Odds and Ends: Pirates, Royals, Gagne

Links for Wednesday…

• Joe Torre plans to retire as a manager after the 2010 season, learned MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick.
• Braves blog Talking Chop talked to ESPN’s Keith Law about the farm system.
• Baseball America’s Jim Callis spoke to one assistant GM who believes teams will cut back in the international market, partially because they can do so without a major backlash from fans.  Callis also has the ’09 draft order at that link.
• Maury Brown of The Biz of Baseball looks at the $69MM+ teams spent on first-round draft picks last year.
• Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the Pirates have anywhere from $41.75-$75.15MM tied up in Nate McLouth, Paul Maholm, and Ryan Doumit, all of whom were signed this winter.  In a blog post, Kovacevic notes how the McLouth talks did a 180 when Frank Coonelly stepped in.
• Alex Speier of WEEI talked to Red Sox execs John Henry and Larry Lucchino about the salary cap idea as well as the team’s offseason.
• Aubrey Huff, a free agent after the season, isn’t worried about the future according to Roch Kubatko of MASN.
• Chris Forsberg of the Boston Globe relays quotes from Jonathan Papelbon about the long-term deal that did not materialize this winter.
• Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star discusses the idea of releasing Mark Teahen and John Buck to sign Orlando Hudson, which some Royals fans are pushing for.
• Pitcher Kevin Correia turned down better deals to sign with his hometown Padres, according to MLB.com’s Corey Brock.
• Newly signed Brewers reliever Eric Gagne hopes to atone for his 2008 season, says Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.