Pirates Off Season Recap, Caribben World Series final standings

Each day this week we'll take a look at what another team in the NL Central team did this winter. We start today with the Pirates:
12-5-08: Signed Daniel Haigwood to a minor league deal with invite to Spring Training.
12-8-08: Signed Brian Slocum to a minor league deal with a invite to Spring Training. .
12-10-08: Traded Ronny Paulino to the Phillies in exchance for Jason Jaramillo.
12-11-08: Selected Donald Veal from the Cubs in the Rule 5 Draft.
12-12-08: Signed Denny Bautista to a minor league deal
12-19-08: Denny Baustista to a minor league deal with invite to Spring Training.
12-22-08: Signed Garrett Jones, Juan Mateo, Andy Philips, and Jeff Salazar to minor league deals with invites to Spring Training.
1-6-09: Signed Pedro Lopez and Anderson Marchado to minor league deals with invites to Spring Training.
1-13-09: Signed Craig Monroe to a minor league deal with invite to Spring Training.
1-21-09: Signed Erik Kratz to a minor league deal w/ invite to S.T.
1-26-09: Claimed Virgil Vasquez off waivers from the Padres.
1-30-09: Signed Eric Hinske to a one-year contract.

I'd give the Pirates off season a 5 out of 10. They didn't really do anything to improve, and lost Ronny Paulino.

The Caribbean World Series took place all last week in Mexico and was televised on the MLB Network. Venezuela won the series. Here is the final standings:
Venezuela 5-1
Mexico 3-3
Dominican Republic 2-4
Puerto Rico 2-4
The MLB Network did a great job with the games, at it was great to see some live baseball in early February. It also was a little preview of what we'll see in the World Baseball Classic next month.

Don't forget chat Wednesday at 7 PM CT.
More posts to come...

Rule 5 Draft Recap

The MLB Rule 5 draft is complete and there were 2 things involving the Cubs.
1. Cubs LHP Donald Veal was selected by Pittsburg with the 4th pick. The Cubs could get him back if the Pirates don't keep him on their 25 man roster for all of 2009 but he would have to clear waviers.
2. The Cubs aquired David Patton who was the Reds in exchange for cash considerations. Patton is a right handed pitcher who spent the 2008 season in the Rockies organization. Here's a link to hist numbers. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=David%20Patton&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=456029
The Cubs also lost 2 players in the Minor League portion; catcher Yusuf Carter and pitcher Mark Holliman.
Here's some notable past Rule 5 Draftees that went on to become all stars:
George Bell
Paul Blair
Bobby Bonilla
Jody Davis
Darrell Evans
Kelly Gruber
Josh Hamilton
Willie Hernandez
Dave Hollins
John Hudek (minor league portion.)
Dave May
Mike Morgan
Scott Podsednik (minor league portion.)
Bip Roberts
Johan Santana
Joakim Soria
Manny Trillo (minor league portion.)
Derrick Turnbow
Dan Uggla
and Roberto Clemente went on to become a Hall of Famer.