So call the Pirates. See whether they will give up Shawn Chacon, who can be a free agent at the end of the season, plus either Damaso Marte or Salomon Torres (both signed through 2008) for an outfielder who could step into the Pirates' lineup tomorrow.
I guess I can't really fault columnists for suggesting that their teams offer the Pirates bad trades, since the Pirates often seem to accept them. But this really would be a very bad trade for the Pirates.
Bourn career stats:
.245/.321/.347, 15 SB, 2 CS
Chris Duffy career stats:
.269/.328/.361, 41 SB, 7 CS
Basically, Michael Bourn is Chris Duffy. If anything, he's slightly worse than Chris Duffy. Why should the Pirates want to give up anything of value for the another Chris Duffy?
If the Pirates want to get anyone likely to really help them in these deadline deals, they really need to stop looking at the Michael Bourns and Ty Wiggintons and Jody Geruts and Bobby Hills of the world and look for guys with more upside. They will probably have to dip further into the minors to do this. They'd probably be better off keeping Marte next season than trading him for someone like Bourn.
Bern1 found the link from Fake Teams.