I just don’t see anything in Karstens when he pitches and we’ve got enough innings-eaters to replace him (Duke/Gorzelanny).

I realize that neither McCutcheon or Tabata might not be ready yet but I don’t see any harm in giving them an opportunity. I’d rather lose 95 games by playing them instead of Minky and Michaels.

I have no problem with Cruz being a UT. That’s all we need out of 2B. Sanchez and his 48 RBIs don’t add that much more to the lineup and so we’d remove the temptation on the part of Russell to waste Sanchez in one of the top 3 spots in the lineup.

When I trade LaRoche, Sanchez, and Wilson it will be for draft picks and not retreads. We have enough of them, now.

Honestly, I think you are actually Dave Littlefield writing incognito.

You can’t trade for draft picks. You can’t dump both starting middle infielders (one a former batting champ and the other a gold glove SS) and play career utility guys and expect to compete. You can’t sign Dunn for $15 million when the rest of the team isn’t ready to compete for a title. You can’t write off Pedro Alvarez when all reports say that he is likely to stay with the Pirates. You listed six starting pitchers, plus just “reduced starts” for two more. (Huh?) And you can’t set the goal of just avoiding 90 losses — that is not the benchmark for success.

And while you say you “don’t see any harm” in starting McCutchen and Tabata, remember that it would require adding them to the 40-man roster and starting their arbitration clock. Not to mention that they both actually have to be READY to play. If you bring them up to early, you risk blowing up the whole development process.

What you failed to recognize is the possibility that maybe McCutchen and Tabata are ready in which case you have wasted another year in the minor leagues when they could be helping us. That’s what spring training is for. So what if the clock starts running? How are you going to build a team if you’re always worried about the clock running? If they play well and we win attendance will improve and maybe we can afford to re-sign them.

You have totally missed my point about middle-infielders. Successful teams do not build around these type of guys they add them to a strong base comprised of good hitting corner men, both outfield and infield. We have the most money tied up in WIlson and Sanchez and that was a very poor decision on the part of management because their money could be better spent elsewhere. Finally, both men’s best years are behind them and it’s always better to trade them while they still have value.

Finally, you can sign Dunn and improve a team. Just look at what happened after Bay and Nady were traded? You can’t tell me that did not negatively impact the team’s performance.

My SP pitching rotation would consist of:
1. Lohse or Oliver Perez
2. Snell
3. Maholm
4. Ohlendorf/Dumatrait
5. Gorzo/Duke

I wish the ‘sign a Free Agent, save another losing season’ talk would come to a screeching halt because it isn’t going to happen. If the FO was going to give a ton of bucks to anyone, wouldn’t you think they would have given it to Bay and Nady? The cost of one Adam Dunn would bring back so many draft picks, international signings that would reap more benefits than that dud. Has Arizona performed any better since they picked him up? No. What makes you think he will benefit the Bucs?

The 2009 season projects to be pretty bleak and will be very hard for many people to take day in and day out. The young guys need to get their at bats and take their lumps on the field in order for them to get that experience to turn the corner. As long as the FO continues to spend what money they do spend wisely (scouting, player development, draft, international signings) and the farm system progressively grows and develops, I can wait. What’s another two to three years compared to the past sixteen?

There is soooo much wrong with that plan. Since I’m bored, I’m gonna break this one down…

1B – You say to sign Dunn, which requires trading LaRoche and “pocket[ing] his salary”. Dunn is going to make about 5 times what LaRoche will next year and Dunn’s skill set is NOT going to age well.

2B – You suggest playing Cruz. His OBP this year in AA is .303, which is astoundingly above his career minor league numbers. That’s replacement level in AA! Cruz would quite probably be the worst hitter in the worst majors if this happened.

SS – Any plan that has Eckstein playing short isn’t a good one. He’s not even a very good fielder anymore.

3B – Why forget Alvarez? His probable/potential value faaaar exceeds whatever he will cost the Pirates.

C – No gripes here.

OF – No way do you both start McCutchen and Tabata’s FA clocks, waste 40-man roster spots, and possibly hurt their development by promoting them too soon. McCutchen and Tabata are NOT ready to be positive contributors to the big league team. Stats and scouts agree on this one.

SP – Lohse, Penny, Garland, Perez will all be vastly overpaid with contracts that will far outlive their usefulness. Lohse/Penny/Garland are all pretty average and will only get worse throughout their contracts.

I don’t even know how to approach the final paragraph. I don’t think there is a single thing there that is logical.

once again I love your passion for this team but your plan is so riddled with inconsistencies. You want to go with a youth movement to the point you want to run our top two prospects to the majors before they are ready and risk severly hindering or ruining their development. Yet you want to bring in two expensive starting pitchers and dump a young one that has shown some good innings since coming to the Burg. How much do you think Perez would cost? And I seem to remember having him already and it didn’t really get us anywhere. If you are going to go young, then go young. Put Pearce at 1st and play Moss who has potential. Frankly, I wish the FO would go all out with the rebuild and trade Doumit, McClouth, Maholm, Wilson and Laroce. I want a championship caliber team back in the Burg. I will get no sense of satisfaction from reaching .500 unless it through an infusion of young players reaching their prime signifying we are on our way to something special. I’m paraphrasing here but I read a pretty good GM once say something in the ballpark of “you either have something special, or you’re building for something special…otherwise you’re just wasting time.”

and so I must conclude that I was wrong.
-If the group does not believe that adding Lohse and Perez would be an improvement over Duke and Karstens; and
-if the group is content watching Moss, Pearce, and LaRoche struggle believing that even one of them will ever be a quality player; and
-if the group is content paying the bulk of its payroll on middle infielders with no power or speed; and finally,
-if the group believes that Dunn would not seriously improve our offense over LaRoche, the elder, then I’m “pissing into the wind”.

Maybe it’s my lack of patience or maybe it’s my memory which recals what it use to be like to follow a winner, but I do know that it doesn’t have to take years to improve a team’s performance significantly as I watch other lower revenue teams like Milwaukee, Oakland, Minnesota, etc. able to field quality teams. However, if you guys think management is on the right path then I’ll acquiesce. I will say this for you all, you have much more patience than I do and I envy you for that. Perhaps, the success of the Penguins and Steelers has enabled you all to better accept failure in baseball knowing that success is just a few months away, albeit, in other sports.

If Milwaukee took your approach they would have missed out on a lot of productive years from Robin Yount. How do you know these two guys are not ready if we don’t give them a chance? My suggestion was to bring them up now and let them play together for 3 weeks and see what they bring to the table. I’d rather see that then Minky and Michaels. Minor league stats are only a barometer and not a guarantee of how a player will perform when given the opportunity. Just look at the fine numbers LaRoche has created in the minors and see how poorly he has performed for both the Pirates and Dodgers.

Just to set the record straight: Young hit .271 for his first 5 years. That’s as good or better than both Wilson or Sanchez will hit this year.

I was under the impression that the “clock” is based on games played rather than years played. If so, then playing them for 30 games now isn’t that big of a risk. However, if, as you say bringing them up now would cost us an entire season of their eligibility then I will admit that my suggestion was flawed and should not be implemented. Are you certain about your statement?

Thanx for the info. It is starting to make sense to me. I would agree that we should wait and call him up after the 8-week waiting period so as to maximize his time before he can declare for free-agency. God, I hate it when I’m wrong! Thanx for being gentle with me! LOL

After learning of the 2009 salaries of LaRoche (elder) $5 (est); Sanchez $6; Wilson $7; I now re-pose the question to you as to whether we would be stronger by dumping all three of these guys and acquiring Dunn and then playing Bixler at SS and Cruz at 2B? With the short RF porch at PNC he could have an outstanding career for a couple of years. Before you answer my question, consider the extremely poor play of the team since the trading of Bay and Nady and consider whether this could have had a demoralizing effect on the entire team. Otherwise, how can you explain the horrendous post-Bay/Nady record?

Moving Doumit to 1B is an interesting idea and one I had not thought about previously. It would provide the opportunity to keep his bat in the lineup and not require that we rely upon Pearce to play 1B. However, I would insist that we have some punch behind the plate and not allow someone the caliber of Chavez to start. If the team keeps Alvarez we could always move Walker back behind the plate and get his bat into the lineup. It’s just a thought.

Lets move LaRoche to RF, bring Pearce into 1B, have McLouth in LF, possibly move Sanchez out to CF, then we could put McCutchen at SS after Wilson is traded and move Andy LaRoche to 2b. Doumit could go to 3b, given he isn’t in a wheelchair being the borderline cripple he is right now. Walker could go back to catching, unless Alvarez appears to be a better catcher than him. Truth be told, the best hitter on the Bucs would probably be Van Benschoten if only Russell would switch to being the hitting coach and Long would take over the bench coach role and Varsho and Andrews would switch coaching roles, taking turns managing every day. Then Morgan and Pearce could switch spots on the bench and eventually Zach Duke could become a pinch hitter….

Give it up.