Latest sign that things are slowly changing on Federal Street: when the Red Sox traded for Jeremy Hermida yesterday and only gave up two minor league arms, I didn't go apopletic about the Pirates not being involved. Hermida seems like an intriguing buy-low candidate, but if he came to Pittsburgh he'd half about a half season to prove himself before he started costing Garrett Jones, Lastings Milledge, or Jose Tabata at-bats. That's not to say that we couldn't use Hermida (I'd sure rather watch him than Brandon Moss until Tabata's ready), just that not trading for him is no longer feels like a missed opportunity. Some of that's on him, but more of that's because we just have players that we should be playing before a guy like him.

Speaking of Jose Tabata, holy crap he's on fire. I've fallen behind on updating winter and fall ball guys (I'll get one up this weekend or Monday), but Tabata's currently hitting .372/.419/.513 with Scottsdale in the AFL. The AFL is a hitter's league, but it's nice to see him start to break out a bit. He, Danny Moskos, and Chase D'Arnaud are playing in the AFL Rising Stars Showcase on Saturday, which will be televised on the MLB Network at 8:00.

Finally, Joe Posnanski has a good post about the Yankees' payroll. I have something to say about this and how it relates to the Pirates, but I don't really know exactly how I want to say it. It's something along the lines of, "It really sucks how unfair baseball is, but it's not going to change any time soon and spending time wallowing in self-pity is only going to make things worse." Only if I write the post, it'll be 1500 words long and include several nerdy pop-culture references.