The Nationals are apparently trying to trade for Tampa's Elijah Dukes (http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6909946). This is a typical Jim Bowden strategy -- obtaining blemished, toolsy players.

Despite Dukes' sketchy personal life, this is the type of player the Pirates should go after. To win a championship, you need impact players, and Dukes has a high potential to become one. Putting him in RF next to Bay and McCutcheon in 2008 would create a strong, versatile OF.

Tampa is looking for pitching, and might very well bite on an offer that includes Bullington, Van Benschoeten, Maholm or Burnett. I would think the Pirates could offer as much as, if not more than, the Nationals.

We can safely assume that Littlebrain will not make a valid attempt to acquire Dukes, so the argument is moot, really. But the point is that Littlebrain consistently eschews potential IMPACT players for guys closer to the majors or easier to forecast. This is a recipe for long-term mediocrity. Littlebrain's inability to search far and wide for potential impact players is why we trade only for AAAA players, get rid of the likes of Oliver Perez and Aramis Ramirez and Chris Young, run a crummy academy in the Dominican, have little or no presence in other parts of Latin America and Asia, and draft guys like Moskos and Bullington.

C'mon, Dave, take some chances, live on the edge, give us fans something to get excited about instead of pulling the same old underwhelming personnel moves and backing them up with the same old nonsensical blather.