed by Tampa Bay. Whatever. File this one under the "no impact at all" section. You just can't have guys like Andre filling up roster spots nowadays.

Anyone else tired of hearing how much tape Ron Jaworski is looking at ??

Steelers play Tampa Bay at 4:15 today, talk about an anti-climatic atmosphere. I can just imagine the scalpers up and down General Robinson. Can't imagine them getting much for those tickets.

I wouldn't have imagined this earlier in the year, but is it just me, or is Coach Cowher's body language saying "get me the hell out of here" ??

Nice to see that Shaun Alexander is back up and running, now that I'm frickin' eliminated from my fantasy football league.

Bucs at the Winter Meetings; Yawn....

Sometimes I'm amazed that I have become so jaded as a Pirates fan.

I mean, baseball has been a major part of my life since I was about five years old (that was 1969, for those of you scoring at home). I've played baseball or softball every year since then, including my 20 years in the Navy, up until about four years ago, when I hung up my spikes for good.

That's why it irritates the hell out of me having to endure the incompetence and outright ignorance of the Pirates ownership group and management.

I have to give some credit here where it's due. My anger for years now has been directed at MLB itself, as well as the evil empires of New York, Boston, and the other big spender teams. Granted, certainly, the economics of MLB does indeed give relatively little hope for small market teams every year. However, my good buddy Pojo Risin has been telling me for years now that I shouldn't be angry at the Yankees, per se, but rather at the dipshit-edness of the Pirates' leadership. Poj, I'm here to fall on my sword and finally admit that you are 100% correct.

The Pirates have received tens of millions of dollars by the big spenders of MLB, in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreements' luxury tax and revenue sharing. It has been widely speculated, if not admitted by Kevin McClatchy, that the Pirates did NOT spend those millions of dollars on improving the product on the field, as they are supposed to be doing, per the CBA, but rather they've been using those millions on paying off debt.

If that were not bad enough, a General Manager worth a crap could at least swing a decent trade or two each year and/or sign a decent free agent to fill the team's needs every year. Is that too much to ask, I should think not. Well, not in Pittsburgh, my friends. GM Dave Littlefield is now at the unenviable position that he is now the laughing stock of all aspects of the baseball world, that being the press (check out this blistering assessment from CBS Sportsline's Larry Dobrow), the Pirate fans, and most importantly, his peers around MLB.

It has been common knowledge that Littlefield notoriously expects WAY too much during trade discussions, so much so that it has gotten to the point that GM's simply don't waste their time attempting to make a deal with Pittsburgh.

And what of the free agents ?? If you're a decent MLB player, probably making between 5 and 10 million per year in this inflated MLB market, why would you possibly want to sign with a team whose ownership doesn't spend it's money on the on-field product (unless you count bobbleheads and fireworks) ??

That leaves the fans. The Bucs got a gift from good 'ol Bud Selig when they awarded the '06 All-Star Game to the Bucs in PNC Park, even though Pittsburgh had just hosted the game 12 years earlier in '94 at Three Rivers. But let's not be naive. Everyone who has an ounce of common sense knows exactly what that was all about. McClatchy and his cohorts desperately needed a fanbase boost as their streak of losing seasons hit the decade mark. Of course, the Pirates parlayed the awarding of the All-Star Game into a much-needed marketing ploy for the purchasing of season tickets. You want All-Star tickets ?? You give us your money for season tickets. And of course, season tickets are those seats that are previously paid for, and always counted as attendance, even when those people don't actually go to the game.

The '06 All-Star game was lauded as a great success, which I have to say, I have no reason to disagree with that, it looked as much. And the Pirates reap the rewards of not only the millions of dollars that come along with the hosting of the All-Star Game, but the thousands of season tickets that were bought to garner those All-Star Game tickets, tickets that probably would not have been sold otherwise.

But now we're preparing for the '07 season. The '06 All-Star game is history. The season ticket purchase requirements have been fulfilled. No longer does Pirates ownership have the All-Star Game to use as a crutch for season tickets.

So where does that leave them ??

At the turnstile, I'm sure I'm not the only one who believes that the season attendance for the Bucs is definitely going to take a hit. There simply aren't enough bobblehead and firework nights, combined with the snowballing effect of now 14 straight losing years, to justify 30,000 fans coming to the ballpark night after night.

Trades ?? Littlefield as recently said that "it's likely that we won't talk trade for any of those four starters", in reference to Duke/Snell/Maholm/Gorzelanny. So most likely you'll see a trade made to garner talent to the level of, oh I don't know, Tony Graffanino.

Free agents ?? We've already beat that dead horse. All you need to do is look at the FA's that the Bucs signed last year (Randa, Burnitz) to get a snippet of what's to be expected this year. As was already stated, don't expect anyone that's going to make a difference to sign on the dotted line.

You know what ?? After typing all of this, not I'm not so amazed that I'm so jaded.

But you go get 'em in Orlando anyway, Dave. Bring back some Mickey Mouse ears.

Slow 'Burgh news day - Hey, it happens

• The Buccos are hot on the trail of a free agent pitcher. Jason Schmidt ?? Yeah, right. Barry Zito ?? Don't even try it. Uh, try Tomo Ohka. Excuse me if don't show the least bit of interest in that one.
• There are whispers that the Buccos are talking with Jeff Suppan again. After his postseason performance last year ?? I mean, why would they even try ?? Do they enjoy the rejection ??
• Pretty harsh (but justified) article about Dave Littlefield on CBS Sportsline. Wow, the first sentence says it all; "The Pittsburgh Pirates might be one of baseball's two or three franchises truly beyond resuscitation, and I can tell you why in three words: Dave Motherbleepin' Littlefield."
• Am I the only one that is completely skipping reading articles on what's wrong with the Steelers ??
• Isn't it freakin' amazing, at game 12, that there are already articles talking about who the Super Bowl Champion Steelers should take in next year's NFL Draft??
• Condolences to the Bettis family, as Jerome's father passed away after suffering a heart attack yesterday.
• 3 weeks from today, for the City of Pittsburgh slots license decision by the PA Gaming Board. Let the mudslinging begin, I fully expect this to get nasty, LOTS of cash at stake.
• Good commentary by KDKA's John Steigerwald on Sidney Crosby, and his feeling that Crosby could be the best player in the world, even at age 19.
• Might have been just me, but damn if that Fleury bobblehead wasn't a dead ringer.
• Gary Bettman estimated that the Pens sale to Jim Balsillie should be final in 2-3 weeks. Blackberry's for everyone !! [[ Trust me fellas, I work with Blackberry's for a living, they're frickin' addicting, they don't call them Crackberry's for nothin'. ]]

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. However, perhaps it's time to stop one of those Thanksgiving traditions, that being the Lions playing on it. Although a lot of times the Lions play better on Thanksgiving than on other gamedays, it's getting a little ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, rumors are flying that Matt Millen may be finally out of a job. Better late than never, I always say.

So not only did 70 million homes not receive the Broncos/Chiefs game on Thursday night, due to their cable system not carrying the NFL Network, now we find out that even some of those that do have the channel did not show the game, due to the fact that the NFL added on another surcharge for showing live NFL games. Thanks to ProFootballTalk.com for the link. Are we that far away from Pay-per-view NFL games ??

If you want to watch what's known as a "slobberknocker", watch Steelers/Ravens today. The Steelers rivalry with the Ravens has easily supplanted the Browns rivalry in recent years, and today's matchup looks to be no different.

With six weeks still left to go before the NFL playoffs, it's still way too early to speculate on teams that are in and those that are out. We are at the point, however, that those who are on the outside looking in, have little to no room for error (you listening, Pittsburgh ??)

USC sure as hell made a big statement that they deserve a shot at the title after their convincing win vs. Notre Dame yesterday. I still think that Michigan is the better of the two teams, but who knows, the computer rankings may just boost USC up to #2.

Let's just see how good the Bears really are today, and if they can beat New England, they've gone up a rung on my ladder.

So much for discipline when it comes to MLB free agents. Carlos Lee gets 100 million for 6 years. Slap hitter Juan Pierre gets 45 million for 5 years, 14 million for 3 years for Alex Gonzalez, 18 million for 4 years for Justin Speier.

So where does that leave the Buccos ?? Absolutely nowhere, apparently. When the offseason started, the Bucs priorities were a left-handed power bat, a right-handed starter, and a couple other ham-n-eggers. Naturally, those commodities aren't going to fall in Dave Littlefield's lap. So, the general consensus was that he'd have to part with one of his 4 young starting pitchers (most likely Gorzelanny or Maholm) or one of the closers. However, now we're reading from Dejan's column today that apparently good 'ol Dave feels it's unlikely that he'll trade any of the starters. Just what the hell do you plan on doing Dave, do a "Malkin" and hold prospective free agents hostage in your office until they sign a contract ?? Aw, that's OK, just keep the bobbleheads and fireworks coming, it's all good on the bottom line, isn't it.

Had to love the thugery at the end of the Caps/Thrashers game the other night. They wanted rivalries, they got it. But even if they don't modify the schedule to have all NHL teams play each other every year, they've got to do something about teams playing each other 3 times in two weeks. Talk about overkill.

You'd have to consider the Maple Leafs as overachievers so far this season, although they did open their Canadian wallets up some more in the offseason. But that's OK, I'm sure when the springtime comes, they'll fold like they've always done. Don't feel bad, Leafs fans, I'm sure that 40th anniversary party for not winning the Stanley Cup will be a doozy.

Don't look now, but those teams that were getting snickered at early in the year, like Ottawa, Boston, and Philly, are quickly playing much better.

Early NHL voting shows Crosby and Ovechkin #1 and #2 among Eastern Conference forwards, with Malkin at #7 right now. Count me as among those who'd love to see a line with those 3 guys on it.

Isles 3, Pens 1; No Sid again, Power Play remains putrid, Malkin possibly reinjured

In all sports, statistics can sometimes be very deceiving.

Such was the case today on Long Island, where the Pens, despite getting 37 shots on goal, played very mediocre offensively in losing to the Islanders 3-1.

37 shots to a team that quite often struggles getting pucks on net, when looking at the stat sheet at face value, looks to be a decent offensive effort.

Not so fast.

Much like shooting 3o footers on the basketball court, the vast majority of shots that the Pens even got credit for were quite the low-percentage variety.

Even the goal scored by Geno in the 3rd period was one that DiPietro probably should have had.

It could be argued that the best shot on goal was the one that Geno threw in. By the way, rumor has it that Malkin will join the Pirates after the Penguins' season ends, only to be traded at the deadline by Dave Littlefield for Bobby Hill and a player to be named later.

However, Geno went directly to the locker room after getting nailed on a clean hit by Brendan Witt directly on his left (previously injured) shoulder. However, it didn't appear that his shoulder was hanging down much at all, so let's just hope that he'll be alright for tomorrow night's game.

But surely, his Penguins teammates stuck up for him. Uh, disregard that, absolutely no one came to his defense. Great comraderie boys, just great.

And how about that power play, huh ?? Zero for nine, well you guys are consistent, I'll give ya that much. But are you guys actually aiming for the D-men's feet ???

We all know that Sid is an amazing playmaker, that's a given. But the inability to even get the puck in the opponent's end on a man advantage is getting ridiculous.

The Pens had a frickin' 6-on-3 power play in the 3rd period, let me repeat that, a 6-on-3 power play, and got off absolutely zero shots.

I also attribute that to the Pens, once again, trying to make the perfect pass, rather than getting the pucks on net and pouncing on the rebounds.

Well, no rest for the weary. The Rangers come to town on Saturday night, surely still remembering the loss they took to the Pens one week ago. I'm sure they'll have absolutely no sympathy if Sid or Geno, or both, are not able to go.

Sunday tidbits at The Confluence

• Can't say much more about OSU-Michigan, 42-39, wow. Doesn't come very often that the game lives up to the hype, but that game sure as hell did. I'd have to credit the great offenses, because they really made their opposing defenses look average, which they certainly are not.
• Count me in as one of those who wouldn't mind seeing a rematch for the national championship. Those are the two best teams in the country, and they should play again to prove that. USC has made a surprisingly good run, and certainly, if they beat ND and UCLA, they'll make a case themselves for #2. To be honest, I'd feel stronger for a Notre Dame case, if they beat USC, because I think they've played a harder schedule, but since Michigan waxed their ass earlier in the year, that just makes my case for a OSU-Michigan rematch that much stronger.
• Gotta give a few props at least for Pitt. They looked damn good, in the first half anyway, against West Virginia. That included maybe the play of the year, with the block of the year, on that punt return. But Pitt's defense has WAY too many holes for a great running team like WVU.
• And hey, how about those GM meetings, Bucs fans !!!!! What a crock of bovine feces. Bob Smizik of the PG writes an excellent article this morning about the sorry state of affairs in the cash grab known as the Pirates front office. Here was the kicker, word came out from the meetings that the Marlins were interesting in trading promising Mike Jacobs to the Bucs for Chris Duffy. But of course, our GM-extraordinaire Dave Littlefield said that the Bucs have no plans to trade him. So let me get this straight, if you won't trade Duffy, just who would you trade ?? What a joke this team has become.
• The Red Sox paid $51 million JUST TO TALK to Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, who isn't even guaranteed to be a #1 starter !?!? And you're telling me that all is well in Major League Baseball ???
• More ridiculous signings for ridiculously average players; 2B Mark Derosa - 3 years, $13 Million with the Cubs; 3B Wes Helms - 2 years, $5.45 Million with the Marlins; 2B Jose Valentin - 1 year, $3.8 Million with the Mets.
• Surprise, surprise, Randy Moss wants out of Oakland.
• Normally, I wouldn't think twice about the Steelers heading to Cleveland today and walking out with a win, but with the way things have went this year, I'm not surprised at anything that happens with that team.
• Bold prediction time; Dallas puts loss #1 on the Colts today. Just a hunch.
• I think the Ottawa Senators need to submit a request to the NHL to play Buffalo for the rest of the year, after beating them for the second time in as many meetings last night.
• It's still about 40 days away, but I can't wait until my family and I head to the Igloo on Dec. 29th for Leafs/Pens. Home for the holidays, sold-out crowd, great atmosphere with a couple thousand Leaf fans sure to attend, and five rows from the ice, you can't beat that.
• He might be getting long in the tooth, but Brendan Shanahan still has a pretty potent shot.
• The NHL is debutting the "Rail Cam", that will run on a small rail system situated just above the glass on one side of the arena. Now that will be interesting to see. The one problem that I can see with it is that the height of the glass is not uniform in all NHL arenas, nor is the height of the glass the same at all locations around the boards. For instance, the glass height near the goal is higher that closer to center ice. So we'll see how it goes, but I applaud the NHL for taking some steps to make the television product more attractive to potential NHL fans.

Pirates activity so far at the GM Meetings

[[ Crickets chirping ]]





Major League Baseball - "I Live For This"

Unless you're a Pirates fan, that is.

Gee whiz, 14 seasons on the books

Today marks the end of the regular season for the Buccos, and the end of the 14th consecutive losing season as well.

My son turns 13 next week, he's an All-Star baseball player in his own right, and of course, is a Bucco fan (read: brainwashed).

He's never seen the Buccos even as a decent team, much less a Division champ during the early 90's. He comes over while I'm watching a Buccos game, shrugs his shoulders, and simply states, "they suck Dad". And you know what, I can't argue with him !!

But hey, let's hope Freddy gets at least one hit today, I think that should be enough to keep him on top to win the batting crown.

I'll get back up on my Buccos soapbox in the coming weeks for what their offseason should look like, and what it most likely will look like. Something as convoluted as administering the roster of the Pittsburgh Pirates takes time.

After all, after reading today's article from Dejan about McClatchy, sounds like he's not going anywhere. Combine that with the statement earlier last month that Littlefield is staying as well.

What's it going to take to smack some sense into this organization ??