With the New York Yankees claiming their 27th World Series Championship last night, the 2009 baseball season is in the books. It also means that PitchByPitch is one year old! I started this site one year ago (the day after the Phillies won the 2008 title), as a place to host my baseball scoring projects and as a place to track the Pirates through thick and thin. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed year #1, and I’m looking forward to the year ahead.
Just this week, the Pirates made their Blueprint for Success available to the public. The blueprint talked about their 5 core priorities: Extremely aggressive drafts, Increased focus in our international operations, Aggressively adding talent at all levels, Rebuilind our player development systems, and Significant investment in our core operations.
Days later, the Pirates made good on one of their priorities by acquiring Akinori Iwamura from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Jesse Chavez. Iwamura is a 30 year-old second-baseman who will make $4.85 million in 2010. Iwamura fills an obvious need for the Pirates at 2B. He’s an exciting player, and I look forward to seeing him in black and gold. With the departure of Chavez, our bullpen is even further depleted. You have to believe that the bullpen is the next thing that management will look to improve.
Finally, I got a good chuckle when I looked at the rewards available on my Pirates’ Bank of America credit card. I was curious when I saw “Pirates Autographed Baseball”. Then, I saw the players that were available.
Hmm… who to choose?
Go Bucs!