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