Pirates trade rumors: No Cliff Lee, but Bucs looking at outfield market

A couple of Pirates trade rumors from Saturday:

-P- The Bucs won't be in on Cliff Lee, according to Clint Hurdle. Hurdle won't rule out the possibility that the Pirates could get involved with another blockbuster, however. This comes as no surprise -- it's not that likely that the Phillies will trade Lee anyway, and his contract would probably be an issue for the Bucs, regardless of whether we think it should be.

-P- The Pirates are apparently interested in Hunter Pence, but the Giants for some reason still haven't decided whether they're buying or selling. Pence is a free agent after the season, and after a three-game losing streak, the Giants are now in last place in the mediocre NL West, nine games back of the Dodgers. You'd think these fence-straddling teams (the Giants, the Phillies, the Royals) might be wondering if they could really help themselves by dealing at the deadline, given the small number of teams that seem motivated to sell. Then again, those are three teams whose motivations are often pretty hard to understand. Buster Olney wrote the other day, though, about how selling basically means telling your fans you've given up on the season. For a team coming off a World Series victory, that's got to be tough.

-P- Joe Starkey sounds like a blogger (or, well, a stereotype of a Pirates blogger) in his new column about Neal Huntington's trades. Starkey counted all of Neal Huntington's trades (there are, apparently, 64), and looked through them all, which sounds kind of fascinating, even if a lot of them were nothing trades involving guys like Brian Jeroloman and Brian Bocock ... and Brian Bixler, and Brian Tallet. Anyway, it turns out that #AllTheTradesWereGood.

-P- It sounds like the Pirates are still looking to upgrade at right field or first base. There just aren't a ton of obvious targets at those positions. I'd put the odds that Nate Schierholtz winds up with the Bucs at something like 3:1.