[Operation Shutdown]

Off-Season
As predicted, the Pirates are going to have to make a number of moves this offseason because of payroll issues. Their payroll ballooned to $43M, and have no money to spend to get a hitting coach, a A manager and a middle reliever or two.

Greg Maddux and Pat Mahomes each retired. Scott Sauerbeck, Brian Boehringer, and Dean Palmer became free agents. The following got one year contracts through salary arbitration.

Bobby Hill gets a new one-year contract worth $2,320,714
Dave Williams gets a new one-year contract worth $1,232,286
Marshall McDougall gets a new one-year contract worth $610,714
J.J. Davis gets a new one-year contract worth $3,297,857
Scot Shields gets a new one-year contract worth $990,714
Kris Benson gets a new one-year contract worth $3,383,333
Rob Mackowiak gets a new one-year contract worth $1,479,286
Jack Wilson gets a new one-year contract worth $318,929
Craig Wilson gets a new one-year contract worth $2,436,072
Humberto Cota gets a new one-year contract worth $300,000
Xavier Nady gets a new one-year contract worth $2,904,286
Oliver Perez gets a new one-year contract worth $3,820,357
Joe Beimel gets a new one-year contract worth $369,143
Tony Alvarez gets a new one-year contract worth $1,068,750
Jim Mann gets a new one-year contract worth $1,682,857
Mark Corey gets a new one-year contract worth $766,786
Ryan Vogelsong gets a new one-year contract worth $641,250
J.R. House gets a new one-year contract worth $447,857
Carlos Rivera gets a new one-year contract worth $300,000

The first trade sent 2.5 star 3B Rob Mackowiak to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for 4 star MR Jason Jimenez. With this trade, we were able to kill two birds with one stone, dumping some salary by moving Mackowiak, who was expendable since Henson is ready to play in the big leagues now, and pick up a cheap good middle reliever to be set-up man.

The Pirates then traded CF Tony Alvarez and SP Mike Connolly to the Baltimore Orioles in return for CF Darnell McDonald and 2B Edwin Yan. McDonald isn't as good as Alvarez, but at just $300k, he is much cheaper and Yan looks like a decent prospect at 2B. Yan has one more year before he needs to be placed on the 40-man roster.

Those trades freed up enough money for the Pirates to sign their coaches. They signed Earl Devers as their new hitting coach. Devers has decent skill at batting coach and has just seven years of experience. He was signed at $455,000 per year for three years. They signed Tom Spencer as their new minors manager. Spencer has good skill at both developing hitters and pitchers. He was signed at $625,000 per year for four years. He will manage for the AA Altoona Curve, and current manager Trent Jewitt will move to manage the A Lynchburg Hillcats.

I forgot to list the players that retired, so here they are:
Pedro Borbon retires ...
Dan Plesac retires ...
Dan Miceli retires ...
Tom Martin retires ...
Donne Wall retires ...
Pat Hentgen retires ...
Rich Garces retires ...
Bill Selby retires ...
Darren Oliver retires ...
Calvin Murray retires ...
Luis Lopez retires ...
Ricky Gutierrez retires ...
Kirk Rueter retires ...
J.T. Snow retires ...
Tom Goodwin retires ...
Kenny Lofton retires ...
Steve Reed retires ...
Kevin Jarvis retires ...
Robert Ellis retires ...
Eric Karros retires ...
Marquis Grissom retires ...
Kent Mercker retires ...
Sean Lowe retires ...
Sandy Alomar jr. retires ...
Greg Swindell retires ...
Randy Johnson retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
Chris Donnels retires ...
Steve Finley retires ...
Jeff Fassero retires ...
Eduardo Perez retires ...
Mike Difelice retires ...
Mike Matheny retires ...
Tino Martinez retires ...
Keith Osik retires ...
Ron Villone retires ...
Jorge Fabregas retires ...
Matt Stairs retires ...
Eric Young retires ...
Dave Mlicki retires ...
Brad Ausmus retires ...
Orlando Merced retires ...
Joey Hamilton retires ...
Jon Lieber retires ...
Moises Alou retires ...
Fred McGriff retires ...
Angel Echevarria retires ...
Jose Mesa retires ...
Joe Roa retires ...
Doug Glanville retires ...
John Mabry retires ...
Rheal Cormier retires ...
Pete Walker retires ...
Mark Guthrie retires ...
Al Leiter retires ...
John Valentin retires ...
Joey Eischen retires ...
Mike Remlinger retires ...
Chris Hammond retires ...
Albie Lopez retires ...
Vinny Castilla retires ...
Jamie Moyer retires ...
Mark McLemore retires ...
Frank Menechino retires ...
Greg Myers retires ...
David Justice retires ...
Lou Pote retires ...
Sal Fasano retires ...
Tom Prince retires ...
Rick Reed retires ...
Dennis Hocking retires ...
Cory Bailey retires ...
Brent Mayne retires ...
Joe Randa retires ...
Juan Acevedo retires ...
Mark Wohlers retires ...
Ellis Burks retires ...
Kelly Wunsch retires ...
Tanyon Sturtze retires ...
David Wells retires ...
Mike Stanton retires ...
Sterling Hitchcock retires ...
Robin Ventura retires ...
Roger Clemens retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
Chris Haney retires ...
Buddy Groom retires ...
Marty Cordova retires ...
Turk Wendell retires ...
Dave Nilsson retires ...
Eddie Taubensee retires ...
Tony Eusebio retires ...
Pat Meares retires ...
Lance Painter retires ...
Russ Springer retires ...
John Frascatore retires ...
Rod Beck retires ...
Tripp Cromer retires ...
Kurt Abbott retires ...
CHA: Orlando Palmeiro retires ...
SEA: Giovanni Carrara retires ...
TEX: Manny Alexander retires ...
FLO: Ray Lankford retires ...
CHN: Phil Hiatt retires ...
MIL: Jeromy Burnitz retires ...
MIL: Dennis Cook retires ...
PIT: Greg Maddux retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
PIT: Pat Mahomes retires ...
COL: Nerio Rodriguez retires ...
COL: Mark Sweeney retires ...
LAN: Brian Jordan retires ...

As listed above, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson were all automatically inducted into the Hall of Fame. I also decided to induct Fred McGriff into the Hall of Fame as well. Here are each of their career numbers.

Maddux finished 293-166 with a 2.93 ERA. He appeared in 594 games, 576 of them starts, and pitched 4005 2/3 innings, giving up 3661 hits, striking out 2793 batters and walking 880, and had a career WHIP of 1.13. He also had 103 complete games and 34 of those were shutouts.

Roger Clemens finished 301-155 with a 3.18 ERA. He appeared in 599 games, 591 of them starts, and pitched 4188 2/3 innings, giving up 3574 hits, striking out 4023 batters and walking 1365, and had a career WHIP of 1.18. He also had 116 complete games and 45 of them were shutouts.

Randy Johson finished 245-133 with a 3.15 ERA. He appeared in 498 games, 488 of them were starts, and pitched 3397 1/3 innings, giving up 2618 hits, striking out 4224 batters and walking 1401, and had a career WHIP of 1.18. He also had 90 complete games, 35 of which were shutouts.

Fred McGriff finished with a career 0.285 batting average, 0.378 OBP, and 0.889 OBP. He had 2526 career hits, 499 career homeruns, 1580 RBIs and 1368 runs scored.

The Pirates did not make any free agent offers, as their roster is complete for next season, but here are the free agent offers for around the league:

Day 1 :

Day 2 :
Milwaukee : P Felix Rodriguez, 5,367,500 per year, for 4 years.
Anaheim : 3B David Bell, 339,000 per year, for 4 years.
Cincinnati : P Francisco Cordero, 1,944,100 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (N) : P Armando Almanza, 1,047,300 per year, for 4 years.
Baltimore : P Kerry Wood, 419,100 per year, for 2 years.

Day 3 :
Chicago (A) : LF Carlos Lee, 1,949,400 per year, for 3 years.
Texas : CF George Lombard, 764,900 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : LF Ben Petrick, 1,081,600 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : 2B Desi Relaford, 820,800 per year, for 3 years.
Texas : 2B Pokey Reese, 577,200 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : CF Jose Guillen, 409,700 per year, for 2 years.
New York (A) : 3B Shane Andrews, 402,600 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : P Jeff Williams, 480,700 per year, for 1 year.

Day 4 :
Boston : P Odalis Perez, 10,045,800 per year, for 7 years.
San Diego : 3B Troy Glaus, 6,500,400 per year, for 5 years.
Kansas City : 3B Adrian Beltre, 3,764,600 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (A) : RF Trot Nixon, 3,687,600 per year, for 3 years.
Detroit : LF Lance Berkman, 3,327,900 per year, for 4 years.
Arizona : 1B John Olerud, 841,500 per year, for 3 years.
Detroit : C Chad Moeller, 404,200 per year, for 2 years.
Detroit : P Jamie Walker, 411,500 per year, for 2 years.

Day 5 :
Florida : RF J.D. Drew, 4,556,200 per year, for 4 years.
Boston : P Billy Wagner, 5,745,600 per year, for 4 years.
Kansas City : CF Eli Marrero, 2,841,300 per year, for 4 years.
Baltimore : C Javier Valentin, 1,037,900 per year, for 4 years.
Cincinnati : 2B Tomas Perez, 696,400 per year, for 3 years.
New York (N) : 3B Dean Palmer, 413,000 per year, for 3 years.
Philadelphia : P J.C. Romero, 2,037,800 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : P Doug Davis, 650,100 per year, for 3 years.

Day 6 :
Montreal : 2B Jeff Kent, 7,440,500 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P A.J. Burnett, 4,724,800 per year, for 4 years.
Atlanta : P Luis Vizcaino, 2,482,900 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : P Scott Williamson, 2,409,000 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : SS Mendy Lopez, 514,000 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : 3B Kevin Orie, 472,300 per year, for 3 years.
Florida : LF Israel Alcantara, 464,000 per year, for 3 years.
Detroit : P Rob Bell, 404,300 per year, for 2 years.

Day 7 :
Texas : CF Carlos Beltran, 8,662,200 per year, for 7 years.
Oakland : P Matt Anderson, 1,936,400 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : RF Raul Mondesi, 828,600 per year, for 3 years.
Cincinnati : 2B Aaron Boone, 746,400 per year, for 5 years.
Seattle : C Vance Wilson, 786,100 per year, for 4 years.
Anaheim : 3B Mike Lowell, 874,000 per year, for 3 years.
Florida : 1B Wes Helms, 573,600 per year, for 1 year.
Toronto : P Jose Mercedes, 401,500 per year, for 2 years.
Kansas City : P Jay Powell, 704,100 per year, for 3 years.

Day 8 :
Seattle : 1B Derrek Lee, 8,347,500 per year, for 4 years.
Arizona : RF Magglio Ordonez, 7,027,800 per year, for 3 years.
Boston : P Eric Milton, 6,433,000 per year, for 4 years.
Boston : 2B Adam Kennedy, 4,212,400 per year, for 3 years.
San Diego : RF Danny Bautista, 4,251,700 per year, for 4 years.
Houston : 1B Steve Cox, 542,600 per year, for 3 years.
Colorado : P Ricky Stone, 342,000 per year, for 3 years.
Texas : P Grant Balfour, 411,500 per year, for 3 years.

Day 9 :
Minnesota : P Wade Miller, 4,531,500 per year, for 4 years.
Seattle : LF Jacque Jones, 5,846,100 per year, for 4 years.
Cincinnati : P Ted Lilly, 4,916,300 per year, for 4 years.
Anaheim : P Eric Gagne, 7,312,900 per year, for 3 years.
Cincinnati : P Octavio Dotel, 2,023,000 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (A) : P Russ Ortiz, 2,952,100 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : P Tomokazu Ohka, 2,594,700 per year, for 4 years.
Houston : P Jose Jimenez, 2,926,000 per year, for 4 years.
Boston : P Dave Weathers, 2,945,800 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P Scott Strickland, 784,900 per year, for 3 years.

Day 10 :
Baltimore : P Matt Morris, 6,085,600 per year, for 4 years.
Montreal : SS Cristian Guzman, 934,100 per year, for 4 years.
Minnesota : 1B Jason Jones, 457,400 per year, for 2 years.
New York (N) : P Mike Nakamura, 415,200 per year, for 1 year.

Day 11 :
San Francisco : P Brad Radke, 1,223,600 per year, for 3 years.
Florida : LF Phil Nevin, 533,700 per year, for 3 years.
Boston : P Miguel Batista, 734,400 per year, for 4 years.
Texas : P Mark Redman, 606,500 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : P Todd Ritchie, 408,600 per year, for 1 year.
Texas : P David Lundquist, 727,600 per year, for 2 years.
New York (N) : P Al Reyes, 318,000 per year, for 4 years.
Tampa Bay : P Jim Brower, 411,500 per year, for 3 years.

Day 12 :
Arizona : 2B Jose Vidro, 4,370,000 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : CF Gary Matthews, 1,152,500 per year, for 3 years.
Detroit : C Mitch Meluskey, 427,100 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : P Mike Williams, 1,559,500 per year, for 5 years.
Toronto : P Carl Sadler, 415,200 per year, for 3 years.

Day 13 :
Baltimore : LF Geoff Jenkins, 2,729,200 per year, for 3 years.
Minnesota : P Byung-hyun Kim, 727,600 per year, for 3 years.
Milwaukee : SS Danny Klassen, 409,700 per year, for 2 years.
Chicago (N) : P Bobby Howry, 1,762,700 per year, for 4 years.

Day 14 :
Arizona : SS Alex S. Gonzalez, 1,169,600 per year, for 3 years.
Florida : P John Rheinecker, 531,000 per year, for 3 years.
Atlanta : P Brian Boehringer, 1,433,900 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P Gene Stechschulte, 493,800 per year, for 2 years.

Day 15 :
Boston : 3B Eric Chavez, 12,771,600 per year, for 5 years.
Atlanta : P Elmer Dessens, 1,835,400 per year, for 4 years.
Atlanta : P Braden Looper, 917,700 per year, for 4 years.
Kansas City : P Kiko Calero, 407,900 per year, for 3 years.

Day 16 :
Anaheim : RF Jermaine Dye, 5,084,400 per year, for 3 years.
Los Angeles : SS Chris Woodward, 1,077,900 per year, for 3 years.
Anaheim : C Ramon Castro, 781,100 per year, for 4 years.
Anaheim : 2B Jay Canizaro, 404,200 per year, for 3 years.
San Diego : P Kyle Farnsworth, 1,092,500 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : P Pedro Astacio, 456,400 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : P Carlos Almanzar, 668,600 per year, for 3 years.
Kansas City : P Julio Santana, 674,800 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P John Wasdin, 410,600 per year, for 2 years.

Day 17 :
Kansas City : LF Bubba Trammell, 624,600 per year, for 3 years.
Montreal : 3B Bill Mueller, 442,800 per year, for 2 years.
Montreal : P Billy Koch, 1,196,800 per year, for 4 years.
New York (N) : P Jose Santiago, 417,900 per year, for 2 years.
Toronto : P Travis Miller, 417,900 per year, for 2 years.

Day 18 :
Houston : P Freddy Garcia, 8,563,600 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : 3B Geoff Blum, 1,323,000 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (A) : LF Dee Brown, 453,200 per year, for 3 years.
Seattle : P Tony Fiore, 691,600 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Mike Fyhrie, 736,400 per year, for 4 years.
Arizona : P Scott Sauerbeck, 759,200 per year, for 4 years.
Texas : P Francisco Cordova, 637,500 per year, for 3 years.
Houston : P Dan Reichert, 497,200 per year, for 1 year.

Day 19 :
Chicago (A) : P Matt Clement, 2,502,600 per year, for 3 years.
Cincinnati : P Joey Dawley, 654,800 per year, for 3 years.

Day 20 :
Kansas City : P Tony Armas jr., 1,147,100 per year, for 4 years.
Cincinnati : 3B Tyler Houston, 590,000 per year, for 3 years.
Arizona : C Robert Machado, 579,700 per year, for 5 years.
San Francisco : C Chris Widger, 534,500 per year, for 2 years.
Montreal : SS Shane Halter, 491,600 per year, for 2 years.
Atlanta : P Josh Towers, 468,900 per year, for 3 years.
St. Louis : P Jay Witasick, 742,900 per year, for 4 years.
Tampa Bay : P Kevin Gryboski, 448,400 per year, for 1 year.
Texas : P Mike Thurman, 444,200 per year, for 2 years.

Day 21 :
Chicago (N) : P Vladimir Nunez, 742,900 per year, for 4 years.
Montreal : P B.j. Ryan, 1,083,000 per year, for 3 years.

Day 22 :
Arizona : 1B Olmedo Saenz, 2,092,600 per year, for 3 years.

Day 23 :
Anaheim : LF Mark Smith, 513,100 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : P Trever Miller, 411,700 per year, for 1 year.

Day 24 :
San Francisco : P Mike Porzio, 475,600 per year, for 3 years.

Day 25 :
Cleveland : SS Orlando Cabrera, 3,701,500 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Cliff Lee, 611,900 per year, for 2 years.
Kansas City : P Livan Hernandez, 419,000 per year, for 3 years.
Atlanta : P Juan Alvarez, 666,400 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : P Manuel Aybar, 457,900 per year, for 1 year.

Day 26 :
Chicago (N) : P Brian Meadows, 603,600 per year, for 4 years.
San Francisco : P Salomon Torres, 448,900 per year, for 2 years.

Day 27 :
San Francisco : P Mac Suzuki, 529,200 per year, for 3 years.

Day 28 :
Chicago (N) : P Matt Mantei, 1,239,100 per year, for 4 years.

Day 29 :

Day 30 :
A bunch of minor league contracts were signed on this day, but none of them are noteworthy, so screw it.

There were a number of offseason trades, besides the ones the Pirates made.

Kansas City got 2.5 star LF Larry Bigbie from the Giants in return for 2.5 star SS Ramon Martinez.

Arizona got 1.5 star RF Richard Hidalgo from the Mariners in return for 2 star 1B Mike Kinkade.

The Dogers got 2 star CF Jackson Melian and 2.5 star prospect SP Justin Jones from the Cubs for 1.5 star LF Daryle Ward.

Arizona got 2 star CF Alex Escobar and 1 star prospect C Edson Pena from the Indians for 2.5 star SS Alex Gonzalez.

The Angels picked up 2 star 2B Dave Matranga and 1 star prospect MR JP Duran in return sending 2.5 star C Wil Nieves to the Astros.

The A's picked up 2.5 star CF Endy Chaves from the Rangers in return for 2.5 star SP Rich Harden, 2.5 star prospect MR Jared Burton, and 2 star prospect MR Albert Gonzalez.

The A's also picked up 2 star RF Joe Borchard from the White Sox in exchange for 5 star reliever Matt Anderson and 2.5 star prospect MR Joe Blanton.

The Cubs receieved 2.5 star LF Geoff Jenkins in a trade with the Orioles that sent them 3 star SP Wilton Chavez, 4 star prospect MR Matt Clanton, and 3 star prospect MR Thomas Matthews. The apparent dismantling of the WS Champ Cubs begins.

Lastly, Cardinals picked up 2.5 star RF Tim Salmon from the Angels in return for aging 2.5 star SP Woody Williams, 3 star prospect SP Tyler Adamczyk, and 2 star prospect 1B Raymond Hiltz.


Now, for the final rosters for the Pirates. First of all though, the Pirates released MR Mike Gonzalez as his three option years were up and he was not placed on the 25-man roster and was claimed off of waivers. Also, Landon Jacobsen was released, as he was not placed on the 40-man roster and was picked up in the Rule 5 draft. Now here's the Pirates' opening day roster (* indicates player is on 40-man roster, and numbers in parenthesis are the number of option years remaining for that player)

SP Sidney Ponson
SP Kris Benson
SP Oliver Perez
SP John VanBenSchoten (2 years)
SP Dave Williams
MR Joe Beimel
MR Mark Corey
MR John Grabow
MR Jason Jimenez
MR Scot Shields
MR Ryan Vogelsong
CL Jim Mann
C Humberto Cota
C JR House
1B Craig Wilson
1B Carlos Rivera
2B Bobby Hill
3B Drew Henson (1 year)
3B Marshall McDougall (1 year)
SS Jose Castillo
SS Jack Wilson
LF Xavier Nady (1 year)
CF Mark Kotsay
CF Darnell McDonald
RF JJ Davis
*C Ryan Doumit (1 year)
*LF Manuel Ravelo (1 year)
*CF Jeremy Harts (1 year)
*RF Shawn Garrett (1 year)
*MR Ben Shaffar (2 years)
*MR Justin Reid (2 years)
*RF BJ Barns (2 years)
*MR Jose Cortez (2 years)
*SP Sean Burnett (3 years)
*SP Ian Oquendo (3 years)
*SP Josh Shortslef (3 years)
*SP Leo Nunez (3 years)
*MR Kurt Shafer (3 years)
*1B Ray Navarette (3 years)
*RF JJ Johnson (3 years)

Here will be my lineups versus both lefties and righties:
CF Mark Kotsay
2B Bobby Hill
LF Xavier Nady
1B Craig Wilson
RF JJ Davis
3B Drew Henson
SS Jose Castillo
C JR House

And the starting rotation will be in the order listed above:
Ponson
Benson
Perez
VanBenSchoten
Williams

And, of course, Jim Mann will continue to be my closer.