13 July 2001 – Dave Littlefield hired as GM

Significant Transactions from 13 July – 31 December 2001 (All years are calendar years)

Pirates Traded:

To the:

Analysis

Signed Salomon Torres as a Free Agent.

Good – Torres had not pitched since 1997; he played six seasons for the Pirates.

Jason Schmidt (28 yo w/career 4.39 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, and 1.85 k-bb ratio who was 6-6 with a 4.61 ERA when traded) and John Vander Wal, a journeyman outfielder.

Giants for Ryan Vogelsong (23 yo rookie w/5.65 ERA) and Armando Rios, a journeyman outfielder.

Neutral – Now unfairly viewed as disastrous because Schmidt lowered his ERA a full point and became the Giants’ ace while Vogelsong became the 2nd most despised Pirates pitcher with a last name that starts with “V.”

Todd Ritchie (29 yo w/career 4.29 ERA, 1.314 WHIP, and 2.26 k-bb) and Lee Evans, a career minor-leaguer.

White Sox for Josh Fogg (1998 3rd round draft pick), Kip Wells (25 yo w/career 5.14 ERA, 1.636 WHIP, 1.49 k-bb), and Sean Lowe, a 31 yo spot starter & reliever.

Good – The White Sox rented Ritchie for 1 year & he played only 2 more years.  Wells and Fogg at least gave the Pirates several serviceable years.

2002 Significant Transactions

Signed Pokey Reese and Matt Stairs as Free Agents.

Neutral – The Pirates needed someone to play 2B. Matt Stairs earned his keep but blocked Craig Wilson, who had most of the starts in RF the year before.

Drafted: Bryan Bullington (1st overall pick), Brad Eldred (6th), Matt Capps (7th), Nyjer Morgan (33rd).

Disastrous – Bullington has played 26 games in 5 seasons for 4 teams; we passed on B.J. Upton, Prince Fielder, and Cole Hamels, among others.

Adrian Burnside (career minor-leaguer) and Roberto Novoa (a sub-par bullpen arm).

Tigers for Randall Simon, who had hit over .300 the past two seasons.

Good – and without this trade, we would never have had the great Weiner Whacking scandal....

Lost D.J. Carrasco, Ronny Paulino, and two other players in the 2002 Rule 5 Draft.

Poor.  Paulino was returned. Carrasco was a Royal for 4 years; the other 2 players had unremarkable careers w/their new teams.

2003 Significant Transactions

Signed Tike Redman, Jeff Suppan, Reggie Sanders, and Kenny Lofton as Free Agents.

Neutral – Redman stayed 3 years as a light hitter.  Suppan, Lofton, and Sanders were traded or released within the year.

Lost Bronson Arroyo on waivers.

Red Sox.

Poor.  Arroyo improved steadily from 2000-02.  He only had 17 IP w/Red Sox in 2003 (suggesting an injury), then went on for a solid career.  Looks like bad 40-man roster management.

Drafted P. Maholm (1st rd), T. Gorzelanny (2nd rd)

Good. None of the players drafted later stand out.

Jeff Suppan and Scott Saurbeck

Red Sox for Freddy Sanchez.*

Good – Suppan was traded to the Cardinals the next year.

     * Like adding fractions, I cancelled out Mike Gonzalez, Brandon Lyon, Anastacio Martinez, who were traded back and forth in a single week. 

Kenny Lofton, Aramis Ramirez, and cash

Cubs for Matt Bruback (career minor leaguer), Jose Hernandez (33yo infielder) and Bobby Hill (25 yo infielder)  

Disastrous - Jose Hernandez was released a few months later, so this was basically Lofton, Ramirez, and cash for – Bobby Hill.

Randall Simon

Cubs for Ray Sadler

Poor – and emblematic. We traded a bona fide big league player for a guy who went on to have 8 ML at bats – not games, at bats.

Brian Giles

San Diego for Jason Bay, Oliver Perez, and Corey Stewart (career minor leaguer).

Very good – while it looks suspiciously like a salary dump, at least the Pirates got some value from this trade.

Lost Jose Bautista, Chris Shelton, and 3 others in the Rule 5 draft.

Disastrous – particularly since the Pirates lost 4 players to Rule 5 the year before.

2004 Significant Transactions

Signed Jose Mesa, Randall Simon, and Raul Mondesi as free agents.

Neutral – Although Mesa was a serviceable closer, the other moves were required to plug holes for which the Pirates had no obvious answers within the minor league system.

Drafted Neil Walker (1st rd) and Brian Bixler (2nd rd).

Poor. Once drafted, it took the Bucs six years of mismanagement to get Walker to the big league.

Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger

Mets for Jose Bautista, Ty Wigginton, and Matt Peterson (a career minor leaguer)

Poor.  The Pirates were trading to recover Bautista, which is never a good sign.

Jason Kendall

A’s for Mark Readman, Arthur Rhodes, and $$

Poor – We got one season out of Redman (an SP) and traded Rhodes for Matt Lawton 2 weeks later.

* The inactivity in 2004 seems significant in itself – we clearly had little of value to trade and made no effort to improve by signing free agents.

2005 Significant Transactions

Didn’t sign a single significant free agent or make a single significant trade during the season.

Really.  Would you characterize Matt Lawton to the Cubs for Jody Gerut as significant?   

Ok, acquiring Sean Casey from the Reds in December was a good pick-up, but see below.

Drafted McCutchen (1st rd), B. Lillibridge (4th rd), and Steve Pearce (8th rd).

Good – it’s hard to complain about the draft that brought McClutch to the team

Closed the books on the season – and the Aramis Ramirez trade – by sending Bobby Hill

to the San Diego Padres for a PTBNL. Received Clayton Hamilton, a career minor leaguer.

Significant only for the spasms of pain the memory causes to long-suffering Pirates fans. 

2006 Significant Transactions

Signed Joe Randa, Jeromy Burnitz, and Jose Hernandez (of the A-Ram trade) as free agents.

Poor – although the Pirates had to fill holes, Randa & Burnitz blocked Sanchez, Bautista, and Craig Wilson. Randa retired the first week of the season.  Unfortunately, he kept playing 3B.

Drafted Brad Lincoln (1st rd), Alex Presley (8th rd)

Poor – both are struggling to make it as back-ups.

Sean Casey

Tigers for Brian Rogers

Poor – Rogers had a 9.28 ERA in 13 games for the Bucs.

R. Hernandez and Oliver Perez

Mets for the X-Man

Good.

Kip Wells

Rangers for Jesse Chavez

Poor – We traded a starter for a reliever who only gave us 80 IP in 2 seasons with a 4.48 ERA

2007 Significant Transactions (before 7 September 2007, when Dave Littlefield was fired)

Signed Jose Hernandez as a free agent (yet again). Also signed Tony Armas, Yoslan Herrera, and a host of no-names.

Poor.

Mike Gonzalez and B. Lillibridge

Braves for Lefty McThump, aka Adam LaWhiff, aka Adam LaGIDP and Jamie Romack (a career minor leaguer).

Good.

Rajai Davis and Stephen McFarland (career minor leaguer)

Giants for Matt Morris and his $10 million salary.

Poor. Even though the Bucs gave up little, Morris’s ERA had been climbing and his stats degrading since 2003. Any analysis or thought beforehand should have killed this deal. Fittingly, this is the last significant transaction made by Dave Littlefield.

Dave Littlefield fired as GM on 7 September 2007.