…more McLouth news!

In what amounts to another bizarre move by Pittsburgh's front office, Pirates GM Neal Huntington wrote an email to Pirates' season ticket holders to explain that the McLouth trade was not motivated by money.

“We have said several times that tough decisions will need to be made as we build and sustain a championship caliber organization,” Huntington wrote. 

What that means in plain speak, is that Huntington didn't think that the Pirates could win this season so he decided to trade his best asset before the season got too widely out of hand.

But the fact that Huntington felt the need to justify his decision in an email, shows what an unpopular move it was.

“Tough decisions are not always popular. However, we have a singular focus on our goal of building an organization that can consistently compete for championships, not simply finish above .500,” Huntington wrote in the email.

I applaud the fact that Huntington is saying openly that they are committed to winning and more importantly competing in the NL Central. But how can a GM who is in charge of a team that ranks 28th in team payroll say that this move wasn't motivated, hoewever slightly, by money? 

And, if a GM is this committed to winning and believed that McCutchen offered the best opportunity to win in the coming years, why not bring him up, have him play Left and see how a McLouth-McCutchen outfield unfolded? Why trade away a number 3 hitter for an unproven minor league prospect? 

There are plenty of scenarios that could have played out before Huntington pulled the trigger on yet another stomach punch trade. And it didn't seem like he was confident enough in himself to give it a whirl.

Now, the Pirates drop two of three to the bottom dwelling Astros and have to travel to – oh poetic justice – Atlanta for a four game series. And guess who will be there to greet them?

Baseball always has a way of working things out don't they?

And Huntington, if McLouth sends one into the upper decks, you'll have a lot more emails to write explaining why.

More coming later on the debut of Mr. McCutchen later but for now, McLouth fallout!

According to ESPN.com the players actually lit a candle in effigy of Nate McLouth:

On Thursday, at the clubhouse table where McLouth used to play cards with relievers Sean Burnett and Jesse Chavez, a candle bearing McLouth's uniform No. 13 was lit, along with a photo of him in uniform, the Post-Gazette reported. “We'll miss him,” Burnett said.

Wow. Players in the clubhouse lighting candels, playing taps, and singing dirges – this bodes well for the rest of the season!

Pirates baseball: where crushing souls happens!

And thus McLouth become McCutchen.

In a move that paves the way for 2005 first-round pick Andrew McCutchen to get significant playing time, the Pirates shipped Nate McLouth (!!) to the Braves for three minor leaguers: outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, and pitchers Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette breaks down the minor leaguers:

On Locke: “An intriguing young left-handed starter with the frame, athleticism and stuff to become a quality major-league starting pitcher.”

On Morton: “A power right-handed starting pitcher who is excelling at Class AAA. He is close to being ready for the big leagues and has the upside to become a quality major league starting pitcher.”

On Hernandez: “A dynamic player who has the potential to become an above-average major league outfielder. He is a quality athlete with plus speed and plays above-average defense. He has bat speed and the upside to develop into a productive table setter.”

So all of this sounds good for the future right? Give up a slugging, franchise-type centerfielder for a lefty, righty, and an “above average” major league outfielder. Let’s not forget to mention that McLouth was a Golden Glove outfielder in 2008 and is (ugh WAS) the Pirates’ most marketable player.

Seen in this light, the trade can only be seen as disastrous for the Pirates of 2009, and beyond.

Well, at lease they didn’t wait for July.

As the Xavier Nady and Jason Bay trades of July past shows, the Pirates have a tendency to Deep Six the season just as the summer goes into full tilt. Not this year. No, this year they give the Pittsburgh faithful a full extra month to check out of the season.

Bob Smizik calls out the Pirates management who signed McLouth to a three-year $15.75 million contract in February, in a move that we were told by Pirates Frank Coonelly displayed commitments to “home grown” talent.

“The long-term commitments we have made to core players developed here, both this year and last year, reflect our commitment to build a strong core from within our system.”

Dealing McLouth shows Coonelly’s true colors.

Look, last year at this time the Pirates had one of the most dynamic outfields in the National League – Nady, Bay and McLouth. They have none of those players now.

There had been talk of Nyger Morgan losing his spot in the line-up once McCutchen was ready to play. But trading McLouth didn’t seem to be in the cards. How could it?

This is a gut punch to every Pirates season ticket holder, every “P” hat wearing fan., and everyone of the thousands of people who ponied up over 100 clams for a McLouth jersey figuring that after the Nady and Bay trades, this 27 year old was certainly going no where.

Who knows? Perhaps we’ll look back in 5 years when McLouth has blown out some strange knee ligmanet and Hernandez is a 40-40 threat and think, “Coonelly knew exactly what he was doing.”

But for now it hurts. Losing season 17 is just on the horizon.

RIP 2009 Season. It’s as if I never knew ya.

What is it that cures all ills?

How about a visit from Houston!

Fresh of dropping 2 of 3 from the Cubbies and falling a full 7 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central, the Pirates head home for a weekend treat – the bottom feeding Astros!

Now that we are 29% done with the season – some may say mercifully – the Buccos are still not giving their pitchers enough run support. Zach Duke is a perfect example. Duke has a 2.75 ERA on the season but sits at a 5-4 record. Why? Could it be in the 5 games that he has started that haven’t resulted in a win the Pirates have scored a total of 5 runs! And that includes the 2 that they scored for him last night!

So what do we do? Well the Pittsburgh Post Gazette published the fascinating story of Harvey Haddix’s 12 perfect innings pitched in 1959. It might be the greatest game ever pitched. But no matter how perfect he was the Pirates still ended up losing on a homerun. Seriously folks, read the article. Really great.

And that is where we are right now – looking back at the past losses because the present seem so mundane and routine. Doumit is still out (although he has been cleared to participate in baseball related activities) and Capps is day-to-day. Unless someone starts cracking the bats, perhaps looking at the past is the best remedy to get over the current woes.

Although Houston definitely could help.

Kansas City Royals make the cover of SI. And the Pirates are profiled in ESPN the Mag? Is the world right side up or upside down?

 Actually, while the SI article featured Greinke, the future of pitching in the MidWest, ESPN Mag had it in their hearts to chronicle Pirates futility over the last 16 seasons. Yes, it will be 17 years since the Buccos came up short in the 1992 NLCS come this October. The Worldwide Leader thought it appropriate to outline these hard lessons of losing. Thanks Bristol, CT!

Well, the Pirates sit now 3 games below .500. After a big win tonight over the Cubbies, the Bucs are only 6 games out of first place. I mean, was NOW the time for ESPN to bring out the big 17 season guns? Couldn’t they have at least waited until after the All-Star break?

No they couldn’t.

And just when it looked liked perhaps – just perhaps – there was a reverse ESPN Mag curse, when it looked like maybe ESPN saying we would finish below .500 actually meant that we would finish ABOVE .500, Matt Capps takes a liner off his pitching elbow and has to leave the game.

Thanks to Geovany Soto, the Pirates may have just lost their closer for an extended period of time – x-rays pending.

These things happen though on Pirate Planet. Pirates down the Cubs. Freddy Sanchez goes 6 for 6 (raising his average to .320) in the win. Matt Capps nailed in the pitching elbow.

Just when you think it can only get better, fate has a way of stepping in.

As the title of the ESPN article tells us: That was then, this (sigh) is now.

Albert Pujols in the body of Hanley Ramirez.

Those words greeted me today courtesy of the Pittsbugh Post Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic who, in an article today, discusses the Pirates love affair with an elite unsigned Dominican player named Miguel Angel Sano.

Kovacevic even goes so far as to say that the Pirates have an “inside track” at signing the hard hitting right handed swinger whose arm strength is listed as “superb”. The Pirates have been “courting his family” extensively and on top of that Sano has a long standing relationship with Rene Gayo, the Pirates' Latin American scouting director.

So this is in the bag right?

The article seems to think it just may be – 70-30 yes in fact. I’m not so sure.

Sano, for all his connections to the Pirates, is carrying roughly a $4 million signing bonus price tag. That would be the largest signing bonus ever paid to a Dominican player. By contrast, the largest sum that the Pirates have ever paid in signing bonus to a player from the region was $400,000 for Venezuelan center fielder Exicardo Cayones.

And we are to believe that they are going to shell out $4 million for this guy?

We have every right to be skeptical here. As proven throughout the Divisional Era, small market teams can compete, but they must be built from within – stocking the farm system and letting players mature through that system. As the Rays showed, it then takes the signing then of a couple of glue guys and voila, you have a winner.

This seems to be where the Pirates were headed. But blowing up the payroll to sign this guy? Are we really going to do that? Can we really land him?

If this guy is really Prince Albert in a can of Hanley Ramirez, and all it will take is $4 million to sign him, wouldn’t the Yanks or the Sox or the Mets or the Dodgers reach under their seat cushions and find some loose change?

Plus despite DNA tests, and the word of other teams, can we really be certain that Sano is 17? Will flood of recent revelations regarding Latin American born players age, Sano could be 26 for all we know!

Perhaps I am just talking myself out of it.

Look, if the Pirates make this move, actually sign this player, and he turns into even 40% of what they are predicting, he will be among the game’s and his generation’s elites. It would signal a new era of Pirates baseball and a re-commitment from management to the fans to put together a winner.

All that for $4 million. Maybe it isn’t too much to ask.

April seems like so long ago.

After what can only be described as an optimistic first month of the season, the Pirates have crashed to Earth in May. They have won only two games during the month, being swept by Milwaukee, St. Louis and New York.

And in what can only be considered a tumble from 2nd to last, the Pirates now sit at the bottom of the NL Central.

There is little positive to relay during the eight game losing streak. Tonight as I type, the Buccos have gone ahead and taken down the Cards winning their second game of the month 7-1. Zach Duke with the win. Nyger Morgan with the triple.

But these are the same old Bucs.

I got the chance to catch the Pirates last Friday night at New Shea/Citi Field right in the middle of their epic losing streak that will almost certainly guarantee that the Pirates spend the rest of the season below .500 and near to dead last in the Division. It is funny how for certain teams these May slides spell doom. Most see a losing streak as a necessary evil during a long tumultuous 162 game season.

The Pirates seem to embrace it as a birthright.

So I made it to New Shea and settled into my seat in Left/Center, five rows from the wall. You would be hard pressed to find a bad seat in New Shea. The walkways are open and provide views of the game during bathroom breaks and beer runs. The amenities are state of the art with plenty of bells and whistles – plasma screens and imported beer.

But something is missing.

Maybe it was just nostalgia for a past time where ugly stadiums were built and kept up as badges of honor – what you don’t like my stadium? Who are you? Maybe there was a feeling of newness from a team that seems set on establishing themselves historically with the legendary Brooklyn Dodgers. Maybe it’s that Cowbell Man doesn’t seem quite at home amongst single seats whose price could be used for mortgage payments.

Or maybe it’s just tough to watch the Pirates lose amidst such surroundings.

(K)arstens has gotten a lot of flack from me here on the blog, but he was not the problem on Friday night. No, it was the bullpen that exploded like a ticking time bomb. You knew watching that it was only a matter of time before it happened.

But do we cut the red wire, or the blue? Damn it! I can never remember.

High point of the night was Nyger Morgan. If you ever get the chance to see Morgan play on the road, take it. He is an absolute joy. By the end of the game, due to his extraordinary ability to rile up fans with a mixture of hand gesture and posturing, he had all of New Shea chanting his name. Add that to the fact that he swiped a bag (seemingly two – close call) and Morgan proved to be the only Pirates player worth his salt.

At the very least he was entertaining.

I am convinced that Morgan could play in a large market team. His ceiling seems to sit somewhere between Juan Pierre and Johnny Damon. His personality is infectious and given the chance to play, he is able to perform. If the Pirates decide to go another way this season – go younger etc. – it is obvious to me that Morgan will be moved to a large market playoff bound team and contribute immediately.

This season is what it is though – another rebuilding year. When the Pirates blew the game in the 8th inning it became apparent that unless they consider bullpen help, this year’s team and next year’s team and the team after that, is relegated to nothing more than high hopes in April and meaningless games in September.

We saw a glimmer of hope this year, but it seems to have vanished already leaving us to wonder if we ever really saw it in the first place.

In the quest to make something out of yet another Pirates loss, we turn to the realm of fantasy baseball.

In an article entitled Closing Time: Backing Up Matty Capps by Scott Pianowski the debate rages as to who will pick up the Pirates’ saves now that Matt Capps is out for two games with a bone bruise to the elbow. Two games doesn’t seem to mean all that much even for fanatical fantasy baseball players, but hey we could be talking instead about the 0-17 slide against the Brewers. Right?

Like I said, good to be talking fantasy.

So tell us Pinanowski, who will be picking up these “saves if saves become available not that they will probably because the Pirates are traveling to St. Lou and then New York”?

Bet on John Grabow over Tyler Yates.

And there you have it. The best news coming out of Pirates Planet at the moment is that John Grabow may get a save if Capps is out!

Now the real worry is if Grabow is going to have to keep the position. If Capps’ injury (pitchers+elbow+injury = disaster) turns out to be much more than just a bone bruise. If a steady, solid (Minus the (K)arstens excluded) rotation is forced to hand the ball over to a depleted and already shaky bullpen.

That's really scary.

 Good thing it’s only fantasy.

15 game losing streak?  The Brew Crew come into town riding a 15 game winning streak against the Buccos punctuated by a sweep up at Miller Park just a week ago. The Brewers are only in town for 2 games – good news for the Pirates who lost 2 of 3 to the Reds.

The Buccos, who were flirting with first place in the division less than a week ago, now sit in 4th place, only 1.5 games ahead of Houston – the dregs of baseball.

All of this and Nate McLouth is completely healthy.

Anyone that saw McLouth leg out a single in Friday’s game, then go 3-5 with a stolen base in Saturday’s game, knows that he looks ready to go.  With Jack Wilson taking batting practice, the Bucs can look forward to having some pop back in the line-up. Wilson is available to come off of the DL on Sunday and according to all reports that looks to be on target.

So why the sudden losing streak?

Well Jeff Karstens isn’t helping matters.

In a rotation that seems to pride itself on effective controlled pitching (Snell, Duke, Maholm) Karsten’s has been anything but. He has walked more batter than he has struck out (K/BB ratio? Paltry 9/13). He has managed to allow 5 homeruns in 20 innings of work this season and with a 5.89 ERA has almost doubled the average ERA of the rest of the rotation.

What does Jeff say about this? As reported to the Pittsburgh Gazette:

“Honestly, I just feel out of sync. At times, I feel fine, where there are good stretches. I haven't really had a horrible, horrible game. It seems more like one bad inning.”

Might this have something to do with Karsten’s new delivery that he unveiled to the chagrin of most at the beginning of the season?

“I just have to take a look at myself and evaluate everything. It's one of those things where I'm kind of lost right now. But I'm definitely going to find myself. Hopefully, it comes back soon.”

God.

This is the same Karstens that told us at the beginning of the season that his new delivery that it felt, “not bad”. Yes, we here had a field day with that quote believing that a 5th pitcher should say everything and anything positive if for nothing us the sake of the fans.

But not old Karstens.

He is in the middle though of appealing his suspension for plunking Ryan Braun last week in Milwaukee. But maybe this would give us a chance to bring up Tom Gorzelanny or Virgil Vasquez from AAA ball. Maybe give Karstens a seat and some alone time to think.

Tell me someone wants this spot in the rotation. Anyone? Your blogger will no longer use the letter K in –arstens.

He doesn’t deserve the letter. He is Jeff Carstens from now on.

May Day! May Day!

Perhaps it’s good the Pirates are headed home after playing six on the road – the last three of which were all losses to conference rival Milwaukee. 2-4 on the road isn’t the way the Pirates wanted to finish off April.

They now sit in a three-way tie for second with Cincinnati and those Brewers in the NL Central with the Cubbies a half game out.

Despite the skid, this is the Pirates best April since 2002, going 11-10. Clap, clap.

There still is a stench in the air. It would be nice to blame the whiff on the lack of a 3 and 4 hitter, what with Doumit and McLouth on IR, but really the killer attitude doesn’t seem to be there just yet for the Bucs. How else to explain two one run losses in the last two nights? How else to describe the hitting that allowed Yovani Gallardo looking like a pro?

Take this into consideration: in his previous 25 starts, Gallardo had never thrown a shut-out. Previous is the operative word here. Throw in 11 Ks and Milwaukee spends a night sleeping soundly – without dreams of a grinning CC Sabathia.

Oh and that homer that lost it? Hit by Gallardo too.

Players pointed out to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that Gallardo may have been getting a bit of help from the home plate umpire Marty Foster. But all of this comes across as sour grapes. No one wanted to step up and salvage a gutsy performance by Snell. So let’s blame the umpire. Let’s blame the home field advantage guys!

But not all was lost up there in Wisconsin. Ian Snell worked a great 7.0 innings scattering 5 hits and allowing one run. It will come as no surprise to Pirates fans that it was a homer that scored that one run – in five games this season Snell has been tagged for five dingers – but John Russell let him throw 131 pitches so something must have been working.

Snell is the first pitcher this season to throw over 130 pitches in the Majors. No Joba Chamberlain pitch count here. So even if he did hang that flat, fat, slider to Gallardo, you have to tip your hat to Snell – he’s a competitor.

At least the Bucs will get another shot at Milwaukee on Monday at PNC. Payback? Cincin is in town for the weekend also and then the Pirates are off to new Busch for a quick 2 game stand. By next Friday when the Pirates roll into New York, they could be anywhere from 1st in the division 5th. One hopes Houston doesn't get hot in the meantime.

In what will become a running portion of this blog, it is now time for the Pirates fantasy baseball watch! Can’t get enough Pirates? Come find out whose doing what in the realm of fantasy!

James Quintong asks which Zach/Zack is better – Greinke or Duke? While Greinke is owned in 100% of the leagues, Duke at this moment is sitting at only 44% despite both pitchers sporting torrid starts to the season. Quintong points out though that we should remain careful with Duke. But c’mon, what Pirates fan doesn’t know that.

Quintong writes: “But he's probably better than the worst guy on your staff in mixed leagues.”

Ah yes. Zach Duke – sicker than your average.