Insanity. Jose Tabata is now 6-for-6 with two doubles in Scottsdale's game against the Peoria Javelinas. Also, Chase D'Arnaud has reached base five times in the game. Scottsdale leads 17-8. None of the Pirates' pitchers have entered the game, fortunately. 

Tabata is now hitting .395 in the AFL. His status as a prospect has improved a bunch in the past few weeks. I want to say that it's time to start getting excited, but I don't want to jinx it.

UPDATE: He finished 6-for-7, his batting average back to .392. Unacceptable! Back to the batting cages, Jose.

More photos » by Lenny Ignelzi - AP

6 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates' John Grabow, right, and Robinson Diaz high-five after the Pirates' 8-3 victory over the San Diego Padres in a baseball game in San Diego, Sunday, April 26, 2009. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

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For two years and $7 million or more, which is a good, if not completely unreasonable, chunk of change for him. (Grabow made $2.3 million in 2009, his last year of arbitration.) If the reports about Jason Bay rejecting a $60 million deal from the usually-pretty-circumspect Red Sox are also accurate, we could be looking at a surprisingly robust free agent market this winter.

It's been interesting to see so many former Pirates quickly re-sign with their new teams--first Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson, and now Grabow. After you leave the Pirates, going anywhere else must seem fantastic.

A bunch of Pirates minor leaguers have become free agents. Indulge your inner minor-league geek here:

Pittsburgh

Pitchers: RHP Jason Davis, RHP Eric Hacker, LHP Corey Hamman, RHP Lincoln Holdzkom, RHP Jorge Julio, LHP Bobby Livingston, RHP Juan Mateo,  RHP Scott Nestor, RHP Jeremy Powell, RHP Dionis Rodriguez, RHP Ty Taubenheim, RHP Virgil Vasquez

Catchers: Hector Gimenez, Steven Lerud, Miguel Perez, Milver Reyes, Steven Suarez

Infielders: Chris Barnwell, Josh Bonifay, Tagg Bozied, Larry Broadway, Ray Chang, Angel Gonzalez, Pedro Lopez, Brian Myrow, Jamie Romak

Outfielders: Victor Igsema, Jonel Pacheco

This list includes a few vaguely interesting guys:

Eric Hacker came over from the Yankees in exchange for Romulo Sanchez and made his big league debut late this year after performing rather disappointingly at Indianapolis. Still, he'd be nice to have around this year.

Juan Mateo has a good performance record and has been a good soldier for the past couple years in Altoona and Indianapolis; it was mildly strange that he never got a chance with the Pirates when it seemed like every player on the Indy staff was getting a callup.

Steve Lerud has been just off the prospect radar forever; he's now 25, hasn't realized the bit of power potential he seemed to have, and can't hit for average. Too bad; lefty catchers with power have lots of value.

Tagg Bozied and Brian Myrow were among the most talented hitters at Indianapolis this year and many projection systems rate them fairly highly, but they're older minor league vets and will be lucky to get another chance in the big leagues no matter where they end up.

I had hopes for Jamie Romak who, until Pedro Alvarez arrived, was probably the best power prospect in the Pirates' system, but he quashed them with a horrible year at Altoona and then Lynchburg.

40-man rosters have to be set by Friday, so expect some fun stuff to happen this week.

The Bucs currently have 36 players on their 40-man roster. That doesn't include Jose Ascanio and Evan Meek, who will both need to be protected by Friday. The Pirates will also have to decide whether to include a number of minor leaguers, any of whom could be selected in the Rule 5 draft in December if they aren't protected:

Brad Lincoln, Gorkys Hernandez, Bryan Morris, Ramon Aguero, Casey Erickson, Michael Dubee, Shelby Ford, Jim Negrych, Kris Watts

Of these, I'd say Lincoln and Hernandez are no-brainers.

Morris is a tricky case; scouts like him a lot and the Pirates certainly paid a pretty penny to get him, but the performance record so far hasn't been there, and it's very hard to see how he could stick on another team's 25-man roster for the entire year.

WTM is a big fan of Aguero, a reliever who spent time with West Virginia, Lynchburg and Altoona last year. Aguero had a nice season in 2009 and has followed that up with a good showing in the Dominican Winter League, but I'm agnostic here. He's almost 25, so he's not a great prospect. Every year the Pirates protect these sorts of marginal pitchers, mostly relievers--Jeff Sues, Dave Davidson, Romulo Sanchez, Luis Munoz, Olivo Astacio, Ronald Belisario, and so on--and never do they seem to get anything out of them. (Ok, Astacio was released because of behavioral issues, and Belisario blossomed with the Dodgers, but still.) The problem with Aguero is that he'd be easier than Morris to hide on a big-league roster for a year, and because he played well this year and has good stuff, there would be reason for a team who selected him to hope he wouldn't end up hurting them too badly. I'd probably protect him, but I don't think we should expect much from him in the long haul.

The other guys, though at least vaguely intriguing, can probably be left off. Erickson is too far from the majors, Dubee doesn't have great stuff, and Ford and Negrych haven't shown enough in the minors. (Negrych might have some vague chance of being taken in the Rule 5 and used as a bench bat.) Watts is only a nominal prospect because he's a catcher.

So let's say three spots will be needed for Lincoln, Hernandez and Aguero, and possibly a fourth for Morris. The Pirates would probably also prefer to leave one spot for their own Rule 5 pick, although they can also dump someone later to make room. 

All this means that probably a couple of players will be dumped from the roster this week. Of those, Sues, Anthony Claggett, Justin Thomas, Brian Bixler, and Luis Cruz would all be potential candidates.

Chase D'Arnaud went 3-for-4 for Scottsdale today, raising his Arizona Fall League average to .286. He got off to a slow start, but he's come on very strong recently, hitting .393 in his last seven games. Given his lack of experience in the high minors, his line so far (.286/.370/.397, with eight steals and only one CS) is solid.

One strange thing I just noticed, and normally I think these Player A / Player B games are a bit silly, but this one's interesting:

Chase D'Arnaud, SS, age 22

Class A 213 AB .291/.394/.427 14 2B, 3 3B, 3 HR, 30 BB, 31 K, 17 SB, 3 CS
Class A+ 210 AB .295/.402/.481 19 2B, 4 3B, 4 HR, 30 BB, 41 K, 14 SB, 5 CS

Player B, SS, age 22

Class A 274 AB .299/.414/.522 18 2B, 5 3B, 11 HR, 51 BB, 61 K, 29 SB, 8 CS
Class A+ 201 AB .308/.422/.418 10 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 36 BB, 43 K, 24 SB, 5 CS

Can you guess who Player B is (without hunting)? The answer is after the jump.

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More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

3 months ago: Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit, back, turns to apply a late tag as Colorado Rockies' Clint Barmes scores on double by Seth Smith in the seventh inning of a baseball game in Denver on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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First things first: treat this with a grain of salt for now. The fact that the Post-Gazette reported that the Bucs offered Matt Capps for J.J. Hardy but didn't mention that the Pirates and Brewers also discussed a Ryan Doumit-for-Hardy swap makes this report from FOXSports.com seem a bit strange to me. Nonetheless, it's interesting:

It's becoming very clear that Ryan Doumit is available on the trade market.

The Pirates were engaged in talks with the Brewers earlier this offseason about a trade that would have sent Doumit to Milwaukee for shortstop J.J. Hardy, major league sources said Friday.

But Milwaukee preferred to use Hardy as the trade chip to acquire a starting center fielder, Carlos Gomez, from the Twins.

Hardy and Doumit have comparable contracts, which would have aided a deal.

The Brewers have a couple of decent catching prospects in Jon Lucroy and Angel Salome who are both fairly near the majors, but their current starter is Jason Kendall, who has nothing left offensively. Dealing for Doumit might have made some sense for them.

I'd certainly be open to trading Doumit if I were in charge, but it wouldn't be my top priority. Doumit had a dismal season overall in 2009 but hit very well in September after seemingly recovering from the wrist injury that probably dragged down his numbers before that. Dealing Doumit for Hardy would have been fine, but it would have been a lateral move--both are very talented players coming off poor seasons. Hardy might be the more talented of the two, and he's certainly the more likely of the two to stay healthy, but that's a double-edged sword--Hardy doesn't have an injury to explain why he hit so badly last year.

If the Pirates had traded Doumit for Hardy, they would have essentially been trading out Ronny Cedeno (who would move to the bench if Hardy became a Pirate) for Jason Jaramillo. Again, I think that's a lateral move--Cedeno and Jaramillo are both credible second-division starters and nothing more, and neither have a ton of upside. Actually, if I had to pick which of the two had the best chance to break out, I'd probably pick Cedeno, because of the power he flashed at times last year and because he, unlike Jaramillo, has a few lines on his stat sheet that suggest he can be somewhat better than a glove-first player. (There's also Jeff Clement, who's still trying to stick around as a catcher, but the idea that he can catch will be hard to take seriously until he actually does it for a month or so; given his knee problems, I think it's much more likely he sees time at the corners. If Doumit is traded and Clement can catch, great, but I frankly doubt that will happen.)

The Doumit-Hardy rumors are interesting, though, and they may be a blueprint for the sorts of Doumit rumors we hear the rest of the offseason. Doumit's 2009 season was bad enough that the Pirates probably aren't going to get much value for him if they pursue a standard veteran-for-prospects deal, but they could acquire a similarly talented but problematic player who isn't a catcher, so that Jaramillo can get some more playing time. An outfielder might be a possibility. 

I think the more likely scenario, though, is for the Pirates to wait until after the season starts and hope Doumit shows he's healthy and productive, then deal him for younger players. That's essentially what they did with Jason Bay--there were rumors about Bay throughout the 2007-2008 offseason, but Bay had just had a terrible year, so the Pirates waited and dealt him after he hit well for a few months in 2008.

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols connects for a two-run home run in the in the third inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a game on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 in St. Louis.(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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No surprise there. Here are the full results (again, after the jump, because the charts don't fit):

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Via Baseball America, the Pirates have released a number of failed prospects:

RHP Yoslan Herrera - The big prizewinner in Dave Littlefield's weird experiment with international talent. Most teams attempt to sign Latin American amateurs at a young age and move them through the farm system over a period of many years. But all that was way too slow-moving for a short-term thinker like Littlefield, who instead spent a couple million bucks on Herrera, a much older player, and got him to the big leagues within a couple years. Unfortunately, his limp 87-MPH fastball wasn't nearly good enough to complement his decent offspeed stuff, and now Herrera is gone after getting bombed in the bigs in 2008 and spending an uninspiring 2009 at Altoona and Indianapolis. By the way, check out this little anecdote about Herrera by WTM:

Surprised about Herrera, too, because he made some progress this year, although at his age there's no way he's going to be a major league pitcher.  There might have been more going on with him.  I was at a DH in Bowie this year and Herrera was up in the stands in the second game after pitching in the first game.  He was rooting loudly for Bowie, so I wondered what was going on.

RHP Tyler Herron - The Pirates signed Herron, a former top draft pick of the Cardinals, after St. Louis surprisingly released him earlier in 2009. He didn't pitch particularly well for Altoona, and his stuff there apparently was terrible. But he still has that first-round pedigree, he hasn't been tried much as a reliever, and he's not old; it's a little bit weird that he's now been released by two organizations. It could be that there's some personal thing going on here.

1B Kent Sakamoto

3B Eddie Prasch - Prasch was Littlefield's third-round pick in his hideous 2004 draft. Prasch showed some on-base skills as he crawled through the minors, but his power never developed.

3B Bobby Spain

3B Brett Willemburg

OF Butch Biela - This is a weird one. Biela hit very well as an 18-year-old in 2007, then got by with a .342 OBP at State College in 2008. The Pirates thought enough of him to start him at West Virginia in 2009, but he wound up with back with the Spikes, not hitting at all.

OF Justin Byler

OF Jason Delaney - Delaney, the Bucs' 12th-round pick in '05, showed flashes of real hitting ability in the minors, but since he was almost 23 when he was drafted, he was always very old for his levels. He doesn't have much defensive value and he never developed much home run power, and now he's 27.

OF Jared Keel - Keel has always hit well in the minors, but like Delaney he has always been a bit old for his levels. Also, as a 31st-round pick, the Bucs have probably never viewed him as much more than an organizational player; if they liked him they probably would have sent him to Altoona last year, given that he hit 20 homers at Lynchburg in 2008. 

The Pirates have also granted free agency to Denny Bautista.

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum pitches to the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of a game in San Francisco, Friday, June 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Tim Lincecum wins SB Nation's NL Cy Young award. Here are the results:

I'm pretty sure my ballot was Lincecum, Carpenter, Vazquez. It's hard to believe how quickly Lincecum has emerged as a perennial powerhouse. He could've been a Pirate, of course--the Pirates could have taken him but picked Brad Lincoln instead. But hindsight is always 20/20, and Lincecum was seen as a tremendously risky pitcher when he was drafted because of his size and high-effort delivery. Here's an article I wrote about Lincecum and Lincoln in 2007. Of all the things you can blame Dave Littlefield for, I don't think the fact that Lincecum isn't a Pirate is a particularly good one.

Anyway, here are the AL results:

More photos » by Pat Sullivan - AP

6 months ago: Milwaukee Brewers' J.J. Hardy connects for a fielder's choice single in the sixth inning against the Houston Astros in a baseball game Saturday, April 25, 2009 in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

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The Post-Gazette reports. This probably wouldn't have been a very appealing offer to the Brewers--they have Trevor Hoffman signed through 2010, with an option for 2011, and Capps was a complete mess all year. (It's theoretically possible the Bucs offered the deal before Hoffman signed his extension in October.) Also, Carlos Gomez, the outfielder they got for Hardy from the Twins, is still a high-upside player, even if there's a much better chance of him busting out completely than breaking out.

Still, this is interesting stuff. It still appears very likely that the Bucs' Opening Day shortstop will be Ronny Cedeno, simply because it won't be easy to upgrade on him in a cost-effective way, but it's not certain.