Trade Winds

From mlbtraderumors.com:

SI.com's Tom Heyman is reporting that OF Jason Bay is drawing interest from two NL teams (The D-Backs and Cardinals) in addition to the usual suspects (The Devil Rays and Mets). The article mentions similar interest in Xavier Nady.

The part that I thought was interesting was the prospects that were mentioned as the Pirates' targets in supposed deals with Arizona and St. Louis: Arizona 2B Emilio Bonaficio and STL CF Colby Rasmus, considered elite prospects and perhaps the best in each of those respective farm systems.

Given the struggles of one Frederick Sanchez at second this year, and the current administration's continuing emphasis on building organizational depth, I can see why Bonaficio's name would get mentioned; that trade would be more than defensible. But Rasmus? The Pirates' best prospect is, far and away, Andrew McCutchen, who is already the CF at AAA, and is universally expected to be in the big leagues absolutely no later than the start of the 2010 season. Rasmus is already at AAA and projects to be very similar to McCutchen, with perhaps a stronger arm (and an earlier arrival date), but basically the same skill set. I guess you could trade both Bay and Nady, move McClouth to RF, and play Cutch and Rasmus in LF and CF in whatever arrangement you'd prefer. I would think that given the dearth of pitching depth throughout this organization, the top targets for trading Bay and Nady, who play at perhaps the only positions where there is at least a little depth, would be more than one or two quality pitching prospects. I guess we'll see.

Also from The Detroit Free Press, there are the usual rumors about Damaso Marte and John Grabow for this time of year. Given Capps' injury, I think it's increasingly likely that Marte finishes the season and turns himself into compensation picks when he signs with the Red Sox (who are DYING for left-handed relief) after the season. This is the part where I play sportswriter and say "of course, he could also be traded soon if someone makes the right offer," so I can say basically nothing and take credit for being right later.