Piratefest and other things

Piratefest kicks off today and if it’s anything like Piratefest from three years ago, there’s going to be a lot of bored Pittsburghers in Hines Ward jerseys wandering around this weekend, just dying for anything sports-related to happen. Whoever schedules Piratefest for this week every year is a genius.

This big news from today is the unveiling of the new alternate jerseys, which will replace the horrific red things the Pirates wore the last two years. They’re supposed to be shown to the media at lunchtime and the Piratefest crowd around dinner. I’ll try to post some pics if they show up on the web at lunch. I also want to note that we have a commenter, K, who says that while they only announced new alts, they’re going to be unveiling a whole new uniform set that goes back to the early ’90s. I don’t really have any reason not to believe K, but no one else seems to have this information. Since the team would have to clear a new uniform set with the league, I would think someone have made a little more knowledge available to the public. Then again, Paul Lukas does say the Pirates and Rangers will be debuting new uniform “sets” today, so take that for what it’s worth. My guess is that if the Pirates don’t unveil new uniforms today, they will within the next few years at a point when the front office thinks they’ll be competitive again to try and shed the image of the past two decades. Think about the Rays, who kicked around the idea of changing their name for two or three years, but didn’t move on it until before 2008.

Anyways, if you’re going to be at Piratefest and can get some awesome pictures or hear anything interesting in the Q&A, I’d love to hear about it, so go and post it in the forum. Piratefest already has a thread there, so let’s start utilizing the power of the new WHYGAVS.

Also, Keith Law has posted his top 100 prospects at ESPN, but you have to pay for the last 75. Andrew McCutchen is the only Pirate in the top 25, at #18. I think Pedro Alvarez comes in somewhere in the 30s, as Law has him third among third basemen. He also has the Pirates somewhere outside the top 10 systems right now, as he only ranked their top five prospects (and put Tabata ahead of Alvarez). If someone does have insider, I’d like to know where Tabata and Alvarez actually clock in in Law’s top 100.