Jim Sullivan is at mini-camp and today he’s filed a report about Steve Pearce. In it, Neal Huntington basically says, “If Steve Pearce doesn’t learn how to hit breaking pitches, he’s going back to AAA and Nyjer Morgan will start.”
Charlie, meanwhile, wonders how Huntington can say that Pearce needs work and Morgan doesn’t. I don’t think that’s the message here. I think that the message is that Pearce can get better, while Morgan’s as good as he’s going to be. I’m just guessing here, but it seems like maybe the front office has an issue with Pearce’s approach to working on his breaking ball problem or with his work ethic or something like that and they’re saying, “Look, maybe you’re better than Nyjer Morgan right now and maybe you’re not, but there shouldn’t be a question about that and until you can show us why, you’re staying in AAA.”
Meanwhile, Andruw Jones was released by the Dodgers yesterday and I see a lot of Pirate fans bringing him up as a free agent signing. I think that’s a bad idea, but only because I’m honestly not sure how much of a bounceback he’s going to have. He was struggling in Atlanta before he left for LA and he’s incredibly out of shape right now. He started his career at a very young age and it seems like maybe he just peaked very early. Let me put it this way: I’d rather see Nyjer Morgan in left field than Andruw Jones and I think Morgan might be a more useful offensive player. Since most of you know how I feel about Morgan’s abilities, that should be a pretty strong statement.
Finally, there’s a nice piece about Brandon Moss in the PG. Sounds like his recovery is coming along a little better than initially expected, which is good to hear.
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