Weekend Weenie

-- Gordon Edes of Yahoo!Sports likes what Neal Huntington has done. He writes:

"The annual selloff of any Pirates player with a pulse is numbing to the fans, but GM Neal Huntington is doing the necessary restocking of the system, especially with pitching, and could hit it big with one of the young arms he has acquired."

Ted Keith of Sports Illustrated begs to differ. He writes that

"Few if any of the prospects they've received are considered top-tier guys and many are years away from the majors. Perhaps the Pirates could flip some of their new acquisitions in future deals, but as always, their future remains uncertain."

-- After the deadline deals, there are only four Pirates remaining from the MLB roster that Huntington inherited. They are Ryan Doumit, Zach Duke, Matt Capps, and Paul Maholm. They all joined the team in 2005. Doumit is the longest-tenured, pulling on his Bucco jersey on June 5th. Duke came along in July, Maholm in August, and Capps was a September call-up.

-- In case you're curious, Lastings Milledge wore #85 because it's his birth year, according to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. He first picked the number in spring training with the Nats, when his former #44 was given to Adam Dunn. (Brandon Moss wears #44 for Pittsburgh).

Milledge told Wayne Staats of MLB.com that the Bucs gave him a dose of tough love when he arrived.

"It was a little tough, I'll be honest," Milledge said. "Just trying to get into the swing of how to do it here in Pitt. It's a lot of discipline down there. You can't drive to the games, have to [ride on] a bus and stuff like that. I had to really get used to a lot of that stuff. It's really paying dividends."

As some baseball organizations and every elementary teacher knows, a little structure sometimes goes a long way.

-- It didn't take Tom Gorzelanny or Ian Snell long to get back in the majors after their Bucco exile.

Gorzo will get his first Cubs' start Tuesday in Cincinnati. The suburban Chicago native was recalled from AAA Iowa to take the injured Ted Lilly's place.

The Seattle Mariners called up Ian Snell from AAA Tacoma to take the spot of Jarrod Washburn, who was traded to Detroit Friday. He'll toe the rubber on Sunday at Texas.

-- John Perrotto of the Pirates Report looks at the effect that all the dealing had on bolstering the sad sack minor league rosters. Huntington explained "Eventually, we want to be in a position where we're the team trading three minor-leaguers for a major-league player."

-- Rudy Owens (10-1/1.70 ERA), was promoted to Lynchburg from low Class A West Virginia. About time.

-- All the deals from the past month are analyzed in capsule form by NBC Sports, if you're trying to keep track of all the deadline moves and their impact.