Roster additions

With the winter meetings and the Rule 5 draft approaching, the Pirates had five spaces open on the 40-man roster to fill with players that need to be protected. They filled all five slots today, putting Neil Walker, Jose Tabata, Jeff Sues, Steve Lerud, and Ronald Uviedo. Jennifer Langosch makes it sound like these five are the last five additions before the draft. I don't know if that's the case (there's still some dead weight on the 40-man, if you ask me, though I don't know when the roster has to be set for the December 11th draft), but if it is, it means that Kyle Bloom and Jamie Romak will be exposed to the Rule 5 this year. It's a calculated risk, but given how raw Bloom and Romak are and how unlikely they are to be big-time producers in the big leagues, it's probably not a bad one.

The most interesting name on the list of people added to the roster is probably Lerud. He hasn't really hit well at any level and he's only got 47 AA at-bats after his age 23 season. Robinzon Diaz and Raul Chavez were both already on the roster to go with Doumit and Paulino. I'd guess that the Pirates will be shopping Paulino this winter given his nice AAA numbers, his nice run in winter ball, and the fact that the new management seems to want nothing to do with him. Still, I find it hard to believe there was a risk that Lerud was going to be picked in the draft, while I feel like Bloom might be.