Standing Ovation

Another title I considered for this post:

"Go Red Sox," because as I've said, I will cheer for Jason Bay's new team until the Pirates are good again. I will still be a Pirates fan, of course, but you can expect me to follow the Red Sox closely come playoff time, especially when Bay's at the plate.

But ultimately when I think about the trade deadline, I am blown away by the Pirates' rookie GM Neal Huntington.

Huntington was hired with no prospects and a pathetic major league roster. Many fans clamored this offseason for him to trade away Bay, Jack Wilson, Nady, Marte, and others right away. He resisted.

As it turned out, every one of those guys improved on last year's performances, especially Nady and Bay, who churned out All-Star-caliber years.

Another player improved, our center fielder Nate McLouth. The result was that we had a pretty darn good offense this season. Our pitching was terrible though, worst in the league. Conventional wisdom says to hang on for dear life to those hitters and try desperately to improve pitching through trades and offseason signings.

That is perhaps what former GM Dave Littlefield would have done, desperate for the team to look at least average, mortgaging the future for the illusion of competing.

But Huntington made the right choice. He knows that to truly compete, the Pirates need a stronger minor league system and not just talent at the major league level, but talent with depth. After making no significant moves in the offseason, Huntington had what appears to be a decent draft, although there are still many good players from the draft who haven't signed.

At the deadline, all eyes were now on the former Indians Assistant GM to make his move. And he performed a magic trick.

Over the weekend, he sent Xavier Nady (an impending free agent) and Damasco Marte to the Bronx in return for one top-shelf-potential-but-very-young OF prospect and three very ordinary, average pitching prospects. (Of course, they instantly became the Pirates' 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best pitching prospects.)

Some praised the return Huntington got for a LOOGY and a mediocre OF having a career year who would leave in a couple months. Others complained that it wasn't enough. Perhaps it's not an easy call.

As it turned out, though, Neal had mysterious ways, and ulterior motives in making a New York trade five days before the deadline.

Still spouting lies that the Pirates had no serious intentions of trading Jason Bay, Huntington began talks with two teams who suddenly had incentive to improve: the Yankees division rivals Tampa Bay and Boston. Tampa Bay, whose system is so rich with prospects that they don't know what to do with them, seemed unwilling to budge on a few players the Pirates were demanding. Meanwhile, Boston, who needed to rid themselves of Ramierez, searched desperately for the right team to send him to so that they could replace him with Bay.

At this point, TB and Boston had incentive not just to one-up the Yankees but to avoid having the other team improve. Not only was Huntington selling Bay at his highest value, but he was in a self-created perfect situation for negotiating with the upper hand.

As a result, Huntington was able to reject offers all week right up until the last second, ultimately taking 3B Andy LaRoche, SP Brandon Morris, RP Craig Hansen, and OF Brandon Moss. From what I've read in the past 24 hours, LaRoche is a gem, a major-league ready player who should eventually be a star. Morris has star potential and is only 21. Hansen and Moss have less potential but can step right in and be certain contributors for years here.

This deal was more fruitful than any of the rumored deals we "had together" with Florida or Tampa Bay. Huntington took players at their peak value, traded them to a team who had incentive to trade that was created by Huntington, and picked up great prospects who are being undervalued by the Dodgers, along with solid contributors fromo Boston.

Bravo, Neal. For two impending free agents and Jason Bay, you got 3 guys who SHOULD be future All-Stars and 5 other guys who should be contributors on the Pirates' eventual turnaround team in a couple years.

Until then, GO RED SOX!!