An MLB blog featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates. Well written, creative, and extremely entertaining.

Well it's still not opening day quite yet, but close enough to talk about it. Let's just run through some interesting series' that are going to be played starting Sunday.

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Well we are officially 3 days away from Opening Night. I can't stand it anymore. The ridiculous preseason fantasy team debates and comparisons have been past entertaining and fully into annoying for 2 weeks now, and I am ready for the real thing to start so we can argue about real numbers instead of projections... I mean dang. The Pirates named Craig Monroe, Donnie Veal, Craig Hansen, and TJ Beam to their active roster today, all good things in my eyes. I don't know how long Monroe will stay there though, I mean the Pirates are so loaded with outfielders in AAA and on the big league club that I don't really see much need for him a month or two into the season. I'll be pretty upset if the Pirates hold McCutchen in the minors past mid-June.

Alright well opening night is now only 4 nights away. This has been a very long 3 days and I am sure the next 4 days will be even longer. I am tired of waiting, and can not wait for the season to begin. The Pirates have begun looking like the Pirates, while tailing off as they near the end of spring training. However, they have played more games than most teams, so I am sure the players are just ready for the real thing and will come into the regular season focused and ready to play. Pirates news came out earlier today, Jeff Karstens was named the number 5 starter. This is favorable to me, although I think Karstens will probably not very well at all in the spot, I'd rather see him there then Vasquez, as I have repeatedly said.

Well it seems like everything in NL West is extremely close. This division is a perennial race to the last week of the season, where one team comes out on top by a half game or something of that nature. Expect more of the same this year, I don't see any teams winning more than 93(ish) games.

Hitting

Alright so the race is heating up for the Pirates 5th spot in the rotation. The two battling for the job in spring training are Jeff Karstens and Virgil Vasquez. Neither of these guys have been fairing well in camp.