I'm not very enthused about the Gorzo/Grabow trade, but in analyzing the pitchers we are getting in return, I try to keep in mind two systemic improvements to the Pittsburgh Ball Club that make me a little more deferential (at least for now) to management's decisions.

First, Joe Kerrigan is the best pitching coach we've had in years. I think he greatly improves our ability to evaluate pitchers we are receiving in trades and drafting/trading to meet our needs. In other words, I have more confidence with an unknown pitcher drafted/traded with Kerrigan's input than I did when Dave Littlefield was conducting the analysis.

Second, the Pirates now have a single system of analysis/development to guide players at all levels. Having worked in a large bureaucratic organization for 20 years, it is simply breathtaking that before the current regime the low-level supervisors (scouts, A/AA managers) were apparently using different evaluation and reporting metrics than the higher level management. Could you imagine how screwed up a pitcher would be if his A manager tells him he needs to work on his fastball, his AA manager tells him to be more careful w/his pitches, his AAA manager tells him to start pounding the strike zone, and the big league manager asks if he's ever played second? (Okay, even Jim Tracy wouldn't do that.) But this rather simple change should increase the likelihood of prospects progressing rather than muddling about.

Of course, if we don't have a winning season soon, neither of these points will be more than an interesting historical footnote.