NOTE ON TRANSACTIONS

Getting information on minor league transactions has gotten easier than it was, but for my purposes it's still not that good.  The official minor league site usually covers promotions, demotions and disabled list moves, but it remains pretty erratic.  Some of the problem stems from the fact that MiLB.com seems to handle individual teams differently depending on whether they run their own web pages.  In any event, movements within the system aren't that hard to follow (although injuries can be), because I'll see a player in the box score for his new team.  Players being signed usually (but not always) show up quickly for the same reason.  Players being released or hurt, however, are another matter.  MiLB.com doesn't provide the former, and provides limited and erratic information on the latter, probably because it's too downbeat for the happy face world of MLB Advanced Media.  Baseball America carries minor league transactions, including acquisitions, releases and retirements, but their listings are only as thorough as the information that the teams provide, and the teams obviously don't provide complete information.  Hence the need for a "Where Are They Now?" category.  More recently, John Perrotto at Pirates Report  has been providing transactions for the Pirates' minor league affiliates, including players being released.  I don't know, though, whether this will continue in the off-season.

The best pieces of information I have to rely on are the minor league roster that's available at Pirate City during training camp in March, and the team's Media Guide, which becomes available at about the same time.  They're not infallible and won't include players signed close to spring training, but that time of year is when I have the most accurate information about who is and isn't in the system.

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