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My Stomach Still HurtsI wanted to wait for the reports to be confirmed and the physicals to be concluded and to wake up to insure it was not a dream. They're all final. The Bucs got hosed. I'm not as hopelessly distraught as I was yesterday about this time, but I'm still ill. Here's my take in "Holy Flirking Schnitt" order.Sean Casey for Brian Rogers I've had plenty of time to criticize the GM for not making trades when a players value is highest, so I won't hash that here. Sean Casey is old, injury prone, overpaid, and a free agent in two months. I would think that the best you could do for any person with even two of those four qualities is a middling AA reliever. I don't mind this. If there is one thing the Pirates have done well over the last decade it's put together decent bullpens. If the guy manages to play halfway decent at the major league level he's the type of person you can flip for a Brian Giles or a Ryan Shealy (reportedly). You get a hundred of these guys I won't care, and the moment they go half a season with an ERA around 4.00 you exchange them for a position prospect in AA or AAA Kip Wells for Jesse Chavez I had held out some hope that Kip Wells would turn it around in Pittsburgh. I didn't expect it, I didn't admit to it. Whether he did or didn't, I thought there was no way he was coming back next year and that the Pirates would be good to offer him arbitration and use whatever draft picks they get when he walks to pick some decent players. I don't know exactly how that process works, and I know I just said I'd take a hundred AA reliever types, but Kip Wells is probably the least valuable he will ever be and your going to tell me that this guy is better then whatever we can draft near the end of the first round. No. Craig Wilson for Shawn Chacon Again, I won't criticize for the team completely effing with Wilson, that's all be going on for a while. I'd like to know why it is they hate him, and its clear based on this last weekend that they really do despise Wilson. I imagine Craig's the kind of guy who actually comes into the office to say when he thinks things kind of suck instead of just pouting about it to the press or letting it fester in him, and the Pirates think that's a bad attitude instead of realizing that 80% of the team feels that way and is just dishonest. If you said that a team traded its backup right-fielder/first baseman for a crappy #5 right handed starter, I'd say that makes sense. But when you find out that he was considerably better then the backup right-fielder/first baseman they just traded for and their return is a pitcher considerably worse then the right handed starter they just shipped out that's when you get the gut starts to wrench. At least I'll enjoy watching the Yankees now. Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez for Xavier Nady Typically trades occur where you ship a known commodity and assume the risk associated with a lesser known commodity. We know what we get in Xavier Nady, the Mets don't know what they get in Oliver Perez, although Pirates fans are familiar with what that could be. Obviously, this trade is make or break entirely on what Oliver Perez does in the next three years. The problem with this, is that as the non-contending team it's typically the role of the Pirates to take the risk side of the equation. It's just a dumb move for a team that's building for the future to try and make. Someone said that NY would have to pass Perez through waivers again to put him in AAA, I wonder if the Pirates could just claim him back. It's weird that the trading deadline is about the same time training camp starts. I can't tell which has traditionally signified the end of the season for me. I think Freddy Sanchez will keep me interested in baseball for the rest of the year, but you'll excuse me if I don't write about the Pirates for a longer then normal period of time. posted by Rory at 5:36 PM | |
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This is a blog about the Pittsburgh Pirates. My vision: to write about the games at the games. Want to email me? Make it out to rory at bleache... you know the rest. |
