Pretty much the only thing going on for right now with the Pirates (other than the managerial search) is that one week from today (November 19) is the date 40 man rosters have to be set in advance of the Rule 5 draft.  Jennifer Langosch has come through with a couple big notes the last two days, first reporting on Twitter yesterday that Starling Marte wasn't eligible this year as many of us thought.  Today she reported that she was incorrect in listing Rudy Owens and Diego Moreno as eligible this year.  Here, she explains the little quirks of the system that led to the confusion.

That eliminates three guys who I saw as locks to be added to the roster and really reduces the number of 40-man spots that need to be cleared.  That leaves the following players as Rule 5 eligibles who are at least sort of interesting:

Nathan Adcock
Brian Friday
Jeff Locke
Kyle McPherson
Danny Moskos
Tony Watson

Adcock seems a bit too far off to have to worry about at this point. So does McPherson. Friday is a nice guy to have around, but not really someone who needs to be filling a 40-man spot, since I doubt he could stick on a major league roster all year. Locke is a lock to be added (pun intended). Moskos and Watson were guys I wasn't entirely sure about before, but now I would add both of them.

On the 40-man there are currently 38 spots filled.  That means one more would be needed to add those three players, plus another spot for the draft.  There does seem to be quite a bit of dead weight on the roster, though, so it shouldn't be a huge problem.  My short list of expendable players:

Brian Burres
Chris Leroux
Joe Martinez
Jason Jaramillo
Argenis Diaz
Andy LaRoche/Delwyn Young

I would probably start with Diaz and Leroux, then make the rest of my moves as spaces are needed for free agents.