Kevin Gorman stories, Page 123

Based on MLB’s 60-game regular season, the oddsmakers at BetOnline.ag set the over-under at 25½ wins for the Pittsburgh Pirates, projecting a last-place finish in the NL Central. With the shortened season, the oddsmakers expect many teams to have the same records. The teams projected to have the best records...

Baseball is back, so the Pittsburgh Pirates are returning to PNC Park. That’s the good news for the sport’s fans. The bad news is MLB and its Players’ Association wasted weeks of preparation by having a labor dispute amid a pandemic. In the time the two sides spent negotiating over...

The Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to terms with first-round pick Nick Gonzales and will sign the New Mexico State shortstop Wednesday, pending his passing a physical exam. Gonzales was en route to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, his father, Mike Gonzales, confirmed to the Tribune-Review. The Pirates selected Gonzales with the No. 7...

Oscar Marin knows being a new pitching coach amid a pandemic is less than ideal, but feels “pretty confident” about the progress the Pittsburgh Pirates staff has made preparing for baseball’s return. “Everything is new to us, new to myself,” Marin said Saturday on 93.7 FM. “I’m working through a...

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced Friday that they have not had any positive cases of covid-19 involving any employees, including players, at their spring training and minor league facility in Florida. The Pirates released the statement in response to the Philadelphia Phillies confirming eight positive cases of the coronavirus, including five...

A day after their face-to-face meeting, negotiations Thursday for the return of baseball between MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark grew more contentious, as Clark said it was “unequivocally false” that any prior agreement had been reached. Clark announced a counterproposal to the owners’...

The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number. No. 74: Frank Varrichione When drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of Notre Dame, he was known as Faintin’ Frank Varrichione for his infamous faking...

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton believes that team chairman Bob Nutting “wants to play” baseball this summer, despite reports that some MLB owners are stalling negotiations to avoid a season. Shelton said during his weekly appearance on The Cook and Joe Show on 93.7 The Fan that he spoke with...

Ben Cherington said he remains optimistic MLB and the Players Association will find a way to play this summer, but the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager doesn’t blame baseball fans for feeling frustrated over how their negotiations have dragged on. Cherington encouraged fans to “express that frustration and continue to hold...

Nine years ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates took a University of Texas recruit in the second round of the MLB Draft and gave him a record $5 million signing bonus to convince him to play pro baseball. That risk paid off when Josh Bell became an All-Star first baseman. The Pirates...

An economic battle that has given baseball a black eye saw negotiations between the owners and players reach an impasse Saturday night, leaving in limbo what the season will look like this summer. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred declared Wednesday night there will be baseball amid a global pandemic, but what...

When it came to Bill Fralic’s blocking for the Pitt Panthers, there is no shortage of superlatives. A new statistic was coined, and a legendary offensive line coach gave a ringing endorsement. The Pancake Block was created in Fralic’s honor, for the ferocity with which he flattened defenders. The late...

The Pittsburgh Pirates remained steadfast late Thursday night that they had no intention of drafting a handful of right-handed pitchers who were converted position players or pulled double duty. It just happened to work out that way. “Not a particular demographic we were pursuing, the position-player-to-pitcher demographic, but it just...

With their final pick of the MLB Draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t pull any surprises. Once again, they went with a right-handed pitcher. The Pirates chose Logan Hofmann of Northwestern State on Thursday night in the fifth found (No. 138), giving them five righties in six picks. The 5-foot-10, 190-pound...

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the second day of the MLB Draft into a run on right-handed pitching. After taking New Mexico State shortstop Nick Gonzales in the first round and South Carolina right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski in the competitive balance round Wednesday night, the Pirates on Thursday picked three consecutive righty...

The Pittsburgh Pirates are making a run on right-handed pitching in the MLB Draft, taking their fourth consecutive by selecting Appalachian State senior reliever Jack Hartman in the fourth round (No. 108) on Thursday. “I’m speechless,” Hartman said in a statement released by Appalachian State. “I know that might sound...

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected another right-handed pitcher when they took Nick Garcia of Chapman University (Calif.) with their third-round pick (No. 79) of the MLB Draft. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Garcia went 9-0 with a 0.64 ERA and recorded 12 saves as the closer on Chapman’s 2019 Division III national champion...

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Southern California high school pitcher Jared Jones with their second-round pick (No. 44 overall) on Thursday in the MLB Draft. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound right-hander from La Mirada High School, a University of Texas recruit, has a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and a plus-slider but...

When Carmen Mlodzinski committed to South Carolina before his sophomore year of high school, he was a shortstop with a strong arm who was warned that he might end up on the mound. How Mlodzinski (pronounced Ma-gin-skee) became a pitcher who was a first-day draft pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates...

The first round of their first MLB Draft together was lining up in a way that had Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Ben Cherington and his baseball operations staff feeling “really good.” The order of the picks wasn’t what they expected, as Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad went higher than expected at...