This July's trading deadline will be the third for the Pirates' current management regime, and team president Frank Coonelly predicts it will be the least active yet. Coonelly told Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he doesn't expect the team to trade away veterans this summer, the way they moved players like Jason Bay, Nate McLouth, and Xavier Nady in 2008 and 2009.
One reason for such an approach is the fact that the Pirates just don't have that many appealing veteran players left on their roster. While the club probably wouldn't mind finding a taker for players like Akinori Iwamura (.178/.289/.258) or Octavio Dotel (5.40 ERA), their 2010 performances so far will make dealing them challenging, though Dotel has been more effective lately, as Tim pointed out earlier this week.
With no fire sale imminent, Coonelly even suggests it "could be the reverse" of the past two July 31st deadlines, hinting that the Pirates could be buyers rather than sellers. For a club currently sitting in the NL Central cellar, 15 games below .500 and 11.5 games out of first place, that would be a pretty shocking move.
The more likely scenario for the Pirates is letting young players like Neil Walker, Jose Tabata, Brad Lincoln, and eventually Pedro Alvarez continue to gain major league experience for the rest of the season. If the team makes a couple low-cost acquisitions this winter that work out a little better than Iwamura and Dotel have so far, there should be some optimism for 2011.
Agreed on Dotel. the games (few) have seen him in, he has looked like just has not cared for some reason, but not sure it has earned him any “points” with getting moved to a contender either.
The shocker to me has been Aki. His knee must be in awful shape. His range has been brutal when have seen him and his bat awfully slow. Whatever happened to the guy who was able to slap everything on the outside of the plate either down the L/F line, or into C/F? This is not even a shell of the guy from the last 2 years in Tampa. is it from being on a horrible Pirates team and losing on a day in/out basis?
Mets need some bullpen arms, why not add Dotel for a level B prospect?
Aki was hitting the ball pretty solid at the beginning of the season, and even of late. He is making good contact for the most part, but he hasn’t been finding gaps like he did in Tampa. He has a lot of opposite-field power, which is surprising to me.
Doumit and one or both of Maholm and Duke will be traded.
I agree on at least Doumit. They might be able to fetch a couple good pieces for a switch hitting catcher with power…although, he’s incredibly streaky and is on the downswing of one at the moment. Plus Tony Sanchez, should probably be close to coming up at some point in 2011.
Duke has been awful. Absolutely awful. They’d be selling low if anybody actually wanted the guy.
And as for Maholm, he’s the only thing even resembling a decent pitcher on the staff right now. As horrendous as the pitching as been all the way around, I don’t think they can part ways with Maholm just to not become even more embarassing.
When will Alvarez be called up?
A lot of speculation going around that it might be Tuesday. There’s absolutely no justification in him being at AAA any more. It’s well into June, he is absolutely mashing the ball right now, he’s done everything that the organization has asked him to do, and Andy LaRoche is awful. I think the only reason (at least I hope) that he wasn’t called up with Lincoln and Tabata is that they want to debut him at home…hence Tuesday.
Thank you
I was looking at Pedro’s AAA stats tonight and there is one category where he is completely failing. Day games. He only bats .190 during them. Otherwise his BA would be about.340. On a separate note, what was up with the Pirates 4-3 loss tonight. The only reason why they lost is because no one can throw to first. I would have them run that drill the next day till they can’t even lift their arms. They lost on fundamentals. Pedro can’t help them on that one.
formerdraftpick: They didn’t just lose that game on fundamentals…they’ve lost MANY games on fundamentals this year. They are, fundamentally, the worst Pirates team I’ve seen in years. They seem to be positioned in the OF poorly; their infield defense has gone downhill (with the loss of Perry Hill as the IF coach); “pounding the strikezone” has resulted in being 4th worst in WALKS, 2nd worst in ERA, and 3rd worst in hits allowed with a OBA of .358; runners have stolen bases successfully 84% of the time (58 of 69). I don’t care if you’re a “baseball” person, or a “numbers” person…none of this lies! I believe there is talent on the field…and if that is the case, at what point does coaching come into play? Every pitcher not holding runners…points to a systemic issue, a coaching issue. OF’ers pinching the gaps all the time…points to a systemic issue, a coaching issue. As for fielding…lets bring back the 80’s…when the teams took IF/OF before the game. Seriously, what they’re doing now isn’t working…change something.
formerdraftpick: They didn’t just lose that game on fundamentals…they’ve lost MANY games on fundamentals this year. They are, fundamentally, the worst Pirates team I’ve seen in years. They seem to be positioned in the OF poorly; their infield defense has gone downhill (with the loss of Perry Hill as the IF coach); “pounding the strikezone” has resulted in being 4th worst in WALKS, 2nd worst in ERA, and 3rd worst in hits allowed with a OBA of .358; runners have stolen bases successfully 84% of the time (58 of 69). I don’t care if you’re a “baseball” person, or a “numbers” person…none of this lies! I believe there is talent on the field…and if that is the case, at what point does coaching come into play? Every pitcher not holding runners…points to a systemic issue, a coaching issue. OF’ers pinching the gaps all the time…points to a systemic issue, a coaching issue. As for fielding…lets bring back the 80’s…when the teams took IF/OF before the game. Seriously, what they’re doing now isn’t working…change something.
Yeah, that ‘couple of low-cost aquisitions’ each winter has warn out it’s welcome in Pittsburgh. If Nutting thinks he can get by with that smoke and mirrors investment one more time he is stupider than he looks. You can only give away so many novelty items to bring in paying customers while the team is floundering in the basement constantly and running up 8 and 10 game losing streaks. If the Pittsburgh fans ever suddenly realize they are having the wool pulled over their eyes as far as investing in actual major league talent, watch out, Mr. Nutting. You are making money now, but if your marks ever wake up to reality, you will quickly find yourself losing money when no more rubes can be found to waste their time and money watching annoyingly frustrating losing baseball.
Yeah, that ‘couple of low-cost aquisitions’ each winter has warn out it’s welcome in Pittsburgh. If Nutting thinks he can get by with that smoke and mirrors investment one more time he is stupider than he looks. You can only give away so many novelty items to bring in paying customers while the team is floundering in the basement constantly and running up 8 and 10 game losing streaks. If the Pittsburgh fans ever suddenly realize they are having the wool pulled over their eyes as far as investing in actual major league talent, watch out, Mr. Nutting. You are making money now, but if your marks ever wake up to reality, you will quickly find yourself losing money when no more rubes can be found to waste their time and money watching annoyingly frustrating losing baseball.
The Pirates are going to need to make some trades, even at the minor league level. Most of the guys that “were” considered prospects are going to be Rule V eligible this coming year. I think that is part of the reason why Eveland came to the Pirates and Bixler was traded for Brito. I don’t know that for a fact, just speculating. I do know that they all can’t be on the 40 man roster.