The Pirates clearly had the old "you can never have too much pitching" adage in their collective heads when making trades during the season. While big league pitchers like Francisco Liriano, Mark Melancon and Arquimedes Caminero were sent away, Pittsburgh made sure it got plenty of young arms in return.
In those three trades, in fact, the Pirates received five pitchers at a variety of levels. Felipe Rivero made an impression at the big league level following the Melancon deal. Drew Hutchinson got some innings with Pittsburgh as well after the Liriano trade.