Links and things

Dejan's Hot Stove Report talks LaRoche and how even the players want to see him in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, he also tells us this,

What are the Pirates' chances of adding LaRoche and his 32 home runs, 90 RBIs and terrific defense?

Under the current circumstances, they appear poor.

The Braves admire Gonzalez, but they showed he is not enough. They seek a leadoff-hitting second baseman, but the Pirates have no such player... The Braves would love a center fielder to replace Andruw Jones someday, but that, too, seems out as the Pirates have little interest in giving up Chris Duffy.

The only answer, it appears, is for the Pirates to trade one of their young starting pitchers: Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm or Tom Gorzelanny. But there again, they have made abundantly clear they have no wish to do so.

So... things aren't looking so good then. I would imagine the Kyle Davies talk we heard was the Pirates attempting to obtain some pitching insurance in the case they had to give up a pitcher for LaRoche, but that deal wouldn't make sense for the Braves at all.

Despite all the Brian Lawrence and Tomo Ohka talk, the pitcher I'd be after would be Jeff Weaver. I know you just choked on whatever you're drinking, but he seemed to turn things around with the Cards last year and has had success with Tracy and Colborn in the past. Of course, Dejan points out in the HSR that he's going to likely be overpaid as a Boras client and Rotoworld seems to agree, suggesting he's going to seek a 3 or 4 year contract and I wouldn't recommend giving him that. Still, if interest in him continues to wane, the Bucs might be able to make a move.

Pirates.com has another Winter Ball feature up, this one focused on Jonah Bayliss and his rather dominant stretch in Venezuela this winter. They catch up with a bunch of other guys too, so check it out.

This fake Dave Littlefield interview (at least I hope it's fake, but who can tell really?) at Only Bucs is hilarious.

Rob McQuown at Baseball Digest Daily takes an interesting look at our young pitchers. That link is from A New Pirates Generation where Cory has been crunching some pitcher numbers this week as well (see here and here).