Jon Paul Morosi had an update on Twitter about the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Oakland Athletics:
#Pirates need bat and bullpen. #Athletics have both. They’re talking, sources say.
We’ve heard a lot of rumors about the Athletics. On the offensive side, we’ve heard the Pirates linked to Josh Willingham and Conor Jackson. On the bullpen side, we’ve heard Craig Breslow and Grant Balfour as names that have been thrown around.
The Athletics have also been shopping Rich Harden, David DeJesus, Coco Crisp, and Brad Ziegler. Crisp would be an interesting addition to the team, due to his speed and defensive skills. However, the Pirates haven’t been strongly linked to any of these names.
6:11 PM: Buster Olney tells us that the talks for Josh Willingham are dead. He adds that they never really got cranked up.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Please God, no Crisp.
Go for Willingham, not Crisp…hit two more bombs last night
We need a power, not more speed