Pirates Pursuing Nate McLouth, Wilson Betemit

I see some potential for forward advancement with McLouth, just because he bats from the left side and has a history of using PNC’s RF porch to his advantage. That said, I wouldn’t go higher than 1yr/1.5M for him.

Betemit is a sensible fallback if Alvarez is terrible again, but he doesn’t really enthuse me. That’s not to suggest that McLouth does.

I’m a big fan of Nate McLouth. I doubt he’ll get back to his former level though. A lot of people get a kick of seeing a player go downhill after leaving (like they do with Nate) or get mad when they improve after leaving (actually, I tend to do the latter but not the former).

That laser eye surgery really screwed him up. Hopefully, Presley plays well and holds the starting job. But, if Presley struggles, it’s good to have another option. Nate is a good backup plan on the small chance he can get back close to where he was in 2007-09 (speed/power combo, high SB percentage, maybe a little low on average). Also, he can help if Tabata gets hurt again.

Betemit is another player I like. I thought he was better from the left side than the right, which makes it tough to platoon with Alvarez or play him against tough lefties. Fox would be better fit for that. But, Betemit would almost certainly beat out Fox for a roster spot.

I’d be surprised if he got anything over 500K with some incentives mixed in. Safe for us, because if he proves he has fallen off the face of the earth, we’re not out three million. Safe for him, because then he’s getting extra money for doing well.

Plus, he can’t be any worse than Matt Diaz, right?

Against righties, I mean (if Jones is non-tendered and Lee doesn’t come back). That’s not my hope. But, it seems possible. I’ve been assuming that Jones’ return depended on Lee’s decision up to this point.

If Lee doesn’t come back, then that leaves Pena (or maybe, but unlikely Kotchman) as a free agent target. Could it be Betemit/Evans at 1B? If Betemit can play 3B, then I’d assume he can play 1B.

McLouth and Betemit would add some offense to a nearly non-existent bench in 2011. Short of a full revival from McLouth, I can’t see him being any more than a 4th/5th OF at this point. Betemit…if he’s starting anywhere, we are in trouble defensively at that position. However, I’m sure that he can do better than the 4-44 we got from XP.

I’d expect either signing would be in the $1-2M range. Much more than that, and I would start thinking that they are spending money just to keep MLB/MLBPA happy.

Here we go again. Getting rid of the good players just so the owners can make more money. Thanks for making the Pirates WINNERS!

I’d be all for resigning McLouth. Just so we can start seeing a ton of misspellings of his name again in the comments.

Ahh, the good old days.

If it’s a minor league deal then good on NH for ignoring the sure to come “Why is he getting McLouth back now that he sucks?” comments on the off chance that he rediscovers his pretty decent play from a few years ago.

Raybin (by a bit).

Looks like McLouth is coming back.

Linky

I thought Nate blasted the Buccos and claimed the team didn’t adequately address his eye issues. He praised the Braves organization while lambasting our organization and proclaimed he would have a great year. The fact is he was a one year wonder and is nothing more than a fourth outfielder on a shitty team. Don’t take him back, let him find another sucker team to take him. He blasted the franchise, sucked as a Brave, so the hell with him!

“Nate is quality team first player we enjoyed having here a couple years ago, which is why we gave him the contract extension we did. We look forward to having Nate come in here for us to compete for a job in the spring and hopefully get back the confidence he had here in this time with the club. Nate obviously struggled in his time in Atlanta, getting out of his comfort zone and pressing too much. We strongly believe he has a good chance to bounce back and once again be a quality player at the major league level. We look for Nate to give us quality at bats from the bench and potentially earn his way into an increased role. While we certainly aren’t done trying to piece together our offense for the upcoming season, we feel Nate brings great depth to our ball club.”

-listened to way too many of NH’s interviews

we signed Betemit and are still trying to get Lee.

@JimBowdenESPNxmJIM BOWDEN

Pirates after signing Nate McLouth and Wilson Betemit today…continue their serious pursuit of Derrek Lee for 1B

these signings won’t become official until AFTER the Rule V draft on Thursday. Probably about the same time they announce anyone that is getting non-tendered (if that happens).