The geriatric Pirates?

We have some interesting stuff in the Post-Gazette today (besides the fact that Sean Casey is a super-fantastic guy who's always wanted to be a Pirate and will probably carry us to 90 wins on his golden smile alone).

Anyways, according to Dejan, we didn't promise Hernandez he could close, but simply offered him more money than anyone else, including the Yankees. That does make me feel a little better, but it's still an awful signing given that he's really old and $2.75 million is a ton of money for a team like the Pirates to spend on a guy his age that has been very Jose Mesa-like in the last half decade minus last year. We also stepped up our quest to get older but not particularly better by offering Bill Mueller a 3 year deal. Let's face it, he might be a little better than Freddy Sanchez right now, but he'll be 38 at the end of this contract. It's a bad idea.

In the best news of the day, we're apparently stepping up our pursuit of Milton Bradley by offering Grabow or Marte. This is good news for several reasons. First off all, it's a move that nearly every single casual Pirates fan will hate. This is good because it's a sign that we aren't making moves solely to put people into the stands. Of course there's more to it than that. The guy can hit, he gets on base, he plays good outfield, and if Jim Tracy wants him back, he can't be nearly as crazy as everyone thinks. He'd be a solid top of the order bat that would definitely go a ways toward getting more people on base when Jason Bay gets up to the plate. Getting him here should be priority #1 right now (assuming Troy Glaus doesn't become magically available), ahead of Mueller and definitely ahead of Jacque Jones.