Vladimir Guerrero... Available?

Vladimir Guerrero had been playing in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system this year, although he didn't expect to be there for long. The team refused to call him up when he demanded a promotion, so he asked to be released, reports thestar.com. Today, the Blue Jays did just that and now Vladimir Guerrero is "available".

The question is if he's really available. There have been some talks of him retiring, but there have also been some talks of him just wanting to play in the major leagues again. I really don't buy that he is just going to retire, because I feel like he would have just done that before this season began if he wanted to do that. The fact that he demanded a call up shows that he wants to play in the major leagues again, and I think he's going to sign on with a major league club again, providing they'll start him everyday in the majors.

Of course, these rumors got Pittsburgh going and now they all want him in a Pirate uniform. My biggest thing is that I really don't believe Guerrero would even consider spending what is probably hit last year in Pittsburgh. The only way I could see it happening is if no other big time teams want anything to do with him and he decides to come here just to try and prove he still has it so he can join on with another team next year.

Let's get real here, just because the Pirates are five games over .500 on June 12th doesn't mean anybody thinks this is a real contender. I'm sure Roy Oswalt isn't regretting not listening to our offers last offseason. Players don't want to play in Pittsburgh because the team sucks, and two months of good baseball isn't going to change that. We might be a bit more appealing now, but still not appealing enough for a guy like Guerrero - in my opinion.

Even if the Pirates could convince Guerrero to come here, it's not a sure thing that he would make us better. He's only played 11 games in the minors this year, and he's hitting .313/.320/.625 in those games (although four of them were at the A+ level). Regardless, you can't take anything from those numbers besides people saying that he looks healthy and like a major leaguer. He hit .290/.317/.416 last year with the Orioles, which is a good sign. The guy has always had freakish talent and he wouldn't surprise anybody if he were to play well in the majors this year, but there's obviously something to the fact that the Blue Jays signed him and wouldn't promote him when he asked to be promoted.

All of this doesn't really matter, because I don't see this ever happening. Although it may be more likely than a pre-deadline trade for Chase Headley that you are all talking about.