But really, if you’re a GM for a contending team and you think if you hold out a little longer there’s a chance you might be able to scoop up, say, Adam Dunn, would you be trying to make a deal now for Nady, who is almost certain to fall off from his current pace and is notoriously fragile besides? Didn’t think so.

I continue to think you are completely misreading this Charlie. I don’t see any of the things that you speak of in the comments. Management has many constituencies to speak to through the media—the fans, the current players, agents, other organizations. I really don’t know what you expect our guys to say or what you would say publicly that would be much different. In no way do I think they are saying they won’t trade guys for prospects. We can all guess if Bay and Nady’s worth is currently at its nadir or not. I’ve been on record killing Bay for the last twelve months and he has been very good this year. But I sure would have assumed that his peak was past. I also think that if Nady stays healthy all year that his value may continue to increase. My point being only that we are guessing and some of the things that we thought at the beginning of the year are clearly wrong.
Can we just give these guys a break until after the draft and after the trading deadline and evaluate what they have done rather than parsing every damn word in the press and making judgments based on that? Let’s talk about picking up Yates and Dumatrait for nothing if you want to talk about good moves or how bad the starters and Sean Burnett have been if we want to talk about bad things. But, talking about media interviews just seems to be getting a little tiresome.

It’s all about the draft right now. Trade talks will heat up after the draft, I bet. No way Nady stays, Huntington will wait on Bay because he has him locked up longer. He’ll go too. They’re just jockeying now, paying attention to the draft.

I read it as him saying exactly what you’d like him to say.

First, consider Dejan’s lead up to these quotes—...even if a trade happens, it should not be interpreted as the first spark in a fire sale.

The quote are then PR aimed at the old guys who really think we ARE thisclose to being competitive. But the “couldn’t pass up” line, to me, clearly indicates he’s softening the blow for when, not if, they trade those guys.

“If our fans see one player getting traded, it doesn’t mean the red flag is up,” Coonelly said.

See, he said red flag, not white flag. He’s talking to fans here, fans who might be angry if they trade a marquee, face of the franchise guy like Bay.

“If we make that type of trade now, a veteran for prospects, it just means we had an opportunity we couldn’t pass up,” Huntington said.

Interpretation: “See fans, trades happen, and if we trade Bay, why, we just got these great prospects in return. With where we’re…. uhh, with where we are, we think these players help create a solid foundation for the franchise for several years, and we think with (Cutch? Pearce?) stepping in for Bay, we won’t see much of a dropoff this year.”

I mean, tell me where I’m wrong. I really don’t think I’m overparsing his comments here. I think you misread the tone and intent.

you need to provide some concrete examples of contending teams that could really be helped by Nady or Bay and the prospects you think they might be wiling to deal. The evaluation of Nady has been overwhelmingly negative on this site ever since he arrived in Pittsburgh. Yet you seem to suggest that there are GMs out there that would part with desirable prospects to obtain him. These GMs must have the same concerns that we all do about Nady and, to a lesser extent Bay.

My guess is that if the Pirates did do a deal in the near futute for the players that they could get for them at this point it wouldn’t be two hours before you were on with a post explaining what a rotten deal it was for us.