The pirates expierienced sucsess in the first 2/3 of the season before everything fell apart.  The question now become should the pirates take a chance and try to build on their early season sucsess or stick to their rebuilding plan.  I will go over several ways the pirates could handle the offseason.

The Free Agent Market

The 2012 free agent class is top heavy with players like Pujols, Sabathia, Reyes, and Fielder all of which are extremely unlikely for the pirates to sign and I think should not be touched.  After that there is a big drop off in talent.  This means that mediocere players values shooot up and they get over paid because teams are desprate to fill holes on their teams and they are the best players availible.  This means the pirates should not be overly active in free agency and definently not get int bidding war for mediocere players.

The Trade Market

This is an area where I think the pirates could potentially makes some moves but they still must be careful.  I have seen a lot people suggest the pirates trade for Hanely Ramirez, LoMo, or Yonder Alonso because their values low or they are bl;ocked.  That is a good idea for us but you have to look at it in the perspective of the other team.  If your the Marlins would you want to trade Hanely when his values so low after an off year?  No you wouldn't same thing with Morrison and Alonso.  You don't trade a player because he's blocked or has had recent off the field issues.  You trade people when their values high.  Would want to trade Pedro when his values low after such a bad year? No, teams are smart and don't get desprate to make sure they get something for their player.  They wait for them to get their value up if they want to trade them.  If any young, talented players with lots of years of team control left are availible at a reasonable price for some some reason then persue but do not overpay in prospects to out bid a team.  I would much rather see us do nothing and let our players develop.  I would Like to trade Correia, Jones (If Lee returns or a free agent is signed), and paul ( for cash if someone wants him, so gorkys can be the a backup outfielder). 

Decisions within the team

The Pirates have several decisions within the team that they must make.  I want the pirates to decline Doumit and snyder's options.  I would consider resigning Snyder for maybe 3 million, since there arn't any good free agent catchers availible, but I don't want Doumit back.  Doumit has hit well but his defense is terrible.  There may be no direct correlation but since Doumit's returned our pitching has struggled.  I don't want too pick up maholms option.  He is not worth 9 mil.  As for Derek Lee, I would be happy to sign him for 5-7 mil but I don't think he's worth 8-10 mil.  I'm not sure he wants to stay in Pittsburgh so we can't overpay to get him to stay.  I admit to being a flip flopper on wether or not the pirates should keep Cedeno but because of woods recent struggles and the weak free agent class at SS I think the pirates should pirates should pick up his 3 mil. option. Ludwick should be gone next season.

Conclusion

The pirates should not be over aggresive this winter.  They have a nice young team with lots of potential.  They should stick to there plan and not make foolish moves to please fans.  They can can not afford to overpay a free agent or trade top prospects for average mlb to fill a hole.  The pirates have te makings of a good team a couple years down the road and should get caught up in there fluky sucsess this season.  What do you guys think?