I was right - Bryan Bullington's injury did turn out to be more serious than the Pirates originally claimed.
This seems to be much worse news than it actually is (for fans of the Pirates; I'm sure it's awful for Bullington himself) because Bullington was the first pick in the 2002 draft, but really, Bullington is just a vanilla pitching prospect at this point. He pitched badly in 2004 and had a lackluster strikeout rate in Class AAA at age 24 in 2005 despite pitching a lot better. The Pirates have lots of better young pitchers - not just Zach Duke, Oliver Perez and Paul Maholm, but also Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell and hopefully Sean Burnett. Those last three might have been in line behind Bullington for a rotation spot next year. Such considerations are probably academic anyway, but if the Bucs are able to unload Mark Redman and/or Kip Wells, they may be able to get to know some of their younger starters a bit better before Bullington returns.
I assume Bullington won't be at full strength when he gets back, either, meaning he might need to stay in the minors until about September, at which point he'll be nearly 26.