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1. RepozAllowing the Bucs to call up Milledge!
Oof. ADD humor?
On the other hand, the Red Sox aren't really getting much either. LaRoche's bat is weak for a 1B in the NL Central; it may prove damn near unplayable in the AL East. And his ballyhooed defense is the Ausmus Effect*; plus/minus actually rates him as consistently downright bad for five years running. He's an average glove at best. And he's a free agent in two months, and I assume not a Type A. So it's a pretty 'eh' trade.
* Ausmus Effect: when people see a guy who doesn't hit up to the standards of his position, but plays every day anyway, and assume he must therefore be an awesome glove, and interpret all incoming evidence to fit that assumpion.
The interesting thing is, what are the Pirates going to do with Diaz? He's been in AA all year, but Altoona already has a shortstop (Brian Friday) who's been doing pretty well, but I don't think really well enough to move to AAA. Besides that, Brian Bixler's already manning SS in Indianapolis, and Friday's glove is good enough that you don't want to move him to 2B. So I imagine Diaz is going to A ball.
Unless this presages a Jack Wilson trade, which would allow for Bixler to move up to MLB and Friday to move up to AAA... neither is ready for it, but hey, this is the Pirates.
By the way, does it seem to anyone else like maybe the Pirates are consciously pursuing an organizational philosophy of playing strong defense (at least up the middle) and pitching to contact?
...but secretly relieved at no longer being known as An. Laroche in box scores!
No clue. They don't tell me nothin' anyway.
I don't think you can possibly offer him arbitration. He'll just take it.
It takes so damn long to type, though!
Is that so bad? I don't know exactly who he's comparable with, but he's coming off a $5m salary. If he's not due too much raise, on the field it's justifiable. The Pirates don't have an obvious internal replacement. Probably can't get anybody better in FA for the salary. Admittedly, I didn't know he's got an attitude issue.
I couldn't agree more; this is just ridiculous. It's like they're trying to prove that they're even more incompetent than the Royals and Nationals. It's amazing that Pirates fans don't just go into total revolt.
Is this sarcasm?
Reports are Diaz struggles with focus and on easy plays but makes hard stuff look easy. Oh, and he was already on the Sox 40 man.
For a team on a budget? Yeah, it's that bad, unless you like the idea of the Pirates getting reamed for somewhere close to $10M for a roughly league average 1B.
I'm not sure he merits it, but I assume Pedro Alvarez is the internal replacement. Maybe they expect him to be up by next spring, so they would save the cash that would be spent on Adam.
What Pirates fans?
Anyway, the Pirates didn't give up anything, so I don't know why you'd expect them to get anything back. Basically the Red Sox are taking LaRoche's remaining contract off their hands and saving them a little money.
Alvarez has been in AA for a month and at this point, if the game is close at all or if anyone's on base, AA pitchers just don't throw him fastballs anymore. It's breaking ball, breaking ball, breaking ball, breaking ball, and usually four pitches is all it takes to strike him out. He hits humongous bombs on the occasions when someone throws him a fastball over the plate, or hangs a slider. But Alvarez still can't hit breaking stuff, and therefore is not especially close to the majors. Unless something just instantly clicks for him, you can't expect him to be up before 2011. Jose Tabata is closer to being a major league hitter than Alvarez is (but then, I suspect Tabata is older than Alvarez is).
I thought you weren't with Fanhouse any longer...
If they need some more, the Pirates also have a shortstop and a couple lefthanded pitchers that still run great, lots of tread on the tires, and we'll even throw in the floormats, for the low, low price of Clay Buchholz...
No dice. He's a valued future white contributor himself. How about Junichi Tazawa, Stolmy Pimentel, Yamaico Navarro, or Che-Hsuan Lin?
Get Levski in here, stat. Buchholz and Bowden for Drew?
Some how this is all Jeff Suppan's fault. Suppan was originally a Red Sox before Arizona took him in the expansion draft. Then the sox traded Freddy Sanchez and Mike Gonzalez to the Pirates for 70 innings or so of 5.50+ ERA from Suppan. Gonzalez was swapped for Laroche a few years ago, and now Laroche is traded to Boston for a middle infield and a pitching prospect.
I see I see. Always assumed Boston gave up him and Sanchez for Suppan. Either I had forgotten or was oblivious to the Lyon part in the trade, well turned out to be "2 trades".
2. With the Bosox axquiring LaRoche, the Giants now become the front-runner in the Nick Johnson sweepstakes...if there is one. With the Mets' freefall, they may no longer be interested in Johnson.
The final nail in that coffin made of empathetic feeling will be when the Pirates put together the makings of a dynasty but move to Portland 2 years before it comes to fruition.
That's just the way MLB is these days. The Pirates will never be able to compete until they can get a new taxpayer-funded ballpark that will change their market size and allow them to better compete with the rich teams.
This is true, but not for the reasons you think.......
I have no idea if Huntington will dig the Pirates out of the mess they find themselves in, but he has not been on the job that long and took over a moribund organization. The Pirates were bereft of talent. Anyone that thinks the trades of Bay, Nady, McLouth, Morgan, Burnett or LaRoche is what makes the Pirates pathetic simply wasn't paying attention. Sadly enough none of those players were doing the Pirates any good at all. Will the collection of players brought back in these deals do the Pirates any good. The drafts. International signings. I got no idea. Obviously every move isn't going to work out. Maybe Huntington's talent evaluation skills will prove to be poor and nothing will work out and nothing will be different in three or four years. But Huntington is simply going about doing what had to be done.
When I got to the closed quote, I assumed the next part would be " - where was it they traded me?"
I'd like to see Johnson to the Braves. The Nats don't have much leverage cause Johnson isn't gonna qualify for draft pick compensation, right?
I hadn't heard the Braves involvvd in this Johnson talk, but until a few days ago neither were the Giants. The Mets and Red Sox were discussed as possble trade destinations for quite a few months -- perhaps because their baseball media are more aggressive than Atlanta's or San Francisco's, perhaps because there are so many New York and Boston emigres in D.C..
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/pbc/default.aspx
LaRoche: 4.9 (batting) + -1.4 (fielding) = 3.5
Kotsay: -0.7 (wRAA) + 2.3 (UZR) = 1.6
Two run upgrade in half a season? That's practically equal. Seems like a pretty pointless trade.
I guess that means the Mets are stuck with Cora and Berroa for the time being.
Addition by subtraction.
Just went to bref, Chris Duncan has sucked the last 2 years. Here I thought he's been a 100 OPS+ type of player that kills lefties.
Maybe I'm missing what you're saying here. I know that the AL East is a better division than the NL Central, but it seems like you're saying that the AL East first basemen are better than the NL Central first basemen, and so LaRoche will look even worse by comparison. I don't see it. Between the two divisions, Runs Created, VORP, and OPS all suggest the ranking of first basemen to be something like this:
Pujols
Fielder
Votto
Youkilis
Berkman
Teixiera
Pena
Lee
Huff or LaRoche
LaRoche or Huff
Whoever Toronto Sends Out
LaRoche is terrible for a first baseman, but in the NL Central, it actually stands out more than it does in the AL East.
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