Can DY play first? Not looking good for Moss. DY on bench=extra outfielder

I’m liking the trade, personally. Chavez was always decent, but I never felt he had the ability to be an elite reliever. Not to mention that he’s a righty, and right-handed relievers are relatively easy to find.
Aki should definitely solidify us at 2B, and hopefully he does well enough that we can either trade him to a contender, or perhaps sign him long term if NH feels so inclined.

it appears that Aki would consider a contract extension.
conference call notes

My gut reaction is that I don’t like this trade. The loss of Chavez makes our bullpen look a whole lot worse IMO, he was one of the few guys I had some confidence in this past season. I think that Chavez could have potentially helped a future decent Pirates team while Iwamura probably won’t. Seems to be one of the few “right now” trades that NH has made. That being said Chavez is hardly irreplaceable in the future.

Anyways, it’ll make the team better next year and hopefully NH shores up the bullpen with a cheap veteran this offseason.

we aren’t trading Capps this offseason?

We rehire Dave Littlefield? This move smacks of his “brilliance”

First off, Iwamura doesn’t speak English, so don’t give me any lines about him being a “leader”

Secondly, other than his good defense and the fact that he can draw a walk from time to time, how is this guy even in the major leagues? Didn’t the Chico Lind style of 2nd baseman get phased out of baseball by the late 90s? This guy hit 1 HR is 260 ABs last year and had a half dozen in 625 ABs the year before. This playing for a good team with good hitters behind him in a good hitters park. And some of you are excited about getting him? How does this guy improve our team?

Thirdly, and even more disheartingly, we actually gave up someone of value for him. Jesse Chavez doesn’t appear to be the next Mariano Rivera, but he had a good arm and actually looks like a player worth having in the mix for building a contender (assuming you are of the school of thought that feels that is the Pirate objective)

Fourthly, Iwamura costs 4+ mill next year and is a FA after 2010. Chavez costs roughly 15% of that and is under contract through 2014.

Fifthly, when are the Pirates going to ever worry about developing a middle infielder who can play in this century and not the 1960s? Every other franchise out there understands that you need to get 30 HR a year from your two starting middle infielders. Are Bonifay/Littlefield/Huntington just that dumb or is it stubbornness?

Lastly, how can you respected fellow members of the most pathetic franchise in professional sports, not be FURIOUS over this type of move? Yes, Jesse Chavez is no big loss. Yes, Iwamura is probably not going to be as bad as Doug Strange or Pat Meares. However, how you guys can sit here placidly and watch us trade away all our players in their late 20s who are approaching free agency for distant talent…..and then turn around and call this a good trade. Didn’t we just trade away a moderately talented rookie pitcher with a 98 MPH fastball for a 30 year old mediocre middle infielder one year removed from free agency? How can management convince us that they have any clue what they are doing when they routinely contradict themselves. How does the goal of the Pirates ever getting above .500 improve with the addition of Iwamura. Is he going to be our starting 2nd basemen when that day arrives? Likely not. Is he going to impede the progress of another 2nd baseman who might be that player? Possibly. Is he going to strip DY of his chance to be an everyday 2nd baseman, when Young has the age and the offensive potential to actually be a modern day, year 2010 starting 2nd basemen? Yes Does his acquisition remove another live, major-league ready arm from our bullpen that might have been a positive player in sculpting that above .500 team? Certainly This is just more short sighted BS from the Keystone Kops. We’ve made so many trades for pitchers and outfielders that we have a glaring hole at the middle infield spots. So cover up that failure by paying money to get a player who will help for a month or two and cost us down the road. Welcome back Dave Littlefield.

slick calm down, its not like the pirates traded a shut down reliever. salary?? who cares abt his 4 mil, even with it our pay roll is ridiculously small. stop over reacting.

I am not a fan of this trade. I see us trading from a weak spot last season (bullpen) to shore up a spot that, realistically, we had an internal option for in DY. People have made the case that our pitching will benefit from having his defense up the middle, and that may be true, but don’t you all remember the games from this past season where we couldn’t score more than 2 runs, yet allow 4 and lose? When it comes down to it, saving a run doesn’t exactly put us on the winning end of those games very often. However, all of this, really, is probably a moot point. Iwamura has 1 year and 4.25 million on his current contract. It has already been discussed many times that Andy LaRoche is open to moving to second base when Pedro Alvarez is ready to come up, likely middle of next season. What I see happening is Alvarez gets called up in July, LaRoche shifts to 2nd, Iwamura is traded away for prospects. In the short term, this move really doesn’t help the club all that much. It was probably just a sign to fans that “hey, look at us, we know how to SPEND money as opposed to hoarding it!” What this does do for us in the short term is open up more spots in the bullpen. Hopefully the FO makes smart moves and shores it up with people we can control for more than a season rather than 1 year FA’s.

Chavez had a decent 4.01 ERA. But pretty much all the other peripheral numbers suggest he was pretty lucky to only allow the runs he did.

Both tRA and FIP are higher than average.

20% line drive rate
40% ground ball rate
40% fly ball rate
.280 BABIP

With that fly ball and line drive rate, you’d expect a lot of HRs, which we generally saw. But with that line drive rate, normally you expect around .320 BABIP, so .280 means he got lucky to the tune of around 40 points lower than expected.

In other words, Jesse Chavez is probably not as good as you think he is. He might not regress horribly next year, but I wouldn’t bet against it.

30 HRs combined fellas. It’s pretty common nowadays in baseball to have your two starting middle infielders hit over 30 HRs together. The Pirates have never done it. Ever. In their entire franchise history. That’s my point. The days of Chico Lind are over. Having anyone in your lineup who only hits 3-4 HRs and slugs .375 is a huge detriment when other teams have people who can contribute offensively playing the same position.