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!!

Manny-Bay-Prospects... Does it make sense?

I woke up this morning to see if I was dreaming about the likely three-way trade involving Jason Bay and Manny. Here's why it makes sense for everyone involved:

1. Boston gets to send Manny to the NL while getting a player in return who is nearly as productive this year but is not disruptive. Bay still has a year before free agency as well, and could therefore become part of the Red Sox' longterm plans. And the most important part for for Boston: Tampa Bay does not get Jason Bay. Boston also gets reliever John Grabow. It costs them Manny for the playoff run, cash, and a couple strong prospects.

2. Florida gets a productive outfielder, Manny, free for a playoff run (from what I hear Boston will pay Florida the rest of Manny's salary). They give up a couple strong prospects.

3. Pittsburgh gets much needed high-level talent for their farm system, something like four players. They give up Jason Bay.

At first I was skeptical that Boston would trade Manny at this point in the year but considering age, won't Bay be at least as good as Manny for the next few years? And they can more easily keep him around.

Meanwhile, we know Florida is a weird team and probably just wants to go on a strong run this year before selling their team off or something. They do not have to pay the full cost for Bay to the Pirates so it is not a big loss for them.

The Pirates will presumably get great return on Jason Bay, because the Rays and the Red Sox now have to work against each other, both having a desire not only for Bay but also for the other team to not have Bay.

Rumors are that either the Pirates want slightly better prospects or the Marlins want Boston to send a prospect their way. I'm sure I'll be addicted to checking back all day to see what happens.

The greatest part is that the Pirates don't NEED to trade Bay. If we're not happy about the deal, just hang onto him and trade him in the off-season or next year at this time. With a year of arbitration left, the guy is like gold. We should get a couple elite prospects and a couple 2nd or 3rd tier prospects for him.

Finally, with Tampa Bay and Boston both in the running for Bay, the Nady/Marte-to-Yankees trade looks better and better, as it turned up the heat on these two teams to improve their situation.

Getting excited for the Bucco Trade Deadline

Stunningly, the Pittsburgh Pirates have the best outfield in Major League Baseball.

Nate McLouth is by far the most productive CF in the NL (.315/.399/.606). Jason Bay is arguably the second most productive LF (.294/.416/.550) after Pat Burell. Finally, Xavier Nady is probably the NL's second most productive RF (.317/.379/.525) after Ludwick. Overall, Pittsburgh OF are 2nd, 7th and 12th in OPS for all major league outfielders. No other team comes close to that kind of combined production. Heck, the Yankees and Red Sox don't even have outfielders higher than 15th (Matsui) and 19th (Ramierez).

Our bullpen is above average, too. Although they're 18th in MLB in ERA, they're 3rd in IP and we have a few extremely dependable guys (Grabow, Capps, Marte, Osoria).

So why do we suck so bad?

One reason is we have a terrible, terrible infield. Doumit, our best catcher, is injured. Jack Wilson just returned from injury yesterday. We have no third baseman. LaRoche, at first, is a joke at the plate.

The more morbid reason, though, is our starting pitching. Despite average relief ERA, the Pirates are dead last in team ERA. That's because our starting pitching ERA is 5.66, .33 runs worse than the Rockies, who are TWENTY-NINTH.

Think about that. That means that over the course of one season, if there were no relief pitchers, Pirates starting pitchers would allow 54 more runs than the NEXT CLOSEST TEAM. Compared to the Indians, who have the lowest SP ERA in MLB, the Pirates would allow over FOUR HUNDRED more runs.

That's HISTORICALLY bad.

What does this mean? Because of our bankrupt farm system, it means there's no hope for the Pirates the next couple years to not tie the Phillie's 16-season losing streak this year or to break the record next year (remember, that's for all major NA sports, not just baseball).

But, for obsessed Bucco fans it means we get to enjoy the first major trades by the new management, who so far seem to be more competent than the former management. Jason Bay and Xavier Nady will both be traded and their stocks are high, so that's very exciting. We should be able to get some top prospects and the Pirates will be looking good in 2011! I'm interested to see who we get.

If you remember, last season around this time I declared that I would cheer for whomever the Pirates trade Jason Bay to until they get better (see this post). Although I won't stop cheering for the Buccos, I still hold that I will become a fan of Jason Bay's new team, even if it's the *gulp* Cubs.

Also, I reserve the right to reject this promise if it's the Indians, because no one would wish that kind of heartbreak, misery, and insanity on anyone.

Do any of you guys' teams in playoff contention need a good corner outfielder???

July 31st

The day before August is crucial for two reasons. First, it's Harry Potter's birthday (Happy Birthday H-Man!). Second, and more relevant, it's the MLB trading deadline. It's a time teams mortgage their future in hopes of cementing the present forever by bringing home a World Series Title.

The Boston Red Sox always seem to be a player come the trading deadline. Here's my personal break down of their last five trade deadlines:

2002- Acquired Cliff Floyd from the Montreal Expos for two pitchers who were never significant. At the time, the Expos were owned by Major League Baseball prior to moving them to Washington. This trade was good cause it pissed off George Steinbrenner, who did his best Al Davis impression and ranted about how the whole league was against him and was trying to fix it so the Red Sox would win. Floyd didn't really do much for the Sox, and the team missed the playoffs. But hey, I'm in favor of anything that pisses off Steinbrenner.

2003- Acquired Scott Williamson from the Reds for some irrelevant. Acquired Jeff Suppan from the Pirates for Freddy Sanchez. Willamson was pretty irrelevant himself for a while, but pulled it together and became their closer come playoff time. Good deal. The Suppan trade seemed stupid at first. Suppan was originally a Red Sox and supposed to be the next Roger Clemens, and he stunk so they let the Diamondbacks have him as a welcome to the MLB present. Then all of a sudden they trade their top prospect for him? Plus, Suppan got beat so bad the team didn't include him on the ALDS roster, and didn't let him pitch in the ALCS. Then factor in that Sanchez is a perennial All Star and the defending NL batting Champ. This deal's looking bad. HOWEVER, Suppan helped the team win the World Series in 2004. As a pitcher for the Cardinals, he was on third base and the Sox were winning 2-0 or something like that, and had the infield back. A ground ball was hit to the right side, and Suppan took off for home. The Red Sox saw this, and conceeded the run and threw to first. But, for some reason, Suppan stopped between third and home. Ortiz was ready to throw the ball around the horn, but saw Suppan literally inbetween third and home just standing there. Ortiz pumpfaked and Suppan broke for third. Ortiz threw the ball to third and picked off Suppan. I'm pretty sure Jeff did that to make up for being a bust as a prospect and a bust as a deadline pickup the year before. Therefore, this trade goes from awful to mediocre.

2004- In a 4 team deal, the Sox gave up Nomar Garciapara and a minor leaguer, acquired Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. This was a good deal cause Nomar was hurt the whole year and on the downside and the team needed defensive help bad. Cabrera turned out to be a scrappy little guy and is currently my favorite MLB shortstop. Gotta love the scrappy little guys. Plus, Mientkiewicz kept the ball from the final out of the 2004 World Series, and refused to give it to the Red Sox when the team asked nicely. They appealled to the Commissioners Office. MLB said they didn't care who kept the ball, so the Red Sox actually sued him for it. All offseason, we got to talk about some stupid ball, and where it was, and what would happen if Mientkiewicz gave them a substitute fake ball. It was a jolly good time and even made the front page of the New York times. I really wish he blew it up. Imagine how many hits that would have gotten on YouTube? When Mientiewicz still wouldn't give it too them or post a video of it exploding after a month or two, they traded him and began talking publicly about a new team policy for ownership of the balls of final outs of series clinching games. Only the Red Sox... As my Uncle Michael pointed out, not once did we hear anything about what happened any of Vinatieri's Super Bowl winning field goals.

The Red Sox also acquired Dave Roberts for some no name. Take away game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, this trade is a footnote. THE trade involved Nomar. Roberts barely played. The one regular season highlight involving him at Fenway Park was before the trade when he was a Dodger and hit a line drive ten feet up in the air that Pokey Reese somehow caught. He never had a year plus long dispute with the team over a baseball (it just sounds so funny when you put it like that...). However, you can't take away game 4. The Stolen Base made this trade the greatest trade in Red Sox history.

2005-Acquired Tony Graffino for two no names. Graffino played well till game 2 of the ALDS, when, as everyone in US Cellular Field was kind enough to remind me, he made a huge error with two outs which was followed by a grand slam. The Red Sox lost the game and were swept. Graffino is extremely lucky this happened AFTER 2004. Otherwise he probably would have been shot. Several times.

2006- The Red Sox do nothing, everyone gets injured, the team gets swept in a five game series against the Yankees in Fenway (I was so frustrated after game 4 that I honestly took a baseball bat and beat living daylights out of the lawn in my backyard), and falls out of playoff contention. This was the worst and most disappointing trading deadline ever. I was so excited coming back from work on the L wondering who the team was gonna pick up for their post season run. I hope they don't make the same mistake in 2007.