Today is day three of the Pirates’ winter mini-camp, which will feature more of the same from the past two days. Pitchers throwing long toss, position players fielding and taking batting practice. You can use this thread to discuss anything Pirates-related on your mind.
Nothing new to report this morning so far. We will have articles on Jon Niese, Jameson Taillon and Josh Bell, all either later today or one might get held off until tomorrow. Taillon has already left camp for a family wedding, but Tim Williams was able to talk to him one-on-one and will have a feature coming up. Niese left after one day as planned. He is doing his off-season training in St Lucie.
If any minor news comes up, we will add it here, otherwise any big news will have it’s own article.
**We had a few people ask about specific players showing up. On the Major League side, it’s a voluntary camp, so no one has to show up. On the minor league side, the current players are there for two weeks and the Pirates have more than one mini-camp during the off-season. So if a particular player isn’t there now, that means he was either there already, or will be in the near future. One player I talked to yesterday said that he was coming in on February 1st.
**Buster Olney posted his top ten infields this morning(subscription required), plus added four in the “just missed” section and the Pirates didn’t get a mention. They did real well the last two days with rotation and bullpen, especially when you combine the two pitching categories into one ranking. However, the only two teams ahead of the Pirates in pitching for Olney, both did well for infield. The Cubs ranked #1 for infield and Cardinals came in sixth.
**Gregory Polanco has arrived at mini-camp
**35 days until pitchers and catchers report.
