I haven’t written a whole ton about Spring Training, so let’s take a Sunday to get caught up on some reading about what’s going on in and around the Pirates thus far in camp.
David Todd has an excellent interview with Jim Benedict up at Bucs Dugout, which you can listen to or read. There’s lots of interesting stuff there, from him watching John Holdzkom throw in AA last year while helping Gerrit Cole on his rehab, to Arquimedes Caminero coming into camp with the Pirates expecting to work with the coaching staff on making adjustments. You should stop reading me summarize it and go read or listen to it for yourself.
Speaking of Caminero, he blasted his way through the Yankees’ lineup on Friday, generating eight swinging strikes and three strikeouts in an inning of work. As noted in that tweet, Clint Hurdle noticed. Charlie Wilmoth notes that Caminero is out of options, which could mean that either Jared Hughes or John Holdzkom end up demoted to Triple-A to start the season, though I personally am wondering how long the Stolmy Pimentel experiment will continue to run.
Rob Biertempfel has a nice look at how good the Pirates are at hitting fastballs and how that changes other teams’ approach to them.
Tim Williams has an update on Jameson Taillon’s Tommy John rehab.
Let’s watch the Pirates mash some taters into unknown quantities of Florida breeze: Tony Sanchez, Jaff Decker (the headline on this story made me want to make a joke about fleas, but I promise I won’t), Jung-Ho Kang to deeeep right-center, and Pedro Alvarez goes oppo while Travis Sawchik muses on the meaning of his doing so.
A programming notes: the Under 500 landing page has been updated with every player that I’ve written about so far. I tailed off a bit more than I would’ve liked in February, but I’m going to pick things back up this week. Since we’re heading into the fringes of the roster, I think I might be able to get a couple a day done, at least on some days.
And finally: the Pirates and Blue Jays play on MLB.tv at 1:07 this afternoon. I haven’t gotten a chance to watch the Bucs yet this spring, but I think that streak might end today.
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