Sauce, excellent post...that's all I can say.
Phantom:
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There is no way Sauron could've possibly seen Pippin in that much detail considering that he didn't know he wasn't Saruman at first. In addition, there's no way he had that much info on the hobbits already since Pip had to tell him "I'm a hobbit".
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If Sauron could really see him as plain as day then he would've screeched to a halt after his first word and said "Who is this?" but instead he finished two whole sentences, and asked only after Pip didn't answer. Sauron couldn't have fully seen Pippin. That wouldn't make sense.
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Both make sense, the biggest thorn in my side was if he believed Saruman had the Ring, why would he only send one nazgul (I'll get to that more in a moment). The argument that Sauron was referring to Pippin as
'dainty' and
'it' is truly hard to try and convince people, and as
Sauce shows it really doesn't make a lot of sense. If Sauron already had referred to Pippin as 'We' (you and I) than it just doesn't fit with the rest of Sauron's message.
My biggest problem was wondering why Sauron would just send one Nazgul if he was sending for the Ring. However, if we take some things into consideration I can see why Sauron would believe 1 Nazgul would suffice.
Eventhough he didn't know it...Saruman is trapped and was booted from the Order. What Gandalf says about him possibly holding off, or trapping a Nazgul is purely Gandalf's speculation. Saruman, though still
could be potentially dangerous, has lost most of his power.
As
phantom says, he wanted to act as quickly and with as few resources as possible to send for the Ring. He was already dealing with, and organizing for war on several fronts. Also, Sauron could have figured Saruman wouldn't have been able to do much with the Ring...considering this quote before from the Foreward:
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Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth.
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Eventhough this is a 'what would happen if...' scenario Tolkien conjured up...I took this as meaning Saruman still had some kinks he had to work out in his Ring-lore studies. So there would be little fear of Saruman being able to use the Ring.
And finally as
Mithadan argued, Sauron still probably assumed Saruman was 'loyal' to him and do as he said.