Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Red Sox probably did not sleep well Tuesday night.
Boston held a nine-run lead in Baltimore with nine outs to go. Then the Orioles exploded for five runs on seven hits in the seventh inning and five runs on six hits in the eighth, handing Jonathan Papelbon his second blown save of the season. When George Sherrill struck out Jason Bay with two on in the top of the ninth, it finished off a wild 11-10 victory for the O's.
[Said Orioles manager Dave Trembley:] "It was the shootout at the OK Corral except it was Camden Yards."
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Gordon Beckham era has begun in Chicago.
The White Sox announced after Wednesday's loss to the Athletics that they would call up Beckham on Thursday, one day short of a year after he was their first-round draft pick.
"He's going to play," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Where, we're going to find out. Is he going to play third base every day. I don't think so. But he will get plenty of at-bats. To me, he has to be in the lineup every day and get a good percentage of at-bats."
One thing about April baseball that consistently drives me insane is the way some people take extreme stats at face value. When a player who's been a poor hitter in his career bats .400 for two weeks, it's because he hot or lucky or both, not because he tweaked the position of his back toe in spring training.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
Baseball is here. Only for three days so far, but that's enough for knee-jerk reactions and our collective excitement, certainly. Are the Yankees in trouble? Will Ken Griffey, Jr. lead the Mariners back to glory? Are the Orioles for real? Are the Braves bound for the playoffs again? Will the Marlins manage to save baseball and win the National League East? What happens when Jim Thome and Kyle Farnsworth meet in a hadron collider?
Find out the answers to these questions -- and more! -- after the jump.
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates.
For the better part of the last decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates aimlessly wandered through the wilderness of baseball with Kevin McClatchy and Dave Littlefield at the helm. Finally, they lost their jobs and Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington took over. For more than a year, the new front office has been working on digging out of the hole dug by Littlefield during his reign of terror. There's only one real problem: The hole dug by Littlefield was so deep that it's going to take more than a year to dig out of it.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Pittsburgh Pirates. I mean, what else needs to be said? They haven't been able to rebuild themselves properly in the past decade and a half. The relatively new front office seems to be headed down the right path, but it's early in the process. Fantasy-wise, you won't find much here to like.
The big somewhat interesting news of the day yesterday was that the Tigers acquired Jack Wilson from the Pirates. We later found out the report was premature, but where there's smoke, there's fire, right? Surely it was just a matter of time before the two teams pulled the trigger ...
As it turns out, no, that's not the case at all. Wilson has a limited no-trade clause that includes the Tigers, so if he wants, he can completely block a trade to the Motor City. It's not clear if he'd actually do so, but we do know that he's willing to (potentially) leave a little money on the table to make sure a trade to the Dodgers goes through. Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the details:
He is due $7.25 million in 2009 and has an $8.4 million club option for the following year, with a $600,000 buyout. The Dodgers apparently would be willing to guarantee both years for a total in the range of $12 million.
As Kovacevic points out, Wilson is a native and resident of Southern California, so it's not surprising that he'd want to live there year-round. Plus, when you look at the big picture, this is actually a great deal for him. He hit a hollow .272 (77 OPS+) last year, and barring a sudden comeback, it's unlikely the Dodgers would want him at $8.4 million in 2010. But an even $6 million a season? That's a bit easier to swallow. Stay tuned, this one could be completed soon -- the odds of a third team throwing their hat in the ring are extremely small.
Back in July of 2007 there were a lot of rumors flying around that the Pittsburgh Pirates were going to trade shortstop Jack Wilson to the Detroit Tigers. In fact, it seemed like a done deal at one point, but for some reason the deal fell through and Wilson stayed in Pittsburgh. Then the Tigers, who still needed a shortstop, went ahead and got Edgar Renteria but like many teams before them, they decided to part ways with Renteria this offseason by not offering him arbitration and now he's a San Francisco Giant.
Well, obviously that means the Tigers still need a shortstop and now they've gotten the one they wanted over a year and a half ago. Jack Wilson has been traded to the Tigers.
It seems to be the week for shortstop roulette on the Hot Stove, and the latest is that the Pirates have sent Jack Wilson to the Tigers.
The teams had been in discussions for a while, but according to a person familiar with the deal, it is done. It's unclear what the Pirates get in return.
Shortstops are just being thrown back and forth all over the place right now. The Giants signed Renteria, the Cardinals traded for Khalil Greene, and everyday it seems more likely that Rafael Furcal will end up in Oakland.
As for what the Tigers get in Wilson, not much in my opinion. He had one good season back in 2004, but other than that, he hasn't been anything special. I guess he's an improvement over Renteria on defense, but I'm not sure how much of one.
Coming off of a last-place finish in the AL Central, the Tigers are desperate for upgrades all over the place, including at shortstop, but after splurging big last winter, they're looking to do it at a discount.
As such, Detroit has targeted the Red Sox, who have a logjam at shortstop with rookie Jed Lowrie overtaking Julio Lugo in midseason, and the ability to absorb an albatross contract, namely Nate Robertson's or Dontrelle Willis', in recent weeks.
But according to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, those talks have stalled and the chances of a deal between the two clubs is "remote."
The question becomes what now for the Tigers. They'll probably revisit trade discussions with Boston and kick the tires on San Diego's Khalil Greene and Pittsburgh's Jack Wilson, but with the Sox increasingly likely to hold on to Lugo and with the acquisition cost of Greene prohibitive, their options are limited in trade.
They might be even more limited in free agency. Detroit already declined Edgar Renteria's 2009 option and appears unwilling to walk down that road again after only one season. It will certainly be priced out of the Rafael Furcal market and probably the Orlando Cabrera market as well. Add it all up, and the Tigers might be forced to punt the shortstop position in 2009, settling for a platoon of Ramon Santiago and one of the bargain infield options like David Eckstein or Alex Cora.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
Generally, losing doesn't get you anywhere. If you do enough of it, though, you might grab some attention for it. Meet the Pittsburgh Pirates. They haven't had a winning season since 1992. That's 16 years, which ties the all-time record for losing seasons in any North American sport. As things stand, the Pirates are pretty well lined up to break the record with losing season No. 17 in 2009.
And yet, not all is lost for the Pirates. After taking over last year, GM Neal Huntington has started to restock the minor league system with some actual talent. Still, he was left quite a mess by his predecessors. The Pirates might not be able to avoid losing season No. 17, but can they avoid 18, 19, or 20?
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
One thing about April baseball that consistently drives me insane is the way some people take extreme stats at face value. When a player who's been a poor hitter in his career bats .400 for two weeks, it's because he hot or lucky or both, not because he tweaked the position of his back toe in spring training. 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
The 
Back in July of 2007 there were a lot of rumors flying around that the Pittsburgh Pirates were going to trade shortstop 
Coming off of a last-place finish in the AL Central, the Tigers are desperate for upgrades all over the place, including at shortstop, but after splurging big last winter, they're looking to do it at a discount.
