Looks like it's confirmed

ESPN Radio 1000 in Chicago and ESPN's Jerry Crasnick confirm that Sean Casey will be a Pirate for Dave Williams pending physicals. Let's look at this just a little bit closer, because this thing is a done deal unless some gigantic red flag goes up on Williams shoulder (which I suppose is possible).

First off, Sean Casey is overpaid. There's no doubt about it. I do think there is a certain element of this deal that was made to pacify local fans who wanted a Macha or a Howe to manage the team. And Casey does fill a need on the team, someone to play first base until Brad Eldred can do it (if he can). Casey is also probably more likely to sign here after his contract is up than someone like Overbay if Eldred doesn't step up.

And yeah, Casey can get to first base, and he does it pretty often. The question is how he will go about getting there. If 2004 Sean Casey comes along, we just made a great deal. If 2002, 2003 or 2005 Casey shows up, I'm not so sure. We should also keep in mind that if Eldred goes crazy in AAA and Casey hits well, we can move him somewhere else in July next year, maybe for something substiantially more than Dave Williams.

The danger, of course, is that he doesn't hit (or that Littlefield is trying to pawn an injured Dave Williams off on someone, which wouldn't shock me). I know he's had some injury problems but I don't know enough about them to say if any of his recent three bad years was caused by them (because he had a decent amount of at-bats in most of them). The problem here is that last year's edition of Sean Casey was essentially *gulp*Daryle Ward that got on base more. Ward actually slugged higher than Casey, and hit more homers with more RBIs in less at-bats. That's terrifying considering how much Casey is making and how flat out awful Ward was after June last year. It would be spending half of the much talked about $15 million on Daryle Ward. Not a pretty site.

There's also the possibility (very slight) that we deal Casey for someone else. This would shock me as I think trading for Casey was as much PR as anything, but my friend from Boston told me that the Sox message boards were talking about a possible Casey to Boston with Wells for Nixon and a prospect. I'm more or less going to rule that out unless I hear it from somewhere else, but I suppose it's a possibility.

The bottom line is that this deal could really go either way for the Bucs. It's possible that a healthy Casey will be rejuvenated by coming back home and seeing the short wall in right, and that Brad Eldred will take this move personally and make himself into a better player. It's also possible that Sean Casey will make us pine for the Daryle Ward era. Let's just say I'll be rooting for scenario #1, but if scenario #2 happens, don't say we couldn't have seen it coming.