This just in !

by Ketcham Bruce on Feb 14, 2009 11:05 AM EST

According to Jayson Stark over at ESPN as reported by Mr. Sunshine himself, Bob Smizik, the PBC had the worst offseason in the National League. There are two needs we didn't address in the offseason that I think we should have. We really needed another starting pitcher and a right handed power bat. The right handed power bat might come from our own Steve Pearce, who I've always been a mark for,

Free agent pitching is a different matter. There are very few good free agent pitchers still left on the market. Pedro Martinez, whom has been debated about here extensively, and Mark Mulder are the only big names that I'd like to see in black and gold next year.

I don't think the Pirates have had a bad offseason, but a quiet one. We did get some bench players and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up from Triple A.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2009/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3902573

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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I hate to disagree with you, but

I’ve watched Mark Mulder pitch for the Cardinals these past few years and I really don’t believe he would bring anything positive to the table. He is a junk-ball pitcher just like Zack Duke but slower, if you can believe that. In addition, he’s been hurt these past two years. I really don’t think we need another southpaw who doesn’t throw hard, has been hurt, and can’t strike out anybody. We’ve already got one of those…Duke

by Illinois Pirate Fan on Feb 14, 2009 12:46 PM EST reply actions

I totally agree, but who else on the free agent list of pitchers would you like to see ?

by Ketcham Bruce on Feb 14, 2009 6:53 PM EST up reply actions

Nobody!

Either get creative, beat the bushes and find some players or make some trades!

Do something - instead of waiting three or four years to see if our new wunderkinds can produce.

by thegunner on Feb 14, 2009 7:45 PM EST reply actions

Guys I'd be OK with:

I’m kind of tempted by Jon Lieber. He’s never much worse than average, he can start or relieve, and he’s in pretty good health for a guy of his age.

I’d like Ohman in the pen to give us at least one decent situational reliever (Grabow doesn’t have big splits, and Burnett’s pretty ghastly), but I think he’s already ticketed elsewhere. If they wanted to give a NRI to one of the better righties, like Wise or Lopez or Traction Action, that’d be OK, too.

And I could maybe sign off on a cheap one-year with a 2010 team option for Chuck James. He blew out his shoulder, but he was pretty good before that, and it might be worth letting him rehab on our dime if we thought he’d come back strong when we looked at his medicals.

No must-haves, but it’s not totally bare out there yet.

by Vlad on Feb 16, 2009 9:22 AM EST reply actions

The Pirates are going to stink this year, but who cares? It's nothing new around here. We will hopefully draft well this year and next

If we can get some good prospects for Wilson, Sanchez and Adam LaRoche we could be pretty good by 2011. I think we as fans are just gonna have to bite yet another bullet this year. In the meantime, our minor league teams will be very interesting and I will follow their performance very closely.

by houksyndrome on Feb 17, 2009 2:19 AM EST reply actions