-P- Jeff Karstens will join the Pirates' rotation very soon, perhaps replacing John Van Benschoten, who was smacked around again tonight. Also, Ross Ohlendorf will also soon join the rotation, but he'll pitch for a while at Indianapolis first because he's been pitching in relief a lot recently.
-P- From the same link, the Pirates haven't chosen a closer yet, but they hope it won't be a patchwork situation--they want someone to win the job. Tyler Yates as closer has the potential to be a complete debacle, and yet he's got to be one of the leading candidates.
-P- Mariners fans think Jarrod Washburn will be joining the Yankees as well.
-P- The Brewers came back to beat the Astros, grabbing a share of first place in the NL Central.
UPDATE: Thunder catches this, in which Will Carroll reports that Phil Coke was the player who flunked the physical. If that's the case, why did the Pirates toss George Kontos back? Coke is just roster filler, and so is Karstens; one wonders why the Yankees wouldn't have just agreed to exchange the two. I'd rather have Kontos than Daniel McCutchen, since Kontos is a bunch younger.
-P- And Joe Sheehan weighs in. There are a couple errors in his post that can make it a bit confusing to read, but I agree with the general outline:
While 2008 is a lost year for Tabata, he represents the type of talent the Pirates have generally had problems getting into the system: young, high-upside with superstar potential and some risk involved. It’s not clear what he’s going to become, but what he could become is more impressive than any other Pirate prospect’s ceiling. This is the type of deal Neal Huntington needed to make. Considering that he flipped an impending free agent (Marte) and a player having a career half, this is a very good deal for the Pirates...
This is an indelicate comparison, but if you want the optimistic viewpoint, think about Hanley Ramirez, who put up a desultory 2005 season in Double-A, creating whispers similar to what we’ve heard about Tabata. Three years later, Ramirez is as close to untouchable as any player in the game. That’s the kind of talent Huntington is trying to add to the Yankees [obviously, he means "Pirates"], and if the name and the performance aren’t thrilling to Pirates fans, the thought process and the approach should be.