Greg points out this article in the diaries - Tim Wallach and Robin Ventura have both turned down jobs as the Pirates' hitting coach. Greg points out that Gerald Perry was highly regarded before becoming the Pirates' last hitting coach, but he'll be reassigned after failing to work miracles.
Of course, no hitting instructor is particularly likely to get results until the Pirates draft and develop better, and it's not terribly encouraging that two of the remaining candidates, Hensley Muelens and Jeff Manto, are both minor league coaches.
(By the way, Neil Walker recently made some very interesting comments about his approach to hitting, in which he said that he didn't think patience was important. I can't find a link to these comments. Could someone send it to me or post it here?)
Elsewhere, the Pirates will sign Dave Williams to a one-year contract and will dump Jose Mesa. That sounds fine to me. It surprised me a bit that Williams was eligible for arbitration, since he had only pitched in 41 big-league games before this year. He'll apparently make about $1.6 million, for which he'll probably provide average or slightly below average production.
Finally, here's WTM on Pirates' prospects' upside and depth.