25 September 2007 – Neal Huntington HIRED as GM

Significant Transactions, 25 September – 31 December 2007 (all following years are calendar years)

Pirates Traded or Signed

To/For

Results

Signed Phil Dumatrait and Raul Chavez as free agents.

This is as close as I could get to significant. Dumatrait’s potential was lost to injury.

Salomon Torres

Brewers for Marino Salas and Kevin Roberts

Poor – while acquiring something for Torres was good, it was the bad commo between the player/agent & management that forced this trade.  Torres pitched reasonably well in 2008.  

Acquired Evan Meek in the Rule 5 draft (and a subsequent trade)

from the Rays

Very Good. Meek went from a 6.92 ERA & 4.8 k/9 IP in his first year w/the Bucs to 2.14 ERA and 7.9 k/IP last year.

2008 Significant Transactions

Signed Doug Mientkiewicz, Ramon Vazquez, and some guy named Jones as free agents.  

Double Super Good for the veteranosity Mientkiewicz brought to the team. That Jones guy turned out okay too.

Released Matt Morris the first month of the season.

Very Good. While cutting a pitcher w/an 0-5 record and 9.67 ERA isn’t brain surgery, this cut signaled that performance was the key criteria for players.

Drafted Pedro Alvarez (1st rd), Tanner Scheppers (2nd rd), Robbie Grossman, and a host of middle infielders.

Very Good. Even though we didn’t sign Scheppers, this showed a clear change of course in drafts.  While early, several players drafted still have a good chance to join the team – I’m not sure you could say that about any of the Littlefield draft classes.

Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte

Yankees for Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, and “No Relation” McCutchen

Very good. Even if Nady and Marte had stayed healthy, we still received 3 players currently on our 25-man roster. The Yankees paid Marte $15+ million for 49 IP and a 6.02 ERA to date.

Jason Bay

Red Sox/Dodgers for L’il Luigi, Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen, and Brandon Moss

Good (in theory, disappointing in reality). Would anyone really project Jose Bautista being a more valuable 3B than Andy LaRoche? If Morris succeeds, this might be a “neutral” trade.  This trade makes you wish for the return of Littlefield, who at least could find Freddy Sanchez in the minor league haystack.

Jose Bautista

Blue Jays for Robinzon Diaz

This trade wouldn’t be considered significant absent Bautista’s HR frenzy – in his 5-year Pirates career, he hit .241 with 43 HR (that is in 5 years!) and was a -1.1 WAR player.

Ronny Paulino

Phillies for Jason Jaramillo

Another signal that performance and attitude were criteria for remaining with the team. This is the year Joggin’ Ronnie was photographed ignoring Manny Sanguillen’s catching tips.

Acquired Donald Veal in the Rule 5 Draft

from the Cubs

Good. There’s still hope Veal can be a bullpen asset. The Bucs gained, rather than lost, through Rule 5 two years in a row.  

2009 Significant Transactions

Signed Eric Hinske as a free agent. (Signed Bobby Crosby, Brian Burress, Javier Lopez, and Vinnie Chulk in December.)        

Good.  Flipped Hinske for Fryer and Erickson, which is hardly the same as trading Ramirez and Lofton for Bobby Hill.

Claimed V. Vasquez off waivers (then signed him as a free agent at the end of 2009 and again in January 2010). What the...?  

from the Padres.

Not significant; just wanted to highlight the invasion of bad pitchers whose last name starts with “V.”

Nate McLouth

Braves for Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Morton, and Jeff Locke

Good prospectively. Nate was expendable; the Pirates received a lot of potential value for someone playing above expectations.  

Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan

Nationals for Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge

Good. Milledge bridged the LF gap to Tabata. Good luck to Burnett, but it took him 8 years to reach the majors and no one is slotting him as a closer.  

Lefty McThump, aka Adam LaWhiff, aka Adam LaGIDP

Red Sox for Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland

Neutral. It does not appear that LaRoche was a Type A/B free agent, so I don’t believe this is a trade that hurt in that respect.

Ian Snell and Jack Wilson

Mariners for Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno, Brett Lorin, Aaron Pribanic, and Nathan Adcock

Very good. Wilson played only 92 games for Seattle over 2 years and is not a lock to start at SS this year.

Freddy Sanchez

Giants for Tim Alderson

Good, although it may not pan out. Sanchez was also limited by injuries and we received a rising star (that may still crash/burn).

John Grabow and Tom Gorzelanny

Cubs for Jose Ascanio, Josh Harrison, and Kevin Hart

Neutral – the Cubs and Nats are paying a lot for mediocrity, although the Pirates pitching last year couldn’t see mediocrity.

Jesse Chavez

Rays for Aki “get that man a sword” Iwamura

Neutral – although Aki was a great disappointment, Chavez’s ERA is 5.88 in limited appearances since leaving the Bucs.   

Released Matt Capps

I’ll let y’all decide.

Acquired John Raynor in the Rule 5 Draft

from the Marlins

Good. Raynor was a defensible pick and for the 3rd year running, the Pirates managed their 40-man roster to avoid serious losses.

2010 Significant Transactions

Acquired Ryan Church, Brendan Donnelly, D.J. Carrasco, and Octavio Dotel as free agents.  (Many of the 2010 free agents we love were signed in late 2009.)

Very good as we unfortunately had that many gaping holes in our bullpen and on our bench and lacked the depth in the minor league system to fill those holes.

Christmas in July!

D.J. Carrasco, Church, and Crosby

D’backs for Chris Snyder, Pedro Ciriaco, and $$

Very good. Snyder may not be Johnny Bench, but he’s a better bridge to Tony Sanchez than Ryan D. Ciriaco will likely only be a back-up MI, but right now he’s better than Church + Crosby

Octavio Dotel and $$

Dodgers for Andrew Lambo and James McDonald

Good (on McDonald alone) to Very Good (if Lambo pans out).

Javier Lopez

Giants for John Bowker and Joe Martinez

Neutral. At least the Pirates were not fleeced.  Bowker may stick or have some trade value; Martinez has been traded to Cleveland and I don’t know what we got back. The Giants got 19 IP last year and are paying $2.75 million for Lopez this year.

Claimed Chris Resop, Chris Leroux, and Chan Ho Park off waivers

Braves, Marlins, and Yankees, respectively

Good. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. (Sighs realizing no one under 30 will get that reference.)

Zach Duke

D’backs for Cesar Valdez

TBD.  Although I’m tempted to rate it as “poor” since the Pirates received relatively little in return and, had Duke bounced back, worked another mid-season trade.

Preparing for 2011, signed Andy Marte, Fernando Nieve, Scott Olsen, Lyle Overbay, Matt Diaz, Kevin Correia, Josh Fields, Joe Beimel, and Garrett Atkins as free agents.

Double super good on the Overbay signing alone. Good overall as the Pirates didn’t grossly overpay Correia or Diaz and they grabbed a bunch of coal, at low cost, w/the potential to find a diamond instead.

Acquired Josh Rodriguez in the Rule 5 draft

Lost Nate Adcock in the Rule 5 draft

from the Indians

to the Royals

Neutral – see the Bucs Dugout summary by Vlad.