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History Brewing for Pirates

Posted: Mar 23rd 2009 7:30PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Filed under: Pirates, NL Central, FanHouse Previews

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For the better part of the last decade, the Pittsburgh Pirates aimlessly wandered through the wilderness of baseball with Kevin McClatchy and Dave Littlefield at the helm. Finally, they lost their jobs and Frank Coonelly and Neal Huntington took over. For more than a year, the new front office has been working on digging out of the hole dug by Littlefield during his reign of terror. There's only one real problem: The hole dug by Littlefield was so deep that it's going to take more than a year to dig out of it.

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Was It All Worth It for the Dodgers?

Posted: Oct 16th 2008 1:18PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Filed under: Dodgers, NL West

4 COMMENTS

The Phillies are the National League champions. As Jacob mentioned earlier, this obviously means that the Dodgers are not and that they're facing a pretty good amount of uncertainty this winter with a lot of players, namely Manny Ramirez, Rafael Furcal, and Casey Blake all facing free agency at the end of this season. Without Furcal and Ramirez, the Dodgers don't even win the 84 games that they won in 2008 and there's a good chance they miss the playoffs. That begs and important question: was the spending spree that General Manager Ned Colletti went on at the trade deadline to acquire Ramirez and Blake worth it?

For Blake, the Dodgers traded minor league reliever Jonathon Meloan and minor league catcher Carlos Santana to the Indians. For Ramirez, they traded Andy LaRoche and minor league pitcher Bryan Morris to the Pirates as part of the three-way trade that involved Jason Bay. That's four pretty decent prospects for two months of Ramirez, who was awesome, and two months of Blake, who was not.

I suppose the first question is whether or not just making the playoffs is enough. The Dodgers probably could've given the Diamondbacks, who fell apart down the stretch, a run for their money with someone much less talented than Manny Ramirez. Still, that's a futile line of reasoning. The Dodgers won the division with Manny Ramirez and they beat the Cubs because Casey Blake enabled them to not have to start Angel Berroa or Jeff Kent at second base. Still, four prospects for four months that didn't result in even a pennant?

Continue Reading Was It All Worth It for the Dodgers?

Who Won and Lost During Trading Season?

Posted: Jul 31st 2008 9:08PM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
Filed under: Astros, Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cubs, Dodgers, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, MLB Transactions

7 COMMENTS

Take a deep breath, baseball fans. The dust has settled after another trading deadline, and what a deadline it was. Three future Hall of Famers were moved. So was a reigning Cy Young winner and two former All-Stars. And we haven't talked about Rich Harden yet. Undoubtedly, 2008 was the most entertaining trading season in recent memory for baseball fans.

MLB Players on the Move

After years of near-misses, the Red Sox finally send disgruntled slugger Manny Ramirez packing. Ramirez lands with the Dodgers as part of a three-way deal.

Christian Petersen, Getty Images

Former All-Star Jason Bay winds up in Boston as the other major piece of the three-way deal. Pittsburgh receives two prospects apiece from the Dodgers and Red Sox for its part in the trade.

Nick Laham, Getty Images

In the final year of his contract, the Reds send Ken Griffey Jr. to the AL Central-leading White Sox in exchange for two prospects, including sinker-balling pitcher Nick Masset.

David Kohl, AP

In need of a big bat for October, the Angels acquired Mark Teixeira from the Braves in exchange for first baseman Casey Kotchman and a pitching prospect.

Elise Amendola, AP

With fixture Jorge Posada out for the season, the Yankees moved swiftly to get Ivan Rodriguez, sending reliever Kyle Farnsworth to Detroit in return for the Gold Glove catcher.

Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

The Brewers made the first big move of trading season, acquiring reigning AL Cy Young winner CC Sabathia from Cleveland for a package of four prospects, including Matt LaPorta.

Jeff Roberson, AP

The Cubs bolstered an already deep starting rotation by acquiring Rich Harden from the A's. Oakland also sent relief pitcher Chad Gaudin to Chicago and received pitcher Sean Gallagher, outfielder Matt Murton, infielder Eric Patterson and catcher Josh Donaldson in return.

Charles Rex Arbogast, AP

The Phillies got much-needed rotation depth in the form of Joe Blanton from Oakland. The A's received three prospects, including second baseman Adrian Cardenas and pitcher Josh Outman.

Seth Wenig, AP

Florida acquires one of the many left-handed relievers on the market, adding Arthur Rhodes from Seattle for minor league pitcher Gaby Hernandez.

Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

The Yankees also added depth for the stretch run, landing outfielder Xavier Nady and reliever Damaso Marte for a package of four prospects that included right fielder Jose Tabata.

Getty Images (2)

Truth be told, it will take years before we know who helped themselves or hurt themselves at the 2008 trade deadline. That's just the way it is when boom-or-bust prospects are involved. But here's an educated (and roughly ordered) guess anyway at which teams won and which teams lost now that the July 31 deadline has come and gone.

Winners

Angels: With a double-digit lead in the AL West, the Angels didn't need to do anything to get to October. They went out and got slugging first baseman Mark Teixeira anyway, and it's nothing short of a coup. For all the praise heaped upon Mike Scioscia's throwback run-at-all costs strategy, it hasn't done much for Los Angeles in the postseason. The Halos have scored 17 runs in their last eight postseason games dating back to 2005, and they don't have single regular slugging over .500 this year. They needed a bat to go all the way in October, and that's just what they got in Teixeira.

Continue Reading Who Won and Lost During Trading Season?

The Pittsburgh Pirates Might Actually Know What They're Doing

Posted: Jul 31st 2008 8:03PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Filed under: Pirates, NL Central

3 COMMENTS

You know Manny Ramirez has gone to Los Angeles. That's the big news. The national news that everyone will be talking about all night and into tomorrow. But the trade was three-team trade, and a pretty layered one at that. Most people's reaction to the Pittsburgh Pirates' trading Jason Bay is going to be, "Well, I guess the Pirates are rebuilding again. Snicker." The question is, is that really what happened?

In return for their best player the Pirates received Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris, Brandon Moss, and Craig Hansen. LaRoche is one of the Dodgers' best prospects with a great minor league track record and the potential to be an All-Star at second or third base. Morris is coming off of Tommy John surgery, but seems to have bounced back nicely this year and projects as a high end starter for the Pirates in a couple of years. Moss and Hansen are nice players that the Pirates can use to fill holes on the team that they have right now. Not one of these guys was filer or a throw-in. The Pirates got two really good prospects and two useful players in return for Bay.

The problem the Pirates have had is that previous front offices have had no idea how to rebuild. They continually tried to improve the major league team while ignoring the minors, creating a painful void of talent that kept the team perptually stuck in the mud. Today, they hit the jackpot for Bay and combined with a good draft and the trade they made last week, it looks like the Pirates might be headed in the right direction for the first time in years.