Pirates camp report
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Five things to know about the Pittsburgh Pirates:
1. Everything this spring is predicated on the Pirates' relatively strong finish last season. After losing 60 of their first 90 games, Pittsburgh went 37-35 following the All-Star break -- which might not sound like much, but it's the first time since 1992 the Pirates have had a winning second half. A kid named Barry Bonds was still around then. "My hope was that there would be a strong chance that we'd come back from the offseason ready to go, based on what we did and how we went about doing it during that time," manager Jim Tracy says. "The sense I get from this camp so far is that it's still very fresh in people's minds."
2. The ugly truth: Pittsburgh's streak is up to 14 consecutive losing seasons -- longest in the majors since the Phillies compiled a major league-record 16 consecutive losing seasons between 1933 and 1948. Furthermore, the 14 consecutive losing seasons comprises the longest current skid in the four major professional sports. The NBA's Golden State Warriors are working on what would be their 13th consecutive losing season, the NFL's Arizona Cardinals have compiled seven straight and the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets might stretch their skid to six in a row at their present pace.
3. It's not exactly the Cold War between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, but shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Jose Castillo met earlier this spring to iron out things after Wilson called Castillo "lazy" over the winter. It actually was the majority opinion of the Pirates, but voicing it in public was something else. Castillo is coming off of a disappointing year -- his batting average dipped 15 points and his on-base percentage slipped from .307 to .299 -- which was made worse because he was out of shape. He reported to camp this spring 20 pounds lighter, but the Pirates will make him earn back the second base job. "That's the way I felt I had to handle the situation," Wilson says of calling out Castillo publicly. "I've been dealing with the situation for three years. We had a talk, he's working real hard and everything is behind us."
4. Respected young starters Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm and Tom Gorzelanny will have to continue to find their own way. The Pirates have not added a veteran to anchor the staff the way Milwaukee added Jeff Suppan; maybe that comes back to bite Pittsburgh, maybe not. They're confident Salomon Torres can close, and remember the name of youngster Matt Capps: He has the stuff to become a set-up man extraordinaire and, eventually, a closer. But overall, it's difficult to get a read on these guys, and youth leads to this: Last year, the uneven Pirates had the worst record in baseball in one-run games before the All-Star break at 9-27 ... yet for the season's second half, they flipped it to a best-in-baseball 15-4. The 25 one-run losses by July 4 were the most in baseball history.
5. Pittsburgh Magazine's list of the area's 25 most beautiful people included none other than NL batting champ Freddy Sanchez. Predictably, someone Xeroxed the full-page mug of Sanchez from the magazine, one of those photos that looks like a Glamour Shots advertisement, and pasted it up in the Bucs' spring clubhouse. "I guess he's good-looking," Wilson quips. "I don't know. I don't really look at dudes."
BUCKGUY 
