Sorry for the lack of posts this week; I’m enjoying the down time and there’s just not much happening with the Pirates right now because there’s not much that happens between Christmas and New Year’s for any one in baseball. I should have a year-in-review type thing posted before Friday, but for now let’s catch up on the odds and ends that have passed over the last few days.
Bill Lajoie, senior advisor to Neal Huntington and GM of the Tigers in the ’80s including during their World Series run in 1984, died yesterday afternoon at the age of 76.
According to Jon Heyman, the Pirates are interested in Brian Fuentes. Given that Clint Hurdle expressed a desire to have more lefties in the bullpen a couple weeks ago and since he did that the Pirates have done nothing except DFA Wil Ledezma, it would make sense if they decided to make a strong push for Fuentes. They’d probably have to pay through the nose for him, though, if teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, and Twins are interested.
Finally, MLB Trade Rumors had a nice look at the Pirates’ extension prospects with Andrew McCutchen back on Christmas Day, if you missed it. I tend to agree with the opinion in the article that the club is probably waiting on his Super Two status before moving on an extension. Heck, he’s probably waiting on the same thing before negotiating with them. I know we’d all like to see an extension with McCutchen sooner rather than later, but the Pirates certainly have some time here to get this done, whether it’s before or after the 2011 season.
