[Operation Shutdown]

Off-Season
First off, the following players retired from MLB,

Mark Hendrickson retires ...
Reynaldo Garcia retires ...
Chris Michalak retires ...
Doug Creek retires ...
Mickey Callaway retires ...
Jose Parra retires ...
Calvin Maduro retires ...
Jim Parque retires ...
Seth Greisinger retires ...
Terry Pearson retires ...
Danny Patterson retires ...
Nate Field retires ...
Bryan Rekar retires ...
Chad Durbin retires ...
Jay Tessmer retires ...
Mike Holtz retires ...
Matt Dewitt retires ...
Tony Tarasco retires ...
Larry Sutton retires ...
Josh Pearce retires ...
Dean Palmer retires ...
Hector Ortiz retires ...
Izzy Molina retires ...
Donzell McDonald retires ...
T.j. Mathews retires ...
Marty Malloy retires ...
Jose Macias retires ...
Ryan Jackson retires ...
Luis Garcia retires ...
Mike Buddie retires ...
Tim Worrell retires ...
Jose Acevedo retires ...
Jason Pearson retires ...
Jonathan Johnson retires ...
Bobby M. Jones retires ...
Jason Boyd retires ...
Brian Tollberg retires ...
Hideo Nomo retires ...
Mark Little retires ...
Benny Agbayani retires ...
Walt Mckeel retires ...
Eddie Oropesa retires ...
Curt Schilling retires ...
Miguel Batista retires ...
Tony Womack retires ...
Craig Counsell retires ...
Quinton McCracken retires ...
Jamey Wright retires ...
Garrett Stephenson retires ...
Dave Veres retires ...
So Taguchi retires ...
Scott Sauerbeck retires ...
Andrew Lorraine retires ...
Raul Casanova retires ...
Mark Loretta retires ...
Everett Stull retires ...
Gregg Zaun retires ...
Brian Hunter retires ...
Jeff Bagwell retires ...
Jose Vizcaino retires ...
Jared Fernandez retires ...
Kelly Stinnett retires ...
Corky Miller retires ...
Alan Benes retires ...
Mike Mahoney retires ...
Roosevelt Brown retires ...
Joe Borowski retires ...
Steve Trachsel retires ...
Joe McEwing retires ...
Pedro Astacio retires ...
Mo Vaughn retires ...
Rey Ordonez retires ...
Matt Herges retires ...
Carl Pavano retires ...
Oswaldo Mairena retires ...
Julian Tavarez retires ...
John Smoltz retires ...
Aaron Small retires ...
Tom Glavine retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
Darren Bragg retires ...
Matt Franco retires ...
Herbert Perry retires ...
Jeff Cirillo retires ...
John Olerud retires ...
James Baldwin retires ...
Cory Lidle retires ...
Aaron Harang retires ...
Kevin Appier retires ...
Aaron Sele retires ...
Matt LeCroy retires ...
Paul Byrd retires ...
Chan Perry retires ...
Jeff Farnsworth retires ...
Jerrod Riggan retires ...
Ryan Drese retires ...
Omar Vizquel retires ...
Mark l. Johnson retires ...
Royce Clayton retires ...
Frank Thomas retires ...
Pedro Swann retires ...
Brian Lesher retires ...
Tom Wilson retires ...
Chris Gomez retires ...
Shane Spencer retires ...
Willie Banks retires ...
Tony Clark retires ...
Lou Merloni retires ...
Travis Driskill retires ...
Brook Fordyce retires ...
Curt Leskanic retires ...
Francisco Campos retires ...
Tim Laker retires ...
Chris Holt retires ...
Bryce Florie retires ...
Steve Avery retires ...
Rafael Roque retires ...
Mike Hubbard retires ...
Doug Bochtler retires ...
Marc Wilkins retires ...
Randy Knorr retires ...
Damon Buford retires ...
Kevin Sefcik retires ...
David Doster retires ...
Jon Nunnally retires ...
Carlton Loewer retires ...
Mike Schultz retires ...
BOS: Reggie Sanders retires ...
TBA: Antonio Alfonseca retires ...
DET: Jamie Walker retires ...
MIN: Greg Norton retires ...
FLO: Raul Mondesi retires ...
PIT: Adam Hyzdu retires ...
ARI: Trevor Hoffman retires ...
LAN: Rondell White retires ...
SFN: Barry Bonds retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!

As noted above Tom Glavine and Barry Bonds were inducted to the Hall of Fame, and I also decided to induct Jon Smoltz as well.
Glavine finished his career with a 264-175 record, a 3.51 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. He started 573 games and pitched in 3846 2/3 innings, striking out 2315 batters and walking 1320. He pitched 54 complete games, 22 of which were shutouts. Glavine finished third on the all-time wins list, 9th in ERA, 10th in strikeouts, 8th in CG and 4th in shutouts.

Bonds finished his career with a 0.294 average, a 0.431 OBP, and a 0.594 SLG percentage. He compiled 2778 hits and smashed 697 homeruns and also stole 497 bases. Bonds finished 4th in all time hits, 1st in homeruns, 1st in RBIs with 1868, 1st in doubles, 7th in triples, 1st in walks, 2nd in runs, and 5th in stolen bases.

Smoltz just squeaked into the Hall, he finished with a 172-131 record and recorded 137 saves in his last four seasons with an ERA of 3.30 and a WHIP of 1.18. He started 361 games, and appeared in a total of 617 games, compiling 2713 innings pitched and struck out 2396 batters and walked just 853. He pitched 47 complete games, 14 of which were shutouts. Smoltz finished 13th on the all time wins list, 5th in ERA, 9th in strikeouts, 25th in saves, and 12th in shutouts.

Now on to Pirates news, OF Adam Hyzdu retired, and Kris Benson and Mark Kotsay became free agents. The following players got one year contracts through 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
Jason Jimenez gets a new one-year contract worth $1,038,214
Marshall McDougall gets a new one-year contract worth $2,308,500
J.J. Davis gets a new one-year contract worth $3,664,286
Scot Shields gets a new one-year contract worth $990,714
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 $3,942,500
Mark Corey gets a new one-year contract worth $766,786
Ryan Doumit gets a new one-year contract worth $610,714
Ryan Vogelsong gets a new one-year contract worth $641,250
John VanBenSchoten gets a new one-year contract worth $3,080,714

Last year the Pirates made revenues of close to $46.5 million and made a profit of over $4 million, and so they now have $5.7 million in cash on hand. Their current payroll is just over $42 million, and they also have an automatic $1 million more in revenue this year due to an increased TV contract. Their first order of business will be to replace their scouting director and their A manager as each left after last season.

The Pirates signed Ken Williams as their new scouting director to a deal worth $955,000 a year for five years. He is legendary at scouting hitters and excellent at scouting pithcers. They also signed Greg Legg as their new minors manager to a deal worth $975,000 per year for three years. He is outstanding at developing hitters and legendary at developing pitchers. He will be moved to AAA, Lawless will be moved to AA, and Spencer will be moved to A.

First order of business for the Pirates, they decided that they didn't want two inexperienced starters in the rotation, so I decided to trade SP Zach Greinke, SP Ian Oquendo, and 2B Jeremy Harts to Baltimore for SP Rodrigo Lopez. Lopez is a four star pitcher and went 16-12 with a 3.40 ERA for the Orioles last season. He will take Benson's place in the rotation, and rookie CF Vic Butler will take Kotsay's place in the lineup, leaving the Pirates with a complete roster and no need to sign anyone during free agency.

Free Agent Signings
Day 2 :
Atlanta : 1B Josh Phelps, 6,084,000 per year, for 3 years.
Florida : P Jason Middlebrook, 339,000 per year, for 3 years.

Day 3 :
Los Angeles : CF Preston Wilson, 8,070,400 per year, for 4 years.
St. Louis : 1B Paul Konerko, 2,075,800 per year, for 4 years.
Florida : LF Bobby Higginson, 1,288,200 per year, for 4 years.
Minnesota : 2B Aaron Boone, 655,500 per year, for 3 years.
Cincinnati : 2B Keith Ginter, 563,600 per year, for 1 year.
Kansas City : SS Jose Valentin, 413,000 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : C Todd Pratt, 450,900 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : C Javy Lopez, 453,200 per year, for 1 year.
New York (A) : P Trever Miller, 419,000 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : P Brian Fitzgerald, 400,700 per year, for 2 years.

Day 4 :
Los Angeles : 3B Eric Munson, 6,418,700 per year, for 5 years.
Arizona : P Jason Isringhausen, 7,318,800 per year, for 5 years.
Oakland : 2B D'angelo Jimenez, 778,400 per year, for 3 years.
New York (N) : SS Pedro Feliz, 573,700 per year, for 3 years.
Kansas City : P Jeremy Fikac, 407,900 per year, for 2 years.

Day 5 :
Anaheim : P Brad Penny, 4,251,100 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (A) : LF Eric Owens, 573,600 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : 2B Julius Matos, 404,200 per year, for 2 years.
San Francisco : CF Shawn Garrett, 450,900 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : P Doug Nickle, 407,900 per year, for 3 years.

Day 6 :
Boston : RF Danny Bautista, 3,534,400 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : P Jon Garland, 1,972,000 per year, for 3 years.
Arizona : P Terry Adams, 1,545,800 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : 3B Tyler Houston, 442,800 per year, for 2 years.
Baltimore : P Gary Glover, 454,900 per year, for 2 years.
Kansas City : P Travis Miller, 410,600 per year, for 2 years.

Day 7 :
San Francisco : P Dennis Stark, 6,073,900 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Kris Benson, 6,232,100 per year, for 3 years.
Toronto : SS David Lamb, 975,100 per year, for 3 years.
New York (N) : RF Timo Perez, 732,200 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : CF Terrence Long, 431,100 per year, for 1 year.
Chicago (N) : P Colby Lewis, 400,700 per year, for 1 year.
Florida : P Denny Neagle, 450,900 per year, for 2 years.
San Francisco : P Dave Coggin, 710,600 per year, for 4 years.

Day 8 :
Anaheim : 3B Joe Crede, 4,993,300 per year, for 3 years.
Cincinnati : CF Mark Kotsay, 5,531,800 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : C Ramon Hernandez, 1,092,500 per year, for 3 years.
New York (N) : 3B Geoff Blum, 836,600 per year, for 3 years.
Anaheim : P Russ Ortiz, 782,500 per year, for 4 years.
Detroit : LF Raul Gonzalez, 830,300 per year, for 3 years.
Toronto : P Ramon Ortiz, 807,000 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (A) : SS Abraham O. Nunez, 478,800 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : P Damaso Marte, 2,132,200 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P Courtney Duncan, 349,000 per year, for 4 years.

Day 9 :
Los Angeles : SS Rafael Furcal, 571,800 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Jason Phillips, 532,000 per year, for 3 years.
Montreal : P Ray King, 1,807,000 per year, for 4 years.
San Francisco : P Brandon Villafuerte, 625,900 per year, for 3 years.

Day 10 :
Florida : RF Brian Buchanan, 3,059,000 per year, for 4 years.
Oakland : P Wayne Franklin, 3,740,600 per year, for 3 years.
Colorado : LF Gene Kingsale, 839,400 per year, for 4 years.
Arizona : P David Riske, 2,041,000 per year, for 3 years.

Day 11 :
Arizona : LF Brian Giles, 12,384,800 per year, for 3 years.
Oakland : SS Jimmy Rollins, 2,314,900 per year, for 4 years.
Boston : 1B Mike Kinkade, 839,400 per year, for 3 years.
St. Louis : C Toby Hall, 979,800 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : LF Carl Everett, 884,900 per year, for 5 years.

Day 12 :
Los Angeles : P J.C. Romero, 2,867,900 per year, for 3 years.
Los Angeles : P Kevin Walker, 835,800 per year, for 4 years.
Texas : P Jeff Williams, 476,300 per year, for 3 years.
Kansas City : P Jim Brower, 452,300 per year, for 2 years.

Day 13 :
Colorado : CF Corey Patterson, 4,095,900 per year, for 3 years.
Oakland : 2B Jerry Hairston, 1,088,000 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (A) : RF Raul Ibanez, 573,600 per year, for 3 years.

Day 14 :
Baltimore : SS Gookie Dawkins, 438,900 per year, for 2 years.
St. Louis : P Steve Karsay, 1,179,900 per year, for 4 years.
San Francisco : P Carl Sadler, 415,200 per year, for 2 years.
Kansas City : P Scott Schoeneweis, 414,300 per year, for 2 years.

Day 15 :
Colorado : P Danny Graves, 4,540,100 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Adam Eaton, 2,185,000 per year, for 3 years.
Texas : P Cliff Lee, 432,600 per year, for 2 years.
Chicago (A) : P Mark Lukasiewicz, 659,000 per year, for 4 years.

Day 16 :
San Francisco : P Mark Redman, 417,900 per year, for 3 years.
Texas : P Lorenzo Barcelo, 420,800 per year, for 1 year.

Day 17 :
Colorado : P Doug Davis, 460,300 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (N) : P Scott Mullen, 957,600 per year, for 3 years.
Colorado : P Rocky Biddle, 738,700 per year, for 3 years.
Baltimore : P Kevin Gryboski, 416,900 per year, for 3 years.

Day 18 :
Boston : CF Hiram Bocachica, 820,300 per year, for 3 years.
Houston : 3B Aramis Ramirez, 728,100 per year, for 4 years.
Milwaukee : P Luther Hackman, 410,600 per year, for 3 years.

Day 19 :
Cleveland : P Kerry Ligtenberg, 1,380,900 per year, for 4 years.
San Diego : P Manuel Aybar, 1,588,400 per year, for 4 years.
Tampa Bay : P Todd Van poppel, 1,153,700 per year, for 5 years.
Chicago (N) : P Juan Alvarez, 568,500 per year, for 2 years.

Day 20 :
Boston : CF Milton Bradley, 726,400 per year, for 4 years.
Chicago (N) : CF Darnell McDonald, 443,100 per year, for 2 years.
New York (N) : RF Gary Sheffield, 669,100 per year, for 2 years.
Toronto : P Peter Munro, 710,100 per year, for 3 years.
Cleveland : P Darren Dreifort, 614,600 per year, for 3 years.
Chicago (A) : P Cliff Politte, 835,800 per year, for 5 years.
Texas : P Jose Paniagua, 403,400 per year, for 1 year.

Day 21 :
Cincinnati : 1B Erubiel Durazo, 5,949,300 per year, for 4 years.
Toronto : C Brian Schneider, 4,016,000 per year, for 4 years.
Anaheim : SS Julio Lugo, 1,054,100 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : 1B Robert Fick, 415,600 per year, for 1 year.

Day 22 :
Detroit : C Mike Piazza, 894,800 per year, for 1 year.
Boston : P Tim Wakefield, 609,900 per year, for 1 year.
Boston : P Scott Linebrink, 1,593,700 per year, for 4 years.
San Francisco : P Lee Gardner, 480,700 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : P Dan Reichert, 410,600 per year, for 2 years.

Day 23 :
New York (N) : 1B Dmitri Young, 2,308,500 per year, for 4 years.
Los Angeles : P Dan Smith, 1,092,500 per year, for 3 years.
San Francisco : P Will Cunnane, 403,400 per year, for 3 years.

Day 24 :

Day 25 :
St. Louis : P Dennys Reyes, 610,500 per year, for 3 years.

Day 26 :
Chicago (A) : 1B Damon Minor, 724,700 per year, for 3 years.
Los Angeles : P Shawn Estes, 664,400 per year, for 4 years.
Oakland : P Jason Bere, 554,700 per year, for 3 years.

Day 27 :
St. Louis : P Randy Choate, 725,400 per year, for 3 years.
St. Louis : P John Rocker, 742,900 per year, for 4 years.

Day 28 :
Chicago (A) : P Mark Buehrle, 9,958,000 per year, for 5 years.

Day 29 :
St. Louis : P Ramiro Mendoza, 872,100 per year, for 3 years.

Day 30 :
A bunch of minor league contracts were signed.

There were a number of other trades this offseason, besides the deal the Pirates made.
San Diego got 2 star 1B Craig Brazell and 1 star prospect SS Thomas Arnold from the Mets in return for 2.5 star 2B Bernabel Castro.
St. Louis picked up 2.5 star 2B Angel Santos from Boston in exchange for 4.5 star prospect 1B Chris Duncan and 1 star prospect 3B Michael Ohearn.
Baltimore picked up 2 star 3B Brendan Harris from the Cubs in exchange for 5 star prospect CF Lynn Sickels. ?????Damn, why do the Cubs keep winning the lopsided trades.
Anaheim picked up 2.5 star 2B Teuris Olivares and 2 star prospect 1B Jeffrey Hedden from the Yankees for 3.5 star prospect 3B Dallas McPherson.
Cincinatti unloaded 2.5 star CF Ken Griffey Jr, sending him to Colorado in return for 3 star 2B Orlando Hudson and 1.5 star prospect 3B Matt Ferrara.
Oakland picked up 2.5 star CF Corey Patterson from Colorado in exchange for 2.5 star SP Bert Snow.
Oakland also picked up 2.5 star 1B Josh Willingham from Florida in exchange for 3 star SP Mark mulder.
The Giants picked up 3.5 star prospect Jason Cooper from Cleveland in exchange for 3 star SP Dennis Stark and 4 star prospect MR Evelio Ramirez.
Lastly, the White Sox picked up 4 star 1B Jason Giambi, 2 star prospect SS Deivi Mendez and 2 star prospect C Royce Montemayor from the Yankees for 4.5 star SP Jon Rauch. Damn good trade for the Yankees, too bad for the Sox, they seem to be happily content with overaging 1Bmen.

After spring training, the Pirates had to make a couple of moves to trim their roster. Shawn Garrett was picked up off waivers as he was out of option years, and Ben Shaffar and Bobby Bradley were picked up off of the Rule 5 draft as they wasn't enough room for them on the forty man roster. Here's the opening roster, and the lineup for the Pirates. (* denotes player on 40-man roster and number in parenthesis is number of option years remaining)

SP Sidney Ponson
SP Rodrigo Lopez
SP John VanBenSchoten (1 year)
SP Dave Williams
SP Brian Bullington (2 years)
MR John Grabow
MR Mark Corey
MR Jose Jimenez
MR Scot Shields
MR Ryan Vogelsong
MR Gabe White
CL Jim Mann
C Ryan Doumit
C Humberto Cota
1B Craig Wilson
1B Ray Navarette (2 years)
2B Bobby Hill
3B Drew Henson
3B Yurrendell DeCaster (2 years)
SS Marshall McDougall
SS Jack Wilson
LF Xavier Nady
CF Vic Butler (3 years)
CF Manuel Ravelo (2 years)
RF JJ Davis
*MR Justin Reid (1 year)
*RF BJ Barns (1 year)
*RF Jose Cortez (1 year)
*SP Sean Burnett (2 years)
*SP Josh Shortslef (2 years)
*MR Kurt Shafer (2 years)
*RF JJ Johnson (2 years)
*SS Edwin Yan (2 years)
*MR Jason Sharber (2 years)
*CF Rajai Davis (3 years)
*3B Jose Bautista (3 years)
*2B Domingo Cuello (3 years)
*LF Nate McLouth (3 years)

The lineup for the Pirates will once again be the same versus lefties and righties and will be as follows.
CF Vic Butler
2B Bobby Hill
LF Xavier Nady
RF JJ Davis
1B Craig Wilson
3B Drew Henson
SS Marshall McDougall
C Ryan Doumit

The starting rotation order will be
Ponson
Lopez
VanBenSchoten
Williams
Bullington