A Few More Cuts; Plus Snell and Vazquez Return

Late Wednesday, the Pirates made three more cuts, optioning third baseman Neil Walker and pitcher Dave Davidson to AAA-Indianapolis and reassigning non-roster pitcher Brian Slocum to the minor league camp. Nothing shocking here. Of course, much like with Jose Tabata or Pedro Alvarez, it would have been nice to see these young players in action a little more, but that would have cost playing time for players with a legitimate chance of making the team. 40 players remain in camp.

With Puerto Rico losing to team USA Monday night in the WBC, pitcher Ian Snell and infielder Ramon Vazquez have returned to camp. Snell may start Sunday against the Reds, which would put him in line to pitch the second game of the regular season; no surprise there. Vazquez, who was the primary third baseman for team Puerto Rico, will probably see most of his Spring playing time at the hot corner, though, since he was signed as a utility infielder, I'm sure he'll appear at second and short as well.

In recent game news, the Pirates lost a pair of night games to start the week; Monday versus Tampa Bay and Tuesday against the Yankees. Monday's game was televised on the MLB Network, using the FSN Pittsburgh feed. Paul Maholm looked fantastic with 4 2/3 scoreless innings, but the relievers were abysmal. Still, it was nice to watch my team play. After getting trounced by the Yankees on Tuesday, the Bucs bounced back with an extra inning win against the Twins on Wednesday, led by another solid outing from Zach Duke. He allowed 2 runs and 5 hits in 5 innings. And, by the way, Duke is in line to start the third game of the regular season. Also, not a surprise. The Pirates are off today and return to action against the Red Sox on Friday.