In addition, the deal is obscenely cheap at $15 million for six years. If the Pirates exercise all three options and control Tabata until he’s 31 years old, they’ll have only paid him $37.5 million. Even if Tabata never improves (and it’s hard to argue that he won’t improve), that’s a pretty cheap price for a league average outfielder, which Tabata has been so far. If he does improve, the deal goes from a sweet deal for the Pirates to highway robbery.

The only reason I can think of that Tabata would sign an extension like this is that he really, really likes playing for the Pirates. The guy has Roberto Clemente’s portrait tattooed on his chest, after all. There’s good reason to believe that he would want to spend the majority of his baseball career playing the outfield on the team his idol played on.

7-Day DL:

Ronny Cedeno

15-Day DL:

Pedro Alvarez
Jose Tabata
Steven Pearce
Joe Beimel
Ryan Doumit
Evan Meek

60-Day DL:

Chris Snyder
Kevin Hart
Ross Ohlendorf

That’s a pretty long list, and one that includes six starters and the guy who started the season as the set-up man. The good news is we should start to see some of these players returning soon. However, this may cause a log jam at a few positions…after all, some of these replacements have played pretty well. So here’s a breakdown of what I think should happen when these players return:

C:

Barring a setback, Doumit is supposedly on target to return to action late this month. Then again, this is Doumit we’re talking about and he’ll probably have a setback. Snyder is probably out for the year with a back injury. That’s left the team splitting playing time with Michael McKenry and Eric Fryer. Both have played good defense, but neither of them have shown an ability to hit in their limited number of plate appearances. McKenry has been getting the lion’s share of the starts.

When Doumit comes back, the odds are he’ll be the starting catcher. He’s improved his defense from “easily the worst in baseball” to “probably around average,” and he’s the best hitter of the bunch in a lineup that definitely needs some offense. Fryer and McKenry would both make decent backups, but I see the nod going to McKenry. Fryer is a prospect, while McKenry is an organizational guy, so I imagine that the team would rather see Fryer getting starts at the AAA level than riding the pine at the Major League level – especially since he only played 21 games in AAA before getting called up.

3B:

This one is a no brainer. When Pedro Alvarez comes back, he’ll start. The bench spot will be either Josh Harrison or Brandon Wood. Before Chase d’Arnaud’s call-up, this spot would have gone to Wood simply because he could play SS if needed. Now, it could go either way. The likely scenario is that Wood will still get the nod because Harrison has options left and can be sent to AAA without exposing him to waivers, but Harrison has been the better of the two players and probably has more of a future as a utility man in the Major Leagues. However, Steven Pearce can play all the positions that Harrison can with the exception of 2B and he’s a much better hitter, so it will likely be Harrison going to AAA when all these players are active.

OF:

Alex Presley has very much impressed in his short time in the Majors. He’s showcased speed, extra base power, good defense and good plate discipline, and he’s hit Major League pitching pretty much exactly as well as he was hitting AAA pitching, posting a .324/.381/.541 line. Unless he’s a future Hall of Famer, he probably won’t continue to hit that well, but he’s definitely earned a starting spot and demonstrated that he can hit Major League pitching well. When Tabata comes back, I can see Garrett Jones moving to first base and Presley moving to right field full time. This would also have the effect of benching the ineffective Lyle Overbay, who the Pirates may just cut if they go this route. Ideally, the team would also platoon Pearce at first with Jones, since Jones can’t hit lefties to save his life while Pearce eats them for breakfast.

SS:

I’m not sure when Pirates fans decided that Ronny Cedeno was a great player, but for some reason this is the most controversial roster decision in terms of the fan base. Here are the facts as I see them:

• Ronny Cedeno has played excellent defense this season – some of the best in the Majors at his position. HOWEVER
• Cedeno is terrible at hitting, so even though he’s played amazing defense, he’s only accumulated a 1.1 WAR this season. In other words, awesome glove or not, he’s been a replacement level player.
• Cedeno has been better at hitting as of late, but he’s known to be streaky and even though he’s been better he still hasn’t been good or even average for a SS with the stick.

All that said, Chase d’Arnaud hasn’t torn the cover off the ball yet either, and while he’s a lot more fun to watch than Cedeno, his defense isn’t as good. Of the two, Cedeno may be the better option. However, d’Arnaud is most likely the future of the SS position in Pittsburgh. He’s shown flashes of the things that made him good in the minors – the gap power, the speed, the solid defense – but 12 games isn’t really enough time to put it all together in the Majors. My solution would be to keep d’Arnaud up and get him two starts a week to see what he can do, and if he outplays Cedeno make him the starter. The team’s solution, on the other hand, will probably be to keep Brandon Wood around and send d’Arnaud back to AAA…and I can’t say I strongly oppose that idea, either.

UPDATE: I completely forgot that Pedro Ciriaco is on the current Major League team. That’s not entirely surprising, since Ciriaco literally never plays. He’s obviously going to be the first one sent down when Cedeno comes back.

Of course, Harrison won’t be playing the outfield in place of the injured Tabata. He likely joins the team as the new backup infielder. Alex Presley has been recalled to replace Tabata for the time being, with Pedro Ciriaco being sent down as the corresponding move. Surely Ciriaco’s presence will be missed, as he made a real impact in the six games he’s been involved in this season without reaching base in any of them.

Presley was hitting .336/.389/.500 in AAA with 8 homers and 18 steals, his second great season in AAA in a row. It’s unlikely he’ll have that kind of success in the Majors (for reference, Xavier Paul had similar AAA numbers at a similar age, though in a slightly more offense friendly environment), but he probably won’t be much worse than Tabata either. He represents the best option the Pirates have available to handle the outfield for any significant amount of time with a regular outfielder out of commission.

The Pirates didn’t get the sweep tonight, as the Red Sox beat them 4-2. Both teams made a lot of fundamental mistakes, but the Red Sox were able to cash in on the ones the Pirates made to get the win. They were certainly helped by the fact that 3 of their 4 runs were unearned.

It sucks to not get the sweep, but we should still hold our heads high. Our Buccos took two of three from one of (and arguably the) best teams in baseball. You’re welcome, Yankees. Now return the favor and take two of three from the Brewers.

On a more long-term note, Jose Tabata left the game in the first with a quad injury. He was trying to beat out a throw on a bunt for hit attempt, and immediately after touching the base collapsed in pain and had to be taken off the field in a stretcher. The good news is that he was up and limping around the clubhouse, able to exit of his own power. Rob Biertempfel says he may avoid the DL.

Realistically, even if Tabata hits the DL, I don’t think he’ll be hard to replace with Alex Presley, who’s getting the call from AAA to fill in for him while he’s out. The injury sucks for me because I really like Tabata, but production wise, he’s got to hit for more power if he’s ever going to be more than a so-so leadoff hitter. His OBP of .349 makes him a valuable leadoff guy, but his lack of even gap power in the season has held back his offensive performance. Presley will probably be a little worse defensively and he’ll probably get on a little less, but he should be able to hit for enough power to make up the difference and replace Tabata’s production (not that he’s a power hitter either, by any means.) I’m not bashing Tabata – kid’s only 22 years old, the power has plenty of time to come – just saying that perceptions of his performance this year are much better than the reality.

The Pirates have an off day tomorrow (why are they always off when I don’t work?), then they head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays. Some fans will be excited to see Jose Bautista take on his former team, but I’m excited for a different reason: Blue Jays 1B/OF/DH Adam Lind is a fellow graduate of the same high school as me, so I get to see my favorite AL team go up against the Buccos.

The Bucs handled this one easily. Jeff Karstens was cruising, allowing only three hits and a run through his six innings of work, striking out four, walking nobody, and taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. For some reason, a lot of fans want Brad Lincoln called up and Karstens taken out of the rotation. While I’m not opposed to the idea of Lincoln getting a chance in the Majors, I think Karstens has earned his stay in the rotation for a while as he’s sporting a 3-2 record and a 3.62 ERA. He has his problems going deep into games, but so do most fifth starters. Let him stay in the rotation until he either proves he can’t or Lincoln proves he’s too good to keep in AAA. Right now, neither thing is happening.

Neil Walker turned on beast mode in this one, collecting two hits which both went for extra bases – a double and a homer. He collected five RBIs on the day and six total bases hitting from the cleanup spot.

Andrew McCutchen had a hit, a walk, and a steal, and looks to be turning it on at the plate lately after a somewhat disappointing start batting average wise.

Ronny Cedeno continued his hot streak with a hit and a steal. He even threw in a walk for good measure. Actually, Cedeno has been walking much more recently than he normally does. Tonight’s game brings his triple-slash to an unreal .322/.435/.458 since April 29. I know this probably won’t last, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it while it does.

Garrett Jones had a single, a double and a walk, knocking in two runs.

Jose Tabata had two hits, two walks and three runs scored. Hopefully this is a sign of him breaking out of his slump.

Even Lyle Overbay got in on the act, hitting a solo homer in the sixth inning.

It’s great to see a strong performance from this team as we open interleague play, as this is usually the point in the season when the team falls off a cliff that they can never climb back up.

The only complaints I can possibly have about this game are that Pedro Alvarez was on the bench for Brandon Wood (an emerging trend that I’m not at all a fan of – especially when Alvarez homered last night.) and that I had Tabata on the bench in my fantasy league. The Bucs are now playing .500 ball in blowouts. This is, again, a significant improvement over their 2010 record of 11-39 in such games.

Just as I thought that, Jose Tabata hit a solo home run. 3-2 Pirates. The next inning, the Pirates take advantage of a wild Matt Belisle and Jason Jaramillo singles home Lyle Overbay. Tie game.

Poring over the box score during commercial breaks, I see that Jeff Karstens had himself a good game filling in for Ohlendorf. 3.1 IP, 5 K, 3 BB, 2 H, 0 R. Not bad, Karstens. Maybe this game is winnable after all.

The bottom of the 9th looked like it could have been a Pirates win. Ronny Cedeno grounded out to start it, but Steve Pearce came in to pinch hit, hilariously worked the count full while check-swinging on every pitch, and came through with a 1-out single. A wild pitch advanced him to second, and a Jose Tabata grondout moved him to third with Neil Walker up with a chance to knock in the winning run. But it was not to be, as Walker struck out swinging from his heels.

The 10th inning was another opportunity for the game to get ugly. A leadoff double for the Rockies. A passed ball advancing the runner to third. No outs. This is another one of those areas where it would have been easy to give up on this game. Carlos Gonzalez smoked a line drive, but fortunately it was right to Ronny Cedeno. Still, it was a hard-hit ball off Resop. This was not looking good.

Troy Tulowitzki was intentionally walked to set up the double play. It didn’t happen, but Resop struck out Jose Morales instead. Good sign. But things quickly turned sour as Seth Smith walked. That brought up Ty Wigginton with the bases loaded. Gulp. Then, a sharp hit ground ball that looked like it would end the game, until Pedro Alvarez, he who is not fit enough to stay at third base, made an AMAZING diving play and launched the ball from his knees to first to get the final out. Kid’s got a cannon. The Pirates stayed alive once more.

Aside from some laughable baserunning mistakes by the other team, the game was mostly uneventful in extras. Pedro Alvarez just missed a walkoff homer in the 11th, but it fell just short of the north side notch and the bottom of the order couldn’t mount much (though Josh Rodriguez stung a ball down the line in his plate appearance.) In the 14th (yes, 14th) inning, the Pirates somehow worked out of two errors to start the inning and a bases loaded situation to escape it without a score. They just. Kept. Fighting.

The team kept fighting, in fact, until Jose Tabata, the man who started the rally, ended the game with a walk-off hit off the Clemente wall.

This game has illustrated better than any other what, so far, the difference between the 2011 Pirates and the 2010 Pirates is. Is it just one game? Yes. Is it awesome? Also yes.

UPDATE: This game is also awesome because it was a victory over Jim Tracy, and I’m thankful every day that he’s no longer the manager of this team. As many people in my Twitter feed pointed out (BY THE WAY: You should follow me @stealing1stbase), for some reason Tracy had the Rockies pitching to Tabata with relief pitcher Garrett Olson on deck and two outs. There were no position players left on the bench. The only player who could have come into the game was Evan Meek, also a relief pitcher. Instead of doing the right thing and walking Tabata to get to an easy out, Tracy had the team go ahead and pitch to Tabata, who lined it in for a walk off double. When asked about it, Tracy said “To walk him into scoring position, I know they have somebody over there that maybe takes a swing and not have to hit the ball far.” How is this man still in baseball in any capacity?

The Pirates have four players in their everyday lineup – Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Jose Tabata – who are either rookies or in their second year of Major League baseball. All of them are young players, Walker being the oldest at 24. It would be easy to point to this fact and say “that’s why we have so many fundamental mistakes. There are so many young players.”

This all came to a head for me today when I was listening to Rocco DeMaro’s post-game show Extra Innings, and Greg Brown said he thought the team should get a veteran like Cincinnati did with Scott Rolen, and talking about how in Texas they have a lot of young players and he had heard a story about how they all listen to Michael Young because of his experience. He then dismissed the previous signings of guys like Doug Mientkiewicz and Eric Hinske (and presumably Ryan Church this year) because none of them were starters.

There’s probably some truth to the fact that young players tend to listen to what veterans have to say when it comes to playing the game. Speaking personally, if I were a rookie I would soak up every bit of information I could from veterans.

The problem is, it’s not the young players that keep making the mistakes, it’s the team’s veterans! While guys like Pedro Alvarez have made a few physical mistakes such as striking out way too often, I can’t recall seeing any of the four players I named above make a mental mistake this season. That’s come from the team’s vets.

Ryan Doumit has made mistake after mistake this season, both physical and mental. He’s been a big leaguer since 2005, yet he almost cost the Pirates a game because he tried to tag up from second with one out as the go-ahead run, and then he didn’t even slide when he ran home.

Lastings Milledge may only be 25 years old, but remember that he was once considered to be the next big thing in baseball and came up at a young age. He’s been in the Majors since 2006, only a year less than Doumit. His baserunning errors and misjudgement in the outfield both when running routes and when deciding whether or not to dive have reached nearly legendary status in Pittsburgh.

Ronny Cedeno and Bobby Crosby are both experienced shortstops, with Cedeno having been in the Majors since 2005 and Crosby since 2003. Despite a strong defensive showing, Cedeno made so many gaffes at the plate and on the bases that he’s effectively been benched in favor of Crosby, and Crosby has responded by playing even worse, collecting seven errors in his fifteen games at short.

This team doesn’t need any veteran leadership, it needs to play like its rookies have.

If you don’t know who I’m talking about by now, you’ve been living under a rock. Pedro Alvarez has been the biggest name to come to the Majors since Strasburg, and not just for Pirates fans – the third baseman was ranked the eighth best prospect in the Majors to start the year by Baseball America.

Tonight, Alvarez went 0-for-2 at the plate with a walk and a strikeout. He also committed and error in the field, leaving him a homer shy of what I refer to as the Adam Dunn cycle. (Speaking of which, Alvarez has zero home runs this year! Clearly it’s time to bench him to get Ryan Church into the lineup!)

Not to sound like a wet blanket, but this is the kind of production I expect from him at first. At each level of his pro career this far, Alvarez has started out with about a month’s time of being a player who will either walk, strike out, or hit a home run before adjusting to the level and becoming a more dynamic hitter who will also have a respectable batting average. This is not unusual for players like Alvarez, and even if he struggles out of the gate, by the end of the year everyone should start to realize what a special talent he is.

Overall, Alvarez looked very patient at the plate, working deep into counts in every plate appearance. That type of patience will not only lead to better pitches to hit and more walks, it will also make starting pitchers work harder, which is always a plus.

As for the rest of the game, it was mostly uninspiring. The aforementioned six errors were committed by Bobby Crosby twice, Javier Lopez, Ryan Doumit, Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker. Aside from Walker, nobody expects any of these guys to be good fielders, and Walker can be forgiven since he’s still got barely over a month of experience at second under his belt. Still, six errors is inexcusable even to a person who hates the error statistic.

However, there were also some encouraging things, as Jose Tabata hit his first Major League home run and Lastings Milledge went 2-for-3 with a double, which will hopefully keep him in the lineup instead of Ryan Church and his .179/.220/.308 line.

On another note all together, I realize how late I am on this, but the corresponding move to bring Alvarez up was to designate Aki Iwamura for assignment. The team has said that they hope to work out a trade in the next ten days, but considering how disappointing Iwamura has been all year, I’m not optimistic that anything will get done, or that even if anything does get done that anything even remotely interesting will be coming our way.

Tabata led off, and his line after his first game looks eerily similar to Andrew McCutchen’s from his debut. Tabata went 2-for-4 with a walk and a steal. McCutchen’s career started the exact same way, right down to the fact that both players singled in their first career at-bat. Considering the player McCutchen has been since that game, I’d call this a good sign.

Not to mention, Tabata had probably one of my favorite pre-game interviews of all time (via the Post-Gazette):

PG video: Jose Tabata, on making his debut

The only downside to the game for Tabata was that he left the game early after running to first with tightness in his right hamstring. The team is saying that it was just a cramp and he was taken out for precautionary reasons.

Brad Lincoln looked more ordinary in his debut, as is typical for a pitcher making his first start in the Major Leagues. He seemed to settle in later on and come in with better stuff. Depite the five earned runs he gave up, a good portion of those runs can be blamed on the defense behind him, as they blew routine play after routine play.

Regardless, Lincoln showed flashes of promise, and this mediocre start does nothing to change my opinion of him: I think he’ll be a solid starter for the Pirates for years to come, maybe even a little better than that.

At the plate, Lincoln had a 2-for-3 night. He was known for being a good hitting pitcher in college, and he certainly did nothing to dispel that perception of himself in this game.

The biggest thing to get excited about: today, the Pirates had Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, Neil Walker and Brad Lincoln all on the field at the same time, at the Major League level. The prospects are coming up, ladies and gentlemen. It won’t be long before Pedro Alvarez can be added to that list as well. And for once, there will be more where that came from, as the lower levels of the minor leagues are where the Pirates have the biggest concentration of talent right now. It’s a good time to be a Pirates fan.