-P- The Post-Gazette has a lot of good stuff today. The P-G suggests that Damaso Marte is a potential candidate to be traded for Jon Lieber. Marte should be a very valuable commodity right now because of his contract. Dealing him for a player who will be gone in a year would be a bad idea. Again, though, I'm out of answers for this team. This franchise is screwed. Part of me feels that if Lieber will make 2007 better - and he probably will, though not by much - then what the heck. It wouldn't be what I'd do as a GM, but Dave Littlefield is obviously completely incapable of making the bold moves this franchise has to make to move up in the world.
-P- The Pirates have signed Jim Brower to a minor-league deal. Brower was a very useful, high-workload reliever for the Giants in 2003 and 2004, but has been terrible the past two years.
-P- The chances that Boston will sign Daisuke Matsuzaka are looking slimmer by the day.