Next month is when contending teams will get serious about adding talent for the stretch run. If the right deals are there – and give Pirates GM NEal Huntington credit for not unloading players from a position of weakness last winter – then the Pirates must listen hard on offers for Xavier Nady, Jason Bay, John Grabow, Damaso Marte, Adam LaRoche and any other reasonably productive veteran player. If Huntington isn’t enamored with what he hears, he can wait until winter and hope for something better. But in the cases of Nady and Bay, that would be risky. Both are 29 and headed toward unrestricted free agency after the 2009 season and might never be as marketable as they are now, in the midst of such productive seasons. The Pirates should hope LaRoche starts to hit and thus becomes an attractive commodity (they should be thankful contract talks fell apart during the offseason, too). — Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Tags: andy laroche, xavier nady