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Bax’s Bucco Blog: An Unconscionable Trade
I have had many bad experiences as a Pirate fan. After all, 16 consecutive losing seasons can provide quite the plethora of bad memories. There was Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonillia splitting town back in the early 90s. That stunk. There was Andy Van Slyke breaking his collar bone in St. Louis in 1994 and never regaining his peak form. That was really hard to take since Slick was always my favorite Bucco. There was the 1996 Jay Bell trade, which was very sad because the Pirates dealt away the last vestige of the three time division champion team from early 90s. There was the Aramis Ramirez trade, where the Pirates dealt the best young 3 rd baseman in baseball (along with their .300 hitting centerfielder), who was signed to a very reasonable long term contract, to a division rival in return for cash and a utility infielder because previous ownership was worried about cash flow. That was just embarrassing.
Then, of course, there was last year’s fire sale which saw Jason Bay and Xavier Nady depart for Boston and New York, respectively, despite the fact that the Pirates were one decent starting pitcher from a good run at a winning record. I was actually in the right field seats above the Clemente Wall to watch Nady jog out to the outfield, stop, turn around and jog right back to the dugout because he’d been dealt. That one really hurt but the return from those deals (Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Andy LaRoche and a few other prospects) already appears to be bearing fruit.
However, I have never had a worse experience as a Pirate fan than Wednesday, June 3 rd, 2009, a day that probably will live in infamy. On that fateful Wednesday, the Pirates traded Nate McLouth, their 27 year old Gold Glove All-Star centerfielder who leads the team in home runs and RBI.
Ah, but it gets better. Not only did the Pirates trade their 27 year old Gold Glove All-Star centerfielder who leads the team in home runs, RBI and was a major threat to steal (64 out of his last 68 attempts over 3 years) but they traded that fantastic player for two prospects who have barely cracked AA ball and a AAA starter who wasn’t very good in his only chance in the big leagues last year. They could have AT LEAST forced the Braves to take Ian Snell and his colossal waste of a contract in return! The Pirates traded their best player not named Zach Duke and didn’t even get one of the Braves’ TOP THREE prospects. Did the Pirates give Dave Littlefield a one day job as guest GM and let him go nuts? How do you think that phone call went?
Littlefield: “Hey Frank Wren (Atlanta GM), it’s Dave Littlefield!”
Wren: “Dave, how many times have I told you, if you want to apply for a job at the concession stand, you need to go through human resources.”
Littlefield: “No, no, no, I’m not trying to get my job back at the 3 rd base Schlotzky’s, I’ve got my old job back as Pirates GM today and if I do a really good job I bet they’ll let me keep it!”
Wren: “Well Dave, that’s great! You know what would really help you impress the new management? Making a big splash of a trade for ‘organizational depth’! How does that sound?”
Littlefield: “That sounds great! You’re really smart, Frank!”
Wren: “Thanks buddy, so are you. Let’s talk Nate McLouth. I’ll give you some of my good prospects (but none of the ones who are expected to, you know, turn out to be as good as McLouth, I’m not crazy enough to trade for anything approaching equal value) and a guy at AAA who is likely to end up in middle relief. You’ll get your ‘depth’ and a ‘major league ready’ bum, er, I mean prospect! That’ll go over like gangbusters!
Littlefield: “Wow! That’s an offer I can’t refuse, Frank. I get the two biggest buzzwords on ESPN about baseball trades: ‘Depth’ and ‘Major League Ready’! They’ll definitely give me my job back now! I’ll go get the paperwork immediately!
Yeah, that sounds about the only logical way this trade could have ever happened. Thank god no one gave him time to trade Zach Duke, Freddy Sanchez and Paul Maholm.
A bit more detail on the return: The AAA pitcher is Charlie Morton, who stunk last year at the big league level but sports a 2.51 ERA this year for the AAA Gwinnett Braves. He’s going to Indianapolis to keep developing and maybe he’ll be called up when the Pirates convince someone to take Ian Snell’s contract in July. He honestly can’t be worse than Snell so I guess he would have been a good periphery player in the trade. He’s also the only prospect in this trade who is going to be playing at PNC Park before 2012.
The other two are lefty Jeff Locke, who has an ERA over five in Single A this year thanks to control problems. This former 2 nd round pick was recently rated as the Braves’ 7 th to 10 th best prospect depending on the service. The other is outfielder Gorkys Hernandez, who is currently in AA ball. Hernandez projects to be a solid defensive outfielder with a lot of speed but not much power. Pretty much his ceiling is Nyjer Morgan, which is good because he’ll be ready just in time for the Pirates to trade Morgan in 2012 because he is making too much money on their 20 th consecutive losing team. Hernandez was rated as the Braves’ 4 th to 8 th best prospect depending on the service. Despite GM Neil Huntington’s desire for organizational ‘depth’, it sure seems like the Pirates got the short end of this deal. I don’t know how you can trade an elite major leaguer for such paltry returns.
What makes this trade EVEN WORSE is the fact that McLouth was under contract through 2012 for a very reasonable price! That contract was also signed less than 4 months ago and McLouth was widely expected to be one of the major building blocks for the Pirates in future years. The Bay trades and Nady trades were understandable because both were going to be able to leave town in a year or two, but that doesn’t apply here at all.
Furthermore, McLouth was one of the precious few products of the Pirates farm system that actually made it to the big leagues and succeeded at a high level. The last Pirate youth acquisition who achieved McLouth’s level of success as a product of the Pittsburgh farm system was Aramis Ramirez (see above) or Barry Bonds! It is good to know that the Buccos spent the last DECADE developing him into the emerging superstar that he is today to piss it all away for another rebuilding project. No wonder I’m one of approximately 748 people on this planet who still admit to being Pirate fans.
On to what this means for the season. In McLouth’s place the Pirates called up one of their rare major league ready prospects, former first round pick Andrew McCutcheon. McCutcheon is a talent and was just named the Indianapolis player of the month in AAA, so he is very good and will be fun to watch. He debuted well on Thursday and is expected to fill in as the team’s leadoff hitter the rest of the year.
The Pirates are also going to have to play a lot of small ball to score the rest of the year. With McCutcheon and Morgan atop the order, expect to see the Pirates stealing a lot of bases. However, the Buccos are going to have exactly one home run threat in their lineup (Adam LaRoche) until July when they trade him too. I haven’t even delved into what trading your best player will do to the collective psyche of the team because I’m hoping against hope that Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez don’t immediately demand to be traded somewhere that actually cares about winning.
On to the results on the field this week. The Pirates shockingly swept the Mets in a rain-shorted 3 game series thanks to scoring 22 runs in three games. Zach Duke outdueled Johan Santana in the series’ only game that didn’t resemble a lacrosse score and continued his great season, lowering his ERA to a sterling 2.62 while earning his 6 th win. The Pirates are lucky to have him considering their other 2 starters in the series combined for 11 runs in 10 1/3 innings. Jason Jaramillio had a great series, hitting his first career home run on Tuesday and driving in 4 runs on Thursday. The sweep brought the Bucco’s record up to 25-28 on the year.
Unfortunately, the Pirates couldn’t sustain that momentum in Houston. After running into the curse of Mike Hampton (I told you last week that he has owned the Pirates this year) and getting blown out in the series opener, the Buccos continued their weird trend of feasting on excellent starters, this time victimizing Roy Oswalt. However, the Pirates couldn’t handle the rubber match, dropping their record on the year against the last place Astros to 3-6.
The Buccos finished the week with a solid 4-2 mark, thanks in large part to their offense, which put up 33 runs, an average of 5.5 per game. Even better, they only scored less than 3 runs once, meaning that the bats finally found some consistency. However, the pitching staff (outside of the always excellent Zach Duke) took a step back, allowing 31 runs, which is a concern.
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THE WEEK THAT WAS
Monday: Pittsburgh 8, New York 5_________ The Pirates rode an 8 th inning outburst to victory in the first game of the series. Starter Ian Snell was terrible early, allowing 5 runs in the first 3 innings. However, Snell settled down and threw 3 good innings afterwards, keeping the Pirates in the game long enough to mount a comeback. The LaRoche brothers combined for a 5 of 9 showing at the plate and both contributed to the 5 run 8 th. Closer Matt Capps was solid again as he earned his 11 th save.
Tuesday: Pittsburgh 3, New York 1___________ The Pirates felled the NL ERA leader for the 2 nd time in four games, touching the Mets’ Johan Santana for 3 runs over 6 innings after the first 10 Buccos were sat down in order. Zach Duke continued his excellent season with 7 innings of 1 run baseball, though oddly he didn’t record a single strikeout. Catcher Jason Jaramillio hit his first career home run and Nate McLouth ended his Pirate career with a 2 for 4 showing, including a run-scoring triple. Capps earned his 2 nd save in as many nights with a perfect 9 th inning.
Wednesday: Rain Out. The game will be rescheduled for July 2 nd.
Thursday: Pittsburgh 11, New York 6________ _The Pirates responded surprisingly well after the McLouth deal, smashing 11 runs (perhaps imaging the baseball to be the head of GM Neal Huntington?) in the winning effort. Superstar prospect Andrew McCutcheon had a hit in his first at bat and he and Nyjer Morgan combined to reach base in 5 out of 9 tries. Catcher Jason Jaramillio continued his solid play by driving in 4 runs in the winning effort. Starter Ross Ohlendorf struggled and was the only down note on the day, getting the hook after allowing 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings. New acquisition Steve Jackson got his first major league win in relief.
Friday: Houston 9, Pittsburgh 1_____________ All that you need to know is that Mike Hampton started for the Astros and picked up his 3 rd win of the year against the Pirates. Hampton has only allowed two runs in 20 innings against the Pirates this year. Jeff Karstens was decent through 5 innings but Houston’s 7 run 6 th inning put the game out of reach. Delwyn Young (2 for 4) was the only bright spot at the plate.
Saturday: Pittsburgh 6, Houston 4___________ The brothers LaRoche were the primary catalysts for back to back 3 run innings early and Paul Maholm settled down after some early struggles to pitch 7 innings, allowing all 4 runs as he earned his 4 th win. Houston’s Roy Oswalt was tagged for 6 runs in 6 innings as he was saddled with the loss. Both LaRoches went 2 for 4 in the winning effort and Matt Capps earned his 13 th save of the year with a scoreless 9 th inning.
Sunday: Houston 6, Pittsburgh 4 ____________The Pirates finally got a good start from Ian Snell (6 innings, 3 runs) but couldn’t rally back from a second deficit after tying the game in the 7 th inning. Snell lowered his ERA to 5.54 but new Bucco Steve Jackson took his first loss, allowing 3 Houston runs. Rookie centerfielder Andrew McCutcheon continued his good start, going 3 for 5 at the plate but the Pirates couldn’t finish a 9 th inning rally and left Houston losers of 2 out of 3 games.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
1) THE DEBUT OF ANDREW MCCUTCHEON: The former first round pick debuted this week and hit .333 in 4 games out of the leadoff position. His defensive range is impressive and he appears to be a prototypical leadoff hitter. While trading McLouth for prospects was a tough pill to swallow, getting to watch McCutcheon play will be a treat.
2) ZACH DUKE: Zach Duke was very impressive while outdueling Johan Santana, lowering his ERA to 2.62 on the year. Duke is the Pirates’ clear cut ace and will keep them in a lot of games this season.
3) JASON JARAMILLIO: JJ was the Buccos’ top hitter this week, batting .350 with the team’s only home run and 8 RBIs while appearing in all 6 games. He also drew two walks and played solid defense. Jaramillio’s surprising performance this year has helped the Pirates survive the loss of Ryan Doumit.
4) JACK WILSON: Jack missed two games this week but still managed to go 7 for 14 at the plate while playing spectacular defense. Wilson also drove in 3 runs during the week and is expected to be back soon.
5) MATT CAPPS: Capps registered 3 saves and didn’t allow a run in his three outings this week. That’s exactly what you need from your closer and Capps is as good as any in the league.
Honorable Mention: Adam LaRoche, Andy LaRoche, Delwyn Young, Sean Burnett
THE NEGATIVE
1) TRADING NATE MCLOUTH: When you trade your team leader in most offensive categories for 3 players that aren’t going to help you any time soon, it is the biggest negative of the week. Even worse, the Pirates have to play him 4 straight games in Atlanta.
2) 31 RUNS: The Pirates got only two quality starts this week (Only one of which was a win) and the 4 starters not named Zach Duke registered a 5.31 ERA and were responsible for 23 of those runs. Lucky the bats were good this week……
3) NYJER MORGAN: This is two straight weeks for Nyjer on this list, which is not a good sign. Morgan was dropped to 2 nd in the lineup with McCutcheon’s promotion and hopefully he’ll be very productive. However, Morgan’s 5 for 23 performance (.217) won’t cut it when he is needed to get on base to score some runs. He’ll certainly get plenty of chances with McLouth gone.
4) FREDDY SANCHEZ: Freddy had a tough week at the plate, going 4 for 27. While Sanchez is still one of the best hitters in the league, batting .148 for a week is definitely not good. However, expect Freddy to bounce back quickly as he’s simply too good to go into a prolonged slump.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday , 7:00 PM EST @ Atlanta, Zach Duke (6-4, 2.62 ERA) vs. Kenshin Kawakami (3-6, 4.63 ERA)
Tuesday , 7:00 PM EST @ Atlanta, Ross Ohlendorf (5-5, 4.85 ERA) vs. Derek Lowe (6-3, 3.40 ERA)
Wednesday : 7:00 PM EST @ Atlanta, Jeff Karstens (2-3, 5.30 ERA) vs. Jair Jurrjens (5-3, 2.84 ERA)
Thursday : 1:00 PM EST @ Atlanta, Paul Maholm (4-2, 3.94 ERA) vs. Javier Vasquez (4-5, 3.54 ERA)
Friday : 7:05 EST vs. Detroit, Ian Snell (1-6, 5.54 ERA) vs. Rich Porcello (6-4, 3.98 ERA)
Saturday : 7:05 EST vs. Detroit, Duke (6-4, 2.62 ERA) vs. Armando Gallaraga (3-6, 5.31 ERA)
Sunday 1:35 PM EST vs. Detroit, Ohlendorf (5-5, 4.85 ERA) vs. Dontrelle Willis (1-3, 6.84 ERA)
The Pirates not only have to deal with losing McLouth in their clubhouse but now have to deal with him on the opposing team. The Pirates have four games against the Braves and will look to take advantage of the light-hitting Atlanta lineup as they continue to battle towards .500. The Pirates throw their 3 best starters in this series, so a 3-1 result isn’t unrealistic but the Braves have some very good pitching of their own. However, with the Pirates’ recent run of success against elite pitchers, look for them to light up one of the Braves’ 3 starters boasting ERAs at 3.54 or better. This will be a difficult series thanks to McLouth’s presence.
The Pirates then go home to continue interleague play against Detroit. However, Friday night’s game could be the ultimate afterthought in both cities as their hockey teams could be playing in a winner take all Game 7 for the Stanley Cup. That might mean both sides could miss seeing Detroit’s young star hurler, Rich Porcello, who is one of the brightest young stars in the majors. The Pirates need to take advantage of Detroit’s poor starting pitching in the series’ final two games as they face two starters with astronomical ERAs. Taking 2 out of 3 would be considered a success.
Despite losing McLouth, the simple fact is that the Buccos are still a young and talented team that sits at 26-30. They’re just under .500 and are coming off of a strong week at the plate. While they only hit one home run last week and are among the major league’s worst in home run numbers, the Buccos could be a very effective small ball squad with their new speed atop the order. Another strong week at 4-3 or 5-2 would go a long way to restoring this team’s confidence after trading McLouth and keep them moving towards evening their season mark.
Expect Bax’s Bucco Blog to be a weekly feature every Monday. If you have any comments, questions, grievances, Bucco sob stories or general insults, feel free to email me at matt.baxendell@gmail.com
By: Matt Baxendell
MLBcenter.com Pittsburgh Pirates Correspondent
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