It's the question that's been on every sports fan's mind: Quis re-custodiet ipsos custodes?

Okay, it's the question that's been on the mind of every late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE Latin sports fan, and even though it probably had more to do with throwing the discus, we're using it tonight to talk about baseball.

The instant replay initiative memos have been placed onto players' chairs, and that means instant replay is SERIOUS BUSINESS. Will it stop with home run calls? No. Will it stop with close plays in important situations? Of course not. Will it stop when we're TiVo-ing check swings and deeply investigating the use of the pogo stick in Ketchup's nightly victory in the Hot Dog Race? Okay, maybe then it'll stop.

Tonight's Dugout, and tonight's Dugout-within-a-Dugout, are after the jump.

Remember two weeks ago when the deadline for signing draft picks came and went without a lot of drama from Scott Boras? How it seemed like he caved to the Pirates' and Royals' offers for the second and third picks, Pedro Alvarez and Eric Hosmer? When it comes to Alvarez, at least, things are never that simple with Boras. What seemed to be resolved on August 15th with the Pirates and Alvarez slowly devolved when Alvarez never showed up in Pittsburgh to take a physical and sign his contract. Today, things apparently hit the fan.

The ball got rolling when the MLB Players' Association filed a grievance with the Commissioner's Office (more details being constantly updated here), charging that Alvarez signed his contract after midnight on the 15th. The Pirates responded by refuting that charge and placing Alvarez on the restricted list, saying that Boras had since tried to renegotiate the contract and his client has refused to officially sign the deal that was agreed on in principle the night of the 15th.

What does all this mean? Where does this go? It's a good bet that this is rooted in Boras's dislike of the August 15th signing deadline, even though there's not much being said right now beyond run-of-the-mill finger pointing. As it stands, Boras feels the Pirates signed Alvarez to an illegal contract and the player's union is on his side. The Pirates feel that Boras is posturing for more money and the MLB higher-ups are on their side. A hearing is scheduled for September 10th, but I imagine both sides will have a lot to say before then.

There are a number of ways to endear yourself to the fans in a new city after you've been traded. The best way to do it is to actually perform well. If you don't perform well, the next best option is probably to go on a profanity-laden rant after you perform poorly.

Last night Craig Hansen, one of the players the Pirates acquired at the trade deadline, came into the game with the Pirates leading the Cubs 8-7, walked three hitters, gave up a hit, and watched all the runs score. When asked about his outing, this is how he responded:

"I couldn't throw a [expletive] strike," he said at his stall, eyes flaring. "When you can't throw a [expletive] strike, you can't get anyone out."

For a former first round draft pick, Hansen's struggled to this early point in his career with a 6.39 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP in 81 appearances with the Pirates and Red Sox through his career. He's got a live arm and great numbers in the minors, but until he learns how to throw strikes in the big leagues (he's walked 51 batters in 81 2/3 innings) he's going to have more frustrating outings like last night's.

It seems likely that the bulldozer that Neal Huntington is using to rebuild the Pirates with will not rest until it's eliminated most of the ruins left behind by his predecessors. After trading away Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, and Damaso Marte for prospects, he shipped Jose Bautista (the team's former "third baseman of the future") off to Toronto yesterday for a player to be named. All indications are that he's not done. When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked him about Jack Wilson's future in Pittsburgh, Huntington said this about the longest tenured Pirate:

"The reality is that we can't make emotional decisions on any player. Jack certainly has proven his worth again defensively, and we can see that the whole club solidified with him out there. But we always need to leave ourselves the ability to make the team better. Jack, hopefully, will be a big part of this turnaround going forward. But, as it was with Jason and Xavier and Damaso Marte, if the right baseball trade is out there, we'll have to entertain it."

In less than a year in Pittsburgh, Huntington has already turned over more than half of the Pirates' 40-man roster. That seems dramatic, but it was what needed to be done. Pittsburgh is still a long ways removed from contending again, but cleaning house is certainly a first step in the right direction.

Since coming to Milwaukee, CC Sabathia's been phenomenal. The way things are going right now, he's going to insert himself into the NL Cy Young race despite not arriving in the NL until early July. He's been so good that Ian Snell, who's been floundering to regain the form that made him one of the NL's more promising young starters in 2006 and 2007, watched some footage of Sabathia on his iPhone on Monday, mimicked some things he saw CC do, and struck out eight Cardinals in seven shutout innings last night:

"I couldn't take my eyes off CC," Snell recalled. "And you know what? The more I watched, the more I knew what I had to do."

[...]

"Watching CC, he used his fastball command to set up the slider, rather than vice versa," Snell said. "Well, I put my fastball where I wanted, and everything else happened."

As a Pirate fan, I think it's awesome that Snell finally managed to get some of his form back. As a geek, I think it's really cool that he used his phone for such a cool purpose. And as a cynic, I'm a little curious as to why pitching coach Jeff Andrews never bothered to tell Snell that maybe he should use his 96 mph fastball from time to time. How can a coach not see what a pitcher figures from watching baseball on his iPhone?

To fans and the media, what a team does in the MLB Draft pales next to a big free-agent signing or blockbuster trade.

Part of that is the gaudy figures thrown around during the hot stove season. The Red Sox, this year's top spender in the draft, couldn't even buy one year of Gil Meche if they shifted their draft outlay to the open market. Most of it stems from immediacy, though. A big winter signing answers the question who will help me today? A big haul in the draft answers who will help me tomorrow, but in most cases tomorrow is years away, if it ever comes at all.

Still, as the cost of free agents escalates, the draft continues to become the most important way to ensure long-term success. With that in mind, and with the deadline to sign picks in the books, here's a look at three teams who won and three teams who lost in the 2008 draft

After last night's midnight deadline for signing draft picks, it appears that the Boston Red Sox became the first team in history to exceed the $10 million mark in total signing bonuses.Given the way the Red Sox have been run under Theo Epstein, that's not a huge surprise. What is surprising is their competition in the race to $10 million this year. It wasn't the Yankees or Dodgers or Mets or another similarly deep pocketed team. It was the Pittsburgh Pirates.

One of the big stories after midnight last night was that the Pirates managed to sign their first round pick, Pedro Alvarez, to the biggest signing bonus in franchise history ($6 million). Picking the best talent available and signing him to a big deal hasn't exactly been the Pirates' MO over the past (see: Brian Bullington over B.J. Upton and Danny Moskos over Matt Wieters), but it's also not hard to do. Where the Pirates really made their impression was later in the draft.

In addition to signing Alvarez and their third-through-fifth round picks at about slot level, the Pirates broke out the checkbook for sixth rounder Robby Grossman and 20th rounder Quentin MIller. Some rated both of them as high as second or third round talents that dropped because of their commitments to Texas and UNC, respectively. The Pirates paid both of them in the neighborhood of $1 million to convince them to sign, way above their slot values.

All told, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is estimating that the Pirates broke the $9 million barrier and came close to paying out $10 million in signing bonuses in Neal Huntington's first draft as Pirates' GM. He inherited a team in quite a hole last September, but it certainly looks like he's making strides towards digging out of that hole.

The August 15th deadline for signing draft picks has created some interesting drama in mid-August that didn't previously exist. With most high draft picks waiting until the 15th to sign, there was a ton of tension as midnight approached last night. One of the most interesting subplots, however, has been how Scott Boras has handled negotiations for his top prospects.

A year ago, he represented Mike Moustakas and Matt Wieters, picked second and fifth overall, respectively. After demanding huge signing bonuses for both of them, it was reported the he called the Royals and Orioles after 11:30 PM and mostly gave in to the teams' demands, with Moustakas signing for $4 miilion with the Royals and Wieters getting $6 million from Baltimore. That's certainly a lot of money, but it's not even close to what Boras had reportedly been asking for.

A similar scenario played itself out last night with second overall pick Pedro Alvarez (picked by the Pirates) and third pick Eric Hosmer (again, the Royals). After reportedly asking the Pirates for an eight-figure signing bonus for Alvarez and a major league contract and a similarly huge bonus and big-league signing contract for Hosmer, both players signed for $6 million bonuses and minor league deals within minutes of the midnight deadline.

So what's the deal? Two years, four demands that Boras has seemingly caved on. Is the superagent losing his touch?

It might seem like being traded from the Yankees to the Pirates is the worst thing that can happen to a young player. Going from an organization that's has a perennial playoff spot to one that hasn't had a winning season since 1992 certainly seems like it should be a drag. If that's the truth, it's hard to see Jeff Karstens' disappointment. Since being traded to the Pirates two weeks ago, he's thrown fifteen shut-out innings and came within four outs of a no-hitter on Wednesday. Today, he tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette what he thought of the trade:

"There was never doubt, no," Karstens said. "It was just a matter of some thing needing to happen for me to get that chance. Believe me: I was very excited when I got the call that I was coming to Pittsburgh."

Maybe that sounds a little Bull Durham-y, but it's one aspect that the Pirates do have an advantage over the Yankees in. They can afford to give guys like Karstens a chance on the mound, while the Yankees are constantly looking for minimal upgrades like Jarrod Washburn to try and sneak into a playoff spot rather than having patience with younger players. Of course, that doesn't say great things about the Pirates organization at the moment, but maybe if Karstens throws a few more near-no-hitters, things will start to turn themselves around in Pittsburgh.

Being a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates has never been easy. My earliest memories of the team generally involve losing in the NLCS three straight years from 1990-1992 and things have been all downhill from there. With the team trudging towards tying the record for most consecutive losing seasons by an American sports franchise, it probably seems to most outsiders that being a Pirate fan can be boring. That's actually far from the case. The last two weeks have been incredibly strange for Pirate fans.

On July 26th, Xavier Nady was pulled out of that night's Pirates/Padres game and traded to the Yankees. He won the AL Player of the Week Award in his first full week in pinstripes. At the trade deadline, Jason Bay was traded to the Boston Red Sox and immediately went to work proving that Theo Epstein wasn't crazy to think he could replace Manny Ramirez in left field.

It's a really bizarre feeling seeing two guys watching play in black and gold suddenly light up the national stage with the two biggest franchises in all of baseball. In some ways, it's a weird form of validation of being a Pirate fan. For years, people have asked me why I keep watching, now there are two guys I can point to and say, "SEE! It's not all bad at PNC Park!" But of course, they're not there any more. It's easy to see that the team is rebuilding and I'm fully behind that because I think that it's finally being done right. That doesn't make it any easier to watch the national media rave over Jason Bay and wonder what it would be like if we could've put a team around him.