Wednesday 28th March 2007

Brett Roneberg, last year’s Curve 'Most Valuable Player', suffered a broken right hand playing winter ball in Australia but said he expects to be ready to play by opening day

Roneberg, who likely will return to the Curve, hadn’t played much in Spring Training until the past few days

Friday 30th March 2007

The Curve’s opening-day roster is set, and the offense, which already figured to be strong this season, got a boost Thursday with the addition of two surprising names

Outfielder Adam Boeve, who blistered the ball early last year to earn a promotion to Triple-A, will be back in Altoona to start the season
He’ll be expected to provide a proven veteran presence in right field and the middle of the batting order

One other player with an impressive Curve past also was a surprising pick to return to Double-A
His name was given to the Mirror off the record by a high-ranking Pirate official Thursday, with the condition that it not be published until the organization tells the player his fate
That will occur today, and his name will be revealed in Saturday’s Mirror------(see below)

Like Boeve, this player may not be happy about coming back to Double-A, but he could be one of the Curve’s top performers this season

Boeve was not protected on the Pirates’ 40-man roster, while outfielder Nyjer Morgan did earn a spot
Morgan was expected to come back to the Curve, but he’s been outstanding in spring training and won a Triple-A job
‘‘He’s had a great spring training’’ Pirates farm director Brian Graham said of Morgan
‘‘He played extremely well in Double-A last year, he played very well in the Hawaiian Winter League
He continues to impress’’
Morgan’s strong spring may have pushed Boeve back down to Double-A

‘‘I’ve talked to Boeve; he’s not happy’’ Graham said
There’s good reason for that since Boeve probably thought Altoona was in his rearview mirror
He hit .333 with three homers and 24 RBIs in 38 games for the Curve last season and was the Eastern League Player of the Month for April
Boeve then went to Indianapolis and hit .269 with six homers and 37 RBIs in 91 games
‘‘Boeve’s been the best player on every team I’ve ever managed’’ Curve manager Tim Leiper said
Leiper added, ‘‘You don’t want the guy to be happy, you want him to be disappointed’’ about getting demoted
Still, the manager noted, ‘‘You’ve got to go play. This is what we do for a living, and sometimes you’ve got to take lumps. He’s a professional guy, he’s going to play well and he’s going to play his way out of there again, I’m almost certain of it’’

Aside from the two surprising additions, much of the rest of the Curve roster already had been in order the past few days of spring training

The offense figures to be productive with proven EL hitters Randy Ruiz and Brett Roneberg, along with prized prospects Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker

Veteran catcher Dave Parrish will be behind the plate

The middle infield positions will be an ever-changing component between Javier Guzman, Brandon Chaves and Taber Lee
Guzman will play two days a week at shortstop, two days at second and the rest in the outfield, Graham said
When Guzman isn’t filling one of those holes, Chaves will be at short and Lee at second

‘‘It gives us a nice, deep lineup one through nine’’ Leiper said
‘‘We kind of had it at times last year, but I think this might be a deeper lineup than even we had at any point last year’’

The five-man starting rotation will include Josh Shortslef, Wardell Starling, Cuban Yoslan Herrera, former Harrisburg hurler Kip Bouknight and Double-A newcomer Luis Munoz

Herrera could be the key since he hasn’t pitched professionally in two years and has never worked in a five-man rotation
‘‘He knows how to pitch, he’s got savvy on the mound, so that’s going to play into his favor’’ Curve pitching coach Ray Searage said
Herrera has a dominant curveball but is still working on increasing his velocity
He was hitting mostly in the 87 mph range during an outing Thursday
‘‘It’s going to be a lot of workload for him, especially being off for two years’’ Searage said
‘‘I’ll see how his performance is, I’ll keep track of his velocity, how the ball is coming out of his hand
If I have to make an adjustment where I have to bump him on a start to let his arm recuperate, then I’ll do so’’

Munoz also will get a lot of attention from Searage as a Double-A rookie
He went 4-3 with a 3.82 ERA in 11 starts for Single-A Lynchburg last season

The bullpen will feature Double-A veterans Matt Peterson, Jason Roach, Chris Hernandez and Cuban Alay Soler, whom the Pirates picked up on waivers from the Mets

Dave Davidson and Romulo Sanchez, both 40-man roster members, will begin their first full season in Double-A

Right-hander Justin Vaclavik, a 22-year-old, will skip high-A ball and start the season in Altoona
He was 4-2 with a 3.16 ERA and saved 18 games at low-A Hickory in 2006

Searage said the closer job could go to a committee of Peterson, Davidson, Roach or Hernandez

Peterson will start his first full season in the bullpen after switching from being a starter last year
‘‘Peterson has looked outstanding’’ Searage said
‘‘His whole demeanor has done a 180-degree turn
Not that it was that bad last year, but moving from an arm slot from over the top to a three-quarter slot, he was still trying to find it on a consistent basis
Now he has it, and now he feels comfortable and all he has to do is locate his pitches
With that power changeup he’s got and the movement and velocity of his fastball, there’s no reason why he couldn’t be the frontrunner for the closer job’’

Graham also said Jonathan Albaladejo and Michael Nannini could work themselves into the Curve’s bullpen mix

Saturday 31st March 2007

Vic Buttler received some bad news Friday morning when he arrived at Pirate City, the kind of news no player wants to hear late in spring training

Buttler, who had spent all of camp with the Pirates’ Triple-A group, was demoted back to Double-A

That’s great news for the Curve since Buttler was an Eastern League All-Star and arguably the team’s best player while he was in Altoona last season

But for the 26-year-old outfielder, the news had to be tough to take
If it was, he didn’t let on
‘‘I’ve just been trying to stay positive, positive thoughts’’ Buttler said
‘‘Definitely it’s a normal thing to look at it as a setback, but you’ve got to think about your friends that you have back at home
They would love to trade places with you and come out here and chase their dream and do what they love and get paid to do it’’

Buttler earned a spot on the postseason EL All-Star team by hitting .292 with five homers, 51 RBIs and a team-record 14 triples in 109 games for the Curve last season

He earned a late promotion to Triple-A Indianapolis and hit .316 over 20 games

Despite that success, Buttler found himself squeezed out of a Triple-A job this spring

He and fellow outfielder Adam Boeve both already have enjoyed great success in Altoona and probably don’t want to come back, but the two proven hitters are a welcome addition to what already would have been a strong offense

‘‘It’s obviously a very disappointing day for him, but at the same time, he’s such a good kid and he’s such a class kid’’ Curve manager Tim Leiper said of Buttler
‘‘He’s never shown me anything but a good attitude’’

Rajai Davis and Nyjer Morgan are both on the Bucs’ 40-man roster, and they will be in the outfield at Indianapolis
Morgan enjoyed a strong spring training to win a job that may have gone to Buttler

‘‘This morning when I came to the field, I got ready for stretch and they called me into the office’’ Buttler said Friday
‘‘Farm director Brian Graham said he had to talk to me and told me pretty much it’s a numbers game, we have two priority guys - Nyjer and Rajai - on the 40-man in Indy
And I understand’’

Buttler said coming back to a great situation in Altoona helps ease the pain
‘‘If I was going somewhere besides Altoona to play Double-A baseball, it would be a big difference’’ he said
‘‘But Altoona is a gorgeous place, the fans are great and I’m just going to make the most of it’’

Buttler said he missed about twelve days of work this spring with a nagging hip injury he suffered in big league camp
He acknowledged ‘‘that could have hurt me’’ in the battle for an outfield job in Indy

He’ll now return to Altoona for a third straight year, and his manager said Buttler doesn’t have to put pressure on himself to equal last season’s big production
‘‘The important thing is he takes care of business every day’’ Leiper said
‘‘I know the concern of his is since I did so well last year, I’m going to have to do better this year because I’m back
But he doesn’t
The circumstances are what’s going to control his career
He’s got to do well, but it’s tough to say you’ve got to go out and hit X amount of triples or X amount of home runs
The bottom line is he’s got to worry about the day-to-day process and just play the game’’

Buttler has been through tough times before
Two seasons ago he was demoted from Altoona to low-A Hickory - despite hitting over .300 - because of a numbers crunch, yet he rebounded and had a big 2006 campaign

‘‘A couple years back I had something like this that came up, and that was a setback’’ Buttler said
‘‘So you’ve just got to stay positive and come out here and enjoy your opportunity to play every day
That’s what I’m going to do
I’m going to do what I can to bring as much as I can to the ballclub to help them win’’