Andy LaRoche

Following the Bay Bridge series finale and end of spring training, the A's made their final roster cuts and set their 25-man opening day roster.

The only remaining battles left after the A's announced over the weekend that Brandon McCarthy would be the team's fifth starter, were for the bullpen, backup infielder and backup catcher positions.

This winter is going to be long and hard for Pennsylvania sports fans, as the Pittsburgh Steelers ended a promising season with a Super Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Pirates begin what will likely be a record setting 19th straight losing season.
 

The Pirates did what many expected they would Friday night when they parted ways with left-hander Zach Duke.  The announcement came just before the midnight deadline to protect Rule 5 eligible minor league players.

Along with Duke, the Pirates also designated infielder Andy LaRoche and Delwyn Young for assignment as well.

The moves should come as no surprise, as Duke continued to struggle in 2010 to get major league hitters out consistently. 

As most of us know, the Pirates have stunk for a long, long time.

Since 1992, the Buccos have made mistake after mistake in the development, trading, drafting, and signing of free agent players. Every time a player starts to pan out, the Pirates trade him for an average of three prospects.

When you're lucky, one of those three pan out. Then you trade that guy for three more prospects and hope one of those pans out so you can start the vicious cycle again.

When you pan over this era, you see a few deals that have been good ones, not many, but a couple have worked out.

Pirates prized prospect Pedro Alvarez had been called up by the team this week, and will probably replace Andy LaRoche.

Alvarez, 23, is a power hitting 3rd baseman, who can be a threat every at bat at the big league level but is very weak when it comes to defense.

He reminds us of a somewhat Adam Dunn, who is a power hitter, yet isn't the greatest fielder (I mean years ago, he has gotten better this year). Also, Dunn and Alvarez both strike out often. 

With Pittsburgh needing help at this point, they called up the young 3rd baseman.