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Yesterday the Pittsburgh Pirates sent utilityman and 2002 AL Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske to the New York Yankees, and Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett to the Washington Nationals. From the Yankees, the Bucs acquired two minor leaguers, and from the Nats, reliever Joel Hanrahan and outfielder/waste of life Lastings Milledge.
Earlier this year, they sent Nate McClouth to the Atlanta Braves and last season they traded Jason Bay to the Red Sox and Xavier Nady to the Yanks.
I’ll be blunt: The Pittsburgh Pirates are easily the worst franchise in baseball—not the worst team, but the worst franchise. Every now and then, you have to sign one of your talents to a multi-year deal. Instead of hoping they don’t leave you for free agency and thus trading them away, you have to pay a little more money and keep them on the roster.
Yes, they may have made a good move (in retrospect) by trading Nady (because he will now have Tommy John surgery), but, on the whole, they never make the right move. They were pawns in the Manny Ramirez deal, losing current Boston icon Jason Bay and receiving virtually nothing in return. And to trade McClouth!? Are you insane!? Your only all star!? A potential five tool player!?
And now, they trade away a left-handed bat in Morgan who has the potential to hit over .280 and steal 40 bases. As well, they deal a pretty young left-handed arm in Burnett.
My main criticism of the Pirates is not even that they trade away their great young talent, but that they get relatively little in return. And if they do get something in return, they end up trading it away. They need new management, plain and simple. They need to make some sort of major change that affects the entire franchise. New ownership, new management, something. It’s not the coaching staff. It’s not the players. They try to win. It’s the guys who never step on the field who don’t.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Atlanta, Boston, Braves, Eric Hinske, Franchise, Jason Bay, Joel Hanrahan, Lastings Milledge, Manny Ramirez, Nate McClouth, Nationals, New York, Nyjer Morgan, Pirates, Pittsburgh, Red Sox, Rookie of the Year, Sean Burnett, Washington, Xavier Nady, Yankees
You are SO right! Great post. Peter
I have no clue what Huntington is doing. A player like Bay, they should have got blue chip prospects for. Instead they opted for a couple of guys that coupld play in the big leagues right away, but have low ceilings.
When you trade a star player, you get blue chippers back, like Cleveland did with Sabathia.
Now he is absolutely butchering the Ian Snell situation.
I feel terrible for Pirates fans.
[...] I wrote about the Pirates earlier this month, calling them the worst franchise in baseball for trading away all their young talent while not getting anything substantial back. In this instance, I believe they made the right moves. [...]