Pirates to release reliever Bautista

OK so that's not a surprise. Good luck to DennyB if he is in fact gone like dessert at weight watchers.

Here I was all hyped for something big - a non-tender of a big name. Well well well...

Why am I worried about cutting it close for another midnight deadline?  This couldn't have been done this afternoon?

well well well who were you thinking of, POH?

Two Bautista's gone.  Good luck Denny wherever you go

Ok--who will be the poster to say this is a terrible move that condemns the Pirates to another losing season?  :)

POH

rarely is big name not tenured and only then when you have someone at the end of their career.

One can catch a ball, one can catch 500 balls, and then one can catch 5000 balls, each ball you catch hit off of the bat increases your awareness to sound and direction of the ball off the bat.

I do not believe you can teach that.  you can teach one to pay attention to how the batter is getting himself ready to hit, you can teach a player configure what the pitcher is doing to the batter vs. the batter wanting to do with the ball.

Teaching those things will highten ones awareness to where the ball might go, the rest is repitition and God given talent.

I think that is the first time I have ever come across the idea you can teach that, you move on the sound.  We have been blessed here because we had the chance to watch two of the guys noted most as knowing where the ball is going earliest as possible: Clemnete and Maz.  That was written a lot about both.

POH

Also it makes little sense to not tenure a big name because you hope to get something in a trade.  If you non tenure him you get nothing for him.

Remember in 1992 when the Pirates did not tender BB?  I believe the reasoning was, "What if he accepts".

JAL, I am guessing she was thinking of your man.  Jal now that thier is something for them to come out of the woodwork for there really is a chance for guessing who will be the first whiner.

Orioles set to non-tender Daniel Cabrera..  

weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports***/2008/12/os_tender_deadline_blues.html

The guy has a WORLD of Talent, but is a right-handed Oliver Perez.  Watch the Mets or Cards sign him.

And know Boris and Bonds, they wouldn't have, so they could have taken the Giants #1 pick in 1993.  I'm sure there is a draft list of 1993, and we can talk about how we would have gotten..

Letting Bonds go away for 0 is committing treason.  

@JAL - "Ok--who will be the poster to say this is a terrible move that condemns the Pirates to another losing season?"  :)

JAL! That seemed kind of mean-spirited for you - guess that's why you put the li'l smiley face behind it ... Of course, we've handled our share of the naysayers the past three days, though, haven't we?

I saw the one post today, poo-poohing the Vazquez signing, and I felt like writing back: "I respect your right to say whatever you want on here ... AND THAT'S JAPANESE FOR I DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU SAID!"

CAPN

Good point--I had forgotten about that one

WSB--good point too

Bay

Oh, guess i am turning into Scrooge--best start looking for the ghosts to appear before my eyes :)

@Bay: <<"I respect your right to say whatever you want on here ... AND THAT'S JAPANESE FOR I DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU SAID!">>

That almost made eggnog come out my nose. Srsly. LMAO. (and at the risk of getting chatty, did you see my demand on the OS link?)

JAL - remember, my friend, my line of work. I'm not a coldhearted person, but when we hear a report of an accident, we ask "was anyone trapped? Did something catch on fire?" and we say it with hope.

Same with being this close to a deadline. Just looking for the sky to fall. Not that it should, but it would make great news.

Capn - I can just hear you say that: Couldn't this have been done this afternoon?

May I be so bold to say that if women ran the MLB, these dudes would have been tendered and signed a week ago? (sorry guys).

Yes, Ma'amy, Ms. Plenty, I stopped and looked you in the eye and everything, Ma'am ... consider it done (see my reply post in the OS ... man, that makes me feel like I'm in a new TV show or something!)

Have you dabbed up the eggnose, I mean, Egg Nog?

<<did you see my demand on the OS link>>

Can anyone say control freak???

Bay, you goof.  Eggnose.  *sigh* I thought this was a baseball blog! ;)

@SirLox - "Bay, you goof.  Eggnose.  *sigh* I thought this was a baseball blog!" ;)

Oops! I goofed again! At least I didn't go off on a Johnny Carson-type monologue like I did this morning!

I thought maybe Ron D was going to hang around for awhile, selling circus tickets! I about cracked up when Arriba asked who took the caps lock off his keys! Actually, Arriba, I think Ron D has reformed that much :-)

It was truly nice to see him drop in again ... srsly

@Plenty - "at the risk of getting chatty ..."

Couldn't resist just posting one itty-bitty YouTube here, for all you chatters out there ... This is a hoot. Been a few Yankees dollars since we last saw this:

www.youtube.com/watch

@ Bay <<It was truly nice to see him drop in again ... srsly>>

A lot of the folks that were around till the end of the season have been chiming in. Just takes a little bit of baseball news.

@Bay--<Ron D was going to hang around for awhile>>

As long as no one engages him in his negativity he has nothing to say but the same repetitive stuff as NN (negative naysayer)...And as per the World Famous G-Man says All you need to do is

Page

Down

Oh, actual baseball news:  I didn't see this posted earlier, so if it was, my apologies, but Raul Ibanez signed with the Phillies for 3 years and $30mil.

philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/.../article.jsp

Frankly, I kinda scratch my head.  Sure, he's put up great RBI and OPS numbers the past three years, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that those were his three best years.  A 36 year old, who made $5.5 mil per year on his last contract is now signed for three more years, through his 39yr old season?  I don't have the stats in front of me, but he has to be on a downward slope soon.

I guess they rationalize it as "Well, if we're gonna spend $30 anyway, we may as well give it to this guy over here, instead of to the guy who was on our team already."  Whose main fault is being streaky, and slow. *shrug*  I guess that's why I don't run a baseball club.

SirLox - No, sire. It just shows that you're starting to think like Pirate management ... frugal, my man, frugal! And, come on, like you say, 36 years old, $30 million and he's only Raul "Frickarino" (no relation to Shane) Ibanez!

You know, I wish Denny Bautista well on his future endeavors - and I know he can't do anything about that puss of his anymore than the new guy can about his cheesy moustache and (Thank you for this, Ron D) his resemblance to Freddie Mercury ...

But Den, let's try to get 1st base covered to make a better impression next time out! A Diva you weren't.

Yup.  His stats are pretty good for the last three years, ( www.baseball-reference.com/.../ibanera01.shtml ) but isn't part of this game to do future projections?  Heck, I guess with the Buccos getting what they get for $6 and $7 mil, $10 mil for a 15/85 man wouldn't be too bad, would it...

The other thing I've heard is that Ibanez is fairly consistent, but I haven't researched that.  Let's face it.  For a young club and a tight payroll, he's no fit, but for a club looking for that piece to repeat, and save some scratch while doing so, the contract prolly looks cheap.

Ibanez is a major risk for 3 years and anywhere near that kind of dough.  There are only 6 or so teams in the league that could take that risk.  

Personally, I bet they are looking to dump him in 2010 or 11 and eating some salary.

Oh, and I have to give credit to DK for my position on this one, but I refuse to call the Pirates a "small market" team.  Sorry.  That's just an excuse.  "Tight payroll," "frugal," "smaller budget," sure.  But if Milwaukee can be consistently competitive, so can we.  Pgh will support a baseball team that wins.

Ant's Marching

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www.youtube.com/watch