Jason Michaels signed with the Astros this afternoon. This isn't really a big deal because if you get past Michaels' improbable 44 RBI, he was actually quite awful with the Pirates last year. He hit .228/.300/.382 with the Bucs in 254 plate appearances and his right-handed swing doesn't really fit PNC very well. People will likely whine about this a little because of the RBIs (44 RBIs with only 52 hits is mind-bogglingly improbable) but hey, remember when people were upset about losing Josh Phelps last winter? I swear that happened.

On another front, there were reports today out of Baltimore than 11 teams had inquired about Daniel Cabrera to his agent. Unsurprisingly, Dejan confirmed shortly after that the Pirates are one of the 11 teams. If there are 11 teams interested, bidding could escalate quickly. Of course, I could be wrong but I'd be Huntington would be willing to pay a decent price to get Cabrera and with his control trouble, the fact that so many teams are interested may scare some teams off. To put it another way, I'd guess that it's much more likely that the Pirates sign Cabrera than it is that they sign Wigginton.