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Brad Lincoln had reconstructive elbow surgery less than a year after the Pirates made him the fourth overall pick of the 2006 draft. Fully recovered, the right-hander has won 13 games over the past two seasons in the minors.
Friday, Lincoln took another step up the ladder toward the majors when the Pirates placed [...]

Thursday, the Arizona Fall League wrapped up its regular season. Four Pirates prospects performed well:
… Outfielder Jose Tabata batted .429 over his final 10 games to finish with a .392 average, third-best in the AFL. He was the leader in hits (47), at-bats (120), was third in total bases (62) and fourth in runs [...]

Center fielder Andrew McCutchen finished fourth in voting for the National League Rookie of the Year Award. McCutchen gathered 25 points, including two first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan was the winner with 105 points, including 17 of a possible 32 first-place votes.
Pirates first baseman [...]

It won’t be long before Pedro Alvarez takes over at third base, which will force Andy LaRoche to either find a new position — second base remains very much a possibility, even with Akinori Iwamura on the roster — or accept a greatly reduced role.
Last month, while they both were at Instructional League in [...]

Next year, the Pirates will wrap up their spring training schedule with two games in Philadelphia.
The Pirates will play the Phillies April 1 in Clearwater, Fla., then fly to eastern Pennsylvania for two games against two-time defending NL champs on April 2-3 at Citizens Bank Park.
The April 2 game will begin at 7:05 p.m. [...]

The Pirates assigned pitchers Virgil Vasquez and Eric Hacker outright to Triple-A Indianapolis and catcher Steve Lerud outright to Double-A Altoona. The 40-man roster now lists 36 players, plus pitchers Jose Ascanio and Evan Meek, who are on the 60-day disabled list.

Seeking to fill a hole in their infield, the Pirates traded reliever Jesse Chavez to the Tampa Bay Rays for second baseman Akinori Iwamura.
“He is a good athlete with above-average speed and is a tough out with a solid career on-base percentage,” GM Neal Huntington said. “Additionally, he played Gold Glove caliber third base for years [...]

Some of the Pirates’ minor league affiliates — such as the low-A State College Spikes and Double-A Altoona Curve — are owned by private investors.
However, the Pirates will become the sole owners of their Class A club when they purchase the Sarasota franchise from the Cincinnati Reds and relocate it to Bradenton, Fla.
“Many, but not [...]

This afternoon, the Pirates confirmed my report in today’s Pittsburgh Trib that they are in the process of moving their high Class A team from Lynchburg, Va., to Bradenton, Fla. Here is the complete e-mail statement from team president Frank Coonelly:

“We are very close to finalizing the purchase of the Florida State League [...]

The Pirates requested outright waivers on reliever Tyler Yates, who then opted for free agency. Yates missed most of last season after having reconstructive elbow surgery.
Yates pitched in 87 games after the Pirates acquired him in a trade with Atlanta a week before the start of the 2008 season. This past season, the right-hander [...]