So it's been two years since I last decided to say anything here. I've gotten a few stray comments here and there, so I guess someone is reading. Or not. Whatever.
Tonight I've been jolted back into a ranting mood by news I never saw coming. I'm watching MLB Network when I see a crawl go across the bottom of the screen saying the Pirates have traded Nate McLouth to the Atlanta Braves for prospects. First I sat there dumbfounded, reading it and then rewinding it on the DVR to make sure I saw what I saw. Then I searched the Web. The Internets never lie, you know.
Why do I not give up on the Pirates? I've given up on everything else. They've clearly given up on me and every other Pittsburgher. But it's like an addiction or something. I've got MLB Extra Innings, so I can watch whatever game I want, but who do I turn on every night? Pirates. Why do I do that? Lanny Frattare is retired now, so I don't even have the nostalgia factor working there anymore. I was spared the three-hour treat tonight of listening to Greg Brown try to spin this trade as a good thing because the Pirates and Mets got rained out. Hey, they beat Johan Santana last night, so less than 24 hours later they trade away their best player. Makes perfect sense, right?
God damn, am I sick of watching this team sell off its top talent. Jason Bay, Xavier Nady, Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt. Yeah, I'm perfectly well aware that I can't hold the current management accountable for stuff that happened before they took over. So what? Whether they like it or not, this franchise has a well-deserved reputation for dumping its top talent and getting players of empty promise in return. And here's the thing ... a great way to not get lumped in with the old management would be to -- wait for it -- stop getting rid of all the best players.
I'm still devastated over Ramirez. We traded one of the best third basemen in baseball and Kenny Lofton, who was hitting .277 at the time, for Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill and some guy named Matt Bruback, who never made it to the majors. Hill was a marginal middle infielder. And Hernandez? Hoo boy. You're talking about one of the most notoriously undisciplined hitters in baseball at the time -- he hasn't played since 2006. Want numbers? He has more career strikeouts (1,391) than hits (1,166). He struck out 56 times in 58 games after the Pirates acquired him in 2003. Then they released him. Two years and 121 strikeouts later -- after the Dodgers and Indians had both seen enough and let him walk as a free agent -- the Pirates re-signed him. He managed to strike out only 29 times and get 32 hits in 67 games in 2006 before they somehow managed to convince the Phillies to buy his contract.
Meanwhile, Ramirez has hit 200 homers and driven in 671 runs since the trade. I may never get over that one, which doesn't bode well for handling this McLouth thing. Then again, given the team's recent history, I had already resigned myself to losing Bay last year, so it softened the blow when it happened. It's like clockwork. They're going to get dumped as soon as they're marketable. But nobody saw this coming. The Pirates just signed McLouth to a three-year deal in February, and team president Frank Coonelly was quoted by the Post-Gazette saying that McLouth's deal and others the team signed with Ryan Doumit and Paul Maholm, "reflect our commitment to build a strong core from within our system.’’
But I guess that was February. Lots has changed. You've got a team that finally is pitching well, save for Ian Snell. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Bob Smizik that Snell needs a minor league stint to get his shit together. Other than that, all they need to do is score some damn runs. It's the first week of June, and yeah, they're in fifth place. But they're only six games out. So what do they do? Trade the team leader in home runs and runs batted in.
Yeah, yeah, I know you have to look at what you get in return in a trade, and this time the buzz is that one of the pitchers Atlanta gave us is ready for the big leagues now. The other pitcher in the deal is getting rocked in Class A ball this season. And they gave us an outfielder we don't really need, but he's in Class A too. And if history tells us anything, the guys the Pirates get in these deals rarely pan out anyway.
It's yet another sad day for the Pirates. But we're used to it. And how much do we really care? The Penguins are in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second year in a row. By the time they drop the puck Thursday night for Game 4, it'll have been 24 hours since news of this trade came out. At that point, how many people do you think will give a shit who these guys are that the Pirates got in this trade?
The Steelers go to camp July 27. All will be right with the world then.
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