Weekend Notes: Hot Stove, Winter Ball, Prospects on the Rise, Kelly to Houston

The Black Friday weekend news...

• MLB Trade Rumors has the Sonny Gray grab bag down to five teams; the Pirates, once thought to be checking him out as a blue-light special, aren't among them.
• Kevin Creagh of The Point of Pittsburgh posts that the Buc search for a lefty from the pen may have an answer at San Francisco. He likes ol' bud Tony Watson and Will Smith as affordable trade targets.
• Blake Finney of the National's blog District on Deck posts that J-Hay is getting a look from Washington. Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets that Jordy is on the Tigers radar.

Jordy & Josh 2016 (photo Nam Huh/Associated Press)

• Jonah Keri of CBS Sports looks at the Bucs and suggests a couple of  modest investments to better the club.
• After some down time, C Elias Diaz and corner man Jose Osuna may suit up for some second-half winter ball, per John Dreker of Pirate Prospects.
• Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs have put together their list of the Top 35 Buc Prospects. RHP Mitch Keller has company at the top and there are a couple of names you may not know on the rise. Good read with a lot of player reviews.
• MLB Pipeline posts their list of the most likely suspects to be considered in the Rule 5 draft for each club. They think LHP Brandon Waddell is the Pirates prospect at most risk of being selected.
• SS Cole Tucker is really hot after his AFL performance - Baseball America picked him as one of its Prospects on the Rise (behind a paywall) while MLB.com's Mike Rosenbaum named him one of the Arizona League's breakout candidates. He also made the MLB Pipeline AFL All-Star team along with partner in crime 1B Will Craig.

Cole Tucker 2014 Bowman Sterling

• The Houston Astros hired Don Kelly, born in Butler and a Mt. Lebanon HS/Point Park College alum who played nine seasons in the majors. He'll become the 'Stros 1B coach after serving as a Detroit Tiger scout. He started his big league career in 2007 with the hometown Bucs, then spent six years with the Tigers with his final pair of campaigns in Miami.