Why Would The Pirates Want Bartolo Colon?

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Why would the Pittsburgh Pirates be interested in  Bartolo Colon?   Isn’t he 37 years old, probably still swollen with known periods of vanishing into thin air? We thought the same thing of the pitcher referred to as the ‘Swollen Colon,’ but Dejan linked his dominance in the Winter Leagues (we clipped it below) making note of the fact that he is forty (40) pounds lighter.  You might have missed it, so check it out.

Colon has made five starts, whiffed 26 batters and allowed just two earned runs to go with two walks.  He has held opponents to a .209 average.  Perhaps the 13-year veteran has something left in his 37-year old tank?  The Pirates might just be on to something.   As long as he doesn’t go missing again like in 2009, which is when this quote came about:

"“I worry about Colon because Colon was a big-time Michael Jackson fan, he might [watch] the TV and cry all day long. Maybe he is in L.A. at his funeral, because I can’t find him. When he gets to Charlotte, Oney [Guillen’s son] will call me to say he’s there.”  Ozzie Guillen"

The offseason leagues are something we watch at RumBunter and we have an updated  Ten Pirates in Deep, this time with the highlights rather than the lowlights.  It’s hard to put much merit into them, but this is certainly a positive sign for a 37-year old.

So back to the original question.  Why Colon?  We think the question should be this…  Why Not Colon?

He’s cheap and he could fill a big need if the Pirates rumor mill has truth to it about moving a solid starter like Paul Maholm.

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