Dale Torborg's wrestling made me want to retch, and only half of that was due to his gimmick.

Speaking of McCutchen, he either really, REALLY loves Pittsburgh, or he has the most incompetent agent in baseball. $52 million over the next six seasons? Holy crap, did this dude sell himself short.

The following players have done nothing to merit their current roles, be they starters or backups:

And Smizik would know, since he's done nothing to merit his current role as a paid columnist, either.

Casey McGehee put up a 69 OPS+ last year, and this somehow inspired the Pirates to install him as their 1st baseman? That's kind of sad.

Good grief, what an idiot.

Talk about a classic 'scream and shout, run in circles' response to your clubs struggles on the field.

I think McGehee was supposed to get most of the playing time at 3B under the theory that Pedro Alvarez was less likely to be a colossal bust if he could focus on hitting and playing 1B instead of trying to also become a good 3B. But Alvarez seems to be not horrible at 3B and he's hitting not horribly, so he's there every day.

Clearly McGehee is not who you want playing first base, but he's platooning with Garrett Jones, which theoretically should be all right. But both of them are hitting terribly anyway. But everyone else is hitting terribly too, so who cares.

$52 million over the next six seasons? Holy crap, did this dude sell himself short.

In the real world, it's a very fair deal for both sides. Since the Pirates kept McCutchen in the minors long enough to keep him from being a super-two, the first year of the contract would have been at league minimum and three more would have been arb years. He's basically getting what he'd have made over those four years if he'd stayed healthy and productive, the difference being that the risk of staying healthy and productive was shifted from the player to the team. And in return for the club assuming that risk, they get two free agent years at a discount (plus an option for a third). It's very similar to Ryan Zimmerman's first long-term deal, once you account for the first year at league minimum. See also, Justin Upton, Jay Bruce, etc, etc.

Evan Longoria, now there's a guy who sold himself short.

Not that I believe he would do anything helpful in a larger role, but Gorkys Hernandez is 0-4. Shouldn't he have a little bit more time and ABs to prove he is not MLB-worthy?