Notes: Rockies Re-Sign De La Rosa

Odds and ends from the past few days...

Free Agent Update

• Jorge de la Rosa (8-7, 4.22), a pitcher who the Pirates reportedly wanted to sign, has returned to the Rockies on a three year, $32 million deal. He would have been a nice piece for the Pirates rotation.
  
• Carl Pavano (17-11, 3.75) is expected to decline the Twins' arbitration offer. With most of the other top starters signed, Pavano now is clearly the second best pitcher available after Cliff Lee.
  
• Kevin Correia (10-10, 5.40), who I previously profiled as a potential 2011 Pirate, declined the Padres' offer of arbitration and is officially a free agent.
  
• The Pirates supposedly are interested in Lance Berkman (.248/.368/.413), as reported by Berkman himself. The first baseman had the worst season of his career last year but still got on base at a good rate. He is a decent candidate for a comeback season and would be an upgrade over Garrett Jones, but I would rather see the Pirates sign either Carlos Pena or Derrek Lee - both of whom are far superior to Berkman in the field.
  
• Former Pirates closer Octavio Dotel, who saved 21 games for Pittsburgh last year, declined the Dodgers' offer of arbitration and is now a free agent. If he were to resign here that would negate the need for a new blog banner for 2011.

Pirates Inquire Into Bartlett
Two days after I profiled Tampa Bay's Jason Bartlett as a possible trade candidate to upgrade the shortstop position, Ken Rosenthal reports that the Pirates are among the teams expressing interest in Bartlett. Tampa Bay wants bullpen help, although some money or prospects would have to be coming this way if the Pirates were to give up their most valuable bullpen piece, Joel Hanrahan, in such a deal. Let's hope some of these rumors are real and this isn't another Vazquez/Monroe/Hinske offseason.

Blog Updates
I linked the 2011 Needs series and an index to all the Great Pirates in History on the left sidebar. Also all players mentioned in the posts will now be linked to their statistics page on Baseball Reference. This should make it easier to get more information on the players, as well as make for a better narrative since I won't have to provide as many statistics if they are easily available.