Baseball America released their top 20 prospects from the 2010 Eastern League (scouting reports for subscribers here), and named Bryan Morris and Rudy Owens...

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A few updates in the early stages of the manager search from Chuck Finder: -There were reports on Twitter that Andy Van Slyke was at...

Team USA� 10,� Panama� 2

Team USA finished their first round play in the Pan American tournament with a victory over Panama, to give them a 5-0 record.

Playing at Roberto Clemente Stadium in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the Americans jumped out to a great start, batting around in the top of the 1st, bringing in 4 runs.� SS Chase d'Arnaud, 1B Eric Hosmer (Royals) and Todd Frazier (Reds) each contributed an RBI.� Mike Trout (Royals) led off the top of the 4th with a solo home run, bringing the score to 5-0.

Danny Duffy (Royals) made the start for Team USA.� He gave up a walk to the first batter he faced, then sailed through the rest of the first three innings.� Panama scored one run off Duffy in the bottom of the frame on two doubles.� They threatened again in the 5th, but Duffy got out of the jam without any more runs scoring.

Chase d'Arnaud got Team USA going again in the 6th with a triple, and Trout's single brought d'Arnaud across the plate.� Trout stole second base, then Pacheco was hit by a pitch.� That brought up Brad Eldred (Rockies) who pushed the score to 9-1 with his 3-run homer over the left field wall.

Bryan Henry (Diamondbacks) relieved Duffy to begin the 6th inning.� He gave up one run after a lead-off triple for Panama's second run of the game.� In the 7th, Henry got into a jam, but a timely double play ended the inning without a run scoring.

D'Arnaud and Trout combined to give Team USA one more run in the 9th.� With one out, d'Arnaud doubled, then moved to third base on a throwing error.� Trout's second RBI single of the game plated d'Arnaud with the USA's 10th run.

Team USA now moves on to Round Two, after a day off on Thursday.� Both Team USA and the Cuban team (in Group B) finished Round One with 5-0 records.� So far, three teams have been eliminated:� Colombia, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles.

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Also today:

Canada 10,� Netherlands Antilles� 1 --� The Canadians ran over the Netherlands' Antilles team, holding them to just 4 hits and one run.� That one run came in the 7th inning on a walk, a double, and an RBI ground out.� Scott Diamond made the start for Canada and pitched 4 innings, allowing one hit and striking out 5 batters.� Five more pitchers got in one inning each, including former Pirate farmhand Dave Davidson. Davidson pitched the top of the 9th, and gave up one hit and a walk, but did not let a run score.�� Meanwhile, the Canadian batters were having their way with the Netherland Antilles' pitchers, putting up 12 hits.� The scoring started with CF Adam Stern's 3-run homer in the 2nd inning.� In the 3rd, they added another 3 runs with an RBI double by LF Adam Loewen, and an RBI ground out by Stern.� RF Jamie Romak added another home run, plus a single, accounting for 2 more RBI.

Team Canada will have Thursday off, then begin second round play on Friday, though their opponent has yet to be determined.

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Team USA� 8,� Dominican Republic� 3

SS Chase d'Arnaud's 2-run double sparked a 5-run 3rd inning that led Team USA over the Dominican Republic in the Pan American tournament in Puerto Rico tonight.� The Dominicans scored a run in each of the first two innings, to take a 2-0 lead off American starter Chris Archer (Cubs).� Team� USA tied the score in the bottom of the 2nd inning, then burst out with 5 runs in the 3rd off Dominican starter Bartolo Colon. Mike Trout began the fun with a single, and moved to second base on a wild pick-off throw.� Cord Phelps' single scored Trout.� Phelps moved up to second base on the throw in from the outfield and advanced to third base on a fly out by Mike Moustakas (Royals).� DH Brad Eldred (Rockies) walked, then an RBI single by 1B Eric Hosmer (Royals) drove in Phelps.� Todd Frazier (Reds) worked a walk to load the bases, then C Erik Kratz picked up an RBI (Eldred) when he was hit on the hand by a pitch.� (Kratz was ok and stayed in the game.)� After another out, d'Arnaud's single up the middle scored Frazier and Hosmer, and Team USA had a 7-2 lead.� Each team scored one run in the 4th, and that was all the scoring for the rest of the game.

Brad Eldred also singled, scoring again.� Eric Hosmer had 3 hits and an RBI in the game.

Archer pitched 4 innings and allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 4 hits and 3 walks, with 5 strikeouts.� Reliever Nick Hill (Mariners) pitched the next three innings and held the Dominicans scoreless.� Anthony Carter (White Sox) and Tim Collins (Royals) each pitched one scoreless inning to wrap things up.

Team USA wraps up their first-round play on Wednesday evening, facing Panama.

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Cuba� 4,� Canada� 2 --� RF Jamie Romak doubled twice, and one was a ground rule double that bounced over the left field wall to drive in both of Canada's runs in the 4th inning to give Team Canada the first lead of the game.� But Cuba got one run back in the bottom of the 4th.� They scored 3 more runs in the 6th with two outs, when a bases-loaded double cleared the bases to take the win. Reliever Tom Boleska pitched a scoreless bottom of the 8th inning, allowing no hits and striking out 2 batters.

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Puerto Rico� 3,� Colombia 2 --� 3B Ramon Vasquez had 2 hits (a single and a double) and SS Luis Figueroa added 3 hits including a solo home run in Puerto Rico's victory.

As I predicted in July, Neil Walker's high BABIP eventually fell back to earth. However, a dramatically improved walk rate helped keep him afloat once the hits stopped falling in for him. This bodes well for Walker's future.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have started their search for a new manager today, interviewing former Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge.  According to Rob Biertempfel, Pirates...

Now that the season is officially over, here is a graph to visually display just how bad the Pirates were this year. The green line is the team WAR for each of the 18 losing seasons. I highlighted approximate replacement level (I used 48.5 wins for this) in blue and the unattainable 81 wins in red. I used the WAR from Baseball-Reference for this, as FanGraphs' version of WAR only goes back to 2002. As you can see, 2010 was the worst season we have seen during this losing streak.

Team USA� 13,� Colombia� 6

Team USA recorded 19 hits on their way to 13 runs as they ran over Colombia.� SS Chase d'Arnaud collected 3 of the hits, with one RBI, and C Erik Kratz and DH Brad Eldred (Rockies) had 2 hits each.� Team USA got going with a big 7-run 3rd inning.� 2B Brian Barden (Marlins) opened the inning with a double into left center field.� D'Arnaud grounded to second base, moving Barden to third.� RF Brett Jackson (Cubs) and CF Mike Trout (Angels) both walked, loading the bases.� 3B Mike Moustakas (Royals) drove in two runs (Barden and Jackson) with a single that slipped into right field.� Brad Eldred added a run with another RBI single that brought in Trout.� 1B Eric Hosmer (Royals) also singled, plating Moustakas.� Then LF Jamie Hoffman (Dodgers) tripled into right center, scoring both Eldred and Hosmer.� Hoffman scored when Kratz grounded to short, and the Americans had a 7-0 lead.

Colombia scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 3rd, on a walk, a triple, and an RBI ground out.� Team USA countered by scoring in the next 4 innings.� D'Arnaud singled to lead off the 4th inning, moved to second base on an error, to third on a ground out, and then scored on Trout's double.� Kratz picked up an RBI with his double in the 5th, and d'Arnaud's single drove in Kratz.� Doubles by both Trout and Moustakas added another run in the 6th.� D'Arnaud scored again in the 7th, when he doubled and LF Todd Frazier (Reds) brought him across the plate with a single.� Trout collected another RBI with a single that scored Frazier.

Mike Montgomery made the start for Team USA, earning the win with 5 innings of work.� He gave up the 2 runs in the third innings on a total of 5 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 6 batters.� Andre Lamontagne pitched 2 innings in relief.� He gave up Colombia's other 4 runs (one earned), all in the 6th inning.� An error put the first runner on base, then a double, a single, another double, and another error brought in the runs.� Bruce Billings finished the game by retiring the side in order in the 8th and 9th innings.

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Also playing:

Canada�� 13,� Argentina� 2 --� Starting pitcher Mike Johnson gave his bullpen a rest by pitching 7 innings and allowing only 2 runs on 10 hits, no walks, with 5 strikeouts.� The Canadians scored in 5 of the 7 innings, including a 6-run 6th inning.� The final stroke was a 2-run home run by RF Adam Loewen (Blue Jays) in the bottom of the 7th, which gave the Canadians the greater-than-10-run lead that ended the game early.

Puerto Rico� 7,� Panama� 6 -- 3B Ramon Vasquez scored 3 of Puerto Rico's runs, though he had only one hit -- he also was hit by a pitch.� Former Indy Indian SS Luis Figueroa had 2 hits and an RBI.� Puerto Rico scored 4 runs in the 2nd inning, but Panama caught up with 3 runs in the 4th, and had a 6-5 lead going into the top of the 9th.� That was when Puerto Rico scored 2 more runs to take the win.

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Other news:

Pedro Alvarez, last week's Player of the Week, is now also the September Rookie of the Month for the National League.� The former Indy Indian hit .311 in September, with 10 doubles, 5 homers, and 26 RBI.

The Arizona Fall League begins play next week.� Also starting play on Tuesday of next week:� The Mexican Pacific League and the Venezuelan Winter League.� The Dominican and Puerto Rican Leagues begin play on October 22nd.� Pirates' farmhand Rogelios Noris is slated to join his hometown Venados de Mazatlan.

Lost in the news about John Russell getting fired has been the talk about pitching coach Ray Searage potentially sticking around.  The Pirates haven't...