Tag: Kevin Hart

Yesterday I reviewed the battle for the fifth starter spot, noting that I saw it as a battle between Charlie Morton and Scott Olsen.  As reader “BLZR” pointed out in the comments, that’s pretty much the approach the Pirates will be taking this Spring, according to pitching coach Ray Searage.  My guess is that the […]

A year ago at this time, the 2010 bullpen was largely incomplete, consisting only of Joel Hanrahan, Evan Meek, Javier Lopez, and a few minor signings competing for spots, such as Wilfredo Ledezma, Vinnie Chulk, Jack Taschner, and Brian Burres.  In the following weeks, the Pirates added D.J. Carrasco, Brendan Donnelly, and Octavio Dotel, giving […]

Rob Biertempfel reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates have been granted a fourth option year for Steve Pearce, after the first baseman/right fielder spent most of the 2010 season on the 60-day disabled list. On one hand, this is good news for the Pirates, as Pearce can be retained in AAA if he doesn’t make the […]

This off-season the Pirates will probably face a much tougher set of roster decisions than they have in years.  Several factors are coming together to create a lot of those decisions.  The team has spent a couple years now accumulating players, very few of whom have established themselves as solid major leaguers.  Many of the […]

Rocco DeMaro reports that Kevin Hart has been diagnosed with a labrum tear in his right shoulder.

Many Pirates fans mistakenly consider Jeff Locke's minor league career to be unimpressive. In other news, management has grudgingly demoted Kevin Hart to Triple-A to start the season. Join me as I tie these seemingly unrelated topics together into one simple statistic.

The Pirates cut eight players from major league camp today, most notably Kevin Hart. Daniel McCutchen will be the team’s fifth starter to start the season. Brian Burres, Hector Gimenez, Chris Jakubauskas, Wil Ledezma, Jean Machi, Brian Myrow and Neil Walker were also sent to minor league camp. [Link]

Rob Biertempfel reports that management is encouraged by Kevin Hart's offseason adjustments. At this point, Hart appears to be the front-runner in the battle for final rotation spot.