Byung-Hyun Kim? Akinori Otsuka? Armando Benitez? Kyle Snyder? Josh Towers? Jacque Jones?

Plenty of speculation out there right now but the only player that makes any sense for the Pirates is Kim, although Otsuka could be on Jim Tracy’s wish list.

Kim’s second-half numbers in 2006 were very impressive and, although he still walks way too many batters, he might be a nice fit in the Pirates pen.

Not only can Kim start, he can also close (just a .201 batting average against him as a reliever) and he also has excellent numbers against National League Central Division teams.

What would it take to get Kim? He is in a contract year and owed $2.5MM. I’m guessing a Ryan Doumit package might get this deal done, since Yorvit Torrealba is an injury risk and Chris Iannetta is a a raw rookie.

If the Rockies wanted pitching instead, I’d propose a Tony Armas or Shawn Chacon package.

Do I think this deal will ever happen? No.

I’m hearing more rumors about other teams being interested in some of the Pirates players than I am about the Pirates being interested in anyone. It could be that Dave Littlefield will clear a little fringe off the roster in the next week with some trivial deals that might land a low level prospect or two.

Other than that, I’ll be watching the release wire because you can bet your bottom dollar that is where Littlefield will make any player acquisition move.

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Lonnie Chisenhall, the Pirates 13th round pick in the 2006 first year draft who didn’t sign, was arrested for stealing a TV and was released by the South Carolina Gamecocks.

The interesting part to this story is that it may open the door for the Pirates to pursue signing him since he is no longer playing college baseball. I don’t know the draft rules that well but it is my belief that once a player signs an intent to play college baseball after being drafted, the drafting team holds the rights to that player until the next draft.

Depending on the circumstances surrounding Chisenhall’s current arrest, I have to believe the Pirates will extend an effort to sign him, if for no other reason than to retain his rights. We’ll have to watch and see where this goes.

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The Stats Geek’s article over at the Post-Gazette Tuesday [link] was a shocker, but not more of a shock than his piece last week where he thought the Pirates could win as many as 85 games.

This week the Geek clarified his position stating that everything must go right for them to have a winning season. That everything includes:

– Duffy hitting .307 all year with a .362 OBP;

– the starting five pitchers toss 800 innings with no more than a combined 4.62 ERA (800 innings pitched, 411 runs allowed);

– the Pirates convert more than 68% of all balls put in play into outs;

– the backup catcher has to hit more than .161;

– Jose Castillo and Jack Wilson (assuming they are the team’s middle infielders) must put together an average .747 OPS or better;

– Nady must show some power while either learning to hit right-hand pitching or the team finding a platoon partner for him;

– Bay, LaRoche, and Sanchez need a total of 1,600 at bats, although the Geek didn’t mention what they had to hit.

I’m not as confident as the Geek that will generate 82 wins.

My personal to-do list for a winning season would be:

– go get Adrian Beltre;
– go get Carl Crawford;
– go get Roy Oswalt, Pedro Martinez, or anyone like them;
– go get Mike Gonzalez.

Won’t happen you say? Ok.. I agree. I guess we’ll have to settle for the 750 runs allowed the Geek suggests will get us 82 wins and pray our bats can mash 20% more, our defenders can field 10% better, and our rotation can win 20% more. With Lady Luck on our side, maybe we can get 82 wins?

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Jose Castillo traded? Naw…

Maybe..

Well, …

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With Walker and Bixler getting cut today, you have to start wondering where the pieces are going to fall in place:

Kelly over Hernandez? Matos over McLouth? Bautista or Castillo? Cota or Doumit? Kolb? Youman?

There are still way too many players in camp for two weeks to go. Obviously Littlefield and his staff can’t answer the hard questions yet.

But the fans can.

Matos over McLouth and send Nate down to AAA and have him learn routes and get some at bats until Matos hits the DL in May, the fans want Bautista at 3B but the pitchers and I want Castillo at 2B and Sanchez at 3B, Cota over Doumit and send Doumit packing to AAA or trade him, and absolutely break camp with Youman – the kid has earned a chance.

Kelly over Hernandez.

Kolb? Flip a coin.

Ryan? He’ll crush a fastball and not much else. But he can run a better route than McLouth. I’ll take Ryan and hope he can produce off the bench since I know McLouth can’t.

That would give me:

– 13 position players — Duffy, Wilson, Sanchez, LaRoche, Bay, Nady, Paulino, Castillo, Bautista, Matos, Ryan, Kelly, and Cota;

– 5 starters — Duke, Snell, Maholm, Chacon, and Gorzelanny; and

– 7 relievers — Capps (although he is on a tight rope right now), Grabow (unless sidelined), Torres, Armas (platoon 5th starter based on the team we face), Youman, Marte, and Kolb. Wasdin is interesting as is Sharpless, but Josh just can’t find the plate enough yet for my liking.

Just a guess.

My source for the LaRoche talks came from an AL scout and it seems he may have passed me "second-handed" information. I spoke with Will Carroll at BP after I saw the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article today indicating LaRoche was not being offered and he informed me that, while the Braves are active in the trade market, there has not been any "substantive" discussions involving LaRoche at this time. His source was very well placed.

I always confirm a rumor I get from two sources before I post it. I had one source on the LaRoche offering until the AL scout fed me the second one last night, so I ran with it. Both sources I had are very credible.

As I told Will, the closer you get to the game the harder it is to pick apart motivations and, while the information may have been "second-handed" to me, I guess I feel better knowing it happened at one time or another than to think some in the game might be deceptive. LoL

I continue to say I would rather post a rumor from credible sources than to not post them at all so that Pirate fans at least have some clue what is being talked about in the market. This is a blog – not a newspaper so I don’t mind being risky, and when I post a rumor and I find out different information, I’ll continue to pass what I learn to you. The problem is, some sources pass misleading information.

Perhaps that is the case this time. I’m still not sure. Neither the Pirates or Braves are open communication driven organizations, of course. And we all know the two organizations aren’t exactly lovers by any means.

For now I’ll simply say that the rumor is valid – everyone agrees it is being passed around the industry. Where/when the rumor started is another thing.

I’ll keep digging.

It seems David Littlefield was handed Adam LaRoche on a platter a few days ago but would only offer up Nate McLouth and John Grabow, according to a couple sources in the industry.

The Braves moved on.

I did not hear, nor was it offered from either source, who the Braves were targeting.

We do know that the Braves are looking for an ‘economical’ leadoff hitter and there has been speculation they might trade Andruw Jones. Perhaps Schuerholz was after Chris Duffy?

We also know the Braves are looking for setup guys for Wickman, so perhaps Mike Gonzalez had his name thrown around?

More when/if I hear it.

Lots of new rumors floating around. This is the time of year I really enjoy. Here’s the latest:

– McLouth a Marlin? Heard today the Marlins have inquired about Nate. Knowing we need a starter, could an Olsen/McLouth deal be in the works?

– Orioles are all over Craig Wilson and John Grabow. Unless a third team gets involved to get the Pirates a starter, I don’t see us matching up very well for a trade.

– The Yankees evidently have an interest in Craig too but don’t count on Cashman doing a deal with Littlefield anytime soon.

– We know Thomson is available from the Braves.. we know Sosa is available. We know the Braves want Wilson. But, one thing the Braves won’t do is deal with McClatchy’s Pirates so there will have to be a third team involved to make anything happen. Sosa is the better candidate but don’t expect him to compile a lot of innings. This one with Sosa is gaining speed and the team we best fit with as Perrotto mentioned the other day. However, The Braves loathe McClatchy so I’m not so sure this will ever get done.