Two ominous links

The Detroit Free-Press confirms that the Pirates and Tigers have talked about Brandon Inge, though there's no indication of how serious things are at this point.

The PG today tells us that now that Doogie is considering keeping Marte and Grabow now that he's dealt Torres off for scraps. That's so amazingly short-sighted that I don't even know what to say. The same story says the Pirates are interested in trading for Michael Barrett from San Diego.

Despite everything the new front office has said, if we keep Marte and Grabow and pick up Barrett and Inge, it'll be pretty clear to me that the drive for 75 is alive and they're hoping to get lucky and win the NL Central with 83 wins this year. I'm not passing judgment on anyone until the off-season is over, but I don't like the way things are shaping up.