What you said…......Hmmmm….okay, that covers it.

and for giving Salas and/or Chavez a try. (Osoria should be, and probably will be, the next to go.)

It`s only the beginning of May and there`s several more months of games to be played and a lot of losing to endure. We`ll see what happens with the roster as the expected trades are made by GM Huntington.

I think everyone unreasonably latches onto personal favorites while, at the same time, goes overboard with the criticism of certain players they don`t like. I think this is made worse because the Pirates have been losing for so long. We have to vent our frustration somewhere.

But didn`t some on this site want to dump Xavier Nady for just about anything the Pirates could have gotten for him? Oh, yeah, that would make one a great GM.

Steve Pearce…Steve Pearce…he has done little so far this season to give the impression that he could even carry Nady`s jock if given the second half of the season to play RF.

Didn`t more than a few here put forth essentially the same ideas for Jack Wilson about a year ago? I know he certainly wasn`t playing well at the time. He got on a big run later in the season, especially with the bat.

But Brian Bixler doesn`t look like much of an everyday shortstop to me, let alone a standout one.

Where is Brent Lillibridge now? The impression I got a little over a year ago was that trading Lillibridge was like trading a young Honus Wagner.

For all of his early season troubles, I`d still rather have Adam LaRoche than Steve Pearce in the lineup. And trading Mike Gonzalez before his arm fell apart now looks pretty smart.

The only prospect the Pirates have that really seems like someone with a high ceiling and should be better than what is in Pittsburgh now is Andrew McCutchen.

Is there someone I`m missing?

Bixler-probable utility man.

Pearce-maybe a piece of the puzzle somewhere, but superior as a player in the field and at the plate to Nady? We`ll see, but I doubt it.

Neil Walker and his wrist an upgrade to Jose Bautista? Doubtful, but we`ll see how he develops the rest of this year in AAA and see where things stand in 2009.

When you look at things, GM Huntington looks pretty smart so far. Nady`s trade value is going up, or at least you would think so. Bay`s knees-knock on wood-seem better so far this year. There might be a good deal we could swing with him, too. Marte will go to someone who really needs a lefty in the pen later this season. Grabow?

Heck, even Jack Wilson could be on the trading block. Huntington could very well just decide to dismantle the team and start over. Things couldn`t get much worse, and I remember the `85 Pirates well. Hopefully, we`ll come up with a Barry Bonds in the draft this June and get Van Slyke et al. in trades, too.

One thing is for sure: We are well on our way to reserving a spot at the top of the 2009 draft.

Maybe it’s this stupendously uninteresting, bad, boring team, and maybe it’s just me, but already I’m having a hard time concentrating on/caring who they play and who they don’t. They’ all look pretty interchangable to me, interchangable as in: There’s nobody anywhere who’s going to make a five-win difference, maybe even a three-win difference, and even if there were we’d still be looking at 70 wins. I know they need to go, but Lord have mercy, once Nady and Bay and Marte etc. make it over the wall, that’s going to be about a 45-win team on the field.

WIth the Penguins looking like championship material and the Steelers having an interesting draft and mini-camp, I don`t think hardly anyone gives a hoot about the Pirates right now. Barring a miracle turnaround or some awesome individual performances in the next month, I don`t think I`m going to be really interested in what they do til the June draft and the inevitable trades that will follow. This is sad, but true.

“There are some good things happening with the Dominican facility investments, trade pieces playing well, and NH at least sounded excited and dedicated to performing well in the draft.”

I agree with this as I have posted elsewhere in the past week or two. However, as we know, the draft and the scouting changes and new facilities in Latin America probably won`t pay dividends for a few years.

Whatever trades we come up with in the next few months will hopefully make a difference very soon.

If players like Nady, Bay, Marte and others are traded in the coming months, then the only reason to really be interested is to hope they do well to increase their trade value. You can be assured that we will be looking at a very different team come August, so why get too keyed up one way or the other about the current team? Of course I want them to win every game, but I`ve got to admit I`m also waiting for the current 2008 edition of the Bucs to be pretty much blown up.

We have to make moves and hope that deals will bring us the next Van Slyke, Drabek, LaValliere, Bream, Reynolds etc. We need to draft the next Barry Bonds, or at least a real impact player. We need to protect the Bobby Bonillas and Bip Roberts if we have them in our system. (We probably don`t.) I think that the current edition of the Bucs is like the `85 Pirates. I want to believe that the terrible team now can be made better in a few years, a real top-notch team. But the moves have to start now.

I`m sorry, but I don`t think Walker, Pearce and just about anyone else in the system fits the description of what we need. There`s always hope, but McCutchen is one of the very few to get excited about.

I know I`m talking in circles as the frustration comes out, but the June draft and the expected trades are more important for me in the coming weeks than just about anything that happens on the field.

that’s what this move is about. management needs to know what they have in burnett before they start selling off the roster. meek did hamstring the bullpen and this move will certainly help with that but right now the emphasis with the team is on evaluation in preparation for a blowing up the team, not winning 69 games instead of 67. that’s why burnett is now here, jvb is still here and dumatrait is now in the rotation – to figure out who’s a AAAA pitcher and who’s a major league pitcher.