Bunts And Bleeders

• Not a huge surprise, we guess, but Keith Law of ESPN rates Pirate CF Andrew McCutchen #2 in his ranking of baseball's top players who are 25 or younger.
• Rob Biertempfel of the Trib tweeted that the Bucs have been looking at  LHPs Wei-Yin Chen, 26, from Taiwan, and Tsuyoshi Wada, a 30 year-old Japanese hurler. Chen throws heat, hitting the radar in the low-to-mid 90s, and Wada is more a finesse/control guy. He adds that the Pirates are in on the edges for Cuban OF Yoenis Cespedes, but won't get involved in an auction with the big buck boys - and his contract could top $50M.
• Bill Blank of the Post Gazette said that if RHP Charlie Morton isn't ready to go at the start of the season, the FO isn't about to panic. Because of the early off days, the team could use a four-man rotation in the opening month and only need two spot starts. That's a pretty telling statement regarding their depth.
• The Pirate draft pool pot for 2012 has been calculated at $9,270,800 by MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo. The spent $8,750,000 in bonus money in 2010 for Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie, and $13 M for Gerritt Cole and Josh Bell last year. It looks like the second-round gravy train is about to derail. (PS - sharp eyed reader Ryan says that's not for the upcoming draft, but the past one. So the Bucco budget is yet to be determined)
• The Pirates announced that they'll keep minor-league managers Dean Treanor (Indy), P.J. Forbes (Altoona), Carlos Garcia (Bradenton) and Tom Prince (Gulf Coast League). Rick Sofield, who most recently coached at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, will step in to manage in West Virginia. Dave Turgeon will be leaving there to manage short-season State College. Turgeon was West Virginia's pitching coach last season. 
• Why Joel Hanrahan is such a gaudy trade trinket, part three: the Marlins just signed closer Heath Bell to a  $27M/3 year deal.