By Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

First off, my apologies for the tardiness in this. Jury duty got in the way. Anyways, you can find a full recap of all the roster moves that the Pirates made on Friday right here. The full story includes comments and explanations from GM Neal Huntington, too.

In review, the Pirates added seven players to the 40-man roster on Friday:

• Jose Ascanio and Evan Meek were taken off the 60-day disabled list and added
• Right-hander Chris Jakubauskas was claimed off waivers from Seattle
• Brad Lincoln, Bryan Morris, Gorkys Hernandez and Ramon Aguero were prospects so that they could be protected from Rule 5 Draft.

In order to have enough room for all these additions, the following players were removed from the 40-man roster:

• Jeff Karstens, Robinzon Diaz and Justin Thomas were all designated for assignment.

A few things to note regarding all of this...

• Diaz cannot be put on waivers and outrighted to Triple-A (because of his service time), so if the Pirates can't trade him in the next 10 days, they will release him. Huntington said he doesn't expect Diaz to be interested in possibly resigning with the club if that's what happens.
• Huntington said that the club will explore the trade market for both Karstens and Thomas in the next 10 days. But, if no trade partners are found, the Pirates hope both pitchers will clear waivers and remain with the organization. The team will have the ability to outright both pitchers if no one grabs them off waivers.
• Why add Jakubauskas and remove Karstens? Huntington said the players would essentially serve the same role on the club and have the same ability. The difference is that Jakubauskas has options remaining and Karstens doesn't. For that reason, the Pirates found Jakubauskas more appealing of an option.
• Erik Kratz moves up to third on the catching depth chart. However, Huntington said that he will continue explore the Minor League and Major League free agent catchers this offseason for other options.
• Huntington said the organization has not determined yet whether it will make a selection in the Rule 5 Draft. If the Pirates decide to do so, they'll have to open up a roster spot somehow.

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

At 11:59 pm ET on Friday, all teams must have 40-man rosters set in preparation for the Rule 5 Draft, which will be held in Indianapolis on Dec. 10. That means the Pirates have some decisions and moves left to make in the next two days.

Currently, the club's 40-man roster has 36 players on it. Evan Meek and Jose Ascanio are both still listed as being on the 60-day disabled list, but they will both need to be added this week. Once they are, the Pirates will then have 38 players on that roster.

Given GM Neal Huntington's track record so far, you'd have to believe that the Pirates are planning to go into the Rule 5 Draft with the expectation of making a selection in it. That would mean that the club needs to leave a roster spot available for that Rule 5 pick. In essence, that gives the Pirates the ability to really only protect 39 players.

So who needs to be added before Friday? Members of the 2006 Draft class that were 19 or older when they signed are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this year. You can find the full list of Pirates draft picks from '06 here if you're interested. Players who were signed at the age of 18 of younger get an extra year before they are eligible, which means that those signed out of high school or Latin America at 18 or younger in 2005 are now Rule 5 eligible.

The obvious add to the 40-man will be right-hander Brad Lincoln. He's the top pitching prospect in the system and would be snatched up in a heartbeat if left unprotected.

I think you can put outfielder Gorkys Hernandez in that category, too. While he may still be a bit further from the Majors than Lincoln, he is a prospect that the Pirates will protect.

Though right-hander Bryan Morris took a step back in Single-A this season, he's a likely addition to the 40-man because of his potential. It's hard for me to believe that the Pirates would leave one of the main pieces in the Jason Bay trade at risk to be taken. Can you imagine how that would look if he was.

Some of the other players (this is not an exhaustive list) that are Rule 5 eligible include: Shelby Ford, Miles Durham, Jim Negrych, Ramon Aguero, Michael Dubee, R.J. Rodriguez, Jared Keel and Michael Crotta.   

If he's not protected, Kyle Bloom will again be among those eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. I'm noting him specifically because he was taken in the 2008 Rule 5 Draft by Detroit, but given back to Pittsburgh late in Spring Training.

Now, who is susceptible to being removed from the 40-man to make room for these additions? The Pirates would seem to have a sufficient amount of potential options. I'd list (in no particular order) Anthony Claggett, Phil Dumatrait, Steven Jackson, Brian Bixler and Argenis Diaz as the most likely to be removed. All would seem to be fairly easy to replace if lost.

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

... yes, the one about the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury. Well, meet your newest Allegheny County juror. It's not exactly the best timing with the Hot Stove simmering and about to get much more interesting in the coming days, but as it does, I'll be spending my days in the courtroom for the next week. Yes, a week. (insert collective sigh here)

That said, I probably can't get away with blogging or twittering during a trial, so I apologize ahead of time, but neither will likely be updated much during the day. Breaking news will be covered on the main site by someone filling in for me. And if any news surfaces during the day that warrants any follow-up here or on the main site, I'll take care of that in the evenings.

Sorry about the timing. But hey, if it makes you feel any better, my $9/day jury stipend didn't come close to covering the $24 parking fee I incurred today. Must come up with a parking Plan B for tomorrow...

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

A few injuries to bring you up to speed on...

• Jose Ascanio (underwent arthroscopic surgery on right shoulder on Oct. 2)

Pirates GM Neal Huntington confirmed that there have been no setbacks for Ascanio since that surgery. While players can sometimes recover and return in seven months, Ascanio is expected to be on an 8-9 month timetable. That means that best-case scenario would probably have him back pitching in Pittsburgh in May/June at the earliest. Ascanio is expected to be cleared to start throwing (very lightly) for the first time about the time the Pirates open up Spring Training camp. 

• Craig Hansen (sidelined since April with a nerve issue causing spasms in his neck)

Hansen received good news in his check-up last week. The nerve, which needed to regenerate, has gotten closer to the muscle in his back/neck that needs to be strengthened. It's finally proof of some progress for Hansen, who has been playing the waiting game this whole time. He's still highly unlikely to be able to compete for a spot in Spring Training, but this at least a sign that Hansen may be able to pitch again at some point in 2010.

• It's also worth noting that Huntington said that there were no injuries to report from any of the players currently playing fall or winter ball.

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Jason Bay remains the Pirates' last player to win Rookie-of-the-Year honors as center fielder Andrew McCutchen fell up short in his bid to win the award for his 2009 season. McCutchen finished fourth in the voting, with Florida's Chris Coghlan winning the honors. Pirates outfielder/first baseman Garrett Jones finished seventh.

Here is a breakdown of the voting:

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For any of you Pirates fans (and I know there are a lot of you who fit in this category) who were holding out hope that shortstop Jack Wilson would make a return to Pittsburgh, I'm sorry to squash those hopes.

On Friday, Wilson and the Mariners agreed to a deal that will keep the shortstop in Seattle through 2011. The two-year deal is worth $10 million.

Wilson, who was traded to Seattle on July 29 in a seven-player deal, left Pittsburgh with the door still open for a possible return. In fact, he confirmed with me on Friday that if he had become a free agent, he would have strongly considered returning to the Pirates if Pittsburgh had shown interest in resigning him.

As it turns out, though, Wilson's offer from the Mariners was too good to pass up. The deal that Wilson signed with Seattle was worth $2 million more than the two-year extension the Pirates offered the shortstop back in July.

Wilson hit .244 in 31 games with Seattle, but was plagued by injuries during his two-month stint there.

With Wilson's deal, now both he and Freddy Sanchez have signed multi-year deals with the clubs that acquired each in July.

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

I know this list has surfaced in other stories on the site, but so you have it in a concise form, here are the Pirates players eligible for arbitration, along with their service time:

• Zach Duke (4.094)
• Ronny Cedeno (4.029)
• Matt Capps (4.017)
• Jeff Karstens (2.144)

The cut-off for "Super Two" players becoming arbitration eligble was at two years, 139 days. You'll notice that Karstens made that cut-off by five days.

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Obviously, folks, you will be able to find all of your Pirates-related news this offseason on this blog. But for those of you with an interest in following the Hot Stove landscape across Major League Baseball, I wanted to direct you to MLB.com's Hot Stove blog.

The link you'll need is right here.

All 30 beat writers will be updating this blog with breaking news, rumors and speculation. If that's something that keeps you sane until Spring Training kicks up, you should make it one of your daily online stops.

OK... done with my shameless plug. Thank you.

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

This isn't earth-shattering news to bring you or anything, but in case anyone has been sitting on the edge of their seats for such information, the Pirates have released times for their 2010 regular season games.

I would expect those times to be reflected on the schedule that we have posted on pirates.com, but they haven't been yet. Anyways, if you're curious, here are the highlights:

• Those Saturday afternoon home games that everyone liked so much in 2009, well the Pirates have just one in 2010. The team's Saturday, Sept. 25 game against Houston will be played at 12:35 pm. All other Saturday home games will be at the regular 7:05 pm start time.
• All three of the Pirates' holiday home games -- Memorial Day (May 31), Fourth of July (figure the date out on your own) and Labor Day (Sept. 6) will all begin at 1:35 pm.
• The Pirates will play another five weekday day games in the 81-game home schedule. All those will start at 12:35 pm.

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Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com

For the last few weeks, I've been working with people from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get a blog set up for right-hander Ross Ohlendorf, who was interested in sharing information about what he is doing during an eight-week internship with the department. Here is some background on the internship for those who missed the story I wrote about Ohlendorf a few weeks back.

We finally got a blog going on Tuesday, and Ohlendorf has already published his first entry. You can find his blog here. You will also notice that there is a link to his blog on the pirates.com homepage.

Ohlendorf has committed to blogging through his internship, but maybe with some encouragement and feedback from you guys, he'll continue to blog through the rest of the offseason and even during the year. I'm sure he'd love to hear your questions, which you can leave in the comments section, of course.

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