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News Roundup: Trot Nixon?!

By Charlie Wilmoth

-P- The Pirates are interested in Trot Nixon. Seventh verse, same as the first. Like Jeromy Burnitz, Sean Casey and Raul Mondesi when they joined the Pirates, Nixon was once good but probably isn't anymore. Nixon probably wouldn't work out much better for the Pirates than the other three did. Like Casey, he gets on base, gets injured a lot and has little power left. The same article also confirms that the Bucs are interested in Adam LaRoche, however.

-P- Yuslan Herrera is finally in the U.S. and should soon sign his three-year deal with the Bucs.

-P- John Perrotto says the Bucs have asked about the Nationals' Ryan Church and says the Yankees have offered outfielder Kevin Thompson for Damaso Marte. The Pirates wouldn't take the deal, and I wouldn't, either - Thompson will be 27 next year and he hasn't really ever hit well at Class AAA.

-P- Maybe Church enters the picture here:

For two days, rumors have swirled around the lobby of a three- or four-team trade that would involve the Cubs, Rockies, Pirates and possibly even the Nationals.

A couple paragraphs later, ESPN adds:

nother version of that Cubs-Rockies-Pirates deal involved outfielder Brad Hawpe moving to Pittsburgh for pitchers Paul Maholm and Tom Gorzelanny. But one team that approached the Pirates says it was told flatly that the Pirates aren't trading Maholm or any of their young starting pitchers.

Wow, that's distressing for two completely different reasons. First, Maholm and Gorzelanny? That's way too much. But equally distressing is the idea that the Pirates won't consider trading a starter at all. (Who knows if any of this is true.)

-P- The Denver Post (via Ben Maller) has a different take:

Casual interest in Jason Jennings has graduated to concrete proposals with the Rockies considering a three-way trade with the Cubs and Pirates involving young pitchers and outfielders Jacque Jones and Brad Hawpe.

The Cubs offered Jones, who formally requested a trade at season's end, and pitcher Carlos Marmol or Angel Guzman for the Rockies' opening-day starter. Under one scenario, the Rockies, who prefer Marmol, would keep Jones and ship Hawpe to the Pirates for starter Paul Maholm.

If that's confusing, here's the rumor they're reporting:

Cubs get:
P Jason Jennings

Rockies get:
P Paul Maholm
P Carlos Marmol
OF Jacque Jones

Pirates get:
OF Brad Hawpe

That actually seems like it could happen. (The Rockies blog Purple Row isn't impressed, though.)

-P- Here's Rotoworld's daily blog. There isn't any information about the Pirates yet.

-P- To move on to news that isn't Pirates related, the Giants have re-signed 3B Pedro Feliz to a one-year deal worth $5.1 million. Feliz is a very bad player, the natural heir to Tony Batista, who made an art of being worthless despite hitting a bunch of homers. I know the third base market is dicey, but I'd actually rather just grab a couple of minor league free agents and let them battle it out before I dropped five million bucks on Feliz.

McCovey Chronicles on Feliz:

Pedro Feliz might be a rocket scientist in the real world, but when he steps inside a little chalk box he becomes one of the dumbest players in the history of the game.

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