Pittsburgh Pirates: Off-season fun and MORE!

• Heretic

  

  I....uh.....don't know what the "MORE!" will be yet. Possibly a picture of boobs or something, as that will make any discussion of the Pirates a bit less depressing.
  
  So far in the off-season, they've traded RP Jesse Chavez to Tampa Bay for IF Akanori Iwamura. Kinda one of those "good for both teams, I guess" sort of deals. Tampa wanted to dump salary, so they got a cheap RP who's tied up for a few years. Chavez was solid for Pittsburgh last year in his first full MLB season, but unexceptional (about a 4-flat ERA as a middle reliever). Pittsburgh, on the other hand, with their really low payroll, could afford to bring on a contract. Iwamura gives them a legit second baseman, so they won't have to either keep Delwyn Young there as an everyday player (as he seems better suited to a utility/platoon role in the outfield) OR move Andy LaRoche from third.
  
  They've also dumped off a bunch of shitballs from the back end of their roster. No more Chris Bootcheck or Virgil Vasquez. Eric Hacker was about the only one with anything resembling potential and, to be honest, he likely wouldn't have been any better than Vasquez.
• Al Capone

  As a life long fan,until there is new ownership I dont see many changes. Even though it is still early,I dont see them winning 70 games. 68-94.
  Mark Cuban anyone?
• Heretic

  

  This year, I can see them fighting to keep under 100 losses (if their young talent melds together, I can see a much better result, but this is the safe bet). But I think they can be good after that. I legit am down with what Huntington is doing. After Littlefield gutted the minor league system, he's building it back up to where we have a lot of good prospects.
  
  Regardless of where we're at now, we at least have to potential to be perennially good in the future, which is more than we could say in the past.
• Heretic

  

  Oh yeah! There also have been other trade rumors.
  
  Both were for J.J. Hardy before he got traded somewhere else. One was Matt Capps and the other was Ryan Doumit. Problem was that Capps really sucked last year and Doumit also was poor, has a history of injury issues and supposedly exhibited attitude problems after this season's trades. Neither really have much trade value at the time. To be honest, I'd rather the team keep them. Both have the ability to at least be valuable trade chips if they give out 2-3 months of play up to their ability, but right now could only really give the team mid-level prospects or reclamation projects. If you can't get Hardy, who was dumped to the minors while the team was fighting to stay in playoff contention, you won't get crap for them.
• Heretic

  

  In working with the 40-man roster, the team designated Robinzon Diaz and Jeff Karstens for assignment (as well as someone else) and added a few guys.
  
  Karstens wasn't a surprise. Basically a dime-a-dozen pitcher who was serviceable as both a starter and reliever, but not particularly good in either role.
  
  Diaz was good as Jaramillo's secondary counterpart at catcher when Doumit was hurt, but had blah numbers when at AAA. A bit surprised at the move, but they might have thought he was destined to be no better than a back-up and had more important players to protect.
• GoPens

  

  After last year, I'd get rid of Gas-can Capps now before his value goes DOWN any further...
  
  Unfortunately it is going to take years to undo the damage Littlefield inflicted in the minors, so I'm willing to give Huntington a pass for last year and even this coming year. After that, it's his boys up here and he's on the hook.
  
  By the way, because all these guys do is switch teams, which team is Littlefield reeking havoc on these days? He shouldn't be more than a scout in the Texas Penal League.
• Heretic

  

  To replace Karstens in that all-important role of mediocre spot starter/long reliever, we picked up some dude from Seattle a few days back. Chris J, I'll call him because his last name is too fucked up for me to learn to spell. Like "Jakobiadsakrjdlkfjasdiogahlkjs;jdlkjsagf" or something like that.
  
  From what I've heard, he has decent stuff, but just doesn't consistently fit into any role, so he's a "jack of all trades, master of none" sort. Just like Karstens was.
  
  In better news, I saw a blog entry a week or so ago that was saying Jose Tabata was tearing it up in the Arizona Fall League. It was during a game where he went 6-7 to raise his average to near .400. Very encouraging to see, as he was quite inconsistent this year in AA and AAA.
• killer_ewok

  

  Will McCutcheon be traded by June?
• Al Capone

  YES!
• crusader1980

  I know the owners. They are NEVER going to pay. They make 15 mil a year for a loser, without spending a dime. Hey, and guess what? They are newspaper barons like five year plan McLatchy!
  
  The Pirates will never win again as long as these dildo's own the team.
• End of Line

  

  Life long fan, until there's new ownership this team will be in the shit hole.
• Heretic

  

  A few more recent moves that rank in the "whatever, dude" region of transaction.
  
  1. Luis Cruz left via waivers. Losing a no-bat reserve infielder means nothing.
  
  2. Signed Vinnie Chulk. I think to compete for a job, but not sure if he's on the 40-man. Probably not. Could be a halfway okay middle reliever, I guess. During his period with the Indians, he wasn't HORRIBLE (0-1, 3.75 ERA with a poor WHIP due to walks), but only got one shot in the majors because 30ish minor league journeymen don't get much rope before hanging themselves, as opposed to a younger organization player like Raffy Perez who sucked the whole season, but kept getting trotted out there.
  
  3. Might be signing Bobby Crosby. Nothing special, but they probably felt that just having Cedeno as a viable starting SS could really blow up in their faces, so having an insurance plan is a good idea, even if Crosby has been a poor player for virtually his entire career.
• End of Line

  

  Any word on if Ryan Doumit will be traded?
• Heretic

  

  Haven't heard anything yet. I doubt they'd get what they want for him, as his value had to drop big-time thanks to last year. It's one thing to miss a month or so and finish with a .300+ average and good power like in '08. It's another to miss a huge chunk of the season, have alledged attitude problems after the fire sale and finish at .250 with mediocre/poor production like last year.
  
  If they're going to trade him, I'd prefer if they kept him until July to see if he can have a bounce-back season, so they can get good value for him.
• Turf Warden

  crusader1980 wrote: I know the owners. They are NEVER going to pay. They make 15 mil a year for a loser, without spending a dime. Hey, and guess what? They are newspaper barons like five year plan McLatchy!
  
  The Pirates will never win again as long as these dildo's own the team.

  
  THIS!!!
• End of Line

  

  Heretic wrote: Haven't heard anything yet. I doubt they'd get what they want for him, as his value had to drop big-time thanks to last year. It's one thing to miss a month or so and finish with a .300+ average and good power like in '08. It's another to miss a huge chunk of the season, have alledged attitude problems after the fire sale and finish at .250 with mediocre/poor production like last year.
  
  If they're going to trade him, I'd prefer if they kept him until July to see if he can have a bounce-back season, so they can get good value for him.

  The only reason I brought this up was because, I saw on TSN that the Blue Jay's and Giants were intrested.
• GoPens

  

  Heretic wrote:
  3. Might be signing Bobby Crosby. Nothing special, but they probably felt that just having Cedeno as a viable starting SS could really blow up in their faces, so having an insurance plan is a good idea, even if Crosby has been a poor player for virtually his entire career.

  They must have thought they were signing Sidney Crosby.
• End of Line

  

  ^hahahaha.
• Al Capone

  The pirates are one of the most profitable teams in baseball. Why would they change anything?
• GoPens

  

  Crosby signed for 1 million plus another 500,000 possible in bonuses.
  http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/pbc/archive/2009/12/09/crosby-terms-1-million-plus-500k-bonus.aspx
• Heretic

  

  In the Rule 5 draft, Pittsburgh picked John Raynor, an outfielder, from the Marlins. From what I gather, Raynor was very impressive in the minors until this past season, when he really struggled in AAA.
  
  Kinda a weird pick, since the team has such a log-jam of good to blah outfielders all fighting for MLB jobs to begin with. If he would stick, it'd probably be in place of Brandon Moss, who was very disappointing last year.