In the middle of the 2009 baseball season, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded star second baseman Freddy Sanchez to the San Francisco Giants. During the offseason, the Pirates wanted to find a replacement second baseman. Following a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, they found their man.
Akinori Iwamura, who was Tampa Bay’s everyday second baseman in 2008 when the team made a run to the World Series, was traded to the Pirates for Jesse Chavez, a relief pitcher. Iwamura will likely become Pittsburgh’s everyday second baseman.
In 2009, Iwamura’s season was cut sure due to a knee injury. The 30-year-old native of …read more

The San Francisco Giants traded for Freddy Sanchez during the middle of the 2009 baseball season. The marriage apparently is working out well as Sanchez and the Giants agreed to a two-year extension. Terms of the extension have yet to be released.
The 31-year-old second baseman began his career with the Boston Red Sox but made his name with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played with the Pirates from 2004 through the middle of last season. For his career, Sanchez has a .299 batting average and an on-base percentage of .334.
In 25 games with the Giants last season, Sanchez hit .284 with …read more

The trades don’t stop for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A day after trading Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson and Ian Snell, the Pirates are reportedly close to trading John Grabow to the Chicago Cubs. The reports comes courtesy of ESPNChicago.com.
On the season, the 30-year-old Grabow has a 3.42 ERA in 45 appearances. He’s been a member of Pittsburgh’s bullpen since coming into the big leagues in 2003. Last season was his best year — finishing with a 2.84 ERA in 74 appearances.
The Cubs have been interested in Grabow because they needed an additional left-hander in their bullpen. Currently, Sean Marshall is the …read more

The selling spree hasn’t stopped for the Pittsburgh Pirates. On Wednesday, the Pirates made two more trades as they continue their rebuilding efforts.
The first trade sent Jack Wilson and Ian Snell to the Seattle Mariners. In return, the Pirates received Ronny Cedeno, Jack Lement, Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin and Nathan Adcock.
Wilson was the starting shortstop for the Pirates and will continue to start with the Mariners. On the season, he’s hitting .267 with four homers and 31 RBIs. Snell is a starting pitcher with a 5.36 ERA and a record of 2-8. Many scouts think that the 27-year-old Snell still …read more

Every team has fans. There are fans that are just casual fans and then there are the die-hards. These are the fans that will defend their team(s) until they die. Well – I might have just found one of those fans. Here’s a video from a Pittsburgh Pirates fan that thinks that amazing things happens inside PNC Park.

yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = “Pittsburgh: Where Amazing Happens?”;
yahooBuzzArticleSummary = “You have to like true fans. You can’t help but make fun of them sometimes too.”;
yahooBuzzArticleCategory = “sports”;
yahooBuzzArticleType = “text”;
yahooBuzzArticleId = window.location.href;

http://www.everyjoe.com/pittsburgh-where-amazing-happens/ …read more

It’s time for another ‘Thursday 10′ post at Inside the Ballpark. Today’s list looks at the Top 10 Most Disappointing Major League Baseball Players of 2008. It was tough to narrow the field to just 10 players, however these players have had the most disappointing seasons to date. Maybe one or two of them will turn it around and won’t make the list near the end of the season, but for now, they are on the list.
Top 10 Most Disappointing Major League Baseball Players of 2008
10. Roy Oswalt – Houston Astros – Oswalt has been one of …read more