Pirates Interested in Bartolo Colon, Alfredo Amezaga

Dejan Kovacevic has an update this morning from the Winter Meetings, with two new players that the Pirates are interested in.

-The Pirates have scouted Bartolo Colon in the Dominican, where he is 40 pounds lighter and currently has a 0.91 ERA in 29.2 innings, with a 26:2 K/BB ratio in the Dominican Winter League.  Dejan speculates that the 37 year old would cost something in the $1 M range that he received from the Chicago White Sox in 2009.

Colon wouldn’t be a good addition, despite his Dominican numbers and weight loss.  He hasn’t had a good track record recently, quitting on his last two teams.  He left the Boston Red Sox to pitch in the Dominican in 2008, after refusing to move to the bullpen.  He signed with the Chicago White Sox in 2009, and put up a 4.19 ERA in 12 starts before going on the disabled list in June.  The team had trouble locating him on a few occasions during his rehab assignment, and was released in September after developing an elbow problem, following his knee issues that originally put him on the disabled list.

-The Pirates have also expressed interest in Alfredo Amezaga, who has just 69 at-bats in the last two seasons, and missed all of 2010, due to microfracture surgery on his left knee.  Amezaga is a super utility player, who can play every infield and outfield position.  From 2006-2008 with the Florida Marlins, he had a .262/.323/.352 line in 1045 at-bats.  He wouldn’t be a bad guy to take a flier on as a minor league free agent, but I don’t think I’d want to see him on the major league bench in 2011, unless there were a few injuries that brought him to the majors.