Bucs after another Cuban?

If I didn't know better, I'd think that Dave Littlefield personally insulted the Castro family over the winter and has promised them to trot out the majors first all-Cuban rotation in 2008 or 2009 as penance. Now it appears the Pirates have their sights set on Alay Soler, a Cuban defector who spent part of last season with the Mets. According to the Cube, Soler started last season in the NY-Penn League and dominated up through AA before struggling a bit in AAA Norfolk and with the Mets (though one of his eight starts with the Mets was a complete game shutout). You can read a little more about Soler at the FanHouse (gratuitous self-promotion: I wrote about Brian Bixler over there earlier in the week and neglected to link here... I am rather proud of bringing Brian Bixler to America). From what I read there, I'm not terribly excited.

Also in the NY-Daily News link (the first one), there is some talk of a rather impressive Oliver Perez exhibition start in which he struck out 9 Red Sox in five innings and had what he called "his 2004 slider." Excuse me while I go puke.

Hat tip to Cory for the link in the comments. He's also already posted about this at the Lumber Company.

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