He’s not young talent but I wouldn’t be shocked if the Marlins traded Dan Uggla. They’re getting tired of going through arbitration wars with him every season. I think it’ll depend on where the Marlins are in the standings in the next 9 days.
It looks like the Red Sox are collecting once touted players who subsequently fell off the map.
Wow. It’s like the Pirates are doing everything they can to make sure they never have a winning season again.
It’s the annual tradition for the Pittsburgh Pirates. If they have talent Last year they traded away Xavier Nady Damaso Marte and Jason Bay. This season it’s Nyjer Morgan, Nate McLouth, Eric Hinske, and Adam Laroche. They’re like the Salvation Army for teams in a pennant race.
Kind of like they used Brian Giles to get Jason Bay and Oliver Perez, only to trade-deadline the two of them away in later years?
Oliver Perez…there’s a good joke.
It looked like the Pirates robbed the Padres the first year after that trade was made. Oliver Perez had a great season in 2004 (ERA under 3, 200 K’s) and Jason Bay was the rookie of the year. For a while it almost seemed like the Pirates had hope of once again becoming a winning franchise with the cornerstones on the team to build around. Being the Pirates however they went ahead and blew it. They couldn’t get guys around these players and the rest is history.
It would have helped the Pirates if they didn’t give Aramis Ramirez away to the Cubs for scrubs.
I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I saw the LaRoche trade to the Sox. Last year, it was Jason Bay to the Sox. I’m honestly trying to think like a GM would and I just can’t grasp my mind of what is going on in that man’s head. Poor Pirates fans. 16 years and not a winning season in sight. And what’s worse, how are the players supposed to be motivated?
Let’s not compare Adam LaRoche to Jason Bay. Bay is an all-star. Laroche is an all-scrub. Getting anything for him is a good deal. I didn’t like the McLouth trade because I don’t think they got enough back. The other trades are fine. The Pirates franchise isn’t screwed because they gave up Nyjer Morgan and Adam Laroche. Come on now.
So Garrett Jones goes to 1B now, and Bradon Moss in RF and Andrew McCutchen in CF? I thought they were going to call up Milledge after the trade, but that apparently hasn’t happened yet. Can’t imagine that he’s getting blocked by Delwyn Young and Jeff Salazar.
Anyway, the LaRoche trade means nothing, Pirates fans are happy they managed to dump his $7 million contract on the Sox. That’s bullshit that teams like Boston can outbid everyone for outrageous free agent signings and then just cut them later and eat all of the overpriced contract they originally gave to outbid all the other teams, like with Lugo. And now this, just adding another prorated $7 million bat on the bench just because they can.
Do you know why your mind can’t grasp what’s happening? It’s because you’re a Yankees fan, you have no concept of how regular team management works for the rest of the league.
There is this thing that other teams have, called a “payroll.” They only have a certain amount of money to spend on their team, and in those situations you need to maximize the value of every dollar you’re paying to make a team.
It’s not like Boston or New York where if there’s a hole on the team, and you can just throw $100 million at it. If you’re paying your first basemen $7 million to hit at a clip of .770 OPS…that’s not good value. And even the prorated portion of a $7 million contract is a lot to a team like Pittsburg.
This is a good salary dump for the Pirates - LaRoche was giving the team nothing, so it’s a good move even actually finding someone to take him off their hands for free.
The McLouth move is questionable because they didn’t get a lot back for him, and he’s a great player with a very managable contract - he’s the type of great value that you need a lot of to succeed on a small payroll like the Pirates…which is what made it so questionable.
But his (internal) replacement on the Pirates has been outhitting him so far on a minimum rookie contract…so maybe even that move wasn’t too bad.
Nate McLouth with ATL: .258/.330/.440
Andrew McCutchen: .296/.351/.458
…though I certainly think I’d rather have BOTH of them instead of just McCutchen.
But you still have to wait to see how the package for McLouth turns out - Gorkys Hernandez in particular was Atlanta’s 4th best prospect or something, he could still turn out great. The only problem with the package is that all the guys are so low level prospects…it’ll be years before you know how good they’ll be. I think Hernandez is only going to AA and the other two pitchers are like just single A or something.
I still say Adam LaRoche is a good player, he is not an All Star but he will hit .260 with 20 hr and 70+ rbi every year.
He had the one big year with the Braves where he hit 32 homeruns and had an OPS over 900.Every other season for the most part he’s been junk. Until after the all-star break.
For whatever reason he’s been on fire in the second halves of seasons since 2006. In the 2nd half of the 06 season he had an OPS of 1.042. In 2007 he had an .854 OPS. Not great but better than the 1st half (.763). Last season he had a .975 OPS after the all-star break.
Maybe the Red Sox are trying to catch lightning in a bottle and give a temporary boost to their lineup that’s been struggling to score runs lately.
that is the best avatar i’ve ever seen. i love you.
back to baseball… i completely agree. i don’t know wtf the pirates are thinking. when the “newness” of the stadium wears off, i’m not sure how they plan on filling seats.
scratches head Yes…I’m aware of what a “payroll” is. I’m aware the Pirates don’t have the payroll the Sox/Yanks/Tigers do. However, I still think, like other people in the thread, it was a dumb move by the Pirates. If you think it was a good move, fantastic, but obviously it has nothing to do w/me being a Yankees fan.
zeetes: Thanks! Man love right back at ya
These are two conflicting statements.
Mark Buehrle has a perfect game through 7 innings. Yeah I said it. I don’t believe in jinxes.
Make that 8 innings.
Perfect game.
The 9th was ridiculous. Good shit to Buehrle.
Catch of the year
Catch of the … eon. When you consider the stakes involved I think it’s the best catch I’ve ever seen.