Catching up

I am a bit behind on Bucco news, so I will attempt to catch up:

• The Pirates filled their glaring hole at relief pitcher on Tuesday when they claimed Franquelis Osoria off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and added him to the 40-man roster. Osoria has put up some decent minor league statistics in the past, but really struggled while splitting 2006 with the Dodgers and Las Vegas in AAA. He could end up being a fairly productive arm, but did we really need another mediocre middle reliever on the roster?
• The Pirates also tendered contracts to all of their players eligible for salary arbitration. Many of these players were easy decisions (such as Freddy Sanchez and Mike Gonzalez), but the team also decided to keep Shawn Chacon and Humberto Cota. Chacon makes sense, as he can fill the 5th spot in the rotation much more cheaply than any free agent could. But why Cota? He was one of the worst hitters in all of Major League Baseball last season, and the Pirates could very easily replace him with someone at a lower salary. However, the team can release any of these players by March and only owe 1/6 of his salary. Apparently, Chacon and Cota are simply fall back options. The Pirates also resigned Carlos Maldonado to a minor league contract.
• Mike Gonzalez trade rumors continue to float around. Reportedly interested are the Yankees, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, etc etc etc. Who knows?

There was something else I was going to talk about, but I forget what it was and the lunch break has been over for quite some time now. Maybe I'll get back to it later.

Jon Lieber is too young for the Pirates

The Beaver County Times is reporting that the Pirates are close to signing Masumi Kuwata, a 38 year-old pitcher from Japan who appears to be well past his prime. Going strictly by his statistics, he looks like a typical Pirates' signing. In 2002, he went 12-6 with a 2.22 ERA, but it has been all downhill since then. In 11.2 innings in 2006, he had a 6.94 ERA. I'm not sure anything promising at all can come of this.


However, the same article states that the Braves and Pirates may still be discussing a trade for Adam LaRoche. Who knows if this is accurate or not, but there are a few new names thrown in. Here's what John Perrotto has to say about this:

"However sources close to the negotiations expect both sides to try to resurrect talks once cooler heads prevail and believe the potential is still there for a multi-player deal, including a possibility in which the Pirates would send left-handed closer Mike Gonzalez, catcher Humberto Cota, second baseman Jose Castillo and outfielder Nate McLouth to the Braves for right-hander Kyle Davies and LaRoche."

I'm not going to go any deeper into this, because I've wasted too much time thinking about it during the winter meetings. But I thought I would mention it.