Pirates, Reds to play in HOF game

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds have been selected to participate in the 2006 Hall of Fame Game on May 15 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The Hall of Fame Game has been scheduled annually since 1940, and it is the only big league exhibition game that will be played during the 2006 regular season.

The Pirates, who will be the home team for the contest, are 1-3-1 all-time in Hall of Fame Game appearances. The Bucs last participated in this venue in 1980, when they defeated the Chicago White Sox, 11-8. Pittsburgh also made appearances in the 1949, 1959, 1968 and 1973 contests.

Read the rest of this article at: Pirates.com

SI's John Donovan Ranks the Bucs Moves

PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Moving in/moving out: GM Dave Littlefield signed a slugger he needed -- Cubs free agent Jeromy Burnitz -- capping a very good run for the Pirates. The Bucs also found a useful hitter and great clubhouse guy in first baseman Sean Casey (who came in a trade with the Reds for lefty starter Dave Williams). Ditto for third baseman Joe Randa (a free agent from San Diego). They also bought reliever Roberto Hernandez (2.58 ERA in 67 appearances for the Mets in '05) and filled out the bullpen. Their closer (Mike Gonzalez) is untested, and their rotation is pretty young. But the Pirates are looking up.

Lowdown: Littlefield would like a little more power from his corner infield spots, but Randa and Casey are respectable at getting on base, at least. The Pirates will rely on the revamped lineup and their young, talented rotation (Oliver Perez, Zach Duke, Kip Wells, Paul Maholm) to get them to .500 or better, somewhere they haven't been since 1992.

GRADE: Safe and steady is starting to pay off -- B.

Bucs Resign C. Wilson

With rumors of his trade floating around due to the the recent fee-agent signings, the Pirates managed to ovoid arbitration and resign Craig Wilson to a one year $3.3 million deal.

Wilson had a career best 29 home runs and 80 RBI in 2004 but saw his number decline last year due to a pair of hand injuries that kept him out of 2/3 of the season limiting him to only 197 at bats in 59 games, in which he batted .264 with 5 home runs.

Craig is the all time leader in pich hit homeruns for the Pirates with 11, and this could come in handy for the Pirates as with the signing of both jeromy Burnitz and Sean Casey Wilson should see alot of pinch hitting duty in 2006.

Curve Owners Make Purchase, Upgrades

Capitol Broadcasting Company has agreed to sell the minor-league Myrtle Beach Pelicans to a group headed by a Pittsburgh lawyer.

Charles Greenberg, a part owner of two minor league teams in Pennsylvania, leads the group buying the Single-A Pelicans, an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Greenberg is also part owner of the Double-A Altoona Curve and the Single-A State College Spikes.

The sale price was not disclosed.

The Pelicans relocated to Myrtle Beach from Durham after the 1997 season. The Triple-A franchise that replaced them retained the Durham Bulls name. That team is also owned by Capitol Broadcasting, the owner of CBS affiliate WRAL and Fox affiliate WRAZ.

Curve announce improvements to ballpark

The Altoona Curve announced Wednesday that more than $1 million in privately-financed improvements will be made to Blair County Ballpark in Altoona as well as revealing some aspects of the Spikes stadium in State College.

Highlighting the upgrades, the team announced the addition of a brand-new, 1,000 square foot high-definition video board. The new board, which measures 50 feet wide and 20 feet high, will be part of a larger 81x 38 structure. By comparison, the existing structure is 66x38.

The Spikes' Medlar Field at Lubrano Park this coming June. The brand-new structure will measure 66 feet wide and 42.5 feet high and will feature a large video screen approximately 30x17. Similar to Blair County Ballpark's new scoreboard, Medlar Field's board will also include an LED linescore display and multi-color LED message center.

In addition, Curve Baseball LP also announced plans for other improvements and additions to Blair County Ballpark which will take place over the next few seasons. Among the proposed improvements fans can expect to see at or around BCB in the near future, include a brand-new playing surface, an outdoor marquee to be used for displaying upcoming ballpark events and other team information and a newly-constructed ticket office and team merchandise store.

Blog Activity

Just as a little note to readers, the postings of the blog will start to pick up here in the next few weeks or so as activity in the baseball world also picks up, look forward to reports from Pirate Fest and photographs as well as reports when camp opens.

O's Miffed at Burnitz

Well seems that the Baltimore Orioles are less then enthused with Jeromy Burnitz's signing with the Pirates, feeling that they had an oral agrement with him to sign with them. Language in the contract about the impending physical for the Orioles was stated as one of the reasons that deal fell thru according to the following that was on espn.com.

PITTSBURGH -- Jeromy Burnitz finalized his $6.7 million, one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates after taking a physical Wednesday, but only after the unhappy Baltimore Orioles said the outfielder's agent backed out of a two-year deal.Burnitz never took the physical called for in that agreement. Burnitz's agent, Howard Simon, said that language regarding the physical resulted in the breakdown of Baltimore's deal.
Burnitz's Pirates contract calls for a $6 million salary this year and a $6 million mutual option for 2007 with a $700,000 buyout if the team declines its option. Baltimore thought Burnitz had agreed to a $12 million, two-year contract with the Orioles last week.

"My feeling is we had an agreement," Orioles vice president of baseball operations Jim Duquette said Wednesday. "Obviously, the agent didn't feel we did. My personal feeling is it sets a bad precedent when that's allowed to happen."
"There was harsh, intimidating language that appears to be very subjective and open-ended. ... The club almost has the right to do whatever it wants, at its option," Simon said. "That's how complicated the language is. The other clubs simply have one line that states it is subject to the player passing a physical. That's what Pittsburgh's document has."

Because of the contract language, Burnitz and Simon apparently felt the Orioles could have delayed completing the deal for as long as they wanted after the physical -- even while shopping for other players, such as Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez.

Duquette thinks Burnitz simply had a change of heart. An Orioles official he didn't identify spoke with Burnitz last weekend.

"We got hold of the player, and the player said he had a change of heart and for family reasons wanted to play in the National League because of the trips to San Diego and Los Angeles, which are close to home," Duquette said. "I'll believe that over the other one."

Duquette said that in 15 years of negotiating contracts he has never had a player not finalize a deal because of the language concerning the physical.

"I'll believe what the player said and give him the benefit of the doubt," Duquette said.

Simon is unhappy that the Orioles are trying to paint Burnitz as the villain and said the ballclub broke an agreement that neither side would disclose the signing until the contract was finalized.

Information and quotes from ESPN.COM