An Era Ends, A New Era Begins

Once again, trades bring back the other contributor to this blog, but this time I bring a much different attitude and message. I'll be the first to say it: when I last posted on June 3rd (yikes...sorry again John), I was an emotional wreck because of a trade not made with emotions, but with pure business and baseball intentions. I was an idiot for calling it wrong.

It doesn't matter that Andrew McCutcheon has quickly become a Rookie of the Year contender. The trade wasn't made simply to move him up, but rather because Neal Huntingdon truely believed he got a steal from Atlanta for one player. Why did Huntingdon believe this? Because he has a plan. Let me repeat that, just to make sure Dave Littlefield can hear me: HE HAS A PLAN. And not only is he talking the talk, he's walking the walk. He made one thing clear: his goal is to acquire as much talent as possible and put it in the Pirates' system, whether it be through trades (including saying that no one is untouchable) or the draft. He's doing that and your mom's dishes.

Lets recap...since Opening Day, he's traded Nate McLouth, Nyjer Morgan, Sean Burnett, Adam LaRoche, Jack Wilson, Ian Snell, and Freddy Sanchez for Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, Gorkys Hernandez, Joel Hanrahan, Lastings Milledge, Argenis Diaz, Hunter Strickland, Ronny Cedeno, Jeff Clement, Nathan Adcock, Brett Lorin, Aaron Pribanic, and Tim Alderson. That's seven former players from the Major League roster for thirteen current or future players. On sheer numbers alone, that's good, but not only is quantity important, quality is. Of those thirteen, eight (Morton, Locke, Hernandez, Milledge, Clement, Adcock, Lorin, Alderson) have the potential to be impact players every day. Morton (who has already shown us how good his raw stuff is), Locke, Adcock, Lorin, and Alderson are all above average pitching prospects, immediately doubling the amount the Pirates have in their system (Ross The Boss Ohlendorf, Brad Lincoln, Bryan Morris, Rudy Owens, and Brian Leach). Clement was the 3rd overall pick in 2005 and has great power. Milledge is still a top prospect despite his off-the-field issues. And Hernandez is a five-tool center fielder in the Andrew McCutcheon mold. I think we got the quantity and quality both covered.

Now, lets look at who was traded, and lets remember also that we're not breaking up the 1927 Yankees here. As good as some of these players are, and as much as we like them, they still haven't brought the end to our losing streak. Of the seven that were traded, you can only argue that one player, Nate McLouth, was both performing to his potential and still ahead of his prime. Nyjer, Jack, and Freddy were all having decent years, but Nyjer is an unproven 29 year-old and Jack and Freddy are on the other side of their primes (and their contracts were way too expensive). The others, Burnett, LaRoche, and Snell, never reached their potential, and any return for them in a trade would be a gift. Yes, some of these players were among the most popular on the team, and personally as a fan, I was sad to see Nate, Nyjer, Jack and Freddy go. But the return in each trade has been anywhere between a complete steal and acceptable; gone are the days of Aramis Ramirez for Bobby Hill.

As a fan, its hard to still not be cynical. Seventeen straight losing seasons does that to you. Trading away literally all of the popular players in the last two seasons does that to you. I can promise you the only fans left are the true ones. Just go to any game that isn't a fireworks night and you'll know what I mean. But despite all that, and the fact that I currently have Oasis ringing through my ears, I am not cynical. I said it at the beginning of the season, and Neal Huntingdon has reaffirmed it all year: this team is heading in a good direction. Huntingdon has a plan and he's sticking to it, and he's actually executing it pretty well. He's had two great drafts (Side note: For all of you hating on the Tony Sanchez pick right now, you'll love him in two years when all of Ryan Doumit's injuries catch up to him. Sanchez is straight from the Pudge Rodriguez mold, mark my words.) and his trades have added loads of talent into a Minor League system that was bare bones when he inherited it. Will all of these prospects pan out into great Major League players? Of course not, but Neal Huntingdon knows that, which is why he won't stop adding talent. You can never have too many prospects.

So as of this moment, I'm actually very excited about our Buccos. McCutcheon (from now on known as Cutch) is a star, and now my new number 1 candidate for a shirt/jersey. The Garrett Jones Experience is the new darling of the team, a 28 year old rookie with disgusting power (he's the left handed bat Adam LaRoche should have been). The starting pitching is still holding its own (Charlie Morton's fastball should have its own blog). And maybe John Russell isn't such a bad manager after all.

So once again, this season just proves that being a Pirate fan is never uneventful. If I don't write again for another two months, its nice to know I'm in a much better frame of mind this time.

And yes, John and I are still friends.