Would anyone be terribly opposed to the Bucs and Yanks working out a deal where each exercises options for players they really don't want (Maholm and Swisher, respectively) and trading them for each other? What if the Pirates had to throw in a little something else to get it done?

Nick Swisher in RF allows them to move Tabata back to LF and use Presley as a 4th-OF, or they could use Swisher at 1B if they really wanted to have AP start. Outside of his poor season with the White Sox, he's been worth 3.4 WAR or more every year since 2006.

Just spitballing here.

This list should be on a short list of required reading material for those denizens of Bob Smizik's Blog O' Insanity who insist that the Pirates go out and sign a couple of 30+ HR guys before next season, which is apparently much easier said than done.

From Jon Heyman's SI.com column yesterday:

"Before making a couple of trades that brought in a handful of prospects, Astros ownership hired an independent scout to evaluate their entire minor league system. The scout identified fewer than five players who should even play in the major leagues."

Not only do the Astros have virtually no MLB-caliber talent on their roster now, their minors look to be just as barren.

It's information like this that makes me glad Neal Huntington has some semblance of a plan for building the Pirates, even if he isn't successful all the time.