Maybe now someone tells Walker that if he makes the majors it will be as a catcher?

Adding a quality 3rd baseman also gives the Pirates more leverage with Pedro Alvarez. It this point it would not suprise me at all if they did not sign him and opted for the 3rd overall pick in next years pitching rich draft.

I think what your GM is trying to do with this deal is exactly what he said needed to be done-add depth to the system. One thing I notice is that everyone you picked up is better than anyone else you have in the minors-they all absolutely warrant a look and already look like an improvement because they’re closer to being ready than the other guys. I had long thought the Pirates and Cards should have swapped Reyes/Grabow-I guess the inter-division thing spooked them, but that would have been a reasonable move for both clubs.

I like Jose Bautista too. But I don’t like him as much when he plays everyday. Maybe you get a better performance from him when he’s not out there everyday…....

At the very least, you got some interesting talent. Jason Bay was always a good Pirate. If you all really miss him, re-sign him when he becomes a free agent.

I hope it all works out.

Keith Law projects Morris as a 2nd or 3rd starter, or a “dominant late game reliever.”

Is this a 100% done deal or are there still some ifs – like Manny waiving his no-trade rights or the commish nixing because of the $$ changing hands?

Where did this deal come from? I hadn’t heard anything about it all day and when I left work around 4:30 it seemed like there had been no deal at all.

I figured the the Dodgers were going to pick up Manny’s $20 million team option for next year but now I see that has been removed. Kind of hard to understand the deal from the Dodgers perspective or is this one of those Colletti is an idiot things?

I know a couple of knowledgable Red Sox Fans and they are none too pleased either. Everyone I’ve heard from loves the deal from our perspective though.

said that the Sox players voted 24-0 to get rid of Manny. Yikes.

From the AP story, regarding outfielders:
"You wish you had the DH," Torre said. "We didn’t plan in advance how to move things around."
Think Ned forgot to ask his manager what he thought?

I guess Huntington and Coonley were too busy with the Bay deal to see if we could pick up Barry Zito’s contract from the Giants. I’m sure Littlefield would have found the time to make that call.

3 MLB Ready Players with some upside, and a plus pitcher for the minors even though he had TJ surgery. If NH takes the freed up cash from X, Bay, and Marte and signs some of our top unsigned picks he will have basically rebuilt half of our system in under a year. Not that the system is near good enough yet, but it is a hell of a lot better than it was….Bay will be missed, but he deserves a chance to play for something in his prime!

Yankee fans are celebrating big time. I hope JBay makes them eat their words.

Jack Wilson was somehow included in this deal or an agreement has been made for him in the coming days, with the young LA Korean shortstop coming back or something along those lines. I love how ESPN says we’ll have reaction from LA and Boston, totally leaving out us. Here was my initial take. Hansen is a failed closer. LaRoche wasn’t needed with Alvarez hopefully on the way. Moss is a low upside outfielder—hope he’s good on defense, and I didn’t know about Morris.

Since then, I see LaRoche has crazy good BB:K minor league ratios and has actually played 2B some this year,  Moss hit a ton of doubles in the minors and is lefty, Hansen might be ok since being rushed to Boston -- closer though? Capps will find that interesting. And Morris is looking good post Tommy John.

just wandered by and said PG reports Duffy and Osoria DFA’d.

Oh happy happy day.

But Manny is no Manny anymore either. Manny in his prime is way better than Bay, but Bay’s in his prime right now, and Manny’s in his decline years. Right now Manny’s a bit better with the bat, but Bay’s glove makes the difference.

cocktails already on top of that.

clap clap clap

Well played, NH, well played.

Manny is out OPSing Kemp by about .100, but you put Kemp’s average fielding on the bench in return for Manny’s awful fielding.

Not saying this doesn’t improve the Dodgers, but not by a ton.

Meanwhile, the Sox basically tread water on the ML team, and give up two high-minors guys with upside.

This is just a weird trade in that the Pirates made out like bandits, and the other two lost. The Sox can be explained in that they had to dump Manny, and getting back Bay is about their best option. Heck, it could be argued that the extra year of Bay makes it worth it for them. The Dodgers, however, managed to give away a high-upside low minors guy and one of the best prospects in baseball and not help their team much. Its not even a situation where a team traded away more than it got to fill a need. Just a weird weird deal from their POV. But, I guess, Colletti

There are few things in life I take pleasure in more than my enemies making catastrophic blunders … So he’s a pain-in-the-butt, he doesn’t hustle, he whines, complains, yada, yada, yada … Regardless of his age, his attitude, his salary, Manny Ramirez was the single greatest slugger I’ve seen in my lifetime … Jason Bay? Are you kidding? … Well, at least I can now catch Manny live at Dodger Stadium and laugh every time he crushes one out and above the smog layer, knowing my team aren’t the ones paying the price … In the end I’m just so glad that it wasn’t us. Imagine the Yankees trading A-Rod for someone like Dan Uggla? I lost respect for Bosox but when it’s not my bad, I love dumb.

. . . I still hate the F’in Yankees. Can’t wait for JBay to put a hurting on them.

. . . about Moss’s farewell from Pawtucket.

His head swimming with various emotions, Moss said aloud he had to call
his wife, Allison. Pitcher Chris Smith eased Moss’ concerns by saying he
had already touched base with Allison Moss.

Heh heh.

I don’t think that is such a bad thing. He has very little in terms of power, but he’s a .280, .290 hitter who plays outstanding defense, and we are not financially strained. give bixler time to come into his own

59 ABs this year. Small Sample Size Alert!

How about the LaDouche Duo. Has LaDouche Part Duex ever got a hit before July 4th.

That people didn’t want to blow this up? We sucked big D this year! Big deal, most productive OF?! Least Productive IF and SP….and a shaky bullpen at times as well….We received quality talent with upside and it gives us the flexibility to sign picks and do this right for once! Perhaps, even a FA SP a year or two down the road when they help us advance to the next level. 3MLB players under 25, I think it’s kind of a steal for Niel….I loved Bay’s game and heart, but pony up the 20 bones a month for MLB TV and watch all the Bosox games you want if you miss him so bad! Laroche hit .209 b\c he played sparingly….kind of like Nate and Doumit until they got a chance to go full time right!? The kids may end up terrible, but at least we’re thinking like a major league team! Finally…..

Career 162 Game Average:

Manny Ramirez(16 seasons)

Average: .312 (7th among active players)
Slugging: .590 (8th All-Time)
On Base %: .409 (7th among active players)
OPS: .999 (10th All-Time)
Home Runs: 40 (11th All-Time for Home Runs per At Bats)
RBIs: 132 (4th among active players)

*Batting Title, World-Series MVP, (9) Silver Slugger Awards.

Jason Bay (6 seasons)

Average: .281 (Better than Dave Kingman)
Slugging: .515 (Not too shabby)
On Base %: .375 (Also not bad)
OPS: .890 (100+ points lower than Manny)
Home Runs: 31 (He’s no Dave Kingman)
RBIs: 102 (Okay, he’s a good hitter but seriously?)

Jason DID win the Rookie of the Year Award (Manny finished second in 1994 to BOB
HAMELIN!!!!!)

The bottom line is, Jason makes $14 million dollars less than Manny Ramirez. With
that money, the Red Sox can essentially buy the Florida Marlins, mix and match,
adding all of Florida’s good players to their roster and dominate the American
League East for 15 years … And imagine how exciting the Marlins would be with
Coco Crisp and Sean Casey!!!

I am bummed that Bay won’t be in a Pirates uni any more, he was (is) my favorite, but he will probably have more success in Boston. I don’t know if it is just what he said publicly but I know he wanted to stay in Pittsburgh.

If the Nady-Marte deal was a set up by Huntington to encourage movement by the Sox and Rays. Yankees did something, others have to match.
I also still want to believe Boras is happy about that deal for Nady and it will help with Alvarez.
Guess what, Neal? Back to work tomorrow!

Thread. Ever.

Nady homers, Yanks get creamed.

“Late deal shuffles deadline winners, losers”

“The Pirates got a fading pitching prospect in Craig Hansen and an outfielder with decent potential in Brandon Moss from the Red Sox, and a sputtering third baseman with power potential and a brother already in a Pittsburgh uniform in Andy LaRoche from the Dodgers. Oh, and one more player, right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris from the Dodgers, a sandwich pick in the 2006 draft who is battling back from arm problems.”

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Later he includes the Pirates in the winners category for the sum total of both big trades, and seems to base it in large part because Minky had good things to say about Tabata and Ohlendorf.

I like what we`ve done for the team`s future in the past week. If we end up having “too many guys” at certain positions, so be it. Some will get hurt, some will never perform up to expectations, and those that do can be traded as needed. It goes without saying that the more quality depth we have, the better for our future. I believe we are heading in the right direction now. Time will tell.

Now let`s get the rest of the draft picks that we want signed and get on with the business of making this a winning ballclub again.

We can’t have it both ways. We wanted them to take chances and rebuild, and that’s what they’re doing. The haul for Nady, Marte and Bay only diminishes with the passage of time. Teams just don’t want to trade their blue chippers anymore. I only wish both Bay and Nady had performed this well during the second half of last year. We probably could have gotten back more last offseason. I think they got as much as they could have, and if three of these guys turn out to be good ballplayers, we’ll be in good shape. The long and the short of it is that the draft choices, especially Alvarez and Scheppers, some of the lower round picks this year and next year’s picks should tell us if this will take a really long time, or just a long time. I have no quibble with what they are doing. It is now clear that they planned to start over, and that is what I know I wanted. No gripes from here.

I am really going to miss Bay and Marte, and though I never would have believed it a year ago, Nady as well. They all are really likable guys, and I hope they both get a nice taste of the postseason this year.