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?