Plenty of star power among former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date but we start with the current player celebrating a birthday today. Pedro Alvarez turns 25 today. He was the first round draft pick of the Pirates in 2008, second overall. Pedro split his first season between high-A and AA, hitting .288 with 27 homers and 95 RBI’s. He moved to AAA for 2010 and in 66 games...

Hopefully this will be the beginning of something semi-regular and fun. Last night, Jon of McEffect, Jim of North Side Notch, and Cory of Three Rivers Burgh Blog joined me in a podcast to discuss the Pirates’ offseason and some other random things. Specific topics include: The additions of Clint Barmes, Rod Barajas, and Nate McLouth (for some reason we forgot Casey McGehee...

RumBunter post about the platoon of Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee.Clipped from: rumbunter.com (share this clip)

As spring training approaches, almost every player looking for a bounce-back season claims to be in the best shape of his life. Pirates infielder Casey McGehee is no exception; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Bill Brink tweeted on Thursday that the first-year Bucco has lost nearly 25 pounds and “cut [his] body fat in half.” The premise may be as clichéd as any in...

The Pirates and Casey McGehee have an arbitration hearing scheduled for Feb. 16 if they cannot agree on terms of a contract before that time.

MILWAUKEE It's hard to improve on a 96-victory season but Ron Roenicke is ready for the challenge. Roenicke heads into his second season at the Brewers' helm with a decidedly different look to his lineup, which will be without first baseman Prince Fielder, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and third baseman Casey McGehee. "Ninety-six wins (in 2011) is a lot of wins,"...

MILWAUKEE It's hard to improve on a 96-victory season but Ron Roenicke is ready for the challenge. Roenicke heads into his second season at the Brewers' helm with a decidedly different look to his lineup, which will be without first baseman Prince Fielder, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and third baseman Casey McGehee. "Ninety-six wins (in 2011) is a lot of wins,"...

Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee will soon head to Bradenton, Fla., as the Pirates' top candidates to man first base. The two have something else in common: They're Pittsburgh's only remaining unsigned players eligible for salary arbitration.

When I was writing about a possible long term Edwin Jackson deal the other day, I reached a point where I started thinking about how a long term deal would fit in with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ payroll commitments. A quick look at our Future Payroll page shows that the Pirates don’t have much committed beyond the 2012 season. In 2013 they have $6.5 M guaranteed. In 2014...

What separates a good fantasy player from a great one is the willingness to take on a risk. The risk could come in the form of a prospect, an untested rookie with tremendous upside. Or it could be the willingness to stream a pitcher, knowing that while the results could be rewarding, there’s also the chance that it could be disastrous. Today we’re going to look at risk...

Yesterday was the deadline for teams and arbitration eligible players to exchange salary figures for arbitration. The Pittsburgh Pirates reached pre-arbitration deals with six of the eight eligible players, and exchanged figures with the remaining two players. Here is a look at how each player did through arbitration, looking at the MLBTR estimates and the actual money that the players...

The Pirates have not yet reached agreements with their two remaining arbitration eligible players (Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee), but it looks like they will soon. Tuesday night was the deadline for arb-eligible players and teams to exchange 2012 salary figures. Jones asked for $2.5 million while the Pirates submitted $2.25 million. McGehee asked for $2.725 million and the Bucs...

It's the time of year where we get tons of non-news all at once! Evan Meek joined Jeff Karstens in avoiding arbitration today, signing an $875,000 contract. That leaves two guys left without deals: Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee. According to Rob Biertempfel, here are the terms the two sides have exchanged: #Pirates exchange salary figures with Garrett Jones ($2.25M/$2.5M...

It's the time of year where we get tons of non-news all at once! Evan Meek joined Jeff Karstens in avoiding arbitration today, signing an $875,000 contract. That leaves two guys left without deals: Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee. According to Rob Biertempfel, here are the terms the two sides have exchanged: #Pirates exchange salary figures with Garrett Jones ($2.25M/$2.5M...

The Pittsburgh Pirates reached pre-arbitration deals with five players in the last two days, but were unable to come to a deal with their final two players. The club exchanged arbitration figures today with those two players: Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee. According to the figures produced by Rob Biertempfel, the sides are close. Jones submitted for $2.5 M, while the Pirates submitted...

The Pirates have avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Evan Meek by signing him to a one-year deal worth $875K (with some performance-based incentives). This leaves just Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee for Pirates that are eligible for arbitration.

The Pirates avoided arbitration with two more pitchers today, reaching one-year deals with Jeff Karstens and Evan Meek. Karstens will make $3.1 million. This was his second arbitration eligible year; he made $1.1 million last season. Meek will make  $875,000 with an additional $25,000 possible in performance-based incentives. This was his first arbitration eligible year. Both...

The Pirates avoided arbitration with two more pitchers today, reaching one-year deals with Jeff Karstens and Evan Meek. Karstens will make $3.1 million. This was his second arbitration eligible year; he made $1.1 million last season. Meek will make  $875,000 with an additional $25,000 possible in performance-based incentives. This was his first arbitration eligible year. Both...

The Pirates agreed to terms with two more players today, leaving only Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee still needing contracts heading into arbitration. Reliever Evan Meek signed a 1-year deal worth $875,000 with the possibility of another $25,000 in bonuses. Meek pitched just 20 2/3 innings last season due to injuries. He posted a 3.48 ERA and a 7.4 K/9 ratio. Let’s hope Meek...

The Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to terms with right handed reliever Evan Meek, avoiding arbitration. Terms of the deal aren’t yet known, although Meek was projected to make $900 K by MLBTR. The deal leaves two players eligible for arbitration: Garrett Jones and Casey McGehee. More info will be added to this post as it comes.

The Pittsburgh Pirates had eight players without deals who were eligible for arbitration a few weeks ago, but have made some progress since, signing five of the eight to deals. Below are the arbitration eligible players who have agreed to contracts with the team. All deals have been for one year: Jeff Karstens - $3.1 million Charlie Morton - $2.445 million Joel Hanrahan - $4.1...

tweeted: Not a bad deal for Charlie, who is coming off a breakout season (10-10, 3.83 ERA). This was his first arbitration eligible year. Morton made $441,000 in 2011. The 2012 projected payroll remains a little over $46 million.  The remaining arbitration eligible Pirates are Garrett Jones, Jeff Karstens, Casey McGehee, and Evan Meek. Joel Hanrahan agreed to a $4.1M deal this...

tweeted: Not a bad deal for Charlie, who is coming off a breakout season (10-10, 3.83 ERA). This was his first arbitration eligible year. The 2012 projected payroll remains a little over $46 million.  The remaining arbitration eligible Pirates are Garrett Jones, Jeff Karstens, Casey McGehee, and Evan Meek. Joel Hanrahan agreed to a $4.1M deal this morning.  ©2012 Raise the...

The Pirates aggred to a one year, $4.1 million with Joel Hanrahan that has performance bonuses for games finished. That's pretty expected from all sides, as the club hasn't been discussing a long-term deal with Hanrahan. The club also came to terms with Chris Resop over the weekend, which leaves Garrett Jones, Charlie Morton, Jeff Karstens, Evan Meek, and Casey McGehee left...

Not a bad two days for closer Joel Hanrahan. Yesterday, he got married in Texas: tweeted: Today, he got a hefty raise, avoiding arbitration: tweeted: Congrats, Joel! This was Hanrahan’s second arbitration contract year – he made $1.4M last year. The $4.1M figure is about what people estimated he’d get, and includes a few incentives depending on number of games...