I think this was a great trade for the bucco’s. They did not give up too much ( was just there sunday and saw NyMo picked off twice), and I think they got some prospects with quite a bit of upside to them. NH is putting together some good trades here.I know i’m only getting set up for some serious heartache, but i might actually be buying into what the bucs are doing.

Altoona staff gas cans a 5-0 lead…State College gas cans a 4-0 lead. Looks like only team other than the big club that might win is WV…who is up 2-0 in the 8th.

For at least the past 9 seasons, we have cried and moaned about 3 GMs’ inability to take one of our average players and turn him into a prospect at the deadline. Shawn Chacon for Craig Wilson? We killed the trade. Kris Benson… for magic beans! We killed it. Kip Wells… we couldn’t get a prospect? We killed it.

Now we took a player who, while lovable in most un-quantifiable ways (and, for the first time this year, likeable in some) and flipped him into a guy who was one of the most promising propsects in baseball before he developed attitude problems…. We turned one of our mediocrities into a prospect.

That’s all we’ve wanted for a long time. I’m surprised there isn’t near-unanimous praise for this deal.

Just a few years ago, the Bucs always sold low and bought high (Morris for instance to name one) just like the Nats did today. Both pickups by the Bucs today were expected at the beginning of the season to be very good for the Nats I agree that this management team took 2 nothings-with all due respect (I liked Burnett’s guts to make this team in any fashion, though that wasn’t too difficult with this pitching staff) and got 1 potential player with upside and another to fill the huge gaping pitching hole that they inherited. So, I have no problem with taking a chance as long as this method is followed, whether it works or not. Good luck to the ex-Pirates, but this is icing on the cake for the Buccos getting anything for Nymo. The buy high method never works as the Nats, Braves, Yanks have discovered-thanks to the Bucs management. Keep the plan going for 2012.

As much as I like this deal I wish I hadn’t listened to ESPN radio today. I usually because it’s pretty awful but I was in the the car and there was some interesting news so why not. It was whatever the show is called with Paulsen, Crow and Logan.

Now, I knew before that I pretty much hate Crow, and what he was saying didn’t help that at all. From what I listened to, his basic gist on it was that the Pirates are going to be terrible forever, so why bother trying to make any trades to improve the team, but also this trade sucks because Milledge isn’t going to be around in 3 years anyway. Paulsen didn’t really like the trade either, suggesting this was just a trade for the sake of making a trade. Logan was fairly noncommittal, but he only really knows a lot about football so that’s to be expected.

The fans who emailed the show and called in didn’t help either, one going so far as to say that this was the straw, now he’s done with the Pirates forever! Come one, quitting the team over Nyger freaking Morgan? Give me a break. An emailer also voiced his opinion that this was just another example of the devil Pirates front office calling up other teams and asking them who they wanted, and they’ll give them whoever they wanted for nothing. Then there was the fellow who said how the Pirates were going to lose ticket sales because of this due to losing all the people who bought tickets to see Morgan play. Seriously? You actually believe that? Not one damn person bought one ticket specifically to see Nyger Morgan play.

Charlie has pretty much already said what I agree with, that this was a sell high, buy low trade. Morgan was never that good to begin with, and at 29 he’s not going to improve. Milledge is still only 24 and still has a ton of potential. Whether or not he’ll come close to that potential remains to be seen, but even if it doesn’t this was worth the risk. With McCutchen batting leadoff and playing center, Morgan was unnecessary, albeit still somewhat productive. For contending teams, corner outfielders need to produce a lot more than Morgan ever would, and Milledge has the potential to do just that.

Nyjer and Burnett are good players, but cornerstones of your franchise? That’s going too far. Nyjer isn’t the cornerstone of anything at the age of 29 and Burnett is a decent relief pitcher at best. I loved this trade. Is Milledge going to straighten himself out and grow up? I don’t know. I really hope he does, but the guy is just 24 years old. Hanrahan could also be very good. Give him some time with Kerrigan and he could be a great relief pitcher/closer. We are definitely headed in the right direction with these trades. I’m not saying that every single trade is going to work out the way NH envisioned them, but it will take 2-3 years to really make a judgement about the trades and the idea of getting younger and building for the future is the right way to do it. I know the Mets were ready to get rid of Milledge and he was very immature in New York, but don’t you think the Mets could use him right about now in their depleted outfield?

I want to claw my eyes out listening to WDVE this morning.

That’s my only concern, and it’s certainly not likely to be a long-term issue. But, as (I think it was charlie) posted recently, there’s some value in protecting the psyches of young pitchers by not having should-have-been-caught fly balls falling harmfully into the gaps.

I saw McCutchen play one game in AA, and that was enough to convince me he could cover acres of ground. He was running down balls from gap to gap, and straight over his head to the fence. I’ve also seen Brandon Moss playing RF and he always looked like a lumbering lummox. Will the loss of Morgan and presumably the re-positioning of Cutch expose Moss as a substandard OF, at least in terms of range?

Will Milledge or whoever cover enough ground and or have the right instincts in LF? These are all just questions I that have occurred to me. Up here in New England, I don’t see the team play up so I don’t presume to have the answers.

I also realize that Duke, Maholm, Ohlie, et al may not be here if/when the team is ready to contend, so any “damage to their psyches” may be immaterial.

Any thoughts?

About how far the Pirates have fallen that people on the radio and other outlets are acting like we just traded Ricky Henderson for the black Hitler.

That people can’t see that Milledge had a better offensive season (in one of the worst hitters parks in MLB) at 23 than Morgan’s going to have at 28-29 shows they just have no faith the Pirates can make any right moves.

And I’m agreed with one of the previous posters, DVE is painful to listen to today. Apparently keeping Bay, Nady, and McLouth and adding quality starting pitchers through free agency bringing the payroll up to $85 million is as easy as speaking into a microphone. Even though keeping all those guys and adding starting pitching would have taken the payroll over $95 million more than likely, but someone may want to correct me on that

I had no idea that we traded away two cornerstones. Seriously, I was laughing my a** of reading that, then I laughed some more and had to pee! Cornerstones! HAHAHAHAHA!

I got cold chills reading Mike Rizzo’s blathering praise of Nyjer as a character player and Burnett being a starter and saying that the Nats filled critical needs in the trade. It sounded horrifyingly like listening to/reading Dave Littlefield’s praise of Matt Morris (or any one of a number of the dolts he acquired in trades and then tried to get us excited about). When he first took over this sinking ship, NH said that the moves he would make would be pure baseball moves, not salary dumps, popularity contests, or silly efforts to placate the fans or the Pgh. media. He seems to be sticking to his word and I have definitely bought into his plan. Good luck to Nyjer and Sean (except when they play the Bucs), but we definitely made out on this deal.

Diversify. When the Pirates reacquired Jose Bautista in a terrible deadline deal in 2004, Bonifay justified targeting Bautista as filling a void as the ‘3rd baseman of the future’. Forget that he passed on much better prospects like Huber or Kazmir who were dealt by NYM for marginal return. Never annoint a developing player as a sure bet, let alone someone with as marginal an upside as Bautista. Bautista should have been viewed soley as another player in the mix, but instead was poorly sold as a salve to fans wounded over the Ramirez giveaway.

Which brings me back to Milledge. Milledge doesn’t have to be the answer in OF. He certainly doesn’t need to replace Morgan’s game (he could learn from his positive attitude and hustle though). Neither does Tabata or Hernandez. They need to develop at a reasonable trajectory in relation to their talent and hopefully the rest plays out. You can never acquire too many high upside young players. NH understands the risk that some flame out or don’t meet expectations, but you can overcome this risk by stockpiling legitimate talent.

Sano situation? How many teams are going after him? Is there a good chance he’ll be a Bucco?

I believe the first day we can sign him is tomorrow, correct?

this town will eat up Lastings and spit him out by the end of this season.

Who’s next? Jack or Freddie for whos AA set up man?

Anytime anyone ever says “quite frankly” or even just “frankly”, I think of Bucs Dugout.

If you said during Spring Training that playing Nyjer Morgan was silly/stupid/pointless, and/or that no one would ever trade anything for him.

know more than someone who played in MLB. They think that because they can read statistical analysis that they could teach the game. Those who think Joe Morgan, Rob Dibble or any other commentator that they dislike doesn’t know what they speak of is laughable. I love to listen to their stories and opinions. Quite often I will learn things from listening to guys on the MLB Network nightly show that I pass on to the young men I coach.

. He has 3.23 groundouts for every flyout this year, which looks pretty tasty

Who, exactly, is supposed to be fielding these grounders? There is not a single good-glove middle infielder in the organization, and the 1B of the future appears to be Alvarez, who figures to be an adequate defender at best. Andy L. seems to be decent, maybe even plus. But, honestly, I have no idea* who’s supposed to be playing second and SS on this allegedly good 2011 team.

Does anyone know?

• Maybe there’s a 2B or SS down in A ball? I can’t recall.

I mean, I get that, if we have 3 good ML OFs and 3 ML-ready prospects in AAA, we could trade for middle infielders, but we’d either overpay or get someone a couple years away. I genuinely don’t know where we will get “contention”-quality MIs for 2011. Internally? Not there. Draft? Too late. FA? Don’t make me laugh.

I suppose that we still have at least 3 trades to make this year, and I could see use getting a AA 2B or SS out of that.

I repeat my position that NH should bite the bullet and trade Doumit and/or Duke to get some serious talent for 2011 and beyond. Both players are gone in 2012, so let’s get a player who will contribute on all the (hopefully) good post-2010 teams.

If it were only SS or 2B, I’d believe that NH would do that. But I can’t imagine him, in the winter of 2010-2011, dropping $10M/year to get 2 actual, good MIs. He has said that he’ll spend when we have a winning team. Well, in 2010, we won’t have a winner. In 2011, with MIs that we can’t identify, we should have a .510 team. I’m really dubious about NH dropping big money speculatively.

Sorry if it has. Fangraphs, pointing out that Dunn and Morgan are pretty much a wash when you combine hitting, baserunning, and fielding, and noting that seamheads have been united in lauding the Nats for signing Dunn and bashing them for acquiring Morgan.

Without comment….

“The Yankees also get some cash to help pay Hinske’s $1.5 million salary.”
The Pirates helping the Yankees pay salary. I think I’m going to wet myself.

will do for the PBC the next few years.

Obviously we should all hope we get quite a lot of positives from them.

But I do know that Nyj and Burnett weren’t going to be part of any move to the Promised Land for us.

I like much of what Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington have done since they came on board in 2007.

We’ve just got to be patient.

The current team, per the Pythagorean Theorem, should be in 3rd place, 2.5 behind Milwaukee and 0.5 behind the Cards.

That doesn’t change their actual position, but I feel certain that if this team actually were 39-38 and just out of first place, but had an Expected Record of 36-41, you all would be screaming that this team isn’t really good, and no one should treat them as such.

Advanced Statistics: Tools for Supporting Your Preexisting Position.

The team as constituted is/was not in a position to compete, and certainly had no pieces to trade that would help them appreciably in 2009. I’m just saying that underrating the current team seems to be a baseline assumption around here.

216 comments? I missed where we traded Ted Williams for Mario Mendoza. How come nobody ever tells me these things?