Walking the plank

Ahh, the trade deadline.  The annual Buccos housecleaning. 

Today was a tough one.

At first I was pissed.  Furious.  I wanted that damn Littlefield strung up.  But then I started thinking...really...what's the point...

It's the Bucs.  This is how it goes.

Here's a quick summary of the day's activities:

Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez went to the Mets for Xavier Nady.  That's right...Oliver Perez, the guy the Pirates plastered all over the official website and all over your season tickets and all over the rest of that other crap, the one-time "future" of the Pirates, got shipped out for a .260 hitting, no-position, broken-wristed bum named Xavier.  Yep, Littlefield's big coup already comes injured.

Then there's Blondie.  Craig Wilson went over to the darkside in return for Shawn Chacon.  Christ... I wouldn't give Shawn Chacon a start on my little sister's slow pitch softball team.  And yes, he's now here to anchor the rotation.

Kip Wells went to the Rangers for Minor League "ace" Jesse Chavez. Thus ends the Kip Wells era. 

Sean Casey went to Detroit for some bum minor leaguer named Brian Rogers.  I don't know a thing about him.  But I'll bet you he sucks.  Good for Casey though.  I'm happy for him, glad he could escape.  He's had a good career.  Time to go get a ring.  No reason he should be stuck here.  No reason any of these guys should be stuck here.

Honestly, what is the point of having major leaguers here?  There is absolutely zero chance of this team competing for a championship.  Why not just field all minor leaugers.  We could do the rest of the league's scouting for them.  Or maybe locals?  Wouldn't that be something.  We could field a team of all local Burgh boys.  Firemen, store owners, school teachers.  Hell, I might be more likely to pay to see that.   The results couldn't be any worse.

So, why you ask...why would the Pirates do all this crap.  Pretty simple.  Here's how much money the owners saved themselves yesterday (thanks to JC Steel for the math):

- Roberto Hernandez (.35 of season left at $2.75M), save $0.9625 million

- Oliver Perez (.35 of $1.9M), save $0.665 million

- Sean Casey (.35 of $7.5M), save $2.625 million

- Kip Wells (.35 of $4.15M), save $1.4525 million

- Craig Wilson (.35 of $3.3M), save $1.155 million

+ Xavier Nady (.35 of $427,000), cost $149,450

+ Shawn Chacon (.35 of $3.6M), cost $1.26 million

+ 2 AA or so minor-leaguers, cost ~ $60,000 for balance of the year

TOTAL SAVINGS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE YEAR

$5.39055 million

There you go.  There's your answer.  As long as the Nutting family continues playing Don Corleone behind the scenes nothing's going to change.  Nothing.

The only way things are going to change if the fans make a stand and stop paying for this crap.  Of course, that's not going to happen.

So, as far as I can see, we're screwed until somebody else buys the team.  Not exactly new news, but yesterday sure hammered it home pretty hard.

Comments

[Justin Robert Young]

Now that Cuban is out of the running for the Pens can we begin an organized begging session for him to buy the Bucs?

Also, look on the bright side, at least they didn't trade Duke or Sanchez just to fuck with us.

Justin Robert Young
www.MediaBitchfest.com

[Joe]

Breathe deeply. You know that no one the Buccos traded yesterday is anything like a long term solution for this team. Casey was great to have around for a bit, but he's, at best, an injury-prone supplement for a contending team that already has some semblance of power at the plate. His range at first is limited--at best. I mean, the Pirates got him for Dave Williams, for Pete's sake. The Pirates aren't the only team that doesn't see an enormous amount of vaule in the guy. Bringing him here in the first place was a blatant PR move.

Wilson strikes out as if it were his job. Apparently he also befouled David Litlefield's marraige bed or something and couldn't get on the field at all.

Wells, last start aside, has been terrible for years.

Hernandez is 41 and no better than any number of middle relievers.

Perez may end up being a tolerable pitcher again, but I doubt it. If he does, he's the only one of the five that I'd miss.

Nady and Chacon aren't particularly impressive, but considering who the Pirates got rid of, they're about the best we could expect. If they wanted a very good player, they'd have to give up one--Bay, Sanchez, the remaining Wilson, one of the young pitchers--and we can't afford to do that. On the whole, we traded marginal talent with no future for less expensive marginal talent that could pay off a bit (Nady's playing fairly well and Chacon has had a couple of good years--better than anything we've ever seen from Wells and Perez, excepting 2004.)

Let the young guys play out the year and grow as a team. Take the savings from this trade and plow it into a quality starter or left-handed bat and hope for the best. Getting rid of Randa and Burnitz for a season pass to Six Flags and a gross of Egyptian cotton towels (or marginal prospects) needs to be a priority leading up to the gotta-clear-waivers trade deadline.

(I do agree, however, that the team would be better off wihout the involvement of the Nuttings or McClatchy. Particularly the Nuttings. That's the only thing that bothers me about this trad deadline salary dump: That it will go into the Nutting/McClatchy bank accounts and not into one or two decent players for 2007.)

God, that was long. Sorry.

[Moonshine Mike]

I agree on the Nutting Family. They will pocket this money as part of their 20% return on investment and consider themselves ahead of the game. Do they sit home in Wheeling and laugh at the people who go to the games knowning they don't give a rat's ass what happens to the team?

[Jojosh the Pi]

Just happy to be a Marlins fan. Would you like if I talked them into lending their GM for a couple weeks? Perhaps the Bucco front office can see it's possible to field a non-pathetic team with no salary.

[J_C_Steel]

I was darn close on my savings calculator...

The Dejan Kovacevic article in the Post-Gazette now figures the savings to be $5.4 million (I had $5.35 million):

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06213/710169-63.stm