ha

This really does need its own color…

Chris Chambliss will be Wedge’s hitting coach.

This discussion is going on in the Rivero thread. But I’d say that Hagadone and Kluber are locks.

For pitchers, Hagadone and Kluber would seem to be locks. You could have a discussion about Miller, Espino. On the fringes would be guys like Jose Flores and Travis Turek.

For positional players, I don’t see a single lock. If Goedert gets rostered I think it says something about the organizations internal evaluation of the Nix/Phelps trials at 3B. The team only has two catchers on the 40-man roster right now (Marson and Santana), so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them add one more. The internal rule 5 eligible catchers are uninspiring (Matt McBride maybe?), so perhaps this is a spot that goes to someone outside the organization. Then, aside from Goedert and McBride, the only guy even worth discussing is Josh Rodriguez. Given his primary duties at SS, he could be an option, but he would join the Phelps/Nix/Donald/Valbuena utility crew pretty quickly. The outfield rule 5 eligibles are completely without interest, and any changes to the current crop of outfielders on the 40-man will likely involve swapping someone in for Jordan Brown and/or Shelley Duncan.

see Barfield, Josh

I’m never leaving school! WOOOO!

He plays well there.

Sort of. The lesser point was that we didn’t think that would happen. The greater point was, we should have gone ahead and let it happen regardless. The greatest point was, Marte never got 25 starts even for one month — not even after his great 2009 campaign for Columbus and subsequent call-up to a team that was beyond hopeless — let alone for six months, as you predict.

He won’t start for the Pirates, unless they are hell bent on moving Alvarez’s glove to first.