DownSwinging.com

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been making early moves in the trade season, sending Eric Hinske to the Yankees for two minor-league prospects and trading Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett to the Nats for Lastings Milledge and Joel Hanrahan. Pirates players are complaining yet again that while they accept the fact that they have little control over front office matters, they are not happy with the moves being made. In the players’ eyes, they’re six games out of first place in a very tight division, and should be making a run for it. Not gonna happen. There’s a huge difference between being six games out and being in second place and being six games out and being in last place (in a six team division no less). The fact of the matter is that the Bucs weren’t going to make the playoffs this year, regardless of where they stood in April or today on July 1, they don’t have the talent to best all five other teams in their division.

I’ve said it before, I agree with the idea that the Pirates should be selling off their parts to rebuild, again. The only questions here are: Were these the right parts to sell and did they get enough in return?

I think the Hinske trade is the easier one, so I’ll talk about it first. I like this deal, from both ends actually. The Pirates aren’t going to win a championship by hanging onto a guy like Eric Hinske, so trading him to a contender like the Yankees who can use him in the short term makes sense. Also, even though the prospects they got are in the lower levels of the minors, I have heard they are solid, which is all you can really ask for.

So the real issue is whether the Morgan/Milledge deal was worth it to the Pirates. The answer: maybe, but probably not. Let me start by saying that one piece of the puzzle that needs resolving is Nyjer Morgan’s defense. I have read that according to UZR Morgan is the best defensive outfielder at the game, but other sources have said that he is below average. Let me start by saying that if he is indeed an excellent defender than this deal was not good for the Bucs, any player with a strong talent, be it offensively and defensively (and he is no slouch offensively) should not be traded when he is only in his third season (if you count his 107 AB 2007). But if he indeed is a bad outfielder, there could be some merits. Lastings Milledge was undoubtedly regarded as an extremely talented player, he just hasn’t shown it in the majors yet. If he can keep his attitude in control, you can’t deny he is a high upside player. High risk, but high upside. You can probably say the same about Hanrahan, he’s a high risk but a fairly high upside guy too.

All in all, Pirates GM Neal Huntington is rolling the dice a little bit, and I can’t fault him for that. With so many losing seasons, something’s gotta go your way at some time.