Another slow news day - if Dave Littlefield really is planning to unload even half the guys whose names have come up in trade rumors, he's going to be busy the next few days.
Mark Redman is currently the Pirate who's the subject of the most gossip. Unfortunately, papers in Pittsburgh and Miami think the Marlins are among the teams interested in Redman. Without a three team deal, it's hard to see how a deal for Redman are going to work out for the Marlins. The Marlins have some live arms but few good young bats; Dave Littlefield is rumored to have asked for Jeremy Hermida, the one blue-chip hitter they do have. This is a little like last year, when Littlefield was supposedly asking for Casey Kotchman or Jason Kubel in return for Kris Benson - it's worth a shot, but it's much more likely to elicit a laugh than a handshake. After that, the Marlins have few hitters worthy of the Pirates' consideration; Eric Reed, whose name came up when the potential three-team trade with the Pirates and Orioles was being discussed, isn't going to cut it.
Various New York papers guess that the Yankees may be interested in Redman, and, surprisingly, there may be a fit there. The Yankees have two decent prospects in Eric Duncan and Melky Cabrera who could fill a need for the Pirates - they play third base and center field, respectively. Neither is very old; Cabrera has already reached the majors and Duncan is probably a year or two away.
Duncan's defense needs work, and he's still struggling to hit AA pitching: he's at .238/.333/.390 for the year. But he's only 20 and has plenty of time to figure things out.
Cabrera hit .267/.310/.413 at AA Trenton this year, and has hit .308/.392/.492 in a handful of games at AAA Columbus. He also briefly played for the Yankees this year. He'll be 21 in two weeks.