According to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal, the Red Sox "are willing to assume virtually all of shortstop Julio Lugo's remaining salary in a trade."

They've informed teams of this too, according to Rosenthal's sources. That should allow a deal to move quickly, perhaps before Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie are ready to rejoin the club. Lugo, 33, is batting .284 this season with a .352 on-base percentage and eight RBI in 123 plate appearances.
Do you suspect maybe there could be some sort of trade that would get the Pirates Lugo for the short term while the SS in the lower levels develop?  I've listed Lugo's contract info below.


Julio Lugo inf
4 years/$36M (2007-10), plus 2011 vesting option

• 4 years/$36M (2007-10), plus 2011 vesting option
  
  • signed by Boston as a free agent 12/06
  • $1M signing bonus (paid 4/07 - 10/07)
  • 07:$8M, 08:$9M, 09:$9M, 10:$9M, 11:$9M vesting option
  • option vests with 2,400 PAs 2007-10 & 600 PAs 2010

I know this isn't Earth shattering news but, the Pirates have signed Mike Koplove. 

 

Per the Tribune: The Pirates signed minor league free-agent right-hander Mike Koplove and assigned him to Triple-A Indianapolis. Lefty Corey Hamman was sent down to Double-A Altoona. Koplove, 32, went 1-3 with a 1.16 ERA in 21 relief outings this season with Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia's Triple-A affiliate. He has not pitched in the majors since 2007, when he had a 6.00 ERA in five relief outings for Cleveland.

 

This, I'm assuming is insurance for when Grabow is traded.

The Pirates are currently 10-4 during the spring and while I am by no means suggesting they will become a 90 win team.  The offense has looked decent and the pitching has been passable to this point which has beginning to wonder if maybe the performance during the spring can at least translate into a solid April.  Teams talk about a "culture of losing" and having to break it and hopefully at the very least Pirates can begin to move in the right direction.

I know I'm probably getting caught up in the Spring Training puff pieces and the fact that Opening Day is less then a month away but, I can hope.

 

Thanks

 

The Indians have left unprotected and he is available for the Rule 5 draft.  Do you think the Pirates would take shot on him?  Its not like the team is going anywhere next year anyway why not try and another arm to the mix.  He is still only 22 and granted his stuff might not work above AA and I am by NO means claiming he could be Johan Santana but, I feel like these are the chances the PIrates have to take in order to put together a farm system. 

Does anyone know if any of the Pirates current selections are draft and follow elegible? It could be possible that some of the selections that were made this year have a chance of being signed and the Pirates could get an extended look by having the players return to school or enter junior college.  I don't a great deal about draft and follow however from my understanding it allows the team retain the players' rights until a week before the next draft.

 

Thanks for reading my post.

With Capps injury Marte likely moves into the closers role which, if everything goes smoothly, could significantly increase his trade value or at the very least make him a type A free agent.  Also, Capps isn't being used in meaningless situations for the next two months not that I'm saying next year will be meaningful but, Capps is only 24 (which I seem to forget sometimes) and maybe he should be handled a little more carefully.  I'm not saying he's been abused but, I like to see Capps around when this team finally turns the corner in 2014(hopefully)

taking a chance on someone like Josh Barfield?  Since he was demoted yesterday and the Indians seem pretty down on him combined with the emergence of Carbrera he would probably come pretty cheap.  That would allow Freddy to move to third or short and make Jack, Bautista or Nady expandable.  I feel like this one would be one of those low risk - medium reward situations considering his rookie was pretty solid for being in a pitchers park like Petco.  What does everyone think?  Thanks for reading my post.

This is a bit of a pipe dream but, I wanted to throw it out there.  With Mark Prior trade value at an all time low and the Cubs have been rumored about possibly trading him I think this could be a good opportunity for the Pirates to take a chance on someone like him.  He is still relatively inexpensive and and maybe he could turn in a Chris Carpenter resurrection, someone who also battled shoulder trouble early in his career I might add, unfortunately I don't really know what the Pirates could offer to entice the Cubs to trade him our way.  Just something I was thinking about and I'm kind of curious as to what the reaction would be if we did acquire Prior.

Thanks

I was reading Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com and it got me thinking in light of the Soriano contract what would a player like Miguel Cabrera get on the free agent market?  Secondly, players that have really affordable contracts such as Carl Crawford can the Rays ask for more in return if they were to trade him because of such an economical contract or does contract value have little to do with how much a player is worth? Finally, the Blue Jays got four supplemental picks two for Justin Spier and two for Frank Catalanatto.  Seems kinda crazy that Cat was considered a type A free agent but, I think that was a pretty good deal for the Jays.  

Have good Thanksgiving everyone.

Does anyone here think Oliver Perez put together a good to great game for the Mets in game 4?  

I'm going with:6.1ip 3er 4bb 7k                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Trot Nixon.  I know it sucks doesn't it?  I've already lined up cliches for the front office. "Well, Trot brings a World Series ring to the club and it is something the young guys can look at and they can ask Trot questions to show them what it takes for the Pirates to be a winning organization."  or "Trot is someone we targeted early on in free agency and we feel like he brings a left-handed bat that is capable of 20-30 homeruns and plays a position we had a definite need at so we feel like it is good fit."

I'm sure Trot is a great guy but, I really hope I am wrong about him coming here.  Again this is just my feeling I haven't really read anything to support my claim.

This may be selfish of me but, I wouldn't mind Byrnes retiring and becoming the new host of baseball tonight.  He has actually made that show watchable again for me.  Anyway just thought I would put that out there oh and is Vernon Wells on some sort of sedative you can barely hear him sometimes.  Alright everyone that does it for my dumb comments of the year.  Take care

Now that it seems that the Twins will play the Yankees I was curious if anyone else thought that the Twins have enough to get past the Yanks and if they do is it pretty much a given that they would be the favorites to win the WS.  I personally think the A's are the team no one seems to take too seriously that could suprise and win it all but, it does feel like this is the Twins "year".

So I was reading the Red reporter a Reds blog and the visitors on that site think the Reds might go after Jack Wilson in the offseason to fill the hole they have at short.  So the Pirate infield would be:

1b Nady
2b Freddy/Castillo
3b Bautista
SS Freddy/Castillo

Obviously the Pirates defense drops off but, I think this might an pretty decent infield overall.  Anyway my real question(s) is would the Pirates trade Jack since he is the "face" of the franchise, would they trade within the same division, and what kind of player could the Pirates expect in return?  Hopefully another minor league reliever to bolster Altoona's pen.<-- kidding about the last part.

Now I realize the chances of two of these players making it is close to zero Dukes might have blackballd himself with his antics so here it is which player has the best chance of reaching the majors and playing for at least half a season. and the choices are

Josh Hamilton
Jeff Allison
Elijah Dukes

So there is a trade winners/losers poll on ESPN and one of the questions is which of the selling teams received the players in return and the Pirates are currently winning with 43% of the vote over the Cubs, DRays, and Royals.  Almost 90,000 people have voted so its not like the results are skewed by low numbers.  Looks like DL knows what he is doing after all.

As most of you have probably read by now the Angels and D-Rays are discussing a trade for Carl Crawford.  The most recent deal I read involved Ervin Santana and Erik Aybar for Crawford.  My question is would you make that trade if you were the Angels and how would Aybar fit in on the D-Rays with Cantu and Upton lurking around in the minors.

Thanks for reading and responding

With Michael Barrett suspended for 10 games and effectivley taking what was ever left of an offense.  Will the Cubs "catch" the Pirates for last place?  And if the Pirates happen to move into 5th place will mangement say that things are starting to turn because of the play of the veterans.                                                                      

                                                                       

Poll

Will the Cubs "catch" the Pirates for last place?

66%

No

14 votes

33%

Yes

7 votes

21 votes | Poll has closed

I ask this question partly joking and partly serious but, it just doesn't seem like there is any light at of this tunnel, and this coming from a Pirates fan, how many number one picks in the draft and how much money would it take for the Royals to be consistantly good.  This isn't meant to bash the Royals fans out there because I realize that the Pirates are kind of in the same boat but, I'm just curious as to what Royals fans think it would take to build a winner in KC.  

One more question with Mike Sweeney talking about retirement if his back isn't feeling somewhat better would you rather Sweeney retire and free up that money for things or have in the lineup because he has been the face Royals and he could keep some fans coming in.

I know the Royals are first but where are the Pirates and what is the possibilty of them drafting third baseman Evan Longoria if he is available or will they go with a pitcher?                                                                                                                                                

The Sheffield debate got me think about other players who could potentially be border line HOF candidates.  Here are the first few that I thought of feel free to add to this list as you see fit.

Frank Thomas
John Smoltz
Brian Giles
Ichiro (if he plays another 4-7 years with a normal decline in his stats)

Curt Schilling
Jim Thome (if he gets to 500hr)
Moises Alou

Like I said these were just the first ones that I thought of.  I would like to everyone elses comments on these guys in relation to there hall of fame chances.

Continue reading this post »

I read on rotoworld that the Angles were talking to the Padres about trading Dallas for Ben Johnson.  It seems like he has fallen out of favor with the Angels pretty quickly considering hit just 40 something homeruns two years ago.  I guess what I'm asking is did Dallas McPhearson just get caught up in a numbers game with Brandon Wood having a terrific year in the minors and Chone Figgins at third with Edgardo Alfonso backing him up or is Dallas just an injury prone 3b who prabably end up on the Russell Branyan career path where alot teams are intrigued with his power but his strikeouts and injurys prevent him from being an elite player.

I was reading an article on Josh Hamilton and it got to wonder if there is anyway Hamilton would ever be allowed back into baseball and if he was reinstated would any team take a chance on someone with his tremendous talent eventhough he has a questionable background.

here is the article by the way: http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/07/Rays/Hamilton_in_area_in_l.shtml

This is an article from Jerry Crasnick about the recent additions for the both the Pirates and the Royals along with some quotes from DL.  Enjoy

Continue reading this post »

Like or not with the recent signing of Burnitz along with the additions of Casey and Randa all of the Pirates needs have been addressed.  So my question is how much of impact can these players make to the overall record can the Pirates have a winning record contend for the wild card or even the division?

Poll

The recent signings of Burnitz and Randa along with the trade for Casey will improve the Pirates record by how much?

0%

run away division champions

0 votes

39%

5 game improvement

13 votes

18%

10 game improvement

6 votes

15%

wild card contenders

5 votes

0%

division contenders

0 votes

27%

no improvement

9 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

Now granted he didn't have a good year last season and the pirates have a lot of pitchers in the system right now but why is everyone trying to trade this guy away?  The Pirates may have alot of pitching but none of them are stikeout guys like Perez is. How many young left handed power pitchers are there that can dominate the way Oliver does when he is going good?  Are all the Pirate fans so desperate for 3b who can't hit over .240 away from Arlington that they would trade away one of their top 3 or 4 pitchers on the team?  Maybe I missed something did Oliver say he didn't want to be in Pittsburgh or something because if he did I apologize but I just think we he is pitching he is the most exciting pitcher the Pirates have.

Kind of shocking with all the injuries the Dodgers had and all.  Here is the link::

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers29oct29,0,3332329.story?coll=la-stor y-footer&track=morenews

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Since Lawton won't be around after this year what about a trade to the Braves.  That way you could put Craig back in right and keep Ward at first.  Now I don't really know what the Pirates could get from the Braves, maybe a good minor leaguer, but it is as good a place as any to send him since Atlanta really needs a corner OF. The money will probably be a deciding factor since Lawton makes 7 mil+ but I would really like to see the buccos get something of value in return for Lawton and not lose alot of production from the lineup.