Midweek Scribbles

• Latest Bucco rumor: "Hear ye, hear ye: The Pittsburgh Pirates are one team that actually might want to trade for New York Yankees right-hander A.J. Burnett," according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. He adds the caveat that he knows the Pirates have spoken to the Bronx Bombers, but doesn't know if that represents a smoking gun or just due diligence on the part of the FO. Burnett makes $33M over the next two years, so the Yankees would have to eat most of his salary. The 35 year old went 11-11 with a 5.15 ERA in 2011.
• Buster Olney of ESPN, purely as speculation, tweeted that he wondered if a Garrett Jones for Burnett deal would work, with NY eating 90% of the contract. And it is just speculation; that deal would make the trade a wash for NY, which is trying to clear some salary room for a couple of bench pieces. But make it 75% of AJ's contract eaten by the Yanks, and that might do it, as long as we're speculating.
• Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors has a post on Burnett, his recent performance, why he's available and what clubs may bite.
• Fangraph's Dan Williams has a story on Jose Tabata's disappointing season and his potential going forward.
• Various sources report that Dmitri Young, who has been out of baseball since 2008, will get a tryout in front of Clint Hurdle and the Pirate scouts in Florida. Young, 38, is playing winter ball now and has dropped 75 pounds since he last squeezed into a big league uniform. Doesn't seem like the Bucs have a lot of confidence in their first base platoon, hey?
• Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has the Bucs Top 20 prospects. Interesting list, and he has a couple of  guys floating under the radar, too.
• Tim Williams of Pirates Prospects wrote that Keith Law of ESPN ranked the Buc farm system eighth. You have to be an ESPN Insider subscriber to get the Law story.
• Baseball Prospectus has their 2012 PECOTA ratings out; it's subscriber only.