Brakeman8

First baseman anyone?

Alex Presley is back with the big club. The Hit Collector returns to Indy. Presley is batting lead off and playing LF. Sutton hits the bench while Jones also gets a night off with JHay playing RF and batting second.

Former Pirate Xavier Paul has signed with the Reds and will join the AAA team in Louisville. Paul was recently released from his AAA assignment with the Nationals.

Both following in Bautista's footsteps.

Looks like he put together a pretty good year last season. Still has the big K numbers and maybe finally found some control.

Interesting deal. Looks like the Padres didn't give up a lot. Wonder what Petco will do to Quentin's numbers.

Could he be staying within the division???

They may not suck as much as we had hoped. They also added former Giants 1B Travis Ishikawa.

Can you picture Trumbo at 3B?

The pitchers sound interesting.

Kinda makes the Barajas signing look less good now. The Rockies had the advantage of knowing for sure that he was no longer a type A free agent.

So, MLBTR says Rockies' beat writer Troy E. Renck thinks Colorado will look at trading for a third baseman this off season. Their main target is David Wright, but he also lists Chase Headley and Pedro Alvarez as other plan B targets. Thoughts?

Bucs get Rule 5 pitcher from the Braves.

Lee and Ludwick are both Type B free agents. I still would like to see the PIrates attempt to bring Lee back for 2012 as we really have no option other than Jones. I don't see the need to bring Ludwick back with Cutch, Tabata, Presley and Jones all able to be brought back.

Good one stop for links and info about the Pirates record-setting draft signings.

Well, he has to be better than Lyle Overbay. The Pirates would get Lee and cash, while the Orioles would get a Class low A hitter. Lee is hitting .321 (17-for-53) with 3 HRs and 13 RBI since the All-Star break but is just .248/.306/.409 for the season. UPDATE by Charlie: I suppose this is fine, as long as the Class A player isn't anyone terribly interesting, which I doubt. Given the prices other teams are paying right now for players better than this, I can't blame the Pirates for aiming a bit lower. UPDATE 10:47 PM: Dan Connolly has a whole series of tweets on this. Connelly says the return is a Low-A player, which has people in the comments speculating that it's someone from State College. That's one possibility, I guess, but a lot of people say "Low-A" when they're referring to West Virginia's level, and a lot of the State College guys aren't eligible to be traded yet. Either way, there isn't a lot of interesting hitting at those levels, so I suppose that's good. ... All this assumes, of course, that Connolly's information is right and the return has been agreed upon, which might not be the case. UPDATE 10:58 PM: More details: the Orioles are sending a bit of cash, and the minor-leaguer is "not expected to be a top prospect." UPDATE 11:02 PM: I'll be on 104.7 with David Todd at about 11:10 to discuss this. UPDATE: 11:10 PM: The Pirates have apparently traded Aaron Baker for Derrek Lee. I'm fine with this. It's a decent deal from Baltimore's perspective, too, but Baker isn't worth worrying about. He's nearly 24 and is still in Class A+, and his strikeouts and lack of any truly outstanding hitting tools keep him from being a great prospect. I don't think I've ever even had him in one of my top 30s. Matt Curry is a much better first-base prospect. This isn't a great deal, by any means, but it's an upgrade for a reasonable cost, and those haven't been easy to find this trading season. I would expect Lyle Overbay to be gone when Lee reports.

He goes to Texas for Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that "a trade could be going down." However, Jon Heyman of SI.com reported this morning that the Phillies, Braves, Reds and Indians were all pursuing the 33-year-old outfielder. No mention of the Pirates. I doubt the Indians are still in play after making the deal for Fukudome.

Ya, know if he could field even just a little bit he would certainly be an interesting rental on the cheap.