The Pirates have released outfielder Luis Matos and infielder Jose Hernandez.  Matos had a pretty decent spring as he was 14 for 49 (.286 avg) with 2 homers and 6 RBIs.  Hernandez also played well as he was 12 of 40 (.300 avg) with 4 RBIs.  The Pirates just decided that they wanted to go with their own younger players to start the season.

The Pirates have placed lefty relief pitcher John Grabow on the 15 day disabled list.  Grabow has an inflamed left elbow which is not good for him or the Pirates.  With Grabow and Marte in the bullpen it gave manager Jim Tracy the luxury of playing the matchups, but he won’t be able to do as much of that until Grabow is ready to return to action.

The Pirates have added better players in the field but Tracy will have to work magic with the pitching staff to make them better than they were last season.  Tracy was 67-95 (.414) in his first season with the Pirates.  Tracy was a good manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers so he has the know how to win if the management in Pittsburgh gives him enough players to compete.  Tracy has a six year major league record as a manager of 494-478 (.508) and he’s 1-3 (.250) in the post season.

The Pirates traded their best reliever in the off season to acquire help for the offense and the bullpen is looking thin.  35 year old righty Salomon Torres will be the Pirates closer this season and he did a good job filling in for Mike Gonzalez when he was injured last season.  He was 3-6 with 20 holds, 12 saves, a 3.28 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP in 94 games for the Pirates in 2006.  Batters hit .274 against Torres last season and he walked 38 batters in 93.1 innings and that’s a little bit too many.  That being said, Torres has a rubber arm as he’s pitched in 256 games the last three years for the Pirates so he should be able to pitch any time the Pirates have the lead in the 9th inning.  I think he will save 30+ games in 2007 for the Pirates.

23 year old righty Mike Capps is another Pirates pitcher that had a heavy workload last season as he pitched in 85 games in 2006.  He was 9-1 with 13 holds, 1 save, a 3.79 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in 2006 for the Pirates.  Batters hit .266 with 12 homers in 80.2 innings against Capps but he only walked 12 batters which helped him keep the damage to a minimum.  Look for Capps to do a good job again for the Pirates in 2007.

32 year old lefty Damaso Marte had an up and down season for the Pirates last season.  He was 1-7 with 13 holds, a 3.70 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP in 75 games for the Pirates.  He still has really good stuff as batters only hit .244 (lefties .225) against him last season but he walked 31 batters in 58.1 innings and that’s just too many.  He did whiff 63 batters and could be dominant if he just threw more strikes.

28 year old lefty John Grabow also had an up and down season.  He was 4-2 with 11 holds, a 4.13 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP in 72 games for the Pirates in 2006.  Batters hit .260 against him and he walked 30 batters in 69.2 innings and that’s too many.  He did whiff 66 batters which shows that he has good stuff.  Like Marte, he could be a really good pitcher if he jsut threw more strikes.

32 year old righty Dan Kolb will pitch a lot for the Pirates too if he’s healthy.  He was 2-2 with 6 holds, 1 save, a 4.84 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP in 53 games for the Milwaukee Brewers last season.  Batters hit .282 against Kolb last season and he walked 20 batters in 48.1 innings which is way too many.  Kolb does have 73 career saves and might get a chance to close if Torres gets hurt or can’t handle the pressure.

Shawn Chacon will likely get a spot in the bullpen as the long man, but the Pirates probably don’t want to use him much because he’s just not a good pitcher.  The rest of the pitchers in Pirates camp are just a bunch of riff-raff.

Freddy Sanchez will miss the first two series of the season with a bum knee.  Look for Jose Castillo to start in his place but he will have a rough time replacing the offense that Sanchez produces.  At least the Pirates will be o.k. on defense until Sanchez returns.