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.
