Minor Trade for Chris McGuiness, Notes, Clemente Crash...

Happy New Years! Be Safe Tonight.

• The Pirates have traded for 1B Chris McGuiness, 25, from Texas and sent RHP Miles Mikolas (part of the Alex Dickerson trade with SD) to the Rangers. McGuiness made his MLB debut with Texas in 2013, and in 34 at-bats, he struck out 13 times while hitting .176. In a five year minor league career, the lefty actually walked more than he whiffed, putting up a .372 OBP to go with a pedestrian .257 BA. He was recently DFA'ed for Shin-Soo Choo, blocked in Texas by Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland. Maybe the FO is tired of the Ike Davis game and is willing to go with McGuiness, Andrew Lambo or Travis Ishikawa as Gaby's dance partner...plus whoever else they can reel in.
• Jason Parks tweets that the Pirates will have seven prospects in the upcoming Baseball Prospectus Top 101 Prospects, making them one of the top stocked MLB organizations. (No names yet; that will have to wait until release).
•  Zach Morrison of Rant Sports defends the acquisition of C Chris Stewart because, though a minor deal, it provided depth at a position the Pirates were thin at organizationally.
• Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes that Johan Santana, who missed last season, is getting to close to making a decision as to which club he'll sign with this season. The Pirates are one of the teams associated with him.
• Howard Megdal of Sports on Earth has a New Year's Resolution for every team. His wish for Pittsburgh is that Ray Searage gets a well-deserved raise.
• December 31, 1884 - 3B Bobby Byrne was born in St. Louis. The pint sized (5-7, 145) scrapper played five seasons for the Pirates (1909-13) and hit .277 with 97 stolen bases in Pittsburgh. He was acquired late in 1909 and helped the Bucs to their World Series title against the Tigers.
• December 31, 1972 - The day that baseball died: Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when his plane, on a humanitarian trip to Managua, crashed in the Atlantic while on the rescue mission.