Pirates Agree to Terms with D.J. Carrasco

dotel would be a real decent coup for the pirates, and help solidify the back end of the Bullpen

we got Iwamura for nothing, if not for free?

pitched in only three games for the Fukuoka team in NPB in 2006. I remember he signed for big money-about the equivalent of $2 million-and I believe his contract was for 2 years, but I could be mistaken. He had a significant arm problem of some sort and never was able to perform for them. I saw him pitch at least once on TV and the velocity wasn’t there. It was a huge disappointment for the team, and they were still on the hook for the second year of Tony Batista’s enormous contract. (It was their choice to let him go, though.)

I really like this move for the Pirates: the money and the minor league deal at present.

A signing of Octavio Dotel would be another positive sign for 2010, and I still contend that Japanese lefty Hisanori Takahashi would be a solid addition, too.

You sure are gunnin’ for trouble, aren’t you?

The team has made some solid signings and none that will inhibit the organization from building a winning club a couple of years later.

Iwamura for Chavez: good move for the Bucs
Crosby: a necessary one
Church: another solid pick-up if he stays healthy
Carrasco: good depth for the ’pen and the cost/contract make sense, especially in light of his track record
Dotel: If we get him, it will be a big help to the pitching staff.

You just can’t please some nattering nabobs of negativism-no matter how many times they change their user names.

for similar money and was very useful for them for 2 years, especially the first one.

I remember the Pirates really wanted him.

Let’s hope the Bucs get lucky with Carrasco and get plenty of good use out of him for a year, maybe two.

There’s always 2010 Yokohama BayStars games to get your fill of Chris Bootcheck.

I don’t see any possible negative to this. Carrasco is nothing special, but the Pirates bullpen is starting to look like less of a train wreck than it did a few weeks ago. I have to figure that his presence will be a setback to Jakubauskas’ and Karstens’ chances at making the team.

Dotel would be ideal.

DJ Jazzy Jeff wasn’t available?

I have a sneaking suspicion that if we already had DJ and had just traded him away, you’d have instead talked about it being a good move because even though he just had two decent seasons, he wasn’t that great before that.

I’m personally pretty unhappy about the way the team is run. I think in another 5 or 10 years we’ll still be in a similar situation. That being said, I don’t think that EVERY move management makes is bad. However, you seem to think EVERY move they make is a good one. I’m not saying this particular move is bad, because it does actually sound decent, but I can’t think of the last time you said something negative about a move by the Pirates. To me, that’s just as bad as the folks on the other side of things who don’t think any move is a good move.

To answer a few comments towards what I posted.

I was talking about Charlie.
I was not trying to say anything specific about DJ Carrasco. I personally (as stated) think this is a decent move, I really do. I wasn’t saying that Charlie or anyone else were bursting at the seams with praise for him or this move, or that anyone was critical of this move.
I was trying to make a comment about the fact that this blog seems to be drowning in praise for any move made by the club.

That all being said, I do stand somewhat corrected. I said “EVERY” move has been met by praise, and as has been pointed out with two examples, it is not “EVERY” move. Still, I do think that a lot of what is said tends to be explained away in a manner to say what the team is doing is nearly always positive. To be honest, I think that most of the moves are dealing with players of such minor interest on both sides that it probably won’t matter one way or the other. As someone pointed out, we are getting rid of parts of the team that we know aren’t going to win here for players that may win here. Of course, that also means that they may not win here. Still, a trade of people who don’t win for folks who won’t win isn’t necessarily a bad move, especially if it saves money.

I was using the DJ Carrasco discussion as an example of how I see discussions go around here. I just get the feeling that if we had just released a minor-leaguer of Carrasco’s history, or somehow traded away a minor-leaguer with his resume, this same blog would have heralded the move as smart, likely noting his longer history without success compared to the out of character two years he just experienced. Obviously I can’t prove any of this, as those weren’t the moves that were made.

I think what I’m trying to get at is that with so many of the clubs moves having so many “ifs” involved, that when trying to realistically assess the situation, I find it hard to find definite positives. The difference in opinion seems to be that looking at the same moves, Charlie seems to very easily find a lot more upside when the club signs a player, and a lot more downside when we release one. In other words, it just seems like “ifs” are good for the club when we sign someone, and “ifs” are negative when we lose a player. To me, I just see too many “ifs” in most of the moves to be able to go along with seeing so much positive. Thus, as someone who is not on the Huntington/Nutting/Coonelly bandwagon, I don’t see any signs yet that lead me to believe I should believe in what they are doing.