On the Beat: The New Crew by John Perrotto

Seemingly every season over the past decade and a half, the Pirates wake up on August 1 with a brand new roster. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but there is no denying that the Pirates' roster has undergone in-season overhauls more often than not since their current string of 15 straight losing seasons began in 1993. That has again been the case this season in Neal Huntington's first full year as the Pirates' general manager. The Pirates have nine players on their major league roster who were not there on June 26: third baseman to Los Angeles and Pittsburgh send left fielder Jason Bay to the Red Sox. Bautista was acquired in a June 26 trade from the Tigers for a minor leaguer. Beam, Davis, Sanchez, and Pearce were all brought up from Triple-A... [read full story]