With Pedro finally up, the Pirates have essentially no MLB-ready position player prospects left (barring Tony Sanchez, who will basically just replace Ryan Doumit's production with better defense, we hope).  Barring both collapses by Walker/Tabata, and breakouts by Pearce/Milledge, in my view the Pirates have a quality offense that lacks one more power threat.  Combine that with the fact that the Buccos have (to use a technical term) a buttload of cash available for payroll.  Furthermore, we have positions available at 1B or RF, the two easiest positions at which to find a good bat.  To me it makes sense to find a short-ish term FA (2 years), to give the Bucs a chance at a quality offense; that alone won't make them a contender, but with pitching anything could happen, and a FA at this point won't block a prospect.  So for fun, I looked at Cot's Baseball contracts; the outfield for 2010 is a little thin, but look at the glut of 1B's:

Adam Dunn WAS

Lance Berkman HOU *

Wes Helms FLA
Jason Giambi COL
Paul Konerko CWS
Derrek Lee CHC
David Ortiz BOS *
Lyle Overbay TOR
Carlos Pena TB
Albert Pujols STL *

One can immediately cross off the following names: Pujols (no way), Ortiz(defense), Giambi (no), Helms (mediocre) and Overbay (terrible).  I'm also guessing that Berkman is not a practical option, since he'll probably stay in Houston.  Whats left is intriguing:

Adam Dunn WAS

Paul Konerko CWS

Derrek Lee CHC
Carlos Pena TB

All of these guys should have a shot at the open market, but I don't think any will get a huge contract; Konerko's old, Dunn and Pena are super low AVG/high K guys, and Lee is having a poor season(and the Cubs are too much of a mess to re-sign him).  I'd love to see the Bucs throw one of these guys a 2-year, $15-25 million contract; would they sign for that?  Would it make a difference?

I also wouldn't mind seeing them throw the kitchen sink at Cliff Lee....