The Pirates and Cardinals will play a double-header today starting at four. The Pirates haven't named a starter for game 2 yet, though at this point the best guesses remain Stolmy Pimentel or Kris Johnson. I've been harboring a Jake Peavy pipe dream all weekend (the White Sox seem likely to scratch him from his start tonight, but there's absolutely no indication that there's an imminent deal and there's also no indication that the Pirates are even a little bit interested in him, but that's why pipe dreams are fun), but the clock has just about run out on that.
Anyway! There's still not a lot of news on the trade deadline front, though the White Sox scratching Peavy is an indication that they're going to start backing down from some of their posturing and are getting ready to deal. I don't know that the Pirates will make a trade with the White Sox, but thus far all of the teams holding big pieces at this deadline (the White Sox, Phillies, probably the Giants) have held strong to borderline-ludicrous demands. That will probably change some as the deadline gets even closer, but until it does nothing's going to happen.
The most news there is about the Pirates for now is that they appear to be one of the finalists for Brian Wilson and that Wilson seems to be almost ready to sign. And I'll reiterate that if they watched Wilson throw and that they think he seems recovered from his Tommy John surgery, that they definitely could use a reliable late-inning reliever. On a related note, Jason Grilli did tell reporters yesterday that his injury is muscular, which means that his flexor tendon is not an issue, and that he'll be back before the season ends. The timetable is not a quick one, though, and so, again, another reliever is probably a good thing for the Pirates to have.
