I decided I wanted to improve the blog for 2008 and to do that I need to move the blog off of WordPress.com onto a domain of its own.
So here’s the new site (and my apologies to all for not getting the word out BEFORE the 2008 draft).
Hopefully, you enjoy the new clean look to it.
UncleLar Take:
Be sure and check out the link. Guy Cipriano has down a great job of updating how each of the ex-Spikes are performing with their current teams.
Castorri became the second Spike to play for the Curve, Brandon Williams being the other, when he made his AA debut over the weekend against the Erie Seawolves. Castorri’s appearance was an actual promotion to the Curve, while Williams was simply as an emergency fill in pitcher who got the call simply because he was just 40 minutes away in State College. Unfortunately, Chris’ debut wasn’t as memorable as he would like as he took the loss giving up a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh as the Seawolves won 5-4.
Read about it in the Johnstown Tribune Democrat
UncleLar Take:
I got a kick over Fisher’s reaction to the environment here in State College.
If he’s worried about anything, it’s the risk of putting a group of young men into an idyllic setting — he said the park here spoils the young players, who advance to lesser facilities within the organization — not to mention the distraction of Penn State, the setting for the team.
Dan Fox, on of the authors at the Baseball Prospectus announced in his column today that he would be leaving BP to join the Pirates front office staff. It looks like the Pirates will be embracing some of the statistical analysis approaches that BP is famous for.
In a related topic, I’ve been flirting with the idea of adding a twist to this site. This season rather than simply acting as a repository of information about the Spikes, I intend to add some sabermetric analysis. Hopefully readers will find the new stuff as interesting as I do and embrace it the way that it appears the Pirates might be.
(STATE COLLEGE, PA) – The Pittsburgh Pirates recently announced Brian Tracy will become the newest member of the State College Spikes field staff by serving as the pitching coach for the 2008 season. Tracy replaces Wilson Alvarez, who was originally named to the position.
Tracy spent the entire 2007 season as a member of the Spikes’ pitching staff. The right-hander tossed 22 2/3 innings in 14 games for the Spikes, earning a 3-2 record with a 4.37 ERA. Tracy was drafted by the Pirates in the 20th round of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft.
In a kind of lame press release today, the Spikes announced that they will be announcing their promos for the upcoming season on Tuesday through Friday of this week.
Specifically, the schedule for announcements is:
They’re obviously adopting the three part public speaking strategy of “tell them what you are going to tell them”, “tell them”, and “tell them what you just told them”, so I would expect another release on Saturday recapping the week’s announcement.
For more info, go read the press release.
He looked down at his spit-shinned black shoes.
They were black, after all.
Brad Fischer spent the first 28 years of his coaching career wearing white shoes.
The white shoes were his only work treads.
You work for the Oakland Athletics, you wear white shoes.
Fischer, the State College Spikes’ new manager, looked down more than once during a Pittsburgh Pirates’ minicamp earlier this month in Bradenton, Fla. At times, he still doesn’t fully believe he doesn’t work for the A’s.
Rick Janac, Spikes general manager, files the first of his regular reports for the CDT from baseball’s winter meetings in Nashville:
Minor league teams have different objective
By Rick Janac For the CDT
NASHVILLE — It’s December and baseball is still about three months away from the start of spring training, but the business side is in full swing as the Winter Meetings began Monday.
The annual event, which brings together executives from the major and minor leagues, is the signature event of the off-season and serves as a gathering for all aspects of the business side of baseball.
Last 10 Games
