The New Kids

Two weeks in and the Nady/Marte trade is looking very nice. Jeff Karstens takes a perfect game into the eighth inning at Arizona after holding the Cubs scoreless for six innings at Wrigley Field in his previous start. 15 scoreless innings against two first place teams: very impressive. And the other two pitchers acquired from the Yankees, Ross Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutcheon, have both pitched fairly well for the AAA club. One of the more impressive aspects of their performances has been that they’ve consistently pitched into the seventh or eighth innings with a minimal number of walks. Very un-Piratelike of them, and I mean that in a good way. Oh, and let’s not forget young Jose Tabata, rehabbing from a hamstring injury with the Rookie level club in Bradenton. In a game a couple of days ago, he homered twice. Sure this was at about two or three levels below where he will be playing the rest of the season, but it’s encouraging nonetheless.

Post Deadline Thoughts

Though the Pirates had no realistic shot at the post season this year, let alone a winning record, the losses of Xavier Nady, Damaso Marte and Jason Bay do sting. Well, really only Bay. Marte had only 2 months left in Pittsburgh and Nady would have been gone at the end of next year. Bay, though also a free agent after the 2009 season, would have been more likely to have been offered an extension than Nady. So, knowing that Marte was leaving soon and Nady, who is having a career year, soon after, I was more than fine with trading them now.

The return they got from the Yankees for the pair may turn out to be very good, but it's a little early to tell. Jeff Karstens did pitch well in his Pirate debut yesterday, and with two other pitchers and young Jose Tabata in the mix, I am optimistic. So they weren't able to pry David Price from the Rays for Nady, and they didn't receive the equivalent of 2 first round picks for Marte (A little aside: The chances of the Pirates receiving 1 first round pick and a sandwich pick for Marte in the off season were very slim. The Bucs would have had to a) decline Marte's option, making him a free agent, b) have Marte qualify as a Type A free agent [possible], c) offer Marte Salary Arbitration, d) have another major league team be willing to sign Marte to a contract worth around 3 or 4 million per year and be willing to sacrifice their 1st round draft pick to the Pirates in order to sign Marte. If the Pirates tried for the 2 picks, they would probably end up taking Marte to arbitration and receiving no draft picks. Their better option would have been to not offer arbitration and just accept the sandwich pick. Sorry, that was a long aside.) So the Pirates, a team with absolutely no depth in the minor leagues, acquired some much needed reinforcements. Sure, only Tabata has a realistic chance of being a star someday, but helping to restock the the minor league teams is worth the loss of two quality major league players.

Jason Bay, on the other hand, hurts a lot. The quality of players in return might exceed what the Pirates received in the Nady/Marte deal, but Bay is an elite player, and fan favorite. This deal might make sense in the same way the other does, but it is disappointing to lose a player of Bay's caliber.

The loss of 2 impact offensive players almost certainly means that 2009 will not be the year the Pirates return to contention. Even assuming Andrew McCutcheon shows up and performs well, and the combination of Steve Pearce and Brandon Moss can produce, and the new pitching delivers, with possibly a resurgence of Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny, it still might not be enough. Hopefully the Pirates can sign Pedro Alvarez and a few other impact players from this past draft, so that maybe 2010 can be our year. I know that's a lot of ifs, but ifs are all that Pirate fans have these days.