Pirates Sign Williams

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Left-hander Dave Williams, the only Pirates starter to win 10 games last season, chose not to go to salary arbitration and signed a $1.4 million, one-year contract Monday with Pittsburgh.

Williams didn't secure his job as the Pirates' fifth starter until the final week of spring training, then led the staff in victories by going 10-11 with a 4.41 ERA in 25 starts. He missed his final four starts with a strain in his left rib cage.

The 26-year-old Williams pitched his first career shutout Aug. 14 at Houston and was 7-4 on the road, but was 3-7 with 16 home runs allowed at PNC Park.

Williams gets a raise of $1,070,000 from the $330,000 he made last season. The deal includes incentives of $40,000 for 160 innings or 50 games pitched, $60,000 for 180 innings or 60 games pitched and $125,000 for 200 innings.

Postseason Scores

Although the Pirates have long ago been eliminated from the playoff picture some of you may want to keep track of how those who did make the playoffs are doing. Well ok more like "see if the Yankees or Cardinals are getting their kiesters handed to them" but anyway Andrew Clem has a good page that he will keep track of the various series in.

Clem's Post-Season Page

Figure its better to just direct you there instead of basically retyping the results every day, I will add this sub-page of his to the links section here as well.

Littlefield calls Tracy a 'strong candidate'

AP PITTSBURGH -- Former Dodgers manager Jim Tracy appears to be the front-runner for the Pittsburgh Pirates' job that opened last month when Lloyd McClendon was fired during his fifth consecutive losing season.
Tracy and Pirates general manager Dave Littlefield have ties dating to their days together in the Montreal Expos' organization, when Tracy managed at Double-A Harrisburg -- his 1993 team had a 94-44 record -- and Triple-A Ottawa, and Littlefield was a scouting supervisor and the director of player development.

Tracy went 427-383 in five seasons with the Dodgers. Last month, Pirates managing general partner Kevin McClatchy said he wanted a manager who, unlike McClendon, had previous big league managing experience.

The Dodgers won 93 games and the NL West title in 2004, but Tracy was unhappy after general manager Paul DePodesta largely dismantled that club by trading catcher Paul Lo Duca during the season and shedding Adrian Beltre, Alex Cora, Shawn Green and Steve Finley after the season.

Continued...

NJ Team to move to State College

Altoona Curve management on Monday reached a sales agreement with the New Jersey Cardinals of the New York-Penn League. The single-A minor-league franchise, pending approval from various organizations, will become the to-be-named State College Professional Baseball Club.

The sale will not be official until it is approved by the New York-Penn League, Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Curve's 19-man ownership group had been searching for a franchise for the last few years, continuing that search as ground was broken for the new stadium in May.

Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, a 6,000-seat, $24-million facility adjacent to Beaver Stadium, is expected to be completed in June 2006, in time for the start of the New York-Penn League season. The Penn State baseball team will begin play there in 2007.