40 man is set

To no one's surprise the Pirates filled out their 40-man roster by adding 2 middle relief pitchers (Dave Davidson and Romulo Sanchez) and a fast, toolsy outfielder (Nyjer Morgan) without much talent to the roster. They dropped Carlos Maldanado, though it's likely he'll get a non-roster invite to camp anyways. The most interesting part of the whole thing is that they left off Wadrell Starling and Jesse Chavez who may be Rule 5 eligible (it's hard to tell because of the new CBA rules). The article about the additions on Pirates.com last night initially said they wouldn't have to protect Chavez or Starling, though their names have been dropped from the article now (you can follow the whole thing with this thread at OBN). Starling is mentioned as a potential loss in the Paul Meyer article linked above whereas I don't think he was last night around midnight. As is speculated at OBN Starling is likely safe as he's pitched poorly in Hawaii this winter and wasn't really that great at AA this year but Chavez is probably a goner if he's indeed eligible for the draft after his dominating performance in the AFL. If that's the case and Chavez is indeed Rule 5 eligible, Littlefield has made a huge mistake by putting Sanchez on the roster over him. It seems likely that he just doesn't know the new CBA rules, making this a potential "Zane Smith for Moises Alou" disaster (granted, we wouldn't be losing anyone on the level of Alou, we'd just be losing a player we shouldn't have to lose because our GM is a moron).

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