Thanks for putting the last 2 discussion posts down the line one.

I’m not concerned about the Jack/Snell trade. Snell’s head will never be figured out and Jack is Jack and will only go downhill from here. I think the chances of this trade turning out in our favor is 75-25. Clement > Pierce, if Clement can play 1B. Even if it’s a platoon, that’s ok.

Grabow was gone anyway (didn’t see us resigning him), so essentially we got Hart, Ascanio, and a prospect for Gorzo. What are the chances Gorzo turns into anything for the Cubs? I’d say the chances of him making the Cubs next year are 50-50 at best.

We have a chance to have a very strong bullpen next year. Meek, Hanrahan, Ascanio, Chavez, and Capps (praying), is a good start. And I may be missing someone. This is assuming Kerrigan stays, which I believe he will.

Signed – The Eternal Optimist

I generally agree with the article, although the Bucs probably did close to the best they could with what they were given. If Jason Bay or Nathan McLouth were worth elite prospects (like Neftali Feliz or Elvis Andrus in the Teixeira deal), I believe that they would have gotten them.

Goldstein pointed to Milledge as a potential star, which is more generous than Jim Callis of Baseball America who said the only stars in the system after the deadline were still McCutchen and Alvarez.

And as far as Hart and some of those guys to the bullpen, the same was said about Ohlendorf last year, that he would have to move to a relief role. Ohlie might be better there, but he has learned to survive as a starter and after another year of working with the right people, Hart may be in that position as well.

I agree and disagree with KG. Pirates didn’t add a bunch of guys from the preseason top 10 lists, but they did add a lot of depth and I think at least a few of these solid, but not spectacular prospects will exceed expectations. I can’t point to one trade that I thought was a steal for or against the Pirates. They all seemed fair to me.

I think one consideration that’s missing here is quantity. Really, any player is a potential anything; it’s more a matter of likelihood than anything else. When you get as many decent pitchers as the Pirates did, for example, you’re pretty likely to get at least one very solid starter out of it. I agree with his assessments of a lot of individual players but I think that some of them are likely to turn out to be good players anyway.

Require that we evaluate all the various options available to him and not just what players where available at the time the trades were made. The acquisition of young, unproven talent is just one way in which to rebuild a team. Investment in draft choices and in young Latin American talent is another in addition to the acquisition of free agents and so I don’t think it’s fair to judge NH solely based upon what trades were available to him. Timing is everything and he must be held accountable for what he could have done as well as what he actually did. I still think Adam Dunn would have been a good acquisition with our short RF porch and believe NH missed badly on that one. The signing with Washington is simply evidence that he wasn’t demanding to play on a pennant contender and so the Pirates cannot be ruled out as a possibility. When management has the chance to acquire FA that fits well into our ballpark and team concept it should be vigorously pursued because the various methods of rebuilding are not mutually exclusive and can be combine together to improve the quality of the team.